REFUTATION OF REVOLUTIONARY MYTHS ABOUT THE MIDDLE AGES Based on Papal Documents, Modern Authors, and Documents of the Time
FIRST MYTH
A society conceived according to Catholic principles is a utopia.
REFUTATION
Christian Civilization existed. This is attested by papal documents, medieval documents and scholarly studies by contemporary authors, in addition to the indestructible cultural legacy whose influence we still receive today.
DOCUMENTATION
About alleged failures of the Middle Ages, Pope Leo XIII eloquently wrote: “There was a time when the philosophy of the Gospel governed the states. In that epoch, the influence of Christian wisdom and its divine virtue permeated the laws, institutions, and customs of the peoples, all categories and all relations of civil society. Then the religion instituted by Jesus Christ, solidly established in the degree of dignity due to it, flourished everywhere thanks to the favor of princes and the legitimate protection of magistrates. Then the Priesthood and the Empire were united in a happy concord and by the friendly interchange of good offices. So organized, civil society gave fruits superior to all expectations, whose memory subsists and will subsist, registered as it is in innumerable documents that no artifice of the adversaries can destroy or obscure” (Encyclical Immortale Dei, 11-1-1885).
Thus, Christian Civilization is not a utopia. It is something attainable and which was actually realized at a certain epoch. Somehow it lasted even after the Middle Ages, to the point that Pope St. Pius X wrote: “No, civilization is not something yet to be found, nor is the New City to be built on hazy notions; it has been in existence and still is: it is Christian civilization, it is the Catholic City. It has only to be set up and restored continually against the unremitting attacks of insane dreamers, rebels and miscreants. OMNIA INSTAURARE IN CHRISTO” (Apostolic Letter Notre Charge Apostolique).
On refuting the myths below we will quote documentation from the Middle Ages and from contemporary authors, clearly attesting that the Middle Ages was the Christian Era of which the popes speak.
SECOND MYTH
The socioeconomic regime in the Middle Ages was one of oppression. The lord would exploit his vassal, who in turn would exploit those inferior to him. The basis for this oppression was the medieval bond. Inferiors obeyed only out of fear. Therefore, it was a hateful state of affairs, a caldron of oppression and scorn.
REFUTATION
The Middle Ages was an epoch of social harmony, because men based their relationships on the protection-service bond. There was a whole gamut of mutual respect and esteem. Therefore, it was a just and desirable order of things.
DOCUMENTATION
1 – Medieval documents show there was harmony between lord and vassal
POEM OF “EL CID” (circa 1300, text established by Ramón Menendez Pidal, 1969 Edition):
El Cid thinks about sleeping at a certain place tells his vassals: “He told everyone where he intended to spend the night; and all of them, good vassals, accepted gladly; they are ready to proceed as the lord commands.”
“My Cid, Rodrigo Diaz, has sold Alcazar and thus paid his vassals, who followed him in combat. The same he paid to knights and pages, making them rich; not one of those who served him was left in poverty; he who serves a good lord always lives in paradise.”
El Cid expounds to his knights his battle plan to defend Valencia: “Hear me, my knights: … Be armed and ready around dawn; Bishop Jeronimo will give you absolution; after hearing Mass we will be ready to ride and attack in the name of Santiago and of our heavenly Lord. We had better defeat them lest they take our bread. And everyone said: ‘With love and good will.’”
CHANSON DE ROLAND (the most famous medieval epic poem, circa 1090-1180):
In the battle of Roncevaux, Roland encourages his warriors to fight: “Everyone must bear great evils for his lord, extreme cold and heat and lose flesh and blood. Each strikes with his lance and I with my good sword Durendal, which the King gave me. If I should here die, may people in the future say that it belonged to a noble vassal.”
Archbishop Turpin, peer of Charlemagne: “On the other side is Archbishop Turpin. He spurs his horse and rides up a hill. He calls the French and proclaims: ‘Lord barons, Charles has placed us here. We must die well for our King.”
When a Sarracen offends Charlemagne saying he is not a good lord, Roland replies, before killing him: “Vile pagan, thou liest! Charles, my lord, always protects us.”
Charlemagne weeps upon finding his favorite knight, Roland, dead on the battlefield: “Roland my friend, God has taken thee… Never before was a combative warrior like thee seen on earth. My honor is profoundly hurt. Friend Roland, may God place your soul among the flowers of paradise, among the glorious ones! Never again will my honor have support; not one friend, I believe, have I left on earth; if I have relatives, none is so brave… Who will guide my armies so vigorously when he who was always their chief is dead? O France, how deserted thou hast become! My mourning is so great I wish I no longer existed. Roland, he who has killed you has devastated France … So great is my mourning for the knights who die for me that I would no longer want to live.”
