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diff --git a/35095.txt b/35095.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b644f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/35095.txt @@ -0,0 +1,24383 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Century of Columbus, by James J. Walsh + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Century of Columbus + +Author: James J. Walsh + +Release Date: January 28, 2011 [EBook #35095] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CENTURY OF COLUMBUS *** + + + + +Produced by Don Kostuch + + + + + +[Transcriber's note] + + This is derived from a copy on the Internet Archive: + http://www.archive.org/details/centurycolumbus01walsgoog + + Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly + braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page breaks occurred + in the original book. + + Obvious spelling errors have been corrected but "inventive" and + inconsistent spelling is left unchanged. + + Extended quotations and citations are indented. + + Footnotes have been renumbered to avoid ambiguity, and relocated + to the end of the enclosing paragraph. + +[End Transcriber's note] + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + + +FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS SERIES + + +MAKERS OF MODERN MEDICINE +Lives of the men to whom nineteenth century medical science +owes most. Second Edition. New York, 1910. $2.00 net. + + +THE POPES AND SCIENCE +The story of Papal patronage of the sciences and especially +medicine. 45th thousand. New York, 1911. $2.00 net. + + +MAKERS OF ELECTRICITY +Lives of the men to whom important advances in electricity +are due. In collaboration with Brother Potamian, F.S.C., +Sc.D. (London), Professor of Physics at Manhattan College. +New York, 1909. $2.00 net. + + +EDUCATION, HOW OLD THE NEW +Addresses in the history of education on various occasions. +3rd thousand. New York, 1911. $2.00 net. + + +OLD-TIME MAKERS OF MEDICINE +The story of the students and teachers of the sciences related to +medicine during the Middle Ages. New York 1911. $2.00 net. + + +MODERN PROGRESS AND HISTORY +Academic addresses on How Old the New. New York, +1911. $2.00 net. + + +THE THIRTEENTH GREATEST OF CENTURIES +5th edition (50,000). 116 illustrations, 600 pages +Catholic Summer School Press, 1911. Postpaid $3.50. + + + +_IN PREPARATION_ + +MAKERS OF ASTRONOMY + + + +THE DOLPHIN PRESS SERIES +CATHOLIC CHURCHMEN IN SCIENCE +First and second series, each $1.00 net. + + + +PSYCHOTHERAPY +Lectures on The Influence of the Mind on the Body +delivered at Fordham University School of Medicine. Appletons, +New York, 1912, $6.00 net. + + + +[Illustration: +SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS +(METROPOLITAN MUSEUM. NEW YORK)] + + + + + +The Century of Columbus + +BY + +JAMES J. WALSH, K.C.St.G., M.D., Ph.D., LL.D. +LITT.D. (Georgetown), Sc.D. (Notre Dame) + +PROFESSOR OP PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY AT THE CATHEDRAL +COLLEGE; LIFE MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL +SOCIETY, MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE. +OF THE GERMAN AND FRENCH SOCIETIES OF THE HISTORY +OF MEDICINE. OF THE ITALIAN SOCIETY FOR THE +HISTORY OF THE NATURAL AND THE MEDICAL +SCIENCES, OF THE ST. LOUIS MEDICAL HISTORY +CLUB, THE NEW ORLEANS PARISH MEDICAL +SOCIETY, A.M.A., A.A.A.S., ETC. + + + +WITH EIGHTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS + + + +CATHOLIC SUMMER SCHOOL PRESS +New York, 1914 + + + +Copyright, 1914 +James J. Walsh + + + +THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS + +RAMWAY, N. J. + + + +To The Knights of Columbus + +for whom the material here presented in book form was originally +gathered for lectures in many parts of the country and whose hearty +interest in the dissemination of historical truth has encouraged its +completion, this book is fraternally and respectfully dedicated by +the author. + + + +"There come from time to time, eras of more favorable conditions, in +which the thoughts of men draw nearer together than is their wont, and +the many interests of the intellectual world combine in one complete +type of general culture. The fifteenth century ... is one of these +happier eras; and what is sometimes said of the age of Pericles is +true of that of Lorenzo--it is an age productive of personalities, +many-sided, centralized, complete. Here, artists and philosophers and +those whom the action of the world has elevated and made keen, do not +live in isolation, but breathe a common air, and catch light and heat +from each other's thoughts. There is a spirit of general elevation and +enlightenment in which all alike communicate. ... That solemn +fifteenth century can hardly be studied too much, not merely for its +positive results in the things of the intellect and the imagination, +its concrete works of art, its special and prominent personalities, +with their profound aesthetic charm, but for its general spirit and +character, for the ethical qualities of which it is a consummate +type." + + Walter Pater, _The Renaissance._ + + +{vii} + +PREFACE + +In a previous book, "The Thirteenth Greatest of Centuries," I +described the period of human activity in which, as it appears