<P> Petrarch wrote that history had two periods: the classic period of Greeks and Romans, followed by a time of darkness in which he saw himself living . In around 1343, in the conclusion of his epic Africa, he wrote: "My fate is to live among varied and confusing storms . But for you perhaps, if as I hope and wish you will live long after me, there will follow a better age . This sleep of forgetfulness will not last forever . When the darkness has been dispersed, our descendants can come again in the former pure radiance ." In the 15th century, historians Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo developed a three - tier outline of history . They used Petrarch's two ages, plus a modern,' better age', which they believed the world had entered . Later the term' Middle Ages' - Latin media tempestas (1469) or medium aevum (1604) - was used to describe the period of supposed decline . </P> <P> During the Reformations of the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestants generally had a similar view to Renaissance Humanists such as Petrarch, but also added an Anti-Catholic perspective . They saw classical antiquity as a golden time, not only because of its Latin literature, but also because it witnessed the beginnings of Christianity . They promoted the idea that the' Middle Age' was a time of darkness also because of corruption within the Roman Catholic Church, such as: Popes ruling as kings, veneration of saints' relics, a celibate priesthood, and institutionalized moral hypocrisy . </P> <P> In response to the Protestants, Catholics developed a counter-image to depict the High Middle Ages in particular as a period of social and religious harmony, and not' dark' at all . The most important Catholic reply to the Magdeburg Centuries was the Annales Ecclesiastici by Cardinal Caesar Baronius . Baronius was a trained historian who produced a work that the Encyclopædia Britannica in 1911 described as "far surpassing anything before" and that Acton regarded as "the greatest history of the Church ever written". The Annales covered the first twelve centuries of Christianity to 1198, and was published in twelve volumes between 1588 and 1607 . It was in Volume X that Baronius coined the term "dark age" for the period between the end of the Carolingian Empire in 888 and the first stirrings of Gregorian Reform under Pope Clement II in 1046: </P> <Table> Volumes of Patrologia Latina per century <Tr> <Th> Century </Th> <Th> Migne Volume Nos </Th> <Th> Volumes </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 7th </Td> <Td> 80--88 </Td> <Td> 9 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 8th </Td> <Td> 89--96 </Td> <Td> 8 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 9th </Td> <Td> 97--130 </Td> <Td> 34 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 10th </Td> <Td> 131--138 </Td> <Td> 8 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 11th </Td> <Td> 139--151 </Td> <Td> 13 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 12th </Td> <Td> 152--191 </Td> <Td> 40 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 13th </Td> <Td> 192--217 </Td> <Td> 26 </Td> </Tr> </Table>

When did the dark ages start and finish