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The Civilization of the Middle Ages
Now revised and expanded, this edition of the splendidly detailed and lively history of the Middle Ages contains more than 30 percent new material.
624 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
179 people are currently reading
4082 people want to read
About the author
Norman F. Cantor
54 books90 followersBorn in Winnipeg, Canada, Cantor received his B.A. at the University of Manitoba in 1951. He went on to get his master's degree in 1953 from Princeton University and spent a year as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. He received his doctorate from Princeton in 1957 under the direction of the eminent medievalist Joseph R. Strayer.
After teaching at Princeton, Cantor moved to Columbia University from 1960 to 1966. He was a Leff professor at Brandeis University until 1970 and then was at SUNY Binghamton until 1976, when he took a position at University of Illinois at Chicago for two years. He then went on to New York University, where he was professor of history, sociology and comparative literature. After a brief stint as Fulbright Professor at the Tel Aviv University History Department (1987–88), he devoted himself to working as a full-time writer.
Although his early work focused on English religious and intellectual history, Cantor's later scholarly interests were far more diverse, and he found more success writing for a popular audience than he did engaging in more narrowly-focused original research. He did publish one monograph study, based on his graduate thesis, Church, kingship, and lay investiture in England, 1089-1135, which appeared in 1958 and remains an important contribution to the topic of church-state relations in medieval England. Throughout his career, however, Cantor preferred to write on the broad contours of Western history, and on the history of academic medieval studies in Europe and North America, in particular the lives and careers of eminent medievalists. His books generally received mixed reviews in academic journals, but were often popular bestsellers, buoyed by Cantor's fluid, often colloquial, writing style and his lively critiques of persons and ideas, both past and present. Cantor was intellectually conservative and expressed deep skepticism about what he saw as methodological fads, particularly Marxism and postmodernism, but also argued for greater inclusion of women and minorities in traditional historical narratives. In both his best-selling Inventing the Middle Ages and his autobiography, Inventing Norman Cantor, he reflected on his strained relationship over the years with other historians and with academia in general.
Upon retirement in 1999, Cantor moved to Miami, Florida, where he continued to work on several books up to the time of his death.
After teaching at Princeton, Cantor moved to Columbia University from 1960 to 1966. He was a Leff professor at Brandeis University until 1970 and then was at SUNY Binghamton until 1976, when he took a position at University of Illinois at Chicago for two years. He then went on to New York University, where he was professor of history, sociology and comparative literature. After a brief stint as Fulbright Professor at the Tel Aviv University History Department (1987–88), he devoted himself to working as a full-time writer.
Although his early work focused on English religious and intellectual history, Cantor's later scholarly interests were far more diverse, and he found more success writing for a popular audience than he did engaging in more narrowly-focused original research. He did publish one monograph study, based on his graduate thesis, Church, kingship, and lay investiture in England, 1089-1135, which appeared in 1958 and remains an important contribution to the topic of church-state relations in medieval England. Throughout his career, however, Cantor preferred to write on the broad contours of Western history, and on the history of academic medieval studies in Europe and North America, in particular the lives and careers of eminent medievalists. His books generally received mixed reviews in academic journals, but were often popular bestsellers, buoyed by Cantor's fluid, often colloquial, writing style and his lively critiques of persons and ideas, both past and present. Cantor was intellectually conservative and expressed deep skepticism about what he saw as methodological fads, particularly Marxism and postmodernism, but also argued for greater inclusion of women and minorities in traditional historical narratives. In both his best-selling Inventing the Middle Ages and his autobiography, Inventing Norman Cantor, he reflected on his strained relationship over the years with other historians and with academia in general.
Upon retirement in 1999, Cantor moved to Miami, Florida, where he continued to work on several books up to the time of his death.
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June 8, 2007
A thorough if sometimes tedious book about medieval Europe. Cantor's scholarship is sound. His writing is accessible but not the easy-to-digest style he perfects in such later book as "In the Wake of the Plague" and "Antiquity."
I have two complaints.
First, there are no maps or photos of any kind and the book suffers because of it. Modern maps do not represent the heavily forested, mostly rural Europe of the Middle Ages. Photos of the documents produced by monks in the scriptoria would have been appreciated. Likewise, I wanted to see the coins, the sacred structures and the iconography described at length by Cantor. The lack of any graphics renders this book incomplete.
Second, and this is a minor complaint, Cantor occasionally gets lazy with his pronoun usage. I found myself having to re-read certain sentences several times to decipher who "he" was.
If you are a college student and you need to write a paper on some aspect of the Middle Ages, this is the book for you (but be prepared to get your maps somewhere else.)
I have two complaints.
First, there are no maps or photos of any kind and the book suffers because of it. Modern maps do not represent the heavily forested, mostly rural Europe of the Middle Ages. Photos of the documents produced by monks in the scriptoria would have been appreciated. Likewise, I wanted to see the coins, the sacred structures and the iconography described at length by Cantor. The lack of any graphics renders this book incomplete.
Second, and this is a minor complaint, Cantor occasionally gets lazy with his pronoun usage. I found myself having to re-read certain sentences several times to decipher who "he" was.
If you are a college student and you need to write a paper on some aspect of the Middle Ages, this is the book for you (but be prepared to get your maps somewhere else.)
Read
August 4, 2011While most readers simultaneously love-hate Norman Cantor, even among his bitter critics he is considered a master in the field. In delineating the time frame of the middle ages, Cantor doesn't buck the standard trend that the Middle Ages began in the Barbarian invasions of Rome and ended in 1500. At the same time, though, he pleads for a hearing of other scholars' time lines (usally ending somewhere between 1200 and 1300).
It is difficult to analyze a standard survey work; most cover the same time periods d the same events. Cantor, however, focuses on a number of loci: the interplay between Roman and German law; the nuances of theology upon life, and the changes thereof; and many fascinating connections between medieval life and today.
For Cantor there is a subtle interplay between Latin law/culture and German law/culture (146ff). While much of this narrative is more pertinent to the ideology behind the Inquisition, what it meant for early Middle Ages was the centrality of govt against village-oriented govt. Strong central governments, while providing security and cohesion, often came at the price of corruption. Conversely, a weak govt meant greater freedom but more open to hostile neighbors (e.g., Germany until Bismark). The ancient Germanic principle was that law belongs to the community (316).
For Cantor the defining moment of the Middle Ages is the Gregorian Revolution (247). In his words it was a proto-Puritanical reformation of Catholic morality, but in a way cracked the olde Medieval moment. A form of this, though very indirect, is seen in the Norman conquest of England. (And I am not suggesting a 1:1 correlation between Gregory and Norman England). While strengthing the English "state," it did so by abandoning ancient principles of kingship (277ff).
Surprisingly, Cantor gives very competent discussions of medieval theology (Most people who write on this have no clue what they are discussing). While I cringed at a few generalities, I was impressed particularly (no pun intended) with his section on universals and the nominalism debate (334ff).
There are a few drawbacks to this book, though none that are particularly Cantor's fault. While the early sections of the book (and also on the Crusades), Cantor fully develops early Byzantine history into his narrative, the book is more of a History of Western Middle Ages; the Byzantist will be disappointed.
The strengths of the book more than cover the faults.
It is difficult to analyze a standard survey work; most cover the same time periods d the same events. Cantor, however, focuses on a number of loci: the interplay between Roman and German law; the nuances of theology upon life, and the changes thereof; and many fascinating connections between medieval life and today.