to me, +more was accomplished that is of significance in the expression of +what is best in man and for the development of humanity than during +any corresponding period of the world's history. To many people it may +now seem that I am setting up a rival to the Thirteenth Century in +what is here called The Century of Columbus, the period from 1450 to +1550. I may as a foreword say, then, that there is no thought of that +and that I still feel quite sure that the Thirteenth is the Greatest +of Centuries, though it must be admitted that probably more supremely +great men were at work in Columbus' Century than in the preceding +period. The Thirteenth Century is greatest, however, because its +achievements were more widely diffused in their influence and because +more of mankind had the opportunity and the incentive to bring out the +highest that was in them, than at any other period in the world's +history. As a consequence a greater proportion of mankind was happy +than ever before or since, for happiness comes only with the +consciousness of good work done and the satisfaction of personal +achievement. And that is the greatest period of human history when man +is the happiest. + +The Renaissance, however, for it is practically the period in history +usually known by that name which is here called the Century of +Columbus, achieved results in every mode of human endeavor that have +been inspiring models for all succeeding generations, most of all our +own. Just why greatness in human achievement should thus occur in +periods long separated from each other is hard to understand. I have +sometimes suggested that there is probably a biological law in the +matter, the factors of which are not well understood as yet. Every +third or fourth year the farmer expects to have an apple or fruit +year, as it is called--that is, to reap a fine fruit harvest, the +{viii} fruit product of the intervening years having often been quite +indifferent. Man is much more complex than the fruits and so it takes +a longer interval to prepare a great human harvest, hence humanity has +its supreme fruitage only every third or fourth century. Undoubtedly +Columbus' Century is one of the finest fruit periods of human history. + + +There was nothing that the men of the time did not do supremely well, +and a great many of them did nearly everything that they took in hand +better than any of their successors. As a curious contrast to our +time, very few of them limited themselves to any one mode of +expression. Because of its very contradiction of a great many of our +prevalent impressions, as for instance the universal persuasion of +constant human evolution and the supposed progress of mankind from +year to year but surely from century to century, and the thought so +common, that after all we must now be far ahead of the past,--though +there is abundant evidence of the vanity of this self-complacency--the +story of Columbus' Century should be interesting to our generation. +Since it furnishes the background of history on which alone the real +significance of the discovery of our continent just after the end of +the Middle Ages can be properly seen, it should have a special appeal +to Americans. These are the reasons for writing the book. + +Owing to the large field that is covered, the author can scarcely hope +to have escaped errors of detail. His only thought is that the broad +view of the whole range of achievement may be sufficiently helpful to +those interested in the history of human culture to compensate for +faults that were almost inevitable. Its comprehensiveness may give the +book a suggestive and retrospective value. It is addressed not to the +special student but to the general reader interested in all phases of +human accomplishment who wishes to fill in the outlines of political +history with the story of the intellectual and ethical life of a great +epoch. Thanks are due to Mr. Stephen Horgan for material aid in the +selection of illustrations, no easy task because of the immense +material to choose from. A definite effort has been made to avoid the +well-known masterpieces and have the illustrations add to the +knowledge of the time. + + + +{ix} + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTION xxv + + The discovery of America but one of a series of notable achievements + in Columbus' time. + + His century, 1450 to 1550, had more great men than any other in + human history. + + In the arts it is unsurpassed. + + In its deeds it rivals every other century, above all in social + work, in scholarship, in education and in its achievements in the + sciences, physical as well as biological, and in medicine and + surgery. + + Its literature is behind that of certain other periods of history, + but this is the age of Leo X and one of the most interesting epochs + of world literature in every European country. + + + +BOOK I. THE BOOK OF THE ARTS + + + +CHAPTER I + +GREAT PAINTERS; RAPHAEL 1 + + Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo the world's greatest + painters. + Raphael, greatest of religious painters. + Born at Urbino. + Duke Frederick patron of art. + Studies with Timotheo Viti and Perugino. + Influence of Fra Bartolommeo. + Work at Rome. + Stanze of the Vatican. + Camera della