What were the Dark Ages?
The phrase "Dark Ages" is a label historians gave to the long stretch of European history between the collapse of the old Roman order and the Reformation — and writers on church history use it for something more than politics or poverty. They use it for a period when the professing church held the greatest power it ever held, and when the Bible was furthest from ordinary people.
When the period ran
Commentators tie the era to a rough span of centuries rather than exact dates, beginning with the rise of the papacy.
Raymond K. CampbellThyatira gives us a picture of the professing Church during the Middle Ages, the period in history called the Dark Ages. The Thyatira period began around 600 AD and continued to the eve of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. It was in the seventh century that the Bishop of Rome was first recognized as the vice-regent of Christ on earth. He became the pope and the acknowledged head of the Church.
Wait — that citation belongs with the witnesses below; the dating passage is Raymond K. Campbell.
Power, not poverty, made it dark
The striking thing about the era is that the church was not weak in it. It was at its strongest.
W. T. P. WolstonIn Pergamos the Church courted the world. In Thyatira the Church ruled the world. It perfectly describes the dark ages, which ran fully a thousand years, when Rome as the ecclesiastical mistress of the nations of Europe could excommunicate monarchs, and go the length of compelling a king to go and kiss the Pope's toe.
One writer draws out the link directly: the height of the church's rule was the depth of its corruption.
Frederick W. GrantThe time of the Church's reign therefore was necessarily the time of its worst corruption. Men call it "the Dark Ages." It was a very distinct step beyond the Pergamos condition we were looking at before. There, if the Church were united to the world, she was not as yet its mistress.
The Bible taken from the people
Several writers give the same practical cause for the darkness — Scripture was kept out of ordinary hands, and even out of ordinary languages.
For the YoungMen have tried to deny the darkness of those ages because there were Bibles in existence here and there; but what effect could they have if locked up, the light being extinguished as far as these wicked men could do it? At a council held at Toulouse in 1229, the ordinary people were forbidden to have the Scriptures in their own language, except a psalter or the like; and it was also forbidden to translate the Scriptures.
Darkness that follows light
The gloom was not simply the absence of Christianity. It settled on the very places where the truth had already shone, and one writer reads that as judgment.
The Bible TreasuryThe infidelity of the church opened the door for the worst abominations of idolatry, and in nearly every place where the light of Truth has shone the thickest darkness settled down. It was the natural consequence of departing from the Truth. It was also retributive judgment... "If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" When light becomes darkness, the darkness is greater than before the light came.
The ignorance was documented
The era was dark enough that forged documents could pass as authoritative for centuries. One writer presses that fact into a question about the claim of an infallible teacher.
J. N. DarbyIf there was an infallible teacher and rule, how came there to be such dark ages? How did they get so dark? And how can I recognise as a security for truth one who either could not tell an imposture from the truth, or was rogue enough to profit by it because people were in the dark?
God kept witnesses through it
No writer here treats the period as a total blackout. Scattered believers held on, and were hunted for it.
C. H. MackintoshEven amid the deepest gloom of the middle ages, an occasional star appears upon the horizon. The Waldenses and others were enabled, by the grace of God, to hold fast His word and to confess the Name of Jesus in the face of Rome's dark and terrible tyranny, and diabolical cruelty.
These small companies are seen as the advance party of what came later.
For the YoungThey may be compared to a body of pioneers who went out to attack the powers of darkness found in the church of Rome — before the more regular army of Reformers were called out, who attacked those deceivers still more powerfully and more successfully, and brought to light the supremacy of the word of God, and the one glorious doctrine of justification by faith.
What ended them
The remedy matched the cause. The book that had been withheld was put back into people's hands.
For the YoungIndeed, the publication of the word of God in the English language was a great means used in opening men's eyes to the evils of Rome, and to the glorious gospel contained in that message to man — a light indeed that destroyed the Dark Ages.
Summary
- Dated. Roughly 600 AD to the Reformation, starting when the Bishop of Rome was recognised as head of the church on earth; commentators differ on whether the condition ended there or continues in principle to the Lord's coming.
- Caused. The darkness came from power, not poverty — the church stopped courting the world and began ruling it, and corruption grew with the reach.
- Sealed. Scripture was locked away and translation forbidden, so light that existed could not reach anyone.
- Judged. Darkness that falls where light once shone is worse than darkness that never saw light at all.
- Broken. God kept scattered witnesses burning through it, and the printed Bible in the common tongue is what finally destroyed the night.