Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1898-05-31
THE WORD "MEDIAEVAL."

What is it to be .'mediaeval?" In
what sense do the Spanish people de-
serve an epithet so often flung at them
in these days? If the word is simply
used as an equivalent for "antiquated'
CT ''unprogressiye" it certainly has
some measure of propriety. Spain is
behind the times 1t has fallen
short Of it's opportunities; instead of
being an instance of national growth
it is an instance OF national decay But
does this make it 'mediaevaI?" Is the
Spanish spirit really the spirit of the
middle ages. And was not medieval
Spain the greatest power ia the world !?
We fear that those who fling about
the adjective SO recklessly do not
know what the middle ages were
Scholars long ago got over the habit
of calling them dark" We suspect
that they might be brighter still were
it not for defects in our own vision
At all events good many things were
done in the world between the fifth
and fifteenth centuries of which the
human race has no reason to be
ashamed. People then did not know
all that we do, of course; but in their
limited way they were intelligent and
progressive. To speak of whatever is
reactionary as medieval, therefore, is
to be guilty of a contradiction in terms
The reactionary tendencies which have
injured Spain are the product of COM
,paratiVely recent times, of events fol-
Flowing the Counter-Reformation
which was not medieval at all.
s Let us glance for a moment at a few
of the things which our benighted
nj di q IL ch
Their greatest achievement, political
1y speaking, was the founding and de-
yelopment of the Holy Roman empire.
1t had not in itself, indeed. the quality
or permanence. But at least it did its
work before it disappeared. The ex
altation of the imperial power was the
one thing needed in the building up Of
a new civilization on the ruins of the
old The Holy Roman empire con-
tinued the work begun by Karl the
Great Under Otto the Germans be-
came not only an united nation but
were exalted as the possessors OF
Rome's name and power. Closely con-
pected with this consolidation of po-
litieal power was the rapidly increas-
ing authority Of the church. And this
authority manifested itself both in a
temporal and in spiritual aspect. The
church was not only great ecclesias
teal organization before which the
secular power trembled; it also held in
trust the doctrine which was utterly
changing the whole conception of the
meaning Of human life. The existence
of the brotherhood of man is not a
modern discovery. And the apparent
intellectual retrogression of the mid
die ages was in reality an evidence OF
progress. eff we consider carefully
observes BoSanQuet, that the Chris
tan humanistic spirit held itself as
charged from the first with the desti-
MES of the il1iterate and half-heather
masses of the European peoples, where
as neither in Greece nor in the Roman
empire was civilization intended fol
more than a third or fourth part o.
the inhabitants of their territories, VIZ
shall not be surprised at an apparen
fall of intellectual level, which reall.
meant the beginning of a universe
rise hitherto unknown in the histor.
of the world" In other words, wha
we call the darkness of mediaeva
times constituted the true preparation
for the light of our own.
But the positive achievements of tn
middle ages were not exactly despica
ble Then was the building time o
the world, when castles and cathed
rails. of an architectural splendor whicl
today we are vainly trying to imitat
rose on every hand. From CONSTANT
nople to Edinburgh this manifestation
of constructive intelligence was felt
The church of St. Martin at Canter
bury antedates the coming of the Nor