CHAPTER
1
‹^49
From the Middle Ages
to the Renaissance
The Middle Ages used to be called the “Dark Ages,” a term that traditionally (and arbitrarily)
encompassed the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE) to either
the height of the Black Plague (1347–1349) or until the fall of Christian Constantinople
to the Turks in 1453. Then, seemingly full-blown, came the Renaissance. But history is not
so neatly divided. Arbitrary, dated divisions ignore cause and effect, frequently stressing
chronology at the expense of continuity.
To understand Europe from the fifteenth century onward, it becomes necessary to
look at the foundations upon which it was built, and to recognize that the Renaissance, or
“rebirth,” implies a former birth. The medieval period in Europe was initially characterized
by nothing so much as chaos. The Western Roman Empire was brought to its knees by
“barbaric” invasions. The resultant supposed loss of classical Greek and Roman learning
and culture ignores the rise of another culture, one that would affect the creation of today’s
Europe: Christianity. By 800 CE, with the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, feu-
dalism became the dominant social structure at the highest levels, binding church and state,
often uncomfortably, in their attempts to control the political, economic, social, religious,
and cultural evolution of a modernizing society. Christianity, though a unifying force, did
not result in political unity. Political unity, based on nation-states, would be a long time
coming.
Feudalism, at its most elemental, established a social hierarchy that affected these politi-
cal, economic, religious, and cultural elements for centuries. Essentially a pyramidal structure,
feudal society had at the very top a king. Everyone below pledged allegiance to the king and to
God. Nobles or feudal lords acted to enforce the will of the king. The clergy controlled edu-
cation and, to a large degree, cultural activity. Knights (the first standing armies) maintained8
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