Early Middle Ages as the “Dark Ages”
The fall of the Roman Empire marked the beginning of the Middle Ages divided into early and the later middle age (lecture 8). Historians refer to the early middle age as the dark ages to refer to people’s perception of knowledge and learning. The main reason why this age is referred to as the Dark Age is that historians expected people to value knowledge more than what people of the ancient era did.
However, this is not the case since people were more illiterate as compared to the ancient era. Also, people were more concerned with their religious beliefs than logic. Therefore, they valued the next life more than their present life. There was learning during the dark ages, although it took place on a small scale and among the elite class. The learning was also centered on religion, and the clergymen were the teachers (lecture 8).
The Causes of the Protestant Reformation
During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church experienced a crisis that it had not experienced before, which led to the inevitable protestant movements and reformations. The causes of this protestant movement can be linked to the poor leadership of the church and the ability of people to read the Bible on their own. The first reason that caused people to protest was the poor leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Initially, people believed in the church without question. Therefore, they entrusted the church with all their finance without concern. During the Middle Ages, this changed as the people realized that the church took advantage of their faith and misappropriated their finances through corruption (Lecture 13).
Before the beginning of the protestant movement, the Bible was only available to the clergy, and they were responsible for reading and interpreting the Bible to the people (lecture 13). However, this changed, and the people realized that there was a lot that was not according to the Bible. In particular, the pope had elevated himself to the status of God, and he had the power to forgive sins and the keys to heaven (Gochberg 98).
Finally, the clergy lived a hypocritical life whereby they claimed the status of holiness that they could not maintain. The clergy was supposed to observe celibacy, but instead, some of the clergy members chose to keep mistresses and marry in secret (Lecture 13). The most important reason that led to Protestantism was the elevated status of the pope. After people read the Bible, they were determined to know and pursue the truth. Therefore, they could not withstand something that was against the truth.
Renaissance as the “Birth of Modernity”
Renaissance is a major and important period in history since it marked the beginning of modernity. The modern era is characterized by politics, science, history, and ideologies, such as capitalism and socialism (Lecture 12). These characters show that modern man celebrates and values life more than before. However, in the ancient and the Middle Ages, this was different since man based all his faith knowledge. Therefore, the Renaissance period marked the rise of all these characters that shape the modern world.
Science, politics, and history are bodies of knowledge, and they are founded on education. Before the Renaissance, people had no freedom to read since all literature was the property of the church, and it was in the Latin language that many people could not read. Renaissance period marked the beginning of reading and writing in the common people since literature was available to them in their local languages (Greer 20). Following the ability to read and write, people developed the available knowledge to what we have today.
Works Cited
Gochberg, Donald. Classic of Western Thought Series: The Ancient World, Volume I. New Jersey: Cengage Learning, 1988. Print.
Greer, Thomas. A Brief History of the Western World, Volume I: to 1715. New York: Thompson learning, 2005. Print.