Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-05-18
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE.
A Paper Read Before the Pitts
burg WOmen's Club by Mrs.
Helen z. Jenkins.

No period of the worlds history is
richer in interest and significance than
the Middle or Dark Ages. The sFr-
prising revelations of human nature,
the strong contrasting colors of insti-
tutions which appeared and then van
ished from the world forever, make it
to the student Of history an epoch
of pee liar interest. The literary
characteristics of this period are not
less striking than the religious and
political, and to great extent are
linked with them.
What we are most familier with as
literature the. poetry, history, fiction,
science, philosophy, which the world
is reading to-day-lies this side the
medieval period and within the last few
centuries In the remote distance. be-
yond the blue atmosphere of many CEN
turies lie the classic literatures OF
Rome and Greece, hut between that
blossoming and the fresh fields around
us is broad literary desert.
Gibbon says '.In the revolution of
ten centuries not single discovery
was made to exalt the dignity or pro-
mote the happiness Of mankind, hot a
single idea was added to the specala-
tive systems Of antiquity. Not COM
position of history, philosophy, or
literature has beel saved from oblivion
by the Intrinsic beauties of style Or
sentiment OF original fancy, or even
of successful imitation -
Yet this long night was not dis
NAL. silent, meaningless night. Euro
pc was filled with the glow Of romance.
Light streamed through the darkness,
from monasteries, where monks In holy
seclusion were patiently copying man
uscripts and illuminating nlissals. The
sound of convent bells. the twang Of
the minstrel's harp, and his weird song
broke the silence, and from the warm
south came the tender love-songs Of
the Troubadours- the serenaders in
this medieval night; while everywhere,
in monasteries and churches. in palac-
es and huts, were whispered the mar
velous legends OF the saints, Beauti-
full Gothic cathedrals appeared, and
music filled their dusky arches. Loom
ing up against the dark sky were, bat
Elements, turrets and towers of feudal
castles, from whose halls came sounds
of revelry and riot, or the fierce COM
mands to arm for combat.
The CLEAN of armor and the chant
of lowly pilgrim marked the process of
the crusaders as they wended their way
down through Europe in search of the
Holy Sepulchre and the wicked Sara
cen Throughout the darkness rang
the clash of arms as knights errant
met their adversaries and laid them in
the dust In the gray of the morning
there were jousts and Journeys, and the
beauty and brightness of chivalry. 1t
was a night Of political and religious
tyranny; Of fanaticism Of intellect
ual darkness.
The only literature which this long
period gave to the world may be found
In the songs and romances of the Trou-
badours and the lives and legends Of
the saints. There was no science, no
philosophy, no history. 1t was an age
of intellectual barbarism and supersti-
ton Superstition sneers at investlga-
ton 1t hates and fears science even
to-day. in those days it hated it with
ferocity. Every doubt and reasoning
was branded as impious. The phil
osophers of the grand old Greeks were
buried, and superstition trampled upon
their graves. Roger Bacon, though
a brother monk, was hated, feared and
imprisoned because he reached his
hand toward science.
There was no reliable history, for
there was little conscientiousness and
no large interest in human experience.
Hallam says: "Not only had all Sc
cular knowledge about disappeared,
but the thought of poSterity seems to
have vanished from the world"
The most direct cause of this long
lUUCleCGudI HISIlb uouUlICso mdS Viz III
yasion of the barbarous races of Europe
and their establishment upon the ruins
of the Roman empire. Intellectual
vigog aud literary taste had declined
during the last days of the empire,
but the final crushing blow came when
those rude races, unused to art, I'M
trained in intellect, caring only for con-
quest, poured in upon beautiful South
ern Europe, destroying cities, temples,
libraries, thr'lsting, their barbarous
tastes. customs and languages upon a
civilization which, corrupt as it may
have been, was the finest in the world.
Doubtless barbarism is in some respects
superior to corrupt civilization, but in
this case it was nearly fatal to letters
and learning. That after this revolu-
ton centuries should pass without any
additions to the literary wealth of the