Editing Dark Ages (historiography) (section)

===Romanticism===
In the late 18th and the early 19th centuries, the [[Romanticism|Romantics]] reversed the negative assessment of Enlightenment critics with a vogue for [[medievalism]].<ref>Alexander, Michael (2007). ''Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern England''. Yale University Press.</ref> The word "[[Goths|Gothic]]" had been a term of opprobrium akin to "[[Vandal]]" until a few self-confident mid-18th-century English "Goths" like [[Horace Walpole]] initiated the [[Gothic Revival]] in the arts. This stimulated interest in the Middle Ages, which for the following generation began to take on the idyllic image of an "Age of Faith". This, reacting to a world dominated by Enlightenment [[rationalism]], expressed a romantic view of a [[Golden Age]] of [[chivalry]].  The Middle Ages were seen with [[nostalgia]] as a period of social and environmental harmony and spiritual inspiration, in contrast to the excesses of the [[French Revolution]] and, most of all, to the environmental and social upheavals and [[utilitarianism (architecture)|utilitarianism]] of the developing [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref>Chandler, Alice K. (1971). ''A Dream of Order: The Medieval Ideal in Nineteenth-Century English Literature''. University of Nebraska Press, p. 4.</ref> The Romantics' view is still represented in modern-day [[Renaissance fair|fairs and festivals]] celebrating the period with '[[Merry England|merrie]]' costumes and events.

Just as Petrarch had twisted the meaning of light and darkness, the Romantics had twisted the judgment of the Enlightenment.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}} However, the period that they idealized was largely the [[High Middle Ages]], extending into [[Early modern period|Early Modern]] times. In one respect, that negated the religious aspect of Petrarch's judgment, since these later centuries were those when the power and prestige of the Church were at their height. To many, the scope of the Dark Ages was becoming divorced from this period, denoting mainly the centuries immediately following the fall of Rome.