R.H.C. Davis > Quotes

“If challenged as to the truth of these statements he would probably have replied that they were certainly true because he had read them in a book; and if by any chance he had subsequently seen an elephant he would probably have said that it was not a ‘real’ elephant, since ‘real’ elephants had no knees. This uncritical adoration of book-learning was one of the most significant features of the so-called ‘Dark Ages’. There is a popular fallacy that the cause of the Dark Ages was the fact that the barbarians destroyed the civilization which they found, burning cities, breaking statues, and casting works of classical authors to the flames. In point of fact, the men who ushered in the Dark Ages were men like Theodoric and Cassiodorus, who were intent on restoring the cities, preserving the statues, and transcribing the classics. Their adoration of the ancient world was matched only by their inability to understand it, for by the time that they were born, classical culture was already dead.”
― R.H.C. Davis, A History of Medieval Europe: From Constantine to Saint Louis

“It is often hard for an irreligious age to recognize that religion has in fact been capable of dividing men as effectually as political doctrine or economic status, but unless the fact is recognized the history of the Middle Ages will remain a meaningless labyrinth”
― R.H.C. Davis, A History of Medieval Europe: From Constantine to Saint Louis