Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Essay Prize Success: History

This recognition is a testament to James’ hard work and intellectual curiosity, and the Department would like to extend him its warmest congratulations. 

You can read his full essay below:

“A World lit only by fire” – is this a fair characterisation of the thousand years of history between AD 500 and AD 1500?

‘In the midst of darkness light persists.’

The period of interregnum following the fall of the Roman Empire has long been considered by historians as a murky, sparsely chronicled, and artistically vapid millennium caught between the eminence of the Roman Empire and the early modern Renaissance. In 524 the Roman philosopher Boethius typified this view when he descanted on the fall of the Empire that ‘the most unfortunate sort of misfortune is to have once been happy.’ The ‘Dark Ages’, a term used to refer to the first 300 years of this epoch, is an example of the nominative prejudice that this period has been treated with largely because of the ‘Romophile and Christianophile’ preconceptions of most post Renaissance historians reflecting their classical education and religious beliefs. William Manchester’s book, A World Lit only by Fire (1992) agreed with these old clichés concluding that the ‘medieval mind’ can be characterised by an ‘impenetrable mindlessness’ stemming from the ‘impossibility of scepticism’ and an insularity ‘that approached the absolute’. However, in more recent decades revisionist historians have correctly re-interrogated this period and discovered a wealth of tangible evidence that disproves this claim. While the question assumes that the only ‘fair’ way to characterise this age is by the luminosity of its contents this essay will stray away from the Geistesgeschichte approach and instead stay grounded in examining culture through art, architecture and literature. While life for most people in the medieval world was routinely challenging, ridden with disease and warfare in which the only light would come from the hearth or the battlefield, this essay will prove that the luminosity of ideas and creative fervour of artists, writers and historians existed such that it cannot fairly be typified as an ‘age lit only by fire’.

By modern standards most early medieval people would be classified as having lived in extreme poverty, with hard manual labour and terrible health standards5. Warfare was also savage, with routine massacres of thousands of surrendered fighters such in 785 when 4,500 Saxon rebels were beheaded at Verdun. Manchester makes the argument that this marks the period in contrast to Roman times in which art and literature thrived and people enjoyed a higher standard of living. In the 16th century Giorgio Vasari made the case that the sack of Rome abruptly ‘destroyed the most excellent craftsmen, sculptors, painters, and architects’ of the Roman style. This ‘destruction’ of Roman culture would seem to validate Manchester’s argument that ‘The dark ages were stark in

every dimension. Famines and plague, culminating in the Black Death and its recurring pandemics, repeatedly thinned the population’. However both historian’s perceptions of this period are fundamentally marred by their predisposition to perceive Medievalism as totally backward. Ultimately this belief was fomented during the renaissance and when examined further does not hold up to scrutiny. For example, upon the collapse of Rome it is not clear that working conditions were considerably worse than they had been under the empire, nor that it precipitated the vanishing ‘of intellectual life’ as Manchester claims. For example, the average life expectancy actually increased from twenty-eight-years-old in the Roman Empire to thirty-years-old in the 9th century. Norman Davies further contests that one cannot draw such a definitive line between Roman and ‘Barbarian’ times since ‘The distinction between [them] was never so stark’. Davies’ argument certainly holds merit given the liberal extension of citizenship to those born outside Rome and the reliance on mercenaries from Illyria and Gaul even in the Empire’s heyday meant that the Roman and Barbarian worlds were always intermixed. Consequently, while it is evident that after the fall of the Empire much of its extensive culture of art and literature was lost, the standard of living and cultural diversity did not decrease significantly. For example while sculpture was largely lost, as the Byzantines viewed it as a form of idolatry, New Early Christian art styles of art including illuminated manuscripts, frescos painting and mosaics swiftly evolved from the old.

A key component of Manchester’s case is that the ‘medieval mind’ was very different and therefore inferior to the Roman. He characterises this mindset as being ‘incapable of scepticism’ and almost totally ‘insular’. Davies, on the other hand, argues that while a ‘vacuum’ was left by the Roman Empire it was ‘filled with the growing awareness of Christendom’. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English people finished in 731 supports Davies’ judgement as Bede, writing in the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, demonstrates knowledge of the larger world including Gaul, France, Germany, and Ireland and draws material for its contents from across Britain. Examination of the Lindisfarne Gospels created in 720 also supports this view, as its illuminated text contains strong evidence of ‘early multiculturalism’. The Coptic inspired pages before each gospel demonstrate influence from Italy blended with the local Northumberland styles and even Persian carpet designs from as far afield as Cairo. The presence of both manuscripts considered ‘monuments of the age’, demonstrate evidence of ‘cosmopolitanism’ even at the very start of this millennia. While life in medieval England

was certainly tough, it cannot be characterised as ‘inbred, isolated, unaware of the world beyond’ as Manchester suggests.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that both manuscripts were written by monks for the church and thus Manchester’s thesis that ‘Nulla salus extra ecclesium’ (outside the church there is not salvation) does hold some merit. It should further be noted that the ‘light’ created by these documents could only be appreciated by the clergy given the practical nonexistence of literacy outside the church. Ecclesiastical architecture, on the other hand, could be appreciated by the literate and illiterate alike. The Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, for example, was built under Justinian in 537 and its 32-meter dome remained the largest in the world until the 15th century. The 9th century patriarch of Constantinople Photios, noted of the Cathedral that, ‘It is as if one were stepping into heaven itself with no one standing in the way at any point; one is illuminated and struck by the various beauties that shine forth like stars all around’. His specific use of the word ‘illuminated’ demonstrates not only the excellence of the architecture, but also the power of such buildings to provide ‘light’ in an otherwise dim world.

Manchester’s thesis is most disproved by the dramatic advancement of art (another medium which literacy is not required to appreciate) during the early Italian renaissance, when artificers, artists and architects alike attempted to imitate the style of late antiquity. Despite the misleading nomenclature (renaissance being a rebirth) Peter Burke is quick to recognise that ‘the new [renaissance style] was added to the old [Gothic style] rather than substituted from it.’ It is therefore evident that art had seen significant progression from the Roman times, since the Renaissance would not otherwise have been possible, despite Manchester’s claims that it had stagnated. This shift is most evident in painting as the portrait, pioneered by Jan Van Eyck emerged from 1400 as a separate genre entirely while the landscape and the still life gradually came to prominence towards the end of the century. Masaccio is particularly notable as an early pioneer of the livorati modernamente [modern manner, coined later by Giorgio Vasari] as evidenced by his work on the Brancaccio chapel in Florence. Widely considered his masterwork, the frescos that cover the walls of Santa Maria del Carmine are notable for their illumination and realism, most strikingly in the depiction of The Expulsion of Adam and Eve.16 These marked him out from his contemporary Masolino whose paintings contained markedly more fantastical figures. Botticelli also actively attempted to imitate the classical style, while merging themes synonymous with the early Italian renaissance and reflecting the turbulent political climate in Florence during the 1490s. While masterworks such as The Birth of Venus and illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy, have subsequently become synonymous with this epoch, Botticelli’s later

work, including the Mystic Nativity appears more ‘serious—solemn, intense, sometimes ecstatic’, reflecting the turbulent zeitgeist.

The 15th century further saw the advent of a new golden age for sculpture with a prevalence of equestrian and portrait busts often erected in public areas, with figures such as Donatello becoming household names. Brunelleschi also came to prominence for his work on the Cathedral de Santa Maria del Fiore where he pioneered a conical dome design thought impossible due to its lack of wooden supports. His brilliance in this endeavour means that his work is still examined in architecture textbooks today for its near mathematical perfection. All this is to prove that late medieval Europe was far from the backwater of ‘imperturbable mindlessness’ that Manchester recounts as his argument does not consider the presence of any of these artistic innovations. The quantity and ingenuity of these artistic reforms evidently strengthen Hartwell’s claim that post Renaissance historians have a ‘Tendency to emphasise the negatives’ of the Middle Ages. This ‘tendency’ was fomented during the late Renaissance when the virtues of reason were ‘lorded over religious beliefs’ and therefore making ‘medievalism synonymous with obscurantism and backwardness’. However, while these figures were certainly highly innovative, they were all influenced by preceding themes and styles founded in the Middle Ages. Admittedly, the rest of Europe did not immediately follow Italy’s example. The English Renaissance for instance did not occur until the late 16th century. But the spark that had been lit in Italy, would ultimately come to spread inexorably across the continent.

Finally, Manchester must surely be over stating his case to posit that the entire ‘world’ was lit only by fire, as this is an oversimplification of the enormous variability of experiences across the globe. To take just one example of geographical variation, and to contrast with the Christian and western European focus of this essay thus far, the Muslim world provides a wealth of examples of illumination. The Islamic Golden age was epitomised by individualistic thought centralised for the first time in the Baghdad house of wisdom. An example of the ‘unique’ and utterly novel Muslim architecture of the time still survives in the form of the Mosque at Cordoba built in 786. The roof of the Mosque was revolutionary as integrated double arches and used a ‘honeycomb’ capital, differing from the traditional Corinthian pillar. The impact of the mixing of Visigoth/Romanesque techniques for the first time can scarcely be overstated as it impacted ‘all subsequent Spanish architecture’. The Mosque’s design had to be unique as it was built in order to provide a place for prayer for Cordoba’s ‘massive’ population. The innovations in arch design facilitated much larger prayer spaces lending

the building a ‘weightless’ light atmosphere. The Mosques design was specifically envisaged to amplify the light from the rising sun in the morning that ‘fall into the prayer hall, bathing it in a warm glow’, this description emphasises the power of architecture to literally and figuratively light the world, and completely invalidates Manchester’s claim that the medieval world was without ‘innovation’ and lacked all illumination.

Ultimately, much has been made of Europe’s descent into backwardness after the fall of Rome, however in large part this is simply was the case. This essay has conclusively proved that this condescension of the past is a gross overgeneralisation ignoring the rich tapestry of advancement that took place during this period. In actuality the standard of living in Europe did not decline dramatically nor was art and culture completely destroyed but rather that it shifted and morphed into new forms consisting of both Roman and barbarian influences. Despite gruelling circumstances of warfare and disease medieval architects, workmen, historians, writers and across Christendom and beyond in the Islamic world, persisted in creating novel, luminescent and beautiful pieces that conclusively disprove the post-renaissance narrative that Medieval Europe was totally backward and unimaginative. Considering this evidence it is clear that even in the midst of darkness of the medieval world, light persisted and thus it would incorrect and unfair to characterise the period between 500 and 1500 “A World Lit Only by Fire”.