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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Middle Ages</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10285c.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="A term commonly used to designate that period of European history between the Fall of the Roman Empire and about the middle of the fifteenth century"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="10285c.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/m.htm">M</a> > Middle Ages</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Middle Ages</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>A term commonly used to designate that period of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">European</a> history between the fall of the Roman Empire and about the middle of the fifteenth century.</p> <p>The precise <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">dates</a> of the beginning, culmination, and end of the Middle Ages are more or less arbitrarily assumed according to the point of view adopted. The period is usually considered to open with those migrations of the German Tribes which led to the destruction of the Roman Empire in the West in 375, when the Huns fell upon the Gothic tribes north of the Black Sea and forced the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a> over the boundaries of the Roman Empire on the lower Danube. A later <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a>, however, is sometimes assumed, viz., when Odoacer deposed <a href="../cathen/13179c.htm">Romulus Augustulus</a>, the last of the Roman Emperors of the West, in 476. Others, again, begin the Middle Ages with the opening years of the seventh century and the death (609) of <a href="../cathen/06149a.htm">Venantius Fortunatus</a>, the last representative of classic <a href="../cathen/09032a.htm">Latin literature</a>. The close of the Middle Ages is also variously fixed; some make it coincide with the rise of <a href="../cathen/07538b.htm">Humanism</a> and the <a href="../cathen/12765b.htm">Renaissance</a> in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, in the fourteenth century; with the fall of Constantinople, in 1453; with the discovery of America by <a href="../cathen/04140a.htm">Columbus</a> in 1492; or, again, with the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">great religious schism</a> of the sixteenth century. Any hard and fast line drawn to designate either the beginning or close of the period in question is arbitrary. The widest limits given, viz., the irruption of the <a href="../cathen/15476b.htm">Visigoths</a> over the boundaries of the Roman Empire, for the beginning, and the middle of the sixteenth century, for the close, may be taken as inclusively sufficient, and embrace, beyond dispute, every movement or phase of history that can be claimed as properly belonging to the Middle Ages.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>A great part of THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA is devoted to the movements, <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a>, <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a>, social, political, and <a href="../cathen/03710a.htm">artistic</a>, which made up <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">European</a> history during this period so fertile in <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human</a> activities, whether sacred or profane.</p> <p>Under the titles covering the political divisions of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>, past and present (e.g., <a href="../cathen/01341c.htm">ALSACE-LORRAINE</a>; <a href="../cathen/01513e.htm">ANHALT</a>; <a href="../cathen/02121b.htm">AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY</a>; <a href="../cathen/02194a.htm">BADEN</a>; <a href="../cathen/02353c.htm">BAVARIA</a>; <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">BELGIUM</a>; <a href="../cathen/02612b.htm">BOHEMIA</a>; <a href="../cathen/02756a.htm">BREMEN</a>; <a href="../cathen/03046a.htm">BULGARIA</a>; <a href="../cathen/03410b.htm">CASTILE AND ARAGON</a>; <a href="../cathen/04510a.htm">CROATIA</a>; <a href="../cathen/04722c.htm">DENMARK</a>; <a href="../cathen/05431b.htm">ENGLAND</a>; <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">FRANCE</a>; <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">GERMANY</a>; <a href="../cathen/06735a.htm">GREECE</a>; <a href="../cathen/07121b.htm">HAMBURG</a>; <a href="../cathen/07298c.htm">HESSE</a>; <a href="../cathen/07547a.htm">HUNGARY</a>; <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">IRELAND</a>; <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">ITALY</a>; <a href="../cathen/08606a.htm">KARINTHIA</a>; <a href="../cathen/08696a.htm">KRAIN</a>; <a href="../cathen/09177a.htm">LEÓN</a>; <a href="../cathen/09276a.htm">LIPPE</a>; <a href="../cathen/09401a.htm">LÜBECK</a>; <a href="../cathen/09465a.htm">LUXEMBURG</a>; <a href="../cathen/10107a.htm">MECKLENBURG</a>; <a href="../cathen/10447a.htm">MONACO</a>; <a href="../cathen/10529c.htm">MONTENEGRO</a>; <a href="../cathen/10721a.htm">NAVARRE</a>; <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">NETHERLANDS</a>; <a href="../cathen/11117b.htm">NORWAY</a>; <a href="../cathen/11237b.htm">OLDENBURG</a>; <a href="../cathen/14257a.htm">PAPAL STATES</a>; <a href="../cathen/12297a.htm">PORTUGAL</a>; <a href="../cathen/12799b.htm">REUSS</a>; <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">ROME</a>; <a href="../cathen/13224b.htm">RUMANIA</a>; <a href="../cathen/13231c.htm">RUSSIA</a>; <a href="../cathen/13493b.htm">SAXE-ALTENBURG</a>; <a href="../cathen/13494a.htm">SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA</a>; <a href="../cathen/13495a.htm">SAXE-MEININGEN</a>; <a href="../cathen/13495b.htm">SAXE-WEIMAR</a>; <a href="../cathen/13497b.htm">SAXONY</a>; <a href="../cathen/13523c.htm">SCHAUMBURG-LIPPE</a>; <a href="../cathen/13594a.htm">SCHWARZBURG</a>; <a href="../cathen/13613a.htm">SCOTLAND</a>; <a href="../cathen/13732a.htm">SERVIA</a>; <a href="../cathen/13772a.htm">SICILY</a>; <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">SPAIN</a>; <a href="../cathen/14347a.htm">SWEDEN</a>; <a href="../cathen/14358a.htm">SWITZERLAND</a>; <a href="../cathen/15333a.htm">VENICE</a>; <a href="../cathen/15527a.htm">WALDECK</a>; <a href="../cathen/15532a.htm">WALES</a>; <a href="../cathen/15716b.htm">WÜRTEMBERG</a>), are given in detail their respective political and religious developments throughout the Middle Ages.</p> <p>Under articles of a wider scope (e.g. <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">EUROPE</a>; <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">CHRISTENDOM</a>; <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">POPE</a>) is found a more general and synthetic treatment. Particular aspects and movements peculiar to different portions of it are found in such articles as <a href="../cathen/03691a.htm">CHIVALRY</a>; <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">CRUSADES</a>; <a href="../cathen/05248a.htm">ECCLESIASTICAL ART</a>; <a href="../cathen/06058c.htm">FEUDALISM</a>; <a href="../cathen/06665b.htm">GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE</a>; <a href="../cathen/08026a.htm">INQUISITION</a>; <a href="../cathen/08084c.htm">CONFLICT OF INVESTITURES</a>; <a href="../cathen/08775a.htm">LAND-TENURE IN THE CHRISTIAN ERA</a>; <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">MONASTICISM</a>; <a href="../cathen/10648a.htm">ECCLESIASTICAL MUSIC</a>; <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">PAINTING</a>; <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">PILGRIMAGES</a>; <a href="../cathen/13641b.htm">SCULPTURE</a>; in the articles upon the great <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders, congregations, and institutions which then came into <a href="../cathen/05543b.htm">existence</a>; in the biographies of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>, rulers, historical personages, scholars, <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophers</a>, poets, and <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">scientists</a> whose lives fall within this period; in the accounts of the <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>, cities, and <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> which were founded and developed throughout <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> from the fall of the Roman Empire to the <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a> of the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>, and in innumerable minor articles throughout the work.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor"></span> <span id="apaarticle">Middle Ages.</span> <span id="apayear">(1911).</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10285c.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor"></span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Middle Ages."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 10.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1911.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10285c.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Steve Fanning.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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