[Perspectives] Icarus

When did the Middle Ages end? A traditional date is 1453, the fall of Byzantium. Another candidate is 1610, when Galileo reported that Jupiter had moons. But if a defining feature of the Middle Ages was transcendence —the belief that human beings are ultimately spiritual and that life on earth is a shadow of the heavenly life—then for some people, the Middle Ages ended with the collapse of great theocratic empires (Russia, China, the Ottoman Empire) and the advancement of secular politics.
Source: LANCET - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Perspectives Source Type: research