Segnatura. + Cartoons for Sistine tapestries. + Sistine Madonna. + Raphael, art director and archaeologist. + + +CHAPTER II + +LEONARDO DA VINCI 15 + + "Mona Lisa." + Walter Pater's tribute. + The "Last Supper" disclosed genius and methods of artist. + The "Madonna of the Rocks." + Sculptor, engineer, geologist, anatomist, zoologist, botanist and + biologist. + Dissections and proposed text-book of anatomy. + Career as artist. + Surpasses his master Verrocchio. + Scientific interests. + Inventor. + Personality, philosophy of life. + Burckhardt's summary--"colossal genius" + + +{x} + + +CHAPTER III + +MICHELANGELO 32 + + Humble origin of world's greatest genius. + Little interest in books. + Studio of Ghirlandajo. + Academy of Lorenzo de' Medici. + Dissections. + Early works. + Pieta, reason for youthfulness of mother. + David. + Tomb of Pope Julius. + Galley Slaves. + Decoration of the Sistine Chapel. + Moses. + Sacristy of San Lorenzo. + "Four-souled" Michelangelo's sonnets. + Practical genius. Family cares. + Advice on marriage. + Friendship with Vittoria Colonna. + Attitude toward religion. + Influence waxes with time + + +CHAPTER IV + +SECONDARY ITALIAN PAINTERS OF THE CENTURY: FRA ANGELICO, +PERUGINO, FRA BARTOLOMMEO, BOTTICELLI, BELLINI, TITIAN, +CORREGGIO, TINTORETTO, VERONESE AND OTHERS 53 + + A century rich in painters. + Fra Angelico the mystic. + Perugino the teacher of Raphael; + at the Sistine Chapel; + pictures mistaken for Raphael's. + Fra Bartolommeo's greatest works. + Botticelli's mythology and psychology; + Madonnas; + illustrations of Dante. + Bellini's portraits; + Madonnas. + Titian's wonderful color; + religious pictures; + portraits; + mythological scenes. + Piero dei Franceschi. + Luca Signorelli. + Melozzo da Forli. + Correggio a middle-term between the various Italian schools; + "Most skilful artist since the ancient Greeks." + Tintoretto master of drawing and world artist. + "The composition of Michelangelo and the coloring of Titian." + Veronese's magnificent large pictures. + + +CHAPTER V + +PAINTING OUTSIDE OF ITALY 71 + + The Netherlands: + The brothers Van Eyck forerunners; + Roger van der Weyden; + Memling's paintings at the Hospital of St. John, Bruges; + Dirk Bouts; + Quentin Matsys; + Lucas van Leyden; + Gerard David; + Justus of Ghent; + Jan van Mabuse; + Bernard van Orley; + Blondeel. + Nuremberg rival of Bruges; + Duerer; + the Holbeins. + France: + The Clouets; + Cousin; + Fouquet + Spain: + Navarrete; + Juan de Borgona; + Luis de Vargas; + Pablo de Cespedes. + Women painters in Spain + + +CHAPTER VI + +SCULPTURE IN ITALY 85 + + Ghiberti's doors for the Baptistery at Florence. + Donatello. + The great equestrian statues of Gatamelata and Colleoni. + Donatello's St. George, + St. Francis, + Bambino Gesu, + St. John the Baptist + Donatello's personality. + His paralysis. +{xi} + Luca della Robbia, sculptor, worker in terra-cotta. + Andrea del Verrocchio, goldsmith, painter, sculptor: + "The Incredulity of St. Thomas," + "The Colleoni." + Benvenuto Cellini, sculptor, goldsmith, writer. + John of Bologna: + Neptune, + Mercury. + The sculpture in the Certosa at Pavia. + Decadence in sculpture + + +CHAPTER VII + +SCULPTURE AND MINOR ARTS AND CRAFTS OUTSIDE OF ITALY 97 + + Names of sculptors of Low Countries often unknown. + Tombs of Mary of Burgundy and Charles the Bold. + Wood-carving, + Bruges, + Leyden, + Haarlem. + Germany: + Nuremberg, + Veit Stoss, + Duerer, + Adam Kraft, + the Vischers. + St. Sebald's shrine; + Maximilian's Tomb at Innsbrueck. + France: + Colombe. + Tours a great centre of art: + Jean Fouchet and the Tomb of Agnes Sorel: + Jean Goujon and Germain Pilon. + Flemish and French tapestry. + Golden Age of tapestry. + Recent appreciation. + Beautiful altar vessels, enamels, furniture, + locks and keys, jewel boxes, armor, clocks + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CENTURY 114 + + Brunelleschi's dome. + Alberti's _"De re aedificatoria":_ + Church of San Francesco. + Florence, Rucellai, Ricardi and Pitti Palace. + Venice; + Library of St Mark; + Palace of the Doge and of the Grimani. + Palladio at Vicenza. + Genoa, the city of palaces. + Vignola, + Villa of Pope Julius, + Palace of Caprarola. + Facade of the Certosa. + Sistine Chapel and King's College, Cambridge. + Louvain, Hotel de Ville. + Brussels the _grande place._ + Spain: + University of Alcala. + Cloister of Lupiana. + Alcazar, Toledo. + Giralda tower. + France: + Louvre, + Pavillon de l'Horloge; + the Chateaux. + Architecture of the Renaissance a living force 114 + + +CHAPTER IX + +MUSIC 134 + + Renaissance music as original as art and literature. + Beginning in Netherlands, Ockenheim, Josquin, Arcadelt. + Degrees in music, England. + German music, Hans Sachs. + Roman music, + Claude Goudimel, + the brothers Animuccia, + the brothers Nanini, + Orlando di Lasso. + Church reform of music. + Palestrina, + career, + achievement, + recent restoration as Catholic standard. + Oratorio. + Dominant seventh. + Development of musical instruments--organ, violin + + +CHAPTER X + +BOOKS AND PRINTS: WOOD AND METAL ENGRAVING 146 + + Renaissance appreciation of beautiful books. + Artistic manuscripts. + Invention of printing. + Most beautiful printed books in the world +{xii} + Our