For Cantor there is a subtle interplay between Latin law/culture and German law/culture (146ff). While much of this narrative is more pertinent to the ideology behind the Inquisition, what it meant for early Middle Ages was the centrality of govt against village-oriented govt. Strong central governments, while providing security and cohesion, often came at the price of corruption. Conversely, a weak govt meant greater freedom but more open to hostile neighbors (e.g., Germany until Bismark). The ancient Germanic principle was that law belongs to the community (316).
For Cantor the defining moment of the Middle Ages is the Gregorian Revolution (247). In his words it was a proto-Puritanical reformation of Catholic morality, but in a way cracked the olde Medieval moment. A form of this, though very indirect, is seen in the Norman conquest of England. (And I am not suggesting a 1:1 correlation between Gregory and Norman England). While strengthing the English "state," it did so by abandoning ancient principles of kingship (277ff).
Surprisingly, Cantor gives very competent discussions of medieval theology (Most people who write on this have no clue what they are discussing). While I cringed at a few generalities, I was impressed particularly (no pun intended) with his section on universals and the nominalism debate (334ff).
There are a few drawbacks to this book, though none that are particularly Cantor's fault. While the early sections of the book (and also on the Crusades), Cantor fully develops early Byzantine history into his narrative, the book is more of a History of Western Middle Ages; the Byzantist will be disappointed.
The strengths of the book more than cover the faults.
February 27, 2019
Dr. Cantor was the chairman of my doctoral committee at SUNY Binghamton in the mid 70s. I took a number of his seminars over the course of two years. I had read portions of his textbook, but this is the first time I have read it cover to cover. It was written in the early 60s as a college textbook. It is comprehensive and his scholarship, although now somewhat dated, was prodigious. His writing style improved over his career but one can see the brilliance behind the words on the page even at this early stage. He was combative and cantankerous and he did not suffer fools easily. One sees that even in a dry textbook. He turned his graduate students into tigers. We fought and argued and thought twice before saying anything. But he could smell fear and went after the weak like a lion goes after a wildebeest. He was constantly trying to dig deeper into the primary sources than anyone else in the field. That is what made him such an amazing professor. Sometimes I believe he went farther than the sources led and it shows in this volume. Most of the time he was way out on an academic limb, but that is where he was most comfortable. He did not give a damn for colleagues or administrators or acknowledged authorities. In those seminars it was like watching a performer on the high wire without a net. I ended up in Law after the MA because of family issues. But I will never regret the years and blood and sweat that I expended in that place with those scholars. I hunted with eagles for a while.
October 31, 2016
An engrossing general history, written with an all-but-vanished classical sensibility. Cantor does not share the twenty-first century insistence that civilization and barbarism are nothing more than arbitrary categories reflecting cultural prejudices. He believes in civilization as a cultural achievement; he believes that the Roman achievement was clouded by barbarism after the fall of the Western Roman Empire; and he believes that Medieval Europeans built a new civilization, with the intellectual and artistic achievements that the title entails, which reached its apogee after the eleventh century and declined through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Suffice it to say, he does not shy away from the harsh judgments that most present-day historians avoid.
The Frankish Merovingian dynasty, for example, atomized and disappeared not because of any broad socio-political forces, but quite simply because the Merovingian kings were corrupt and stupid. Richard the Lionheart, perhaps the most famous of the Crusaders, was an "overgrown and spoiled child" who needlessly antagonized the other rulers of western Europe.
This is not to say that Cantor focuses solely on character to the detriment of broader trends. He artfully shows that the Germanic invaders who caused the Imperial collapse of the fifth century were not trying to destroy the imperial system, but instead to take advantage of its benefits. When the Empire disappeared, it was not the Italians who had lived in the heartland of the Roman Empire who stepped into restore order and create the foundations of medieval civilization. It was instead the Anglo-Saxon and other Germanic peoples who had lived on the periphery of the Empire, and felt most acutely the collapse of Imperial order. Churchmen from England, Germany, the Low Countries, and the north of France established the Imperial-Ecclesiastical regime that achieved its fullest prominence in the eleventh century with the Papacy of Gregory VII.
Cantor also succeeds in conveying, within relatively short chapters, the full historical and intellectual flavor of the Middle Ages: a valuable corrective for a popular misunderstanding of the period as a time of uninterrupted cultural stasis and backwardness. We're introduced to the Carolingian Renaissance, the rise of the Cluniac tradition, the formation of the Holy Roman Empire, the Crusades, the rediscovery of Justinian's Law Code and the curious ways in which it intermixed with local legal customs, the fantastically-consequential debate between realists and nominalists in the twelfth century, the "Gregorian World Revolution" of the eleventh century, the "New Piety" that emerged when Christian norms finally penetrated the popular consciousness and unleashed a wave of popular devotion and sacred kingship that put the Catholic Church back on its heels, the emergence of the Burgher class, the forerunners of the capitalist bourgeoisie, the urban upheavals of the fourteenth century, and numerous other topics.
The Frankish Merovingian dynasty, for example, atomized and disappeared not because of any broad socio-political forces, but quite simply because the Merovingian kings were corrupt and stupid. Richard the Lionheart, perhaps the most famous of the Crusaders, was an "overgrown and spoiled child" who needlessly antagonized the other rulers of western Europe.
This is not to say that Cantor focuses solely on character to the detriment of broader trends. He artfully shows that the Germanic invaders who caused the Imperial collapse of the fifth century were not trying to destroy the imperial system, but instead to take advantage of its benefits. When the Empire disappeared, it was not the Italians who had lived in the heartland of the Roman Empire who stepped into restore order and create the foundations of medieval civilization. It was instead the Anglo-Saxon and other Germanic peoples who had lived on the periphery of the Empire, and felt most acutely the collapse of Imperial order. Churchmen from England, Germany, the Low Countries, and the north of France established the Imperial-Ecclesiastical regime that achieved its fullest prominence in the eleventh century with the Papacy of Gregory VII.
Cantor also succeeds in conveying, within relatively short chapters, the full historical and intellectual flavor of the Middle Ages: a valuable corrective for a popular misunderstanding of the period as a time of uninterrupted cultural stasis and backwardness. We're introduced to the Carolingian Renaissance, the rise of the Cluniac tradition, the formation of the Holy Roman Empire, the Crusades, the rediscovery of Justinian's Law Code and the curious ways in which it intermixed with local legal customs, the fantastically-consequential debate between realists and nominalists in the twelfth century, the "Gregorian World Revolution" of the eleventh century, the "New Piety" that emerged when Christian norms finally penetrated the popular consciousness and unleashed a wave of popular devotion and sacred kingship that put the Catholic Church back on its heels, the emergence of the Burgher class, the forerunners of the capitalist bourgeoisie, the urban upheavals of the fourteenth century, and numerous other topics.
April 20, 2009
Compelling reading and first class treatment of medieval civilization, the author painstakingly address every possible angle in the study of medievalism, from the influence of Greek, Judeo-Christian until Islam's culture that has formed and reformed the multiple faces of middle ages. Also he discuss the crusade factor in political middle ages and the contour of scholasticism that later gave birth to european enlightenment.
This book is simply a must , I wouldn't classify myself as cultured man until the day I finish the last page of this book.
This book is simply a must , I wouldn't classify myself as cultured man until the day I finish the last page of this book.
June 15, 2018
I rather enjoy the college reading atmosphere as well as Cantor`s exhaustive research. I hit some hidden sand bars as I was sailing along over his deep historic seas. The first was when he hinted broadly at Jesus Christ treating prostitutes as his equals as signs that he had been intimate with them (her). Sorry, but a john doesn't treat a prostitute as an equal, and really, this is the Savior of the world we're talking about here, so thanks, Cantor, for the cheap swipe. The second was when Cantor complained for several paragraphs about the uselessness of Anglo Saxon law as compared to those really refined absolute rulers and their glossy empires. Then as an afterthought he tosses out a "oh, the Anglo Saxons did give us a form of rule by the people, but that`s about it". Really? Seriously?
