In
the Middle Ages western Europe was divided into a patchwork of kingdoms but
shared a common religion and a rigidly hierarchical society. During the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries the increasing power of the Church brought conflict
between popes and secular rulers, and papal authority was seriously weakened.
The later Middle Ages was a time of unrest, mar-ked by an exhausting war between
England and France, the ravages of the Black Death and the rebellion of peasants
against their lords. The sixteenth century marked a turning point, as the
Protestant Reformation ended the dominance of the Catholic Church and began an
era of religious war-s. The new nation-states began the acquisition of vast
empires, extending European influence throughout the globe.
The
soaring spires of the Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals were the supreme
architectural achievements of the age, and it was the cathedral schools that
gave birth to the universities. Although learning and the arts were devoted to
the glorification of God, there was also a strong current of nonreligious
literature, including the Arthurian romances and masterpieces such as Dante's Divine
Comedy and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The invention of printing in
the mid-fifteenth century ensured the rapid spread of ideas from the dawning
Renaissance, during which artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo
looked back to ancient Greece for inspiration and brought the human figure into
their work.
During
the eleventh and twelfth centuries music became increasingly elaborate. At Notre
Dame in Paris. church composers created harmony by adding new melodic lines to
Gregorian plainchant. Secular music also flourished as troubadours sang of the
joys and sorrows of love. Spurred on by the work of Ockeghem and Josquin Desprez
the musical evolution gathered pace, until by the sixteenth century it had
reached new heights, exemplified by the vocal music of Lassus in Italy and Byrd
in England.
