God as the Ultimate Authority in the World

The medieval mind and period is often thought of and portrayed as a period of intellectual stagnation. It may be true that not many new ideas or movements had been produced or proposed in philosophy and science, yet the medieval mind followed different guidelines and had different objectives.

One of the most fascinating features was the attempt to unify all knowledge into an all-embracing synthesis; a quest for universal truth that would explain and define the physical world in the light of God. Everything that happened in the world was seen as a symbol that one ought to decipher in order to understand the heavenly realms, a practice called hermeneutics. The medieval mind wanted to sharpen and develop their senses to be able to perceive and appreciate the invisible works of God.

Plato was of foremost importance with his idealistic philosophy that all that exists can be traced back to its perfect form in the Heavenly realms. He was mostly inspired by mathematics, which he considered a language of exactitude and perfection. In mathematics one can make true general statements and draw conclusions that apply to all geometrical figures at all times. Such a theorem or equation was sought in human affairs as well.

Commentaries to Illuminate on Philosophical Works

Since God’s truth was what mattered most, it did not come down to individual human perspective or thought. That was one of the reasons why it was common practice to add commentaries to ancient texts. There was no separation of who contributed to the text or which parts were authentic and written by its original author.

In fact, the ultimate Author would be God and everything had its raison d’être, its reason for existence, through the Almighty. The medieval people could at best provide observations that would ideally point towards divine truth and most of the works of the period were of moral and religious nature.

Works, Intellectual Property and Copyrights in the Modern World

It was only through the more human-centered period of the Renaissance where scholars edited the classical works and separated the text from the commentary. With this method forgeries were discovered and eliminated from the canon. This came about with the rise of individuality through Shakespeare’s works, for instance. In the Middle Ages, individuality was usually frowned upon and started as a movement in popular culture, while copyrights did not become an issue until the appearance of the printing press in the 15th century.

Today we are immersed in the cult of the self and individuality, and have laws to protect our intellectual property rights. We also tend to revere the great authors but extract all that was not originally written by that person. In many cases scholars and experts scrutinize so-called discovered works or paintings by famous artists to ensure that they are not elaborate scams or forgeries. Nonetheless, to the medieval mind it would have been the work itself that mattered. As long as it shed light on God’s work it was embraced, no matter who had written or produced it.

Medieval Manuscript

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