> From: Richard Baker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > The Fool said: > > > And just how many unholy wars did the Popes reside over during the > > dark ages Mr. Catholic?
We'll include medieval europe in that as well. > Not an awful lot, I would've thought. It seems to me that the main > inter-religious wars during the Dark Ages in Europe were between > Merovingian France and the Muslim armies in Spain and between Byzantium > and the Muslim armies in Asia Minor and the Middle East. In both cases, > the Europeans were fighting to defend against territorial conquest by > outside forces. Furthermore, the Byzantines' religious leader wasn't > the Pope but the Patriarch of Constantinople. (There were, of course, > various heresies in late Roman times, but if I recall correctly most of > the unpleasantness was before the collapse of the West and the start of > the Dark Ages.) > > If you're talking about the Crusades, those happened when the Dark Ages > had given way to the Medieval period, which was a time of commercial > and technological (and artistic and philosophical) innovation. Medieval > Europe might look primitive and nasty from our viewpoint but it was > making great strides forward until the setback of the Black Death. The renasiance didn't happen until after the crusades, in which the crusaders brought back with them a great deal of knowledge from the greek and roman times. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