imitation. + Books of Hours. + Illustrations. + Type-cutting. + William Caxton: + his place in English prose. + Aldus Manutius: + _Editiones principes_ of all the classics; + career; + business troubles; + achievements. + Geoffrey Tory. + Simon de Collines. + Champ Fleury. + Tory, King's printer. + The dream of Poliphilo. + Fra Giocondo's illustrations. + Duerer and German wood-engraving. + Burgkmaier. + Holbein. + French wood-engraving. + German metal-engraving. + Italian illustrations. + Vesalius' anatomy. + Artistic bookbinding. + Grolier. + Decadence in bookmaking arts + + +BOOK II. THE BOOK OF THE DEEDS + +CHAPTER I + +SOCIAL WORK AND WORKERS 169 + + Criterion of period; + solution of social problems. + The climax of guild social influence. + Insurance features. + No poorhouses, no orphan asylums. + Care of ne'er-do-well. + Guild of Holy Cross, Stratford; + almshouses; + grammar school. + Thirty thousand guilds in England. + Philanthropy. + Sir Hugh Clopton's guild chapel and bridge. + "Tag day." + Beguines' care for dependents: + their place in history. + Lending institutions for the poor. + St. Catherine of Genoa. + Organization of charity. + St. Philip Neri; + modern appreciation. + St. Ignatius. + Savonarola. + Political complications. + Savonarola's fate. + Las Casas' care for the Indians. + St. Francis Borgia. + Torture later in history. + Witchcraft delusion post-reformation. + Decadence of charity + + +CHAPTER II + +HOSPITALS, NURSING AND CARE FOR THE INSANE 192 + + The humanity that cares for the ailing. + Neglect in more recent times; + jail-like hospitals without trained attendants. + Beautiful Renaissance hospitals. + Florence's Home of the Innocents. + _Ospedale Maggiore_, Milan. + _Santo Spirito Hospital_, Rome. + Hospitals of the Beguines, Netherlands. + St. John's Hospital, Bruges. + Ample water supplies. + Religious uniform and cleanliness. + Sir Thomas More on hospitals. + Brothers of Mercy in Spain. + The Do-good Little Brothers. + Care of the insane. + Spain the leader. + The "open door." + Subsequent abuses. + Italian asylums. + Subsequent decadence + + +CHAPTER III + +ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA AND THE JESUITS 206 + + A great genius in organization. + Career. + Political and religious situation in Europe. + A new knighthood. +{xiii} + The "Little Company of Jesus." + The Spiritual Exercises. + Jesuit Missions: + India, + Japan, + China, + South America, + Reductions of Paraguay, + North America. + Jesuit Relations, gathering and transmitting knowledge. + Education of the Jesuits; + great pupils; + bibliography. + Activity in the sciences. + Jesuit astronomers. + In other fields. + All things to all men. + Ignatius' legacy of persecution and contumely + + +CHAPTER IV + +SIR THOMAS MORE AND SOME CONTEMPORARIES 223 + + An artist in human will. + England at More's birth. + Youth. + Marriage. + Opposes the King. + Studies, Louvain, Paris. + Busy barrister, care for the poor. + Friendship with Erasmus. + Family life. + Margaret More. + Linacre. + Dean Colet. + Lyly. + John Caius. + More's English writings. + Utopia. + Controversial writings. + Lord Chancellor,--clears the docket. + Honors and wealth or duty and death. + More's choice. + Trying situation. + Humor on the scaffold. + Lord Campbell on his execution; + on the Lord Chancellors who succeeded him + + +CHAPTER V + +THE REFORMERS 243 + + Reformation or religious revolt. + Change in education and its effect on men's minds. + Janssen on intellectual movement of the Renaissance. + Reformers, Luther, Calvin, Henry VIII. + False impressions as to reformation, Hallam. + Political corruption. + Luther, Denifle, Grisar. + Luther on indulgences. + Luther and Zwingli. + Judgments of God. + Luther and Melanchthon condone bigamy. + McGiffert's comment. + Luther's discouragement. + Calvin the austere. + Life without relaxation. + Calvin's discouragement. + Execution of Servetus. + Henry VIII's conscience. + How the English people were robbed of their religion. + Cobbett, Macaulay, Frederic Harrison + and Professor Powell on the English and Scottish reformers. + Professor Briggs on Saints of the Reformation. + The counter-reformation. + Effects of the reformation + + +CHAPTER VI + +GREAT EXPLORERS AND EMPIRE BUILDERS 262 + + Prince Henry the navigator. + John II of Portugal. + Bartholomew Dias. + Vasco da Gama. + Columbus. + Amerigo Vespucci. + The Cabots. + Magellan. + Circumnavigation of the globe. + South Sea discoveries. + Australia. + Verazzano in New York. + French explorers. + Empire builders old and new. + Cortes. + Pizarro. + Spanish treatment of Indians. + Contrast with ours. + Explorers of Columbus Century and of present day + + +{xiv} + +CHAPTER VII + +AMERICA IN COLUMBUS' CENTURY 275 + + A glorious chapter of American history before 1550. + Sidney Lee contrasts Spanish and English influence in America. + Professor Bourne on early American culture. + Mexican education. + Universities of Mexico and Lima. + Scholarship. + Educational standards. + Dr. Chanca on America. + Garcilaso de la Vega. + Professor Bourne contrasts Spanish and English education. + Printing press. + Early printed books. + First American hospital. + Champlain on Mexico. + Remains at Panama. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SOME GREAT WOMEN 290 + + Renaissance women. + Isabella of Castile. + Genius for peace and war. + Power of administration. + Education. + Housewifely virtues. + Care for Indians. + Prescott's contrast of Isabella and Elizabeth. + Vittoria Colonna. + Letter to her husband on honesty. + Poems. + Influence on men of Renaissance. + The Gonzagas. + St. Catherine of Genoa. + Battistina Vernazza. + Lucretia Borgia. + Historical traditions and facts. + Gregorovius' vindication. + Garnett on Borgia poisonings. + Aldus' praise. + Lucretia as a ruler. + Her protection of the Jews. + Her husband's love. + Victor Hugo and the Lucretian myth. + Marguerite of Navarre. + Personal character. + Care for the poor. + Mary of Burgundy. + St. Teresa. + _Mater Spiritualium_. + French, German and English tributes. + Greatest of intellectual women. + Some of her maxims. + + +CHAPTER IX + +FEMININE EDUCATION 313 + + Phases of feminine education before our time. + Italian universities. + Benedictine convents. + Charlemagne's time. + St. Brigid of Ireland. + Vittorino da Feltre and his pupils. + Guarino. + Physical training. + Lucretia, the mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent. + Isabella and Beatrice D'Este. + Abundant opportunities of feminine education. + Influence on their homes. + Renaissance gardens. + _Camerini_ of Isabella D'Este. + Lucretia Borgia's apartments. + Feminine devotion to social problems. + Comparison with our own time. + Public appearances. + Olympia Morata. + Angela Merici, founder in education. + The Ursulines and the Jesuits. + Their continued activity all over the world. + Anne of Bretagne. + Marguerite of Navarre. + Sex. + Feminine education in Spain. + Prescott's tribute. + Feminine education in England: + Margaret of Anjou, + Margaret Beaufort, + the Countess of Arundel, + Lady Jane Grey, + Mary Queen of Scots, + Queen Elizabeth, + Margaret More. + Charitas Pirkheimer. + Feminine education and religion. + "Beauty, disposition, education, virtue, piety combined + to make them harmonious human beings" (Burckhardt) + + +{xv} + +CHAPTER X + +PHYSICAL SCIENCE OF THE CENTURY 343 + + Science developed as wonderfully as art and literature. + Translations of the classics of science. + Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa. + Puerbach. + Regiomontanus. + Cardinal Bessarion. + Scientific scholars in Italy from all over the world. + Linacre, Vesalius, Caius. + Toscanelli and Columbus. + Copernicus and a new universe. + His attitude toward the reformation. + Leonardo da Vinci, scientist and inventor. + The scientific spirit. + Telesio and the inductive method. + Chemistry in medicine. + Basil Valentine and Paracelsus. + Columbus and the declination of the magnetic needle + + +CHAPTER XI + +BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 360 + + Nature study in the Middle Ages. + Anatomists of the Renaissance. + Acute Italian observation. + Leonardo da Vinci. + Supposed Church opposition to dissection. + All the artists dissectors. + Vesalius, father of modern anatomy. + Columbus, Fallopius, Eustachius, Aranzi, Servetus. + Caesalpinus. + Circulation of the blood. + Harvey's indebtedness to the Italian anatomists. + Botany. + Leonardo da Vinci, Brunfels, Fuchs, Tragus, + Euricius and Valerius Cordus. + Tributes to Valerius Cordus. + Caesalpinus as a botanist. + Ruellius and Pierre Belon in France. + Spanish and Portuguese studies of American and Indian plants + + +CHAPTER XII + +MEDICINE 381 + + Standards of education. + Clinical teaching. + Rabelais' principles. + Early printed medical books. + Leonicenus. + Linacre. + Caius. + Montanus. + Paracelsus, + chemistry and medicine, + physical factors, + in therapy, + occupation diseases. + Rejection of pretensions to knowledge. + Paracelsus' contributions to surgery. + Animal magnetism. + Absurdities. + Basil Valentine. + Theories of auto-toxaemia. + Cornelius Agrippa. + Influence of mind on body. + Pathological anatomy. + Benivieni. + Joost van Lom. + Schenck von Graffenberg. + Petrus Forestus. + Fracastorius. + Pare on gout. + Drugs from the new world. + Botanical gardens. + Theory and observation. + Mental diseases, differentiation. + Balneotherapy. + Jerome Cardan, absurdities. + Cornaro's longevity. + Sanitary regulations. + Pure food laws. + Popular hygiene. + Alcoholic beverages. + Health boards in Italy. + Tuberculosis contagion. + Sir Thomas More on the place of the physician + + +{xvi} + +CHAPTER XIII + +SURGERY 409 + + Printing of old surgical text-books. + Magnificent hospitals. + Study of gunshot wounds. + Ambroise Pare. + Experiments with bullets. + Surgical specialties. + Orthopedics. + Bone surgery. + Blood transfusion. + Tracheotomy tube. + Magnet in surgery. + Cesarean operation. + Gynaecology and obstetrics. + Heart surgery. + Cosmetic surgery. + Artificial noses, lips and eyelids. + Aseptic surgery. + Pyemia as an infectious disease. + Paracelsus against meddlesome surgery. + German surgeons. + Pfolspeundt, tubes in intestinal surgery. + Brunschwig on the necessity of anatomy. + Stiffened bandages. + Gerssdorff, surgery of anchyloses. + Hall on experience in surgery. + Gurlt's four hundred pages on Renaissance surgery + + +BOOK III. THE BOOK OF THE WORDS + +CHAPTER I + +LATIN LITERATURE 427 + + Latin the universal language of scholars. + Three great books: + The "Imitation of Christ," + "Utopia" and the + "Spiritual Exercises" of St Ignatius. + The "Imitation" the most influential of human books. + Other works by a Kempis. + Tributes to the "Imitation"; + saints, jurists, soldiers, scholars agree in lauding it. + One of the world's supremely great books. + Illustrative passages. + The Ode on Love. + "Utopia" and Plato's "Republic" and St. Augustine's "City of God." + A vivid piece of fiction. + A profound social study. + Translation by Bishop Burnet. + The "Spiritual Exercises" a book of things, not words. + Erasmus' _"Colloquia"_ and the _"Encomium Moriae"_ + + +CHAPTER II + +ITALIAN LITERATURE 442 + + Age of Leo X. + Ariosto "very nearly if not quite supreme" (Saintsbury). + Orlando Furioso. + Ariosto's similes, sonnet. + Italian Mystery and Miracle plays. + Ballads. + Carnival songs. + Lorenzo de' Medici as a poet. + Italian prose. + Machiavelli, + history, + plays, + poems, + fiction, + "a universal genius" (Garnett). + Guicciardini, history, reminiscences. + Vasari--Lives of the Painters. + Italian fiction, + Ariente, + Luigi da Porto, + Illicini, + Machiavelli's "Belphagor." + Cinthio. + Bandello. + Licentious stories intended to lessen license. + Autobiography of Benevenuto Cellini, Castiglione's + "Cortigiano" not the "Autobiography," the symbol + of the century's thought and philosophy of life + + +{xvii} + +CHAPTER III + +FRENCH LITERATURE 462 + + Villon. + Prince Charles of Orleans. + Clement Marot. + Francis I as an author. + Margaret of Navarre. + "The Marguerites" of Marguerite. + A French poetess of passion. + Melin de Saint Gelais' epigrams. + The Pleiades. + Ronsard's "Prince and Peasant." + Joachim du Bellay. + French prose, Comines, Amyot's translations. + Rabelais' + misunderstood genius, + his life, + evidence for tolerance of time, + modern studies and influence. + Embodiment of French Renaissance + + +CHAPTER IV + +SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE LITERATURE 476 + + Queen Isabella's letters. + St. Teresa's mystical writings. + The Tales of Chivalry. + Amadis de Gaul. + Tales of Roguery, Celestina, Lazarillo de Tormes. + Mystical writers, + John of Avila, + Luis de Granada and + Luis de Leon. + Spanish poetry--Boscan and Garcilaso de la Vega. + Camoeens "greatest of modern epic poets" (Schlegel). + Shorter poems. + Love sonnets. + + +CHAPTER V + +ENGLISH LITERATURE 485 + + English dramatic literature-- + "Everyman," + Passion and Nativity Plays, + Interludes. + "Marriage of Witte and Science" + first play marked off into acts and scenes. + Dramatic quality of the Morality Plays. + John Skelton's work. + John Heywood's Interludes, "The Four P's," illustrative passage. + Social and religious satire, "Ralph Royster Doyster." + Percy's "Reliques," "Ancient Ballad of Chevy Chase." + Malory's "Morte d' Arthur," Caxton's Translations. + Scotch poetry. + James I. + "The King's Quair." + Blind Harry, Robert Henryson, Gawin Douglas and William Dunbar. + English poetry, Howard Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyeth. + More's place in English prose. + Life of Edward V. + Berner's translation of Froissart. + Collects of the English prayer-book. + Tyndale and Coverdale's Translations of the Scriptures. + + +CHAPTER VI + +SCHOLARSHIP IN ITALY 501 + + Italy Alma Mater Studiorum. + The New Learning. + AEneas Sylvius (Pope Pius II). + Cardinal Bessarion. + +{xviii} + + Greek teachers, Chalcondyles, Gaza, Trebizond and Argyropulos. + Pope Nicholas V. + Academy of Florence. + Landino, Ficino and Politian. + Italian academies. + Pomponius Laetus, + Platina, + Roman Academy, + Vitruvian Academy, + Academy of Naples, + Venice, + Calepinus. + Pico della Mirandola. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SCHOLARSHIP OF THE TEUTONIC COUNTRIES 513 + + Nowhere scholarship deeper than in Germany. + Brothers of the Common Life, founders, purpose. + Great pupils. + Nicholas of Cusa. + Rudolph Agricola. + John of Dalberg. + Jacob Wimpheling. + Alexander Hegius. + Erasmus. + Melanchthon. + Reuchlin. + Ulrich von Hutten. + Conrad Muth (Mutianus). + Conrad Celtes, edition of Hroswitha's plays. + Duerer and Wilibald Pirkheimer. + Sandys on the German Humanists. + Janssen on classic culture and Christian scholarship. + Critical studies. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SCHOLARSHIP OUTSIDE OF ITALY AND GERMANY 531 + + Every country in Europe interested in the New Learning. + The first teacher of the French, Aleander, an Italian. + Bude (Budaeus), devotion to study. + Foundation of College de France. + Toussain, Turnebus, Rabelais, Montaigne. + Rabelais "science without conscience is the ruination of the soul." + The Scaligers. + Spanish scholars: + Guzman, + Antonio of Lebriza, + Barbosa, + all three students in Italy. + Cardinal Ximenes, + the University of Alcala, Complutensian Polyglot. + Grammar under the domination of Spanish minds. + Portugal, the University of Coimbra. + England early shared enthusiasm for New Learning. + Linacre, John Free and Caius were teachers at Italian universities. + Lord Grey of Codnor; John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. + Erasmus on