ABSTRACT
Medieval Catholicism provided Carlyle with a scale of reference for, and a method of exploring, an invigorated means of metaphysical communication which was not hamstrung by the inappropriate tools of rationalist discussion and philosophical enquiry. Medieval symbolism is also perceived to be about depth: Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio - “an emblem of the noblest conception of that age” - and Paradiso “make up the true Unseen World, as figured in the Christianity of the Middle Ages; a thing forever memorable, forever true in the essence of it, to all men”. The quest for spiritual unity was also something Thomas Carlyle shared with Catholicism, holding the Romantic view of the Middle Ages as an age of unity and seeing the medievals as spiritually sincere, while believing that “only in a world of sincere men is unity possible”. Medieval Christianity was great because faith was translated into “deed” as a necessary part of the religion.
