How Should We Then Live? Chapter 2: The Middle Ages
A Time Named By Its Detractors The years 500-1400 AD have been called different things, all of them dismissive. They are called Medieval which conjures thoughts of mercilessness and savagery. The saying "to go Medieval on somebody's..." refers more properly to the Paleolithic era before civilization not the time following the fall of Rome. These years are also called the Middle Ages. The thought is that it was merely a time between two others. Apparently nothing important happened from the end of the last great Ancient civilization until the start of the modern world. It says "nothing to see here, move along to the Renaissance." The third name for these years was created by the philosophers of the Enlightenment, the Dark Ages. Of course they were biased. According to them, they had to bring light to the darkness of the preceding years. Those in the Enlightenment placed all their faith in reason. To them anything else was ...