Blame Petrarch for covering the world in the darkness of "Renaissance" ignorance...

I may be an idealist, but I have a dream. A dream where the middle ages are not demonized by the general public. A dream where medievalists are afforded even a modicum of respect. A dream where... oh who am I kidding? The middle ages will forever respect barbarism and ignorance in the minds of the uninformed. Curse you Petrarch!

"The modern state that emerged from medieval chaos was a “security state.”"

"The medieval tortures carried out for us in the Uzbek dungeons were so appalling that our representative there quit rather than be a party to it."

"On their own side, the ANPP's Mohammed Ali said, "You can foresee the PDP's fraudulent desire to ensure that the feudalistic medieval approach to power and power sharing is maintained."

"...in a medieval social order that prized obedience and acceptance above all else in the order of things."

"... and cramped Alfama district around the São Jorge castle, its crippled black beggars, reminders of the defeats in Africa, had an almost medieval feel. ..."

"Although the horrors described above sound as if they belong to a medieval work of fiction, they are the reality of the daily routine of terrible conditions ..."

"It was as though it wanted it to sit there in the queue — like some severed head skewered on a stake in the middle of a medieval town square as a warning ..."

""I've had a whole theatre groaning before now, though - it was like medieval torture chamber. "I'm not only about puns though. ..."