 14. Science and Medicine. The good folk of the Middle Ages were as much interested in the world of nature around them as are the people of today. They wondered what made lightning and thunder, why men died in the water and fish in the air, what would cure their various illnesses, why the moon rises, where the sun goes when it sets, and hundreds of other questions. Most of the studying of the day was carried on in monasteries, as has been said before, and the venerable bead and others wrote long treatises on nature, together with some remarkable explanations of its mysteries. In the twelfth century numerous universities were founded, and by the time that they were well established, and had become strong and powerful, a fresh supply of knowledge came to them through the Saracens. Long before this, the Saracens had translated into their own language, the Arabic, the words of the learned Greeks of centuries earlier, including especially what they knew of stars and planets and comets and eclipses. Many Saracens were now living about the Mediterranean Sea, and through them manuscripts were brought into Europe and translated from the Arabic into the European tongues. Astronomy was looked upon as an exceedingly practical study, because it was by this science that the festivals of the church were dated. The astronomers of the time knew something of eclipses, and they had tables of stars and planets. They studied the observations made by the wise men of the East for many centuries, and really learned a great deal. Unfortunately, they made one great mistake. For four hundred years it has been known that the Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun. In the Middle Ages, however, people believed that the Sun revolved about the Earth. The sky, they thought, was a vast hollow sphere which revolved once a day. It was because of this mistake that when they tried to reason about what they had seen, their conclusions were all wrong, no matter how correct their observations might have been. Now, when people believed that the whole star universe was made for their special benefit, it was not very unreasonable to take it for granted that the stars, their arrangement in the sky and their movements had something to do with human affairs. Anything unusual was always alarming. Comets were a source of terror. No one knew whence they came or whether they were going. They were uncanny, and even the educated feared some awful disaster when one of these fiery wanderers appeared in the sky. In the middle of the fifteenth century a large comet was seen which terrified all Europe. Even before its appearance people were in dread, for the Turks had crossed the Hell's Pond, and there was reason to believe that they would overrun the continent. Then came the added horror of the comet, and no one could tell what awful calamity this might portend. It is no wonder that the Pope ordered the church bells to be rung at noon, and the Ave Maria to be said three times a day instead of twice. To this prayer was added the petition, Lord, save us from the devil, the Turk, and the comet. Comets, fortunately, did not appear very often, but it was believed that the other heavenly bodies also had an effect upon people, and could make them successful or unsuccessful. A man who could interpret the significance of the heavens was called an astrologer, and the science, or make-believe science, was called astrology. When a child was born the father hurried away to an astrologer, if he could afford to consult one, to have what was called a horoscope calculated, that is, to have its future life predicted according to the aspect of the heavens at its birth. The most important constellations are situated in a wide belt around the heavens called the zodiac, and are therefore called the signs of the zodiac. There are twelve of these constellations, Aries or the ram, Gemini or the twins, Leo the lion, Capricornus or the goat, and others. The one which was in the ascendant, or just risen above the eastern horizon at the time of the child's birth, was supposed to have great influence upon his life. But this was only the beginning of the astrologer's calculations. He fixed a point in the sky according to the position of the sun and moon at the time, and beginning at that he divided the heavens into twelve houses. These houses were divided and subdivided. To each house some planet was assigned, and every planet had its special influence. Jupiter for instance had power to give one riches and honors. Venus would bestow love and warm friendship. If then Jupiter chanced to be in the house assigned to him and in a favorable sign, his influence upon the child would be so strong that he could hardly help winning wealth and distinction. People consulted astrologers about the proper time to begin a journey or a business undertaking, about a favorable day for a marriage or the coronation of a king, and indeed, as far as they could afford it, about an endless number of even the smallest affairs of life. Even in medicine the position of the planets was of the utmost importance. When a doctor was sent for, he came on horseback, with the bells on his bridal ring jingling so merrily that he could be heard a long way off. An assistant followed him and as many servants as his purse would permit, bearing five or six instruments and numerous sorts of ointment. When he reached the home of the sick man, his first business was not to count his pulse or note his temperature, but to inquire under what constellation he was born. With this knowledge he was set to work to ascertain what remedy would be of service. But however valuable the medicine might be, and however much it might be needed, it must not be taken when the moon was in an unfavorable sign, for then it would do harm rather than good. When an epidemic appeared it was of course lay to the stars or the power of evil spirits. Two unfavorable planets meeting in the same degree of the zodiac would account for any pestilence or so people thought. There was, however, one other way of explaining the appearance of any general illness and that was to lay it to the Jews. In France, Germany, and Italy Jews were many times accused of poisoning the wells or even the air and were either imprisoned or put to death on this charge. Some of the medicines of the time were most absurd and many were revolting. Gold filings were thought good for leprosy and so was an adder boiled with leaks. A more agreeable remedy for the illness of a child was to weigh the child and then offer up at some shrine its weight in bread or grain or cheese or wax. Many herbs were used such as sage, wormwood, and penny-royal. Medicines were hardly expected to do much good of themselves. To make a dose powerful, the sick man must repeat a certain psalm twelve times together with several paternosters while the medicine was being prepared. It was far more likely to affect a cure if he could take it at the shrine of some saint. With some remedies one should always repeat a charm. Physicians are described as wearing expensive robes of silk with trimmings of fur. Psychic, in Pierce Plowman, wears a hood richly trimmed with fur and gold buttons on his cloak. They demanded large fees and receive them. In other cases a man might choose whether to purchase