Posted on 03/21/2015 10:09:27 AM PDT by walkinginthedesert
These will be known as the “Uncivilized Years.”
Thanks for posting. Interesting and accurate, as long as we remember it’s the argument by the defense attorney, not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The prosecution has a good argument also.
ping
Michelangelo (1475-1564) belongs in the Renaissance, not the Dark Ages, a name given to the period roughly between the deterioration of the Western Roman Empire and the later Middle Ages.
“Dark Ages” ping
Feminism will be the future barbaric rule of women getting revenge on men, once they get into power.
The Feminist’s dominant rule once they have achieved and gotten the power they crave and lust after will be the genocide of men, that’s their final goal.
The same barbaric rule by the homosexuals when they both rule together with the feminists to wipe out men and Christians.
Thanks, a needed antidote to the anti-medievalism so common in our educational/media complex. The Medieval period was when Western Civilization was formed, and the medieval people were our forebears.
Much depends on precisely how we define the term "Middle Ages".
The centuries following the Western Roman Empire's fall are usually called "Dark Ages", followed by "Middle Ages" then "Renaissance" in Western Europe.
Of course, the Dark Ages were not so dark in the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Renaissance is said to have begun & ended over a period of centuries, depending on which part of Europe we're talking about.
The Middle Ages themselves are often divided into Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages, each with distinguishing characteristics, depending on time and place.
But the bottom line is: if we pick out just the best of each age, then it will have much to recommend it.
Conversely, if we focus on just the worst of each age, then it will have much to condemn.
Just as Charles Dickens said of Paris and London during the French Revolution:
Wise comments.
Though I suspect it’s difficult to find a great deal positive in the Dark Ages.
And one might add that Medieval times and the period “Dark Ages” is most often applied to are distinct. The time between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire around 450 AD and the rise of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor was indeed dark. Classical knowledge was forgotten, Christianity itself was largely displaced by paganism everywhere but Ireland and a small territory around Rome itself, and few written records were made of what went on, leaving later scholars in the “dark”. Christian missionary and by conquest reconversion of the west and the prolific writing and scholarship of the monasteries switched the lights back on.
From 500 to 700 (give or take a few decades) was generally not a pleasant time, because people had to scramble to make the best of things mostly on their own. It was rough.
As the Carolingian Empire developed, as Italy formed stable principalities, as England became unified and well-managed, things got much better.
No age is perfect, but from 800 to 1300 (give or take a few decades), things were not too bad. The Mongols and the Black Death (1348)were dark events, but Europe went on to enter the period we call the Renaissance. A rather troubled time in its own way, but one we think highly of.
The true Middle Ages (roughly 800 to 1300) had a lot to recommend it. Europe forged a special identity then, and we still benefit from that.
In the minds of many, the “Medieval Era” seems to encompass everything from the last days of the Roman Empire (West), the Fifth Century, to the latter part of the Age of Discovery. Even the title (The Not “So” Dark Ages) seems to equate the “Medieval Times” with the Dark Ages.
BEEP!
We are currently experiencing the ‘dark ages’. And it gets darker daily.
He makes the mistake of conflating the “dark ages” with the “middle ages”. Otherwise, good post.
Classical knowledge was forgotten, Christianity itself was largely displaced by paganism everywhere but Ireland and a small territory around Rome itself
Most of the territory of the Empire was invaded and settled by "Christian" Germanic tribes. They were mostly Arians, but still Christians.
The two main exception of which I'm aware were the early Franks and Anglo-Saxons. Also I think the Lombards were still partly pagan when they invaded Italy.
That confusion is often blamed on Protestants. But it’s more accurate to blame it on humanists and others of the early Renaissance, who wanted to bask in their rebirth of civilization after the awful period of the Middle/Dark Ages.
They were so in love with the classical world that they were unable to see any of the good things achieved during the interim. Which were many.
Many days of back-breaking work broken up by many days of feasting, drinking and debauchery, that even our college fraternities of today would have trouble keeping up with.
During the cold winter months, when there was little work to do in the fields, casks of beer, mead and wine would be opened and animals of all types would be roasting on open-fire spits.
There was a period of time between mid-December and New Yeere's Day where the feasting would reach a peak. Men would dress as women and women would dress as men and they would be "wassailing", in which bands of them would show up at the doors of the rich, and demand "treats". Yes, it was the origins of our modern tradition of "trick or treating" on Halloween. Only back then, it was the adults who did it and one can only imagine the hangovers as they would get "quite in their cups" so to speak.
The rich tolerated this as it allowed the peasants to blow off a little steam in a relatively harmless fashion. Interesting to note that as North American began to get settled in the 1600s, Christmas celebrations was actually banned as the Pilgrims and Puritans did not want that kind of debauchery repeated over here.
Eventually, Christmas was resurrected in America as a domestic holiday with a heavy emphasis on commerce. The entire retail industry was initially built around the Christmas tradition of exchanging gifts and consuming mass quantities of food and drink.
“Classical knowledge was forgotten, Christianity itself was largely displaced by paganism ...”
From 632-1499, classical knowledge was destroyed by the invading Islamic armies of Muhammad and his disciples who fought 528 battles against western armies, and enslaved western women; Christianity was displaced by Islam. Fear of Islam stemming from this horrific period still pervades western civilization today.
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