The Middle Ages
A term commonly used to designate that period of European history between
the Fall of the Roman Empire and about the middle of the fifteenth century. The
precise dates of the beginning, culmination, and end of the Middle Ages are more
or less arbitrarily assumed according to the point of view adopted. The period is
usually considered to open with those migrations of the German Tribes which led
to the destruction of the Roman Empire in the West in 375, when the Huns fell
upon the Gothic tribes north of the Black Sea and forced the Visigoths over the
boundaries of the Roman Empire on the lower Danube. A later date, however, is
sometimes assumed, viz., when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last
of the Roman Emperors of the West, in 476. Others, again, begin the Middle
Ages with the opening years of the seventh century and the death (609) of
Venantius Fortunatus, the last representative of classic Latin literature. The close
of the Middle Ages is also variously fixed; some make it coincide with the rise of
Humanism and the Renaissance in Italy, in the fourteenth century; with the Fall
of Constantinople, in 1453; with the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492;
or, again, with the great religious schism of the sixteenth century. Any hard and
fast line drawn to designate either the beginning or close of the period in question
is arbitrary. The widest limits given, viz., the irruption of the Visigoths over the
boundaries of the Roman Empire, for the beginning, and the middle of the
sixteenth century, for the close, may be taken as inclusively sufficient, and
embrace, beyond dispute, every movement or phase of history that can be
claimed as properly belonging to the Middle Ages.
A great part of THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA is devoted to the movements,
ecclesiastical, intellectual, social, political, and artistic, which made up
European history during this period so fertile in human activities, whether sacred
or profane. Under the titles covering the political divisions of Europe, past and
present (e. g., ALSACE-LORRAINE; ANHALT; AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN
MONARCHY; BADEN; BAVARIA; BELGIUM; BOHEMIA; BREMEN; BULGARIA;
CASTILE AND ARAGON; CROATIA; DENMARK; ENGLAND; FRANCE;
GERMANY; GREECE; HAMBURG; HESSE; HUNGARY; IRELAND; ITALY;
KARINTHIA; KRAIN; LEÓN; LIPPE; LÜBECK; LUXEMBURG; MECKLENBURG;
MONACO; MONTENEGRO; NAVARRE; NETHERLANDS; NORWAY;
OLDENBURG; PAPAL STATES; PORTUGAL; REUSS; ROME; RUMANIA;
RUSSIA; SAXE-ALTENBURG; SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA;
SAXE-MEININGEN; SAXE-WEIMAR; SAXONY; SCHAUMBURG-LIPPE;
SCHWARZBURG-RUDOLSTADT; SCHWARZBURG-SONDERSHAUSEN;
SCOTLAND; SERVIA; SICILY; SPAIN; SWEDEN; SWITZERLAND; VENICE;
WALDECK; WALES; WÜRTEMBERG), are given in detail their respective
political and religious developments throughout the Middle Ages. Under articles
of a wider scope (e. g. EUROPE; CHRISTENDOM; POPE) is found a more
general and synthetic treatment. Particular aspects and movements peculiar to
different portions of it are found in such articles as CHIVALRY; CRUSADES;
ECCLESIASTICAL ART; FEUDALISM; GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE; INQUISITION;
INVESTITURES, CONFLICT OF; LAND-TENURE IN THE CHRISTIAN ERA;
MONASTICISM; MUSIC, ECCLESIASTICAL; PAINTING; PILGRIMAGES;
SCULPTURE; in the articles upon the great religious orders, congregations, and
institutions which then came into existence; in the biographies of the popes,
rulers, historical personages, scholars, philosophers, poets, and scientists
whose lives fall within this period; in the accounts of the universities, cities, and
dioceses which were founded and developed throughout Europe from the fall of
the Roman Empire to the time of the Reformation, and in innumerable minor
articles throughout the work.
Transcribed by Steve Fanning
The Catholic Encyclopedia,
Volume X
Copyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org