Late Middle Ages

1
Late Middle Ages

• c. 1300 c. 1500

2
Late Middle Ages

• an age of plague, famine, war, social uprisings
• plague first appeared in Italy in 1347 and
  spread to the rest of Europe. It killed more than
  a third of Europes seventy million people. It is
  also called black death by the 16th century
  historians.
• War the Hundred Years War between England and
  France (1337-1453) the heroic figure of Joan of
  Arc (1412-1431)

3
Late Middle Ages

• Result of plague, war, and famine
• Depopulation
• Decline of the towns
• Migration of rich to the country and poor to the
  cities
• Peasants leave the land to meet labor demand in
  the towns

4
Late Medieval Religion

• Response to plague results in
• Increase in piety, though in many forms
• Extreme asceticism
• Criticism of the church from dissidents
• Rise of the Inquisition

5
Late Middle Ages

• The devotio moderna, a lay movement with an ideal
  of a pious lay society, disappointed with
  traditionally trained priests, engaged in ascetic
  practices the flagellants
• the Inquisition, born in the aftermath of the
  Albigensian heresy in the 12th century. Forbidden
  by the Bible to shed blood, the leaders of the
  Inquisition burned convicted heretics.
• The debate in theology and philosophy

6
Debate in Theology/Philosophy

• Separation of reason and faith
• via moderna
• Rationalists (Latin Averroists, Peter Abelard)
• William of Ockham
• Nominalism

• combination of reason and faith
• via antiqua
• Thomism
• Duns Scotus
• Dominican friars
• Realism

7
Duns Scotus
8
Duns Scotus

• John Duns Scotus (c.1265-1308) is one of the most
  important thinkers in the history of Christian
  thought, and an aspect of that thought is
  crucially relevant to our world today. More known
  as a philosopher of great insight and perception,
  his primary contribution to theology is little
  known outside the Franciscan order, yet is one of
  the most dynamically creative moments in the
  development of Franciscan theology and
  spirituality .

9
Duns Scotus

• Though a profound theological and philosophical
  thinker, Scotus was first and foremost a
  Franciscan. His doctrine of the Incarnation (more
  fully known as the Doctrine of the Absolute
  Primacy of Christ in the Universe) is firmly
  rooted in the Franciscan intellectual and
  spiritual tradition

10
Duns Scotus

• In the Absolute Primacy, Christ is the beginning,
  middle and end of creation. He stands at the
  centre of the universe as the reason for its
  existence. In this schema, the universe is for
  Christ and not Christ for the universe