The High and Late Middle Ages

Section 4: Learning and Culture Flourish

Medieval Universities Emerge

► By the 1100s, schools for clergy became associated with the great cathedrals of Europe and these evolved into universities.

► The male students worked hard and studied the seven liberal arts. Women were not admitted.

► The works of the Greeks that had been preserved by Muslim scholars were reintroduced to Europeans, who had to grapple with the sometimes conflicting teachings of their Christian faith.

► Writings began to be created in the vernacular, such as heroic epics that had long been passed on orally.

► Dante Alighieri wrote the famous poem, the Divine Comedy, summarizing Christian ethics.

► Chaucer penned the Canterbury Tales, which included stories about various medieval characters.

Architecture and Art ► The great architectural masterpieces of the Middle Ages were the cathedrals, first in Romanesque style and then in Gothic style with flying buttresses.

► Inside the churches were the other great art works of the time: sculptures, stained-glass windows, and paintings.

► Monks illuminated manuscripts.