GMU History 100, Western Civ, Sect 033 (Tulchin)

The Middle Ages 1000 to 1300 AD

The middle ages brought about a significant amount of change to Religion, literature, architecture, and education in Europe.
As Muslim populations began to develop and spread across Europe, the Christian movement also began to further develop and expand. When the Muslims and Hungarians began to burn churches, many architectural buildings which were in the Romanesque style were rebuilt in the gothic style. This architectural change also gave way for the change in atmosphere for many years to come. Another outcome of these church ruins is a growth in the Christian movement. Pilgrimages began to take place all over Europe to various holy locations; these paths generated a lot of interest in the Christian church and further expanded the religion.
Education was very primitive in those days. Cathedrals schools were almost solely for the training of future priests. In the 12th century, more and more people, young men, began to attend these schools to be educated. This sparked the founding of universities all across Europe. More and more people were learning to read and write. This grammatical advancement also prompted the diverse literature that came out of twelfth century Europe.
Before the twelfth century Europe was not very agricultural, but as the years passed and the middle ages began to take their full effect on Europe, agriculture became a more and more advanced. When farmers were able to produce more crops and food for people in less time, many citizens began to migrate to the city. The more the population grew in the cities the more trade and commerce became important in heavily populated cities.
The Middle ages changed a lot of aspects of European culture, it is no wonder that the twelfth century is very important in European history.

Posting on behalf of Sarah Ayers

When a servant of God, Paul, started spreading his beliefs and the words and ways of God it seemed to come at a crucial time. People were unsure how to practice their faith. In one community he had started, he felt that the people were being influenced by others. Other beliefs he did not agree with were destroying what he had tried to build up. He came back to a faith divided among many different viewpoints. He tried refocusing their attention to what he wanted them to believe. Paul admonishes the followers in the Lord’s Supper for being divided. God wants all of his people to be together as one and not as separate. He gave them his opinions on all aspects of life including the law, children, marriage and social life. He was an incredibly passionate person who just wanted everyone to see the world the way he did. He seems to think marriage is not a great intuition rather it prevents one from fully believing in one’s own faith. He says that a husband would be more worried about pleasing his wife than the Lord Jesus. The Lord should be everyone’s main priority.
Paul wants all of his followers to know that everyone; man, woman and child are all equal. They all have a chance to experience God’s way and his love. He does not even talk about class order. Not only the white man or woman, who for this time was unheard of, was just much God’s child than Greeks or Jews. The only person God would not love, according to Paul, is one who is bad. A drunkard, a glutton, a thief or a liar are all people whom cannot be pure and true and all of God’s people are pure and true.
Many of his followers had lost their ways while being separated from Paul. He tried turning that around. Many people had separated from Christianity and wanted to divide themselves up. Paul’s main concern was for them to know what everyone should unite and be together for everyone is the same.

The Christian Movement during the time of St. Paul was a strict movement. St Paul preached the gospel of Christ to all the people he could reach. This gospel was of love and kindness, and the goal was to become children of God through Jesus Christ. The only way to attain eternal life in Paradise was by following a strict and disciplined behavioral pattern and by loving one another through Christ. Love and faith in Christ is key, St. Paul says “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor un-circumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.” (Corinthians) This teaching also goes along with the notion that all Christians should be “one in Christ Jesus.” St. Paul talks about certain aspects of life that a Christian should abide by. He talks about marriage and how it is important that every man and woman fulfill their roles within marriage the way God has created marriage to be. He also talks about how important it is to wait for the second coming of Christ, and how Christians should be prepared for His coming in order to attain eternal life in Paradise.
This Christian movement during the time of St. Paul was open to anyone who was willing to believe in the words of St. Paul which were the teachings of Christ. He spoke to all peoples of all social classes and genders about the love of God and the necessary actions that will lead to an afterlife in heaven. He discusses the book of the law and how important it is to abide by its laws until the coming of Christ.
It would seem to me that more men and middle or lower class society would accept this religious belief and join the Christian movement because St. Paul’s message about Christ brought hope to those people. At the same time, it could have been intimidating and less appealing to the higher class of society who were already set and well knowledgeable of the Jewish teachings and religion. But there seems to be a large amount of people who joined the Christian movement during the time of St. Paul because he wrote so many letters to many congregations and peoples around Europe and Asia.

Tacitus: Germany Vs Rome

It is clear to see in the writing of Tacitus about the Germans that he finds a lot of their characteristics admirable. Although I think he believes the Romans are still more superior (at least in their way of living) he sees traits in the German society that he wishes the Romans could adopt. The one aspect of German society he talks about the most is the way they fight battles. He seems to see this nobility in the way they fight, and how they defend their chief that is lacking in the Romans. Although both societies were warlike societies, Tacitus saw something in the battles of the Germans that the Romans just didn’t have.
The German society was also something that Tacitus really admired. I think more than anything he wished that the Roman society could be as “pure” and “distinct” as the German society. The German society rarely if ever married outside their ethnic group, which meant that their particular culture’s features remained the same: blue eyes and red hair. Another distinction that Tacitus makes between the Germans and the Romans is that the Germans didn’t rely so much on their servants. They did have servants but only used them for minor errands whereas the Romans relied on their slaves for almost everything including raising their children.
The final aspect of German society that Tacitus touched on that I am going to talk about is the idea of just punishment. He greatly admired that the Germans had a system of just punishments where the punishment always fit the greatness of the crime. At the same time, all crime had its punishment even the little things that little penalties. The Romans were very materialistic, and Tacitus didn’t like that. He admired how the Germans never really cared much for Gold or Silver, in fact they barely knew what it was before the Romans introduced it to them.
Tacitus admired that the Germans were simple moral and noble people. He knew that the Romans were more superior and much richer than the Germans, but that may not have impressed him very much. He was more intrigued by the German’s pure race that wasn’t mingled with other outside cultures and ethnicities; he was also interested in their way of battle. Tacitus loved the Romans but wished they could learn the good from the Germans.