Debunking the Middle Ages: Separating Fact from Fiction

The term "Middle Ages" traditionally refers to a 1,000-year timespan in Europe, stretching from the fall of Rome in the 5th century to the Italian Renaissance in the 15th century.

A common misconception is that medieval people were all ignorant and uneducated, but literacy rates gradually increased during the Middle Ages alongside the establishment of monasteries, convents, and universities.

Ancient knowledge was not "lost" during the Middle Ages; Greek and Roman texts continued to be studied, and medieval scholars described the Earth as the center of the universe, with no debate about its shape.

Medieval Europeans did not eat rotten meat and use spices to cover the taste; instead, they avoided rancid foods and had methods for safely preserving meats, like curing them with salt.

Spices were popular in medieval Europe, but they were often pricier than meat itself, so if someone could afford them, they could also buy unspoiled food.

Medieval Europeans did not lack personal hygiene; even small towns boasted well-used public bathhouses, and people used soaps, mouthwash, teeth-scrubbing cloths, and spices and herbs for fresh-smelling breath.

Many medieval torture devices, such as the Iron Maiden, were likely fabricated in later centuries and did not actually exist during the Middle Ages.

Medieval legal proceedings were overall less gruesome than these gadgets suggest, and included fines, imprisonment, public humiliation, and certain forms of corporal punishment.

Torture and executions did happen during the Middle Ages, but especially violent punishments, like drawing and quartering, were generally reserved for crimes like high treason.

Chastity belts were likely not real and were first mentioned by a 15th-century German engineer, likely in jest, alongside fart jokes and a device for invisibility.

Ideas about the Middle Ages have varied depending on the interests of those in later times, and the term "Middle Ages" was popularized during the 15th and 16th centuries by scholars biased toward the Classical and Modern periods.

The biggest myth may be that the millennium of the Middle Ages amounts to one distinct, cohesive period of European history at all, as it was originally defined less by what it was than what it wasn't.