Preview

The Gothic Age

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1901 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Gothic Age
The Gothic Age

Introduction

The Gothic Age

As the third year that followed the year on thousand grew near, there was to be seen over almost all the earth, but especially in Italy and in Gaul, a great renewal of church buildings; each Christian community was driven by a spirit of rivalry to have a more glorious church than the others. It was as if the world had shaken itself, and casting off its old garments, had dressed itself again in every part in a white robe of churches.

Raoul Glaber, Historia, c.1003

The Gothic Age (c. AD 1130-1530) marked the end to an age of chaos, primarily caused by the sacking and pillaging of the Vikings. After the great minds of Western Europe were freed from using their vast knowledge to defend against invaders or plagues, they now had the time and the resources needed to design any and everything in this era from bridges to city walls and castles to cathedrals. This was also a very religious age, with plenty of money being pumped into the Church, some from the crusades, with all of its included looting, and a lot more from all of the tithes all of the people who were born in the population explosion gave faithfully. Another even bigger source of income for the Church came to it in the shape of power and prestige, when the power of the church peaked in AD 1277. Not only was this a good time for the Church, but this was also a very good time for all of humanity. The standard of living dramatically rose, and along with it, the population of Western Europe shot up. In 1346, the estimated population of Europe was fifty-four point four million just before the plague hit and wiped out more than a third of the population.1 2 This was more than twice the population of Europeans in the year 950 when it was 22,600,0003 . While the population was exploding there were so many new cathedrals built that in the relatively short time period of two hundred and fifty years, there was more stone quarried to be used in cathedrals (several



Bibliography: Gothic Architecture By Robert Brammer, 1961 George Brazzillier New York Beverly Hills public Library 723.5 B The Cathedral Builders By Jean Grinner, 1993 by Editions du Seuil Beverly Hills Public Library 726.6 The Gothic Cathedral By Christopher Wilson, 1990 Thames and Hudson Ltd. London Beverly Hills Public Library 726.6 Wilson London Beverly Hills Public Library 726.6 Cathedral: The Story of It 's Construction By David Macaulay, 1973 Houlton Churches: Their Plan and Furnishing By Peter F. Anson, 1948 By the Bruce Publishing Co High School 726.1Ans Compton 's Multimedia Encyclopedia, Macintosh Edition, 1992 Compton 's NewMedia,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Martin Luther's 95 Theses

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The catholic church was powerful because it had been built up over centuries and relied on ignorance and superstition. This gave a priest enormous power at a local level on behalf of the Catholic Church. The local people viewed the local priest as their ‘passport’ to heaven as they knew no different and had been taught this from birth by the local priest. Such a message…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Protestant Reformation Dbq

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages

    One of the many corruptions of the Roman Catholic church that triggered the Protestant Reformation was economic corruption. The Roman catholic church was swathed in opulence and was the wealthiest organization of that time. But where did the church get all of this money? It wasn’t like the people were charged a fee to simply enter the church, attend a mass, or worship God. No, the church’s means of creating revenue were far more sophisticated and devious. The majority of society in the 1500’s was the peasent class; this class was regarded as submissive and naïve, making them the best target for the church. The church preached that if you donated to the Roman Catholic Church, you would enter the kingdom of heaven more easily, and oftentimes without the struggles of purgatory. Soon, the economic impact of this tithing became evident in other countries. Leaders and noblemen, began to notice the lack of gold and silver in their homelands, such as germany. German nobleman, Urich von Hutten, addressed the…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Church had power over the masses of people because they had the bible and they could control who read it but the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg aloud the bible to be affordable to almost everybody. The church now lost political power too. Previously taxes were collected from the people and paid to the kings, who in turn paid the Pope. In return they received monetary assistance when…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Chhi 301 Paper 2

    • 1759 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In response to the how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power as it did. Shortly after…

    • 1759 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Europe from 500 CE to 1500 CE, a continuity was the importance of the Church,…

    • 555 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William Faulkner have presented gothic literature throughout their writing during the 18th and 19th centuries. Gothic literature is defined as a "distinct modern development in which the characteristic theme is the stranglehold of the past upon the present"(294 Drabble and Stringer).Therefore, to deliver this theme to their readers they used gothic elements to create a "dark" sensation especially in the area of setting. All three authors in their literature portray accursed or decaying settings that are associated to violence, poverty, and human behavior. It appears authors like Poe, Hawthorne, and Faulkner were drawn to this elements of Gothicism for what it revealed about human psychology…

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Economic Justice for All

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages

    * The book often mentions the economic system should be set up to help the poor. What is the Church’s view on acquiring large material gains…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Roman Catholic Church, whose center was located in Rome, manifested all over Europe. It went beyond “geographic, racial, linguistic, and national boundaries.” (Perry, 2008) It was, in a way, like a disease that spread all over Europe, influencing every aspect of life, from society to culture. What Martin Luther slowly discovered on his mission to Rome was that in result of its expansion, the Church’s focus on wealth and power seemed to “take precedence over its commitment to the search of holiness in…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Medieval Church

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This is one reason why the Church was so wealthy. One of the reasons Henry VIII wanted to reform the Church was get hold of the Catholic Church's money. People were too scared not to pay tithes despite the difficulties it meant for them.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    At the same time, population was growing rapidly. Although the estimations of the growth rate were not exactly the same, there was a consensus among historians that the gross population in Europe almost doubled between 11th and 14th century. In year 1000 and year 1300, the population in France was 5 million and 15 million…

    • 2490 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Patzia, Arthur G. The Emergence of the Church: Context, Growth, Leadership and Worship. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001.…

    • 4887 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    2. How did Gothic architecture change from previous time periods? What was new about Gothic architecture?…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Changes are not easily made in life. To be able to change, one must be able to handle and accept the consequences that going to happen because it not only affects the person that is willing to change, but it also affects the people that surround them. Common themes that are seen to advance Southern Gothic Literature short stories are the usage of “tradition” and “interiority” as a means of getting the readers to feel sympathy for the characters that have no control of changing their fate. From gender roles to society rules, people have an appetite for control and traditions are one aspect of life that people can and will control. Traditions are beliefs/procedures that are made from one point in time and then continued and done routinely. When traditions are being challenge to change or are in the process of being changed, the ones that are accustomed the most to certain traditions being to fear of losing control of what is theirs. In the short stories by Alice Munro and Shirley Jackson, both authors show that some traditions are found to be helpful and advantageous while others are poor and…

    • 1132 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Southern Romanticism

    • 1884 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Since the Southern Gothic movement in literature was originated in late 18th and early 19th century, it shares some similarities with Dark Romanticism such as death, decay, and toxic relationships; however, Southern Gothicism is a genre of literature that has a very distinctive style of writing. In other words, while some of the main characteristics of Dark Romanticism have human imperfections along with the horrific symbols and themes, the Southern Gothic style employs the use of macabre and ironic events to examine the values of the American South. Flannery O’Conner and William Faulkner are two of the most iconic writers…

    • 1884 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Among the key reasons for allowing the Catholic Church to begin to exert control over the…

    • 3477 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays