What were the Dark Ages?

The Dark Ages have been said to extend from about A.D. 500 to the time of the Reformation, a period of well-nigh one thousand years.

One of the greatest and most valuable accomplishments of the Reformation period was the translation of the Scriptures into the languages of the day and the multiplication and dissemination of the Bible into the hands of the rank and file of the people. During the Thyatira period the Bible was practically a lost book. It was only translated into Latin, which very few people knew, and only a few copies were in existence as everything had to be copied out by hand, for the art of printing was not yet invented. This period is known in history as the Dark Ages. Then evil flourished because the Bible was a hidden book and its light did not shine forth abroad. The Psalmist says, "The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple" (Ps.119:130). When the Word of God shines out, it gives light which dispels the darkness and evil. When it is withheld, evil flourishes.

These years are known in history as the "Dark Ages," and one reason among others for this prevailing darkness was the fact that the settled policy of Rome was then, and is yet, to keep the Bible from the people.

It is most probable also that the darkness of the Middle Ages � which is another name often given to the same period � was not the same at all places at the same time. The invasion of the barbarians, or of the Saracens may have swept away the light-bearers in one district while they remained undisturbed in other places. A wise and godly man in authority was at times the means of diffusing much light around him; but that light, instead of extending elsewhere, only made more manifest the surrounding gloom.

Gloomy indeed was the state of things which we have been describing, but it was to grow yet more gloomy; and we have but reached the outskirts of the Dark Ages. "Behold," writes the Cardinal Baronius, "the nine hundredth year of the Redeemer begins, in which a new age commences, which by reason of its asperity and barrenness of good has been called the iron age; by the deformity of its exuberant evil, the leaden age; and by the poverty of writers, the dark age." "With what filth was it her fate to be besprinkled who was without spot or wrinkle; with what stench to be infected, with what impurities to be defiled, and by these things to be blackened with perpetual infamy."

But another important matter to remark here is, that the breach which ambition on both sides had brought about between the heads of the Roman and Greek ecclesiastical bodies now became complete. They anathematized each other, and no universal ecclesiastical body ever subsisted since. The Emperor's power in the East was reduced to a shadow by Saracens and Turks. The Western Empire, founded by Charlemagne, in which the prelates acted, as we have seen, independently of the pope while it subsisted, fell to pieces by the weakness of his successors; and the pope gradually acquired, through violent struggles with the German Emperors, at last in the person of Gregory VII, the desired supremacy. Yet he died, driven from his see by the Emperor. And mark, there was from this time, confessedly, pitch darkness in everything, as Romanists themselves confess; they are called the dark ages. And a vast number of the popes were the greatest monsters that ever disgraced the name of man, and the clergy the most corrupt of the whole population. But we have touched on this point, and what is necessary we will speak of when sanctity as proof of the true church is spoken of.

All these various translations into different languages are a marked contrast to the policy of Rome with regard to the scriptures. The Dark Ages followed, especially where Rome had its sway, and light and learning diminished. God's set time however arrived: the darkness and ignorance were deplored, and one here and there was empowered by God to seek to spread the light of the holy scriptures among those professing Christianity, and more modern versions of the word of God were gradually made and printed, being hailed with delight by all who wished to know what God Himself had revealed as the only way of salvation, and to know His will concerning themselves.

The history of the text of the New Testament is much simpler and shorter than that of the Old. We have the concurrent evidence of churches and congregations, who were scattered over the civilised world, and who preserved the apostolic records with affectionate reverence. We have numberless quotations and references in the christian writings from the second century onwards. We have very ancient translations in Latin and in Syriac, that have a perfectly independent existence. And we have MSS. reaching up almost to the days when the books themselves were originally written. We know also, that from a very early period the church was divided into several rival factions; each of whom acted apart from the others; and in each of whom we possess independent evidence for the text. And here, as in the case of the Jews, it is impossible not to see how wonderfully God brought good out of evil. For, by the time the dark ages came in, during that gloomy period, marked out by the ninth and tenth centuries, when learning and religion seemed almost lost, and Europe appeared to be lapsing back into barbarism; — the Benedictine and Cistercian Abbeys, founded at a previous happier season, had stored up, unnoticed and uncared for, the ancient Greek MSS. of the New Testament, which, when required, were produced by the investigation of the scholars who mainly brought about the Reformation.

The history of the text of the New Testament is much simpler and shorter than that of the Old. We have the concurrent evidence of churches and congregations, who were scattered over the civilised world, and who preserved the apostolic records with affectionate reverence. We have numberless quotations and references in the christian writings from the second century onwards. We have very ancient translations in Latin and in Syriac, that have a perfectly independent existence. And we have MSS. reaching up almost to the days when the books themselves were originally written. We know also, that from a very early period the church was divided into several rival factions; each of whom acted apart from the others; and in each of whom we possess independent evidence for the text. And here, as in the case of the Jews, it is impossible not to see how wonderfully God brought good out of evil. For, by the time the dark ages came in, during that gloomy period, marked out by the ninth and tenth centuries, when learning and religion seemed almost lost, and Europe appeared to be lapsing back into barbarism; — the Benedictine and Cistercian Abbeys, founded at a previous happier season, had stored up, unnoticed and uncared for, the ancient Greek MSS. of the New Testament, which, when required, were produced by the investigation of the scholars who mainly brought about the Reformation.

The monks did good in multiplying the copies of scripture, and it is surprising that Benedict did not enjoin the careful study of the scriptures instead of reading the "Lives of the Saints" with its follies and fables. Alas! the dark ages were setting in.