Name: _____________________

The Church in the Dark Ages Worksheet
chapter five, pp. 246-268

Fill in the blank

1. As Christianity penetrated into pagan societies in the Dark Ages, it was difficult for it not to be __________ by those societies.
2 The three dangers that threatened Roman society around 400 A.D. were: ____________, ______________, and ________________.
3. Despite attempts to prevent it, __________ took place between Romans and Barbarians.
4. The Barbarian societies were based on __________, while Roman civilization was based on the __________.
5. The Germanic invaders were not so much hostile to culture, but ________ of it.
6. “________ to our epoch,” said St. Gregory of Tours, “for the study of the ________ is dead!”
7. According to Christopher Dawson, Europe was founded on _____________.
8. St. Gregory of Tours describes the time after the fall of Rome as one of untold ____________.
9. In the Dark Ages, the Roman custom of torture was applied not by the public executioner, but by the ________ himself.
10. The Germanic tribes believed that men who plunged their hand into a cauldron of hot ______ and did not get _________ were innocent of the crime with which they had been accused.
11. Legal adversaries would often _________, and the victor would be declared innocent.
12. The rule of law was replaced in the Dark Ages by the idea of private _____________. The ruling classes tried to push for __________ instead.
13. In addition to brutality, this was also a time of _______ and ________ merely by mutual consent.
14. In the religious sphere, this was a time of ________. The Frankish army in the mid-600s even made a _____________ of women and children to appease the battle spirits.
15. The Barbarians replaced _________ Latin with __________ Latin. This eventually resulted in the formation of our modern __________ languages.
16. On the whole, it took ___ or _____ centuries for Christianity to modify the foundation of the society born of the Barbarian invasions.
17. After the Barbarian invasion, many formerly Christian areas needed to be ______________ again. The main tool used was _______________.
18. Preachers targeted __________ and ___________ in their sermons.
19. Many saints made it their mission to destroy pagan _____________.
20. Various pagan ceremonies were not obliterated, but ____________.
21. According to the Venerable Bede, the word Easter was borrowed from ___________, the name of a pagan goddess.
22. The English word parish comes from a Greek word meaning “a temporary __________ in a strange land.”
23. Beginning in the fifth century, ______ parishes were founded.
24. The Church, via her bishops, was able to perform crucial ___________ tasks for the Germanic invaders.
25. In the Dark Ages, it became clear that without a bishop, there could be no Church or no _________ society.
26. St. Germanus of Paris gave the poor the ______ he got from the king.
27. Before he became a priest, St. Eligius engraved a _______ for Clotaire.

Short Answer

1. Discuss the moral decadence of some Christians around the year 400 A.D.





2. What happened to literature (the works of classical authors) during the Dark Ages?





3. What attracted the Barbarian tribes to Christianity?






4. What did the bishop do during the Dark Ages?