ABSTRACT

In the Middle Ages, some knowledge possessed by the Greeks and Romans was lost or forgotten. Some technological and craft knowledge was forgotten, as was knowledge of sophisticated governmental and administrative structures developed by the Romans. The capability to mass-produce the printed word led to the availability of more and more diverse written works, and with this came a rise in literacy. The word ‘Protestant’ first appears in 1529 in Germany. It was applied to people who called themselves Christians but disagreed with – protested against – the Catholic Church. With the rise in literacy, political consciousness and religious freedoms came growing awareness that the stratified social system existing in most European countries was unfair. Concurrent with the political revolutions, and a clear enabling factor of them, was the philosophical and intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment.