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Dark Age
The concept of a Dark Age was created by the Italian scholar Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) in the 1330s as an age which separated his own from the riches of classical antiquity and was originally intended as a sweeping criticism of the character of Late Latin literature.
The term "Dark Ages" was originally intended to denote the entire period between the fall of Rome and the "Renaissance"; the term "Middle Ages" has a similar motivation, implying an "intermediate" period between Classical Antiquity and the modern era. In the 19th century scholars began to recognize the accomplishments made during the period, thereby challenging the image of the Middle Ages as a time of darkness and decay.
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.
The term "Dark Ages" was originally intended to denote the entire period between the fall of Rome and the "Renaissance"; the term "Middle Ages" has a similar motivation, implying an "intermediate" period between Classical Antiquity and the modern era. In the 19th century scholars began to recognize the accomplishments made during the period, thereby challenging the image of the Middle Ages as a time of darkness and decay.
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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