How Dark Were the Dark Ages? | 5 Minute Video
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ย. 2024
- Were the Middle Ages, also known as the Dark Ages, characterized by oppression, ignorance, and backwardness in areas like human rights, science, health, and the arts? Or were they marked by progress and tolerance? Anthony Esolen, an English Literature professor at Providence College, explains.
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Script:
No period of history is more misunderstood or underappreciated than The Middle Ages, the ten centuries from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the start of the Renaissance in the 15th.
This is especially true between the year 1000, when global warming brought grapes to England and grain to the coasts of Greenland, doubling the population and reviving town life all across the Europe, and 1348, after the warming had ended and the Black Death arrived from the east.
Let's take a closer look at these years. We'll make a good start by dispelling some nonsense.
The people of the Middle Ages did not believe the earth was flat. They knew it was round. The ancients said it was round, the Fathers of the Church said it was round; they saw its shadow during an eclipse of the moon, and the shadow was round; they saw masts of ships sinking below the horizon -- round!
More nonsense: the Middle Ages were cheerless. Quite the reverse! They were full of color, of celebrations involving everybody in town; they invented the carnival; they revived popular drama, which had lain dormant for a thousand years; whatever they did, whether it was sinning or fighting or repenting or falling in love, or traveling thousands of miles to Rome or to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher they did it with energy and gusto.
What do we owe to the Middle Ages?
How about the university? Medieval man invented it. For the first time in the history of the world, you could go to Paris or Bologna or Padua or Oxford or Prague or Cologne and study under masters of law, medicine, philosophy, and theology, and your degree -- designating you as a master or a doctor -- would hold good anywhere in Europe. It was an international community of scholars. A young Thomas Aquinas, born in southern Italy at the beginning of the 13th century, would travel to Cologne to study philosophy under the philosopher-biologist Albert the Great, then to Paris where he taught theology and philosophy, then to Rome, and back to France -- and this sort of thing was the rule among scholars, not the exception.
How about modern science? Thomas's teacher Albert was a biologist. Why should that surprise us? Medieval man believed that God made the world as an ordered whole. They learned it both from Scripture and from pagan thinkers such as Aristotle. Science did not burst on the scene with Galileo. Copernicus died in the sixteenth century, but he was a priest-astronomer at a Polish university founded in the Middle Ages. He wasn't even the first man to suggest that the earth orbited the sun. Others had ventured the suggestion. Most prominent was the late medieval Nicholas of Cusa -- a philosopher and a cardinal in the Church.
How about architecture? If the Middle Ages were dark and ignorant, how come ordinary people -- masons, carpenters, painters, sculptors, glazers -- erected the most beautiful and majestic buildings to grace the earth, the Gothic cathedrals? Without power tools, with pulleys and winches and scaffolding and their bare hands, they built up lacework in stone and glass, flooding vast interior spaces with color and light; we have nothing to match their complexity and beauty.
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Well your probably gonna think I'm stupid but when I was a kid, I thought the dark ages were dark because they lost all the candles
Haha! That's actually funny. I thought many similar things when I was young ^_^
Yeah, and I thought that the Last Supper was when the food stamps ran out. 😂😂
😃
He gets some facts wrong in this video though. The first university is from Africa and the Middle East, not Europe.
According to Calvin and Hobbs that era was in black and white because color had not yet been invented.
Christian Conservative propaganda, you are describing high medieval age when is the low medieval age we call dark.
+Yuri de Castro i wish i knew what you were talking about.
paramutt Medieval era is divided in low and high medieval era. The first is the dark ages, right after Romam Empire colapse, with the church taking control of everything. The high medieval era is more progressive as the church looses power.
+Yuri de Castro citation needed
Yuri de Castro
sorry i was alittle trashed last night.i get it now.
Wayne Ekeh check out Wikipedia, there you'll have all the citation you need and their linked source.
Why were the Dark Ages so dark? They had so many knights.
*politely shows middle finger while laughing*
Awesome!
Knights who fought to have it end and who they served to survive it.
The dark ages and the medieval ages are two different things nearly three hundred years apart
and few sons
I was taught that the "Dark Ages" were between the fall of the Western Empire through 800.
From Charlemagne to the Renaissance were the "Middle Ages".
Dark ages did last that long but the title calls it the dark ages while the video calls it the Middle Ages which lasted until the fall of Constantinople in 1453
@@imperators_8700 Though some people use the term to refer to the middle ages as a whole. I have also read that even the term "Dark Ages" is no longer used do to its negative tone. So they just say Early Middle ages
Some things I learned in world history 2 about the middle ages last year:
-The Catholic Church oppressed everyone
-Catholic priests and popes HATED science
-Everyone was absolutely miserable
-the Catholic Church was EVIL!11!1!!!
-everything was backwards and all was just dead
Thanks for teaching me. I've always been interested in the middle ages.
the educational system isnt trying to teach you anything
its trying to make you memorize things even if theyre wrong
especcially history
based on a kingdom of heaven and shitty hollywood movie
***** i was being sarcasm
***** dark ages was just a personal opinion of italian renaissance artist around 15th century
anime sucks dick Sorry, anime, but the collapse of the economy (subsistence- level bartering replacing monetary economy), collapse of the infrastructure (aqueducts, deterioration of the Roman road system, even the skill of masonry), deterioration of learning and literacy (near disappearance of Greek literacy in western Europe, the serious degeneracy in Latin literacy ...the fact that Charlemagne couldn't make his 'Holy Roman Empire' work because of a lack of literate people to fill his imperial bureaucracy...), the constant barbarian invasions which local magnates could barely stave off... ....The Dark Ages is not an opinion, but an historical fact. They ended with a resurgence in the economy in the 11th century and a cultural resurgence in the 12th century. (Many people here seem to not know about that OTHER renaissance --the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century.)
The "Dark Ages" are usually understood as the first few hundred years following after the collapse of the Roman Empire, not the High Middle Ages described in the video.
+Mark Rcca You got it. This is a cherry picked selection of factoids meant to create an illusion for idiots. While true the dark ages are over simplified & subject to generalities the over all consensus still holds true far more then the exceptions which if anything highlight the loss after Rome fell apart.
Ed Richardson no it is not. the western world progressed by examining and understanding histories mistakes and trying to correct these errors. So our understanding of history tends to concentrate on all that was bad and rarely all that was good. This has given us a fake sense that western history was just death war and plundering.
The knock on effect is the western world is now over critical of it's self and is on the verge now of destroying it's self. As different cultures are joining western culture it gives them a fake narrative that their shit cultures that are generally still in the dark ages must be superior to ours or that it is our fault there shit cultures are still in the dark ages.
Take the middle east. The narrative is they are poor because the west took their oil. The reality is their oil would be worthless with out western industry.
roland20002000 I don't think anyone in this discussion was trying to diminish Western history (I certainly wasn't). I was merely pointing out that what is typically called the Dark Ages are a few centuries that immediately followed the collapse of the Roman Empire - and those were indeed tough times in Europe, for the most part. What is discussed in the video are the High Middle Ages - where things indeed were picking up culturally, technologically, scientifically. The term "Dark Ages" simply is misleading for that time period.
As for what you said, I agree - indeed, we (Westerners) should be proud for the progress and culture we have generated, are certainly not responsible for other cultures falling behind.
Mark Rcca This is the point, the middle ages are viewed by the average person as the dark ages and it is the average person I think the video is reaching out to.
roland20002000 I can't argue whether I agree or not, as I don't really know how it's viewed by the "average person" - but if what you say is true, then instead of reinforcing the incorrect usage of the terminology, the video should have provided the explanation for both terms. The Dark (Early) and High Middle Ages were very different historical periods, this is a good explanation:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Middle_Ages
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Middle_Ages
So instead of reinforcing incorrect information, let's get educated...
Prof. Esolen forgot to mention that from the 11th to 13th centuries Europe absorbed much knowledge from Islamic civilization.
Absolutely rubbish. As again I see you spread your undocumented lies, and you will of course just run away. As usual.
Always fun to see how you godhating atheists bash Christianity and at the very same time, have so much love for the religion of your lord Satan, Islam.
You can't wait for Islam to take over Europe, right atheist? With all the science and knowledge from Islam you talk about. Care to tell how much that was stolen from the Christian Byzantine Empire, and the Christian Egyptian Empire of the Copts?
Why do you fanatic and hate-filled atheists push for Muslim immigration totally out of control to Europe? The core group of these sick and evil people are hard-left atheists. Care to explain it?
Knut Knutsen Switch to decaf.
Knut Knutsen typical close minded fool, Islam represents evil to you so these savages can't have brought anything good, right? Let's dehumanize them enough so it's easy to kill them later. Overwhelming majority of historians disagree with this "history" professor's assessment but unlike you I am not close minded ignoramus who is unwilling to reexamine my point of view.
Rose NoHo And you forgot to mention that they absorved this knowledge from the Christian Byzantine Empire...Ooops..
