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 i go General History of Europe hot plowshares, and if he was not burned it was assumed that God had intervened by a miracle to establish the right. This method of trial is but one example of the rude civilization which displaced the refined and elaborate organization of the Romans. 300. Ignorance of the Early Middle Ages. While the bar- barian tribes differed in their habits and character, they all agreed in knowing nothing of the art, literature, and science which had been developed by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans. For a period of three hundred years scarcely a person was to be found who could write out, even in the worst Latin, an account of the events of his day. Everything conspired to discourage education. The great centers of learning Carthage, Rome, Alexandria, Milan had all been partially destroyed by the invaders. The libraries which had been kept in the temples of the pagan gods were often burned, along with the temples themselves, by Chris- tian enthusiasts, who were not sorry to see the heathen books disappear with the heathen religion. 301. Most Medieval Notions to be found in the Late Roman Empire. It would be a great mistake to suppose, however, that Roman civilization suddenly disappeared at this time as a result of the incoming barbarians. Many of the ideas and conditions which prevailed after the invasions were common enough before. Even the ignorance and strange ideas which we associate particu- larly with the Middle Ages are to be found in the later Roman Empire. Long before the German conquest art and literature had begun to decline toward the level that they reached in the early Middle Ages. The term "Middle Ages" is generally applied to the period of about a thousand years which elapsed between the break-up of the Roman Empire and the opening of the sixteenth century. But it should be remembered that there was a great difference between the dark period of the early Middle Ages and the re- markable achievements of the late Middle Ages which will be described in due time.