The_Dark_Ages_of_Europe

The Dark Ages of Europe The Dark Ages of Europe were called such for several reasons. One of the more notorious reasons was the state of the Catholic Church. In the years before the Reformation, members of the Catholic clergy had reached an all time low in terms of their morality. The abuses of clerical power and privileges by the medieval clergy spanned all parts of their daily lives. Members of the Catholic clergy were financially, politically and socially corrupt. Each of these corruptions made up the enormous religious corruption that was the logical result of such debauchery. Of the several grievances against the Church, “[t]he first and sorest was that she loved money, and had too much of it for her own good” (Durant 17). Documents on the exact wealth of the Church in the Middle Ages simply do not exist. Historians, however, speculate that the Church’s share of the wealth made up anywhere from a fifth to three-quarters in each of England, France and Germany. “In Italy, of course, one third of the peninsula belonged to the Church as the Papal States, and she owned rich properties in the rest” (Durant 17). The clergy was notorious for sucking money out of the people dark, ages, clergy, church, offices, been, vol, strayer, privileges, money, durant, 445, several, privilege, often, keep, corruption, before, taxes, social, religious, public, political, people, one, nothing, much, made, lay, four, exemptions, even, each, created, courts, clerics, cleric, children