The sneerers who coined the phrase "Dark Ages" were almost all educated in the universities founded by the Church during those ages, too.

Harry, do you ever engage in discussion or is every post a sneer?

The formation of all we call Western Civilization happened in this period. The "Dark Ages" were not dark because of the Church, which was slowly converting Europe from paganism and various, sometimes very ugly, heresies. It was not as if Constantine (the Arian heretic) had unleashed a tyranny upon all Europe in the form of a military Roman Catholic Church and all the continent instantly changed.
Nope. The Chruch took almost until the 13th Century to find any real ascendancy in Europe. That is fact, not sneer.

Then the culture actually grew, especially through the universities the Church founded and Her efforts at almost all times to keep the kings and princes from warring.

Go ahead, sneer again, but at least Wiki before you make a fool of yourself. Even better, read a history book.

Okay, Mad, I already knew that. Look at the dates in the Durant reference (867 to 1049)! The Roman Catholic Church did not gain a solid lead in Europe until the 13th Century.
To call the evolving centuries of the Church a dark age is an understandable phrase before then as far as even a Catholic might see it. They were overcoming darkness then: Druids, Thule, Arianism etc.
But to use "The Dark Ages" as is the practice since the Reformation implies they were dark because of the Catholic Church. It is nonsense. You are playing a word game. The "Dark Ages" you think about are not the 'dark age' you use others to cite above.

I meant the post Reformation use of the word, Tor. Thanks for the correction.
To say "Dark Ages" these days makes the Harry and Doc types flash mental images of horrible tortures of ignorant peasants before the nailing of the theses to the door and the triumph of reason put an end to it all and opened the doors for humane reforms like abortion.
Puerile, but that's how they think.