Final answer:
Monks in the Dark Ages commonly wore a hairstyle called the tonsure, which involved shaving the top of the head while leaving a ring of hair around the sides. This represented piety and a renunciation of worldly esteem, symbolizing a monk’s submission to God and the church.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the Dark Ages, monks commonly had a distinctive hairstyle known as the tonsure. This involved shaving the top of the head while leaving a ring of hair around the sides. In Christianity, particularly among the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, this hairstyle signified a monk's vow of piety and his renunciation of worldly fashion and esteem. The practice of the tonsure as a mark of clerical status and the monastic life can be traced back to various cultural and religious influences, and varied slightly from one region to another within Europe.
Different styles of tonsure existed, such as the Roman tonsure, where the crown of the head was shaved, and the Celtic or St. John's tonsure, which involved shaving the hair from the front of the head to the back, leaving a resemblance to a reverse tonsure. However, the practice of tonsure universally symbolized the monk's submission to God and the church, and the circular shape represented the crown of thorns worn by Christ, or the halo of sanctity. By the 11th century, the tonsure was also a mark of scholarly life as monasteries became centers of learning, preserving and copying classical texts and religious manuscripts.