[Sensei Ern]

"I am not a Catholic, but your thread verily drips with anti-Catholic venom. All of the inventions that made the modern world what it is today were invented during the Middle Ages: the lens, the mechanical clock, distilling, crop rotation, the harness, the magnetic compass, gunpowder, the movable printing press, cheap pulp-type paper, etc. Many of these were invented in monasterys, which acted as R & D centers, as well as repositories for both secular and religious knowledge. Please get your facts straight before you go on a rant. You only reveal your lack of sophistication."

Gunpowder must have been made by Chinese Catholics.
Much of what you listed was from the voyage of Marco Polo.

Although the banter of these posts make it seem otherwise, I do not hate Catholics. I do not have any patience for religious tyranny and mis-information.

[attiladhun2]

I believe a lot of people on FR could benefit greatly from a course in critical reading. If you would have read what I actually said, you no doubt would have understood that I was not attributing the invention of gunpowder to monks, Chinese or otherwise. I was only indictating that the Middle Ages were not bereft of progress, as many assume.