The Mediaeval Mind

A "lively and engaging" history of the Middle Ages (Dallas Morning News) from the acclaimed historian William Manchester, author of The Last Lion. From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose, and with the grace and authority of his extraordinary gift for narrative history, William Manchester leads us from a civilization tottering on the brink of collapse to the grandeur of its rebirth: the dense explosion of energy that spawned some of history's greatest poets, philosophers, painters, adventurers, and reformers, as well as some of its most spectacular villains. "Manchester provides easy access to a fascinating age when our modern mentality was just being born." --Chicago Tribune

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The Middle Ages! They seem so far away; intellectually so preposterous, spiritually so strange. Bits of them may touch our sympathy, please our taste; their window-glass, their sculpture, certain of their stories, their romances,—as if those straitened ages really were the time of romance, which they were not, God knows, in the sense commonly taken. Yet perhaps they were such intellectually, or at least spiritually. Their terra—not for them incognita, though full of mystery and pall and vaguer glory—was not the earth. It was the land of metaphysical construction and the land of spiritual passion. There lay their romance, thither pointed their veriest thinking, thither drew their utter yearning. Is it possible that the Middle Ages should speak to us, as through a common humanity? Their mask is by no means dumb: in full voice speaks the noble beauty of Chartres Cathedral. Such mediaeval product, we hope, is of the universal human, and therefore of us as well as of the bygone craftsmen. Why it moves us, we are not certain, being ignorant, perhaps, of the building’s formative and earnestly intended meaning. Do we care to get at that? There is no way save by entering the mediaeval depths, penetrating to the rationale of the Middle Ages, learning the doctrinale, or emotionale, of the modes in which they still present themselves so persuasively. But if the pageant of those centuries charm our eyes with forms that seem so full of meaning, why should we stand indifferent to the harnessed processes of mediaeval thinking and the passion surging through the thought? Thought marshalled the great mediaeval procession, which moved to measures of pulsating and glorifying emotion. Shall we not press on, through knowledge, and search out its efficient causes, so that we too may feel the reality of the mediaeval argumentation, with the possible validity of mediaeval conclusions, and tread those channels of mediaeval passion which were cleared and deepened by the thought? This would be to reach human comradeship with mediaeval motives, no longer found too remote for our sympathy, or too fantastic or shallow for our understanding. But where is the path through these footless mazes? Obviously, if we would attain, perhaps, no unified, but at least an orderly presentation of mediaeval intellectual and emotional development, we must avoid entanglements with manifold and not always relevant detail. We must not drift too far with studies of daily life, habits and dress, wars and raiding, crimes and brutalities, or trade and craft and agriculture. Nor will it be wise to keep too close to theology or within the lines of growth of secular and ecclesiastical institutions. Let the student be mindful of his purpose (which is my purpose in this book) to follow through the Middle Ages the development of intellectual energy and the growth of emotion. Holding this end in view, we, students all, shall not stray from our quest after those human qualities which impelled the strivings of mediaeval men and women, informed their imaginations, and moved them to love and tears and pity. The plan and method by which I have endeavoured to realize this purpose in my book may be gathered from the Table of Contents and the First Chapter, which is introductory. These will obviate the need of sketching here the order of presentation of the successive or co-ordinated topics forming the subject-matter. Yet one word as to the standpoint from which the book is written. An historian explains by the standards and limitations of the times to which his people belong. He judges—for he must also judge—by his own best wisdom. His sympathy cannot but reach out to those who lived up to their best understanding of life; for who can do more? Yet woe unto that man whose mind is closed, whose standards are material and base.

C. S. Lewis had one of the great minds of the twentieth century. Many readers know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Others know him for his books in apologetics, including Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain. But few know him for his scholarly work as a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature. What shaped the mind of this great thinker? Jason Baxter argues that Lewis was deeply formed not only by the words of Scripture and his love of ancient mythology, but also by medieval literature. For this undeniably modern Christian, authors like Dante and Boethius provided a worldview that was relevant to the challenges of the contemporary world. Here, readers will encounter an unknown figure to guide them in their own journey: C. S. Lewis the medievalist.

"The Mediaeval Mind" in 2 volumes is one of the best-known works by the American historian Henry Osborn Taylor that features the history of the development of thought and emotion in the Middle Ages. This carefully crafted Good Press ebook is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Volume 1: The Groundwork: Genesis of the Mediaeval Genius The Latinizing of the West Greek Philosophy as the Antecedent of the Patristic Apprehension of Fact Intellectual Interests of the Latin Fathers Latin Transmitters of Antique and Patristic Thought The Barbaric Disruption of the Empire The Celtic Strain in Gaul and Ireland Teuton Qualities: Anglo-Saxon, German, Norse The Bringing of Christianity and Antique Knowledge to the Northern Peoples... The Early Middle Ages: Carolingian Period Mental Aspects of the 11th Century: Italy Mental Aspects of the 11th Century: France Mental Aspects of the 11th Century: Germany; England The Growth of Mediaeval Emotion... The Ideal and the Actual – The Saints: The Reforms of Monasticism The Hermit Temper The Quality of Love in St. Bernard St. Francis of Assisi Mystic Visions of Ascetic Women The Spotted Actuality... The Ideal and the Actual – Society: Feudalism and Knighthood Romantic Chivalry and Courtly Love Parzival, the Brave Man slowly Wise... Volume 2: The Heart of Heloïse German Considerations Symbolism: Scriptural Allegories in the Early Middle Ages The Rationale of the Visible World: Hugo of St. Victor Cathedral and Mass; Hymn and Imaginative Poem... Latinity and Law: The Spell of the Classics Evolution of Mediaeval Latin Prose Evolution of Mediaeval Latin Verse Mediaeval Appropriation of the Roman Law... Ultimate Intellectual Interests of the 12th and 13th Centuries: Scholasticism: Spirit, Scope, and Method Classification of Topics; Stages of Evolution Twelfth-Century Scholasticism The Universities, Aristotle, and the Mendicants Bonaventura Albertus Magnus Thomas Aquinas Roger Bacon Duns Scotus and Occam The Mediaeval Synthesis: Dante...