The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-09-04
The MIDDLE ACES
REAL GENIUS AND WEALTH OF
THOUGHT OF THE MEDIAEVAL
WORLD is NOT APPRECIATED.


WORLD is NOT APPRECIATED.
The revival of interest in the Mid
die Ages, which has been gathering
strength for some years past, is one
of the signs that the thinking world
is returning to more Catholic frame
of mind, writes Father Cuthbert, o. S.
F. c., in Ave Maria There are in
deed still those who talk of the Dark
Ages as comprising the whole Medi-
aeval period, but they are happily be-
coming fewer every year. The sur
prising thing is that men who had
before their eyes the splendid crea-
tions of Gothic architecture, could
ever have imagined that the thir-
teenth and fourteenth centuries be-
longed to an age lacking artistic in
SEPARATION and clear, vital thought.
Had they but paused to think of the
soul-conditions requisite for noble art
of any sort, they must have acknowl-
edged that the men who reared such
gracious and majestic buildings, and
the people who could appreciate them,
were not without that highly trained
artistic sense which is the bloom of
the cultured mind. The truth is that
the Middle Ages have been Ozark
Ages" to the modern world, not be-
cause the Medieval people them
selves were lost in darkness, but be-
cause those who followed them had
not the insight to perceive the real
genius and wealth of thought of the
Medieval world: and in their blind
ness forgot what had been built up
before them.
Today, after four centuries of me
elect, the life and thought of the Mid
die Ages is again meeting with some
measure of recognition and apprecia-
ton. ST. Thomas Aquinas is thought
worthy of serious study by those who
would trace the history OF, philosophic
thought; st. FrancisUof Assist is one
of "the saints of humanity" Mediae
wal romances are deemed worthy of
being translated into modern Ian
guage and given place in "the
worlds classics" the political and So
cial conditions of the Middle Ages are
discussed with sympathetic discrim-
ination; quite recently a statue of
Roger Bacon was placed in the Nat
ural History Museum at Oxford side
by side with Francis Bacon and OAR
win. n,
All this is so much to the good But
the time has surely come when Catho-
lies themselves should take up the
study of Medieval life and thought
more generally than has hitherto been
the case. Most of the work hitherto
done in bringing to light and popular
Iizing the riches of the Medieval
spirit has been done by non-Catho-
lies, especially in the English-speak-
ing countries. Now, no non-Catholic,
however sympathetically inclined, can
enter fully into the spirit of the Mid
die Ages, nor understand it's Ian
guage; the reason is he lacks that
inner sense which comes only with
the religious Faith which permeated
and inspired the Medieval genius.
The life of the Middle Ages, intel
lectual, social, and political, was satu-
rated with the instinct and idealism
of the Catholic Faith. Any non-Cath-
Ollie coming to it, comes as stranger
whose innermost habit of thought is
Ialien to the spirit of the subject he
would understand; and hence, how
L o. in W
be in the matter of editing Mediae-
val text or unraveling the mere data
| of Medieval history, when it comes
to Interpretation or even translation,
he invariably falls short because he is
wanting in the religious insight which
is necessary for any adequate exposi-
ton of the Middle Ages.
/ The Medieval mind can be fully ap-
preciated and expounded only by the
Catholic mind. For this reason the
revival of interest in the Middle Ages
among Catholics, surely imposes
upon Catholics the duty of throwing
themselves into the study of Mediae-
valism, that they may interpret 1t
/ Alright; the more so since this revival
of interest is not merely academic.
1t is sometimes said that the pres
ent attraction of the non Catholic
world to Medieval subjects is mainly
Ian aesthetic and intellectual attrac-
ton; but this is but a partial truth
even when it is not an entire misrep-
resentation. With the majority of
those who are attracted to Medieval
ism today, apart from the aesthetic
pleasure they find in Medieval art
and literature, or the intellectual in
terest they discover in Medieval life
and thought, there is practical pur-
pose. They feel the moral and phil
osophic bankruptcy of modern thought
The loss of spiritual idealism which
has resulted from the materialist tenn
per of modern life; and they turn to
the Middle Ages in the hope of finding
something which will reViVify the
modern world morally and spiritually.
That is where the Catholic expos
itors of Medieval history and liter
ature, of Medieval art and thought,
comes in with the sanctity of true
lapostolate upon his labors. In open
ling out the thought and life of the
Middle Ages to the understanding Of