Thanks, Leofranc. Almost exactly what I would have said myself if I'd had
time, though you adduce some examples that are new and interesting to me.
For the benefit of novices in ancient & medieval studies, I would add only
that the medieval Christian church had no need to feel threatened by
Greco-Roman paganism, which was no longer a serious rival to Christian
belief; just as we today can read myths about Jupiter, Venus, Mars, et
al., without feeling compelled to believe in the existence of such
deities, so medieval authors such as Chaucer could use those mythological
characters for their own fictional purposes without fear of condemnation
by church authorities. Imposing a Christian interpretation on a pagan
text, as was sometimes done in the Middle Ages, could make the text more
meaningful and valuable in the eyes of medieval Christian readers, but it
was seldom if ever a matter of book-burning campaigns; simple neglect of
texts that held little relevance to medieval Christendom was the main
factor. Just to underscore Leofranc's point, there is a huge difference
between failing to take good care of a book and deliberately burning it.
How do these myths about medieval book-burnings come about, anyway?
Randi Eldevik
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