***The Pope owned Europe from 500AD to 1800AD***
Are you an American school graduate? Where are you getting your information? Rather silly statement.
***You would deny the slaughter of the Cathars? What of the Arians? Yes the Heruli, Visigoths, and Ostrogoths were destroyed just prior to this timeframe (so I can’t count them), but Arianism was a problem well into the 8th century. What of the Pelagian heresy among the Celts (and Brittany, and parts of coastal France)? And certainly, what of the Jews, many of whom were slaughtered during the Black Plague, accused of poisoning wells... What of the “evangelizing” of the Anglo-Saxons, the Picts, and other Pagan tribes... and not to forget the mighty Vikings.***
The statement was to the effect that the average person didn’t know much about anything more than 10 miles from his birthplace (and gravestone) and didn’t travel any further in the first millennium. How would the serf in Nottingham know anything about the Cathars?
***The RCC not only assisted evil in WWII, it participated in it, and helped it to escape. ***
Yup, all those darn evil Jews that the Church spirited out through the Vatican and through Switzerland.
You will also notice that the FACT that Europe also faced famine and war in the 14th and 15th centuries was entirely ignored and this had substantial effects on the population.
Additionally, the comparison to America’s growth is our first century as a free republic, this is also farcical. America had the benefit of IMMIGRATION and an ENTIRE CONTINENT FOR EXPANSION, Europe had none of these. Moreover, the Black Death DID change the face of Europe, yes it took about a century, but the transformation was incredible. Out of the Black Death came the Renaissance and the middle class (which had NEVER before existed ANYWHERE in the history of the world).
Finally, there is still the FACT that roamer_1’s original statement was that the Catholic Church was responsible for 100 MILLION deaths and we have yet to see a modicum of proof for that, just innuendo based upon untruths.
This sort of arrogance is both institutional and profound, and is one of the things sparking my research into Europe. While it is certainly true that folks of this age could not simply pick up a telephone, don't think that there wasn't communication, especially along trading routes. Something as large scale as the slaughter of the Cathari would be all over the continent in a matter of weeks...