Part II

During the so called Dark Ages, the 7th and 8th centuries, when the centre of Christianity had moved East to Constantinople, the defunct Western Roman Empire was overrun by Northern European tribes and by the Islamic tribes from the South and East. As a result, many Christians drew together into communities to seek protection and salvation. These communities, or monasteries, were places of isolation and refuge. During this period of chaos, it was mainly in the monastery that learning and literacy were kept alive. The remote and isolated monastery and its abbey church became the focus of Christian life in these early Middle Ages. There, man could contemplate God within a disciplined and dedicated system. The larger monasteries became a world in miniature, away from the anarchy of the outer world. This plan of an abbey church and its outbuildings shows how complex a monastery could be. The monks took the triple oath of Chastity, Poverty and Obedience. And within the cloistered walls of the monastery they prayed, worked hard and pursued the arts: the practical arts and the fine arts. They translated and they copied both the religious and the secular writings of the past. The earliest manuscript illustrations produced by the recently converted barbarians consisted of the abstract twisting and turning lines which had been the basis of their pagan art. This unique style, when applied to animal or human forms, resulted in striking, abstract designs.

In 800 AD the powerful Charlemagne had himself made emperor of the fallen Roman Empire, whose centre he shifted north to what is now France. One of his first projects was to revive Early Christian tradition and classical learning outside the monastery. So he patterned his palace chapel after San Vitale in Ravenna. Monastic arts also continued to flourish. They portrayed everything from pious angelic visions to homely religious scenes and glimpses of daily life. But the Middle Ages mean more than monasticism. In fact, most people did not join a religious order or isolate themselves in remote cloisters. For the average man in the Middle Ages, ordinary existence was hard and perilous. There were few cities, and travel was difficult and dangerous. The greater portion of Europe’s population were serfs and peasants, bound by tradition to their native village. The estates, owned by the nobility, were worked by the serfs, who were at the bottom of the social and political ladder. The lives of the serfs were rigidly determined by the feudal lord and the church. Feudalism benefited only the select few. Among the nobility, there was a personal and political code of behaviour, but it did not extend to the peasants.

The great emperor Charlemagne represented the feudal ideal. He holds the imperial orb in his left hand. His right one holds the sword. Fighting was the principle occupation and way of life of the lords. Might was right. It was a rude, cruel, and masculine world. These hereditary warlords lived in castles, which were not much different than monasteries. The lord and his small army could sweep down upon bands of travelers and kidnap, kill, and extract ransom. From his fortified castle, he defended himself against other greedy and ambitious lords. The early Middle Ages are well symbolized by the massive, crude wall: monastic walls and castle walls. See how rugged medieval life was. The crudeness and necessary boldness of life is vividly reflected in the arts, such as in the Bayeux Tapestry, and in the castle architecture. This same vitality and crudeness can also be seen in the early medieval churches.

Note the unrefined masonry of this church and the varying thick and thin walls, indicated by the asymmetrical black lines in this ground plan. Many of the early medieval churches were assembled haphazardly of random pieces, such as these columns, borrowed from Roman buildings. That same crude, but vital, spirit animates this flame-like prophet. It causes this holy figure to spill out of his picture frame. No longer do classical logic or reason contain him within the limits of the frame. Mythical demons populated the medieval imagination. From the sculpture on the churches and from the manuscript page they threatened eternal damnation.