Signals of the Late Middle Ages

¶ … Middle Ages

Signals That the Middle Ages Were Ending

Though some people date the Middle Ages through 1517, there were signs that the Middle Ages in Europe could not continue as early as 800 AD, when Charlemagne was crowned and began his diplomatic reign. The intellectual, economic, religious and political environments all had reached a point where the culture of earlier centuries could not continue.

One of the signals that the Middle Ages were ending was a result of an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague. Beginning in China, the plague spread throughout the world through the trade routes. The plague killed, with horrible symptoms and speed, 25 million people over a 5-year period, 1347 to 1352, before abating somewhat, though it still could be found in the 1600s. The historic period called the Middle Ages, with its turmoil which formed nations and religions, came to a close as the plague arrived, devastating the population of the known civilized world. So many died that labor shortages improved the working man's lot by making labor more valuable. No longer could the aristocracy take the lives and service of their underlings for granted. Now workers could demand higher wages, and though they were at first denied, the peasant revolts in Italy, Belgium, France, and England carried the struggle between labor and management over into the 1400s, resulting in a better life for the common man.

The plague affected not only labor relations, but religion, as devout Christians questioned the efficacy of prayer and the existence of a compassionate god. The questions and arguments which arose sparked philosophical and theological schisms which changed the Church from that time forward. Other philosophical questions which arose as a result of the plague and its aftermath led into the Renaissance, when the use of the printing press allowed ideas to be spread through the written word.

The economics of the Middle Ages were affected by the labor market, which was devastated by the plague. Trade routes had been opened between Europe and the East. The Crusades which flourished during the Middle Ages ceased, but resulted in trade and communications between the Far East and the West. Banking began in earnest with the Knights Templar and the rise of huge masses of population in cities demanding safe and accessible money flow.

Technology and education were booming, as inventions of the cannon and gunpowder changed the face of war, compasses and clocks improved tremendously, and universities taught advanced mathematics in a new setting. These advances could only mean an introduction to a new age where war became civilized, everyday life became easier and books and education changed the meaning of the phrase "upper-class." Music and the fine arts flourished with the advent of new musical instruments and polyphony, and new kinds of paint for visual artists.

Large nations had been formed out of the smaller city-states, consolidating small kingdoms in Italy and England. France and England's Hundred Years' War put land and taxes into the hands of royalty. But the people were growing dissatisfied with the Church which had instituted "papal indulgences," leading the wealthy to become more corrupt as they could purchase forgiveness. Pope Martin V replaced a series of popes, who loved to go to war using the Churches' money, and the legitimacy of the papacy was questioned, paving the way for widespread theological reformation and Martin Luther's split with Catholicism.

The Middle Ages ending date is in dispute. Perhaps that is because it ended with a whimper, rather than a bang. No one realized how much a plague and the rise of nations could and would change economics, politics and religion.

Citations

Britannica. 2001. The End of Europe's Middle Ages. University of Calgary, Canada. 1. Available at http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/endmiddle/.