The Abacus and the Cross: The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages
The popular picture of the Dark Ages is wrong. People knew the earth wasn't flat; they weren't terrified that the world would end at the end of the millennium. And the medieval Catholic Church, widely considered a source of intolerance and inquisitorial fervor, was not anti-science during the Dark Ages - in fact, the pope in the year 1000 was the leading mathematician and astronomer o More »