Mr JimFit Where did the Christian Byzantines (Greek-speaking, Christian Roman Empire) get this knowledge from? ...The Greeks of the pagan era. ...It's too bad the Christianized Greeks really didn't appreciate what they had. Otherwise so many of the better ones wouldn't have had to flee to Sassanian Persia (the Nestorians and other heretics), taking this knowledge with them, which is where the Muslims found them after they overran Persia. It was then that they encouraged the translations of these works from Greek and Syriac into Arabic. For a few centuries at least, the Arabs were more open to these philosophical and scientific writings than the Christians of either the Greek-speaking or Latin-speaking world. (This would change around the 12th century, when the Latin-speaking Christians became interested in this stuff.)
The words I learnt from this video:
- Nouns: Cardinal, glazer, pulley, winch, lacework, carol, friar, guildsmen, orphanage
- Verbs: Revive, burst, repent, dispell, scaffold, venture
that’s good
Wow
Scaffold - Verb - EH?!?
@@briankane6547 it can be a verb
Cardinal is also an adjective! All the best Hoàng - not only is English the world trade language, but they gave us the Westminster System, and football & cricket :-)
Love the video but you forgot to mention that when the barbarians finally conquered Rome and destroyed the empire almost all knowledge and civilization was lost. the only reason that any knowledge was preserved is thanks to those "oppressive" "controlling" "dogma ridden" monasteries. Without the Irish and other European monks who dedicated their lives to copying books and inventing things like lowercase letters, spaces, and punctuation we would have none of the ancient literature that remains to this day. Rather than suppressing the growth of knowledge the "dogmatic" Church is the only reason we are not still living in barbarism. No church= no preservation of knowledge after the fall of Rome.
+Olivia Dubay Oh and as for Galileo, the Church didn't disagree with his the theory, it had already been posed before. He was disciplined for posting his theories as fact with no proofs and his disobedience to the church in that regarding his posting them as FACT.
+Olivia Dubay YES. EXACTLY. THANK YOU.
+Olivia Dubay Hold on you do know that at the time of Rome's fall even with the Visigoths books were currency the Visigoths came in and stole a shit ton of books. Also the Roman empire was still standing in the East the Byzantines. as much as was destroyed in the west everything was still standing in the east.
+Olivia Dubay You forgot to mention that the Eastern Roman Empire and Middle Eastern Scholars preserved a lot of work. Most important medieval European Philosophers like Aquinas were heavily influenced by Muslim scholars like Averroes. Their work preserved the works of ancient philosophers, some of Aristotle's works were only known because of translations from Arabic into Latin.
Thom Aalmoes That was originally translated from Latin into Arabic when it survived the Quran is all the knowledge needed book burning lunatics. Also the stuff wouldn't have needed to be protected if the barbarians didn't listen to their warlord and conquered what was left of the Roman empire (which was carnage Khorne would be proud of. Also a shit ton of brutality.)
The dark ages and the middle ages are are completely different things! The dark ages was the time immediately following the fall of Rome. The middle ages, of which he is describing , was much later!
Sean is right: Esolen is confusing the Dark Ages (Established as: 500 years after the Romans) with the Middle Ages. There is very little archeology or writing from the Dark Ages.
The Medieval period also known as the middle ages lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. The dark ages were during the early medieval period from the 5th to 10th century.
Dark Ages is WITHIN Middle Ages. Dark Ages is the very beginning of the Middle Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire. They are not apart.
Yeah but the whole video just generalizes anyway. 2 important facts peasants had absolutely 0 chance of ascending the pecking order. Only nobles went to school and those masterpeices he talks of sometimes took 200 years to finish. They had no deadlines, and developed at snail pace. I find this video to be inaccurate in describing the dark ages as an epoch and masterful at avoiding realities that deem all of his asdumptions as exceptions.
What about in the Byzantine Empire? People keep forgetting that the Eastern Roman Empire existed in some shape or form all throughout the timespan between the end of the Western Roman Empire and the Renaissance.
I notice they completely ignore the time period that the "dark ages" even reference. they discuss from 1000-1400. they dont discuss the 400s-600s which were considered the darkest, and people didnt really crawl out of until almost 1000. centuries of one war or another ravaging each other for land and resources. huns pressing through the euro/asian territories, murdering, capturing, and pillaging in a large swath across what is not russia. germanic tribes were still considered "barbaric" even in those times. almost every culture had different mythos and deities. why ignore centuries of history in this?
You are talking about about only the first 200 year period out of a thousand. We have had one war or another ravaging the earth for the past 200 years, plus plagues, tyrannies, mass genocide, etc.
So I guess all those tortures and wars were fine then
@@karlazeen that's rather disingenuous to say that. Im pretty sure that wasnt the point.
No reference to Byzantium though :(
You mean the Roman Empire?
yeah what happened to those guys? Was it similar to feudal Europe during the dark ages?
@@judemartin6329 as i can remember, they kept the greek knowledge until i forgot sack of Constantinople or black death, they fled to italy and begin the renaissance and enlightenment era with those studies
Their was no “Byzantine empire” It was just the Roman Empire they called themselves rominoi or Romanvs (Meaning roman)
@@theoldcavalier7451 omg i didn't know that,really thanks for that info
Speaking as an atheist, I was with this video right up until "the Brilliant Ages". Thaaaaat's a hard sell.
I've come to appreciate that while the people of the Middle Ages may not have spent a whole lot of time writing, they did do a whole lot of building and inventing. My education on this subject has been fascinating. My interest in technological history was plenty sated by this period.
But "Brilliant"? I'd say the Space Age easily tops them for invention and creativity.
You mean the Space Age that doesn't really send spaceships to outer space anymore?
abellius66 Actually we do still build spaceships and send them to outer space. We just don't send manned missions to other planets anymore.
John Pryce I don't recall any country on Earth sending manned missions to other planets ever. Which planets have we sent manned missions to?
Anyway, besides an occasional space craft sent the the international space station, what other spaceships are going into space at present that are reliable? I know the Chinese are working on their space program and their are a couple of private corporations putting their $$ into it, but the current results have been lackluster.
abellius66 Actually I was referring to the Moon. Sorry, it was early here when I typed that.
John Pryce Np. I had a feeling that is what you meant.
We don't have much written history from the first 300-500 years, so that's why that period is called the Dark Ages.
i agree , well that and the horrible horrible plagues.
Scholarly source needed
Imagine how advanced today's tecnology and medicine would be if the Catholic Church hadn't ruined our society.
javialcaidesa lol it could have been the future age stuff but hey RELIGION
javialcaidesa the Catholic Church created our society, you wouldn't have had the universities if they never funded them or the music or the art or the science.
Funny, I was taught that the Dark Ages were from the fall of Rome, around 476 ad to Charlemagne being crowned king in 800 ad. The Middle Ages were from 800ad to about 1500ad when the Renaissance begins.
It is in the popular misconception of everything that occurred between the Fall of Rome and the renaissance that the "Dark" broadbrushing has occurred. Real history shows a different tale, and Esolen is merely pushing back on the narrative.
you are right all along.
MGTOW_Monk you’re right
this video is a bad take because the time period was incredibly misunderstood
@@galvinmorgan2263 I don't think the period is misunderstood, nor the video bad. There has been a general tendency, particularly since the Marxist school came to be, that the Middle Ages were a sort of Dark Age, with little to no scientific progress, where the Church would cripple science and human curiosity and what not. While indeed there were episodes when people and the Church would suppress scientific research, that was more like an exception, rather than the norm.
There was a sort of Dark Age, but you have to take it individually for each country. For some countries, the Dark Age lasted longer. For other countries, it was much shorter. I understand the Dark Age as a period with little historical records, where knowledge about a land or people is shrouded in myth and legend (sort of like Arthurian England), where little construction projects were made, where society became less urbanized, where the elite shrunk or disappeared completely (like after the Bronze Age collapse) with all the consequences of this change.
The Middle Ages were not ENTIRELY a Dark Age. And manifested differently depending on the geographical region analyzed. The Byzantine Empire for example was thriving still after the fall of Rome. The fall of Rome did not constitute an immediate Dark Age for former Western Roman territories. Odoacer ruled his kingdom based on Roman law and customs, modifying little in regards to the way the Roman institutions used to function. Same can be said about the rule of Theodoric the Great. The Merovingian and Visigothic Kingdom were not part of a Dark Age either. They were more like preserver kingdoms, retaining much of the knowledge of the former Roman Empire, but lacking access to Greek writings and knowledge.
The Middle Ages are vilified today mainly because this was the period when the Church and Christian religion was at its peak political power. This was the time when the Pope could literally play an important role in the Christian world. He could name and depose kings sometimes. He could intervene decisively in dynastic disputes. He had an important say in the fate of a people or a state. So it was only normal for the Marxists, who viewed religion and Christianity in particular to paint this period as a Dark Age.
I'll tell you why there was global warming in the year 1,000. It was those damn SUVs!!!
The IPCC likes to pretend now that the Midevile warm period never happened. After many years of showing the warm period in their charts they had to erase it from their recent Propaganda.
"How dare you!"
@@scnut76 a good one.
