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New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 355, 12 April 1946, Page 18

Sir-Mr. Tyndall combines a woeful lack of logic with an amazing ignorance of the Middle Ages. He conveniently ignores Mr. Miller’s reference to the Gothic cathedrals. and concentrates exclusively on painting as if that were the only art. He seems to think also that there were no great painters before the Renaissance. Has he ever heard of Giotto or Cimabue? . He sneers at the Trivium (which, by the way, included Logic) and the Quadrivium. T. H. Huxley writes: "I doubt

if the curriculum of any modern university shows so clear and generous a comprehension of what is meant by culture, as this old Trivium and Quadrivium does." Huxley, of course, knew what the Trivium and Quadrivium were. He quotes Dr. Coulton as saying there were only 50 students at Cambridge. I ask: Is this the average annual attendance, or does it refer to a given year, e.g., during the Black Death? Mr. Tyndall’s statement that "the whole policy of the Church was to keep the people in darkness" is too childish to require refutation. It suggesets, however, that his conviction of the darkness of the Middle Ages is the fruit rather of anti-Catholic prejudice than of historical research. His contention that Dante was.an outrider of the Renaissance is simply ridiculous; anyone who has read Dante knows that his thought is mediaeval through and through. Has Mr. Tyndall any comment to make on the statement that St. Thomas Aquinas ranks with the greatest philosophers of all time? Perhaps he was another of those "outriders." It will save much valuable Listener space if Mr. Tyndall keeps to the point, which is not the achievements of the Renaissance or the necessity of the Reformation, but "the blackout on education, art, science-even thought, during the Middle Ages."

G.H.

D.

(Hawke's Bay).

Sir-I would like to add some notes in the entertaining controversy arising from Mr. Tyndall’s idea that during the Middle Ages. there was a "blackout on education, art, science--even thought and everything making for progress." It seems there is need to follow the example of St. Thomas Aquinas (12251274) and define the terms. What is meant, for instance, by "progress’’? If the disputants don’t agree on this (and I hardly think they will) they are beating the air and not each other. I do not know how it can be said that there was a blackout on thought in the age that contained the greatest philosopher and acclaimed him as such. I would not claim the universities of the period "were doing a great and progressive work in teaching the Trivium and Quadrivium," but the subjects respectively comprised in these unfamiliar terms included, I understand: grammar, rhetoric and philosophy, and arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. These seem within the ordinary functions of a university. Nothing to be concerned about, It surprises one to hear Cambridge University had only 50 students and it shows Cambridge was small beer compared to some of the European universities. Paris in the 13th Century had over 15,000, attracted from all countries by the extensive privileges. (They could not be arrested for debt). Latin, of course, was their common tongue and made for a more universal culture, The universities played a big part in secularising culture which up to that time was preserved in the schools attached to almost every abbey. The fact of the Renaissance does not make the Middle Ages a "blackout." As for the Reformation and its need, I believe this is generally considered quite a controversial matter. The only thing the

Reformers had in common was a desire to get rid of the Pope. But individually they would have been indignant if limited to this aim. If Mr. Tyndall doesn’t mind my using his namesake as an example: Tyndale, one of the Lutheran reformers, wrote a book maintaining blind obedience to the King who should, he thought, be more absolute in secular and ecclesiastical matters than the Pope. It was not the only effort along that line, and greatly pleased Henry VIII. I still hope somebody will tell us if Mr. Tyndall was right about music and architecture; and with a special reference to stained glass.

F. J.

FOOT

(Wellington). |