ABSTRACT
It is a common misconception that the thousand-year period of the Middle Ages is synonymous with the Dark Ages, and that, with few exceptions, it was an era characterized by disorder, warfare, plague, poverty, ignorance, and superstition. Only the first half of the medieval period, however, could plausibly be labeled the Dark Ages, and in fact many historians have chosen to discard the term altogether, and for good reasons. One of the strongest elements in the new civilization that we label as medieval was the culture of the so-called barbarians who had conquered ancient Rome. The forging of a medieval worldview among the barbarians was facilitated by the spread of Christianity. The Catholic Church, based in Rome, was by far the most powerful institution during the Middle Ages. The papacy provided a strong, centralized government for the Church. Besides Orthodox Christians, the only large group of Europeans who steadfastly rejected Catholic Christianity throughout the Middle Ages was the Jews.
