Physical Education in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

The Middle Ages is a period that many people misunderstand. Some have called it the Dark Ages in the belief that little was supposedly known about the period, or in the belief that the people of the times were uncivilized or unenlightened; these beliefs, however, are incorrect.

Essentially the Middle Ages was a transition period between a time when a large, unified nation or civilization had disappeared and a later time when nations regained strength and stability. However, the people of the Middle Ages did seem to be retreating from civilization.

The feudal system was the dominant from of social and political organization. Some scholars have suggested that the system had Germanic origins and had developed from a form of tribal organization that tied the fighting men to a single chieftain.

In the pyramidic structure of feudalism the greater partners furnished financial or political support to the monarch and protection or some manner of making a living to their many lesser partners, while the vassals provided military and political support for the lords and the monarch.

A vassal owed a set period of military service for each land holding with which he was provided. The monarch owned all the land and had the right to evict any person who broke an oath of fealty or loyalty. The land holdings were not hereditary, so the monarch could disown the heirs of a vassal.

Within this system the land was divided into large manors or farms, and the lords held the domain and all its products, plus a share of the products of the tributary lands that were worked by their vassals.

The towns were decaying for economic reasons from the fifth to the eighth centuries, the early Middle Ages.

Trade in the Mediterranean Sea area was hampered by the rising Moslem tide, for its converts at their peak of power had gained control of the sea from Turkey around the south shore across Africa and into Spain.

Travel was risky because of pirates at sea and barbarians and highwaymen on land. No strong, protective governments existed to assist free trade.

As Muslem strength declined, however, trade became more open on the Mediterranean. Towns gradually began to grow in areas where they could find protection, such as beside castles and monasteries, and trade fairs sprang up across Europe as the barbarians began to settle down.

Thus, during the ninth to eleventh centuries, the signs of a stable civilization began to reappear, and the growing trade across the face of Europe led to the peak of medieval development around the twelfth to thirteenth centuries.

During this time the need for money to wage wars led many monarchs to sell charters for towns, along with the rights of a lord. These towns, surrounded by walls for safety, became growing commercial and industrial areas.

Traders and skilled artisans developed guilds, or trade unions, designed to insure the quality of their products, to train apprentices in the skills of the trade, and to limit the competition in the field to maintain price levels.

Between 1096 and 1270, a series of eight crusades, or military expeditions, were called for by the popes of the Catholic Church.

These campaigns were in response to several recurring problems: who hated the Christians; the Western world was threatened by the Turks; and the papal strength and control was challenged by the Holy Roman Emperor, whose territories were concentrated in the area of today’s Germany.

People responded to the call for the crusades for many different reasons. Some of these reasons were greedy. A fortune might be made in the booty of victory, fame could be gained, and adventure was available.

Some of these reasons were religious. People went on the crusades to protect the Church, or they went simply to gain salvation. However, as more crusades were called, their religious appeal diminished until they finally amounted to little more than self-seeking expeditions of greedy knights.

A major effect of the crusades on late medieval Europe was the re- establishment of contact with areas beyond Europe.

Perhaps the best-known tradition of the Middle Ages is chivalry, or the tradition of courtly love, which is based on heroic fancy and romantic notions. The fiction that chivalry ruled the world resulted primarily from a thirst for honour and glory and the nobility’s desire for praise and lasting fame. It implied the qualities of compassion, piety, austerity, fidelity, heroism, and love.

The Catholic Church frowned upon chivalry because of its erotic elements, for the romantic ideal was actually adulterous in that the knight was expected to pine away for a married woman. The Church did approve of some of the other ideals of chivalry, such as the ascetic tendencies implied in suffering for one’s faith.

Education during the Middle Ages usually was education of the nobility, for what little education there was for the common people was oriented toward learning a trade and surviving. However, the male nobility was educated for knighthood.

A noble youth was trained in the house of another noble, rather than being trained by his own family. At about the age of seven he became a page. Until the age of fourteen he was trained by the women and household workers.

Women were not usually rated very highly in the Middle Ages, although among the nobility they were expected to organize and administer large households and estates, particularly during the frequent absences of the men.

Following the page phase of training in which emphasis was on learning to serve people, a boy became a squire, usually by serving a knight or group of knights until he was twenty-one years old. During this period he concentrated on learning the arts of war, developing his body, and performing acts of obligation to his lord.

Around the age of twenty-one, perhaps earlier in cases of exceptional bravery, a young man became a knight. Knighthood was usually bestowed in a serious religious ceremony.

A ceremonial bath followed by an all-night religious vigil in the company of the young man’s lord and a bishop preceded the investitures that were often held on major religious holidays and were accompanied by tournaments or other festivities.

Physical education lay at the core of the training for knighthood at all stages, with goals of acquiring military prowess and developing social graces and sports skills.

Much confusion surrounds the question of the views on physical education held by the Catholic Church in the late Middle Ages. No clear definition of its position has emerged from what is known about the trends within the Church and the civilization at that time, but the traditional view is that the Church was opposed to physical education for three particular reasons.

First, the Church was disturbed by what it considered the debased character of the Roman sports and games, Second, it closely associated the Roman games with pagan religions, and the Church was far from tolerant of other faiths. Third, a growing concept of the evil character of the body was developing in the Church.

The body and soul were increasingly viewed as two very separate entities: the soul should be preserved and strengthened, while the body should not be catered to in any way, including entertaining or beneficial physical exercises.

The Church attempted to suppress many games and sports at this time, for they were considered frivolous and perhaps tinged with sin. Dance was also strongly discouraged because of its sensual appeal.

A numbers of advocates of physical education were within the Church prior to the Middle Ages. Usually these men had been exposed to a classical education and thus viewed the body as a unity of parts, rather than as separated and perhaps antagonistic parts. In the first several centuries of the Church’s existence, and again after the Middle Ages, physical education was not opposed.

During the Middle Ages, however, the view of the Church, and of much of society, was very “other worldly.” The primary concern of this life was for preparing for the afterlife; a future life of justice and peace was promised.

Asceticism, or denial of the pleasures of needs of the body, was thus a popular concept among the more religious people.

At this time the Church was the saviour of education for education as an intellectual process was generally connected to the Church. Usually the educational process had no physical side. The common system consisted of the seven liberal arts, composed of the trivium and the quadrivium.

The monasteries preserved much of the learning that survived the Middle Ages and played a major role in education at that time.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries medieval civilization began to fade in the light of the new forces it had created. Europe was waking up and progressing rapidly. Its culture was flourishing; the towns were becoming strong; education and the arts were developing new directions.

Kings and queens began to consolidate their power and form nations similar to those we know today. This period of rebirth for civilization led to the term by which we know the era the Renaissance.