[Tasboo]

Why did you pick the the middle ages? Couldn't you go back to any period in recorded human history and find that your idea true? When has there not been the idea of 'my idea better, you all believe now or die now'. Why tie it to some modern construct of progress?

[B1FF_PSUVM]

If you read for instance Montaigne, they were debating the merits of the ancients and the moderns. Up to the 16th century there was a pervading sense of inferiority from a previous classical golden age.

The very idea of historical progress is a modern construct.