A World Lit Only by Fire By. William Manchester is a book that is essentially universally hated by professional historians of the Middle Ages. The book argues that the Middle Ages in Europe were a time of Constant ignorance and Cruelty and that this all changed when the Renaissance came about. It identifies Ferdinand Magellan as a very important figure as said in the book the “era’s greatest hero” in bringing Europe out of these “Dark Ages”. The book is split into three parts. part one is “The Medieval Mind”. Part two is “The Shattering”. And Part three is “Oh Man Alone”. Part one explains that people of this time were extremely superstitious and were under the control of the Catholic Church which stopped their desire to gain any knowledge