Abstract
This paper compares the rules and theories set forth by St. Augustine to those followed by citizens of the Middle Ages who sought to be chivalrous. It studies both codes which represent the pinnacle of Medieval society. It describes the many classes in the Middle Ages including The Feudal Class, the Religious Class and more. It includes an historical overview of the Middle Ages and the spread of Christianity at the time.

From the Paper
"It is interesting to note that St. Augustine's City of God was written in the Fifth Century, which is generally considered to be the onset of the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages gained notoriety and expanded mainly due to the spread of Christianity. St. Augustine's Christian beliefs, coupled with the chivalric code, seemed to serve the theoretical basis for the foundation that the Middle Ages were built on.

"The order of the chivalric code and St. Augustine's rules also show the importance of religion in society. St. Augustine's code begins with the general statement, "Before all else, dear brothers, love God and then your neighbor, because these are the chief commandments given to us." This general plea not only serves as the precursor for St. Augustine's code, but would not be out of place if it was written right before the code of chivalry. There are many aspects of the chivalric code which support the general statement made by St. Augustine. They include, "thou shalt be generous, and give largess to everyone" and "thou shalt love the country in the which thou wast born." These two elements of the code of chivalry note that commoners should respect their neighbors and the country in which they live."

Tags:Middle, Ages, St., Augustine's, 'City, of, God', Christianity, chivalry, code, rules

Abstract
This paper discusses the revival of theater in Europe, beginning in the tenth century, as inspired and sponsored by the Catholic Church. The writer examines how historians now consider the High Middle Ages as the third major theatrical era in Western history. The paper further illustrates how major dramatic forms were connected with the church, its rituals, and its calendar of religious observances. The author explains the importance of these dramas , which included making church services more appealing and teaching scriptural history to the masses. The three types of plays that came out of the High Middle Ages are presented. The author concludes by arguing that drama other than that associated with the Church did exist at this time, influencing theater in the Late Middle Ages and even today.

From the Paper
"Since Plato's The Republic, the depiction of art, particularly theatre, has been treated as a secondary if not inconsequential chronicle and portrayal of any given era. Nowhere is this more clearly illustrated than during the Middle Ages, where the major dramatic forms, if they existed at all and if they could be called theatre, could only be performed if they were connected with and sanctioned by the church. Coinciding with the well-deserved title of the Dark Ages, the Catholic Church has been historically credited of having begun a revival of theatre in Europe. Extant plays, sponsored by the church and dating back to the tenth century, are categorized into three distinct genres: liturgical drama, which enacted part of the liturgy of the Catholic Mass; cycle plays, which illustrated scriptural history; and morality drama, which metaphorically endorsed the symbolic structure of Christian life. The provincial dramaturgical view generally holds that that these were the only forms of theatre of the time. However, more recent scholarship demonstrates that as these performance-based church rituals begot theatre and theatre further begot church ritual, other plays like university plays, pageants, mummings and disguisings, interludes, other non-cycle religious plays, and drama came into play and that collectively, theatre of the High Middle Ages impacted the evolution of theatre into the Late Middle Ages, and what it is today."

Tags:theater middle ages renaissance cycle play mummings church, pageant robin hood morality drama

Abstract
A short essay outlining some of the cases of syncretism of pagan and Christian ideas in the Middle Ages.

From the Paper
"During the Middle Ages, the Church was fighting off the diffusion of pagan ideas throughout Europe. Despite the Christian teachings of god, purity and salvation, pagan ideas still held their force and appeal. One reason may be that the message of Christianity could not be successfully transmitted to the remotest corners of Old Europe and even when it did, people would have to take the message of Christianity as salient to their own lives and make an effort to..."

Tags:pagan, christian, syncretism, middle ages, medieval

Abstract
"The following assingment is for a thrid year humanities course. The topic of the assingment is Islam through the ages. The assignment is comprised of two essay questions. The first one deas with Mecca, Midena and the concept of community in early Islam. The second question deals with the the concept of Shaiara law and its relation to other law systems."

