A World Lit Only By Fire

A World Lit Only By Fire by William Manchester is not only informative of the conflicts that occurred in Europe, but it is humorous and includes perspectives and anecdotes that are not viewed as impartial. It is structured into three separate sections: The Medieval Mind, The Shattering and One Man Alone.

The first section effectively talks about the substantial events that occurred in the year 500; this includes the fall of the Roman Empire and the reasons that lie behind its fall. Manchester continues on by speaking of the Dark Ages that instantaneously followed the collapse of the Roman Empire. He speaks of the Black Death and how Europe experienced multiple “climatic changes”, such as severe flooding. The second section contains information that expands upon events that occurred at the end of the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the Renaissance. This is the section where Manchester slays the Catholic Church and everything that it stood for at this time. The final section describes the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who travelled around the world by ship.

Everyone has aspirations; whether they are ginormous or microscopic, they hold a great deal of importance in our lives. They become so important that with adherence and diligence, a person has the ability to set their mind to anything. It is absolutely true that when a person tries to reach a goal, they are going to experience a few obstacles here and there; this is the time when they must step it up a notch and fight their way to the top. In this particular book, a man named Desiderius Erasmus must fight to keep the worldwide body of Christians united as Catholicism attempts to tear the people apart, limb-by-limb.

Erasmus was not fond of the Catho...

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...ding himself, then someone else is. Those who hold a higher rank to him and have more power in the world can easily manipulate an unguided man. If Erasmus had not saved the Europeans from the corruption of the Church, there would be no telling how today’s Europe would be characterized as. He defined what it meant to be a true follower of God.

William Manchester, the author, wanted us to comprehend that it is goal-oriented people such as Desiderius Erasmus who doubtlessly have all the capacity to alter the world. As Erasmus once said, “There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are those who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other”. If people do not have faith in themselves and work hard towards their goals, then they will never reach said desired goals and continuously remorse the days that they did not take advantage of.