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Medieval History Quotes

Browse 8 quotes about Medieval History.

Medieval History Quotes

“It's not so much that history is written by the victors, as the old saying goes, but the powerful do often have the capacity to make themselves heard and to erase the voices of others.”

EducationHistoryPowerVictoryAuthorityStorytellingControlNarrative VoiceMedieval HistorySilencing Others
Book:Fierce Appetites: Loving, Losing and Living to Excess in My Present and in the Writings of the Past
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“And why not—whatever despair we may feel concerning resurrection and reassemblage—find comic relief in the human determination to assert wholeness in the face of inevitable decay and fragmentation?”

ChristianityRedemptionCatholicismResurrectionPostmodernismFragmentationComedy AbsurdMedieval HistoryMedievalismNew Historicism
Book:Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion
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“History is full of incremental improvements and revolutionary convulsions - often these are followed by reactionary backlashes in which rights are revoked, inequalities re-established.”

HistoryRevolutionStorytellingInequalityReckoningBacklashMedieval HistoryMedieval Poetry
Book:Fierce Appetites: Loving, Losing and Living to Excess in My Present and in the Writings of the Past
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“Two years later the logic of the struggle led (Pope) John XXII to excommunicate William of Ockham, the English Franciscan, known for his forceful reasoning as “the invincible doctor.” In expounding a philosophy called “nominalism,” Ockham opened a dangerous door to direct intuitive knowledge of the physical world. He was in a sense a spokesman for intellectual freedom, and the Pope recognized the implications by his ban. In reply to the excommunication, Ockham promptly charged John XXII with seventy errors and seven heresies.”

Medieval HistoryOccams Razor
Book:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
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“In this martial world dominated by men, women had little place. The Church's teachings might underpin feudal morality, yet when it came to the practicalities of life, a ruthless pragmatism often came into play. Kings and noblemen married for political advantage, and women rarely had any say in how they or their wealth were to be disposed in marriage. Kings would sell off heiresses and rich widows to the highest bidder, for political or territorial advantage, and those who resisted were heavily fined. Young girls of good birth were strictly reared, often in convents, and married off at fourteen or even earlier to suit their parents' or overlord's purposes. The betrothal of infants was not uncommon, despite the church's disapproval. It was a father's duty to bestow his daughters in marriage; if he was dead, his overlord or the King himself would act for him. Personal choice was rarely and issue. Upon marriage, a girl's property and rights became invested in her husband, to whom she owed absolute obedience. Every husband had the right to enforce this duty in whichever way he thought fit--as Eleanor was to find out to her cost. Wife-beating was common, although the Church did at this time attempt to restrict the length of the rod that a husband might use.”

LifePoliticsMarriageHistoryFeminismAbuseSlaveryOppressionRoyaltyMedievalSerfdomEleanor Of AquitaineMedieval History
Book:Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life
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