UPDATED: AUG 29, 2018 · ORIGINAL: MAY 31, 2016
6 Reasons the Dark Ages Weren’t So Dark
The centuries following the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. are often
referred to as the Dark Ages—but were they really?
SARAH PRUITT
1. 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 (including Europe and North Africa), shoving aside ancient
Roman traditions in favor of their own. The negative view of the so-called “Dark Ages”
became popular largely because most of the written records of the time (including St.
Jerome and St. Patrick in the fifth century, Gregory of Tours in the sixth and Bede in
the eighth) had a strong Rome-centric bias.
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. Accordingly, they dismissed
the era that followed as a dark and chaotic time in which no great leaders emerged,
no scientific accomplishments were made and no great art was produced.
2. 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 as a single centralizing force, apart from a brief period during the
reign of the Frankish Emperor Charlemagne (more on that later). Instead, the
medieval Church grew into the most powerful institution in Europe, thanks in no
small part to the rise of monasticism, a movement that began in the third century
with St. Anthony of Egypt and would rise to its most influential point in the High
Middle Ages (1000-1300 A.D.).
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 (pope from 590 to 604), meant that
European monarchs could not monopolize power, unlike in the days of the Roman
Empire. This idea of limits on royal power would continue into the High Middle Ages,
influencing such milestones as the Magna Carta and the birth of the English
Parliament.
3. 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” (otherwise known as dark), believing the clergy repressed intellectual
progress in favor of religious piety. But early Christian monasteries encouraged
literacy and learning, and many medieval monks were both patrons of the arts and
artists themselves.
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, eventually becoming the model for most Western monasteries. Finally,
Benedict’s insistence that “Idleness is the enemy of the soul” and his rule that monks
should do manual as well as intellectual and spiritual labor anticipated the famous
Protestant work ethic by centuries.
4. The Early Middle Ages were boom
times for agriculture.
Before the Early Middle Ages, Europe’s agricultural prosperity was largely limited to
the south, where sandy, dry and loose soil was well suited to the earliest functioning
plough, known as the scratch plough. But the invention of the heavy plough, which
could turn over the much more fertile clay soil deep in the earth, would galvanize the
agriculture of northern Europe by the 10th century. 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, and the horse collar
would revolutionize both agriculture and transportation. The use of metal horseshoes
had become common practice by 1000 A.D. as well.
Scientists also believe something called the Medieval Warm Period took place from
900 to 1300, during which the world experienced relatively warm conditions. This held
particularly true for the Northern Hemisphere, extending from Greenland eastward
through Europe. Combined with key advances in farming technology, uncommonly
good weather appears to have fueled the agricultural boom of the period.
5. 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, prohibiting procedures such as
autopsies and dissections and basically halting all scientific progress. 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.
At the same time, 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, including the first systematic
solution of linear and quadratic equations; the Latinized version of al-Khwarizmi’s
name gave us the word “algorithm.”
6. 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. Carloman died several years later, and 29-year-old
Karl assumed complete control, beginning his historic reign as Charlemagne (or
Charles the Great). Over some 50 military campaigns, his forces fought Muslims in
Spain, Bavarians and Saxons in northern Germany and Lombards in Italy, expanding
the Frankish empire exponentially. 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,” which eventually
evolved into the title of Holy Roman Emperor.
Charlemagne worked to uphold this lofty distinction, building a strong centralized
state, fostering a rebirth of Roman-style architecture, promoting educational reform
and ensuring the preservation of classic Latin texts. A key advancement of
Charlemagne’s rule was the introduction of a standard handwriting script, known as
Carolingian miniscule. With innovations like punctuation, cases and spacing between
words, it revolutionized reading and writing and facilitated the production of books
and other documents. Though the Carolingian dynasty had dissolved by the end of
the ninth century (Charlemagne himself died in 814), his legacy would provide the
foundations—including books, schools, curricula and teaching techniques—for the
Renaissance and other later cultural revivals.
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