An Intellectual Revolution

Classical teachings of Aristotle instigated an academic revolution against the Catholic Church and the established Christian doctrine. Between 1210 and 1277, the Bishops of Paris ordered three official condemnations of the Uni­versity of Paris. They declared notable scholars heretics and besmirched the university’s newfound thoughts on the nature, form, and existence of God. Considering this discourse, this paper shall make known that the years between the fifth and fifteenth centuries, the so­ called “Dark Ages”, were not devoid of philosophical conversation. These condemnations were, in fact, a response to a larger intellectual revival in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Twelfth Century Renaissance.