His research is exhaustive; his deeply prejudiced assumptions are exhausting. Maybe I'll get back to this later, when I feel like writing more notes in the margins of a book.
I'm coming back to amend this. I reread the passages about Christ and I see things more clearly this time around. I read this, initially, after plowing through another history on the Middle Ages that was very much caught up in the sexual details and sin of many Catholic leaders of the time. It seemed to have a chip on its shoulder about trying to discredit Christianity entirely because of the sins of some powerful leaders. I say seems because I get a chip on my shoulder, too. I've had professors and read authors who wanted to take Christ down a peg or two. I went into Cantor's passages with all that in mind. I can still see where I could get a bit worried because of the way this is brought up, but for complete accuracy and for my own future reference, I'm posting an entire paragraph here:
"Ambrose also had a great influence on the attitude of the Christian church toward love and sexuality. This was an important, difficult question, and the early church waited a long time to take a stand on it. The earliest Christians were often accused of holding "love feasts" (although that may have been a slander), and certainly Jesus himself was free and open with women, particularly with "fallen women". He treated prostitutes as his equals- most uncommon in the Roman world- and some of his most devoted disciples were women of the streets. A censorious attitude toward women entered the Christian world of thought with St. Paul, who favored celibacy despite his admission that it is better to marry than to burn. Was sexual love a Christian experience, the fulfillment of the human personality and an expression of divine love, or an instrument of the devil? The church did not really make up its mind until the fourth century, when Ambrose (and Augustine) threw their weight on the side of Paul."
He goes on for a few paragraphs exploring this. He does mention that the early Catholic church had to fight hard against the hypersexualized Roman world. I think some of my resistance to reading this passage as clearly as I could have is related to the same kind of issue in the culture around me now. It is hypersexualized and often nearly rabidly anti-Christian at times. I think I may have been defensive and over reacting because I expected the same treatment that I have encountered before. But because someone discusses a topic does not mean they are on the offense. It can be difficult to tell at times.
So while Cantor does not advocate outright the idea that the Savior had illicit relations, he does examine it. And to my reading, I often wonder why people bring it up. Yes, it's one thing to discuss sexuality and the role of women within a historical period. It's another to continually return to the slander and risk giving it the patina of real belief. You know the saying: repeat something often enough and people will begin to believe it. I've come across that particular mistaken notion far too often in historical books, and I think I started to have a kneejerk reaction to it.
Many times when I read about the horrors of the Catholic church in its earliest history, I forget that this is, in my belief system, a very fallen Christianity. In our religion (the LDS church) we call it the Apostasy. This time period is also known as the Dark Ages. They had lost true priesthood, changed most doctrines, and lost their way even from their own beliefs as they moved from difficult century to difficult century.
Over all, looking over the entire paragraph, I can see how a reader like I was at the time could read it and become defensive. I also read it differently now and see it within the context of about two or three pages with a more fully developed thought process. And I want to stand for truth no matter what, even if I am the one who got confused.
His research is exhaustive; his deeply prejudiced assumptions are exhausting. Maybe I'll get back to this later, when I feel like writing more notes in the margins of a book.
I'm coming back to amend this. I reread the passages about Christ and I see things more clearly this time around. I read this, initially, after plowing through another history on the Middle Ages that was very much caught up in the sexual details and sin of many Catholic leaders of the time. It seemed to have a chip on its shoulder about trying to discredit Christianity entirely because of the sins of some powerful leaders. I say seems because I get a chip on my shoulder, too. I've had professors and read authors who wanted to take Christ down a peg or two. I went into Cantor's passages with all that in mind. I can still see where I could get a bit worried because of the way this is brought up, but for complete accuracy and for my own future reference, I'm posting an entire paragraph here:
"Ambrose also had a great influence on the attitude of the Christian church toward love and sexuality. This was an important, difficult question, and the early church waited a long time to take a stand on it. The earliest Christians were often accused of holding "love feasts" (although that may have been a slander), and certainly Jesus himself was free and open with women, particularly with "fallen women". He treated prostitutes as his equals- most uncommon in the Roman world- and some of his most devoted disciples were women of the streets. A censorious attitude toward women entered the Christian world of thought with St. Paul, who favored celibacy despite his admission that it is better to marry than to burn. Was sexual love a Christian experience, the fulfillment of the human personality and an expression of divine love, or an instrument of the devil? The church did not really make up its mind until the fourth century, when Ambrose (and Augustine) threw their weight on the side of Paul."
He goes on for a few paragraphs exploring this. He does mention that the early Catholic church had to fight hard against the hypersexualized Roman world. I think some of my resistance to reading this passage as clearly as I could have is related to the same kind of issue in the culture around me now. It is hypersexualized and often nearly rabidly anti-Christian at times. I think I may have been defensive and over reacting because I expected the same treatment that I have encountered before. But because someone discusses a topic does not mean they are on the offense. It can be difficult to tell at times.
So while Cantor does not advocate outright the idea that the Savior had illicit relations, he does examine it. And to my reading, I often wonder why people bring it up. Yes, it's one thing to discuss sexuality and the role of women within a historical period. It's another to continually return to the slander and risk giving it the patina of real belief. You know the saying: repeat something often enough and people will begin to believe it. I've come across that particular mistaken notion far too often in historical books, and I think I started to have a kneejerk reaction to it.
Many times when I read about the horrors of the Catholic church in its earliest history, I forget that this is, in my belief system, a very fallen Christianity. In our religion (the LDS church) we call it the Apostasy. This time period is also known as the Dark Ages. They had lost true priesthood, changed most doctrines, and lost their way even from their own beliefs as they moved from difficult century to difficult century.
Over all, looking over the entire paragraph, I can see how a reader like I was at the time could read it and become defensive. I also read it differently now and see it within the context of about two or three pages with a more fully developed thought process. And I want to stand for truth no matter what, even if I am the one who got confused.
January 25, 2020
When I was a boy, my first impression of "the Middle Ages" was a combination of the "Dark Ages," Arthur of Camelot, and heavily armored knights clashing on horseback.
And then there was the indirect influence of Mr. Gibbon's monumental work on the "fall" of the Roman Empire, after which -- lights out for centuries!
Well, long before I approached this long, and information-packed, book on the Middle Ages by Mr. Cantor, I had learned how woefully misinformed my earlier impressions had been. The Roman Empire in the West did go out of existence -- more a slow fading away than a "fall" -- but much of the culture of what had constituted its empire remained, continuing to both evolve and intermix with the growing ecclesiastical presence of the Catholic Church as well as with the Goths, Franks, and Germanic peoples who largely replaced Rome's rule with their own authority.
This book begins with an admirable introduction to the "Heritage of the Ancient World" -- the period of the Roman Empire, yes, but also of the civilizational heritage of those who had preceded the Romans, including the ancient Greeks, for all of these things flowed into those years that more recent historians have designed the "Middle Ages." (It is a useful reminder that, for most of the people who lived during that thousand year period we call "the Middle Ages" -- 500 to 1500 -- they only knew that they were living in "their" time which, for many people, was often though to be either clearly a continuation of what had gone before or even "modern.")
Cantor's writing is fluid and informative, and it is never boring. Many fascinating men and women come "alive" again -- if only for the short time that we are reading about them -- in their words and in their thoughts While we have the luxury of hindsight -- being able to see WHEN big changes happened, or at least began, and also to pick out of the welter of happenings those key ideas or events that would change the unfolding of history -- most people living through these times of course had no such idea of these changes.
