第1789期:6 myths about the Middle Ages that everyone believes

Medieval Europe. Where unbathed, sword-wielding knights ate rotten meat, thought the Earth was flat, defended chastity-belt wearing maidens, and tortured their foes with grisly gadgets. Except... this is more fiction than fact. So, where do all the myths about the Middle Ages come from? And what were they actually like?The “Middle Ages” refers to a 1,000-year timespan, stretching from the fall of Rome in the 5th century to the Italian renaissance in the 15th. Though it’s been applied to other parts of the world, the term traditionally refers specifically to Europe.

中世纪的欧洲。未沐浴、挥舞剑的骑士吃腐肉，认为地球是平的，捍卫佩戴贞操带的少女，并用可怕的小玩意折磨他们的敌人。除了……这比事实更虚构。那么，关于中世纪的所有神话都是从哪里来的呢？他们到底是什么样子的？“中世纪”指的是 1000 年的时间跨度，从 5 世纪的罗马没落到 15 世纪的意大利文艺复兴。尽管它已被应用于世界其他地区，但该术语传统上专指欧洲。

One misconception is that medieval people were all ignorant and uneducated. For example, a 19th century biography of Christopher Columbus incorrectly purported that medieval Europeans thought the Earth was flat. Sure, many medieval scholars describe the Earth as the center of the universe— but there wasn't much debate as to its shape. A popular 13th century text was literally called “On the Sphere of the World.” And literacy rates gradually increased during the Middle Ages alongside the establishment of monasteries, convents and universities. Ancient knowledge was also not “lost”; Greek and Roman texts continued to be studied.The idea that medieval people ate rotten meat and used spices to cover the taste was popularized in the 1930s by a British book. It misinterpreted one medieval recipe and used the existence of laws barring the sale of putrid meat as evidence it was regularly consumed. In fact, medieval Europeans avoided rancid foods and had methods for safely preserving meats, like curing them with salt. Spices were popular. But they were oftentimes pricier than meat itself. So if someone could afford them, they could also buy unspoiled food.

一种误解是，中世纪的人都是无知和没有受过教育的。例如，19 世纪克里斯托弗·哥伦布的传记错误地声称中世纪欧洲人认为地球是平的。当然，许多中世纪的学者将地球描述为宇宙的中心——但关于它的形状并没有太多争论。一个流行的 13 世纪文本字面意思是“在世界的范围内”。随着修道院、修道院和大学的建立，识字率在中世纪逐渐提高。古代知识也没有“丢失”；希腊和罗马文本继续被研究。中世纪人吃腐烂的肉并用香料掩盖味道的想法在 1930 年代被一本英国书籍所普及。它误解了一种中世纪的食谱，并利用禁止出售腐烂肉的法律的存在作为经常食用这种肉的证据。事实上，中世纪的欧洲人避免食用腐臭的食物，并有安全保存肉类的方法，比如用盐腌制它们。香料很受欢迎。但它们通常比肉类本身更贵。因此，如果有人负担得起，他们也可以购买未变质的食物。

Meanwhile, the 19th century French historian Jules Michelet referred to the Middle Ages as “a thousand years without a bath.” But even small towns boasted well-used public bathhouses. People lathered up with soaps made of things like animal fat, ash, and scented herbs. And they used mouthwash, teeth-scrubbing cloths with pastes and powders, and spices and herbs for fresh-smelling breath.So, how about medieval torture devices? In the 1890s, a collection of allegedly “terrible relics of a semi-barbarous age” went on tour. Among them: the Iron Maiden, which fascinated viewers with its spiked doors— but it was fabricated, possibly just decades before. And there’s no indication Iron Maidens actually existed in the Middle Ages. The “Pear of Anguish,” meanwhile, did exist— but probably later on and it couldn’t have been used for torture. It may have just been a shoe-stretcher. Indeed, many ostensibly medieval torture devices are far more recent inventions. Medieval legal proceedings were overall less gruesome than these gadgets suggest. They included fines, imprisonment, public humiliation, and certain forms of corporal punishment. Torture and executions did happen, but especially violent punishments, like drawing and quartering, were generally reserved for crimes like high treason.

