Previous chapter | Next chapter | Socialism: Index | Works | William Morris Archive
THE ROUGH SIDE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
THE sketch just concluded of the composition of society during the Middle Ages by no means accords with the idea of that epoch which still holds its place in the mind of the general public. In spite of the researches and labours of enlightened historians in recent times, such as Hallam in the early part of the century, and, of late years, of men like Green, Freeman, and Stubbs, the representation of the Middle Ages put forward by bourgeois historians, whose aim was the praising of the escape of modern society from a period of mere rapine and confusion, into peace, order, and prosperity, is generally accepted.
Doubtless there was a rough side to 77 the Middle Ages as to every other epoch, but there was also genuine life and progress in them. This, as we have seen, expressed itself on one side in the hierarchical order of feudal society, which was so far from being lawless that, on the contrary, law received somewhat undue observance therein. And on the other side that there were certain compensations to the shortcomings of the epoch, which we shall have to consider before long.
At present, however, let us look at the rough side of the mediæval cloth, with the preliminary remark, that those who have drawn so violent a contrast between mediæval disadvantages and the gains of modern life, have been by nature and circumstances incapable of seeing the compensations above-said.