Were the Middle Ages or the Early Modern Period worse?

[Lumine]

Middle Ages, but they're closer than people might believe in the sense that the Middle Ages is more demonized than it should be - not that it wasn't unpleasant to live in -, and the Early Modern Period is perhaps seen in too flattering a light. It's also very relative in the sense that I wouldn't want to be caught nearby, say, the Mongols in the Middle Ages, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to be caught in America unless - and perhaps even if - I was a Spaniard.