Charlemagne calls on the Franks to revenge their trampled rights: “Barons, I love you and have faith in you. For me you waged so many battles, conquered so many kingdoms and overthrew so many kings. I know I must thank you with my life, land and riches. Revenge your children, your brethren and heirs who perished that night at Roncevaux. You well know that against Pagans, the law is on my side.”
2 – Modern authors
“The medieval image of poverty, royalty and divine will are illustrated in a Life of Edward, the Confessor, from the 13th century. This story narrates that ‘Gill Michael,’ a paralytic Englishman, went to Rome searching for a remedy. [The successor of] Saint Peter told him he would be healed if King Edward of England were to take him on his back from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey. The virtuous monarch consented. Along the way, the paralytic felt like ‘his nerves were loosening up and his legs stretching.’ Although blood ran from his wounds down the royal garments, the king took him all the way to the abbey’s altar. There he was cured, began to walk and hung up his crutches as a souvenir of the miracle” (Chr. Brooke, professor of medieval history at the University of Liverpool, in “La Baja Edad Media“, Ed. Labor, Barcelona, 1968, p. 32).
“And since the notions of weakness and power are always relative, in many cases man makes himself dependent on a stronger man, a protector of the more humble. Thus begins a vast system of personal and intertwined relationships running throughout the fabric of society” (Marc Bloch, professor at the University of Sorbonne, in La Société Féodale, Ed. Albin Michel, Paris, 1970, p. 213).
“Royal prestige is very much alive. Deep in the most distant glens, peasants know the king exists… anointed with sacred oils, consecrated… and in charge of maintaining peace and justice in the whole territory of the kingdom” (Georges Duby, great modern historian, in Histoire de la Civilisation Française, Spanish translation, Fundo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 1958, p. 20).
“A proscribed man in England between 925 and 935 had no lord? If he should find himself in such a bleak situation, subject to legal sanctions, his family has to designate a lord for him. If they are unwilling or unable to do so, he will be considered an outlaw who can be killed like a bandit by anyone who sees him” (Marc Bloch, op. cit., p. 259).
THIRD MYTH
The Church is the opium of the people. She maintained the feudal regime to enjoy petty advantages.
REFUTATION
The Church converted the barbarians and through the action of grace, gradually infused in them the supernatural principles whereby each person occupies the place due to him in the social hierarchy. At the same time, she preached charity to the strong and submission to the humble.
DOCUMENTATION
1 – Medieval vassalage, considered highly virtuous, was welcomed by the Church.
“Replacing the ancient, extended hands position of people in prayer, the position of hands together imitating the commendise (ceremony in which the vassal pledged allegiance or paid ‘homage’ to his suzerain) becomes the gesture of prayer par excellence in the whole Catholic world” (Marc Bloch, op. cit. p. 328).
“Current language will end up by naming “vassalage” the most beautiful virtue that a society perpetually in arms could recognize, that is, braveness” (Marc Bloch, op. cit. p. 231).
2 – The Church gradually eliminated the remnants of barbarianism that gave medieval men a highly bellicose nature.
“Church leaders wanted the peace of God to reign on earth. The movement, which started in the early 11th century, aimed at curtailing violence.”
“In order to eliminate fratricidal wars among Christians, churches and their adjacent plots were placed under protection; later, likewise, some days of the week were consecrated to prayer or penance, like liturgical dates or Lent; clerics and all those who were harmless and vulnerable; shopkeepers and the whole crowd of peasants [were protected].”
“Encouraged by the bishops, knights would swear upon relics to respect Church regulations on private war and deny their friendship to, and persecute, those who violate them” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 57).
3 – To be recognized, a nobleman should be capable of great virtues
“A prince makes grants and donates rings to his subjects; a nobleman must be clement, that is to say, a friend of giving” (Prof. Friedrich Herr, Vienna, in Historia de la Civilización Occidental, Ed. Labor, Barcelona, 1966, p. 112).
“At that time, to give presents was an essential gesture: a noble is one who gives to his friends” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 16).
FOURTH MYTH
In the Middle Ages there was slavery. What at that time was called “serf,” was the same as a slave.
REFUTATION
Under the sign of Christianity the Middle Ages attenuated more and more the idea of slavery under Roman Law; and at the end of that epoch there was practically no longer any form of slavery. Before the Middle Ages, all peoples admitted the most complete slavery.
DOCUMENTATION
1 – Meaning of the term “serf”
“In the Middle Ages the word ‘serf’ did not have its current meaning. ‘Serve,’ ‘help’ or ‘protect’ are very simple terms which the most ancient texts would employ to summarize the mutual obligations between a vassal and his chief. The bond that united them was never as strong as at that time, when its effects were expressed in the vaguest and, consequently, most comprehensive meaning” (Marc Bloch, op. cit., p. 309).
