who are crafty,
fertile in resource, and clever in action.[2224] In the Icelandic saga
of Burnt Njal, Njal is the knowing man, peaceful and friendly. His
crafty devices are chiefly due to his knowledge of the law, which was
full of chicane and known to few. These clever heroes, developed out of
the mores of one period and fixed in the epics, became standards and
guides for the mores of later times, in which they were admired as types
of what every one would like to be.

+717. Lack of historic sense amongst Christians.+ In the first centuries
of the Christian era no school of religion or philosophy thought that it
was an inadmissible proceeding to concoct edifying writings and
attribute them to some great authority of earlier centuries, or to
invent historical documents to advance a cause or support the claims of
a sect. This view came down to the Middle Ages. The lack of historic
feeling is well shown by the crusaders who, after Antioch was taken, in
the next few days and on the spot, began to write narratives of the
deeds of their respective commanders which were not true, but were
exaggerated, romantic, and imaginary. They were not derived from
observation of facts, but were fashioned upon the romances of
chivalry.[2225] This was not myth making. It was conscious reveling in
poetic creation according to the prevailing literary type. It was not
falsehood, but it showed an entire absence of the sense of historic
truth. In the case of the canon law, "the decretals were intended to
furnish a documentary title, running back to apostolic times, for the
divine institution of the primacy of the pope, and for the teaching
office of bishops; a title which in truth did not exist."[2226] There
was probably lacking in the minds of the men who invented the decretals
all consciousness of antagonism between fact and their literary work. If
they could have been confronted with the ethical question, they would
probably have said that they knew that the doctrines in question were
true, and that if the fathers had had occasion to speak of them they
would have said such things as were put in their mouths. Mediaeval
history writing was not subject to canons of truth or taste. It included
what was edifying, to the glory of God and the church. Legends and
history were of equal value, since both were used for edification. The
truth of either was unimportant.

+718. Success policy in the Italian Renaissance.+ The historical period
in which t