42. CULTURE OF MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

The literary legacy of the 11-13th cc. was chiefly represented by Chivalric poetry, in French at first and later in English, in the form of versified romance. Many medieval romances recount the marvellous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight, often of superhuman ability, who, abiding chivalry's strict codes of honor and demeanor, goes on a quest, and fights and defeats monsters and giants, thereby winning favor with a lady. The story of the medieval romance focuses not upon love and sentiment, but upon adventure.

King Arthur, hero of the Celtic anti-Saxon struggle of the 6th c., is transformed in the chivalric romance of the 11th-13th cc. into a hero of feudal knightly literature. The poems were in French, only later on, in the 13th and 14th cc. they were written in English; those that survived the ravages of time and came down to us are such as “Arthur”, “Arthur and Merlin”, “Launcelot of the Lake”, “Morte d’Arthur” and a few others.

The latter third of the fourteenth century is remarkable for the advent of Geoffrey Chaucer and his contemporaries John Gower, William Langland, and the Gawain poet (the unidentified poet who wrote Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), who were heirs to classical and medieval cultures that had been evolving for many centuries.

As to the folk-lore of the period, it was oral and therefore little of it has survived though what Langland and Chaucer used later on shows that the folk-lore literature did not languish. The development of towns brought about early bourgeois literature, fabliaux borrowed from France with smart sly townsmen getting the better of knights and priests, stories that were far from romantic, often showing coarse tastes and morals.

Science. The 12th century was the time when the oldest English University was founded in Oxford (1167) to remain the principal centre of science for centuries, centre of medieval scholasticism, controlled by the church. It was also a centre of resistance to its stupefying influence. The scientific revival of the 13th century brought the ideas of Aristotle in the interpretation of a few great thinkers which gave English, that is, Anglo-Norman scholasticism its essential character. From the 13th c. onwards charters were granted to the Universities (in 1209 another University was established in Cambridge) which strengthened their position of independence, sort of autonomy. The townsmen and the scholars, “the Town and Gown” in the phrase of the time, were two hostile camps, sometimes at war and sometimes allies like at the time of the Civil War (1258-1263).

All this time the cultural influence of France never ceased. French monks, the religious orders of Franciscans, Dominicans and Carmelites came in the 13th c. It was from their midst that the first light burst upon the scholastic darkness of medieval logicians who made theology the centre of all, their philosophical searchings, employed deduction as their only method scorning original observation and investigation and preached the triviality of earthly life which was to be regarded only as a preparation for eternity.

But materialism budded out from the depths of theology. Duns Scotus (1266-1308), a theology professor in Oxford, argued that the concepts people deal with are but reflection in the people’s minds of the outside-existing objects. Proving the priority of matter and the derived nature of ideas Duns Scotus was initiating the materialistic approach to the facts of life. Robert Grosseteste (died in 1253), the Bishop of Lincoln, was one of the Franciscan monks, and during the reign of Henry III he used his pen and his Oxford lectures to condemn the king’s claims to unlimited rule.

One of his pupils was Roger Bacon (ab. 1214-1292), a thinker with whose name the beginning of natural sciences in England is inseparably connected. He saw that medieval science tended to the encyclopaedic form. Leaders of scholastic science like Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) accumulated stores of knowledge; but strict adherence to the scholastic methods of deduction and reference to authorities made the whole thing dead, for the scientists turned away from facts of a changing life, which doomed science to failure. One of Roger Bacon’s

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teachers, Albertus Magnus, had seen the deficiencies of that approach, and he must have imparted the scepticism to Bacon. Albertus Magnus was not only a theologian and philosopher, he was also far in advance of his time in the fields of physics and chemistry; personal experience and observation formed the basis of his approach. Roger Bacon mastered mathematics, optics, alchemy, astronomy and was soon able to criticize Thomas Aquinas, theologians and other scholasts, reversing all the methods of thought by refuting the idea of absolute authority and extolling experience instead. Bacon’s book “Opus Majus” about every sort of knowledge, was called the encyclopaedia of the thirteenth century, in it he speaks of geography, grammar, music, languages, arithmetic, and many other matters.

For his materialism, Bacon was found guilty of “heresy”, and not allowed to teach and had to spend 14 years in prison where, by the way, he must have worked quite fruitfully, for after he served the prison term he came out with valuable inventions and a new book.

Bacon was very much a product of his time, practising Alchemy, fervently believing in the coming of the Antichrist, insisting that Christian religion should pervade all legal matters, even believing the mythical beasts like the basilisk. "Scientific experiments" of the time often involved tempting good or evil spirits, or looking for the elixir of life. Bacon believed that experiment was necessary to support theory, but for him the theory as presented in the Bible was true and the experiment only underlined that truth. One of Bacon's lasting contributions was his references to gunpowder, which had been known for centuries in China, bringing this discovery to the general attention of literate Europeans. By 1324, Europeans had discovered the art of using gunpowder to fire a projectile, marking the end of the period of castles and knights in armor.

