Reading Thomas Cahill



Thomas Cahill

Since the semester has ended, I've indulged greatly in reading for pleasure--and, oh, has it been a pleasure!  I began my literary sojourn with an author I have never read before, one Thomas Cahill.  I picked up two of the books from his Hinges of History series, a series in which he means "to retell the story of the Western world as the story of the great gift-givers, those who entrusted to our keeping one or another of the single treasures that make up the patrimony of the West."

I love the idea behind the Hinges of History, but I must tuck in a disclaimer before I get started with my reviews.  Thomas Cahill is not a trained historian.  While he has a great deal of academic prowess behind him, I tend to be a little skeptical of anyone who hasn't undergone the rigorous training that I'm undergoing right now.  Yet, I try not to be snobby.  Cahill has credentials from Fordham, Columbia, Union Theological Seminary, and the Jewish Theological Seminary.  If that's not the next best thing to a history degree, then I don't know what is.

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe

Cahill loves the Irish.  Every line of this book simply glows with his reverence for the people of the Emerald Isle.  He provides a quote from Edmund Campion that "rings true to this day:"

"The people are thus inclined: religious, franke, amorous, irefull, sufferable of paines infinite, very glorious, many sorcerers, excellent horsemen, delighted with warres, great almes-givers, [sur]passing in hospitalitie....  They are sharpe-witted, lovers of learning, capable of any studie whereunto they bend themselves, constant in travaile, adverterous, intractable, kinde-hearted, secret in displeasure."

If there was anyone who loved the Irish more than Cahill, it was St. Patrick.  Cahill provides a charming biography of the famous Brit-turned-Irishman, underscoring his importance in establishing the Church in Ireland.  Through the efforts of Patrick and those who followed him, scribes in Irish monasteries set about copying the great literature of Latin antiquity.  Through this work, Cahill argues, the words of Cicero, Virgil, and others were saved from extinction.  While Europe was in decline after the fall of Rome and while its great libraries were being destroyed by barbarian hordes, it fell to Irish monks, safe on their island, to protect the Latin inheritance for the world.

While telling the story of the Irish scribes and St. Patrick, Cahill also describes the manner in which the Catholic church in Ireland developed with very little, if any, influence from Rome and Papal authority.  Because of this, customs and rituals differed between Irish Catholic and Roman Catholic churches, with, among other things, the Irish creating the idea of private rather than public confession.  When Irish missionary efforts brought their brand of Catholicism into Scotland and then down into England, they came up against the Roman Catholics who had come across the Channel from the European continent.  The two groups eventually merged together at the Synod of Whitby, with bits of each taking hold and melding into the orthodoxy of the Catholic church in the British Isles.

Patrick's world did not last forever in Ireland--the Vikings saw to that.  But the work of the monks and missionaries who followed in Patrick's footsteps would carry on.  Irish-trained monks established monasteries on the continent, bringing with them their copies of Latin works and proving Cahill's point that the Irish saved the Latin patrimony.

What makes How the Irish Saved Civilization such a good read?  Well, first Cahill's narrative style is wonderful (more so in Mysteries of the Middle Ages).  In addition, Cahill includes a great deal of information about, and samples of, Irish vernacular literature.  These long-ago tales provide a glimpse into early Irish history, and Cahill tells them with relish.  His passion comes through on each page--very compelling to this reader.

Mysteries of the Middle Ages and the Beginning of the Modern World

 

This book caught my attention because it was so damned pretty.  The illustrations, the typeset, the entire layout of the book are eye-catching.  Add that to my new-found fascination with the Middle Ages, and I was hooked. 

First, the bad news.  There was nothing "mysterious" about what Cahill included in the book.  While he does a good job at showing the connections between the late antique world and the Middle Ages, that is nothing new.  His stories of some of the more fascinating characters of the time--Hildegard of Bingen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Dante Alighieri, Abelard and Heloise, Francis of Assisi--are well-written and compelling, but not new.  In fact, the source he used for his section on Eleanor of Aquitaine rests on my bookshelf already.

Now the good news.  Cahill's writing style is absolutely captivating.  I love reading a book that really challenges my vocabulary.  And Cahill delivers!  I was reaching for my phone's dictionary app over and over.  And he's a little snarky, which I also adore.  One example can be seen in his description of England's Henry II:  "The red-haired Henry had the face of a lion, the body of a bull, and the voice of a crow."  Not exactly Peter O'Toole in The Lion in Winter, is he?  (Eleanor:  "Henry?"  Henry:  "Hmmm?"  Eleanor:  "I have a confession."  Henry: "Yes?"  Eleanor:  "I don't much like our children.")

Another excellent description comes from Cahill's section on Hildegard of Bingen:

"As I see her, she is a small woman, wrinkled in old age--"Schrumpilgard" (Wrinklepus)....But she is a know-it-all, always right about everything.  Her sisters could find her unendurable because of her 'insufferable hammering way' and they would glower at her and, in her words, 'tear me to pieces behind my back.'"

While there may not be any new material provided, this book still makes for an excellent read.  It is smart and classy, full of beautiful illustrations, and well-written.  The little biographical sketches bring to life the famous men and women who were so important in their time and whose accomplishments linger to this very day.  Unfortunately, Cahill slips every now and again into commentary on today's political hot topics; any of my liberal friends who may read this book will likely nod along with Cahill's contemporary yammering.  As for me, I found it easy to skim through these parts and move on to the better stuff.

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Anyone reading either of the above works by Thomas Cahill will not be sorry.  They are fun, challenging, interesting, evocative, and accessible.  I imagine there are more Thomas Cahill books in my future....