C
alling a thing by its proper name is a service to truth, if not to political ambitions or evil designs. Of course, ambitions abide and creating labels to denigrate an idea, opponent, or promote your agenda is nothing new. If I am a Progressive and you are not with me, you must be against Progress.
The Dark Ages was a clever label, attributed to Petrarch (d. 1374), stuck on the period after the decline of the Roman Empire which neatly contrasted with an earlier period of antiquity which boasted learning and literacy. With the recovery of classical texts, the classical light was dawning after a Dark Age and the Renaissance had finally come. Good for book sales, anyway.
T
imes of unrest surely outnumber times of peace. Of course, not every age has Attila the Hun. But one of them did. January 8 is the commemoration of Severinus of Noricum, who lived in the fifth century at a time of great upheaval in Pannonia (Austria).
His Life was written by his disciple Eugippius after Severinus death in 482. Eugippius wrote what he called a memoir of Severinus and sent it to the Deacon Paschasius, imploring him: Illustrious minister of Christ, thou hast the memoir. From it make by thy editorial care a profitable work. Paschasius read it and replied: Thou hast sent me a memoir to which the eloquence of the trained writer can add nothing. The Life begins: