I’ve been thinking about some of the ideas we talked about on Tuesday (in reference to “Ypotis”, especially) and it’s gotten me wondering about a particular question. Although this is going to sound rather broad and open to much interpretation, I suppose I’ll go ahead and ask it anyway: what was the “meaning of life” for people in Medieval times? First, let me clarify what I mean by that ridiculously general query. At one point, Dr. Seaman pointed us to lines 289-95 in “Ypotis” to show how people questioned issues of justice—for example, why was the reader born after Christ and therefore able to believe in him and hopefully one day ascent to Heaven, but a man like Adam, probably more pious and with more good deeds, born before Jesus and therefore fated to Hell? Dr. Seaman explained that just after those lines comes an answer to this question: “Als [Adam] was man of myghtys moste,/[G-d] sente Adam the Holy Goste,/And fette out Adam and Eve/And all that were hym leve” (297-300). In other words, people’s “essences” (or souls, or spirits, or whatever one likes to call them) were not trapped in time or space and were instead able to transcend such physical borders.
Reexamining this section of the poem made me wonder: if people of the time cared so much about going to Heaven that they would consider allowing non-Christians a “second chance” of sorts, was that their only care in life? Throughout this class it has become more obvious to me how dangerous it is to create stark binaries or categories in which people and events are placed. So wouldn’t it be just as foolish to assume that Heaven was the only pursuit worth living for, despite the didactic and religious texts we have come across in Ashmole 61?
Many debate about the “meaning of life” in our own society. Is life all about accumulating wealth—becoming famous—living hedonistically—finding true love? Most would argue it’s a mixture of all of those things (and, of course, plenty more). So wouldn’t the same be true about Medieval society? If so, what were the other categories?
I think you bring up a very interesting point. I think when we consider this we have to turn back to Mortimer and remember what all we have learned about society at the time. Through out the class we’ve all had moments were we realize the Medieval society is not quite different from our own. Most Christians today live their life just for Christ and for entry in to heaven so wouldn’t that be the same for many of the gentry? And as you pointed out in our own society many live to find true love, to have an awesome career, to behave properly, ect so wouldn’t they have the same aspirations?
This is funny Naomi, because to be honest I kind of wondered the same thing. But I think that you may be drawing this assumption mainly from what you have read in AM61. As a result, it may be helpful for you to consider the fact that Rate was a household chaplain which would have inspired why his texts are so “religiously-rooted”. As Jade previously stated, Mortimer’s book assists us in understanding those things which are so easily and commonly assumed and misinterpreted about Medieval society and although the truth remains (and I think Mortimer points this out in his introduction) that those of Medieval society were greatly devoted to their religion, I think that this was just one facet of their life. Even though their ultimate goal was to get into heaven, I am sure that they had more “immediate” aspirations. More so, we even learned that the gentry showed an absence of religion within their educational contexts. This just demonstrates that though it may seem as if they were completely consumed with living piously, they still held other facets of life as important–even outside of a religious context.