Postclassical Era in Western Europe

For Western Europe, the Postclassical era mainly represented a search for truth. People were no longer happy with knowing how one thing affected another, they wished to delve deeper and find out why. At the beginning of the period most people, peasants and kings alike, turned to the Church for guidance and to discover the meaning of events in their lives. However, as time passed, philosophers began to stress the gathering of rational evidence to answer questions. This movement from religious to logical thinking brought great change with it in Western Europe.

The Church was, undoubtedly, the most powerful body in Europe at the beginning of the Middle Ages. In most Western kingdoms the Pope had more power than the king himself, and the Christian religion controlled all aspects of daily life. People were to devote themselves utterly to the Church in prayer and giving, and they would be saved. As seen in Document 6, the lords and nobles committed themselves to the service of God before men, saying, “Nor will I ever with will or action, through word or deed, do anything which is unpleasing to him [God]…” Those who lived during this time trusted the Church’s explanations for the workings of the world. They saw God as all powerful, as the force behind everything. Art and music thus were focused around the Church and giving praise and thanks to God. Most art works of the time featured Jesus or other saints.

Kings often struggled with the Church over power and land, both trying desperately to obtain them, both committing atrocities to hold onto them. Time and time again, the Popes of the postclassical period went to great extremes to secure the Church’s position in the world. Both the Crusades and the Inquisition are examples of this. D...

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...and military conquest (especially the crusades). People were very much focused on heaven, not on themselves as individuals. Judgment was carried out before God, not men. Document 1 shows a common punishment that left the verdict up to God. The arts (music, paintings, etc.) also looked to the heavens, showing religious figures. Artists were most often sponsored by the Church and rendered scenes from Scripture or the lives of saints (Document 16).

Western Europe was more concerned with their Maker and the redemption of their souls than with their individual lives on earth. This meant that the development of their own philosophies and schools of thought would occur later than many other postclassical civilizations. However, the time period was not without achievement. It laid the ground for discoveries of tremendous importance that would change the known world forever.