but despite the wholesale collapse of the roman empire , gregory had seen nothing but `` progress '' ever since with the early inventions of the middle ages-the barrel , the mill wheel , the stirrup , the new harnesses that did not choke the oxen in the fields , the ever-spreading taste for ornate and beautiful clothes , and the building of soaring cathedrals in which the common people could worship right along with the richest and most privileged among them .