Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization From Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age by Will Durant

Author:Will Durant [Durant, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, History, Philosophy, World, History & Surveys
ISBN: 9780743229104
Google: xiDoHGtihF8C
Amazon: 0743235940
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2002-04-23T07:00:00+00:00

He welcomed a Church that taught barbarians to be citizens, that

encouraged chastity and chivalry, and persuaded some warriors to be gentlemen. He resented the laziness of monks, was grateful for the devotion of nuns, and appreciated the ecclesiastical organization of charity. He gloried in the cathedrals, smiled at their bright windows, laughed with their gargoyles, and might see in their flying buttresses fountain jets petrified in their flow. He was proud to belong to a Church whose popes could regulate states and chasten kings.

Time strengthened the Church by increasing her wealth and spread; it weakened her by promoting secular affluence, disruptive individualism, political chicanery, and skeptical intellect. The Church had shared vitally in developing universities that rivaled the cathedrals in splendor 183 and influence; she had provided and trained most of the teachers and had dignified them with religious garb; but increasingly these men pursued knowledge and secular advancement rather than faith and ecclesiastical careers. Clergy and laity who joined in searching, preserving, and editing classical manuscripts discovered the charm and depth of ancient literature and philosophy, and began to talk of Plato with greater zest than of Christ.

The medieval soul, like a swelling cell, burst into two historical organisms: the classical, Epicurean, pagan Renaissance in the south, and the patristic, Stoic, puritan Reformation in the north. It became two powerful cultures, and through them fulfilled its historic task of saving and transmitting civilization.

Its death was its fulfillment.

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