From the Paper
Islam Through the Ages 1. Islam is a religion which places a great deal of significance on certain geographic areas. Two of the most important geographic areas in Islam are the Cities of Mecca and Madinah. Each of these cities played fundamental roles in the history and development of Islam. This essay will look at the importance of these two cities in the development of Islam. It will be shown how both cities developed Ummah that were vital to the establishment of Islam and its future evolution. In order to begin this essay we need to discuss what Saudia Arabia was like before the rise of Islam. Before the rise of Islam Saudia Arabia was

Tags:islam, through, ages

Abstract
The author of this paper examines religious intolerance in the late middle ages and specifically, as practiced by the Church. The author gives a number of examples where religious intolerance and even persecution were not only countenanced by the Church but were even a part of Church law. The writer gives two examples of the church's intolerance of other religious viewpoints: the Crusades when established Church doctrine said that only Christians had the right to rule in the Holy Land, and the persecution and stigmatization of the Jews. The paper uses MLA style footnotes but doesn't include a works cited page.

From the Paper
"Anti-Semitism in the later Middle Ages was rather prevalent throughout most of Western Europe. There are at least three canons alone of the Fourth Lateran Council that are concerned with the proper ways to deal with or treat Jews. One of these canons states that it is unacceptable for a "blasphemer of Christ to be in a position of authority over Christians" because "such authority [is] very hostile to Christians." In the "hagiography" of William of Norwich it is said that the Jews of Norwich preformed the blood libel sacrifice of William during Passover. This account is the first instance that the myth of the blood libel. The entire idea of Jews taking a young Christian boy (William is 12 in the story and thus not yet a man by Christian or Jewish standards) and reenacting the crucifixion upon him speaks very clearly that Christian society of the time had a very deep distrust of other faiths, especially that of Judaism; this distrust running so deep that the Church accommodates it into law."

Tags:christianity judaism church persecution crusades, middle ages anti-semitism pope canon

Abstract
The author of the paper contends that, contrary to the generally held conception, the Middle Ages was not a time when ignorance reigned supreme and logic and reason had no place. By examining and discussing a number of works relating to the Middle Ages, the author further contends that the medieval period had its great scholars and contributors to human thought. The author examines the novel by Umberto Eco, "The Name of the Rose" which, whilst a piece of fiction, when examined alongside scholarly works on the Middle Ages, presents, in the author's opinion, a fair and reasonable portrayal of the "real" Middle Ages.

From the Paper
"From the very start of the novel The Name of the Rose Eco decisively shatters stereotypical Monty Python and the Holy Grail beliefs about the medieval era. Upon arriving at the monastery in Melk, William amazes his apprentice, Adso, by deducing what several monks, including the cellarer, Remigio of Varagine, are searching for. "during our whole journey I have been teaching you to recognize the evidence through which the world speaks to us like a great book"(Eco, 23). William of Baskerville is no ignorant man. From this one passage about the Brunellus, the missing horse, which culminates in a lecture to Adso, in which that sentence is the highlight, the reader realizes that William knows how to observe the world and draw logical conclusions. He uses observation, inference and ultimately confidence his own intellectual prowess to deduce the Abbot's most prized horse has gone missing. Furthermore, the reader is also meant to understand that Adso does not represent the ignorance of medieval ages, but rather the ignorance and inexperience of youth. He is, after all, the young apprentice of William. Adso does not have the same life experience or reservoir of knowledge of William. He is Eco's literary tool in which to answer the questions of the reader. Adso often asks exactly what the reader is wondering."

Tags:medieval europe, monks benedictine knowledge enlightenment ignorance aedificium history church papal apocalyptic

Abstract
This paper relates that monastic almsgiving during the Middle Ages played a key role in alleviating the effects of poverty in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The paper then explores how the practice of monastic almsgiving changed during the Middle Ages, noting that monastic institutions always sought to relieve need in the middle ages, but the extent to which they absolutely and relatively provided aid to the poor varied as the Middle Ages progressed. More specifcally, the paper relates that almsgiving moved away from unqualified handouts, in the effort to relieve the worst excesses of need, to more limited alms.

From the Paper
"Famine was a persistent problem for a majority of the medieval peasant population. It contributed massively to poverty in the middle ages, as those peasants who suffered from famine had few provisions to survive, especially if famine occurred in concurrent years. Here we see exceptional charity provided by the clergy and monasteries in times of desperate need during recurrent famine of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. For instance the Bishop of Norwich, in 1258, had during a famine given 'all his money, for the benefit of the poor."

