Omaha daily bee., 1922-06-04
Contemp0raryHistorv
Prom the New York Times.

Prom the New York Times,
DO people nowadays read the ex-
ceilent Rollins Ancient History" as
our great.grandfathers and great
srandmothsrs used TO do; Did they
read II as a duty or as a pleasure
Did they find the old annals OF
"Pershee" and "Medee" con,empo-
rafy, as Benedetto croce tells us
every true history" is3 III con-
temporary history" he says. springs
straight from life. so does that his
tory which IL called non-contempo-
rary. for Il IN evident that only an
interest IN the life of the present
can move one 10 investigate past
facts. Therefore, this past fact does
not answer To a past interest. but n
present interest. In 80 far as II is uni
lied with nm interest In the present
life" Speaking unpl.ilosophically
that Is, you are interested In what
YOU are interested In; and history
becomes contemporary when II IN
made living and vivid.
Whether history be continuous, as
Mr., Freeman held, or discontinuous.
as Lord Acton seems TO have held. we
like to regard II as neither contempo-
rary nor non-contcmporafy as out
OF time, So Gibbons interminablc
procession Of bigwigs looks to some
eyes. George Trevelyan compares
''rhe Decline and Fall" to n friezc.
A peep at n Pompeian election post
er. even dip into Fricdlander's
Manners and Customs OF the Ro-
mans" gives one more contempt
yary" or temporal feeling. In such
book as "Mediaevai Contributions
to Modern Civilization" lectures by
experts of Kings college OF the Uni
versity OF London. the reader Is not
infrequently struck by the anticipa-
ton of later thoughts by some
medieval minds. Thus we are told.
on Lord Acton's authority. that "the
whlg theory OF the revolution may
be found in the works OF st. Thomas
Aquinas." Marsiglio OF Padua, In
the early 14th century. worked out
the doctrines OF "the sovereignty OF
the nation, representative govern
government. the superiority of the
legislature over the executive, and
the liberty OF conscience"
The most singular precursor OF
many modern theories and facts was
Norman lawyer. Pierre du Bois,
author of Latin pamphlet, "On the
Recovery OF the Holy Land" a piece
Of propaganda work for Philip the
Fair OF France. Besides church dis
endowment and the supreme author
ity OF the secular state, he urged
woman's enfranchisement and mixed
education, and:
international arbitration was to
decrease the horrors of war, and
educated women were to be sent to
the Holy Land in order to marry
and convert both the Saracens and
the priests Of the orthodox church,
and also to become trained nurses
and teachers. The whole spirit OF
the book is secular and modern.
Bishop Stubbs was wont to de-
clare that everything was in it, in
Guiding the new woman"
or the immense debt OF the mod
erns to medieval literature. art. re-
ligion. it would he "superfluous to
speak" The economic "contribu-
ton" is curiously modern. An ideal
izer of the middle ages like William
Morris found in them not only folk
craftsmanship" as the right condition
of art, but the notion of fellowship
and socialism. Mr.. G. D. H. Cole
and others get their greatly modified
guilds socialism, or. as Mr.. Harold
Laski calls it. "the plural state" from
the medieval guilds. The arts and
crafts movement, the revival of viii
lage industries, regulation or wages