Foreword

Summary

LET ME BEGIN by using this foreword to explain briefly the aims and ideas that fed into the present book, both through a substantial introduction analysing what we understand by ideology in the Middle Ages, and through specific studies that deepen our knowledge of relevant aspects of the same subject.

This book sets out from a definition of ideology as a set of beliefs or principles, especially one on which a political system is based, in line with common understandings of the word. We seek to interrogate the underlying values that inform the interpretative framework through which we might better understand men and women of the Middle Ages, whether this be their perceptions of the natural surroundings, their spiritual lives or the interaction between the individual and society, and how the latter is organized. In medieval Europe the Christian Church was essential to the ideological framework, and Christian doctrine's adaptability to different social and economic stimuli allowed it to maintain this role for long periods. In Late Antiquity, this flexibility enabled Christian philosophical thought to supersede classical thought to a large extent, earning the Church political and social status. In the Early Middle Ages, the Church cemented its doctrinal and institutional prominence in society, strengthening its relationship to the monarchies of Germanic origin. By the High Middle Ages, the Church had identified feudal order as the model desired by God. And by the Late Middle Ages, Church doctrine informed ideas concerned with the common good, popular power, and “repre-sentativity” (the conditions of a representation, from the French word représentativité) while supporting (and on occasions challenging) the new market economies in towns and cities, and their ruling elites. Christian discourse provided a coherent vision linking the physical and metaphysical, social order and political power, the collective act and individual responsibility before God. The ideological referent was adaptable to each social group within the tripartite system of orders, because the explanation was always organic, with rights and obligations adapted to each group.