While it is true that for the average person little in their day-to-day lives changed from year to year, there continued to be political, intellectual, and cultural break-throughs that slowly expanded to impact a majority of those alive at the time, but so gradually that, again, felt change was rare.
One of the stereotypes that I had as a boy -- that these long centuries were, for the average man and woman, truly "tough times" -- has proven to be largely true. With the decline of a powerful central authority, such as the Roman Empire at its height had provided, people became more subject to the local rulers -- and their mercurial passions -- than before, and -- due to the proliferating number of small duchies -- more greatly exposed to the ravages of skirmishes and small wars. Food supplies were often iffy, either because fields were destroyed through invasion and war or because crop failures and damage from insects made for scarce harvests. What passed for cities in much of Europe were filled with the working poor whose health was precarious because of open sewers and infrequent bathing.
The records that do exist -- and, in many cases, these are prolific, indeed -- are, not surprisingly, from the small literate class. Throughout the early Middle Ages these were usually churchmen, literacy having declined severely after the disappearance of Rome's authority. It was until the coming of the High Middle Ages (around 1000 and after) that a growing number of lay scholars also began to contribute to the written record, a record laboriously compiled, in any case, since this was before the age of the printing press.
But since the book covers the "human story" in the broadest possible sense, while also focusing on key individuals along the way, I enjoyed journeying through it to encounter fascinating persons, challenging problems, and intriguing possibilities.
Written for the general reader and not for scholars, this book is, nonetheless, really not something that the average reader would likely pick up for a quick "weekend read." It is nearly 600 pages in length and it requires attentive reading if one is to gain all that is offered within.
It is a wonderful and humbling read, though, for it reminds us of the shoulders upon whom we stand and, without whom, we would have had to begin from scratch.
And then there was the indirect influence of Mr. Gibbon's monumental work on the "fall" of the Roman Empire, after which -- lights out for centuries!
Well, long before I approached this long, and information-packed, book on the Middle Ages by Mr. Cantor, I had learned how woefully misinformed my earlier impressions had been. The Roman Empire in the West did go out of existence -- more a slow fading away than a "fall" -- but much of the culture of what had constituted its empire remained, continuing to both evolve and intermix with the growing ecclesiastical presence of the Catholic Church as well as with the Goths, Franks, and Germanic peoples who largely replaced Rome's rule with their own authority.
This book begins with an admirable introduction to the "Heritage of the Ancient World" -- the period of the Roman Empire, yes, but also of the civilizational heritage of those who had preceded the Romans, including the ancient Greeks, for all of these things flowed into those years that more recent historians have designed the "Middle Ages." (It is a useful reminder that, for most of the people who lived during that thousand year period we call "the Middle Ages" -- 500 to 1500 -- they only knew that they were living in "their" time which, for many people, was often though to be either clearly a continuation of what had gone before or even "modern.")
Cantor's writing is fluid and informative, and it is never boring. Many fascinating men and women come "alive" again -- if only for the short time that we are reading about them -- in their words and in their thoughts While we have the luxury of hindsight -- being able to see WHEN big changes happened, or at least began, and also to pick out of the welter of happenings those key ideas or events that would change the unfolding of history -- most people living through these times of course had no such idea of these changes.
While it is true that for the average person little in their day-to-day lives changed from year to year, there continued to be political, intellectual, and cultural break-throughs that slowly expanded to impact a majority of those alive at the time, but so gradually that, again, felt change was rare.
One of the stereotypes that I had as a boy -- that these long centuries were, for the average man and woman, truly "tough times" -- has proven to be largely true. With the decline of a powerful central authority, such as the Roman Empire at its height had provided, people became more subject to the local rulers -- and their mercurial passions -- than before, and -- due to the proliferating number of small duchies -- more greatly exposed to the ravages of skirmishes and small wars. Food supplies were often iffy, either because fields were destroyed through invasion and war or because crop failures and damage from insects made for scarce harvests. What passed for cities in much of Europe were filled with the working poor whose health was precarious because of open sewers and infrequent bathing.
The records that do exist -- and, in many cases, these are prolific, indeed -- are, not surprisingly, from the small literate class. Throughout the early Middle Ages these were usually churchmen, literacy having declined severely after the disappearance of Rome's authority. It was until the coming of the High Middle Ages (around 1000 and after) that a growing number of lay scholars also began to contribute to the written record, a record laboriously compiled, in any case, since this was before the age of the printing press.
But since the book covers the "human story" in the broadest possible sense, while also focusing on key individuals along the way, I enjoyed journeying through it to encounter fascinating persons, challenging problems, and intriguing possibilities.
Written for the general reader and not for scholars, this book is, nonetheless, really not something that the average reader would likely pick up for a quick "weekend read." It is nearly 600 pages in length and it requires attentive reading if one is to gain all that is offered within.
It is a wonderful and humbling read, though, for it reminds us of the shoulders upon whom we stand and, without whom, we would have had to begin from scratch.
October 8, 2009
The book listed here is an update to the one I actually read, which is probably the book's first edition, purchased and first read in 1965. The reason I reread it is twofold; one I have been reading mostly mind candy thrillers and, two, I have always considered this one of my favorite books. It still is. Cantor was one of the pioneers of bringing the middle ages out of the dark ages. It's amazing the number of cultural foundations we take for granted that were begun in the middle ages - the university system, law, most of religion - the list goes on. Life was hard and cruel, but it was a period of deep religious faith. Cantor makes it all very interesting.
It was good to read something substantial. I needed that before tackling The Lost Symbol, which tries to convince us that the ancients knew secrets we are not capable of handling. I wonder what Cantor would have thought of such a ridiculous idea!
It was good to read something substantial. I needed that before tackling The Lost Symbol, which tries to convince us that the ancients knew secrets we are not capable of handling. I wonder what Cantor would have thought of such a ridiculous idea!
February 27, 2008
A great introduction to the period. He's a cranky, cantankerous guy, and he doesn't hesitate to take swipes at other historians, but it's part of the entertainment. You'll get a thorough grounding in the all aspects of the time, both the traditional concerns of history, like wars and economics, but also lifestyles and particularly internal church history. Maybe not to everyone's taste, but if you like this sort of thing, well, you'll like it.
February 18, 2024
Cantor traces Roman and Germanic legacies. He’s solid on theology, political thought, and law. He gives interesting analyses of social and political institutions.
May 23, 2012
I'm re-reading this book because my own personal interest in Medieval Europe, since I'll be studying for my doctorate in the subject. Anyway, it's a solid, well-written, overview of Medieval Europe (one reviewer remarked that it's eurocentric, apparently oblivious to the fact that the book is specifically about European civilization). I'm still partial to Durant and primary source material, but this is a solid work packed with information. The dates for the Middle Ages vary, since certain countries underwent their respective Renaissance at different times. Cantor uses generalized dates.
As with any book on history, it's always smart to read as much primary source material as possible. While Cantor's bibliography is extensive, I don't see any primary source material (ie. Medieval documents, Church documents). Normally, this raises a red flag when I read a book on history. But, in this case, Cantor hits the usual suspects in his overview of Medieval civilization, which doesn't necessitate any deeper evaluation of early documents or writings.
Again, as far as an overview of his subject, Cantor's work is worth reading. It's ideal as an undergraduate survey textbook to introduce students to the important themes of the epoch. It's also worthwhile to the casual reader interested in European history. I like that Cantor includes reading lists for those who seek more information and different perspectives.
