> From: Damon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > That's all very nice but you failed to directly address what I was > referring to: you linked the "Dark Ages" with the rise of the Papacy. This > shows a lack of research on your part, or even an acknowledgement of > medieval history. > > The Dark Ages was a VERY specific period referred to by English historians > describing the time between the withdraw of the Roman field army from > Britain and the emergence of the Germanic kingdoms. The "dark" part refers > to the fact that for this period extremely little written information is > available (or so far discovered) and (at the time) only a little > archaeological evidence. Pop historians (or just pop culture in general) > applied the term to encompass the entire Early Middle Ages (approx 500 to > 1100 AD) or in some cases the entire Middle Ages as a pejorative. But > according to its actual definition, the "Dark Ages" never existed.
I was referring to the more popular definition of dark ages. But my general definition of dark ages is about 500ad to the end of the crusades / renaissance. There is also the greek dark ages. > Secondly, you link the idea that the rise in the Papacy and the "dark ages" > is fundamentally linked somehow. Of course, if you actually researched > early ecclesiastical history (post 500 to around 1000) you would realize > that the power of the Catholic church during this period was tenuous at > best, and survived only because of the sponsorship of some of the most > powerful states of the Early Middle Ages: namely the Franks and to a > certain (though different) extent the Eastern Roman Empire. Neither the > Scandinavians, Slavs, Magyars, nor the Muslims cared one whit about the > Catholic church, and in their own separate, individual ways, were > threatening to destroy it. > > Finally, the idea that the Middle Ages were stagnant in any way shows a > fundamental lack of understanding of history in general. Read a book. Are you saying that there was no loss of technologies from about the time of Constantine to the renaissance? Are you saying their was no loss of mathematics? Are you saying their was no loss of religion? Sure there was some progress made during that time, but there was a lot was lost for a thousand years. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