“The term ‘serf’ continued to be current but came to designate something else: serf was someone’s ‘man,’ that is, his vassal” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 43).
“The slaves or serfs, as common dialects would call them, are only a minority among the peasants around the year 1000” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 16).
“A free peasant would often voluntarily place himself in the hands of a lord … with the only aim of obtaining juridical and economic protection from him and thus enjoying greater security. This process continued over the following centuries” (Gerd Betz, professor at Brunswick, in Historia de la Civilización Occidental, Ed. Labor, Barcelona, 1966, p. 147).
“The seeming omnipotence of the feudal lord had a limit: custom, that is, the ensemble of old usages recorded in collective memory. That was a fluid law because it was not set by a written text; it was known by asking the elders of the people, but in spite of that it imposed itself on everyone as an untouchable legislation” (Georges Duby, Histoire de la Civilization Française, p. 41).
2 – In Christendom, the Church eliminated pagan slavery
Let us begin with an interesting distinction by Paul Allard. There were two types of slavery: of persons and of work. According to this author, the abolition of personal slavery was already a job “almost entirely finished, or at least entirely prepared, before the second half of the 6th century,” that is, the beginning of the Middle Ages.
“Only one thing was left from slavery: the obligation to work for others. But little by little that obligation was also transformed into a fixed rule: the serf became lord of his work on condition of giving up part of his gain to the benefit of his lord. That transformation did not take place in a uniform way: in some places it came quickly and appears to be already in place by the 5th century; in other places, one cannot mention it with certainty before the 11th or 12th century… One also finds (in Italy and Spain) the presence of some slaves after the 14th century; but those are exceptional and isolated facts that do not contradict the general results we have expounded” (Paul Allard, Gli Schiavi Cristiani, Libreria Editrice Fiorentina, 1916).
For his book, Paul Allard received from Msgr. Nocelle the following letter, written by order of Pius IX: “Among the numerous benefits that human societies have received from the Catholic Religion, it is just to cite the transformations she brought to the unfortunate condition of the slaves, which because of her influence was first mitigated and then, little by little, destroyed and abolished. And this is why H.H. Pius IX was pleased to see that in your book on Christian Slaves, you brought to light this great event and gave the Church the praise due to her on this account.”
“After the year one thousand, medieval France – except for her southern borders, in contact with Islam, where pirate-fed slave trade survived throughout the Middle Ages – no longer knew servitude in the ancient fashion, which reduced men to the condition of animals” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 42).
“It is indisputable that the dissemination of Christian conceptions… caused the family rights of the serfs to be recognized” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 16).
“Care for salvation, particularly acute as death approached, would incline [the lords] to listen to the voice of the Church which, while not raising up against servitude as such, turned the freeing of Christian slaves into a work of piety par excellence” (Marc Bloch, La Société Féodale, p. 360).
3 – Manual labor was highly dignified
“On the other hand, much more value is attached to manual labor because of the religious orientation imparted by Christianity. From Saint Benedict of Nursia onward, manual work has been an essential element of monastic rules” (Friedrich Heer, in Historia de la Cultura Occidental, p. 114).
FIFTH MYTH
The Middle Ages was a dark ages, a “night of one thousand years” in which culture disappeared.
REFUTATION
The Middle Ages was a time of great cultural progress. The great books and works of art which remain unequalled to this day, attest to that fact.
DOCUMENTATION
1 – General Progress
“Accelerated progress began in the second third of the 11th century. Everything was in fermentation; there was a somewhat disorderly blossoming with creative audacity that set the tone in the 12th century. From a 12th century that in my view begins in 1070 and ends around 1180, and whose threshold was the Trinity Abbey church of Caen and finally the choir of Notre Dame of Paris, they were admirable stones one thousand years old. That century made the author of the [Song of] Roland conclude with the death of Chrétien de Troyes and the birth of Francis of Assisi. The century of Abelard and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The great 12th century, the most fecund of the Middle Ages” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 63).
“At his court in Aachen, Charlemagne founded the Scholla Palatina and participated in it himself as a student. In the year 787 he ordered schools installed in all monasteries and chapters. Later, that measure was amplified” (Friedrich Heer, op. cit., p. 117).
“Medieval monastic schools are the basis and origin of all schools in the West, particularly university and superior schools.” And the author cites the main universities of the time, their date of foundation and specialty: Sorbonne, Paris (1256, theology), Bologna (11th century, jurisprudence), Salerno (medicine). (Gerd Betz, Historia de la Civilización Occidental, Ed. Labor, Barcelona, 1966, pp. 153, 154).
“With Charlemagne and his successors, the monasteries had attained a unique position of intellectual, spiritual and artistic predominance. They were the only ones that formed teachers, writers and diplomats; they were the only ones that fed erudition and preserved intact not only the texts of the Bible and the first Fathers [of the Church] but also great part of the culture of the classic world” (George Zarnecki, professor of the history of art at the University of London, “La Apostación de las Ordenes,” in La Baja Edad Media, Ed. Labor, Barcelona, 1968, p. 63).