As with any book on history, it's always smart to read as much primary source material as possible. While Cantor's bibliography is extensive, I don't see any primary source material (ie. Medieval documents, Church documents). Normally, this raises a red flag when I read a book on history. But, in this case, Cantor hits the usual suspects in his overview of Medieval civilization, which doesn't necessitate any deeper evaluation of early documents or writings.
Again, as far as an overview of his subject, Cantor's work is worth reading. It's ideal as an undergraduate survey textbook to introduce students to the important themes of the epoch. It's also worthwhile to the casual reader interested in European history. I like that Cantor includes reading lists for those who seek more information and different perspectives.
May 4, 2016
I'm finished. I'm embarrassed that there is such a big gap in my knowledge about this period. What should have been obvious to me is that there can be no understanding of the Middle Ages, at least in Europe, without knowing the evolution of the Catholic Church post-Constantine.
One small complaint: why is the type so tiny! That's why more and more I'm buying books on Kindle. I love holding a book but I hate squinting for hours at a time. And yes I do wear reading glasses and had my eyes checked recently. I ended up reading The Brothers Kamarazov on a Kindle for the same reason.
One small complaint: why is the type so tiny! That's why more and more I'm buying books on Kindle. I love holding a book but I hate squinting for hours at a time. And yes I do wear reading glasses and had my eyes checked recently. I ended up reading The Brothers Kamarazov on a Kindle for the same reason.
November 9, 2020
"Medieval History: The Life and Death of a Civilization" is a good, well written, popular history of Medieval Europe later expanded and updated as "The Civilization of the Middle Ages". The text would be suitable for an introductory undergraduate course.
June 17, 2022
Great, fairly recently updated (1994) general history of the culture of the Middle Ages. Cantor starts with the classical Roman world to show how it is the basis for later Medieval culture and moves through the early middle ages, the key moments in the development and history of Europe and eventually concludes with the overlap of Renaissance Culture and the end of the Medieval world. It is fascinating, well researched and generally even handed. This is a general work of popular history by Medieval scholar. He makes conclusions, often of a sweeping nature, about every era and aspect of Medieval world including Arab, Muslim, Orthodox, African as well as European history. Of course no one can know this much information, but Cantor is transparent in basing his conclusion on what he considers the best scholarship available to him. In this way he is translating the discussion of scholars to the general audience.
June 8, 2021
A superbly researched book, that tackles much past research to set straight the academia of this vast subject. However, I felt the narrative waned and lacked the character that biography or a writer like Will Durant brings out in expense of the current research. I enjoyed his list of the top 10 movies at the end of the book.
September 30, 2016
I purchased "The Civilization of the Middle Ages" back when I was in high school from a long defunct mall Waldenbooks. I vaguely remember reading it then, but not having the adequate knowledge base for much of what it discusses to truly sink in. Recently, since I have all the time in the world now in which to read (and not much money for the purchasing of new books), I decided to give it a second go-round.
Cantor's style is very interesting, sort of a combination between history written for a popular audience, and history written for an academic audience. For an educated well-read person who is not a specialist on the area, it is engaging, interesting and filled with color commentary from the author. Unlike most popular histories, it also dives deep into the intricacies of certain areas, all while maintaining the sort of general history overview one would expect from a book published for the popular market. It is interesting that Cantor has such an uneven reputation for his scholarship amongst medievalists, while at the same time being required reading for so many undergraduate classes on the subject. Interesting, but completely understandable. He has many strong opinions on most areas of the subject, and certainly doesn't express them in a manner congenial to modern academia of the histories.
While the book is an overview, one quickly realizes that Cantor's primary forte is the history and development of governmental, financial and ecclesiastic institutions and practices, the codification of secular and canon law, with a secondary emphasis on the development (or often in this case, rediscovery) of classical philosophy, learning and statecraft. As such, some areas get the short shrift. Military history is glossed over fairly quickly, outside of how it related to political and religious developments, and one gets the distinct notion that Cantor finds war craft and those that practice it somewhat distasteful. In the same way, the arts are given a short shrift compared to the long discussions of how legal institutions were developed and taxes collected. The coverage of literature is adequate, if somewhat idiosyncratically commented on, while the material arts only get a short section on architecture and some notes on the Renaissance. Popular religious devotion gets short and passing theoretical coverage, despite it being so key to tenor of the times, and music gets one short paragraph, despite the time period being essential in the origins of modern music theory.
It is perhaps best that he didn't speak at length too much outside his academic wheelhouse, because I found two glaring errors when he briefly mentioned the development of food and drink, which is something that I do know well. He asserts that medieval beer was higher in alcohol than modern beer, when the opposite was true. He also asserts, quite oddly, that the basic principles of French and Italian cuisine were in place by the late Middle Ages. How he misses that the Columbian agricultural package utterly transformed how and what people ate, is beyond me. Likely there are other such flaws when he discusses things far outside his specialties, but in the grand scheme of things, it's all small beer, relatively speaking.
What is far more important is that he covers important areas people usually give very little thought to. How property disputes were handled and taxes gathered are of far greater importance to historical development than idealistic post hoc impositions of knights errant and dirty superstitious serfs. In this book we are given a clear picture of how and why the Western Roman Empire collapsed, how society slowly recovered, flourished, and developed into the cradle that became our modern world, right up to the epochal turning that was the discovery of the New World and the Protestant Reformation. That alone is worth the cost of admission.
Perhaps for the academically minded, his wide all-encompassing spread, his endless bon mots at the cost of professional tone, his cantankerous asides on modernity and other scholar's writings, his armchair psychologizing of historical figures, and his partial adherence to the out of style "great man" theory of history is too disconcerting and old school to be dismissed. As for myself, I found it charming, entertaining, and a good antidote to the dry, laser-focused and overly-citationed academic style that's lately been infecting popular history books as well. You don't have to write like a robot in order to be illuminating. That said, one should not solely rely on this book as a guide to the times, however, it should be on the short list of essential reads.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
Cantor's style is very interesting, sort of a combination between history written for a popular audience, and history written for an academic audience. For an educated well-read person who is not a specialist on the area, it is engaging, interesting and filled with color commentary from the author. Unlike most popular histories, it also dives deep into the intricacies of certain areas, all while maintaining the sort of general history overview one would expect from a book published for the popular market. It is interesting that Cantor has such an uneven reputation for his scholarship amongst medievalists, while at the same time being required reading for so many undergraduate classes on the subject. Interesting, but completely understandable. He has many strong opinions on most areas of the subject, and certainly doesn't express them in a manner congenial to modern academia of the histories.
While the book is an overview, one quickly realizes that Cantor's primary forte is the history and development of governmental, financial and ecclesiastic institutions and practices, the codification of secular and canon law, with a secondary emphasis on the development (or often in this case, rediscovery) of classical philosophy, learning and statecraft. As such, some areas get the short shrift. Military history is glossed over fairly quickly, outside of how it related to political and religious developments, and one gets the distinct notion that Cantor finds war craft and those that practice it somewhat distasteful. In the same way, the arts are given a short shrift compared to the long discussions of how legal institutions were developed and taxes collected. The coverage of literature is adequate, if somewhat idiosyncratically commented on, while the material arts only get a short section on architecture and some notes on the Renaissance. Popular religious devotion gets short and passing theoretical coverage, despite it being so key to tenor of the times, and music gets one short paragraph, despite the time period being essential in the origins of modern music theory.
