A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance

Manchester returns to the story of Ferdinand Magellan, just as Magellan prepares to leave for what will be his final exploration. Manchester describes him as a tough, fastidious captain, and a private man. He was also a dreamer and a romantic, a side of himself that he did not let his men see. Columbus and other explorers inspired Magellan, who wanted to become a hero: “The patterns of Magellan’s age are now clear. Its clarifying event was the shattering of the medieval world—medium aevum, as Renaissance humanists call it” (228).

Manchester states that although the religious revolution was the most conspicuous series of events leading to the destruction of the Renaissance, many other events contributed, such as the fall of Constantinople to Muhammad II, the grown of commerce in England and Germany, and the humanists’ discovery of wisdom in the values of classical civilization: “Finally, the exploration of lands beyond Europe—of which Magellan’s voyage was to be the culmination—opened the entire world, thus introducing the modern age” (229). It had long been assumed that everyone worshipped Christ. The discovery of new lands proved that this was not so, and that the inhabitants of those non-Christian lands did not seem to suffer from their non-belief.