One horsepower methane fart producing monstrosities.
No, no - peasants were just burining to many witches!
I like dark ages because it inspire lot of games I like
Kingdom Come Deliverance
Mount & Blade
Stronghold
Etc.
These are NOT THE DARK AGES!! These are the middle ages...He's wrong on this...dark ages are from the fall of the Roman Empire up to the 12 th century!! Of course the middle ages were great! HE'S MIXING THEM BOTH TOGETHER!
@@bigmamababy4283 Uhh... No. The times, you're talking about are early middle ages.
errrr... I disagree completely! We were taught in school back in Britain that the Dark ages were the times AFTER THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE up to the 12th century or thereabouts!! Since then the left have changed everything in the history books! @@t___m
@@bigmamababy4283 Bruh, your history teacher is stupid. The Middle Ages are devided on Early (476 - ~1000), High (Dark) (~1000 - 1348) and Late (1348 - 1492)
The Middle Ages lasted a thousand years, so when we talk about the middle ages we have to keep in mind that this long period was not uniform. The 1400s were very different from the 500s. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Western Europe suffered a huge fall in material, cultural life. Urban life disappeared and travel outside your own parish was minimal (in comparison, it was not unusual in Roman times for a Roman official to live one year in England and the next year in Egypt). After a rebound in the 800s, with the Carolingian renaissance, the 900s were quite dismal, probably the nadir of Western civilization. From the 1000, there was a new rebound, this time on firmer ground, that not even the plague of the mid 1300s could stop.
Never thought I would like a PragerU video, but good job summing up the inaccuracy of "dark age" thinking and completely dismissing the history of Europe from 450-1450! I am surprised you didn't mention the monastery's that kept a great deal of this information in tact and free from destruction during the upheaval of the post Roman pre-Frankish period though.
Absolutely, and the modern university as we know it was born out of the monasterial structure.
Historians will look back at modern times and call this the second dark ages.
Why? This is the most prosperous era has seen mankind I wonder if in a millenia people will have a renaissance trying to reacquire hat we have achieved now.
Even thought the past 100-150 years have been the best time to be alive in the history of the world.
@@superbob3331 Unless you were one of the 150+ million murdered and/or displaced by totalitarian despots.
@@jsabri6324 And can you name a time in history when such things were not happening.
@@superbob3331 Not in such large numbers at the hands of other humans. Look at the numbers attributed to Stalin and Mao, not to mention the genocide of the Armenians, the Cambodians, and the Tutsis in Rwanda (1 million in 90 days), just to name a few between 1900-2000. No age has ever been free of murder and natural catastrophe, but the sheer number of people murdered in the 20th century was unprecedented.
Completely agreed until the end. By no means do we fall short of our ancestors. Look at the brilliant science and technology we have today. The means to communicate around the world instantly. The ability to voice your opinion without fear.
The world today is truly amazing.
rc2000 Art's a very subjective topic, although I strongly believe that music has improved greatly since the middle ages.
rc2000 what about art? Since the middle ages we have gotten films, photography, animation, video games, interactive art and other pieces revolving around electronics and god knows what else. Even though realistic portrayal of human figure and its surroundings in paintings have been made almost "pointless" thanks to the invention of camera, great artists still exist and continue to practice classical painting to this day. And not only that, but we have expanded painting into a form of visual art that you can't capture with a camera.
The art world today is more diverse, more active and arguably more creative than ever before.
So please, tell me, what about art?
We all have our opinions, and I get yours. But this may be thought about as well:
"Look at the brilliant science and technology we have today."
Which started in this era really. Theres many things where I don't believe science has helped up like the knowledge of how to do abortions, the ability to destroy the world many times over. Life expectancy from 1200-1300: to age 64 isn't far off from today, except now people are addicted to pharmaceuticals and pray for death from a nursing home.
"The means to communicate around the world instantly. The ability to voice your opinion without fear."
And look at the anonymity of the internet and how disgusting it's made people. This ability to talk to anyone any way you'd like continues to bring our generation down to a guttural level. This isn't freedom, it's a decline in our communities.
"The world today is truly amazing."
I believe this too, don't get me wrong. But I can see a decline in our civilization in the mere 45 years I've been on this Earth. I'm not sure everything were doing today is for the betterment of our species.
rc2000 well, yes, that's partly my point. Thanks to technological advancements art has also advanced. And I don't think standards have gone down. We look at old art and artists through rose tinted glasses since we only know and remember the very best of the best.
rc2000 our art is amazing from a historical seance. every child studies art at school. there are more artistic mediums than ever before getting to more people than ever before and more artists than ever before.
the problem is everyone always looks at the best art of a given era. justs just the stuff that we pay attention too. in a thousand years people will be judging our art by our best works because those works are worth study
Thanks for “illuminating” the Dark Ages in this excellent video. Thanks PragerU
Kathy Nichols Our ancestrals would be ashamed of us!
Actually I learned more from the comments section than the actual video
He’s giving the dark ages credit for the enlightenment and the Renaissance
The dark ages we think of are feudal Europe which ended around the 1400s so he is wrong
Lefty Cheddar102 but man all of those guys he mentioned lives in Middle Ages(except copernicus)
@@Paffoni9653 Our? Not all of us are europeans
I heard they were called the Dark Ages because not much is known about that period of time
No it was because there was almost no way of communication besides person to person, so knowledge spread slowly.
Im pretty sure you're thinking about the Ancient Greece dark ages.
@stanley hoffman smart man
True on so many levels
@@aaronshan51 The European 'Dark Ages' was the time period after the fall of the Roman Empire until the creation of a semi-unified christian state in the area, as that was when reliable records started to be kept and have come down to us in the present. Therefore, in France, the Dark Ages ended around 800AD with Charlemagne, but in Britain, they didn't really end until the mid 10th century.
Considering the lack of electrical light, it was pretty dark.
I always heard they were called 'dark' because we don't know as much about them as other time periods.
The black death, and the collapse of Rome is why many refer to it as the dark ages.
cristopher wong oh no.. how dare the pope to stop islam? durr we missed the oportunity of turning Europe into Syria, Egypt or Turkey
hhhahahahahhaha those were the time of Popes and Christians with huge balls, unlike now
Giuseppe Milazzo and thw world is surely better. Except not.
Daniel Ustarez and its happening again, but this time, without control of the church or ANYONE that would stand against it, the battle may be lost. Islam's battle against europe never endend, pals.
This is my all time favorite PragerU video. I see it like an act of reparation and justice for the brilliance of the middle ages that has been unjustly dishonored. Thank you!
The dark ages is called the dark ages due to the drop in quality of life,life span,literacy rateand the chaos that follow from 465 to 1066
Youre right. Universities, medicine, knights, great castles... all after year 1000. He oversipmlfied this video. I think dark age ended around 800AC in west europe, in mid europe arround 1000AC.
Actually, the Dark Age life expectancy rose from 28 ( in Roman Empire times ) to 30 or more which is an improvement at that time. You should watch Dark Ages of Crash Course History, they were very specific of how Dark Age was not so dark.
@@tranminhquan4531 That’s mostly because of lower maternal childbirth deaths
Thank you! I study Old English language and literature, and I am continually shocked by some of the most intelligent, most well-educated people I know still believing garbage about the Middle Ages. It's always refreshing to hear people discuss this period in a lucid manner.
Why do people instantly assume that only atheists make these claims. I thought this video was quite interesting and enlightening and I am an atheist. The irony is that I was taught that Catholics believed the Earth was flat *in a Christian school.*
Badass Elite Both atheists and schoolbook authors perpetuate those false claims.
The schoolbook authors simply don't give a crap.
Many Atheists on the other hand perpetuate those claims, because it fits in their worldview. Yet they blame religion for blindly believing what they are told.
Schwarzer Ritter Exactly!
Badass Elite Probably a Protestant school, right?
A lot of those sorts of arguments were originally anti-Catholic arguments. The irony is, deists and later atheists took these arguments and later used them against Christianity as a whole. And all the more ironically, with more right than the Protestants, who really are the rebellious sons of the Catholic Church. Whereas atheists and deists have rejected the whole thing wholesale.
ChesterKhan You are correct, it was a typical Baptist school.
Jonathan Sarfati
Thank you for _not_ helping to propagate harmful myths around. :) They tend to come back and bite those who use them in the ass.
Do Catholics throw around anything y'all see as myths?
Maybe my understanding of the dark ages was wrong, but I was under the impression that the dark ages was so named because of how much knowledge was lost relative to the end of the Roman Empire. I don't dispute that there was advancement over the period, but was there as much advancement during the middle ages as there was in th 1000 years before the middle ages? Was there as much advancement as there has been since the middle ages?
I could be wrong, but I suspect that if we didn't lose so much information, and we continued to advance at the rate prior to the middle ages, we would have hit the industrial revolution hundreds of years earlier.
Jonathan Sarfati I don't think you understand my question (or the point behind it). From 500bce to 500ad we saw the rise and fall of the ancient Greek and roman empires; and this provided the foundations for all modern knowledge. In the past 500 years most knowledge needed to create the modern world was created.