It is perhaps best that he didn't speak at length too much outside his academic wheelhouse, because I found two glaring errors when he briefly mentioned the development of food and drink, which is something that I do know well. He asserts that medieval beer was higher in alcohol than modern beer, when the opposite was true. He also asserts, quite oddly, that the basic principles of French and Italian cuisine were in place by the late Middle Ages. How he misses that the Columbian agricultural package utterly transformed how and what people ate, is beyond me. Likely there are other such flaws when he discusses things far outside his specialties, but in the grand scheme of things, it's all small beer, relatively speaking.
What is far more important is that he covers important areas people usually give very little thought to. How property disputes were handled and taxes gathered are of far greater importance to historical development than idealistic post hoc impositions of knights errant and dirty superstitious serfs. In this book we are given a clear picture of how and why the Western Roman Empire collapsed, how society slowly recovered, flourished, and developed into the cradle that became our modern world, right up to the epochal turning that was the discovery of the New World and the Protestant Reformation. That alone is worth the cost of admission.
Perhaps for the academically minded, his wide all-encompassing spread, his endless bon mots at the cost of professional tone, his cantankerous asides on modernity and other scholar's writings, his armchair psychologizing of historical figures, and his partial adherence to the out of style "great man" theory of history is too disconcerting and old school to be dismissed. As for myself, I found it charming, entertaining, and a good antidote to the dry, laser-focused and overly-citationed academic style that's lately been infecting popular history books as well. You don't have to write like a robot in order to be illuminating. That said, one should not solely rely on this book as a guide to the times, however, it should be on the short list of essential reads.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
April 19, 2021
I read this in my 62nd year of life; I wish I read it much earlier during my academic years. Especially while at Catholic University. Though my field of study was not the middle ages, I would have been well served to understand some of the leading men and women of that period as well as how they thought.
May 27, 2007
Let me start by saying that this book was a bit daunting. At 566 pages, it's not the longest book I've ever tackled by far, but it may be one of the densest. Every page was literally crammed with information.
I'm a big fan of the one-volume history. I like to know a little bit about everything, but I don't like to get too intensive about much. I also don't enjoy the overly scholarly. Cantor's *Civilization* is a pretty perfect fit for these criteria: his prose is very "readable" for someone basically unfamiliar with his subject matter, he's obviously knowledgeable, and he gives an overview of more than 1,000 years of Western Civilization in 566 pages.
The thing is, despite my earlier statement, my complaint about the book is that there's just SO MUCH in it that it became very difficult to retain much of what I was reading. It took me quite a while to finish the thing, first of all, because its density of information makes it slow reading. The effect was that I actually forgot or confused a goodly portion of what I read, say, a given 150 pages ago. This was problematic because history, of course, is built in layers, and so what happened 150 pages before is crucial to understanding what happens 75 pages later.
The solution, I think, might actually have been two or three books by Norman Cantor, say, "The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages" accompanied by "State, Nation, and Monarchy in the Middle Ages." I would have read both of these books, and they might have allowed for a clearer, more exclusive focus on each subject while still permitting glances at the obvious interweaving of each.
That having been said, the prose was, as I said, very enjoyable for a history, and the subject matter was intensely interesting, despite the way its mass was difficult to contain in its volume. I would recommend this book to someone who already knows they like reading about history and are willing to concentrate on a hefty book, but not to say, a first-time history reader.
I'm a big fan of the one-volume history. I like to know a little bit about everything, but I don't like to get too intensive about much. I also don't enjoy the overly scholarly. Cantor's *Civilization* is a pretty perfect fit for these criteria: his prose is very "readable" for someone basically unfamiliar with his subject matter, he's obviously knowledgeable, and he gives an overview of more than 1,000 years of Western Civilization in 566 pages.
The thing is, despite my earlier statement, my complaint about the book is that there's just SO MUCH in it that it became very difficult to retain much of what I was reading. It took me quite a while to finish the thing, first of all, because its density of information makes it slow reading. The effect was that I actually forgot or confused a goodly portion of what I read, say, a given 150 pages ago. This was problematic because history, of course, is built in layers, and so what happened 150 pages before is crucial to understanding what happens 75 pages later.
The solution, I think, might actually have been two or three books by Norman Cantor, say, "The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages" accompanied by "State, Nation, and Monarchy in the Middle Ages." I would have read both of these books, and they might have allowed for a clearer, more exclusive focus on each subject while still permitting glances at the obvious interweaving of each.
That having been said, the prose was, as I said, very enjoyable for a history, and the subject matter was intensely interesting, despite the way its mass was difficult to contain in its volume. I would recommend this book to someone who already knows they like reading about history and are willing to concentrate on a hefty book, but not to say, a first-time history reader.
February 24, 2017
This book has a rather strained beginning, with Cantor reaching back to ancient times to find the roots of the social structures that came to define the medieval era. The connection is forced and the ensuing generalities create a lack of confidence in the reader right at the beginning of the book. Thankfully, though, this doesn't last for too many pages, and when Cantor hits his stride he proves very capable of encapsulating the complexity of social, religious, and intellectual movements in the Middle Ages, despite having to cover a lot of time in relatively few pages. It's not structured as a strictly sequential narrative history - a point in it's favor, as such a work would have had to be much longer and more tedious - but is organized around important social movements. Because of this, there is some repeated descriptions of specific events throughout the book as those events figure into different aspects of medieval life. This repetition is never dull as it helps the reader see the same event from different perspectives and has the added virtue of cementing circumstances in one's memory by way of familiarity. The book ends with list of seven paradoxes (some of which are not, strictly speaking, paradoxes) that the author sees as being inherent in the Middle Ages, as well as a few instructive generalities. This part might have been better placed at the beginning of the book with references to it at the appropriate sections throughout. Such an organization would have better illustrated for the reader Cantor's conception of the history of the Middle Ages. This book is a fast read and would be well-suited to a college class covering it's scope of time.
August 12, 2013
I enjoyed reading this book but would only recommend it to people who have a serious interest in knowing about the Middle Ages and/or history nerds. (I sometimes can’t believe I was that person who hated history in high school and college since I love it now.)
Reading this behemoth of a book sucked up almost a month of my time and the pages are filled with notes, various scribblings and underlines. I am very glad I will not be tested on the subject as sadly I already know I am not going to retain even half of it. Glad I have read it but it was a ton of work. What an excellent fascinating read. I felt like I took a survey course on the Middle Ages and I hope I will remember some of the wonderful information contained in this book. It took me a while to complete this massive book and I was elated when I finished it but I consider it time well spent. 4 stars and going on my best reads pile.
Reading this behemoth of a book sucked up almost a month of my time and the pages are filled with notes, various scribblings and underlines. I am very glad I will not be tested on the subject as sadly I already know I am not going to retain even half of it. Glad I have read it but it was a ton of work. What an excellent fascinating read. I felt like I took a survey course on the Middle Ages and I hope I will remember some of the wonderful information contained in this book. It took me a while to complete this massive book and I was elated when I finished it but I consider it time well spent. 4 stars and going on my best reads pile.
December 25, 2014
I just finished "The Civilization of the Middle Ages" by Norman F. Cantor and it was pretty good. It is concise and to the point. It mentioned everything I wanted to know. I am not always sure if I was getting everything I needed to know but it was good nevertheless.
The author comes to conclusions rather than simply reciting facts. He called King Philip the IV of France simple-minded and that would explain many of the things he did during his reign.... like killing Pope Boniface VIII for example or burning the Grand Knight Templar at the stake, or condemning two of his daughters to life in prison.... stuff like that. He also mentioned how the Jews were faring during this time which is an interest of mine since I'm Jewish.
I bought the book so that I could look things up but a straight through reading went very well. I was actually afraid it would be boring reading it that way but my fears were unfounded.