Tags:famine, urbanization, subsistence, magnitude, competition

Abstract
The paper relates that the Middle Ages were a bridge between the Roman Empire and the eventual enlightenment of Western Civilization known as the Renaissance. The paper then explains why the common use of the term Renaissance to mean the cultural developments in Europe from the l4th to the 16th centuries is hazardous. The paper shows how there is no single answer to why the Middle Ages ended and there is no clear demarcation between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. The paper questions the achievements of this period and concludes that the Renaissance was a mental and creative evolution, at best.

From the Paper
"It was the Church that literally ruled everything- from housing to education to social live to employment, to politics and even the arts- music and what literature there was. And, money! Given that there were so many dukes and lords, who was really in charge? Who really ran things and provided funds for everything from the crusades to daily commerce? "The greatest single provider was the Church. She had an unparalleled organization for raising funds" (Durant 616).
"While the medieval Church obviously pervades every chapter and every decade of this period, the Church was too conservative in most ways, dictatorial and repressive in many others, to permit Man's imagination to soar. So, when intellects first began to differ from the dictates of the Church, it was a struggle that would continue until the more enlightened Popes and Bishops of the fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries made it easier to be creative."

Tags:Church, humanism, creativity, enlightenment

Abstract
This paper discusses the practice of witch hunting, which originated during the Middle Ages in Europe, but festered and spread into the colonial United States for many years. The paper follows the development of the witch hunting craze from the Middle Ages through the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. Documented cases of execution and torture in the name of trying to stop witchcraft was seen in nearly every country throughout Europe, and as well as the colonies. The paper explains that this sprung from the Christian church, whose desire was to reduce the pagan practices that were taking place because the church wanted to be in serious control of the people. The paper goes on to state that it became dangerous for anyone to do virtually anything that was not exactly in line with what the church and society wanted and expected to see, and that meant that a lot more people started having difficulties with the way that they lived their lives. In conclusion, the paper states that thousands of both men and women were killed because they were assumed to be witches, often just on the hearsay and opinion of others, and this happened al throughout different times in history.

Outline:
Introduction
The Middle Ages
The 14th Century
The 15th and 16th Centuries
Conclusion - Witchcraft was Everywhere

From the Paper
"The early Christians did try to stop the practice of hunting down and killing witches. Charlemagne even talked about it all the way back in 789 and said that anyone who was involved in the practice would be put to death. The Church back in that time did not really even oppose the practice of witchcraft, per se (Semple, 2003). Mostly, what they opposed was the backward and foolish belief in witchcraft. It was thought that anyone who believed that witchcraft had power was denying the supreme and almighty power of God (Ankarloo & Henningsen, 1990). Originally, the law that was designed for people who were guilty of witchcraft was much more lenient. Generally they only had to deal with two or three years penance. Compared to some of the tortures and executions that the Roman Empire favored and that were seen in the later Middle Ages, this type of punishment was not that much to contend with (Ankarloo & Henningsen, 1990)."

Tags:witchcraft, Salem, trials, magic, burning, stake, heresy, Catholic

Abstract
The paper looks at the dramatic period that was the Middle Ages, noting that the religious, economic, political, social and educational continuities and innovations of the period have been often unjustly dismissed by scholars. The paper looks at Bishop's discussion of how Roman and classical education re-asserted itself in the Middle Ages in the grammar schools while the old pagan rites did not fade away in the Age of Christianity. The paper also explores the rise to semi-respectability of women and the progression of certain disparate groups from tribal-hood to nation-hood. The paper concludes that Bishop's evidence of the dynamism of the age is convincing.

From the Paper
"The middle ages were the continuation of "Old Rome" in matters such as "race, language, institutions, law, literature, (and) the arts" (Bishop, 7). In almost the next breath, Bishop writes that the middle ages were a continuation of cultures such as the Franks and Saxons, the Greeks and Arabs, and - not least of all - of an ancient peasant culture (Bishop, 7). At the same time, it was a period which saw the rise of the Christian church in the West and the epoch bore witness to the rise of the Church's institutions - such as the pilgrimage, the system of penance, the emergence of the modern-day liturgy. As an added note pertaining to the Old Rome of the classical period, Bishop writes that the language and institutions of the Ancients survived even with the arrival of barbarian domination (Bishop, 12 and 15)."

Tags:Roman, Classical, education, pagan, rites, Christianity, women