第34节

and without noblemen. The city had become

supreme and the good burghers had become the rulers of the

land.

THE MEDIAEVAL WORLD

WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES

THOUGHT OF THE WORLD IN WHICH

THEY HAPPENED TO LIVE

DATES are a very useful invention. We could not do without

them but unless we are very careful, they will play tricks

with us. They are apt to make history too precise. For example,

when I talk of the point-of-view of mediaeval man, I

do not mean that on the 31st of December of the year 476,

suddenly all the people of Europe said, ``Ah, now the Roman

Empire has come to an end and we are living in the Middle

Ages. How interesting!''

You could have found men at the Frankish court of Charlemagne

who were Romans in their habits, in their manners, in

their out-look upon life. On the other hand, when you grow

up you will discover that some of the people in this world have

never passed beyond the stage of the cave-man. All times

and all ages overlap, and the ideas of succeeding generations

play tag with each other. But it is possible to study the minds

of a good many true representatives of the Middle Ages and

then give you an idea of the average man's attitude toward

life and the many difficult problems of living.

First of all, remember that the people of the Middle Ages

never thought of themselves as free-born citizens, who could

come and go at will and shape their fate according to their

ability or energy or luck. On the contrary, they all considered

themselves part of the general scheme of things, which included

emperors and serfs, popes and heretics, heroes and swashbucklers,

rich men, poor men, beggar men and thieves. They accepted

this divine ordinance and asked no questions. In this,

of course, they differed radically from modern people who accept

nothing and who are forever trying to improve their own

financial and political situation.

To the man and woman of the thirteenth century, the world

hereafter--a Heaven of wonderful delights and a Hell of brimstone

and suffering--meant something more than empty words

or vague theological phrases. It was an actual fact and the

mediaeval burghers and knights spent the greater part of their

time preparing for it. We modern people regard a noble

death after a well-spent life with the quiet calm of the ancient

Greeks and Romans. After three score years of work and effort,

we go to sleep with the feeling that all will be well.

But during the Middle Ages, the King of Terrors with

his grinning skull and his rattling bones was man's steady

companion. He woke his victims up with terrible tunes on his

scratchy fiddle he sat down with them at dinner--he smiled

at them from behind trees and shrubs when they took a girl

out for a walk. If you had heard nothing but hair-raising

yarns about cemeteries and coffins and fearful diseases when

you were very young, instead of listening to the fairy stories

of Anderson and Grimm, you, too, would have lived all your

days in a dread of the final hour and the gruesome day of

Judgment. That is exactly what happened to the children of

the Middle Ages. They moved in a world of devils and spooks

and only a few occasional angels. Sometimes, their fear of

the future filled their souls with humility and piety, but often

it influenced them the other way and made them cruel and

sentimental. They would first of all murder all the women

and children of a captured city and then they would devoutly

march to a holy spot and with their hands gory with the blood

of innocent victims, they would pray that a merciful heaven forgive

them their sins. Yea, they would do more than pray, they

would weep bitter tears and would confess themselves the most

wicked of sinners. But the next day, they would once more

butcher a camp of Saracen enemies without a spark of mercy

in their hearts.

Of course, the Crusaders were Knights and obeyed a somewhat

different code of manners from the common men. But in