Extinction of Scientific Inquiry.
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire brought with it the temporary extinction of civilisation in a great part of Western Europe. Science was during some centuries taught, if taught at all, out of little manuals compiled from ancient authors. Geometry and astronomy were supplanted by astrology and magic; medicine was rarely practised except by Jews and the inmates of religious houses. Literature and the fine arts died out almost everywhere.
No doubt the practical knowledge of the farmer and gardener, as well as the lore of the country-side, was handed down from father to son during all the ages of darkness, but the natural knowledge transmitted by books suffered almost complete decay. The teaching ascribed to Physiologus is a sufficient proof of this statement. Physiologus is the name given in many languages during a thousand years to the reputed author of popular treatises of zoology, which are also called Bestiaries, or books of beasts. Here it was told how the lion sleeps with open eyes, how the crocodile weeps when it has eaten a man, how the elephant has but one joint in its leg and cannot lie down, how the pelican brings her young back to life by sprinkling them with her own blood. The emblems of the Bestiaries supplied ornaments to mediæval sermons; as late as Shakespeare's day poetry drew from them no small part of her imagery; they were carved on the benches, stalls, porches, and gargoyles of the churches.
In the last years of the tenth century A.D. faint signs of revival appeared, which became distinct in another hundred years. From that day to our own the progress has been continuous.