A QUAINT SUPERSTITION

New Zealand Tablet, 27 April 1916, Page 32

A QUAINT SUPERSTITION

Mr. Ralph Adams Cram, writing of Rheims Cathedral and its sculptures, in his book, The Heart -of Europe, says: * ‘ Personality, varied, vital, distinguished, marked the sculpture of Rheims, together with an unerring sense of beauty of formalised line, and an erudition, a familiarity with the Scriptures, with scholastic' philosophy, with’ the lives of the saints, and with the arts and sciences that would appear to do away with the quaint superstition that the Middle Ages were a time of ‘ intellectual ignorance; The men who carved - these statues were not* of the aesthetically elect' they Were not a few -trained, well-dressed, and supercilious specialists, working in the confidence born of years in Paris-and Rome; they were stone-masons, members of their own self-respecting union; who had worked their way up a little higher than their fellows and so could carve each his group of statues to the satisfaction and in accordance- with the standards of excellence of his guild. He had to know what he was doing and what he had .to express; / there was no übiquitous architect to instruct him, no “committee on symbolism” to show him the way, and so if he could not read well .enough to enjoy a modern ‘yellow journal,” or write well enough to forge - a name or draft a speculative prospectus, he did know far: more about religion, theology, philosophy; history, and the contemporary sciences and arts and romances than the modern workman with his years of public school behind him, or many an architect or sculptor with his high school, preparatory school arid university training,behind . him as well.’ / / T ' - The quaint superstition that the Middle Ages were a time of . intellectual ignorance ’ (says the : Sacred Heart t Review) ■ has/received: some severe jolts from artists and* scholars like Mr. Cram, bfit it still persists; it still: hides in: the * offices of popular newspapers and magazines'; 4 and even normal schools are; riot without it; if Vie r may .judge from occasional / .‘breaks. 'in tho talks of high school teachers. *We call the Dark Ages dark,’ says some . one, ‘ because we ape : so much in the dark

about them.’ There is no heed to be in the ■ dark about them any longer. The study of one' of the old cathedrals in Europe, -whether!/ actually £or through books and ; pictures, ; should, be sufficient to ; raise • a.. question in the mind, as to; the superiority of the present over the past, in all'that makes for richness of life in the true sense. • " -t " /