kfl%mx.lcs.mit.edu@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (08/16/86)
[ I take issue with your statement on people in the middle ages.
Middle ages man was in many ways as energetic and intelligent as
20th century man.
Certainly. That was my point. People weren't retards back then,
any more than they are now. People weren't satanically evil in Nazi
Germany any more than they are here and now. What happens depends as
much on the system people live under as on the people themselves.
Indeed, the Reformation, Norman Conquest, Crusades, rise
of Venice and Genoa, the "Renaissance", and a host of other events
were due entirely to people NOT obeying the local bishop (or one
of the up to 3 local popes). - CWM]
The Reformation, the Renaissance, and the rise of Venice and Genoa
were after the middle ages. I don't think the Crusades or the Norman
Conquest were particularly admirable, and they certainly WERE done by
people obeying the local bishops.
...Keith
[ I would say that there were a few satanically evil people in Nazi
Germany; I'd say the political climate allowed them to come to
positions of power such that they could do enormous damage.
I am one of those crazy historians who maintain that there was no
"Renaissance", no sudden "rebirth" of civilization. What some call
the renaissance is no more than a culmination of the normal
development of what is called the "middle ages". My books say that
Venice was strong enough to extract tax breaks from the Byzantines in
992 and Genoa rivaling Venice a major power at the end of the 12th
Century. What do your books say?
As to the Crusades, go look again. Have a look at who went on the
"Peasant's Crusade", what happened to them; look at what happened to
the crusades after the conqest of Jerusalem in 1099 (hint: the
conquests weren't turned over to the church like the church wanted).
Read up on the 4th crusade: the crusade that was turned by Venice
against the (christian) Byzantines as a way to eliminate a business
rival. Aren't we sort of straying? -CWM]
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