The Church in the Dark Ages, Volume 1

<p class="ql-align-justify"><strong>The Church in the Dark Ages </strong>is the second installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' monumental <em>History of the Church of Christ</em>. This volume includes the first five chapters of that work, skillfully studying St. Augustine of Hippo, whose genius governed Christ��endom for centuries; the "Great Invasions" of the Barbarians and their conversion under the great popes, Gregory and Leo; the sanctifying influence of such saints as John Chrysostom, Patrick, and Boniface, and the scholars and missionaries of East and West; the grandiosity of Byzantium and its most illustrious leaders, Justinian and Theodora; and Christianity's descent into the "night of barbarism" and the heroic efforts of St. Benedict and the monastic expansion which sought to draw it from those dark depths.</p><p class="ql-align-justify"><br></p><p class="ql-align-justify">A magnificent presentation of six centuries' worth of Church history, <em>The Church in the Dark Ages </em>proves the aptness of the term <em>les temps barbares</em>. From 400 a.d. to 1050 a.d., the world endured-in Rops' eloquent phrasing-"a night in which humanity seemed to be groping blindly amid the bloody confusion of today and the anguish of the morrow. Only the Church, guided by a transcendent ambition, pursued her course unwaveringly, and in working to her own supernatural ends she became the most effective means of ensuring the salvation of civilization."</p>