It speaks to the failure of medieval Europe, writes popular historian William Manchester, that "in the year 1500, after a thousand years of neglect, the roads built by the Romans were still the best on the continent." European powers were so absorbed in destroying each other and in suppressing peasant revolts and religious reform that they never quite got around to realizing the possibilities of contemporary innovations in public health, civil engineering, and other peaceful pursuits. Instead, they waged war in faraway lands, created and lost fortunes, and squandered millions of lives.Manchester is a good writer. Would be nice addition of a good read on medieval Europe, but far from an attempt at a scholarly history of the church. I doubt this is where you've been getting your "facts" on this thread; is it?For all the wastefulness of medieval societies, however, Manchester notes, the era created the foundation for the extraordinary creative explosion of the Renaissance.
Drawing on a cast of characters numbering in the hundreds, Manchester does a solid job of reconstructing the medieval world, although some scholars may disagree with his interpretations. (Amazon.com)
He covers the years from around 400 ad to 1000 ad, which is the period of time that the Church was at the height of it's power and glory. It is during these years that the doctrines of the RCC revealed their true nature. The nature of the church, while covered extensively, is not really the main focus of his work, which was the voyage of Magellan and the world he lived in, and he gives a quite detached and analytical portrait of simply what the world was like during that time. It was an attempt at a scholarly overview of the western world in that age, of which the Church was an integral part. Slightly dry reading, but very interesting and I highly recommend it.
You asked for one book, I gave you one, and even give you now HIS sources, so as I said, you can hash over the details with him if you choose. Personally, I am not going to waste further time with you. I say it is a waste of time because by challenging my assertions of the crimes by the RCC, and demanding my sources, you are either a)in denial and abjectly brainwashed to the point of being delusional, or b) aware that my accusations are true, and simply trying to make rhetorical points or trying to yank my chain. Given that you now say you have not denied my accusations, then I can only conclude that it be the latter. Whichever it may be, however, you have now made it onto the list of people with whom I consider discourse to be a waste of time.
As said above, He gets HIS facts from 75 footnoted sources (and I do think a number of them will probably qualify as "scholarly works on the history of the church"), including...
Life on a Medieval Barony by William Stearns Davis
Dictionary of National Biography : 3rd Supplement: 1912-1921 by H. W. C. Davis
The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization, Volume 4) (Story of Civilization) by Will Durant
The Renaissance (The Story of Civilization. Vol. 5) (Story of Civilization) by Will Durant
Roman de la Rose by Lorris
City of God (Classics S.) by Saint, Bishop of Hippo Augustine
The People's Chronology: A Year-By-Year Record of Human Events from Prehistory to the Present by James Trager
The Divine Comedy of Dante by Dante Alighieri
A Treatise on the Astrolabe (Variorum Edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer) by Geoffrey Chaucer
On the Revolutions : Nicholas Copernicus Complete Works by Nicholas Copernicus
Of the Imitation of Christ (Vintage Spiritual Classics) by Thomas Kempis
Ovid: The Art of Love by Ovid
The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic by William H. Prescott
The Emperor Charles V: The Growth and Destiny of a Man and of a World-empire by Karl Brandi
The European Discovery of America : The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492-1616 by Samuel Eliot Morison
History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella by William H. Prescott
Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History by Norman O. Brown
A History of the Church: The World in Which the Church Was Founded (History of the Church (Sheed & Ward)) by Philip Hughes
English Social History: A Survey of Six Centuries by George M. Trevelyan
The Age of Reconnaissance by J. H. Parry
The Reformation in England: The King's Proceedings (Modern Revivals in History) by Philip Hughes
Life and Work in Medieval Europe (History of Civilization) by Prosper Boissonnade
Harvest of Medieval Theology by Heiko Oberman
Field Is Won by E. Reynolds
Emperor Charles V by Edward Armstrong
World of Michelangelo by Robert Coughlan
Calvin's Geneva by E. William Monter
Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, 1420-1620 by Boies Penrose
Protestant Christianity Interpreted Through its Development by John Dillenberger
How the Reformation Happened by Hilaire Belloc
The death of a president, November 20-November 25, 1963 by William Raymond Manchester
Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History (Austen Riggs Monograph, No 4) by Erik H. Erikson
Holy Roman Empire by James Bryce
Quests for Spices and New Worlds by Bertha Sanford Dodge
Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation (Chivalry) by G. G. Coulton
Decline of the Medieval Church by Alexander Clarence Flick
South from the Spanish Main by Earl P. Hanson
A History of the Middle Ages, 284-1500 (Macmillan Student Editions) by Sidney Painter
Story of Magellan by Stefan Zweig
The Inquisition of the Middle Ages: Its Organization by Henry Charles Lea
GLORY AND THE DREAM by William Manchester
Life and Letters of Erasmus by James Anthony Froude
Praise of Folly: And, Letter to Martin Dorp, 1515 (Penguin Classics) by Desiderius Erasmus
They saw it happen: An anthology of eye-witnesses' accounts of events in British history, 1485-1688
Revolution in Time : Clocks and the Making of the Modern World, Revised and Enlarged Edition by David S. Landes
The Legacy of the Middle Ages (Legacy Series) by C. G. Crump
History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian (Volume 1) by J. B. Bury
English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages by Jusserand
The Timetables of History : A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events by Bernard Grun
Chaucer and His England by G. G. Coulton
Three Copernican Treatises by Edward Rosen
Peace and World Order Studies : A Curriculum Guide, Fourth Edition by Barbara J. Wien
Protestant Christianity : Interpreted Through its Development by John Dillenberger
Heroes and Hero Worship by Thomas Carlyle
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Penguin Classics) by Jacob Burckhardt
The March of Folly : From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara W. Tuchman
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 2 (Modern Library) by Edward Gibbon
Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (Hist of the Church) by R. W. Southern
Works of Martin Luther: With Introduction and Notes, the Philadelphia Edition by Martin Luther
Prince Henry the Navigator by Charles R. Beazley
Men and Ideas: History, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance by Johan Huizinga
Catherine of Aragon by G. Mattingly
Education of a Christian Prince by Desiderius Erasmus
Admiral of the Ocean Sea : A Life of Christopher Columbus by Samuel Eliot Morison
Inquisition and Liberty by G. G. Coulton
Crises in the History of the Papacy by Joseph McCabe
The control of late ancient and medieval population by Josiah Cox Russell
The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450-1800 (Verso Classics, 10) by Lucien Febvre
Literacy and Social Development (Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture) by Graff
Waning of the Middle Ages by J Huizinga
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Routledge Classics) (Routledge Classics) by Max Weber
A History of Medieval Europe: From Constantine to Saint Louis by R. H. C. Davis
History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages by H. C. Lea