Anthony Eslinnselen says the following in his book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western civilization.

We all know what the Middle Ages were like.

My freshman know.

They've learned it from the infallible authority known as high school platitudes.

First, the middle ages were dark.

People lived in squaller.

Beset by terrible fears, they burned kindly old ladies peddling herbal remedies calling them witches. They made no progress in the natural

sciences. They knew nothing of the world beyond their time and place and had no desire to know.

Their studies were narrow and dogmatic and few great minds of

their era plied their intellect to discover how many angels could dance on the

head of a pin.

Life was so miserable that most people, especially the dirt peasant majority,

lived only for the next world,

placing all their hope in heaven beyond the stars. Let's set the record straight. From 962, the crowning of

Otto the Great as Holy Roman Emperor, to 1321, the death of Dante, Europe enjoyed one of the most magnificent

flourishings of culture the world has seen. In some ways it was the most

magnificent and this was not despite the fact that the daily tolling of

the church bells provided the rhythm of men's lives but because of it because the

people believed they lived in a comic world that is a world redeemed from sin, wherein the Savior had

triumphed over darkness and death. They could love that world a right. They were

pilgrims at heart, who yet passionately loved their native local food and drink.

They enjoyed the freedom of hope.

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