One of the world’s greatest experts on the Middle Ages, Professor Robert Bartlett of the University of St Andrews examines the intellectual landscape of the medieval world.
In his first program, “Knowledge,” he examines how medieval people understood the world—a mysterious, even magical place. The world is a book written by God. But as the Middle Ages ended, it became a place to be conquered and even exploited.
In the second episode (Sex), he finds remarkable evidence of the complex passions of medieval men and women. The church preached hatred of the flesh, promoted virginity worship, and condemned women as Eve’s sinful heirs. However, this is when the idea of romantic or “court” love was born.
In the third installment (Faith), the paranormal takes center stage. The dead shared the world with the living in the Middle Ages: cults of saints, encounters with the dead, and visions of the afterlife are seen as evidence of the interrelationships between the present and the afterlife.
In the final show (Power), Professor Bartlett exposes the brutal framework of the medieval class system. Inequality was part of the natural order: serfs did not live much better than beasts, and knightly codes of chivalry were based more on caste solidarity than morality. The class you were born into defines who you are.
