Originally, and well into the 19th century, "Dark Ages" meant a time of cultural decline (following the negative view with which Petrarch and other Renaissance scholars held for the time separating them from their venerated ancients). This changed with the rise of professional scholarship in history in the 19th and 20th centuries where instead the lack of sources as well as a perceived lack of quality in the sources (as compared with the illustrious historians of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece) became the important characteristics behind the term "Dark Ages". As of today most historians avoid the term as far as possible in favor for the less judgemental "the Early Middle Ages".