Education. In early times the only possible educators were the clergy, and it was on the clergy that Alfred chiefly relied in his efforts to teach his people. By the beginning of the thirteenth century grammar schools were to be found in most towns of England. By that time the universities of Oxford and Cambridge had arisen; the students lived in hostels under

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masters of their own election. Many schools were founded after the revival of learning in the twelfth century. The education at schools connected with the universities was founded on the knowledge of Latin grammar, and at the universities they studied philosophy. At the end of the fifteenth century the influence of the new learning was felt at the universities in the revival of the study of Greek and Latin literature. At the beginning of the reign of Edward VI there were some two hundred grammar schools in England; and though many of them were destroyed under that King and his father, and turned into hospitals and chantries, others arose in Elizabeth's reign, and, in the whole, we may say that the Reformation had been beneficial to scholastic endowment.

Architecture: Churches. Of all the great arts none reflects more clearly than architecture the actual conditions of society; in the Middle Age, at least, it tells us how people worshipped, how they fought, and how they lived.

Very few examples of Anglo-Saxon architecture have survived to our time, from which we may guess that their buildings were largely of wood, as is certainly the case with Greenstead Church in Essex. We can form the conclusion that the churches of the time were small and rectangular; and that the small windows, with their rounded or triangular tops, were deeply splayed even on the outside, possibly to protect the oiled parchment from the weather.

Glass was known in Anglo-Saxon times, for Bede distinctly tells us that the windows of Benedict Bishop's church were glazed at the end of the seventh century.

When the Normans came to England, they set about rebuilding all the larger churches. Nearly two hundred of the religious houses were raised under the Conqueror and his sons. They had rounded windows and wide round arches on massive round pillars. These churches were built at a time when they might well have to be used as fortresses or places of refuge, and so the solid masonry had a real purpose. In Henry II’s reign the round arches tended to become pointed, and thus prepared the way for a new style known as the Early English, which was in fashion from Richard I to Edward I.

As architecture developed, the Decorated style was gradually established, by builders like those of Exeter, Wells and Southwell (1272-1377). Simplicity gave way to magnificent ornamentation.

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The arch was now built upon an equilateral triangle, and the windows were carefully ornamented. Spires became ever larger and more beautiful. The characteristic ornament is a ball flower or the cup and flower.

In the perpendicular style we find that arches and roofs become flatter as windows became broader. At last the windows too are flattened till they became square. Magnificent examples of this style may be seen in Henry VII’s Chapel at Westminster and at King's College, Cambridge.

Houses. The principles which decided the forms of churches would at first decide the form of houses, and that is why some old houses look not unlike churches. But in early times houses were built rather for defence against enemies than merely for the comfort of their inhabitants. On the borders may be seen square peel towers, with one room only on each of their three or more stories. The three rooms which were enough for the needs of the family were the hall, or common living-room, the kitchen for the use of the servants, and the solar or parlour for the private use of the family. Of these three rooms, the hall was always in the middle, even in the early Norman days, when the rooms were on different stories. When all the rooms were on the same level, the hall usually had a fire in the centre and a lantern in the roof for the smoke to escape, an arrangement which survived in some cases even to Elisabeth's time. If you visit one of the colleges of Oxford or Cambridge, you will find that the hall is still between the kitchen and the parlour or withdrawing-room; while the high table in the hall itself still shows the original purpose of the room. Before the fourteenth century wood and plaster would be the commoner materials for building houses: stone was reserved for castles; but brick was not unknown even then. Even in districts remote from the border the need for defence is illustrated by the external character of the house; a moat was often made at the house in level country, and when the three rooms were no longer enough for a prosperous and settled times of the fourteenth century, the buildings are grouped round an open court — just as we may still see in many colleges.

In the very large houses there might have been two courts. A very important part of the houses was the kitchen, Glastonbury and Trinity-college, Cambridge, illustrate their size and help us to realise the hospitality they served.

Even in the fifteenth century the purpose of defence was not the last one, great, comfortable brick houses still have the moat. But it is in the next century that domestic architecture really developed on lines suitable to itself, although still based upon the old arrangement. Comfort and art are now the dominant notes; bay-windows, great fireplaces, and broad staircases are set off by fine paintings and finer tapestries.

Castles and Art of War. We have already seen that houses were at first essentially fortresses; we have now to glance at the military conditions which determined, from time to time, the methods of defence and attack.

The Old English fought on foot, as a rule, with no other defence than a wooden shield, although helmets and mail-shirts were not unknown. They fought too at close range, so that they preferred the spear and a dagger to the bow or the javelin; axes and swords were uncommon. It was the Danes who brought the axe into common use as a weapon of offence. As they lived in open townships and villages, they had no liking for the cramped life of castles, and fortifications were only forced upon them by the Danish invasions. Alfred not only gave his countrymen a navy, but built them rude strong burgs, to resist the enemy. In his time, too, iron helmets and mail-shirts became more known, and were, indeed, compulsory for the thegns or chiefs. When at the same time, the fyrd, or national militia, was organized, so that one half went to war while the other half tilled the fields at home, it became necessary for every man to range himself under a "lord"; a "lordless" man became impossible.

The Normans relied upon their feudal cavalry as the chief arm of their fighting force, and used their infantry as archers and slingers to prepare the way for a cavalry. They repaired the old English burgs and strengthened them by building wooden and, later, stone castles. Indeed,

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