Rome Compared To The Middle Ages Essay

, Research Paper

During its golden age, the sprawling metropolis of Rome was decorated with dozens of beautiful arches veneered with the finest marble and ordained with ivory statues of the gods. Citizens of Rome were entertained by literally thousands of fountains and bathes supplied with scores of aqueducts (Hadas 37). The city became a cosmopolitan metropolis that reached a peak population of between six hundred- thousand and one million people. All of these people were supplied with grain and merchandise from throughout their known world (Starr 134-135). Through this wondrous city the Empire was controlled with a strong, yet dynamic central government. Thus, this great city earned the praise of Edward Gibbon as “the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind” (1).

Farther north of this prosperous country lies the Roman Empire’s antithesis, the Germanic tribes. These tribes began moving into the Empire’s border regions by 200 A.D. and a few of them were Romanized and learned to farm and trade, however most of them remained a violent, ignorant people (Lyon 436). These barbarians had no central leader and their loyalties changed at a whim. Each group of tribesman had their own set of laws and customs that lead to the destruction of the Roman’s universal code(Randers-Pehrson 73). During the Middle Ages, this sort of barbarism gained control of Europe and was tamed only by the influence of the Church. How did the fall of the Roman Empire so drastically change European life from one of progress and security to anarchy and regression.

In the ancient days of Rome, thought was encouraged and, under normal circumstances, ideas could be discussed without fear of persecution. However, this all changed as Europe was overrun by barbarians with weak minds and strong superstitions. Without centers of population and government support, the Roman’s system of schools and universities quickly decayed (Williams 34). Originally, knowledge was shared through private schooling that, in its primary stages, both girls and boys were involved in. Roman primary schools taught reading, writing, arithmetic, useful maxims, and the Roman law codified on the Twelve Tablets (Hyde 160). Upperclass boys proceeded on to a secondary education focusing on Greek, grammar, composition, and expressive speech. At the age of sixteen, students could enter rhetoric schools and be taught a curriculum of oratory, geometry, astronomy, and philosophy. These final years of schooling were equivalent to present day universities and often employed erudite Greek slaves. Over the years after the collapse of the Empire, warfare replaced learning as the pastime of the rich for “the only honorable life was that of a professional warrior” (Lyon 440). Because of this change in culture, ignorance was almost universal, except in the monasteries where it was diluted by extreme censorship and oppresion.

After Rome’s demise, the Church became the only source of instruction for the exceptionally bright people of the age. Therefore, it played a major role in almost all learning in the Early Middle Ages (500-900 A.D.). Paradoxically, the Church, mixed with pagan superstition, was also a cause of Europe’s rampant ignorance. The people of Europe were so uneducated that they believed Pope Sylvester II to be a wizard only because of his knowledge of astronomy (Haines 279). While this presented little problem to him, other scholars were always under suspicion and charges of “collusion with the Devil were certain to follow any marked intellectual superiority” (Haines 292). A situation that was disparate from the days when educators were so revered that the leaders of the Empire honored all teachers with citizenships and declared their exemption from taxation and public duties (”Chronicle of the Roman Emperors” web page). Through its immense power, the Church also prohibited any questioning of its basic principles and doctrines, including the Bible. Those who committed this crime were labeled heretics and were guilty of the unpardonable offense of heresy. By the mid-1200s, the pope had ordered the Dominicans to begin all out persecution of so- called heretics through a man-hunt known as the Inquisition (Josephy 57). Those who had been so much as accused of heresy could be abducted to a secret trial and tortured until they confessed. After their confession the heretics were forced to perform penance, however, if they refused to confess they were most often burned at the stake. An atmosphere of paranoia was created and it compelled the few intellectuals of the period to believe in a “. . . universally accepted view concerning the general structure of the universe and the place of man in the world” (Wildiers 36). A society in which all people think alike can make no progress, for when ideas are not challenged, they cannot be improved.

The nescience of the people was also reflected in the literature, or lack there of, immediately after the fall of the Roman Empire. In fact, the non-clergy population had become so illiterate that “As we understand the term now, there was no literature in the Early Middle Ages” (Haines 277-8). The only written output of this time period was the extremely dry, Latin theological doctrine written by the clergy. This was the final result of the downfall of Greco-Roman education and the Roman-Catholic censorship.

As Rome weakened, the barbarians that poured o