Does the advancement of the middle ages represent similar gains?
In the field of study a I know best (mathematics) the middle ages produced far fewer discoveries than were produced in the classical period; and we have learned far more in the past 500 years than in the rest of history combined.
HappySqrl A lot of the ancient Greek thinking, though incredibly valuable in terms of providing an epistemological framework, was the low hanging fruit. Ancient concepts of science are shaky. A lot has been lost of course but it appears that the sciences of ancient civilization were much narrower in focus and naturally highly developed in that focus. Medieval Arabic knowledge is similar, highly developed in particular areas, while European knowledge was broader but considerably less developed. Overall the enlightenment of the early modern period saw tremendous advancements in knowledge and thought due to the clash of these schools of knowledge and the attempts to reconcile such vast amounts of knowledge and thought. Today we seem to be heading back to a relatively smaller number of highly developed schools of thought with other areas relatively undeveloped.
HappySqrl Our mathematics has lost most of the mathematics that was developed during the Middle Ages. The fundamental math of our age is algebra. The fundamental math of the Middle Ages was geometry, and most of it was closely held as trade secrets, not studied and published in universities. The great cathedrals were not built by doing engineering calculations of algebraic formulas to find loads and stresses like we would do. They used systems of proportions that allowed them to size elements such as piers based upon the height and width of the arch or vault span. They did almost no calculating, it was all done through geometric constructions.
Yes, to answer your question, the Middle Ages represents similar gains to what we've achieved over the past 500 years, and in a certain sense they surpass us. We've been unable to build on the past in the last century and so we've systematically set about destroying major portions of the civilization of the preceding 2000 years. As a result, our civilization is greatly impoverished in many important ways. Our religion and philosophy and art and architecture and sculpture are practically all wiped out. Our society is nihilistic in a frightening way. We're ripe for a takeover by Islam or an even worse religion.
The Medievalists on the other hand, were able to build on and bring to full flower everything they had inherited from the Greeks, the Romans, the Indians by way of the Arabs, and even the barbarian tribes that conquered the Romans. It was all informed by an unquestioned Catholic faith that conquered by conversion first the Roman empire and then the barbarians. It was a period of synthesis unlike any the world has known before or since. The Renaissance really had nowhere to turn to improve on what their ancestors had done in the Middle Ages. They were reduced to reviving the forms of ancient Rome and elaborating on them in increasingly decadent fashion until revulsion set in and we turned to iconoclastic modernism and atheism and world war.
HappySqrl The Dark Ages are called so for two major reasons. 1. Was the complete and utter collapse of the quite Urban Civilization/Centralized Government in the west. 2. The Lack of recorded information. The Byzantium Empire shows both of these. The Byzantium Empire in 700 was near collapse pushed back to Balkans and kicked out of Asian Minor by the Arabs yet its army was still in the 100,000s but by 1066 despite regaining Asian Minor and maintain other land they had a much much smaller force they could use. In the Dark Ages themselves Byzantium was still producing things like books and still had at least as much as the Romans had knowledge wise yet very little has survived. Dispute how everyone looks to Arabs to prove the Dark Ages never existed yet they were the cause of it in the east. Only a trickle of the huge amount of books/knowledge they Byzantines had manged to escape the fall of the Byzantines. 1453 NEVER FORGET!
The Dark Ages are not about lose of knowledge but loss of our knowledge about them.(The Dark Ages also is referencing that point in EUROPEAN history not world history)It was also about the completely and utter collapse of centralized government to a degree so bad that the west could not raise as Punic sized army until the 16th Century. The Dark Ages and the middle ages are two different things. The time period of the Dark Ages is from about the start of the Migration Period and the start of the the Carolingian renaissance(As in the fall of centralized governments(in the west) to the return of widespread written words(and lower-case letters))
Oh and military tech wise things never slowed down. Quality of metal improved a fucking shitton in this time period.
HappySqrl We owe the loss of knowledge to the Romans who let their empire to fall apart and who angered the barbarian tribes by cutting off their land ...
*When people don't learn from history, History will repeat itself without them knowing.*
yeah and we didn't notice that the United States is now falling apart just like Rome before. 🤣
“Middle Ages” and “Dark Ages” are not synonymous. The “Dark Ages” refer to the early Middle Ages specifically. The Dark Ages lasted from right after the fall of the Roman Empire to about 1000AD. Then we begin the Middle Ages.
do you expect someone who teaches at a catholic university to want to tell people that the catholic church stifled everything for about 6-700 years?
@@abdiabdi3225 Hah, very good point.
“We have nothing to match their complexity”
Domes. We have domes. They didn’t know how to make those. We had to rediscover it
lol
Hagia Sophia and Santa Maria di Fiore: Am I a joke to you?
@@justiniand6a788 The Hagia Sophia was built kinda before the dark ages, and the completion of the Santa Maria di Fiore was one of the first defining events of the Renaissance. Outside the Byzantine empire and Muslim lands, I'm pretty sure not one dome was built in the dark ages between those points in time. (The fact that there are those caveats kind of points out how un-useful "dark ages" is as a term, though).
@@justiniand6a788 hagia sophia was built before the dark ages, Santa Maria di Fiore was built after the dark ages.
In this form Hagia Sophia was build inbetween 532-537 (Middle Ages). Santa Maria di Fiore was build in 1436 r. (also Middle Ages).
I love the Middle Ages so much! That time does not get enough credit! It was wonderful! Brilliant Ages indeed! :-) God bless the ancestors!
Well,wonderful is a bit extreme definition.
I wouldn't say it's "wonderful" but it is definitely not Dark as Hollywood and Liberal/Atheist would love to portray them.
The Doll Scholar the ones who started crusades and pillaged? The ones who put mercury in medicine? Or the ones this video talks about the were apart of the renaissance, not the dark ages... just sloppy work on their part.. brilliant!
oaphle Oh pls, ploughing was invented in the supposed Dark Ages, and the Carolingian renaissance also happened in the Middle Ages. The Hospital, Pharmacies and the Universities of Europe were founded by the Church during the Middle Ages. So was the concept of Quarantine.
Pillaging?? Are you saying there is no pillaging during the French Revolution?? Or Napoleonic Wars?? Are you saying Muslims do not pillage?? Or Rome for that matter?? The fact that we're suppose to debate this is shows exactly how illiterate and bigoted the Left is.
And the argument never goes far from the Crusades. I don't know how many times we have to explain this until you idiots on the Left understand.
oaphle you do realize that the crusades were in response to the Muslims coming into Europe and invading and taking over? (Which btw hasn’t stopped.)
Resume the entire video in one fact: Middle Ages = 500-1500, Dark Ages: 500-1000. Notice that all those philisophers are from the 1000 and forward. Also, global warming is good! Just what I wanted to hear.
+Isaac Olaya Scovino Climate warming was much better for medieval people than a climate cooling. Climate cooling makes growing crops harder, and it causes much colder winters.
I also love how he cheers up the 'sciences' of the time. Yeahh, let's treat an infection with leeches!
They still use leeches today for medical purposes, and Maggots to fight infections.
Eflat Productions yeah but we don't bloodlet
- No adequate & reliable Written Records available.
- Systematic Clampdown on Art, Knowledge, Science & Logic; Over Emphasis on Religion, Hierarchy, Social Strata, Culture. Opposition, Debate were banned.
- Centuries of Progress was reversed.
- Constant invasions of Barbarians & Plunderers.
- Complete absence of Sharing of Ideas.
- Significant drop in Life Expectancy, rise in Tribalism
@Richard Fox What makes you say that?
@Richard Fox But I didn't say anything about Cancel Culture.
The dark ages were dark because of the chaos that the fall of the Roman Empire caused.
Yes, and since theology held back science
Soul Chicken I can atleast give credit to the church for safekeeping ancient litterature, like Homer. The chaotic tribes of Europe would probably have cared less what happened to it.
The Roman Empire survived until 1453 as the flourishing Byzantine empire. Times were only dark in Western Europe when it was cut off from the world system. Starting with the urbanisation and industrialisation of Flanders, and its trade links to Northern Italy in the 13th and 14th century, Western Europe was dragged into the world system again, albeit as a peripherical region.
***** 😂 I'M FROM SOUTH EAST ASIA , I CAN ATTEST THAT YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ALL THE CUTE MUSLIMS LIVING HERE .It's like telling you that you haven't seen all the friendly smiling giants when you have only seen Loki and his minions but you would go whaaa? hahahA
really , every muslim here in S.E.A is cute and friendly , they are a docile bunch who respect their elders and love their kids whole heartedly
True
I have a history major. Those cathederals were build at a time when most people who had a home lived in a single bedroom cottage - the parents would sleep in the same bed as the kids (and even make more kids while the kids they had were sleeping next to them!). Lots of people didn't have homes, and rather than fixing this problem the elites made being homeless a crime. They would literally cut off parts of your body if you were found to be homeless! They clearly had the resources to build homes for these people, given that they build giant cathederals!
Then you should know that European whites named it the dark ages because darkskinned people (Israelites and some arabs) ruled until whites captured, vanquished, mass murdered and subdued the remaining Israelites population into slavery then claiming their renaissance. The Voronet Monastery in Romania is one open source to verify this even tho some of these have been whitewashed also.
@@amram1305 Where did you hear such stupid thing?
@@tefky7964 ...this all comes from diligent research of my people's hidden history. We are GOD chosen people; this is what the world hides. Have you checked out the Voronet Monastery in Romania? GOD is waking up his people and using kinfolks like kanye, kyrie, brandon jackson, ice cube, fantasia, carmelo and many others to show his mighty power of truth as he gets closer and closer to this wicked kingdom.
Most of the world population still lives this way by the way. Probably a smaller proportion than back then, but still, little changed in this regard. Back then, just as today, if you have money, you can make or buy your own house. If not, then you pretty much remain where you were born and you inherit what your parents inherited from their parents, so on and so forth.
As for cutting out parts of your body if you were homeless.. dude, for real? I kind of question from where you got your history major.
You are thinking with individualistic class-war theory. The community life was vital during the Middle Ages. It was considered being part of something larger than self, something as eternal as this mortal world could achieve, to contribute to the construction of a grand cathedral that you would than participate in the sacraments in with your family … knowing that when you were long dead, your posterity would be worshipping in the same place, in the same way, and being spiritually inspired by the work of your hands. So they lived in a one room cottage and died. You live in a three bedroom house probably and will die. What role do you play in your community? What lasting contributions will you leave on the historical and architectural and artist record that will exist long after your body has returned to dust? Don’t feel sorry for or superior to the people of the Middle Ages, you should feel humbled.
I found several inaccuracies in this video and some convenient omissions:
1. Universities - We had for hundreds of years in Athens "The Academy" where both Plato and Aristotle taught, which was tragically shut down by the christian Roman emperor Justinian who saw the academy as a threat to christianity , in other words we had institutions of higher education - same thing, different name.
2. Science - the church held that the earth is less than 6,000 years old and was at the center of the universe which was disproved by Copernicus and later more forcefully by Galileo, no one from the church at that time accepted the views of Copernicus, and even before Copernicus the Greeks already postulated a heliocentric model, namely Aristarchus of Samos.
A. The church burnt alive anyone who dared to come out against church dogma i.e Giordano Bruno who was burnt alive for daring to suggest that the universe was eternal.
B. Galileo who was sentenced for life in house arrest and was only spared torture due to having friends in the church.
Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, the foremost Vatican theologian in the early seventeenth century.
"to affirm that the Sun is really fixed in the center of the heavens and that the Earth revolves very swiftly around the Sun is a dangerous thing, not only irritating the theologians and philosophers, but injuring our holy faith and making the sacred scripture false."
There are many more things that I can add here, but I want to have this comment as readable as possible.
1. The Academy of Athens was not the type of university that we know it today. The Academy was for the most a discussion forum. The Academy that Justinian shut down was not the one Plato founded. The academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. The one that Justinian closed down was the Academy founded by Proclus in the 430s.
2. Yet it is still within the confines of the church that the scholars, who cam to contest the ideas of the church conducted their studies, research and published their papers. Sure, the church believed in a lot of nonsense. But most people believed in this nonsense back then. The reason why these ideas changed is because the Church had the insight to preserve a lot of ancient papers and writings which eventually came into the hands of those Renaissance scholars, which are responsible for shaping up the scientific method. The church did not burn everyone who dared to challenge its views. If anything, Copernicus, Bruno and Galileo are the exception rather than the norm.
You kind of choose to see only the ugly side of the Middle Ages and the Church. With all its faults, this period and the Church itself ultimately were vital for the advancement of the Western civilization in terms of science, technological and in cultural achievements. Without the Church preserving and sharing knowledge, as well as being the founder of modern education system (the states essentially inherited the school system that churches founded and promoted), we wouldn't be here today.
0:50 flat earthers have left the chat
I think the title should have been "The Renaissance Started a Bit Earlier Than Most People Say."
Nonsense. Its about the merits of the time period before the renaissance and there were plenty of them. All of the things in his video apply not only to the late middle ages but also to the early and high middle ages.
hsdjsd shdhsdnsmsd If that is true, why does virtually nothing he mentioned predate 1200?
@John Smith
1200s?
•Universities in Europe were in
University of Bologna (1088)
University of Paris (1150)
University of Modena (1175)
University of oxford (1167)
University of Salamanca (1134)
•in Italy in the year 1104 The Venice Arsenal is founded.
•the first record of a vertical windmill is found in north west Europe around the 1100s
•there was the Carolingian Renaissance (8th and 9th centuries), •the Ottonian Renaissance (10th century)
•the Renaissance of the 12th century which gave birth to gothic architecture.
There was the birth of the Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria in the 8th century, the Carolingian minuscule which gave us the lower case letters and punctuation.
The Dark ages in Europe is specific to only Western Europe. And it’s dated from 500AD-900AD.
There was no renaissance. The renaissance was considered a happy time because the Black Death had just ended.
The Renaissance had more religious conservatism like killing "witches" which was a trial that killed 35 people in 16th century Renaissance period.
That last statement... is SO conservative...
nah, its so... BRILLIANT!!! 😊
Can we just call the era from the Fall of Rome to the Industrial Revolution the Medieval Ages. Those centuries were still an age of brilliance.
No???? What????
There is a HUGE difference from your "start" and "end".
You forgot to mention the unimaginable torture on a mass scale fueled by superstitions.
That's true about every age except modern.
@@GreatClickbait It is true in the modern age too. Gulags and concentration camps were a thing in the 20th century, and they are still a thing in some countries in the 21st century.
They were burning peoples on stakes for god's sake.
In some parts of Europe, not everywhere. British, German...yes, entire towns were burnt. Spanish inquisition though only started passed medieval ages, and in several centuries it killed on the fire less than 1000 people counting all the kingdoms together, the majority at the start (I believe that´s comparable to current US death sentences...although I am wondering that probably USA's is higher). So it depends where in Europe really.
France,Germany,England,Spain,Italy what else left man.Thats Europe for you.Major players.
The "Dark Ages" usually refers to the period from the later 5th Century through the 9th or 10th century because governments broke down, literacy declined, and we have fewer records of the period. As order was restored and modern nations coalesced modern life began. Charlemagne provided a major impetus for the revival of literacy and learning. The Church also played a major role in reviving and transforming society. Ultimately, Europe outgrew the medieval mindset and a revitalized civilization emerged. We are their heirs.
You should probably qualify your title by specifying that you are characterizing the dark ages of the western Roman Empire and not the Mediterranean (so-called Byzantine) east! Universities, music notation (which the ancient Greeks had) of the Greek chants was the precedent to the western notations; and much high culture flourished in the east after Rome was sacked; and it was the fall of Constantinople which brought the rebirth and new interest in Greek classical thought to the west which resulted in the renaissance! Simplification is good, but not at the expense of deleting historical continuity!
This was a FANTASTIC video! I could listen to this man lecture all day.
I'd rather take a shit and shove it in his face for being as shitty as one could possibly be.
Many people believe also that we would have much more technology now if the church never exist. But thats also not true. Because monasteries were the universities before real universities were found. The monks also keeped ancien book. without them we would know nowaday who was Ceasar and the whole renaissance wouldn´t happend...Without the monks and the churches we would lost 500 years in knowledge.
People that say that we'd have more advanced technology if the church never existed are _literally saying_ that only white people could invent things. Like asian and arabic cultures don't exist.
This video is a breath of fresh air compared to the 1st video that was recommended to me about the dark age. It’s nice to see a video that’s honest about all the GOOD things Europeans have done for the world especially during this time.
Look up Carolyn Emerick for good things Europeans have done for the world.
This reminds me of the Family Guy episode where Peter crashes his car into a building and everything catches fire, but thinks he went back in time and is like "Wow. In 1955 everything is on fire. I never knew that." Anyway, that has nothing to do with this video, but it made me laugh.
I thought the Dark Ages were the time from the fall of Rome in 476 to the Carolingian Renaissance in the 800s, and the Middle Ages were started with the Carolingian Renaissance and continued until about the 1500s.
People were blind during the dark ages, that is how dark it was
what he's trying to teach you is the Dark Ages wasn't as dark as everybody puts it off to be I was taught that the Dark Ages wasn't nothing but murdering all the time there was a lot of good things that came out of the Dark Ages I'm sure these teachers study this stuff before they teach you I find Prager University very interesting and educational there's a lot you can learn from Good Men if you would just listen
Depends on who you were, where you were, and what century you were born. Life in the 13th century before the Black Death during the Warm Period was actually very nice, but no that doesn't fit into the EVIL Dark Ages under the EVIL Catholic Church narrative.
He gets some facts wrong in this video though. The first university is from Africa and the Middle East, not Europe.
@@SkyyPiano The first university was founded in Bologna in 1088, what are you on about?
@@teddyspaghetti9566 University of Karaouine in Morocco came first in 859
@@SkyyPiano Actually a quick search will show the opposite. She founded a mosque that later on evolved into a university, the first reports of it being an academic institution originate in the 13th and 14th century.
This guy doesn't distinguish between the *Early Middle Ages* (= Dark Ages) and the *High Middle Ages*. As you can see, most of his examples are from a time after the year 1000 and therefore are a part of the *High Middle Ages*.
Is it that easy to become a professor in the US?
Dark age song starts playing in the background in my head.
Gets goosebumps.
If the Dark Ages are limited to 500-800 AD (the Fall of the Western Roman Empire to Charlemagne) ... then, yes, those 300 years of the early Middle Ages were pretty dark. But, otherwise, a good video.
The Near East was not perfect during this time. The fall of the Sassanid Empire and the conquests of the first Caliphate were pretty chaotic.
But that time frame you're talking about also hallmarked growth. It was principally in agriculture with the development of farm tools and methods. That period was also the development of trade routes and skilled trades.
Charlemagne wouldn't be born for hundreds of years
DavidinSLO - Not even that is true. When you look at places like the cities of Italy, Visigoth-Spain or the Byzantine Empire. In all this places culture and trade thrived and was alive and well.
This episode makes me scream proud Catholic! 🇻🇦🇻🇦🇻🇦🇻🇦 Deus vult!
plz dont molest kids thank u.
@@hessstudios3500
Why would you write that reply?
@@ProximaCentauri88 Just trolling my man.
@@hessstudios3500
I don't get easily offended but your habit will get you into trouble. Man up.
Deus Vicit!🇻🇦➕
When I went to the beach in Barcelona I suddenly thought: 'oh wow, in the middle ages the people that lived here also had a sunny sky and the beach'
I mean, I don't know if they often had time to hang out there, but just picturing anything other than a castle on a rainy, dark day doesn't seem medieval to me
I’m not a historian by any means but I feel no one really hit on the main point of the biggest reason for the of the “dark ages”: the fall of the Roman Empire and the decline of Byzantine Empire. It was the end of the classical era and until the renaissance it was a dark period of conquest and disease. In this period you had the Mongol hordes, the Black Death, and the crusades. Western civilization declined and the east rose. From a European perspective it was dark. Regardless of a few pretty Cathedrals that were built.
Good way to elude talking about Bruni, who claimed heliocentrism before Copernicus and was burned by the church in Italy...
*_during the age of catholics_*
@@awddfg Um...who are you talking to?
@@calm1tbh *_Looks like they deleted their comments._*
@@awddfg oh lmao
Is there a book that talks about how great the Middle ages were?
If so I want to read it.
Interesting how this video ignores the fact that medieval intellectual accomplishments were built on the translation of books from Arabic. These included all of Aristotle, translated into Arabic in the 8th and 9th century, then translated into Latin in the 12th and 13th centuries. Scholars such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas relied on the Muslim scholar Avicenna to understand Aristotle. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi influenced Copernicus as well.
Arabs translated books from Latin/Greek which found their way back to Western Europe later on. Much of the Islamic Golden Age was facilitated by Greek and Persian scholars.
Awesome video!
Too bad all the anti theist and militant atheist on your video can't handle it!
sorry to burn your straw man but i'm an anti-theist atheist & i thought the video was great!.
PitchBlackFox so since atheists say christians caused the dark ages
is actually a good thing? they are not doing a very good job proving christianity is terrible
Wayne Ekeh cherry picking a few facts about a 1000 years time span(400-1400 ish?) doesn't suddenly make the whole time period rosy. especially when most of them were from the last 200 years or so of that period. the point of athiesm(if it has one) isn't to make christianity look terrible, it does that by its self. we both know i can pull out witch trials and burning blasphemers at the stake ect. given the choice between this secular time period or the dark ages you would choose now every single time and not just the for the technology but also for the civil and political rights, which you can't claim the bible for otherwise they would have been around for as long as the bible has been
PitchBlackFox "The general desire of the Catholic Church's clergy to check fanaticism about witchcraft and necromancy is shown in the decrees of the Council of Paderborn, which, in 785, explicitly outlawed condemning people as witches and condemned to death anyone who burnt a witch. Emperor Charlemagne later confirmed the law. The Council of Frankfurt in 794, called by Charlemagne, was also very explicit in condemning "the persecution of alleged witches and wizards", calling the belief in witchcraft "superstitious", and ordering the death penalty for those who presumed to burn witches.
Similarly, the Lombard code of 643 states:
'Let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female servant as a witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds.' "
this happened during the middle ages
besides christianity didnt cause the darkages.
it was caused by the fall of rome, and that was caused by invaders. even a basic historian could tell you that
stop being stupid, your blind hate is stopping you from seeing facts
PitchBlackFox If you liked this video, likely you aren't an anti theist or militant atheist. Just an atheist. Anti theism is nothing to be proud of.
I do agree everything he said, except this one sentece ``fall short of them``, the dark ages were great indeed, but we didn`t fall short.
Didn't expect to see you here :D
RedTeamReview :D
I can say the same :D
Machinima Plus If you don't think we fall short, then you are blind to all the ways we do fall short. Art, architecture, sculpture, morality, religion, philosophy: we fall so far short in these areas it's truly dismal. It drives many people to suicide.
dlwatib How is our art, architecture, sculpture, morality, religion, philosophy inferior to their's? Art used to be something only the nobility understood, now here we are, even low middle class can experience art, if you meant to say that "paintings back then were prettier" I have to disagree with you, a lot of people can make really good paintings, so real it almost looks like pictures, but since art is no longer something exclusive to the nobility, there is a lot of artists out there that don't get the recognition or don't have the funds to put themselves out there. Architecture is a funny mention, we have so many skyscrapers built in a smart way, I think you should do a little research.
People from the middle ages were not more moral than we are! In fact, they were more cruel than a lot of us are today! Just look at Clovis I biography, he killed men like they were sheep! Look at the Mongolian Conquests, entire cities were devastated, in fact, the Mongols were so brutal some say that the Islamic world never recovered from their brutality.
I don't see how our religion is worse too, I mean if I wrote this in the middle ages there was a high chance the Catholic Church would review it, to see if there is something they might not like about it, the Catholic Church had so many power back then, the pope was the one who crowned the kings... Suicide rates today are probably higher than the middle ages, but it's not because we fall short on those areas, it's probably because our society got so complex, people don't see a reason to live
dlwatib LoL, no way in hell. The only thing that changed is that now we have just so many philosofers, artists, scientists etc that there is no way a single man can have a gigantic impact on the world. Whatever you discover, that will only be new for like 5 seconds before someone discover something else, or seriously evolve your discover into something better.
You are the one blind by this nostalgic propaganda
Didn't mention anything about the dark ages (about 476-1000 AD)
There’s something magical about the Middle Ages…the music, the art, the way people dressed, the fact that Latin was spoken there. I’m just happy I didn’t live through it
I guess people have different interpretations of what "dark ages" mean. I always understood it as the period immediately following the fall of the Western Roman Empire when Germanic tribes (which didn't have a written tradition yet) came to dominate the West. This left us with a gap or "dark" period in the written record, especially England, where we have almost nothing from the time the Anglo-Saxons migrated there and established their kingdoms. Eventually the Germanic tribes picked up the latin alphabet and began writing again and so began the middle ages, which is where most of his examples come from.
I think what was lacking in this presentation was emphasis that there is a popular belief about the bad old Dark Ages, which tends to conflate that all the way up through the middle ages to the renaissance. Typically this emphasis comes from angry atheists whose primary goal is not to do accurate history but to tarnish Christianity. Without pointing out that conflation the author speaks mainly about the high middle ages and says little about the narrowly defined Dark Ages which is like from the fall the Roman Empire up to about 1000 or 1300 AD. That approach will work well enough for the conflationists. As to whether the Roman Church was responsible for the lack of progress in the actual Dark Ages, I would say there is little evidence for that. For instance, the Roman Church had spread to Byzantium and beyond and there we don't hear about a Dark Ages. I think it may be more accurate to see that when the Roman Empire of Europe fell, things reverted somewhat to how they had been before the Empire. Then, slowly, civilizaton returned, even with the Roman Church having some political sway. The high middle ages are then a confirmation that the Roman Church was not the problem, and by establishing some order may have hastened along the process of recivilization, which was then more widespread than had been the Roman Empire.
We oft hear from the angry atheists that if not for Christianity, modernity would have come suddenly upon Europe, perhaps as early as 800 or 1000 AD. That makes no sense at all when one considers other places, like India, where there was little Christianity, and yet modernity did not come suddenly there. Since the time of Alexander the Great India had lots of contact with the West, and had obtained much of the math that came from Greece, had invented zero and algebra (under a different name) and was building great palaces, roads and other stuff. for instance they had ships that regularly crossed the Arabian sea on the West and sailed as far East as Cambodia.
What actually brought modernity to Europe was the invention of the printing press and the calculus. There was nothing in either of those inventions that was not available at much earlier times, but those inventions came from Christian Europe and not India, China, Mongolia, or N. Africa, nor sub-Saharan Africa, nor from the indigineous peoples of the Americas.
I have a sneaking suspicion that you are strawmanning the point of these so called "angry atheists"
There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled.
This time was called "the Dark
Ages". - Richard Lederer
How can we make people believe in god ? We need an update to our religion
At no point in History did 'everyone' believe in God or the Church ruled not a single second.
Stats India You really have no idea about western history, do you? well, let me educate you now that you have spoken.
1) Magna carta which forms the foundation of democracy was written during the "dark ages".
2) Dark ages saw the largest agricultural boom in europe before combine harvester arrived.
3) Most of the monuments like Basilica de Notre'dame were built during "dark ages".
4) Universities such as oxford which form the bedrock of modern scientific thought were established during "dark ages".
5) Steel was discovered in west during "dark ages".
6) Western armies developed plated armour, the best armour during its time during "dark ages".
7) Romanesque and Medieval Gothic Art developed during "Dark Ages".
8) Charlmagne was made the first Holy Roman Emperor during "Dark Ages".
9) All major kingdoms and empires accepted the guidance of the Roman Catholic Church.
10) During dark ages, the Roman catholic chutch was the largest religious authority in the world, where even kings were disciplined for misbehaviour.
11) Late "Dark Ages" saw succesful repeal of Islam from Spain, Portugal and succesful defence of Greece and Hungary.
12) Templars developed modern banking during late "Dark Ages".
Your observation can also be used to repudiate the idea of India being a Hindu Nation and even more succesfully.
How is this even related to my point that 'At no point in History did 'everyone' believe in God or the Church ruled not a single second.'
Takshashila That's a stupid point for the fact that you cannot clainm even your dearest ones believe you all the time, but they still are your people, arent they.and Vatican is still an independent country inside Italy.
With Trump, Christian power is making a comeback andvery soon we will send A-holes like you packing, you minimum wage hater.
Identifying something as "round" does not automatically make it a sphere or a globe. Ancient people overall did not believe that the Earth was a ball.
I freaking LOVE these videos!
This was so fun and interesting to watch. Very educational and inspiring about our history
2019: *lEtS mAkE oUr ChIlDrEn tRaNsGeNdEr*
For your information, Mr. Esolen, it was White males of the Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment and Byzantine Empire (not modern academics) who saw the _Early_ Middle Ages of Western Europe as the "Dark Ages".
Nice video... I'm so happy to find another point of view...
Thank you for the change of perspectives on the dark.. I mean brilliant ages :)
Yes, you can still find bright spots in the dark age, but that doesn't change the view. It is a thousand years we are talking about, if that's how much you can find, that's not impressive at all. If you look at what happens during the Renaissance and what happens after that, that's just a few hundred short years. And if you look back to the Ancient Greek, that's more a thousand years before that, the achievement in philosophy, culture, science is not anything the dark age can compare to. The only era that the dark age can compare to is the age of Roman Empire from 400 BC to 400 AC approximately. The Roman Empire is essentially the same. 2000 years of stagnation, it is a shame.
First Universities? You can thank the Catholic Church!
that's not true
1100 to 1400 is the end is the middle ages
You missed 500 to 1000 is what we roughly consider the dark ages
The vandals, goths, saxon and barbarian invasions
The Vikings and the heathen army
Those were ages of brutality and darkness
You should make a video on how society clawed from this to the glorious time in this video
he is described in this video of high Middle ages
True, but the term "Middle Ages" was itself a derogatory slur coined by contemporaries of the "Renaissance" (meaning "rebirth"). Such a generic and vague division of time itself and the names given to these historical periods was a two-part act of self-aggrandizement by contemporaries of the Renaissance to claim that they were better than their forefathers. They made this claim on the basis that they were restoring the lost ancient western civilizations in art, philosophy, science, etc.--which was true--, but they also perpetuated the myth that nothing good or of importance happened between the West-Roman collapse and their own time--which was untrue. This myth was further perpetuated by the Protestants and atheistic Enlightenment philosophers who followed, both of whom didn't like the Catholic Church, and were eager to distance themselves from and attack a time when it held a large degree of power over Europe.
So while you (and several other commenters here) are correct that they used the wrong term "Dark Ages" instead of "Medieval Times", his debunking of several myths about the Middle Ages in general was still on point.
All the best!
So what. They belong to the Middle Ages, dont they? But one can find equally interesting aspects of culture also in the Early Middle Ages. You just have to look at the right places of Europe.
The dark ages were from ~500 - ~ 1000...
Shouldn't these video's have a TRIGGER WARNING just in case people find a difference opinion emotionally distressing?
You forgot to mention how awesome the Black Death was.
"We dismiss the achievements of our ancestors", the comments section proves that sadly.
Torturing scientists sounds fun! Make the Dark Ages Great Again!
Thank you. I have learned so much from this video. And that last quote was astounding. I will be using it in my Book of Wisdom that I am writing for my children.
What’s in the book?
Just nevermind about the constant warfare, famine, plague, life expectancy being a little over twenty, Roman infrastructure being obliterated or decaying, classical learning being lost… just forget all of that and pretend that there wasn’t a complete civilizational collapse in Europe at this time.
so much of this is wrong. They thought the earth was flat, and everyone who said differently was accused of heresy. the shadow of the earth is circular, not spherical. yes, they knew the earth was round... round as a coin that is. The university wasn't invented by medieval man and nor was science. The ancient Greeks about 1 and a half millennia prior, invented the university and science and they were way ahead of medieval Europe because they weren't censored by the church. The main characteristic of medieval science is that they rejected evidence and sound science in favor of bronze age mythology. The gothic cathedrals are beautiful, but the most beautiful buildings to graze the earth? What about the al hambra mosque? what about the pantheon? the pyramids? the Renaissance churches and palaces? the Chinese Buddhist temples? beauty is subjective but you make a very bold claim
@nanda erdhani I am infact studying history. The vast majority of medieval men did not learn anything from the greek, they couldn't read Greek, and they didn't have the tools or knowledge to make any observations of the earth curvature, they thought it was flat. Those few who knew the truth mostly kept quiet for fear of heresy trials. yes, the Rediscovery of science, mathematics, philosophy, and Engineering were in the middle ages.
But not the invention of any of it. They only managed to piece together some of what the ancient Greeks Romans and Egyptians were capable of. Its true that Roman architecture is more advanced then renaissance architecture, but its also vastly more advanced than anything invented in the medieval period. You cant give the dark ages credit for what the Romans invented and then claim they were advanced, they were behind the civilization that predated them by centuries, in many areas. They rediscovered something, sure, but what did they discover?
Final note: beauty is not an objective fact.
@@Hamphield lol, you are defending a Prager U video and you accuse me of relying on biased sources, im sorry but thats downright hillarious. Anyway, id love to see those unbiased sources you have that contradict my claims.
@@tobak952 ...
Prager videos only shows the painful reality
That you can't handled it isn't my bloody problem here, boy
@@Hamphield prager U lies time and time again and is debunked time and time again.. here is one of countless examples: th-cam.com/video/5OnX4SLEBZI/w-d-xo.html
the fact that you accuse me of relying on biased probaganda without proof, while you are defending a source known to be unreliable, makes it near impossible to take you seriously.
Also many of the modern European languages we speak today evolved during the Middle Ages.
Damien Darkh Ebonics? It evolved in da ‘hood along with da boys!
Probably as a result of the stagnation of peoples after the collapse of Rome. Languages come from social isolation and within continental Europe social isolation is hard to maintain save from the times of economic depression and social regression much like in the period between Rome and the renaissance.
did you really need to squeeze in the parts about the benefits of global warming in a 6 minutes clip about a 1500 year long period
Because the warming in the Middle Ages was caused by the earths natural periods, which don't apply today due to the excessive amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We have broken our planet's temperature cycle, so to call out alarmism is proof of ignorance.
Unless you count the Arabs. What with their Algebra, Astronomy, and Trade.
wildhias yes
Jonathan Sarfati there is a difference between warming over hundreds of years, and warming over a few decades.
domain mojo go talk to a scientist
Wow, the ending was very powerful. We've got to change as a society. We've got to honor our ancestors and surpass them.
Too bad he forgot to mention the average life span was 30 years old and infant mortality was atrocious. The numerous Inquisitions, Crusades and Holy Wars also are not mentioned. It is called the Dark Ages for a reason, because 99% of the peasants lives were bleak and dark. The very few priviledged clergy class had most of the power and abused it to the fullest extent. Most of the great architectural achievements, universities and artwork shown here should be classified Early Rennaissance from APPROXIMATELY the 1250s until 1500. I agree The Middle Ages are a fascinating period of history that involves nearly 1000 years of good and bad but overall I think it was pretty oppressive, harsh and unpleasant time to live. Let's be real here regardless of what you think about the Catholic Church. This guy is ROMANTICISING the past while subtly dismissing and justifying Christian horrors proven to have taken place during medieval times. That would be like doing a history lesson of WWII and not even mentioning the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by Christian Nazis.
What was the average life span in the Roman Empire? And what was the average life span during the Renaissance and Enlightenment? Likewise, what was the infant mortality rate in the Roman Empire? And during the Renaissance and Enlightenment?
What atrocities occurred in the Middle Ages that had not been preceded during the Roman Era? What atrocities occurred that were not outmatched elsewhere in the world -- considering the Orient, let's say?
It's entirely untrue that the "very few privilidged clergy class" had most of the power. The Church held a great deal of power, unimaginable to most societies, yes, but "most" is nonsensical. The Church was not in the business of ruling anything directly, not even during the reign of the Holy Roman Empire. Every bureaucrat, every feudal lord, every local chieftain, and every would've somehow been totally disenfranchised by some agent of the Church, in your conception of history. I ask how this is possible.
If you're going to call the 1250s-1500s "the Early Renaissance," then you'll have to admit the Renaissance is not as civilized as you might wish for it to be. The Spanish Inquisition operated in the 15th century, and the Roman Inquisition operated in the 16th, and they are the violent ones that everyone likes to talk about -- the Medieval Inquisition (12th-13th century) sentenced a grand total of *zero* heretics to death, and its instances of torture were far less brutal and less often applied.
Somehow I think your "99%" is an exaggeration based on your own impressions, preconcieved maybe, of the Middle Ages you learned about in superficial history books. A term such as "the Dark Ages" implies that other ages were not so dark, but surely you're not implying that the average peasant had substantially longer lifespan, better education, higher infant survival, and better living conditions at *literally every other point in history* besides the Middle Ages. Nobody's saying Medieval times were a Golden Age, but the fact is that it was hardly a Dark Age.
Patrick Allen Fair enough, I'm sure many things weren't better prior to the Dark Ages. Of course there has always been suffering and disease and oppression all throughout history. I agree that most people still led rather pitiful lives even during and after the Renaissance up to this very day. The figures we read about in history are usually royalty or in some high political position. Or they are the very few scientists or discoverers who make their name into history. Ordinary folk and merchants and the peasantry would probably consist of at least 95% of the European population. Basically anyone who isn't "famous' or a world renown scholar or a King could be considered peasant class except the clergy and soldiers. Whatever the percentage is, the vast majority of people in Europe during the Dark Ages lived a brutal life in the cold with disease and hard work. But comparing modern day lifestyle in America to Medieval Dark Ages is ridiculous. That's what this guy does at the end of the clip which is probably the stupidest comparison I ever heard in my life. I get the feeling he is just "downplaying" the harsh realities of the Dark Ages to act as a Christian Apologist. Basically he is just trying to say, Hey the Catholic Church wasn't that bad when in reality it was pretty bad.
bgoodfella7413 Speaking of the ends of things, whereupon the reader/viewer is totally lost, I wonder: in your mind is it the case that the Catholic Church was entirely responsible for the Medieval Age and the dismal conditions? Are you of the opinion that the Medieval Age would've been one of prosperity, enlightenment, and goodwill if not for its existence?
Because I can't imagine why you would say "Catholic Church" if you mean "Dark Ages," unless you're trying to say that the Catholic Church was what created the "Dark Ages" and turned it cold, diseased, and brutal, and that without the Church, Europe would have remained in a warm, hygienic, lackadaisical state as it was prior.
Likewise, you say "Christian apologist" like someone else might say "Nazi apologist." Take care that you are not letting your personal feelings about Christianity or the Catholic Church obfuscate the facts of history for you.
I would say that message you seem to take from the end of the video is largely in your head. I was given no such impression. To de-mythify a period of history is not to call it the best age in the world... and it is not to call it the worst age in the world.
Patrick Allen Well when this guy at the end of the video goes from calling it the Dark Ages to the "Brilliant" Ages is quite a contrast! I don't think any historian worth his salt would seriously say that Medieval times were "brilliant" LMAO It is generally known by historians that medieval times for the general population was very harsh and difficult regardless of the Catholic Church or Feudalism.
My point is not that life would have been grand if it weren't for the Catholic Church but it is well known that the Catholic Church was guilty of many crimes against humanity during this time period. People being persecuted for blasphemy or being called heretics or witches were burned at the stake. The Church sold indulgences to kings to "buy their way into heaven" etc. To NOT take into account the Catholic Church's activities and meddling affairs with politics during the Dark Ages is a gross oversight.
NO I don't hate the Church or have any personal care one way or the other for religion, but as a History Major in college, yes religious persecution is a major THEME in European history before, during and well after the Dark Ages. I just think this guy has an agenda to try and sugarcoat the Dark Ages when he says we should call it The Brilliant Ages. That is an over exaggeration to say the least. When countless people are dying of Black Death, endless wars and disputes, Inquisitions, Crusades, and numerous other human sufferings and natural disasters, I would hardly call that period of time "brilliant". No historian from Harvard or Yale would either. Sorry but the mass consensus of historians is on my side bud. You don't go from calling 1000 years of history the Dark Ages to the Brilliant Ages in a 5 min video just because there have been a few nice paintings and Gothic churches built during that time span. It is much more complex than that, but I wouldn't expect a Conservative Christian Apologist to understand complexity and the bigger picture outside of silly dogmatic beliefs based in medieval superstition.
First off the Spanish Inqusition killed about 2000 people over 200 years. The Crusades were a good thing the reason we don't speak arabic today and live under sharia.
Pretty sure it is simply called the dark ages because not a lot was written and we don't know a lot about that time period... Nice video, good stuff.
Btw, no Dark Ages in Constantinople, everything just fine as well as the oldys..
Love how everybody ignores the true heir of Rome
Knock knock. It's the Ottomans.
@hammam hraisha , that's not entirely true aka myths. Muslim rulers over Christian Constantinople took advantage of highly educated and high culture of Christians in the Middle East to command them to translate many Greek Classic knowledge into Arabic. Arabs were ignorant, most notable Islamic scholars at that time if not Persian, was ex Christian Arabs/Syrians (converting by force).
Also why Western Europe entered dark ages? Because many classic knowledge were written in Greek and many Greek scholars lived in Constantinople. After the Crusader and Islamic attacked Constantinople, many Greek scholars moved to Italy and Venice that made Enlightment possible in Western Europe.
Beside that, in Andalusia, many Arab, Latin, and Jew scholars shared knowledge by translated many classical knowledge into arab and latin language. It made Christian in the western Europe had access to classical knowledge and islamic era knowledge in Latin.
Islamic Golden Age occured not because Islam per se, it is because Islam ruled already highly cultured Christian (Greek/Syrian), Persian, and Indian nations.
We know from history, it was Islam ended the Islamic Golden Age by rejected using Quranic teaching, philosophy (Aristotle) and science as pagan meanwhile Roman Catholic Church embraced it and foster Enlightment across western Europe.
This is so indisputable, that even most contemporary historians have stopped using this term. It was popularized in the Renaissance period because they retroactively saw it as a time of political and economic decline.
It was dark because the ultimate self help book was held captive by the church. After the reformation, all people were reading it and that launched the world into an enlightenment.
Hmmm... yes and no.... everybody reading "the ultimate self-help book" without even 10 bucks in their pocket to buy a measly vowel from Pat and Vanna has led to some pretty miserable interpretations and a few thousand nearly distinct, different churches... It's a catch 22. The Church has always had it's problems, but it isn't a terrible idea to store some meaningful authority somewhere. Church fathers thought so.
Your title is misleading at best. The “Dark Ages” were from the fall of Rome to Charlemagne ( 476 - 800ad ). The time you are talking about here is the “Middle Ages”. The Dark Age got it name from the fact that there was no organization or leaders in Europe after the fall of Rome other then the Catholic Church & the Pope. They obviously were not a secular organization that could do what we today would consider running a population with borders, towns, an economy, etc. that’s why when Charlemagne was crowned king of the Franks by the Pope & established what we now consider a Country in European terms, that is where the Middle Ages begins.
The Vegan Punk The Dark Ages is just a way to refer to the first half of the Middle Ages but it is still the same thing.
@The Vegan Punk
There were other entities in Europe which were advanced. Such as the Byzantine empire and Bulgarian empire. Up until the arrival of the Umayyad caliphate the Byzantine empire was one of the most robust economies in the world.
Constantinople was one of the largest cities in the world and cities like Athens and Thessaloniki were also amongst one of the largest cities.
The Byzantine empire was also home to the library of Constantinople and the university of Constantinople and constructed large cathedral such as the Hagia Sofia in Constantinople which still stands at 50 meters high
The way things are today, I would say that we are entering a new dark age.
Yes, but Medical Treatment isn't as humane as it used to be in Middle Ages.
Makes sense. The Cold War ends and the new Dark Ages set in.
Honestly I'm not clever enough to figure out if this is just a joke that doesn't really care much about the facts or an actual belief of yours based off of comparing the world in the dark ages and today
You miss the 400 years from the fall of rome, saxons and clovis on to the Charlemagne
Those were very dark ages
You are talking about the 13th and 14th century. The end of the middle ages and the beginning of Renaissance