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Random Facts about the Dark Ages
THE DARK AGES
The Dark Ages is a name often applied by historians to the
Middle Ages, a term comprising about 1,000 years, from the
fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century to the
invention of printing in the fifteenth. The period is called
"dark" because of the generally depraved state of European
society at this time, the subservience of men's minds to
priestly domination, and the general indifference to
learning. The admirable civilization that Rome had developed
and fostered, was swept out of existence by the barbarous
invaders from Northern Europe, and there is no doubt that
the first half of the medieval era, at least, from the year
500 to 1000, was one of the most brutal and ruffianly epochs
in history. The principal characteristic of the middle ages
were the feudal system and the papal power. By the first the
common people were ground into a condition of almost
hopeless slavery, by the second the evolution of just and
equitable governments by the ruling clashes was rendered
impossible through the intrusion of the pontifical authority
into civil affairs. Learning did not wholly perish, but it
betook itself to the seclusion of the cloisters. The
monasteries were the resort of many earnest scholars, and
there were prepared the writings of historians,
metaphysicians and theologians. But during this time man
lived, as the historian Symonds says, "enveloped in a cowl."
The study of nature was not only ignored but barred, save
only as it ministered in the forms of alchemy and astrology
to the one cardinal medieval virtue--- credulity. Still the
period saw many great characters and events fraught with the
greatest importance to the advancement of the race.
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