Southern's Middle Ages
Southern’s Middle Ages In the novel, “The Making of the Middle Ages,” author, R.W. Southern, calls attention to the events during the years of 972 and 1204, and how they influenced the intellectual, religious and cultural traditions of our modern era. This period, lasting well over 200 years, is usually associated with waring knights and starving peasants rather than highly developed intellect and great innovation. However, Southern explains that there were considerable academic and sociological advancements made during this period, that go relatively unnoticed. He refers to these events as a “secret revolution” and explains that, “The significant events are often the obscure ones, and the significant utterances are often those of men withdrawn from the world and speaking to a very few.” (Pg. 13) He reiterates this theme throughout the book, focusing primarily on Christianity, society, and thought. There can be no dispute that the prominence of Christianity, during the Middle Ages, has done more to shape the world, as it is today, than possibly any other religion. This is primarily because Christianity offered a unifying, stabilizing force throughout Europe, where a majority of areas had an “incoherent jumble of laws and customs, difficult to adjust to each other and hard even to understand. The survivals of barbaric codes of law jostled with varying mixtures of Roman law, local custom, and violence”. (pg 15) Christendom provided Europe with a unified identity in language, government, and education. It is no great mystery that language plays an important role in the creation of personal relationships between individuals. So when applied on an international stage, language can mean the difference between war and peace. The church’s use of Latin acted as a merging factor in areas where people spoke in diverse and various dialects. As stated by Southern “This broad similarity of