1. Religious Orders Religious Orders during the High Middle Ages: nunneries monasteries begging orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans (Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican friar) The beguine and beghard communities (p.237); Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) The heretics: the Albigensian (at Albi in southern France), whose belief derived partly from Zoroastrianism, and partly from Manichaeism

2. Peter Abelard Peter Abelard: one of the most brilliant and controversial figures who was the first Medieval thinker who proclaimed a clear distinction between reason and faith. His major disagreement with his teacher William Champeaux was on the problem of the universals, a supreme intellectual issue between 1050 and 1150. The two schools of realism and nominalism debating on the existence of the universals. Abelard argued for a “moderate realism.”

3. Peter Abelard Abelard, Peter, in French, Pierre Abailard or Abélard (1079- 1144), French theologian whose writings, particularly Theologia Christiana, constitute one of the more impressive attempts of the medieval period to use logical techniques to explicate Christian dogmas. He was born of a minor noble family in Brittany and studied logic and theology under some of the most notable teachers of the early twelfth century, including Roscelin, William of Champeaux, and Anselm of Laon.

4. Peter Abelard He rapidly eclipsed his teachers in logic and attracted students from all over Europe. His forays into theology were less enthusiastically received. Twice his views on the Trinity were condemned as heretical. Abelard led a dramatic life punctuated by bitter disputes with his opponents and a dangerous and celebrated love affair with Héloïse (c.1117). Much of this story is told in his autobiographical work, Historia calamitatum.

5. Latin Averroists Latin Averroists: (the followers of Ibn Rushd, or Averroës) argued for the separation of reason and faith (like William of Ockham in the Late Middle ages) in the wake of the introduction of Arabic writings. Bonaventure, on the other hand, denied any knowledge apart from God’s Grace. Thomas Aquinas took a middle path, a via media, reconciling Christian belief with Aristotelian reason.

6. Thomas Aquinas He argued for the necessity of a secular state.

7. Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas: (1226-1274) in his masterpiece, Summa Theologica, he argued that God has given human beings two divine paths to truth: reason and faith. Thomism reconciled the strict rationalism of the Latin Averroists with the conservative ideas of Bonaventure.

8. Literature during the High Middle Ages Courtly Romance Chretien de Troyes: the first poet to write substantially about Arthurian material, esp. the Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere triangle (1100s) Thomas Mallory: Le Morte d’Arthur (1485) A mixture of courtly and religious themes, including the quest to achieve honor and/or religious grace, the idealization of the aristocratic woman, and courtly love.

9. Literature during the High Middle Ages After 1150 courtly romances became popular. Romances were long narratives of the chivalric and sentimental adventures of knights and ladies. By 1300, Italy brought forth the greatest literary figure of the High Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and his masterpiece, Divine Comedy. The stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were written in the vernacular.

10. Dante

11. Dante Alighieri, La Commedia Divina (The Divine Comedy) Perhaps the highest achievement of medieval literature Religious allegory describing both relgious beliefs and medieval culture