3 – The first hospitals appeared in the Middle Ages
Among other things, the Middle Ages was characterized by “… the appearance of hospitals, which acquired their present function with the foundation of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (now Order of Malta) in 1099” (Friedrich Heer, “Wachau”, in Historia de la Cultura Occidental, ed. Labor, 1966, p. 193).
Development of music
“Pope St. Gregory the Great gave Roman ecclesiastical chants their definitive form and ordination (circa 600). In the 8th century the Anglo-Saxon Boniface (672-674) and Pepin III (714-768) introduced choral Gregorian chant into convents; its continuity was assured with the Schola Cantorum of Metz” (Friedrich Heer, op. cit., p. 123).
“The instruments of the Carolingian age are: portable organ, flutes, harmonicas, ‘chirimias,’ trumpets and clarions; the lyre, cither and harp; cymbals, plates and kettledrums. From 860 onward a small chorded instrument was also introduced, the viella” (Friedrich Heer, op. cit., p. 123).
SIXTH MYTH
In the Middle Ages, science was stagnated and there was no technological progress.
REFUTATION
The Middle Ages saw remarkable scientific flourishing and technological progress.
DOCUMENTATION
1 – Technical knowledge in general
The manual titled Schedula diversarum artium (11th century), by the monk Theophilus Presbyterus, records important inventions and technological knowledge in paint preparation, painting, metalworks, the production of crystal and stainglass windows, organ construction, and works with ivory, precious stones and pearls.
The Hortus deliciarum by Abbess Herrad of Landsberg (1160) contains numerous descriptions of the whole technological apparatus that made it possible to build the magnificent cathedrals.
Here are a few progresses of the time: Windmills, hydraulic wheels, bell forging and casting, clock-making; clocks with mobile figures; the spinning-wheel, mineral coal and its utilization in forges, coal mining in England and in the Ruhr valley (Germany); automatic saw mill run by water current (Cf. Gerd Betz, Historia de la Civilización Occidental, p. 150).
2 – Chemical discoveries during the Middle Ages
Wine-distilled alcohol was already in production before the year 1000. The 12th and 13th centuries saw the discovery of ammonia, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and aluminum. These elements brought great advances in the production of alcoholic extracts, inks, dyes, polishes, production of crystals in color (Cf. Friedrich Heer, Historia de la Civilización Occidental, p. 183).
“The reason for this technological evolution is found in the human tendency toward an activity related with nature and conditioned by religious piety, with the consequent affirmation of manual work and the disappearance of the old forms of slavery” (Friedrich Heer, op. cit., p. 115).
3 – Other important innovations
“Animal work, until then poorly taken advantage of, is developed as never before through a series of inventions. For example, the use of head harnesses for horses multiplied their force of traction by four” (Friedrich Heer, op. cit., p. 115).
“Stone building, the greatest technical revolution in architecture, whose importance has been felt for a thousand years, gained ground since the time of Charlemagne” (Friedrich Heer, op. cit., p. 112).
“At the time of Saint Francis, mercantile activity promoted prosperity in Europe and developed the capacity of cities in every sense” (Christopher Brooke, professor of medieval history at the University of Liverpool, “Estructura de la Sociedad Medieval,” in La Baja Edad Media, ed. Labor, Barcelona, 1968, p. 39).
“The year 1000 saw the beginning of grain-processing water mills built by the lords, a considerable improvement that saves much of the time employed crushing the wheat between the stones” (Georges Duby, Historia de la Civilización Francesa, p. 15).
4 – Agricultural transformation changes the face of Europe
“The agricultural expansion of the 11th and 12th centuries appears to have been the only great rejuvenation experienced by French lands from the Neolithic period until the ‘agricultural revolution’ of modern times” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 63).
The cultivation of vineyards in France, Austria and the Rhein and Moselle regions is owed to a huge extent to the monks. Until the 19th century and almost until now many rural properties have been exploited according to the principles established by medieval monks (Gerd Bertz, in Historia de la Civilización Occidental, p. 143).
“The fields of the Abbey of Cluny, the cutting edge of progress in the mid 12th century, yielded harvests six times larger than grains sowed in the best plots… It was a fundamental renewal that profoundly modified all ways of living, for it enabled the peasant to harvest more food from less land and with less effort while employing the same amount of time” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 66).
“Between the year 1000 and close to the 12th century, this prodigious effort of innumerable strikes of axes and hoes by generations of pioneers, building dams against flooding, burning weeds, clearing bushes, and planting all those new vineyards gave the landscape of France a new physiognomy – the one we know” (Georges Duby, op. cit., p. 70).
