Dark Ages

a name given to the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries. During the early part of this period the civilization of the Romans was overturned by invasions of Franks, Goths, and other tribes. Schools became almost extinct. Rulers cared little for learning; literature, save among the monks, was a forgotten subject. For centuries it seemed as though the western world forgot faster than it learned. Students in particular bewail the loss of many art treasures destroyed by the rude soldiers of the north rather through ignorance than through malice. See Charlemagne