That's it. It had a reasonable tune and I could dance to it. :-)
The author comes to conclusions rather than simply reciting facts. He called King Philip the IV of France simple-minded and that would explain many of the things he did during his reign.... like killing Pope Boniface VIII for example or burning the Grand Knight Templar at the stake, or condemning two of his daughters to life in prison.... stuff like that. He also mentioned how the Jews were faring during this time which is an interest of mine since I'm Jewish.
I bought the book so that I could look things up but a straight through reading went very well. I was actually afraid it would be boring reading it that way but my fears were unfounded.
That's it. It had a reasonable tune and I could dance to it. :-)
January 13, 2018
Fascinating history of Europe from fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. Written with clarity, and without much bias. Even highly controversial topics such as the Crusades and Inquisition, Cantor avoids either haranguing or defending, simply provides context and background. Would give it a higher rating but it doesn't really transcend its genre, by that I mean that there's not much reason to read it unless you have a particular interest in medieval history.
March 2, 2010
I had never really enjoyed learning about this period in history, but when I picked up this book, it pulled me into the vast, complex story that is Europe's foundation. It makes our own recent history so much more understandable. The book was well written and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys broadening their knowledge of history.
abandoned
September 22, 2017very long and very boring... only finished first half.
each book of will durant's "the story of civilization" is twice as long as this, but Durant's writing is more interesting... I'll have to continue learning about the middle ages somewhere else.
each book of will durant's "the story of civilization" is twice as long as this, but Durant's writing is more interesting... I'll have to continue learning about the middle ages somewhere else.
August 2, 2023
Waring: This review cannot be posted on Amazon. I have found that reviews containing any criticism of Christianity are flagged and deleted. Amazon practices censorship in the guise of community standards. That is, any one person can object to a review, flag it for abuse, and have it removed from the website. This has already happened to me, and Amazon subsequently deleted all 390 reviews I had posted.
Important Precedents for Us
The Merovingian, Carolingian and Byzantium civilizations had in common an important feature driving their decline. They were unable to protect their citizens or the ‘free peasants’ from the decentralized political power of wealthy landlords. For example, the authority of the Carolingian kings was taken over by private feudal estates and courts of law which created an incoherent patchwork of uncoordinated law and overlapping decentralized authority. Prior to the Carolingians, the same pattern destroyed the Merovingian consensus; the problem of local government and local control atomized the Frankish social order. In Byzantium, the rise of wealthy landlords weakened the power of the state to protect the free peasant class from the caprice of landlords in rural areas. In all three precedents, political power and law became privatized as local officials and wealthy lords achieved greater autonomy and treated their public domains as private property. These were not examples of local control within a common system of law and principles of governance, these were fully autonomous and arbitrary principalities. The precedent for us is how private corporations are able to do much the same with economic power just as the great entrepreneurial oligarchs on the 12th Century endeavored to dominate town governments and secure regulations suitable to their own interests. Current workers are forgoing protection from the economic ravages brought about by unchecked corporate power which becomes a private legal regime unto itself within its private realm which creates fiefdoms undermining civil rights from within. The current political system has been captured, enfeebled and weakened to the point where it is unable to protect the basic welfare and civil rights of the citizens. Corporations are using economic power to become autonomous governing principalities. In addition to this, we have regressive states in the U.S. enacting restrictive laws in education and criminalizing healthcare while other progressive states are moving to protect healthcare and education. These patterns of conflicting authority can only lead to a breakdown of social coherence, civil justice, a loss of the political consensus, a decline in legal harmony and sharp divides in levels of income and wealth which combine to undermine civilization from within. We also have the development of private zones of reality made possible with internet thought bubbles further separating pockets of people and individuals from the wider civilizational reality – not too unlike the isolated communities of the Middle Ages. We are not immune to the same problems that bedeviled the civilization of the Middle Ages. We are now becoming susceptible to the same type of palace coups endemic to the political systems of the Middle Ages as we saw from the events of 01/06/21.
Another dangerous precedent is that of a religious consensus where people come to believe they have answered all the problems of government, law, politics, ethics, economics. With all issues resolved through faith and religious belief, no progress is possible. All that is left to do is dedicate oneself to living a satisfactory existence in accordance with God. This catastrophe of intellectual stagnation and cultural rigidity overlook the Byzantine civilization which was subject to bouts of religious fanaticism. For example, the centuries lost on the insanity of the iconoclast controversy. This same mindset is present today in conservative Christians, narrow fundamentalists and fanatical evangelicals. In such cases, political authority passes to unsophisticated radical puritans who care nothing for human values or civil rights and prefer the hysterical diatribes of religious fanatics against evidence-based science and proven medicine as we see happening in many U.S. states ad localities.
Is the Middle Ages Over Yet?
Answer: Not for Christian fundamentalists and modern evangelicals. These two groups preach a personal and highly emotional religious experience in place the traditional church service and thereby gain power, influence and wealth for themselves much as the itinerant and peripatetic preachers of the twelfth century. Today we are witnessing a revival of the same intense evangelical feelings and popular enthusiasm about the Christian message and superstition as in the high Middle Ages. We are seeing a revival in anti-evidenced based quack medicine in the face a pandemic as occurred in the Middle Ages in the face of the Black Death. With each passing decade, modern Christian preachers have become more deranged and fundamentalist in their teachings which leads to chaos and cruelty. Medieval tendencies toward fanaticism, repression and persecution are returning, e.g., the criminalization of medical care and the banning of books. We have been slow to perceive the political and social dangers inherent in the message of these theological thugs due to the veneer of spirituality behind which their intolerance is hidden. Religion is the last refuge of the scoundrel, the last shield behind which one can still practice bigotry, racism and misogyny etc. Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals are not likely to be moved by tradition, reason or common sense. Make no mistake, an ancient God is still worshiped with a Medieval religion. The Medieval Mind is still with us, glazed over with the veneer of modern technology.
This book provides an understanding of the civilization of the Middle Ages and will give one great insight into the Medieval mind and thus the motives and methods of modern Christians. I still know Christian fundamentals and evangelicals who believe they speak for God and that anyone who disagrees with them, like me, is wrong, and wicked, like me. Their delicate childish minds are damaged by education and exposure to reality. To understand the Middle Ages and the Medieval mind is to understand modern Christian fundamentalism. Christian history cannot be separated from the Middle Ages just as today Christianity cannot be separated from retrograde beliefs in bigotry. Religious belief is the last acceptable cover for bigotry in U.S., the last refuge of the scoundrel. In the Middle Ages, as today, social dissatisfaction is expressed through emotional religion. There is a highly regressive characteristic to the modern American religiosity. The Christian disposition to engage in judgment and rejection of any person, like me again, who does not conform to their ancient and Medieval beliefs, is still practiced with self-righteous indignation. I was recently referred to as swine in a Facebook post because I did not agree with a woman claiming to be a good Christian. Charity, understanding, tolerance, empathy etc. are not extended to those outside the Christian faith; they are reserved for in-group members. We cannot help but connect the dots from a psychotic departure from reality to the twisted perspective of Christianity resulting in the call to ban books, criminalize medical care and dehumanize anyone who does not conform by using such odious Christian practices as conversion therapy (a form of psychological torture) as well as ostracization and social control over identity and sexuality. This is the expression of a simplistic and brutish approach to modern social issues. For example, the 01/06/21 riot at the Capitol Building was primary a Christian fundamentalist event complete with prayer services, a devise of cruel torture and brutal death, viz., the gallows including calls to hang the heretics. The ostracization and marginalization of people not in conformity is still practiced as an article of faith. Contemporary Christian fundamentalists stereotype anyone who is not one of them as monstrous infidels. I cannot think of anything more toxic than the dangerous combination of an ancient God with a Medieval religion which produces the Christian fundamentalism of contemporary American society. Just as in the Middle Ages, when it was fitting, right and moral to kill people in the service of Christian ideas, it is now fitting, right and moral to dehumanize, judge and reject people in the service of Christian ideas based on the use of a Medieval religion to worship an ancient God. Violence and piety were mutually supporting virtues in the Middle Ages. Christians today bear the stamp of the Medieval mind. Willful ignorance and hostility to critical thought still prevent the preservation of human values through a humanistic education in the classics and liberal arts. Christianity today represents a remarkable impairment of intellectual life and an astonishing impediment to progress. The religious yearning, a distorted mass psychology, never seems to end.
