the ten centuries from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the start of the Renaissance in the 15th.

中世紀是自西羅馬帝國於西元 5 世紀滅亡以來，一直到 15 世紀文藝復興，中間的 10 個世紀。

This is especially true between the year 1000, when global warming brought grapes to England and grain to the coasts of Greenland,

尤其在西元 1000 年左右時，全球暖化使英國開始種植葡萄，而格陵蘭沿岸也出現穀類，

doubling the population and reviving town life all across the Europe,

使得整個歐洲的人口翻倍，同時也活絡了城市生活。

and 1348, after the warming had ended and the Black Death arrived from the east.

然後在 1348 年，在暖化結束之後，黑死病就從東方來到。

Let's take a closer look at these years. We'll make a good start by dispelling some nonsense.

讓我們仔細看看這段時間吧。我們會先從破解一些荒唐的概念開始。

The people of the Middle Ages did not believe the earth was flat. They knew it was round.

例如，中世紀的人們並不相信地球是平的。他們知道它是圓的。

The ancients said it was round, the Fathers of the Church said it was round;

古人們說它是圓的、教會的神父們說它是圓的、

they saw its shadow during an eclipse of the moon, and the shadow was round;

他們在月蝕時看見地球的影子，而它也是圓的、

they saw masts of ships sinking below the horizon -- round!

他們看見船尾在地平線的盡頭隱沒，一切都證明地球是圓的！

More nonsense: the Middle Ages were cheerless. Quite the reverse!

更荒唐的是，有人認為中世紀是死氣沉沉的。恰好相反！

They were full of color, of celebrations involving everybody in town;

那是一個五彩繽紛，且充滿大規模城市慶祝活動的時代、

they invented the carnival; they revived popular drama, which had lain dormant for a thousand years.

他們發明了嘉年華會、他們使沉寂了將近一千年的傳統戲劇起死回生。

Whatever they did, whether it was sinning or fighting or repenting or falling in love,

不論他們犯罪、打鬥、懺悔、戀愛、

or traveling thousands of miles to Rome or to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, they did it with energy and gusto.

千里跋涉到羅馬或聖墓教堂（位於耶路撒冷），他們都是相當活力帶勁的。

What do we owe to the Middle Ages?

我們這個時代該將什麼歸功於中世紀呢？

How about the university? Medieval man invented it.

談談大學吧。是中世紀的人建立這個制度的。

For the first time in the history of the world, you could go to Paris or Bologna or Padua or Oxford or Prague or Cologne

史上頭一次，你可以到巴黎、波隆那、帕多瓦、牛津、布拉格或是科隆等地，

and study under masters of law, medicine, philosophy and theology,

並且在法學、醫藥學、哲學或神學的大師底下學習，

and your degree-- designating you as a master or a doctor -- would hold good anywhere in Europe.

至於你的學位，也就是決定你是碩士或博士的文件，則在全歐洲都有效。

It was an international community of scholars.

那是一個屬於學者的跨國界社群。

A young Thomas Aquinas, born in southern Italy at the beginning of the 13th century,

年輕的湯瑪斯．阿奎納（中世紀神學家），出生在 13 世紀初義大利北方，

would travel to Cologne to study philosophy under the philosopher-biologist Albert the Great,

會到柯隆，在偉大的哲學家暨生物學家阿爾伯特門下研習哲學，

then to Paris where he taught theology and philosophy, then to Rome, and back to France --

又到巴黎教授神學與哲學，再到羅馬，復又返回法國，

and this sort of thing was the rule among scholars, not the exception.

這樣的事情對當時的學者來說相當普遍，沒有例外。

How about modern science? Thomas's teacher Albert was a biologist. Why should that surprise us?

當代科學就更不用說了。湯瑪斯的老師阿爾伯特是一位生物學家。這樣的身分為什麼會讓我們感到驚訝？

Medieval man believed that God made the world as an ordered whole.

中世紀的人們相信，上帝將這世界造成一個有秩序的整體。

They learned it both from Scripture and from pagan thinkers such as Aristotle.

他們藉由聖經中的字句，以及異教徒思想家如亞里斯多德等人中認知到這件事。

Science did not burst on the scene with Galileo.

