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

Manchester gives the history of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan: “He was an explorer, a man whose destiny it was to venture into the unknown; what he found, therefore, was new. He had some idea of its worth but lacked accurate standards by which to measure it” (32). He was killed during a battle on a voyage in which he completed the encirclement of the earth. Magellan’s efforts had proved that the world was round.

After discussing the ease with which exploration could spread disease—or bring it back from discovered lands—Manchester discusses what he calls “one of the age’s most unpleasant characteristics: man’s inhumanity to man” (35). He gives specific attention to the monk Tomás de Torquemada, who was at the head of the Spanish inquisition and who sanctioned the torture of heretics and criminals until they confessed their crimes. It was not only fallen Christians who were persecuted however: “Blacks and Jews suffered most, but any minority was considered fair game for tyrants” (35).

Manchester relates the power of the religious leaders: “At any given moment the most dangerous enemy in Europe was the reigning Pope” (37). During Magellan’s lifetime, Manchester calls the five ruling Popes the “least Christian of men” (37).