Middle Ages Accomplishments

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The Middle Ages, sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages, were not without accomplishments. The Middle Ages paved the way for the Renaissance with reestablished curiosity and more questions to be answered. To begin with, a new disease became widespread in Europe during the years of 1348 and 1349 that became known as the Black Death. The actual disease is called the bubonic plague. Panic spread as people did not know the source of the spread or how to cure it. After the pandemic, there were changes in people’s ways of thinking. According to Jean de Venette’s Chronicle, “After the cessation of the epidemic, pestilence, or plague, the men and women who survived married each other. There was no sterility among the women, but on the contrary fertility beyond the ordinary.” This shows a change in the social interactions among people plus a growing population due to high fertility rates. Although the growing population would make …show more content…
During the Middle Ages, many popes and other people related to the church worked to have the church be free from the restraints of the laws of the state. One person who spoke out is Pope Gregory VII. He wrote a letter to Bishop Herman of Metz stating, “Who does not know that kings and princes derive their origin from men ignorant of God who raised themselves above their fellows by pride, plunder, treachery, murder--in short, by every king of crime--at the instigation of the Devil, the prince of this world, men blind with greed and intolerable in their audacity?” This is an example of the church’s opinion of rulers trying to take over the church. During the Renaissance, the church following would lessen due to new discoveries that conflicted with the views of the church. Religion became something that was not as important as it used to be, but the values were still taught and passed down because of the deep-rooted