Middle Ages Research Paper

The final stage of the decline of civilization in the Western half of the Roman Empire (about 400AD) marks the Middle Ages which lasted approximately one millennium until the period of Renaissance started in around 1400 AD.Late1600-1700 is earmarked for the time of the Enlightenment thus the period between 400-1400CE is dubbed the ‘Middle Ages’. The beginning of rebirth or Renaissance in Italy during the 1400s saw many scholars embrace the fast rise of the Western culture for two to three centuries. Ancient Rome embraced its grandeur with the revival of science, therebirth of urban culture, the establishment of great learning centers and most surprisingly pagan philosophy got tolerated. The rebirth of a similar material culture and the restoration

The once peaceful coexistence in Western Europe due to Roman Peace or Pax Romana came to an untimely end (Herrin, 1987). The Roman Social Order fell apart, Roman legions ceased to back Roman magistrates,and it seemed like hell got unleashed on earth. The existent social orders at the time did so following German tribal customs and were at the mercy of local tribal lords. Beyond the local tribal lords, there was no authority to enforce the law and ensure social order. Cross-European and regional commerce got severely hampered as a result with hungry pirates and brigands invading the highways and sea routes. Cities that reined as early economic hubs lost their functionality, and those that stood solely by high social order fell apart losing their population, and the whole countryside became depopulated as a result. The society got thrown into chaos, and balance ceased to

Much disappointing however is the fact that going past Rome; the pope had little influence and authority if any to the extending territories. The power of the church at the time unsurprisingly limited to the local level as it was their normalcy and affair of things at the time. The cultural identity and traditions of what remained of the Church remained solid and intact courtesy of local monks and priests at the time. In the early 500s, the monastic movement got reshaped by Benedict and the acquittal of monks and priests was fairly honorable. The Irish monasteries sent out missionaries to assist in bringingconcepts of the Roman-Latin Christian legacy to the German tribesmen: a legacy that would otherwise get lost in its entirety to Western