Medieval Thought

[Ready for Fall 2026]

Modified: 2026-07-27 2:37 PM CDST

• For during the medieval period, religion thoroughly permeated every aspect of life to a degree almost unimaginable today.
• Yet, at the same time, daily life contradicted those same religious principles.
• Violence was endemic and justice uncertain.
• Life was seen as a temporary state, a trial leading to eternal salvation or damnation.
• Thus, efforts were few to reform social structures or to change behavior because, for the blessed, salvation awaited; and, for the wicked, damnation.
• Religion also stifled creative thought because God's plan had already been revealed.
  • All human explanations had to account for Biblical truth and for religious dogma.
  • The world and humankind were unique reflections of God's creation.
• The gradual sense of a loss of uniqueness caused later by Copernicus, Galileo, and Darwin were still far in the future.

• Throughout the period, evidence of earlier Roman civilization still stood.
  • Early in the period, a belief that the world was in decline must have been universal.
  • Later, however, as new towns grew, and great cathedrals and castles were built such feelings probably abated.
  • However, our notions of constant and universal progress would probably have been unrecognizable.
  • Instead of progress, stasis was a hallmark of the period.
• But, some technological change did take place, slowly.
  • For example, the invention of the chimney allowed for the heating of individual rooms and served to separate the classes from the great common rooms before, where all huddled overnight around the only fire.
  • Town clocks were built, and changed forever perception of time.
  • In the service of war, metallurgy advanced.
• Socially, the world was highly structured.
  • The three estates consisted of the clergy, the nobility, and the rest of humanity.
    • Within each estate, of course, large differences existed.
    • The clergy had a special role given the religiosity of the period.
    • Because of their status, the nobility are our main source of information about the period.
    • Comparatively little is known about the daily existence of peasants, but their lives can probably be safely assumed to reflect best the stasis of the period.
  • Later in the period, as towns and commerce grew, a middle class developed.
  • Jews, excluded from "proper" occupations, suffered throughout the period.
    • Massacres (pogroms), exiles, and discrimination were both common and viewed as righteous, given the Jews' alleged role as "Christ killers" and their subsequent refusal to adopt Christianity.
    • In the same light, the Crusades against Islam seemed to make abstract sense, even though in a practical sense they were no testimony to Christian principles.
• The universities of the Middle Ages were established to reconcile philosophy and theology.
  • Early on in the history of universities, many of the religious orders opened houses of study.
    • The course of study at the medieval university was much different than today's curriculum.
      • The trivium, or introductory curriculum, consisted of three courses: grammar, logic, and rhetoric,
      • The quadrivium, or advanced curriculum, consisted of geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music.
      • Books were all produced by hand and were, consequently, rare.
    • Relatively few attended the university, and those came from the clergy or the nobility.
    • The study of law and medicine, the dependent arts, were conducted separately.

So, life was far different during the medieval period than it is today. Yet, some of its vestiges still remain, such as superstitions and nursery rhymes. Imagine a field trip to a medieval village or town. Then imagine the smell of raw sewage flowing through the gutter in the center of the street, the rigid class structure, the low status of women, and the the very different lives of children.