When the average person thinks about the "Middle Ages", that period from about 500 to 1500 AD commonly called the "Dark Ages", they usually have visions of gore, torture, famine and poverty. Is that a correct understanding?
Régine Pernoud, the famed French historian and archivist (1909-1999), writes that it is not. The author of numerous books about the Middle Ages, including widely acclaimed books about Joan of Arc and other women of the period, Pernoud is not afraid to express her anger and frustration with the lack of accurate teaching about the Middle Ages. She causticially notes that the "Middle Ages is privileged material: one can say what one wants about it with the quasi-certitude of never being contradicted." Although originally published in 1977 and intended for a French audience, "Those Terrible Middle Ages!" is both a helpful introduction to the real Middle Ages and a fine commentary on the importance of a sound education in history, something many Americans would be all the better for having.
Although the book (the translation?) occasionally reads awkwardly, Pernoud's ability to right the record by turning stereotypes and fallacies upside down shines through. Her major concern is that what passes for an education in history within public schools is often little more than a string of stereotypes held together by the glue of gullibility: "The Middle Ages still signifies: a period of ignorance, mindlessness, or generalized underdevelopment, even if this was the only period of underdevelopment during which cathedrals were built!" She laments that the strides made in scholarship in this area have yet to reach the general public, a situation which hasn't changed much since the 1970s, at least on this side of the Atlantic.
Pernoud's central argument is that the revival of Roman law and the infatuation with Greek and Roman culture which occurred in France and much of western Europe during the sixteenth century resulted in an eclipse, even destruction, of all that had existed between the "two periods of light: antiquity and the Renaissance. . ." The intermediate period (the "middle" age) quickly became viewed as "crude" and "dark", failing to measure up to the eternal standards of ancient Greece and Rome. For instance, in the realm of art the result was "an anathema on the Middle Ages. All that was not in conformity with Greek or Latin modeling was mercilessly rejected" and even purposefully targeted for destruction. Ironically, the great cathedrals were all built during the Middle Ages; in addition, the literary forms of the epic and the novel were both products of the same era, as well as the bound book ("codex"), which replaced the use of scrolls.
Yet the facts show again and again that the Middle Ages, far from being completely ignorant or dim-witted, produced scholars of astounding learning such as Isidore of Seville, Bede the Venerable, Gregory of Tours and Hildegarde of Bingen. The latter, a woman, is not, as Pernoud demonstrates, an exception. Many women religious were accomplished scholars, theologians and even leaders. Just one example is Petronilla of Chemillé, an abbess who presided over convents of both women and men-at the ripe old age of twenty-two! Far from being a time when women were "oppressed" and "marginalized", the Middle Ages witnessed an amazing flowering of the feminine in the Church, society and home. It was no coincidence that the MIddle Ages also witnessed a remarkable growth in devotion to the Virgin Mary and other female saints. It was in the seventeenth century that women began to lose privileges and authority, essentially reverting to the status of property under the revived Roman Law. A similar situation occurred with slavery, which had died out during the Middle Ages but emerged again with the "colonial expansion that characterized the classical period." As Pernoud takes pains to show, the feudal system was a far cry from slavery-despite modern misconceptions--and was a way of life built upon honor, specific rights and a deep commitment to the agrarian life.
Pernoud also addresses the two issues most commonly mentioned in ordinary conversation about the Middle Ages: the Crusades and the Inquisition. The former she touches on much too briefly; her examination of the latter emphasizes historical context and provides a general overview of that context, especially the role of the Cathars and dualism, but one wishes she would have spent far more time on both subjects, especially since they are so misunderstood and such a significant part of the faulty perspectives people have about the Middle Ages. The last two chapters are worth the price alone, excellent essays focused on the necessity of studying and appreciating history because, as Pernoud remarks, "History does not furnish any solutions, but it permits--and it alone permits--us to pose the problems correctly. Now everyone knows that a problem posed correctly is already half solved . . . There is no true knowledge without recourse to history."
This volume is certainly a fine "recourse to history" and while not perfect, is a excellent, popular introduction to an era that is unfairly maligned and under-appreciated.
