Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
Europe was controlled by the Empire, but not much civilized by it. When the Empire waned the region degraded into a collection of roaming, warring tribes: the Huns, Angles, Saxons, Slavs, Franks, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Goths, Vandals, etc. They comprise what we know as "the Dark Ages." Without the Christian monks there, all written literature from this period would have been lost from this area. These tribes simply weren't interested in preserving antiquity.
|
And this is clearly what differentiates man from all other creatures on this planet. Sure, Whales have bigger brains, and many species have rudimentary communication, and primates have opposable thumbs. But man is the only creature with a dictionary and the only one that needs one. It is our written language that enables us to go to the moon and that defines our civilization. Without the written language it is doubtful we would have progressed much past a hunter/gather tribes and basic agricultural society of New Guinea. The written language defines your civilization. So, in that sense the monks did a wonderful job of preserving written language (as did other religious groups -- Islam had great libraries, etc.)