Modern popular use
Science historian
David C. Lindberg criticised the public use of 'dark ages' to describe the entire Middle Ages as "a time of
ignorance,
barbarism and
superstition" for which "blame is most often laid at the feet of the
Christian church, which is alleged to have placed religious authority over personal experience and rational activity".
[55] Historian of science
Edward Grant writes that "If revolutionary rational thoughts were expressed in the
Age of Reason, they were made possible because of the long medieval tradition that established the use of reason as one of the most important of human activities".
[56] Furthermore, Lindberg says that, contrary to common belief, "the late medieval scholar rarely experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free (particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led".
[57] Because of the collapse of the
Western Roman Empire due to the
Migration Period a lot of classical Greek texts were lost there, but part of these texts survived and they were studied widely in the
Byzantine Empire and the
Abbasid Caliphate. Around the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the
High Middle Ages stronger monarchies emerged; borders were restored after the invasions of
Vikings and
Magyars; technological developments and agricultural innovations were made which increased the food supply and population. And the rejuvenation of science and scholarship in the West was due in large part to the new availability of Latin translations of
Aristotle.
[58]
Another view of the period is reflected by more specific notions such as the 19th-century claim
[59][60] that everyone in the Middle Ages
thought the world was flat.
[60][61] In fact, lecturers in
medieval universities commonly advanced the idea that the
Earth was a sphere.
[62] Lindberg and
Ronald Numbers write: "There was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference".
[63] Other misconceptions such as: "the Church prohibited autopsies and dissections during the Middle Ages", "the
rise of Christianity killed off ancient science", and "the medieval Christian church suppressed the growth of
natural philosophy", are cited by Numbers as examples of
myths that still pass as historical truth, although unsupported by current research.
[64]
