Dark Ages.pdf

DARK AGES DARK AGES. The Dark Ages is a term once used by historians to denote the early Middle Ages. It remains in common parlance today, but its use has largely been rejected by scholars. Origins of the Concept of the "Dark Ages" In England the Dark Ages were commonly supposed to begin in AD 410 w...

DARK AGES DARK AGES. The Dark Ages is a term once used by historians to denote the early Middle Ages. It remains in common parlance today, but its use has largely been rejected by scholars. Origins of the Concept of the "Dark Ages" In England the Dark Ages were commonly supposed to begin in AD 410 when a plea for reinforcements by the province of Britannia fell on deaf ears in Rome. The period ended with the Norman Conquest of 1066 when England was drawn more closely into the affairs of continental Europe by the Frenchspeaking King William I and his descendants. Elsewhere in Europe, the Dark Ages are said to have started with the deposition of the last western Roman emperor in AD 476 and to have ended with the crowning of Charlemagne as Roman emperor in AD 800. In the United States, it has also been common to use the term "the Dark Ages” to denote the entire Middle Ages from late antiquity until the Renaissance. Francesco Petrarch (1304-74), an Italian scholar and early humanist, coined the term the Dark Ages in the fourteenth century. He was thinking specifically in literary terms, comparing the quality of Latin written in the ancient Roman Empire with that of the intervening period. In the eighteenth century, English historian Edward Gibbon blamed the decline in learning after the fall of the Roman Empire on Christianity, a view that no serious scholar now entertains. For more recent historians, the darkness of the early medieval period was signified by a lack of written records. Civilization In the Early Middle Ages Respectable arguments can be made that there was a sharp fall in the level of civilization in Europe following the barbarian invasion of the Western provinces of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. In some areas, such as Spain and Italy, invading Goths attempted to maintain the Roman administrative apparatus. However, the empire's fragmentation led to a collapse in trade and a general decline in living standards. The replacement of the Roman civilian elite with a caste of foreign military rulers also changed the complexion of society. Education and administrative ability became the preserve of the church as the aristocracy concentrated on martial prowess. Some areas, 10 particular the province of Britannia, suffered a near total collapse. The monetary economy ceased to exist in the British Isles, and even the knowledge of such basic technology as the potter's wheel was lost for two centuries. However, from this nadir, the Early Middle Ages were a time of slow but significant technological advance. Machinery, in the form of waterwheels, spread across Europe such that thousands were recorded in England in the eleventh century. Improvements to harness design made horses an efficient beast of burden, while the stirrup, introduced from the East, made them into more effective mounts for knights (White 1966). During this period, it is not an exaggeration to say that the light of learning was preserved by the Catholic Church, which was the only institution of the late Roman Empire to survive its collapse. The church also ensured the continuation of Latin literacy. Almost all extant ancient Roman literature was copied and recopied by Christian monks who labored to preserve this pagan and secular heritage, together with exclusively Christian writing. As the barbarian tribes were convened to Christianity by Irish monks from the West and Italian missionaries from the South, European civilization was slowly rebuilt.