Above all else, we must keep a long view of history in mind, in the sense that the segue between Medieval Europe on one hand and Modern Europe on the other hand was a rejection of religious authority and papal authority to be specific. To describe this segue from Medieval Europe to Modern Europe, Bertrand Russell wrote: “The long centuries of asceticism were forgotten in a riot of art and poetry and pleasure.” And even though the Medieval Age “did not die without a struggle” in certain parts of Europe or perhaps most parts of Europe, overall, the anxiety and fear that was born out of religious authority and papal authority had for the most part been conquered and overcome. To borrow from Russell again: “But in the main the old terrors had ceased to be terrifying, and the new liberty of the spirit was found intoxicating.” In turn: “In this moment of joyful liberation the modern world was born.”
However, the struggle and the task of conquering and overcoming the medieval mentality came in the form of a crisis which had no apparent cure or remedy. To borrow from one scholar: “There is a sense of fatalism about life in the later Middle Ages. People knew that Christendom was sick; they knew that the ideals of the Gospel of Love were far removed from prevailing reality; but they had little idea of how to cure it.” In sum: “It might be more accurate to think of the period in terms of a prolonged crisis for which contemporaries had no solution.”
Moreover, the abuse of power on the part of the authorities – both monarchical and religious – could not be overlooked, and in turn, these abuses of power “provoked strong reactions.” All in all, the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy were in “disarray” to say the least. Plagues also coincided with political and social turmoil, and the only answer which the Church had for the chaos and dysfunction was that all of it was a “punishment” from God. In a nutshell: “The conviction reigned that God was punishing mankind for its sins.”
What reigned was a theocratic regime which assumed that “God’s will was sufficient to explain all phenomena.” Medieval people “lived in a psychological environment of fear and insecurity that inhibited bold and independent thought.” All that was going on “contributed to the conviction that man was feeble and God was great.” In turn: “Only in the asylum of a monastery could a forceful mind follow its own genius.”
What we also overlook is that the European Renaissance “remained the preserve of a small intellectual elite, and had to compete with rival trends of thought, old and new.” And for the most part, the renaissance in the arts “wielded no influence whatsoever.” In essence: “Humanist thought, reformation theology, scientific discovery, and overseas exploration have had to give way to studies of material conditions, of the medieval continuities, and of popular belief (and unbelief) as opposed to high culture.”
Arguably, the renaissance in the arts and sciences “could well have had more in common with the medievalism that preceded it than with the Enlightenment which followed.” It took centuries for the renaissance spirit to catch on and to become mainstream in the Western world. In turn, this particular past can teach us more about the present than anything else.
Adam A. Azim 