科學並不是在伽利略的時候才蓬勃發展的。

Copernicus died in the sixteenth century, but he was a priest-astronomer at a Polish university founded in the Middle Ages.

哥白尼，這位牧師兼天文學家雖然逝世於十六世紀，但卻是出身於中世紀時便已成立的波蘭大學。

He wasn't even the first man to suggest that the earth orbited the sun.

他甚至不是第一個提出「地球繞太陽轉動」的人。

Others had ventured the suggestion.

其他人早已嘗試提出這樣的假說。

Most prominent was the late medieval Nicholas of Cusa -- a philosopher and a cardinal in the Church.

而其中最知名的，應該是中世紀晚期的庫薩的尼古拉，同時是一位哲學家和教堂的樞機主教。

How about architecture?

至於建築呢？

If the Middle Ages were dark and ignorant,

如果中世紀真是那麼黑暗又無知，

how come ordinary people-- masons, carpenters, painters, sculptors, glazers --

為何諸如石匠、木匠、畫家、雕刻家和玻璃匠這些平凡人，

erected the most beautiful and majestic buildings to grace the earth, the Gothic cathedrals?

可以將哥德式教堂這樣壯麗雄偉的建築聳立在地球上，並為其增添榮耀？

Without power tools, with pulleys and winches and scaffolding and their bare hands,

他們沒有電動工具，僅僅靠著滑輪、絞車、腳手架（建築工具），和他們的雙手，

they built up lacework in stone and glass, flooding vast interior spaces with color and light;

就在石頭和玻璃間雕鏤花紋，並將教堂內部廣大的空間注入色彩與光亮。

we have nothing to match their complexity and beauty.

我們無法和他們的精微與美麗相比。

And art? Studying the ancients, Medieval man produced whole genres of art that the world had never seen.

再說人文藝術吧。中世紀的人們藉著學習前人的作品，創作出了許多前所未見的文類。

There had never been anything like Dante's Divine Comedy or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,

世上從來沒有作品像但丁的《神曲》或喬叟的《坎特貝雷故事集》，

or the Arthurian legends of Chretien de Troyes; or the paintings of Giotto,

或是克雷蒂安．德．特魯瓦（法國作家）的亞瑟王傳奇、喬托（義大利畫家）的繪畫，

or the astonishingly beautiful and precise work of the illuminators of manuscripts.

或是那令人讚嘆且精確無誤的泥金裝飾手抄本（中世紀重要宗教文獻）。

What else do we owe to them? Western music.

他們還留下什麼？西洋古典音樂！

They invented our musical notation, and western harmony; not to mention the humble carols we enjoy at Christmas time.

是他們發明了我們的音樂計譜法和西式的和聲，更不用提我們在聖誕佳節時所聆聽的謙遜聖歌。

A tradition of local self-government -- witness the chartered towns all over Europe.

中世紀也遺留下地區性的自治政府傳統，只要看看當時遍布歐洲，領有特許狀的城鎮就知道。

Free associations of men united for the common good: friars, guildsmen, members of lay orders devoted to good works;

不同組織人們為了公共的利益而結合：修士、行會、致力於善事的第三會（天主教修會）的人們，

people who established schools, orphanages, and hospitals.

以及那些建立學校、孤兒院與醫院的人。

Far from the Dark Ages, which it is popularly called, The Middle Ages might better be described as the Brilliant Ages,

中世紀被稱為「輝煌時期」遠比現在普遍稱呼的「黑暗時期」更加合適，

a startling epoch of progress from science to art, from philosophy to medicine.

那是一個從科學到人文藝術、從哲學到醫藥學都有奪目進展的時代。

Indeed, in one crucial way, we are less civilized than those who enhanced human existence over a thousand years ago:

事實上，相較於這些千年前致力於提升人類存在價值的人來說，我們是更不文明的：

we dismiss the achievements of our ancestors, and fall short of them;

因為我們略去了先人的成就，甚至還遠不及他們；

they honored their ancestors, and surpassed them.

但他們卻以他們的祖先為榮，並且超越他們。

I'm Anthony Esolen of Providence College for Prager University.

我是普洛威斯頓學院的 Anthony Esolen，這是 Prager University。