Episode 6 – The not-so-Dark Ages, medieval intellectuals, and freethinkers

In episode 6, we get medieval!

Find out why the Middle Ages were as much a period of reason and inquiry as inquisition and superstition.

Why was the famous medieval intellectual Pierre Abelard castrated, forced to burn his works, and condemned to silence by the church? How did the combination of Aristotelian philosophy and the development of universities institutionalize reason and science? What are the parallels between clashes over academic freedom in the 13th and 21st centuries?

All this and much more in Clear and Present Danger – episode 6!

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Literature: Episode 6

  • Asztalos, M. (1994): “Chapter 13: The Faculty of Theology”. In: de Ridder-Symoens, H. (ed.): A History of the University in Europe, vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Berman, H.J. (1985): Law and Revolution, I: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Bishop, M. (2001): The Middle Ages. New York, NY: Mariner Books.
  • Brooke, C. (1969): The Twelfth Century Renaissance. London, UK: Thames and Hudson.
  • Cobban, A.B. (1975): The Medieval Universities – their development and organization. London, UK: Methuen & Co Ltd.
  • Courteney, W. (1989): “Inquiry and Inquisition: Academic Freedom in Medieval Universities”. In: Church History 58(2). Pp. 168-181.
  • de Ridder-Symoens, H. (ed.) (1994): A History of the University in Europe, vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Esmark, K. & McGuire, B.P. (2006): Europa 1000-1300. Roskilde, DK: Roskilde Universitetsforlag.
  • Grant, E. (2001): God and Reason in the Middle Ages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Hannam, J. (2010): God’s Philosophers – How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science. London, UK: Icon Books.
  • Haskins, C.H. (1968): The Renaissance of the 12. Century. New York, NY: Meridian Books.
  • Keen, M. (1969): The Pelican History of Medieval Europe. London, UK: Penguin Books.
  • Larsen, A. (1999): “The Oxford “School of Heretics”: the Unexamined Case of Friar John” in: Vivarium 37(2). Pp. 168-177.
  • Le Goff, J. (1989): Medieval Civilization. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
  • Le Goff, J. (1994): Intellectuals in the Middle Ages. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
  • Le Goff, J. (2005): My Quest for the Middle Ages By Jacques Le Goff, with Jean‐Maurice de Montremy, translated by Richard Veasey. Edinburgh University Press.
  • Leff, G. (1994): “Chapter 10: The Faculty of Arts”. In: de Ridder-Symoens, H. (ed.): A History of the University in Europe, vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Münster-Swendsen, M. (2011): “Medieval Beginnings: The First Universities” in: Fortid 1. Pp. 27-31.
  • Murray, A. (1978): Reason and Society in the Middle Ages. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
  • Nardi, P. (1994): “Chapter 3: Relations with Authority”. In: de Ridder-Symoens, H. (ed.): A History of the University in Europe, vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rüegg, W. (1994): “Foreword “ & “Chapter 1: Themes” in: de Ridder-Symoens, H. (ed.): A History of the University in Europe, vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Southern, R.W. (1972): The Making of the Middle Ages. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
  • Southern, R.W. (1995): Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe, vol. 1. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
  • Thijsen, H. (1998): Censure and Heresy at the University of Paris. University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Verger, J. (1994): “Chapter 2: Patterns”. In: de Ridder-Symoens, H. (ed.): A History of the University in Europe, vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Wickham, C. (2009): The inheritance of Rome – Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000.
  • Wickham, C. (2016): Medieval Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

 

Online literature

  • Freedman, P.: The Early Middle Ages, 284-1000. Open Yale Courses. Lecture 6 and 20. Available at: https://oyc.yale.edu/ and https://oyc.yale.edu/
  • King, P.: “Peter Abelard” in: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2015 Edition), Zalta, E.N. (ed.). Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2015/entries/abelard/.
  • McInerny, R. and O’Callaghan, J.: “Saint Thomas Aquinas” in: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Zalta, E.N. (ed.). Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/.
  • Spade, P. V. and Panaccio, C.: “William of Ockham” in: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Zalta, E.N. (ed.) available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/.
  • Thijssen, H.: “Nicholas of Autrecourt” in: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 Edition), Zalta, E.N. (ed.). Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/.
  • Thijssen, H.: “Condemnation of 1277” in: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Zalta, E.N. (ed.). Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/.

 

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