THE "DARK AGES"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 360, 17 May 1946, Page 5

THE "DARK AGES"

Sir,-In my reply to Mr. Miller’s letter I wished merely to make a correction which I thought, and still think, was necessary. I had no intention of entering into a discussion as to whether St. Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest philosophers or not. I have no standards by which to measure the greatness of one philosopher in comparison with another. It appears that my use of the word "blackout" has raised a storm. I am willing to withdraw the word. I will substitute for it the suggestion that from about the year 1400 (pace Mr. Miller) the world begah to progress far more rapidly than it had done in the previous centuries. Now, I suppose, I lay myself open to the question of what is progress. Who was the more advanced, Socrates walking barefooted in the: agora, or the modern housewife using. her electric washing-machine in her neat little house. I don’t know. I only maintain that the . authorities in the Middle Ages--and they were the Church-did little or nothing to educate the common people towards the present age. They were a closed guild, keeping their mysteries to themselves, and their temporal power died when the other guilds died. If the direction of the peopfe had continued to lie in their hands, we should still be living in the Middle Ages. Mr. Foote twits me with the words of my namesake, William Tyndall. I can only reply that the words attributed to him by Foxe, when replying to a parish priest, appear to me to represent the truth-"If God spare my life, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou dost." Those words seem to me to breathe the spirit of the Renaissanceof the new world. In my previous letter I asked for painters before the year 1400. I was given two, Giotto and Cimabue. Not a great number in four centuries, when you compare the output of the Renaissance. In writing there was much the same state of affairs. In music, the same. However, I do not wish to do more than make my point, I bow ‘to the superior knowledge of Professor Wood, but I think he will allow that I have a little right on my side. On the other hand, I take the strongest exception to the letter of "Pas," of Hawera. «In attacking the serial itself on historical grounds, he shows himself lamentably ignorant of the history of the period. I did not say that the Turks were not a menace to Eastern Europe. I merely quoted verbatim a letter actually written by Erasmus. These words written by Erasmus are exactly the words which "Pas" claims to be ridiculously untrue. Moreover, I said nothing about Grecian girls. I spoke of Grecian wine, of which Erasmus was very fond. He was also very fond of girls-thoroughly enjoyed being kissed. I suggest that, before "Pas" again enters upon a discussion of the character of Erasmus, and the history of his times,

he should make himself conversant with both. There are plenty of good books on the subject.

C .T. A.

TYNDALL

(Wellington).

(This correspondence is now closed.-Ed.)