Important Precedents for Us
The Merovingian, Carolingian and Byzantium civilizations had in common an important feature driving their decline. They were unable to protect their citizens or the ‘free peasants’ from the decentralized political power of wealthy landlords. For example, the authority of the Carolingian kings was taken over by private feudal estates and courts of law which created an incoherent patchwork of uncoordinated law and overlapping decentralized authority. Prior to the Carolingians, the same pattern destroyed the Merovingian consensus; the problem of local government and local control atomized the Frankish social order. In Byzantium, the rise of wealthy landlords weakened the power of the state to protect the free peasant class from the caprice of landlords in rural areas. In all three precedents, political power and law became privatized as local officials and wealthy lords achieved greater autonomy and treated their public domains as private property. These were not examples of local control within a common system of law and principles of governance, these were fully autonomous and arbitrary principalities. The precedent for us is how private corporations are able to do much the same with economic power just as the great entrepreneurial oligarchs on the 12th Century endeavored to dominate town governments and secure regulations suitable to their own interests. Current workers are forgoing protection from the economic ravages brought about by unchecked corporate power which becomes a private legal regime unto itself within its private realm which creates fiefdoms undermining civil rights from within. The current political system has been captured, enfeebled and weakened to the point where it is unable to protect the basic welfare and civil rights of the citizens. Corporations are using economic power to become autonomous governing principalities. In addition to this, we have regressive states in the U.S. enacting restrictive laws in education and criminalizing healthcare while other progressive states are moving to protect healthcare and education. These patterns of conflicting authority can only lead to a breakdown of social coherence, civil justice, a loss of the political consensus, a decline in legal harmony and sharp divides in levels of income and wealth which combine to undermine civilization from within. We also have the development of private zones of reality made possible with internet thought bubbles further separating pockets of people and individuals from the wider civilizational reality – not too unlike the isolated communities of the Middle Ages. We are not immune to the same problems that bedeviled the civilization of the Middle Ages. We are now becoming susceptible to the same type of palace coups endemic to the political systems of the Middle Ages as we saw from the events of 01/06/21.
Another dangerous precedent is that of a religious consensus where people come to believe they have answered all the problems of government, law, politics, ethics, economics. With all issues resolved through faith and religious belief, no progress is possible. All that is left to do is dedicate oneself to living a satisfactory existence in accordance with God. This catastrophe of intellectual stagnation and cultural rigidity overlook the Byzantine civilization which was subject to bouts of religious fanaticism. For example, the centuries lost on the insanity of the iconoclast controversy. This same mindset is present today in conservative Christians, narrow fundamentalists and fanatical evangelicals. In such cases, political authority passes to unsophisticated radical puritans who care nothing for human values or civil rights and prefer the hysterical diatribes of religious fanatics against evidence-based science and proven medicine as we see happening in many U.S. states ad localities.
Is the Middle Ages Over Yet?
Answer: Not for Christian fundamentalists and modern evangelicals. These two groups preach a personal and highly emotional religious experience in place the traditional church service and thereby gain power, influence and wealth for themselves much as the itinerant and peripatetic preachers of the twelfth century. Today we are witnessing a revival of the same intense evangelical feelings and popular enthusiasm about the Christian message and superstition as in the high Middle Ages. We are seeing a revival in anti-evidenced based quack medicine in the face a pandemic as occurred in the Middle Ages in the face of the Black Death. With each passing decade, modern Christian preachers have become more deranged and fundamentalist in their teachings which leads to chaos and cruelty. Medieval tendencies toward fanaticism, repression and persecution are returning, e.g., the criminalization of medical care and the banning of books. We have been slow to perceive the political and social dangers inherent in the message of these theological thugs due to the veneer of spirituality behind which their intolerance is hidden. Religion is the last refuge of the scoundrel, the last shield behind which one can still practice bigotry, racism and misogyny etc. Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals are not likely to be moved by tradition, reason or common sense. Make no mistake, an ancient God is still worshiped with a Medieval religion. The Medieval Mind is still with us, glazed over with the veneer of modern technology.
This book provides an understanding of the civilization of the Middle Ages and will give one great insight into the Medieval mind and thus the motives and methods of modern Christians. I still know Christian fundamentals and evangelicals who believe they speak for God and that anyone who disagrees with them, like me, is wrong, and wicked, like me. Their delicate childish minds are damaged by education and exposure to reality. To understand the Middle Ages and the Medieval mind is to understand modern Christian fundamentalism. Christian history cannot be separated from the Middle Ages just as today Christianity cannot be separated from retrograde beliefs in bigotry. Religious belief is the last acceptable cover for bigotry in U.S., the last refuge of the scoundrel. In the Middle Ages, as today, social dissatisfaction is expressed through emotional religion. There is a highly regressive characteristic to the modern American religiosity. The Christian disposition to engage in judgment and rejection of any person, like me again, who does not conform to their ancient and Medieval beliefs, is still practiced with self-righteous indignation. I was recently referred to as swine in a Facebook post because I did not agree with a woman claiming to be a good Christian. Charity, understanding, tolerance, empathy etc. are not extended to those outside the Christian faith; they are reserved for in-group members. We cannot help but connect the dots from a psychotic departure from reality to the twisted perspective of Christianity resulting in the call to ban books, criminalize medical care and dehumanize anyone who does not conform by using such odious Christian practices as conversion therapy (a form of psychological torture) as well as ostracization and social control over identity and sexuality. This is the expression of a simplistic and brutish approach to modern social issues. For example, the 01/06/21 riot at the Capitol Building was primary a Christian fundamentalist event complete with prayer services, a devise of cruel torture and brutal death, viz., the gallows including calls to hang the heretics. The ostracization and marginalization of people not in conformity is still practiced as an article of faith. Contemporary Christian fundamentalists stereotype anyone who is not one of them as monstrous infidels. I cannot think of anything more toxic than the dangerous combination of an ancient God with a Medieval religion which produces the Christian fundamentalism of contemporary American society. Just as in the Middle Ages, when it was fitting, right and moral to kill people in the service of Christian ideas, it is now fitting, right and moral to dehumanize, judge and reject people in the service of Christian ideas based on the use of a Medieval religion to worship an ancient God. Violence and piety were mutually supporting virtues in the Middle Ages. Christians today bear the stamp of the Medieval mind. Willful ignorance and hostility to critical thought still prevent the preservation of human values through a humanistic education in the classics and liberal arts. Christianity today represents a remarkable impairment of intellectual life and an astonishing impediment to progress. The religious yearning, a distorted mass psychology, never seems to end.
January 8, 2011
Detailed and thorough exposition of the Middle Ages from the fall of Rome to the renaissance.
March 18, 2011
Every page is interesting (if you're interested in this kind of thing).
July 19, 2013
Delightful read--Cantor has a historians wit (as the good ones do).
July 5, 2021
The definitive work on the medieval era!
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