Will Durant’s The Age of Faith is one of the longest of his volumes in The Story of Civilization. I was flying along the last week until I hit the section on the arts, and wonder why he devotes to many pages to Romanesque and Gothic churches. So my sprint has become a slog, but I am nearly on to other topics.
Durant is at his best in this part of his 1100 pages on the Middle Ages when he is looking at morals and manners. Here are some snippets from what he has to say about these items:
Durant is at his best in this part of his 1100 pages on the Middle Ages when he is looking at morals and manners. Here are some snippets from what he has to say about these items:
Carthusian and Cistercian nuns were required to keep silence except when speech was indispensible—a command sorely uncongenial to the gentle sex. (Ah, Will, our PC crowd would have burned you at the stake like St. Joan of Arc had you made this comment in 2018.)
Thousands of penitents of every age and class marched in disorderly procession, dressed only in loincloths, weeping, praying God for mercy, and scourging themselves with leather thongs. (This religious hysteria is from Northern Italy in 1259. Similar descriptions, sans God and penitents, attach themselves to San Francisco’s Pride Parade.)
Grace de Saleby, aged four, was married to a great noble who could preserve her rich estate; presently he died, and she was married at six to another great lord; at eleven she was married to a third. (Wow, talk about putting the kids to work early! None of these marriages was consummated, by the way.)
She (Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine) had been “’a bad wife, a bad mother, and a bad queen’; but who would think of her as belonging to a subject sex?” (Not me. Heck, she was married to two kings, helped create the medieval romances by her support of troubadours, took numerous lovers, headed out on a crusade, reared sons like Richard Coeur de Lion and King John, and raised hell wherever she went.)
In England and France all classes slept nude. (Sorry, Will, I’m not buying this one. When you are living in a drafty hut heated only by the cattle in the next room, or for that matter a drafty castle, you don’t sleep nude. Yeah, you have a footnote that refers to one author stating this “fact.” Love you, man, but no on this one.)
Apparently the game (English football)…”became so popular and violent in the thirteenth century that Edward II banned it as leading to breaches of the peace.” (English football hooligans still make headlines today. Plus sa change, plus c’est la meme chose.)
Those who cater to human vanity seldom starve. (Durant is speaking of the goldsmiths, jewelers, and tailors of the Middle Ages. True then, true today.)
Some ecclesiastical garments were so heavy with jewels, gold thread, and small enamel plaques that the priest so robed could hardly walk. (Imagine a toddler dressed to “play” in the snow, and I think we have the picture.)
The house of the people was the house of God. (Here Durant describes the medieval cathedral. It made me wonder what the “house of the people” is in the 21st century. MacDonald’s? WalMart? Somber images, but the good news is that these structures will eventually collapse as the cathedrals at Chartres and Durham. Out of sight, out of mind: thus may we be forgiven by descendants a thousand years from now for our shabby architecture.)
Enough for now.
Thousands of penitents of every age and class marched in disorderly procession, dressed only in loincloths, weeping, praying God for mercy, and scourging themselves with leather thongs. (This religious hysteria is from Northern Italy in 1259. Similar descriptions, sans God and penitents, attach themselves to San Francisco’s Pride Parade.)
Grace de Saleby, aged four, was married to a great noble who could preserve her rich estate; presently he died, and she was married at six to another great lord; at eleven she was married to a third. (Wow, talk about putting the kids to work early! None of these marriages was consummated, by the way.)
She (Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine) had been “’a bad wife, a bad mother, and a bad queen’; but who would think of her as belonging to a subject sex?” (Not me. Heck, she was married to two kings, helped create the medieval romances by her support of troubadours, took numerous lovers, headed out on a crusade, reared sons like Richard Coeur de Lion and King John, and raised hell wherever she went.)
In England and France all classes slept nude. (Sorry, Will, I’m not buying this one. When you are living in a drafty hut heated only by the cattle in the next room, or for that matter a drafty castle, you don’t sleep nude. Yeah, you have a footnote that refers to one author stating this “fact.” Love you, man, but no on this one.)
Apparently the game (English football)…”became so popular and violent in the thirteenth century that Edward II banned it as leading to breaches of the peace.” (English football hooligans still make headlines today. Plus sa change, plus c’est la meme chose.)
Those who cater to human vanity seldom starve. (Durant is speaking of the goldsmiths, jewelers, and tailors of the Middle Ages. True then, true today.)
Some ecclesiastical garments were so heavy with jewels, gold thread, and small enamel plaques that the priest so robed could hardly walk. (Imagine a toddler dressed to “play” in the snow, and I think we have the picture.)
The house of the people was the house of God. (Here Durant describes the medieval cathedral. It made me wonder what the “house of the people” is in the 21st century. MacDonald’s? WalMart? Somber images, but the good news is that these structures will eventually collapse as the cathedrals at Chartres and Durham. Out of sight, out of mind: thus may we be forgiven by descendants a thousand years from now for our shabby architecture.)
Enough for now.
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