История литературы / 9. The peculiarities of the medieval period in Europe (feudalism, the Church and the rise of the Bourgeoisie)

In order to understand the literature of the Old Middle ages we should know the main factors which influenced its development: Christianity. In the 1st century AD a great thing happened. Christianity started spreading all over Europe. When it reached the British Isles, it did a lot to educate tribes. At the same period monasteries were built everywhere where the Christianity was spreading. They were not only farms because they taught the Anglos, Saxons and Jutes how to cultivate lands, they were also schools and libraries. In these monasteries there lived professional scribes (переписчики)who copied the ancient books. And these scribes were probably the most learned men because they learnt a lot from those books (1^st books in Latin). Christian community was divided into clergy (духовенство)and flock (паства). The clergy educated people a lot. More over clergy was a great economical force. But at the same time the pastors not only interpreted the God`s law but they also started to impose religious interpretation on everything. Christianity with its preaching of Christian love & moral improvement & the ideology of Christianity that gave rise to a multitude of legends, homilies (бытие святого), sacred & scriptural poems. The ideas of Feudalism constituted the subject matter of knighthood rituals and consequently these ideas and ideals constituted the subject matter of the poetry of the gleemen (менестрели) who composed all sorts of legends and ballades about the adventures of the knights. Knights were bound to be have the following qualities– courage, courtesy, & defense of the deprived. When feudalism appeared society was also divided into nobility, clergy, and peasantry. Feudal hierarchy: God, King (the owner of the land), Duke, Count, Baron, Knight, Vassal. Appearance of bourgeoisie. When a new group of population appeared its appearance also influenced the development of LE literature. On the 1 hand this group of people also became the subject matter of literature works. More than that, this class brought to ridicule the customs and traditions of knighthood.