Dark Ages: Europe

As Europe began its slow emergence from the Dark Ages in the sixteenth century, opium began to reappear in medical journals on the continent. A century later, an English apothecary named Thomas Sydenham introduced Sydenham s Laudanum, pills made from opium, sherry, and herbs. They were popular remedies for a variety of ills. 

Quickly, however, in the early Christian era of Europe and even throughout the Dark Ages, true adherents to Christian concepts ensured the enduring (though occasionally faltering) Christian force of charity. Hospitals and infirmaries arose. In the earliest Christian period these included, prominently, Eastern establishments for the cure of the sick, the Infirmary of Monte Cassino and the Hotel-Dieu at Lyons in the sixth century, the Hotel-Dieu at Paris in... 

The beverage art, however, has been distinguished in another way. It has had to suffer under the inherent conservative tendency of any old art, and also it has been specially hampered by various legal bedevilments. The era just past in the United States, prohibition, may be likened, by not a too strained analogy, to the Dark Ages in Europe from the fourth to the fourteenth... 

In the 1st century AD, Pliny recorded the empirical use of oil for calming a rough sea, and Plutarch also mentioned this practice. A little of this empirical knowledge may have passed directly into the so-called Dark Ages of Europe, though the interpretation of the effects then became rather mystical. For example, Bede, in his famous history of 731 AD, records that in the seventh century holy oil was used to calm the seas in stormy weather. 

The calming of the sea then was attributed to the holiness of the oil rather than to its physical properties. However, holy oil consisted mainly of olive oil, which now is known to spread well and to be very effective in calming a rough sea. It thus appears that the knowledge of the wave-calming properties of oils may not have been lost completely during Europe s Dark Ages. 

Following the destruction of alchemical works by Diocletian, the famous Library of Alexandria was itself burnt to the ground by a Christian mob in 390CE. This loss of the Library, followed by the gruesome murder of the beautiful mathematician Hypatia by a gang of monks twenty-five years later, ushered in Europe s Dark Ages. 

The increased system dynamics pattern states that a system always evolves to increase its dynamics. The Dark Ages can be characterized by a very low mobility of people even within their own countries. That situation had to change, and therefore the Renaissance emerged as an age of significantly increased mobility both within individual countries and in all of Europe. Also, it was a period of geographic exploration of the world outside of Europe. These discoveries obviously contributed to the rapidly increased pace of the sociocultural paradigm of evolution. 

Beazley, M. (2003). From the Dark Ages to the Renaissance 700-1599 AD History of Europe), London, England Mitchell Beazley. 

In the twelfth century and after the Dark Ages, universities and hospitals were beginning to be established in Europe. In many of these institutions, researchers were performing human dissections and gaining a better understanding of human anatomy. In addition, the ancient Greek texts were being translated from Arabic to Latin. 

The answer to the second question follows, to some extent, from the answer to the first. Creativeness is enhanced by interaction between people involved in creating, whether this be by direct interaction, such as in artist communities, or by access to the work of others, as evidenced by the direct connection between the rate of discovery and invention and the extent and availability of written (or printed) material. Creativeness is also enhanced by the attitude of society to change and new ideas how it accepts them and values them and the people who create them. The converse of this is clearly demonstrated by the so-called Dark Ages in Europe, the period from 900 to 1300, when the all-powerful Catholic Church monopolised education and publishing and suppressed all intellectual activity outside its own, narrow boundaries. 

Shrub or small tree with shiny, dark green, short oblong to obovate leaves 3-7 cm long up to 6 m high native to Europe, western Asia, and northern Afric a naturalized in North America. Part used is the dried bark aged for 1 year to get rid of an emetic principle (see cascara). 

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