or to do without, but in illness there was left him only the high woman's choice, your money or your life. Chaucer makes a fling at these exorbitant charges and says of the learned doctor among his Canterbury pilgrims, for gold in physics is a cordial, therefore he loved gold in special. Poor folk had not the money necessary to buy their lives of these great doctors, and therefore they went with their ailments to the barber. He was permitted by law to apply plasters and ointments to wounds that did not threaten to become dangerous and often to give simple remedies. In most diseases the first treatment was to bleed the patient and the barber's pole of today is a reminder of the custom. In France before any serious operation could be performed, the bishop or the feudal lord of the patient had to be consulted. Talismans were made use of for remedies or to keep away illness. These consisted of a stone or a piece of metal upon which was cut a figure or an inscription. In the early part of the Middle Ages, runes were often used for the inscriptions. These were only the letters of the earliest northern alphabet, but so few people could read that they were looked upon as something having magical powers. In later times most talismans were brought from the east and were engraved with inscriptions in Persian or Arabic. Even in health these tokens were highly valued. A species of charm known as a filter was supposed to have the power to arouse love. Sometimes a magic drink for the same purpose was prepared and given to the person in question, but oftener the one who wished to become beloved wore a filter consisting of powdered lodestone, nail pairings, and human blood or other absurd combinations. If a man wished to win honor, he might cut the image of Jupiter on a white stone or a piece of tin, and if this were done when the planets were favorable, he would be sure to gain his wish. Of course there were stories upon stories of cures wrought in illness by such means. Roger Bacon, who was perhaps the most sensible scientific man of his age, declared that charms and talismans were of much value, but he explained that this was not because they acted as remedies, but because they made the patient calm and hopeful and thus aided in his recovery. It is a wonder, however, that when people were sick they should ever have expected charms or anything else to be of service, for so many illnesses were thought to be caused by witchcraft. Some persons were believed to possess what was known as the evil eye. Whoever first met their gaze in the morning was sure to pine away and die, and indeed some evil was likely to befall one upon whom they looked at any hour of the day. If a man wished to take the life of an enemy he could do so conveniently by driving a nail or a wooden peg into a wall, pronouncing the name of the victim at each blow. Another way was to shoot an arrow into the air, praying to some demon to direct its flight to the person named. This arrow would leave a wound which was invisible, to be sure, but which would certainly cause death within three days. Another method of ridding oneself of a foe was to make an image of him in wax. Under the right arm of the image one must place the heart of a swallow, and under the left arm its liver. Whatever injury was done to the figure was supposed to be felt by the person whom it represented. If a needle was pushed into its side the person was expected to feel a sharp pain in the side. In case of sudden death people thought first of witchcraft, and it was sometimes dangerous to the safety of even an innocent man if his enemy died too unexpectedly. It was far safer to build fire of wood in vervane, set the waxen image before it, and let it melt. Then the person would slowly, but surely, waste away. This belief in the waxen image was so firmly fixed that if a man had a hawk which he could not succeed in managing he would sometimes send a waxen image of it to the shrine of some saint that he might have better success. Besides the danger of being bewitched there were the four humours or qualities to be reckoned with. All things are made of earth, air, fire, and water, but in varying proportions declared the wisdom of the middle ages. Earth has the humour of being cold and dry, water of being cold and moist, air of being hot and moist, and fire of being hot and dry. It went on further to say that earth corresponded to autumn and the melancholic temperament, water to winter and the phlegmatic, air to spring in the sanguine, and fire to summer and the choleric. If these humours were perfectly balanced the person was well and to this day we keep the phrase good-humoured, but if their chance to be too much of any one of them illness was the result and it was the business of the doctor to decide which humour was in excess. Mixtures to cure diseases were often prepared by the alchemists or chemists of the time. With the chanting of charms and the drawing of magic circles an alchemist would prepare a draft warranted to heal a sick man, give pleasant dreams, or make one invulnerable. To the common folk their work was so mysterious and the sights and sounds from their laboratories so strange and awe-inspiring that whenever they pass the house of an alchemist they cross themselves and pray to be delivered from the power of the devil. They were ready to believe the most absurd stories of the abilities of these men. One was said to be able to call back to his purse whatever coins he might have paid out of it. Another was believed to have made a wooden image that would rise from its seat and open the door whenever a knock was heard. Most mysterious and most popular of all such wonders was the brazen head which Roger Bacon was said to have made. Success in his undertakings and a vast amount of knowledge were to come to him if he only heard it speak. When he had become too weary to listen any longer he set an assistant to watch it. While the master slept the head suddenly spoke. Time is, it said. There is no use in arousing my master to hear what everyone knows, thought the assistant, and he let Bacon sleep on. The head spoke again and said, time was. This too the assistant thought was of no importance. Half an hour later it spoke for the third time. It said, time is past, fell from its place and was broken to fragments, and so it was that Bacon himself, its maker, never heard it speak. The alchemist experimented on various substances, treated them by fire, then by water, then united them, and carefully noted the results. Thus far they were in the true path of science, but they could make little advance beyond this, because they began their work with some false notions which they could never lay aside. They believed, for instance, that earth, air, fire, and water were peopled by demons, and when the facts did not agree with their theories they explained matters by saying that the demons were interfering. Of course they believed in the influence of the stars, and often they tried to connect the stars and the earth by odors. If a man wished to secure the influence of the sun, for instance, he mixed saffron, amber, musk, clove, incense, the brain of an eagle, and the blood of a cock, and burned them. The alchemist had three aims in particular. One was to discover a universal solvent, that is, some substance that would dissolve everything into its elements. The second was to make an elixir that would enable a person to keep youth in life as long as he chose. Even the reasonable Roger Bacon, thought this was quite possible, and after the discovery of America, people felt sure that somewhere in the wonderful new land the elixir would be found. Many believed that the marvelous draft would not be compounded by an alchemist, but was only the water of some magic fountain. When Ponce de Lyon made his voyage to America in 1512, he set out an eager hope of finding this fountain of youth, for he was fast becoming an old man, and he longed to be young again. The third quest of the alchemist was to discover what was known as the philosopher's stone. They thought that all metals were made of sulfur and mercury, that in gold the sulfur and mercury were pure, while in the baser metals they were more or less corrupt. If the stone could be discovered, this corruption would be cured or driven away from any metal, and pure gold would remain. Generation after generation of alchemists labored in this quest. Many of them were honest and were trying their best to make discoveries that would be of value to mankind. Others sought only a method of making gold, and so winning riches for themselves. Then, too, there were numerous rascals who had a smattering of the learning of the alchemists, and went about persuading people that they could turn the baser metals into gold or silver, and getting money from them for sharing the secret of the method. Chaucer tells the story of one of these quacks, who turned mercury into the purest of silver, before the face and eyes of a trustful priest, and obtained forty pounds from him for the recipe. The secret was that he brought with him a beech and coal in which a hole had been bored and filled with silver filings. It was easy to slip this coal into the others in such a way that the wax which stopped up the hole would melt and let the silver fall into the crucible. The second trick of the deceiver was to stir the mercury in the crucible with a hollow rod in which was an ounce of silver filings kept in with wax in the same manner. After the priest had paid his forty pounds and the quack had disappeared, he tried his magical recipe, but in spite of all his efforts not a bit of silver could be found in the crucible. The alchemist did not discover the philosopher's stone, but in their experiments they did gain some useful knowledge. Among other things they discovered soap. They learned how to separate silver from lead and how to make porcelain. The Chinese knew of gunpowder many centuries earlier, but Roger Bacon is thought to have learned that with sulfur, salt, peter, and charcoal, an explosion might be produced, and so to have discovered it anew. The ideas of some of the alchemists ran far out into the future. Bacon predicted that the time would come when boats would move without oars and wagons without animals to draw them, when men would be able to fly through the air and bridges without any supporting piers would span the widest rivers. He believed, too, that an elixir would be discovered that would enable people to live as long as they chose. Several of Bacon's predictions have long ago come to pass, but they probably seem to the good folk of his time far more absurd than many strange things that appeared to them a matter of course. All through the period people of education believed that the earth was a sphere, but they were ready to accept without question the wildest stories of what might be seen in the parts that were unknown to them. In Africa it was said great dragons were found from whose brains precious stones might be taken and also be so venomous that whoever looked them in the face fell dead. It was believed that tribes lived in that country who had three or four eyes in their foreheads. Other tribes fed upon nothing but honeysuckles dried in smoke by the sun. Ireland was the special country of wonders. In one lake, so the story went, a rod of hazel would turn to ash and one of ash to hazel. Another lake had quite as amazing properties, for if a rod was made to stand upright in the water the part in the earth became iron, that in the water was turned to stone while that above the water was not changed. In Ireland too there was said to be a little island whose inhabitants could never die. When they were overcome with the weaknesses of age they had to be carried elsewhere that they might find relief in death. In Finland, so people thought, certain men had the power to raise the wind. They tied knots in a cord and if they desired a gentle breeze they let out the cord to one knot. For a storm they let it out to four or five knots. Concerning India people would believe the most fantastic imaginings. Its ruler was thought to be one Prestor John or Priest John who had governed the land for many centuries. Some of his subjects were said to be more than five cubits in height. Others had dogs' heads and barked like dogs. Near the source of the Ganges were men who had no mouths. Naturally they neither ate nor drank, but they lived on the perfume of flowers. Concerning animals and plants there was a sort of imaginative natural history which was stated in so authoritative a manner and with so many details that it must have needed a brave man to doubt its truth. A griffin says an old book is a flying thing. Its head and wings are like the eagles. The rest of the body is like that of a lion. The Enchirias whatever that may be is described as a little fish half a foot long which clings to a stone when a storm is coming that it may not be blown about. Its ability to cling must have been considerable for it was said that if it caught a good hold of a ship it could hold it perfectly quiet. Still more startling is the statement that when a whale becomes old earth collects upon his body to such an extent that herbs and small bushes take root and grow. Cranes it was said seat themselves comfortably on the ground when they are weary, but they always leave watchers on guard. The watchers stand on one foot. In the other foot they hold a little stone so that if they chance to go to sleep the stone will fall and arouse them. No serpent will come into the shade of an ashtree and if the creature be encircled partly with ash leaves and partly with fire he will flee through the fire rather than touch the leaves. The young ravens live undue until they begin to show black feathers. Then the mother bird feeds them. Toads and serpents cannot bear the fragrance of the grapevine blossom and when the vine is in bloom they escape from the vineyard. These are some of the facts of natural history as believed in the Middle Ages. Folks were taught that there were satyrs with horns and the feet of goats, cyclops with one eye in the middle of their foreheads and people with eyes in their shoulders and neither nose nor head. They believed that certain men had made packs would say in and in consequence were obliged once a year to take the face of a dog, a wolf, a bull or a pig and that these monsters searched the woods to find children to devour. But of all the fancies that were once regarded as facts of natural history that of the phoenix was dearest to the good people of the age. There was only one phoenix in the world at a time. It lived from three to five hundred years. Then, when it began to be weary and feeble, it made a nest of sweet smelling woods. This was set afire by the rays of the sun, and when it was well ablaze the bird entered the flames and was burned to ashes. Three days later a little worm was found in the ashes which grew and put on feathers and became another phoenix to take the place of the first. Cassia, it was said, was found in the nest of the phoenix and either fell to the ground of its own accord or was struck down by leaden arrows. For some reason people were not so willing to accept this story of the Cassia as other marvels, and some ventured to say boldly that the tale was invented to raise the price of the article. About the Mandrake, however, they were ready to believe anything no matter how impossible. The root of the Mandrake is often forked and has a rough resemblance to a human body. That was enough to serve as a foundation for a story that it was the offspring of some person who had been put to death for murder. It shrieked when it was pulled, said the story, and to pull it was at best a dangerous business. He who said about it must wait until the wind blew from a favorable quarter. He must make three circles about the plant with a sword, but he must not venture to dig until the sun had gone down. If one obeyed these directions carefully, he might hope to escape harm. Various methods of divination were resorted to in order to read the future or to learn whether an enterprise would be likely to succeed. One way was to hang a ring inside a pitcher by a thread and read the fates by the number of times that it struck the sides of the pitcher. Sometimes a fire was built of certain kinds of wood, and it was believed that the shape and movement of the flames and the smoke would reveal things that were about to be. One might fast and pray and then open a Bible. The verse upon which his eye first lighted would be significant. Sometimes instead of a Bible a copy of Virgil was taken. To discover hidden treasure one must use the hand of a man who had been hanged. Whether the predictions of a sorcerer were eventually shown to be true or false the people believed in sorcery just the same for if his words proved false they simply declared that he was not a true sorcerer and that some man of greater powers would have succeeded. Indeed so far as the sorcerer himself was concerned it was not well to succeed too often for all magic was supposed to be more or less connected with the devil and if the magician was too successful whispers would go abroad among his enemies that so intimate a friend of Satan ought to be burned to death or at least to be imprisoned. It was believed that at stated times sorcerers and witches met together in some gloomy and unlawful place to boast of the tricks they had played and learn of one another and of Satan how they might still further deceive those who consulted them. This meeting was known as the witches Sabbath. One great obstacle in the way of real progress in science was the general belief in analogy a magnet will draw steel therefore it was concluded that it would draw pain from the body. The universal solvent which the philosophers were ever hoping to discover would separate every substance into its elements therefore it was supposed that it would also dissolve disease and do away with it. Another difficulty was that the causes of the phenomena of nature and the relation of cause to effect were so little understood that with most people if one event happened after another this was regarded as sufficient proof that it was caused by the other. No matter how absurd and useless a medicine might be if a sick man recovered after taking a dose of it no one questioned that the medicine had wrought the cure. A third great weakness in the science of the times was that instead of studying nature and trying to explain what they saw the philosophers set out with definite opinions on numerous points and tried to make nature and their own observations fit the theories. The alchemist as has been said set out with the belief that all metals were made of sulfur and mercury and they could never understand why the metals would not act like sulfur and mercury. Another difficulty was that if any two things looked alike the philosophers were certain that there was some relation between them but to discover what it was they used their imagination rather than their observation. For instance crystal looks like ice therefore they decided that if ice could be kept for many years it would turn into crystal. Pearls have a dewy appearance and are found in the shells of oysters that was brief enough that pearls came from dew and the philosophers decided that in the nights of early spring the oyster opened its shell to receive the drop of dew and changed it into a pearl. In a thunderstorm the sky is often covered with heavy swiftly changing clouds therefore it was regarded as evident that thunder is the noise produced by breaking up the clouds. This same fashion of fancing a connection between any two things that resembled each other was also carried into medicine. The wood sorrel has a heart-shaped leaf therefore it would cure any disease of the heart. Liver wart or hepatica has a three-lobe leaf and the liver has three lobes therefore hepatica was of course beneficial to the liver. Certain ferns have seeds so tiny that they can hardly be seen by the naked eye therefore fern seed had the power of making one invisible. Such were some of the beliefs and superstitions of the people of the Middle Ages but the folly of these vain imaginings was realized by some. One man who wrote in encyclopedia of general knowledge exclaimed against trying to read the future by noting the flight of a flock of crows and said that he did not think it lawful to believe that God had revealed his counsel to crows. It is no longer necessary, as was the case in the seventh century, for a worthy bishop to beg his clergy not to observe Thursday the day of Thor or Jupiter as a day of rest, not to fear that a sneeze proved the presence of evil spirits and not to visit sorcerers or makers of talismans. Nevertheless, there are many good folk even now who trust to absurd treatments of disease who believe in signs and omens in lucky and unlucky days and numbers in the misfortune portended by the breaking of a looking-glass or the howling of a dog under the window and in a thousand other superstitions and even today the plain common sense of the man who did not believe that God revealed his counsel to crows would often be most welcome. End of Chapter 14 Chapter 15 of When Nights Were Bold This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. When Nights Were Bold by ever March happened Chapter 15 Architecture and the Arts During the Middle Ages, a vast amount of building was done. There were not only the castles and manor houses and town halls and monasteries which have already been spoken of but there were also many magnificent churches and cathedrals. Three of the most famous of the streets are St. Sophia in Constantinople, St. Mark in Venice and the Cathedral at Cologne. St. Sophia is an immense building with slender towers and a great flat dome. Within, when notice is first of all, rows of pillars separated by round arches and above these other and still other rows making long galleries. These columns are of many hues and the walls are faced with slabs of marble of all tins. There is gilding and there is a glow of color wherever one looks. Above it all is the bold sweep of the great dome and circled by 50 windows. This interior may not be dignified or harmonious but it is dazzling in its luxuriance and sparkle and gorgeousness. St. Sophia was built in the sixth century by the Emperor Justinian and the walls were then decorated with brilliant mosaics representing scenes in his life. It was a Christian church until 1453 when the Turks captured the city. Since then it has been used as a Mohammedan mosque. The Quran, the sacred book of the Mohammedans, forbids making a representation of anything having life and therefore the Turks covered the mosaics with whitewash. The style of architecture in which St. Sophia was built takes its name from the ancient name of the city and is called Byzantine. It is marked by domes and cupolas and especially by long rows of round arches resting upon columns and other arches resting upon them making arcades or corridors one above another. It is always richly ornamented as gold and glowing colors. One glance at the church of St. Mark in Venice should show that this too is of Byzantine architecture for it has so many domes and cupolas and arcades. During the century and the hop that the Venetians were building it every vessel that came to Venice from the east was required to bring pillars and marbles for the church. It is no wonder that the principal front has 500 columns. Over the center of the vestibule are the famous horses of St. Mark. When Constantinople was for a time in the hands of the crusaders they took these horses from the hippodrome and brought them to Venice. Napoleon carried them to Paris but in 1815 they were taken back. The interior of St. Mark like that of all Byzantine buildings is rich and brilliant. The walls are lined with rare marbles and the floor is made of tessellated or checkered mosaic work. The moors and serocins built many mosques and palaces. The most renowned of these is the wonderful Alhambra in Spain which was erected in the 14th and 15th centuries. Longfellow calls it an enchanted palace. Its courts and pavilions are marvelously beautiful. Some of its ceilings are inlaid with silver and ivory and mother of pearl and tortoise shell. Others, as well as its walls, are ornamented with most graceful stucco arabesques or delicate tracings of plants and vines. Half from nature and half conventional but always exquisite. Here and there are quotations from the Quran but the Arabic letters seem only a part of the ornamentation. The stucco was formerly brilliant with gold and color and some portion of this still remains. Everywhere are columns and arches. One court is especially famous for its beauty and it has been painted and described so many times that to thousands who have never been in Spain it's almost as familiar as their own houses. This is called the court of the lions because within it is a fountain of marble and alabaster in the shape of 12 lions surrounding a basin. The Quran, as has been said, forbade Mohammedans to copy animal life. Nevertheless, here are the lions. After the 9th century a style of building became common which has received the name of Romanesque because it is somewhat like the old Roman fashion. The roof of the Romanesque church was vaulted and therefore the walls had to be made thick and solid to support it. The number of windows was not large and what there were gave little light because of the thickness of the wall. There were towers but the building as a whole was rather low and wide and even the towers could not give it grace. The church of Angolome is Romanesque. It looks strong and sturdy as if it belonged where it stands and meant to stay there but it is not beautiful. After the Romanesque style came the Gothic architecture and this is generally the style meant when people speak of the architecture of the Middle Ages. Its special characteristic is appointed rather than a rounded arch. Guesses without number have been made as to what suggested the pointed arch. They have ranged all the way from Noah's Ark to the lines made by the crossing of the branches of trees planted in rows. Gothic churches such as the Cathedral at Cologne have pointed arches at doors and windows and the pillars are in clusters instead of standing separately as in the Roman and Greek architecture. The roofs are vaulted. Their weight tends to push the wall outward especially as these are high and full of windows. Instead however of thickening the walls as in the Romanesque style the architects made outside supports called flying buttresses. In the Gothic churches there are many slender pinnacles and there is a vast amount of carving. The general effect is of richness and splendor while the many perpendicular lines give a certain lightness and grace which no other style of architecture can produce. The Gothic church is usually built in the shape of a cross with a spire or tower at the place where the long and the short arms of the cross intersect. In the plan A is the name B is the transect and C the Hoir. Within the Hoir there was the chancel. The tower or tower throws at A. Here was hung the large bell after being marked with its name and the date and after being christened with water and anointed with oil. Sometimes in places near the coast a church tower was provided with a crescent or iron basket in which a signal fire might be kindled. At first the Gothic architecture was used for churches only but later castles, bridges, palaces and gates of cities were built in this style. In the centuries of the Middle Ages the church was the great power not only in religious matters but even in the decorative arts mosaic, painting, carving embroidery, colored glass for all of use in beautifying the churches and this fact was a great encouragement to their production. Mosaics were made by the Greeks in very early times and from them the Italians learned art. The tessellated floors of which we read in descriptions of churches and palaces were one variety of mosaic. The kind most used in Italy was made by taking slabs of white marble as a foundation. Grooves were cut into it which were then filled with little cubes or tessellae of colored stone to form patterns. Of course in the Byzantine mosaic work one could expect much brilliancy and color. This was obtained by using bits of glass instead of stone. A sheet of gold leaf was laid between two sheets of glass and burned in a kiln. It was then broken into bits which served as a background for the figures or designs. These designs were made with differently colored glass or marble. The tiny pieces were firmly fixed and cement and most elaborate pictures were as a result. One of the most famous is called Pliny's Doves. It represents four doves sitting on a metal basin one of them stooping to drink. When altars and walls and pulpits cleaned and glittered with mosaic work in the dim light of some vast cathedral the effect was far more rich than that produced by any other species of ornament. Instead of covering church walls with mosaic fresco was sometimes used that is painting in watercolor on damp plaster. This lasted well because the colors sank into the plaster but the drawing was stiff and the faces had little expression until the coming of an artist named Kimawu in the 13th century. The faces that he drew looked like those of real people with real thoughts and feelings. His draperies too were not prim and wooden but hung as if they had been painted from real folds of clothes. It is said that when his famous Madonna was to be carried to the church of Santa Maria Novella the people formed in procession to do it honor and shouted joyfully when the artist appeared among them. Kimabu one day noticed a shepherd boy drawing on a rock a picture of his sheep. It was so well done that the artist took the boy under his protection and taught him. This boy became the famous Giotto. The faces that he painted look as real as those of Kimabu and he even painted portraits of living people and ventured to make them look like the people. It was Giotto who painted the portrait of Dante which has been handed down to us. The backgrounds however of Giotto's work like those of the other artists of the time were not like nature. If there was a landscape the trees were thin and rigid and not in the least like real growing trees. Frequently the background was of gold. Indeed to the artists of the times there could hardly be too much gold in a picture. Today if an artist introduces a crown or a pair of Giotto's purse for instance he tries to produce the effect of gold by the skillful use of light and shadows. But the artist of medieval times simply embossed real gold on the picture. This would hardly be called artistic but it made her design brilliant and rich as splendid piece of decoration. Another famous painter was the monk Fra Angelico. He did not know that he was an artist but in his leisure moments he covered some blank pages for manuscript with such dainty little miniatures that his brother monks were delighted. Paint a picture they urged and he painted. By and by the pope heard what he was doing and sent for him to paint one of the chapels of the Vatican. It was so well done that the pope wished to make him an archbishop in reward but the monk refused the honor. He felt that God had given him a gift which it would be wrong to neglect for the sake of a high position and he went back to his little cell to paint. He painted many diptychs and triptychs or twofold and threefold tablets. These were often used as ornaments for the altar. The triptych especially was quite elaborate. It was a wooden panel often carved quaintly in Gothic designs and shut in by two little doors. On the outside of the doors the artist painted pictures frequently the portraits of the donor and his wife. On the inside there were pictures of saints or scenes from the Bible. The background of the figures is usually gold still bright and gleaming after all the hundreds of years. Half-sauron says that if Rao Angelico's imagination had not been pure and holy he could never have painted such saints and that he must have said a prayer between every two touches of his brush. The painting that was done on manuscripts was called Illuminating. At the beginning of the Middle Ages the parchment was sometimes dyed purple and the whole book written in letters of gold or silver almost as regular as print. Of course such books as these were enormously expensive. In the 13th century a finely written Bible was sold for enough to pay a workman's wages for 26 years. Of course not many books were as expensive as this but they were all very costly. Most volumes were decorated even those that cost no more than a house or two. The margin of the frontispiece was generally painted and there were often borders to the pages and most elaborate initials sometimes entwined with flowers and vines and sometimes showing pictures of saints or even of whole Bible scenes. No one saw to trying to find out how people dressed in Bible times and therefore the illuminator simply copied the dress of their own day. Artistically this was not very correct but it is a great help in learning about the costumes of the Middle Ages. The reds and blues and greens in these illuminations are as fresh and bright as ever and the gold looks as if it had been put on only an hour ago. Much expense went into the binding the covers were sometimes of wood and sometimes of leather they were ornamented with gold and silver filigree work at the corners or with heavy knobs of the precious metals. Often they were set with jewels sometimes the covers were of ivory most delicately carved. If a man was fortunate enough to own a book he was assidingly careful to whom he gave the privilege of opening its clasps. As to lending it that was not done as a matter of friendship by any means. The borrower must give ample security that he would return it uninjured even kings are not accepted. When Louis XI King of France wished to borrow of the faculty of medicine of the University of Paris the works of a certain Arabian physician he was not only obliged to give valuable security but he had to obtain a wealthy endorser just as if he were an ordinary man and not the ruler of the land. As the style of church building changed the fashion of decorating churches changed also. The Gothic churches had many windows and few flat surfaces and so they afforded little space for painting on the walls but the windows were fine and lofty and here was the best opportunity in the world for colored glass. Throughout the Middle Ages the common way of making these windows was to prepare a glass of the various colors needed and then cut it into the shape of the object. If a figure wore a red cloak for instance it was first sketched then the red glass was cut into the shape of the cloak as it appeared in the picture and this was fastened to the other pieces by a narrow strip of lead so that the lead traced all the outlines of the picture. The shading and those parts of the design which were too small to be shown by separate bits of glass were painted with dark brown. The colors are sometimes brilliant in glowing sometimes rich and dark. An animal was much used with its soft gleam rather than with the flashing glowing beauty of stained glass. To represent the figure and animal work the artist cut down into a plate of copper leaving the outline of the figure of the full depth. Then into the shallow depressions of the figure he put a glossy substance in whatever color was needed and melted it in a furnace until it flowed and filled the whole depression. Then he polished the plate and it was done. Later artist used to make the whole figure in copper finishing it with delicate lines of engraving and using enamel for the background. Canging lamps, altars, calyxes, crosses, bells and monstroses and many articles of jewelry such as clasps, chains, necklaces and bracelets were adorned with enamel. A vast amount of sculpture was used in the churches. In the Gothic architecture especially in France statues were everywhere including both reliefs and scenes portrayed on the windows. The cathedral at Châtres is said to contain 10,000 figures. Besides the statues which were a part of the church and were used expressly to adorn it there were recumbent memorial statues for tombs which were at first stiff and unreal but which came to represent with considerable truth the persons in whose honors they were made. In some places it was the custom to model statues in wood or wax as true to the original as possible and lay them upon the beards of wealthy people at their funerals. Little statuettes were often made in wood or ivory for ornaments. Reliquaries were frequently made in the shape of some saint with a tiny tabernacle to hold a relic. The whole task of the elephant was sometimes used in a carving and the carvers made their figures lean back in a peculiar fashion to accommodate the curve of the task. People were very fond of both reliefs. The tympanum that is the space between the top of the door and the angle of the roof was often carved in relief to represent a whole story on the capitals or heads of the columns and on the freezes men and animals were sculptured. Diptychs and triptychs were made of ivory with minute carvings representing scenes in the life of Christ or of the evangelists. This carving was sometimes picked out with color or with gilding. In point of naturalness there was a vast difference between the Romanist art and the Gothic. The Romanesque made a magnificent decoration but it paid little attention to nature. The figures were wooden and unnatural and the draperies stiff and rigid. Gothic art studied nature. The Gothic artists tried to make vigorous look like real persons and to make the carved draperies hang as real draperies of clothes would hang. When they carved flowers and foliage they studied those that were native to the place where the carving was to be and did their best to imitate them. In the Gothic cathedrals this carving and painting was not holy for beauty by any means. The work was done according to the orders of the clergy and they never forgot that the church was the school of the common folk. That is why not only animals and plants but scenes from the bible and legends of saints were shown. There were carvings to represent the seasons, the arts and crafts, even stories introducing the virtues and vices in the form of persons. In the earlier times in much of the Romanesque art dragons and griffins and monsters of all sorts appeared but nowadays were seen only as gargoyles that is at the end of spouts which carried away water from the roof gutters. The amount of gold and silver and jewels used in the churches was enormous. Not only the calyx and crosses and other furnishings of the altars were of gold but often the altars themselves. In the church built in Constantinople by Constantine in the 4th century there were numerous life-size figures of silver each weighing from 90 to 110 pounds. A canopy made of polished silver is said to have weighed 2,000 pounds. In making the porphyry font 3,000 pounds of silver were used and there were also columns of gold and an image of a lamp of solid gold. Vickers of the saints often had precious stones for eyes. This same beautiful work was carried into cups and spoons and salt cellars for royal households and into jewelry for those who could afford to possess it. Most exquisite necklaces, clasps, priceless and chattelines were made and loaded with rubies and emeralds and pearls. The English were famed for their remarkable gold and animal work. An especially well-known bet of it is the jewel of Alfred the Great which he lost in the 9th century and which was found again in the 17th century. In the 8th century there was in France a famous saint alloy among who produced such wonderful articles in gold and silver that whole monasteries became his enthusiastic followers. To own a piece of his work was the glory of a church. A great amount of embroidery was used in the churches for curtains, outer clothes and vestments. The English were especially famed for this work also. They made most handsome vestments stiff with embroidery and flashing with gold and jewels. In Lincoln Cathedral there were more than 600 of such vestments embroidered on silk or velvet or rare eastern materials. In the 13th century Henry III presented one of his bishops with a coat which was valued at nearly 20 pounds as some estimated to be worth about 300 pounds today. Besides this rich embroidery there was much tapestry. Tapestry is made in a loom but it is not woven with a shuttle. The threads of the warp are fastened into place as in ordinary weaving but instead of filling in the booth by throwing a shuttle across them the tapestry maker uses a needle and works in his designs with threads of different colors. Tapestry was used for curtains, canopies, table covers, hangings of walls, bench covers and often for street decorations when important processions were to pass. The most famous piece of tapestry, the bio tapestry, is in reality not tapestry at all but embroidery. It is worked with wool upon a strip of brown linen 19 inches wide and nearly 212 feet long. It tells the story of the coming of William the Conqueror to England and has pictures of his going on board shape of his landing, of battles and other scenes in his conquest. All worked with the needle. The pictures are rude but they are clear and they tell the story. The embroidered well was looked upon as a great accomplishment in the time of William quite proper for the fingers of a queen and it is possible that William's wife Matilda and the maidens of her household worked together on this strip of clothes. In the Middle Ages, as has been said before, there are many kinds of musical instruments, flutes, harps, drums, trumpets, pipes and many others but the one best suited to church music was the organ. An organ was presented to Charlemagne by Constantine, Emperor of the East, which was small but mighty. For according to the stories, it imitated the roaring of the thunder, the accents of the lyre and the clang of cymbals. For some time many bishops and priests objected to the thunder thrumbling but organs made their way and became big and magnificent. Some had pipes of silver and others of gold. The organists certainly needed to be trained athletes for the key plates were five or six inches wide and the player had to wear gloves heavily padded and strike the keys with the full force of his fists. From the splendor of the churches, the people went out into the plain simple life of every day. It is no wonder that whenever there was anything of the nature of a Pageand they enjoyed it with all their might. Most of these Pageands took place to celebrate some royal marriage or the coronation of a sovereign. One of the most famous occurred in France towards the end of the 14th century when Isabella of Bavaria entered Paris to become the queen of the French. She left the palace of Saint Denis in the morning. She was an originally ornamented litter and was attended by her nobles and ladies in waiting. On either side of the way stood a body of some 1200 citizens of Paris all on horseback and wearing handsome uniforms of crimson and green. A company of officers did their best to clear the way for the royal party but it seemed as if all the world had come zither an old chronicle says. At the first gate of Saint Denis the Pageands began. There was a representation of a starry sky and in this sky were children dressed as angels who sang as the queen approached. This firmament must