أوروبا الغربية من حوالى 1000 حتى 1100 ميلادية .. السيمياء تنتقل من الشرق الى الغرب

Western Europe from c. 1000 to 1100 AD
Alchemy Moves from East to West

Western Europe from c. 1000 to 1100 AD

The decline of the Roman Empire was followed by a period of chaos, fragmentation, and invasion by the Celts, Visigoths, and Vandals. During this period, the Christian Church assumed many of the functions of the empire, including judicial administration, record keeping, and, most importantly, the preservation of information. The organization of the Christian Church was initially simple, but under the influence of pagan religions, rituals began to develop, and a hierarchical system of respected priests, patriarchs, and bishops became necessary to govern its affairs.

The Bishop of Rome became particularly important, as the incumbent would eventually become the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The Byzantine emperor did not recognize this, nor did everyone in Western Europe. Two events helped strengthen or stabilize the Christian Church as the organizing force in Europe: Charlemagne in the ninth century, and the Crusades two centuries later. Charlemagne, the French warrior, set out to subjugate much of Europe, roughly encompassing what is now Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and northern Italy. He forced the pagans within his domains to convert to Christianity. In 800, the Pope crowned him Emperor of the Romans, creating what later became known as the Holy Roman Empire. This created a precedent for papal intervention in worldly affairs. But within a hundred years, Charlemagne's empire disintegrated, fragmented and constantly at war with one another. Royal authority dwindled as the power and numbers of feudal lords grew, and the government became increasingly fragmented. By the end of the second millennium, around 1000 AD, Western Europeans were trapped in small states with a philosophically unproductive endgame. They spent all their time trying to survive, feeling trapped. They worked from sunrise to sunset, and no one but the rich owned more than bare earth under their feet and beds of straw. Everyone, even the wealthy, ate coarse food: black or brown bread, and salted meat and fish to prevent spoilage. They faced starvation and disease every day. Two centuries of struggle had created a class of warrior knights who had no choice but to fight each other. The chaos threatened to be dire until a suitable solution was found. The solution was to send knights on crusades.