Mediaeval Christianity is, on the one hand, a legitimate continuation and further development
of ancient Catholicism; on the other hand, a preparation for Protestantism,
Its leading form are the papacy, monasticism, and scholasticism, which were developed to
their height, and then assailed by growing opposition from within.
Christianity, at its first introduction, had to do with highly civilized nations; but now it had
to lay the foundation of a new civilization among barbarians. The apostles planted churches in the
cities of the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, and the word "pagan" i.e, villager, backwoodsman, gradually
came to denote an idolater. They spoke and wrote in a language which had already a large and
immortal literature; their progress was paved by the high roads of the Roman legions; they found
everywhere an established order of society, and government; and their mission was to infuse into
the ancient civilization a new spiritual life and to make it subservient to higher moral ends. But the
missionaries of the dark ages had to visit wild woods and untilled fields, to teach rude nations the
alphabet, and to lay the foundation for society, literature and art.
Hence Christianity assumed the character of a strong disciplinary institution, a training
school for nations in their infancy, which had to be treated as children. Hence the legalistic,
hierarchical, ritualistic and romantic character of mediaeval Catholicism. Yet in proportion as the
nations were trained in the school of the church, they began to assert their independence of the
hierarchy and to develop a national literature in their own language. Compared with our times, in
which thought and reflection have become the highest arbiter of human life, the middle age was
an age of passion. The written law, such as it was developed in Roman society, the barbarian could
not understand and would not obey. But he was easily impressed by the spoken law, the living
word, and found a kind of charm in bending his will absolutely before another will. Thus the teaching
church became the law in the land, and formed the very foundation of all social and political
organization.
The middle ages are often called "the dark ages:" truly, if we compare them with ancient
Christianity, which preceded, and with modern Christianity, which followed; falsely and unjustly,
if the church is made responsible for the darkness. Christianity was the light that shone in the
darkness of surrounding barbarism and heathenism, and gradually dispelled it. Industrious priests
and monks saved from the wreck of the Roman Empire the treasures of classical literature, together
with the Holy Scriptures and patristic writings, and transmitted them to better times. The mediaeval
light was indeed the borrowed star and moon-light of ecclesiastical tradition, rather than the clear
sun-light from the inspired pages of the New Testament; but it was such light as the eyes of nations
in their ignorance could bear, and it never ceased to shine till it disappeared in the day-light of the
great Reformation. Christ had his witnesses in all ages and countries, and those shine all the brighter
who were surrounded by midnight darkness.
"Pause where we may upon the desert-road,
Some shelter is in sight, some sacred safe abode."
On the other hand, the middle ages are often called, especially by Roman Catholic writers,
"the ages of faith." They abound in legends of saints, which had the charm of religious novels. All
men believed in the supernatural and miraculous as readily as children do now. Heaven and hell
were as real to the mind as the kingdom of France and the, republic of Venice. Skepticism and
infidelity were almost unknown, or at least suppressed and concealed. But with faith was connected
a vast deal of superstition and an entire absence of critical investigation and judgment. Faith was
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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