An Age of Faith and Reason

In the French, Henri Daniel-Rops’ History of the Christian Church fills eight volumes; Cathedral and Crusade (Dutton, $10.00), the third volume, is the only one as yet translated into English. I hope that all the rest may be made available. The High Middle Ages, however, are Daniel-Rops’ favorite historical period, and this volume probably is the very best of the impressive bulk of his works.

For him, the term “Middle Ages” is not an epithet. “In their unreasoning enthusiasm for antiquity, the leaders of the Renaissance were outrageously unfair towards the preceding age.” These three heroic centuries, from St. Bernard of Clairvaux to the end of Christendom and the fourteenthcentury agony, in some respects were the apex of civilization. Medieval men did not consider themselves medieval—nor act like the caricatures in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

RK

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Russell Kirk

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In the French, Henri Daniel-Rops’ History of the Christian Church fills eight volumes; Cathedral and Crusade (Dutton, $10.00), the third volume, is the only one as yet translated into English. I hope that all the rest may be made available. The High Middle Ages, however, are Daniel-Rops’ favorite historical period, and this volume probably is the very best of the impressive bulk of his works.

For him, the term “Middle Ages” is not an epithet. “In their unreasoning enthusiasm for antiquity, the leaders of the Renaissance were outrageously unfair towards the preceding age.” These three heroic centuries, from St. Bernard of Clairvaux to the end of Christendom and the fourteenthcentury agony, in some respects were the apex of civilization. Medieval men did not consider themselves medieval—nor act like the caricatures in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.