The Middle Ages - Essay Example

The medieval age was characterized by ignorance. During this age, people were not concerned to know the truth about their surroundings. Religion was a central aspect of people’s lives; people obeyed and believed everything that was taught by religion without caring about the come. This is evident from the relationship that existed between the religion and the society. During the medieval period, Christianity was the main religion in Europe. Christianity remained critical to the people and everything reflected the teachings of Christianity.

Works of literature written during this era were classified as secular or Christian literature. It is obvious that secular literature was not celebrated as Christian literature was. This is because people did not appreciate change in the society or change from the known to unknown. The ignorance period that characterized the medieval age resulted from people’s lack of appreciation for change. The medieval age was also characterized by major calamities such as Black Death, famine and civil wars.

The Black Death is considered as the worst calamity that affected Europe during the middle ages. Although the Black Death affected Europe during the upper middle age, its effects continued to be experienced even in the early modern age. This calamity is believed to have caused the deaths of nearly one third of the European population. The great famine of the middle ages and the civil wars also caused numerous deaths. The conservative nature of the people or their lack of accepting changes was responsible for the calamities that affected people during the middle ages.

For instance, the great famine never resulted from bad weather condition, but due to lack of crop rotation and adopting the cultivation of new crop. In addition, the conflicts that led to the civil wars resulted from the need of the people to deviate from the known ways of life or governance. Anyone who tried to introduce change was considered as the enemy of the people. These facts are well captured in medieval literature. During this time, books or any other literature material reflected what was already known by the society.

Introduction of new ideas or knowledge was greatly opposed by the people. This explains why the middle ages experienced minimal advancement in literature. The classification of literature between secular and Christian literature also explains lack of development in middle age literature. The preference of Christian literature among the people of the Middle Ages also indicates that artists had few things to write about. This is because artists could only write finite things about Christianity as compared to the secular literature.

People’s lack to appreciate change is the main factor that caused low intellectual developments during the middle ages. Although religious leaders and scholars knew the truth about nature, they kept the knowledge to themselves due to the fear of victimization. Most of this knowledge was in the fields of science and astronomy. Although science and astronomy were significant bodies of knowledge during the middle ages, they were dependent on philosophy and religion. This is a contradiction since both science and astronomy depends on facts and logical analysis.

For example during the middle ages, the earth was considered flat. However, scholars and some religious leaders knew