University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD and example they gradually won a few barbarians to accept Christianity. Whenever they gained a foothold, monasteries were established from which went forth new missionaries on their noble work. This work of conver- sion was slow and arduous. Ireland was the only country converted with- out a martyr. Thither in 432 Pope Celestine sent St. Patrick. In a com- paratively short time, he gained Ire- land to the faith. Germany was con- verted during the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth centuries. Most notable of the missionaries that labored there was St. Boniface, called the Apostle of G-er- many. Hungary owed her conversion to the efforts of the pious king Stephen. It was still more difficult to persuade the barbarians, after having accepted Christianity, to lead lives becoming their faith. This could not be done in haste. The Church realized that no fundamental change in customs and habits of living could be wrought by a sudden revolution. All things that possess permanency are of slow growth. Consequently, after the European peo- ple had become nominal Christians, the ministers of Christ continued to exalt them to perfection, and succeeded in producing that simple spirit of piety characteristic of the Middle Ages. The human element of the Church, in some places and at some times, was without doubt, inconsistent with its teachings and the example of the im- mense majority of the ecclesiastics. But such instances were so rare that, de- plorable as they are, they cannot de- tract a whit from the glory of so great an achievement as Christianizing Eu- rope. What would have become of Europe, if schooled in Roman corruption, she had not the restraining hand of Chris- tianity? Without the Christian doc- trine of equality of every one before God, the brotherhood of human beings, would social conditions be as good now as they were at the close of the Middle Ages? Would anyone except those spurred on by the hope of an eternal reward have undergone the labors of the missionaries? Could we expec t a Eoman whose language had not the equivalent of charity and humil- ity to be zealous for the welfare of barbarians from whom he could hope to gain no material advantage? Consid- ering the absence of civilization among the inhabitants of Europe at the be- ginning of the Middle Ages, the diffi- culty of disseminating knowledge the final result must command universal admiration. It must be remembered that the number of missionaries and priests who undertook the conversion of Europe were nothing to the number of its inhabitants. The spreading through Europe of a religion, so above the nature of man and the opposition to his innate selfishness, cannot be con- sidered less than a wonder. No one stints praise to those who did it. Why, then, decry the Age in which this feat was accomplished? One of the immediate and the most important results of the Christianiza- tion of Europe was the elevation of

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THE REDWOOD made, how much it has risen aboA e the plane on which it started. It would be an absurdity to put one foot racer fifty yards behind another in a race and because the latter finished far in front of his opponent, to declare the handicapped one a very poor runner, having been beaten by about fifty yards. This is a parallel case of what is frequently done when modern and mediaeval civilization are compared. Let us then consider how great a dis- tance the Middle Ages have advanced and not to where their advance has carried them. Ruskin says that in determining the progress of a nation, or an epoch in his- tory, we should examine its book of Deeds, its book of Arts and its book of Words. I shall first turn over a few leaves of the book of Deeds and show you some of the great mediaeval achievements. Then I will tell of the artistic triumphs and lastly give a glimpse of its literature. But first it would be advisable to de- termine the period known as the Mid- dle Ages ; this cannot be done satisfac- torily to all, for historians some times confine the name Dark Ages to the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth centuries, others consider the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Dark, but most historians and nearly all others, use Dark Ages and Middle Ages as synonyms. It is in the latter sense that I will take it. The opinion of most historians is that the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, 476 A. D. ushers in the Middle Ages and that they end approximately with the fall of Constantinople, 1453 A. D. Their beginning was not auspicious. About that time barbaric tribes were traversing Europe, at intervals of a score or less years, leaving a wake of slaughter and destruction. Italy was the favorite stamping ground. Rome, during a period of twenty years, fell booty to these plunderers no less than five times. For nearly two hundred years complete peace was unknown to Europe. Agriculture, arts and indus- tries could not be prosecuted exten- sively, nor with the proper care. But the period was not unfruitful. Out of the chaos the modern nations slowly crystallized. The roaming tribes set- tled down and accustomed themselves to the pursuits of peace. As she had conquered Rome, the Church set about to conquer Rome ' s conquerors and the whole of Europe, also. It is an absurdity to say that period which saw Europe transformed from a land inhabited by ruthless pagans into the abode of Christians, was Dark. What more valuable con- tribution to civilization could have been made than the real truth? What more precious gift could have been presented to men, than the knowledge of God and their eternal destiny? Christianity was the greatest force in subduing the barbarous inhabitants of Europe. Their ideals were drawn from and their conducts influenced by the teachings of Christ. At the beginning of the work, zeal- ous and holy men were dispatched into the wilderness. There, by preaching

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THE REDWOOD woman to the position which she has held with no essential changes since the Middle Ages. In Roman and Greek society, especially when these civiliza- tions were in the height of their glory, woman ' s place was a very degraded one. Indeed, she was considered either a slave of or an amusement for man, and treated accordingly. In early Rome a man could sell his wife into slavery. The Germanic tribes treated their women as domestic utilities. A wonderful change was wrought in the Middle Ages. Woman rose to the position of a helper of her husband, and became supreme in the dominion of her home. Since the Middle Ages women on the whole, especially in Europe, have held the same position they assumed in mediaeval times. If their lot is better it is because that of their husband ' s has improved. The peasant ' s wife in the Middle Ages was not, to be sure, as happily fixed as the wife of a modern worker, but their relative positions are the same. True it is, that recently, women in some places, have been en- franchised, but this is a small advance- ment in comparison to the progress made when they obtained their rightful place in the domestic sphere; taking a hand in government with man is only a small advance above being his co- equal in raising a family, supervising the household and sharing with him in- terests of far more weight than politics. The high esteem of women in the Middle Ages is reflected by the lays of the troubadours. They have produced poems unsurpassed in exalted and noble expression of admiration for women. Dante, in his early years, con- sidered himself one of the troubadours and composed love sonnets which would have secured him enduring fame, had he never written the Divine Com- edy. The remarkable change that took place in regard to woman ' s standing, is directly due to Christianity. If it taught that woman had caused man ' s fall, it also taught that through Mary the world was given a Redeemer. The fact that after Christ the only perfect hu- man being was a woman, powerfully gripped the minds of the age and pro- duced increased respect for her sex. This was not the only cause, however, and, perhaps, not the chief one. The Church ' s teachings and moral standards forbade the degraded treatment that women received in previous ages. The distinguished historian, Myer, has remarked that woman ' s position was a reliable gauge of the state of so- ciety. Everyone is aware that history has corroborated this truth most em- phatically. Considering the progress of woman in the Middle Ages, the re- spected part she played in the life of the times, are we justified in applying the name dark to this period? In the seventh century a peril to Eu- rope appeared, which, had it not been averted, would have blighted the civili- zation of all the world The religion of Mohammed united the Arabs and raised in them a lust for conquest Avhich grew with their remarkable successes. In eighty years they reduced more ter-