与此同时，19 世纪的法国历史学家儒勒·米什莱 (Jules Michelet) 将中世纪称为“一千年不洗澡”。但即使是小城镇也以使用良好的公共澡堂而自豪。人们用动物脂肪、灰烬和香草制成的肥皂起泡沫。他们使用漱口水、带有糊状物和粉末的擦牙布以及香料和草药来清新口气。那么，中世纪的刑具怎么样？在 1890 年代，一批据称是“半野蛮时代的可怕遗物”的藏品开始巡回展出。其中包括：铁娘子号，它的尖刺门让观众着迷——但它是捏造的，可能就在几十年前。而且没有迹象表明中世纪真的存在铁娘子。与此同时，“痛苦之梨”确实存在——但可能是后来的，它不可能被用来折磨人。它可能只是一个鞋撑。事实上，许多表面上看起来是中世纪的刑具实际上是最近才发明的。中世纪的法律程序总体上没有这些小工具所暗示的那么可怕。其中包括罚款、监禁、公开羞辱和某些形式的体罚。酷刑和处决确实发生过，但特别是暴力惩罚，如抽签和四分五裂，通常是为叛国罪等罪行保留的。

Surely chastity belts were real, though, right? Probably not. They were first mentioned by a 15th century German engineer, likely in jest, alongside fart jokes and a device for invisibility. From there, they became popular subjects of satire that were later mistaken for medieval reality.Ideas about the Middle Ages have varied depending on the interest of those in later times. The term— along with the pejorative “Dark Ages”— was popularized during the 15th and 16th centuries by scholars biased toward the Classical and Modern periods that came before and after. And, as Enlightenment thinkers celebrated their dedication to reason, they depicted medieval people as superstitious and irrational. In the 19th century, some Romantic European nationalist thinkers— well— romanticized the Middle Ages. They described isolated, white, Christian societies, emphasizing narratives of chivalry and wonder. But knights played minimal roles in medieval warfare. And the Middle Ages saw large-scale interactions. Ideas flowed into Europe along Byzantine, Muslim, and Mongol trade routes. And merchants, intellectuals, and diplomats of diverse origins visited medieval European cities.

不过，贞操带肯定是真的，对吧？可能不会。他们首先被一位 15 世纪的德国工程师提到，很可能是开玩笑，还提到了放屁笑话和隐形装置。从那里开始，它们成为流行的讽刺主题，后来被误认为是中世纪的现实。关于中世纪的想法因后来者的兴趣而异。这个词连同带有贬义的“黑暗时代”在 15 和 16 世纪被偏向于前后的古典和现代时期的学者所流行。而且，当启蒙思想家庆祝他们对理性的奉献时，他们将中世纪的人描绘成迷信和非理性的。在 19 世纪，一些浪漫的欧洲民族主义思想家——好吧——将中世纪浪漫化了。他们描述了孤立的、白人的基督教社会，强调了骑士精神和奇迹的叙述。但骑士在中世纪战争中的作用微乎其微。中世纪见证了大规模的互动。思想沿着拜占庭、穆斯林和蒙古的贸易路线流入欧洲。来自不同国家的商人、知识分子和外交官访问了中世纪的欧洲城市。

The biggest myth may be that the millennium of the Middle Ages amounts to one distinct, cohesive period of European history at all. Originally defined less by what they were than what they weren’t, the Middle Ages became a ground for dueling ideas— fueling more fantasy than fact.

最大的迷思可能是，中世纪的千年相当于欧洲历史上一个独特的、有凝聚力的时期。最初，中世纪的定义与其说是什么，不如说是什么，中世纪成为了思想决斗的场所——助长了更多的幻想而不是事实。