Beginning under the Roman Empire, intellectual leadership in the West had been provided by Christianity. In the middle ages, who invented the first universities - in Paris, Oxford, Cambridge? The church.
I'm a bit of a history goon, and I love all that. Anything that's medieval-based up until, probably, the Tudor period and just after, I'm quite into.
In another life I would be a medievalist. I loved Chaucer, far more than Shakespeare.
I developed a passion for the Middle Ages the same way some people develop a passion for coconuts.
I actually only speak English and Latin. Medieval philosophy was my major, so we pretty much had to study in Latin.
Medieval learning was really advanced.
For us, when we think about the Middle Ages, it's sort of this rarefied, distant time that we have no connection to, especially if you grew up in America.
I gave up the notion of writing the life of Joan of Arc, as I found that there was absolutely no new material to be gleaned on her history - in fact, she had been thrashed out.
As historians, we spend days in archives, gazing at account books. We train would-be historians in the arts of deciphering letters and documents, early Latin, scribal handwriting, medieval French.
I am not in any way opposed to medieval studies (or for that matter Latin).
I don't mind there being some medievalists around for ornamental purposes, but there is no reason for the State to pay for them.
