Though I have not posted for a while, I am still reading Will Durant, almost daily, usually for about 45 minutes a crack.
Right now I am over two thirds of the way through The Age Of Faith and have just almost finished the chapter titled “Pre-Renaissance Italy.” We’ve walked though he history of Northern Europe to about 1400 A.D., visited Spain and its struggles with the Moors, watched the unification of France, and followed the various tribulations of the English, the Irish, and the Scots.
Rather than reiterate these histories, I thought I’d just point out some humorous or pertinent passages.
Right now I am over two thirds of the way through The Age Of Faith and have just almost finished the chapter titled “Pre-Renaissance Italy.” We’ve walked though he history of Northern Europe to about 1400 A.D., visited Spain and its struggles with the Moors, watched the unification of France, and followed the various tribulations of the English, the Irish, and the Scots.
Rather than reiterate these histories, I thought I’d just point out some humorous or pertinent passages.
On page 557, we learn that the “food of the peasant was substantial and wholesome…but genteel historians mourn that he had to eat black—i.e. whole grain—bread.” Ahhh, the whole grains movement of 1000 A.D.
“In 1127 a knight named Guy was accused by another named Hermann of complicity in the assassination Charles the Good of Flanders…Hermann challenged him to a judicial duel…they passed from fencing to wrestling, and Hermann demonstrated the justice of his charge by tearing Guy’s testicles from his body; whereupon Guy expired.” Ouch.
“History is inflationary.” Yep. In 1951, the year I entered the mystery of the world, a movie ticket cost 65 cents, gas was 19 cents a gallon, and a postage stamp was 3 cents. On the other hand, the average income was $3, 515.00 per year.
Philip I of France divorced his wife and persuaded Count Fulk of Anjou to cede to him his wife. Philip was excommunicated for this act, and though he gave up Bertrade for a while, “…he repented his repentance, and resumed his Queen. She traveled with him to Anjou, taught her two husbands amity, and seems to have served both of them to the best of her charms.” Ahhh, the French.
“Louis VII was a man of whom Eleanor of Aquitaine said that she had married a king only to find him a monk. He labored conscientiously at his royal task, but his virtues ruined him. His devotion to government appeared to Eleanor as marital neglect; his patience with her amours added insult to negligence; she divorced him, and gave her hand her duchy of Aquitaine to Henry II of England.” Ahhh, the French.
In Portugal in the early fourteenth century, King Diniz, husband to Isabel and philander to many, faced rebellion from his one legitimate son. “When this son rebelled and raised an army to unseat his father, St. Isabel, who had lived apart from the merry court of the King, rode between the hostile forces, proposed to be the first victim of their violence, and shamed her husband her son to peace.” Isabel: The Wonder Woman of her time and place.
“Faith declines as wealth increases.” That pithy statement is a book in and of itself.
So many of the monarchs of this period die of dysentery. If you want to see a fine film about a relatively modern dysentery/cholera epidemic, watch The Painted Veil.
In his conclusion to “Pre-Renaissance Italy,” Durant writes
"Here and there, in this ferment, teachers maneuvered with desperate patience to insert instruction into reluctant youth; prostitutes eased the tumescence of imaginative men; poets distilled their foiled desire into compensatory verse; artists hungered while seeking perfection; priests played politics and consoled the bereaved and the poor; and philosophers struggled through a labyrinth of myths toward a bright mirage of truth.”
Pray God that our age finds such a kind champion.
“In 1127 a knight named Guy was accused by another named Hermann of complicity in the assassination Charles the Good of Flanders…Hermann challenged him to a judicial duel…they passed from fencing to wrestling, and Hermann demonstrated the justice of his charge by tearing Guy’s testicles from his body; whereupon Guy expired.” Ouch.
“History is inflationary.” Yep. In 1951, the year I entered the mystery of the world, a movie ticket cost 65 cents, gas was 19 cents a gallon, and a postage stamp was 3 cents. On the other hand, the average income was $3, 515.00 per year.
Philip I of France divorced his wife and persuaded Count Fulk of Anjou to cede to him his wife. Philip was excommunicated for this act, and though he gave up Bertrade for a while, “…he repented his repentance, and resumed his Queen. She traveled with him to Anjou, taught her two husbands amity, and seems to have served both of them to the best of her charms.” Ahhh, the French.
“Louis VII was a man of whom Eleanor of Aquitaine said that she had married a king only to find him a monk. He labored conscientiously at his royal task, but his virtues ruined him. His devotion to government appeared to Eleanor as marital neglect; his patience with her amours added insult to negligence; she divorced him, and gave her hand her duchy of Aquitaine to Henry II of England.” Ahhh, the French.
In Portugal in the early fourteenth century, King Diniz, husband to Isabel and philander to many, faced rebellion from his one legitimate son. “When this son rebelled and raised an army to unseat his father, St. Isabel, who had lived apart from the merry court of the King, rode between the hostile forces, proposed to be the first victim of their violence, and shamed her husband her son to peace.” Isabel: The Wonder Woman of her time and place.
“Faith declines as wealth increases.” That pithy statement is a book in and of itself.
So many of the monarchs of this period die of dysentery. If you want to see a fine film about a relatively modern dysentery/cholera epidemic, watch The Painted Veil.
In his conclusion to “Pre-Renaissance Italy,” Durant writes
"Here and there, in this ferment, teachers maneuvered with desperate patience to insert instruction into reluctant youth; prostitutes eased the tumescence of imaginative men; poets distilled their foiled desire into compensatory verse; artists hungered while seeking perfection; priests played politics and consoled the bereaved and the poor; and philosophers struggled through a labyrinth of myths toward a bright mirage of truth.”
Pray God that our age finds such a kind champion.