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The modern imagination of the Middle Ages is full of myths and misconceptions that have little basis in historical reality. The Renaissance and Enlightenment historians of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries developed a narrative of the Middle Ages as a “dark age” of superstition, ignorance, and intolerance, a prelude to the revival of classical learning and the triumph of reason. This narrative has been thoroughly challenged by modern scholarship, but it continues to influence the popular imagination of the medieval period. The most common modern myths include the myth of the flat earth, the myth of the dirty medieval European, the myth of the oppressed medieval woman, the myth of the primitive medieval technology, and the myth of the uniform medieval Christianity.
Most of the “myths” of the Middle Ages are early-modern or modern constructions. The flat-earth myth, the inquisition-as-burning-machine myth, the “mud-and-blood” view of medieval life, and the myth of a monolithic “Age of Faith” are all post-Reformation polemic, not medieval self-understanding. The page below is a catalogue of the most common of these and the historical record they obscure.
The Myth of the Flat Earth
The myth that medieval Christians believed the earth to be flat is a popular misconception with no historical basis. The ancient Greeks knew the earth to be spherical, and this knowledge was transmitted to the medieval West through Latin translations of classical texts and through the works of Islamic and Jewish scholars. The medieval scholars of the High Middle Ages universally accepted the sphericity of the earth, and the medieval university curriculum included the study of astronomy and cosmography, which depended on the spherical earth.
The myth of the flat earth was popularized by the American historian Andrew Dickson White in his book A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896), and it was later picked up by popular writers and filmmakers. The myth was used to suggest that the medieval Church opposed science and learning, and it fitted the “dark ages” narrative of the Renaissance and Enlightenment historians. The reality is that the medieval Church was a major patron of learning and science, and the medieval scholars made major contributions to astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and other fields.
The Myth of the Dirty Medieval European
The myth of the dirty medieval European is another popular misconception with little basis in historical reality. The medieval Europeans of the High Middle Ages had a well-developed culture of personal hygiene, and they bathed regularly in public bath houses and private baths. The medieval bath house was a major social institution, and it was frequented by people of all social classes. The medieval Europeans also had a well-developed technology of cleaning products, including soap, herbal cleansers, and abrasives.
The myth of the dirty medieval European is largely a product of the early modern and Victorian periods, who projected their own anxieties about hygiene back onto the medieval past. The decline of bathing in the early modern period was a major factor in the spread of disease and the decline of public health, and the modern culture of hygiene is, in many ways, a recovery of the medieval culture of bathing that had been lost in the early modern period.
The Myth of the Oppressed Medieval Woman
The myth of the oppressed medieval woman is another popular misconception that has been challenged by modern scholarship. The medieval woman of the High Middle Ages was not the passive victim of patriarchy that she is often portrayed to be. She had a variety of roles and responsibilities in the family, the household, the economy, and the Church, and she exercised considerable practical power within the constraints of the medieval social order.
The medieval woman participated in the agricultural work of the household, managed the domestic economy, raised the children, and participated in the village and town life. The aristocratic woman managed the great household, presided over the social and ceremonial life of the family, and participated in the political life of the realm. The religious woman lived in a monastery or convent, practiced the religious life, and exercised considerable authority as an abbess of a great house. The queen ruled as regent, mediator, and patron, and the noblewoman participated in the military and political life of the realm in ways that were often decisive.
The Myth of Primitive Medieval Technology
The myth of primitive medieval technology is another popular misconception. The medieval Europeans of the High Middle Ages developed and used a wide range of technologies that were sophisticated for their time. The heavy plow, the three-field system, the horse collar, and the horseshoe transformed European agriculture. The Gothic cathedral, with its soaring vaults, its pointed arches, and its flying buttresses, was a major engineering achievement. The mechanical clock, developed in the late thirteenth century, was a major technological innovation that transformed European society. The compass, developed in the twelfth or thirteenth century, transformed navigation and made the great voyages of discovery possible.
The medieval Europeans also made major contributions to shipbuilding, metalworking, textile production, mining, and other fields. The Genoese and Venetian galleys of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were sophisticated vessels that could cross the Mediterranean and the Atlantic in relative safety. The Flemish cloth industry of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was a major manufacturing enterprise that employed thousands of workers and produced high-quality goods for export across Europe.
The Myth of Uniform Medieval Christianity
The myth of uniform medieval Christianity is another popular misconception. The medieval Church was never a uniform institution, and there was always a wide variety of beliefs and practices within Christendom. The heretical movements of the period — the Cathars, the Waldensians, the Spiritual Franciscans, and others — challenged the institutional Church and offered alternative forms of Christian belief and practice. The mystical traditions of the period — the Beguines, the Cistercians, the Victorines — offered alternative forms of religious experience and theology.
The medieval Church was also diverse in its liturgical practices, its theological traditions, and its religious customs. The Roman rite prevailed in the west, but there were many local variations and peculiarities. The Byzantine rite prevailed in the east, and the Eastern Orthodox Church maintained its distinct traditions in spite of the schism of 1054. The religious life of the medieval period was rich, diverse, and often contentious, and it defies simple characterizations.
Sources
Principal sources used in this article:
- Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (Toronto, 2014), ch. 10.
Further reading:
- Thomas N. Bisson, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century (Princeton, 2009), “Epilogue.”
For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).