A panorama of the history of the European Middle Ages, the darkest, hardest, and wildest period ever known in world history, presented in the delightful style of a great European thinker. Christian rulers exploit, slaughter, and mutilate their fellow believers to the point where even rulers of other faiths pity them. Priests and archbishops live in luxury, consorting with courtesans, while ordinary citizens live in hunger and destitution, often due to wars and the economic drain imposed by their Christian rulers and the hierarchy. Popes, antipopes, and Christian emperors fight among themselves with unprecedented ferocity, hurling unheard-of curses at each other. The worst adventurers and criminals are knighted as crusaders, receive absolution for their sins, and become the new noble class of the Christian kingdoms of the East, continuing their adventurous and criminal deeds there.