The not so dark Middle Ages

When most people, including hip and sophisticated post-moderns, think of the Middle Ages, they typically conjure up images not unlike this:

It's an image our non-Catholic, post-Protestant country has long nurtured.  It is also a boon for the likes of Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins and their ilk, for it continues long held prejudices and myths useful for kicking religion around.

What people who've actually studied that period see, however, is something more like this:

Yes, evidence that seeing eye glasses were around as early as the 13th century.  That's the 13th century.  That's the 1200s.  When we imagine everyone just wandered around, caked in mud, missing teeth, and waiting to attend the next burning of a heretic for sport, there was actually a completely different side to that long, vast cultural period we know as Medieval Europe.  Dark Ages?  Not even close.  When I think of Dark Ages, I think less of this:

And increasingly, more of this: