Remember when I used to make fun of "the One True Century?"

More than a decade ago some of my friends in the Society for Creative Anachronism started using the phrase “one true century” in connection with the 14th century. They were re-enactors, and the characterization was based primarily on their love for the armor and the noble clothing of the period.

I had no quarrel with that; I’ve always liked that period myself. But the one-truness of that century spun my head. After all, that was the era of the plague, the HYW, and many other catastrophes, documented in that popular narrative history, Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror; the Great Papal schism; dramatic commoners’ revolts, and more.

I have been working with a number of primary sources of the 14th century, and sure enough a very negative picture very often emerges. But more recently I’ve been inspired by other sources to rethink my feelings about “the one true century”. I subscribe to an e-mail list which publishes reviews of books from the whole range of medieval scholarship. A lot of these books are very specialized, or include articles that because of length may not be published elsewhere.

The reviewers, the authors, and the readers have a wealth of material to draw upon. Individual reviews may seem obscure, but taken together can make a big impression.

In particular, the large number of writings, say those devoted to theology, the development of clerical institutions, and so forth provide a rich picture of a century in which many things happened not all of them bad. Another example of the true century: I am sure that I am merely the millionth person to notice that Geoffrey Chaucer not only fought in the HYW but invented English literature. (OK, exaggeration.)

I am a bit embarrassed to find myself granting such legitimacy to “the One True Century.” After all, my first graduate course was one about the Avignon papacy (taught by Norman Zacour, bless him).

And of course we can easily find any century nearly impossible to classify: If you are old enough to remember it, try to find a good label for the twenieth century!