What The Medieval Mind is and How It Affected Culture and Life in Europe

As time proceeds and generations pass, people and their points of views constantly change, these changes in the mind alter the world as well as impacts culture in aspects like religion and politics. These very changes in the past, make up history and that concept is what the medieval mind is all about.

To further explain, the medieval mind is about how during the period 1300-1500 in Europe, the people of this time continuously changed causing life to eventually shift as well in many ways. These ways include religion and how beliefs started to differ with the transition from paganism to Christianity and how Christianity itself evolved. In addition, there were many economic changes during this time with economies developing as well as transforming, as Europe faced different crises as well as views in general, becoming different from previous years. Political trends were also evolving throughout this period of time with different types of leaders leading the countries of Europe and the emergence of nationalism was also aт innovation to culture in Europe as this feeling of patriotism emerged. These specific ways that life transformed during the period of 1300-1500 defines the medieval mind but challenges it as well. This is through how the medieval mind is all about people and time changing but, at certain points these categories show the lack of change of people as they continue to face difficulties. The religious beliefs, economic changes, political trends, emergence of nationalism, and the changing views of time during 1300-1500 in Europe altogether challenges and explains what the medieval mind is which is ultimately the changing of people during the period, and how that affected culture and life in Europe.

Religion affects culture in many ways as it can dictate the way people act and who people follow. So, when many people shift to another religion than the one they previously believed this impacts the culture in a large way accordingly. This concept is no different from the period of 1300-1500 as the reign of paganism switched over the Christianity and how from there Christianity developed more as well. This transformation of religion started very early on from right after the fall of Rome, where Rome was defeated by the Huns, Goths, Franks, and Saxons. These people who defeated Rome were all Christians, therefore, they were able to transform those in the area from Pagans to Christians as they had control over the area. From there forward Christianity began to evolve as people began to be very passionate about this religion and it grew to become the dominant religion in are near Italy in Europe. This strong passion on Christianity was shown through punishments from the government being given to offenses that went against the bible, having Christian leaders, making the church a place of great importance, as well as turning from their previously pagan ways. To explain in more depth, the people of these medieval times, once discovering the religion of Christianity, started to bring the religion into politics with capital punishment as well as those selected to lead the people. This means they gave death as the chosen penalty for many offenses dealing with religion and this is shown through how in religious conversations, people threatened to give capital punishments. Also, like mentioned medieval royalty/leaders like Constantine I, Charlemagne, Clovis, and many more were chosen to lead because they fit the requirement or the preference of being of the Christian religion. In addition to that, Christian priests said who would be enthroned after the current leader, and the Holy See, the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, and their proclamations were recognized in royal court. The Holy See, being part of the church also gives an example of how the church was very important during the time. In addition to that, one pope said, “The Church is independent of any earthly power…” which shows how from a perspective of someone that represent the church in a large way thinks that the Church is really powerful giving it great importance on Earth. People at the time also described Christianity as “universal” and though that those not part of the church should be cast out. So evidently Christians at the time went to extremes to praise their religion meaning they wanted the rules of their religion followed, they wanted to get everyone to become part of it, and wanted their leaders to be of this religion as well. However with the description of religious changes at the time, the description also challenges the definition of the medieval mind as after the growth of Christianity, there was a lack of change within Europe overall religion wise and Christianity remained the dominant religion, which contradicts how the medieval mind is all about people changing and making history. Nevertheless, the passion for Christianity is really important to grasp about the medieval times because it shaped many of the leaders and rules of the time, but it is also important to understand that this religion shaping life back then was only because people changed from their Pagan views to Christian views, which is evident from how Pagan holidays were taken over by Christian holidays and how Christians destroyed Pagan property. Religion and the changes dealing with people and their beliefs were of great significance as it also affected politics and the changing of views in many ways.

Throughout time, economy also changes, highly depending on how people handle the economy. In the medieval times, economy was stagnant and very bad until the Renaissance. Towards the beginning of these middle ages, trade was very dangerous because the vital sea routes for trading were blocked by pirates so, therefore trade was unsuccessful, also agriculture and transport were inefficient, they had a barter economy which is an economy with no cash and during these early times the barter economy ended and used coinage only to pay for things such as war, ransom, and their daughters’ marriages, and the royal treasury officials were very lacking in skill. This provides the fact that in the early stages of this time period, the economy was very bad due to circumstances like danger and people having the lack of skill to handle the economy. For the people at the time, it seemed as if life would not change, including the economy, so the medieval mind definition was being challenged since there was no change in the economic aspect. This changed however when the renaissance occurred, the renaissance being where Europe was enlightened. When the renaissance happened, the economy changed for the better with new interests like art and writing improving the economy with new big occupations and trading becoming better with using money for the trade. As previously stated, the state of the economy depends greatly on the people and how they handle the economy and as the economy changed during the middle age time period from very bad to successful it shows how people learned to handle to economy shifting from their old ways which is what the medieval mind consists of.