have been a little confusing for in one part was an image of the Virgin Mary with the holy child in her arms playing with a windmill made of a large walnut and in another were the arms of France and Bavaria somewhat entangled in the rays of an exceedingly brilliant sun. The next site was a fountain which ran wine instead of water. It was decorated with fine blue clothes sprinkled with floors the least. Handsomely dressed young girls stood around the fountain singing most melodiously and offering wine in golden cups to all who would have it. Just beyond the fountain a high stage had been built and on this was represented a battle with the serocenes. Now the queen had come to the second gate and here was another representation of the firmament but in this time two angels descended from it and singing sweetly they gently placed upon her head a crown of gold rich with precious stones. A second scaffold was curtain and draped with tapestry and on it were men playing on organs. The whole street was covered with a canopy of handsome camelot and silk. At Notre Dame Bridge there was a canopy of crimson and green made bright with stars. The street leading to the church was hung with tapestry to the very door. The procession had moved so slowly that it was now late in the evening but the show was not over for from the highest tower of Notre Dame a rope had been let down and by this rope a man descended bearing two lighted torches and playing various tricks on his way. At the church door the bishop of Ferris and his clergy met the queen and led her through the nave and the whore to the altar. There she knelt and prayed and then she lifted her crown from her head and gave it together with four cloves of gold to the church. Another and richer crown was at once placed upon her head. Then with an escort bearing five hundred lighted tapers she was carried back to her palace. This was on Sunday. Monday the queen was solemnly anointed with the sacred oil. The king gave a grand banquet. He had provided several interesting devices or dumb shows but the whole was so crowded that hardly anyone could see them or even get anything to eat for that matter though a great plenty had been supplied. Tuesday there was a tournament where in thirty nights including the king contended from three o'clock in the afternoon until night. Then came another splendid banquet followed by dancing which lasted till sunrise. Wednesday and Thursday there were tilting and feasting and Friday's guests made their four wells and went to their homes. In all such pageants the people saw nothing irreverent in mingling religion and amusement. When the little nine year old English king Henry VI had been successful by means of his generals in his battles with John of Arc his guardians decided that he should be crowned in Paris as king of the French and at this celebration there was a hunting scene. There in a well-trained deer took refuge under the king's horse. There was a presentation of three large crimson hearts to indicate the love born the king by his people. There was a big fountain of Hippocrates a sort of spiced wine. Where in three mermaids were swimming and there were also mystery plays acted in dumb show. At the coronation feast there were pageants of course. One was a lady with a peacock another a lady with a swan and the third was the Virgin Mary and the Christ child. When the little royal boy returned to England he was received by gentlemen of Kent in red hoods by mayors and corporations by citizens in white with the insignia of their trade embroidered on their sleeves and by aldermen and scarlet. At London Bridge a mighty giant with a drone sword stood in the way but he proved to be a kindly giant and he made a speech declaring that he was ready to defy all the little king's enemies. Next followed a moral lecture in costume for from a tower richly draped with silk there came forth three ladies dressed in white and gold and wearing cornets. They said in rhyme that they were nature, craze and fortune and that they had come to bestow upon him the best of gifts. Then appeared on the right seven young girls in white and blue powdracks and on the left seven whose dresses were powdered with stars of gold. The first seven declared that they bestowed upon him sapiens, intelligence, good counsel, strength, cunning, pity and the fear of God. The others repeated the following verses God's they endowed with crown of glory and with the scepter of cleanliness and pity and with the sword of might and victory and with the mantle of Prudence Clazzouby a shield of faith for to defend thee and helm of health brought to Zion in Greece girded with the girdle of love and purified peace. After this they sang around delay or in heavenly melody and song. The next site was a sort of tabernacle where in set damaged sapienza with her pupils the trivium and the quadrivium, grammar, logic, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy the little boy must have been tired when he reached paradise. This was a place made beautiful with green trees bearing orange, almonds, olives, pomegranates, dates, quinces and peaches and the small Henry could hardly have helped wishing that he was not a king but just an everyday boy and could jump down and lie under the trees and pick the fruit which had been so skillfully fastened upon the branches. But there is no rest for kings and he had to sit still and look interested while two elderly men preached a sermon to him in verse. At last the poor child reached his palace and perhaps in his dreams he had the pleasure of forgetting that he was a sovereign. Such were the people and the customs in the days when nights were bold. It was a time of contradictions, an extraordinary coming link of ignorance with an intense desire to learn, of courtesy and gentleness, with utter recklessness of human life and suffering, of magnificence of dress and luxuriance of surroundings, with revolting fills and verisome discomfort, of keenness in argument and blindness in doing justice, of readiness to sin, with equal readiness to endure extreme penance. The people of the Middle Ages studied by futile methods, their astronomy was founded upon a mistake, their chemistry upon a poetical fancy. Nevertheless, something closely akin to the change of one metal into another has already become an everyday matter in our laboratories and the dream of the alchemists may yet prove true in essence. The Middle Ages lay between the civilization of the ancients and that of the printing press. It was a time of rapid changes, of swift and mighty transitions. Human life was insecure, the laws and their escalation were often bitterly unjust and yet there must have been hundreds of thousands of people who lived their lives quietly and contentedly, perhaps sinking with pity of those who dwelt in the land before them and with sympathy rather than envy of the condition of those who would follow them. When one is contented there is no more to be desired and when there is no more to be desired there is an end of it, declares the wisdom of donkey caught. Possibly the good folk of the Middle Ages have, after all, no special need of our compassion, end of Chapter 15, Architecture and the Arts. And this is also the end of When Nights Were Bold by Ewa March Deppen.