It is a good thing that mediaevalists know all about doing homage, going to Canossa, and suchlike. Given the direct descent of progressivism from the early-modern Protestantism, humanism and classicism that overthrew the mediaeval era, it is not surprising that most people today still view that era as a period of barbarism. But the fort of anti-mediaevalism has long lain undefended in the progressivist rear, and mediaevalists (like Regine Pernoud) are generally free to walk up and demolish whole sections of it. Claims that mediaeval Europeans did not bathe or have table manners, that the Spanish Inquisition was a terrible holocaust, or that the scholars opposing Columbus in the 1490s thought that the Earth was flat, have all gone into the urban myths dustbin.
But now along comes the Alt-Right with a few 'Deus Vult' memes, and suddenly mediaevalism is controversial again. An achingly politically-correct article notes the Alt-Right's habitual use of mediaeval themes, and casts a suspicious eye on scholars who may be using the history of mediaeval Europe as a "safe space to be white" while "resisting critical theory". Expect a rush by mediaevalists to signal their political correctness by approving a non-white job grab in their field, rehashing old canards about benign Muslim influence and Andalusian paradise, and pretending to give a respectful hearing to "we-wuz-kangz" Afrocentric gibberish about European historical figures.
