6 Reasons The Dark Ages Weren't That Dark

The idea of the “Dark Ages” came from later scholars who were heavily biased toward ancient Rome.

  • In the years following 476 A.D., various Germanic peoples conquered the former Roman Empire in the West 
  • The negative view of the so-called “Dark Ages” became popular largely because most of the written records of the time
  • Accordingly, they dismissed the era that followed as a dark and chaotic time in which no great leaders emerged
  • While it’s true that such innovations as Roman concrete were lost, and the literacy rate was not as high in the Early Middle ages as in ancient Rome, the idea of the so-called “Dark Ages” came from Renaissance scholars like Petrarch, who viewed Ancient Greece and Rome as the pinnacle of human achievement
  • no scientific accomplishments were made and no great art was produced

The Church replaced the Roman Empire as the most powerful force in Europe, redefining the relationship between church and state.

  • In Rome’s absence, Europe in the Early Middle Ages lacked a large kingdom or other political structure
  • Instead, the medieval Church grew into the most powerful institution in Europe
  • Kings, queens and other rulers during the early medieval period drew much of their authority and power from their relationship with the Church
  • The rise of a strong papacy, beginning with Gregory the Great meant that European monarchs could not monopolize power
  • This idea of limits on royal power would continue into the High Middle Ages

The growth of monasticism had important implications for later Western values and attitudes.

  • The dominance of the Church during the Early Middle Ages was a major reason later scholars—specifically those of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century and the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries—branded the period as “unenlightened”
  • believing the clergy repressed intellectual progress in favor of religious piety
  • But early Christian monasteries encouraged literacy and learning
  • One particularly influential monk of the Early Middle Ages was Benedict of Nursia (480-543), who founded the great monastery of Montecassino
  • His Benedictine Rule—a kind of written constitution laying out standards for the monastery and congregation and limiting the abbot’s authority according to these standards—spread across Europe

The Early Middle Ages were boom times for agriculture.

  • Before the Early Middle Ages, Europe’s agricultural prosperity was largely limited to the south
  • the invention of the heavy plough, which could turn over the much more fertile clay soil deep in the earth
  • Another key innovation of the period was the horse collar, which was placed around a horse’s neck and shoulders to distribute weight and protect the animal when pulling a wagon or plough
  • Horses proved to be much more powerful and effective than oxen
  • The use of metal horseshoes had become common practice by 1000 A.D. as well

Great advances were made in science and math—in the Islamic world.

  • Among the more popular myths about the “Dark Ages” is the idea that the medieval Christian church suppressed natural scientists
  • Historical evidence doesn’t support this idea: Progress may have been slower in Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages, but it was steady, and it laid the foundations for future advances in the later medieval period
  • the Islamic world leaped ahead in mathematics and the sciences, building on a foundation of Greek and other ancient texts translated into Arabic
  • The Latin translation of “The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing,”
  • by the ninth-century Persian astronomer and mathematician al-Khwarizmi (c. 780-c. 850), would introduce Europe to algebra

The Carolingian Renaissance saw a flowering in the arts, literature, architecture and other cultural realms.

  • Karl, a son of Pepin the Short, inherited the Frankish kingdom with his brother Carloman when Pepin died in 768
  • As representative of the first Germanic tribe to practice Catholicism, Charlemagne took seriously his duty to spread the faith
  • In 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne “emperor of the Romans,”
  • Charlemagne worked to uphold this lofty distinction
  • A key advancement of Charlemagne’s rule was the introduction of a standard handwriting script, known as Carolingian miniscule

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