Well, kind of. Or not really. But some things you (thought you) knew about Mediæval Europe, or at least about twelfth-century England, are wrong.
I am assuming, of course, that most people conceive of Europe during the "Dark Ages" as almost uniformly Christian - as I once did. But Peter of Cornwall, as quoted by Robert Bartlett in his England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings, gives us reason to believe otherwise:
(Hat tip to Peter van Inwagen.)
I am assuming, of course, that most people conceive of Europe during the "Dark Ages" as almost uniformly Christian - as I once did. But Peter of Cornwall, as quoted by Robert Bartlett in his England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings, gives us reason to believe otherwise:
"There are many people who do not believe that God exists, nor do they think that a human soul lives on after the death of the body. They consider that the universe has always been as it is now and is ruled by chance rather than by Providence."Probably not what you would have expected from a prior writing centuries before Hume and Spinoza. Incidentally, this is yet another indication of the strong historical ties between atheism and belief in an eternally old universe.
(Hat tip to Peter van Inwagen.)
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