English scholarship. + Greek students: + Selling, + Grocyn, + William Latimer, + Lily, + John Fisher. + Critical scholarship. + + + +APPENDIX I + +SIR THOMAS MORE AND MAN'S SOCIAL PROBLEMS 545 + + Religious toleration and More's practice. + Standing armies and their evils. + "Balanced fear" and the balance of power. + Over-estimation of gold and precious stones. + A living wage. + Not pleasure but virtue the end of life. + Forest conservation. + Scientific books. + Division of time. + More's own home. + + +{xix} + +APPENDIX II + +AFTER THE REFORMATION 553 + + Decadence in the arts, education, scholarship and humanitarianism + begins immediately after the Reformation and culminates at the + end of the eighteenth century. + + Education not freer; academic liberty less (Prof. Paulsen). + + The New Learning and the Reform doctrines. + + Bishop Bale on the neglect of books. + + Wanton destruction of libraries. + + Decadence in art, "King Whitewash and Queen Ugliness supreme." + + Gerhard Hauptmann on decay in art as the exorbitant price + of personal freedom of conscience. + + Decline of charity. + + Jail-like hospitals. + + Dissolution of social organization. + + Superstition and torture rampant after the Reformation. + + The Witchcraft delusion. + + Political decadence. + + The pre-Reformation House of Lords. + + Popular holidays obliterated. + + Internationalism overshadowed. + + Modern social progress a reversion to mediaeval notions. + + +{xx} + +{xxi} + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +1. Sebastiano del Piombo, Christopher Columbus + (Metropolitan Museum, New York) _Frontispiece_ + +2. Carpaccio, Meeting of Sts. Joachim and Anna. Opposite page xxix + +3. Titian, Emperor Charles V xxxiv + +4. Raphael, Drawing of Slaughter of Innocents. On page 3 + +5. Raphael, Dream of the Knight Opposite page 4 + +6. Raphael, School of Athens Opposite page 8 + +7. Raphael, Poetry (Mosaic, Vatican) Opposite page 14 + +8. Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks Opposite page 20 + +9. Raphael, Pope Julius II Opposite page 37 + +10. Fra Angelico, St Francis Opposite page 53 + +11. Perugino, Entombment (Pitti) Opposite page 56 + +12. Borgognone, St. Catharine of Alexandria Opposite page 57 + +13. Botticelli, Illustration for Dante On page 61 + +14. Bellini, Doge Loredano Opposite page 62 + +15. Correggio, Marriage of St. Catherine (Louvre) Opposite page 66 + +16. Gossaert, Virgin and Child Jesus + (Italian Influence over Flemish) Opposite page 69 + +17. Van der Weyden, Mater Dolorosa Opposite page 71 + +18. Quentin Matsys, Legend of St. Ann (Centre) Opposite page 73 + +19. Van Oriey, Dr. Zelle Opposite page 74 + +20. Duerer, Title Page of Life of Blessed Virgin On page 76 + +21. Clouet, Francois, Elizabeth of Austria On page 79 + +22. Navarrete, St. Peter and St. Paul (Escurial) On page 81 + +23. Cespedes, The Last Supper (Cathedral, Cordova) On page 83 + +24. Bertoldo di Giovanni, Battle (Bargello) Opposite page 85 + +25. Rosselino, Antonio, Madonna Opposite page 87 + +26. Donatello, Gatamelata Opposite page 91 + +27. Benedetto Rovezzano, Chimney Piece Opposite page 95 + +28. Pulpit, Leyden Opposite page 98 + +29. Duerer, St John Baptist Preaching + (Bas-relief in carved wood) On page 100 + +30. King Arthur (Innsbruck) On page 103 + +31. Henry VIII on Field of Cloth of Gold + (Bas-relief, Rouen) On page 104 + +32. Goujon, Jewel Cabinet On page 106 + +33. Armor (fifteenth century, Paris) On page 108 + +34. Scent Box, chased gold On page 111 + +{xxii} + +35. Seats (fifteenth century miniatures) On page 112 + +36. Clock (Paris) On page 113 + +37. Alberti, San Francesco (Rimini) On page 115 + +38. Michelangelo, St. Peter's (Rome) On page 116 + +39. Alberti, Rucellai Palace (Florence) On page 119 + +40. Court, Doge's Palace (Venice) On page 121 + +41. Palladio, Barbarano Palace (Vicenza) On page 123 + +42. Hotel de Ville (Louvain) Opposite page 124 + +43. Alcala, Paranimfo On page 125 + +44. Alcala, Archiepiscopal Palace Court On page 126 + +45. Cloister (Lupiana, Spain) On page 128 + +46. Toledo, Alcazar On page 130 + +47. Melozzo da Forli, Angel with Lute (Rome) Opposite page 141 + +48. Violin and Bass Viol, Germany On page 144 + +49. Verard, "Book of Hours" Border On page 147 + +50. Fouquet, Miniature Livy MSS. (Paris) On page 150 + +51. Tory, Border from "Book of Hours" On page 157 + +52. Tory, Page of Collines' "Book of Hours" On page 160 + +53. Duerer, Marriage of Blessed Virgin On page 163 + +54. Black Letter bordered page On page 165 + +55. Playing Card On page 167 + +56. Stratford Guild Chapel On page 175 + +57. Stratford, Sir Hugh Clopton's Bridge On page 176 + +58. Bramante, Court of Hospital (Milan) On page 195 + +59. Memling, Martyrdom of St. Ursula + (Bruges, Hospital of St. Jean) Opposite page 197 + +60. Holbein, Sir Thomas More Opposite page 223 + +61. Matteo Civitale, Faith (Bargello) Opposite page 243 + +62. Holbein, Henry VIII (London) Opposite page 255 + +63. Filippino Lippi, Madonna with Four Saints Opposite page 260 + +64. Stradan, Columbus on First Voyage + (niello, ivory) On page 276 + +65. Columbus' Title of Letter On page 282 + +66. Columbus' Page from Letter (1494-) On page 283 + +67. Hospital, Mexico (founded before 1524) Opposite page 287 + +68. Hospital, (another view) Opposite page 287 + +69. Crivelli, Madonna Enthroned Opposite page 290 + +70. Holbein, Queen Catherine of Aragon Opposite page 293 + +71. Titian, Presentation of Virgin Opposite page 296 + +72. Palma Vecchio, St. Barbara Opposite page 304 + +73. Mostaert, Virgo Deipara (Antwerp) Opposite page 312 + +74. Bellini, Madonna, St. Catherine and + Mary Magdalen (Venice) Opposite page 318 + +75. Pinturicchio, Holy Family (Siena) Opposite page 326 + +76. Duerer, Nativity On On page 339 + +77. Vivarini, St. Clare Opposite page 341 + +78. Titian, Paracelsus On page 386 + +{xxiii} + +79. Holbein, Dr. William Butts Opposite page 413 + +80. Cima da Conegliano, Christ (Dresden) Opposite page 431 + +81. Titian, Ariosto Opposite page 443 + +82. Palma Vecchio, Poet + (sometimes called Ariosto) Opposite page 449 + +83. Francia, Virgin Weeping over Body of Christ + (London) Opposite page 477 + +84. Page from early printed book, with woodcut On page 487 + +85. Theatre, Title Page of Terence On page 491 + +86. Mantegna, St. George Opposite page 501 + +87. Correggio, Blessed Virgin and St Sebastian Opposite page 508 + +88. Cima da Conegliano, + Incredulity of St Thomas (Venice) Opposite page 519 + +89. Tory, Francis I's Court On page 534 + + +{xxiv} + +{xxv} + +INTRODUCTION + +To many people the date of the discovery of America must seem somewhat +out of place. At least it must be hard for them to understand just how +it came about that before the fifteenth century closed so great a +discovery as this of a new continent could be made. The Middle Ages +are usually said to end with the Fall of Constantinople (1453), though +a number of historians in recent years have begun to date the close of +mediaeval history with the discovery of America itself. It scarcely +seems consonant with the usually accepted ideas of widespread +ignorance, lack of scientific curiosity with dearth of initiative and +absence of great human interests during the Middle Ages, that so +important an achievement as the discovery of America should have come +at this time. In spite of the growing knowledge that has revealed the +wonderful achievements of the mediaeval period, there are still a +great many people who think themselves well informed, for whom the +thousand years from about 500 to 1500 seem almost a series of blank +pages and it cannot but be very surprising to them that anyone should +have been able to rise out of the slough of despond so far as regards +human knowledge and enterprise which these times are often declared to +represent, to the climax of energy and daring and conscious successful +purpose required for the discovery of the Western Hemisphere. +Apparently only a special dispensation of Providence preparing the +modern time could possibly have brought this important discovery out +of the Nazareth of the so-called "Dark Ages." + +All sorts of explanations have been deemed necessary to account for +Columbus' great discovery at this time. To some it has seemed to be +the result of a happy accident by which one of the deeply original +spirits among mankind, with the _wanderlust_ in his soul, succeeded +finally in having someone provide him with the opportunity for a long +vague voyage on which fortunately the discovery of the Western +Hemisphere was made. We hear much of happy accidents in scientific +{xxvi} discoveries and they are supposed to represent the fortunate +chances of humanity. It must not be forgotten, however, that only to +genius do these happy accidents occur. Newton discovered the laws of +gravitation after having seen the apple fall, but many billions of men +had seen apples fall before his time without being led to the faintest +hint of gravitation. Galvani touched the legs of a frog by accident +with his metal implements while making electrical experiments, and so +became "the frogs' dancing master" in the contemptuous phrase of many +of his scientific colleagues and the father of biological electricity +for us, but doubtless many others lacking his scientific insight had +seen this phenomenon without having their attention particularly +caught by it. + +It has been suggested that not a little of the good fortune that +resulted in the discovery of the American Continent was due to +Columbus' obstinacy of character. He was a man who, having conceived +an idea, was bound to carry it out, cost what it might. These are, of +course, the men as a rule who make advances and discoveries and obtain +privileges for us. They are not satisfied to be as others, and the +world usually denominates them cranks. They insist on doing things +differently and their vision of great achievement does not fade or +become dim even under the clouds of objections that men are prone to +rouse against anything, and, above all, any purpose that they +themselves cannot understand. Columbus is said to have been one of +those mortals who are actually urged on by obstacles and who cannot be +made to back down from their purpose by rebuffs and refusals, or even +by the disappointments after preliminary encouragement which are so +much harder to bear. Columbus' steadfastness of character during the +voyage, which enabled him to overcome the murmurings of his men and +keep his ships to their course in spite of almost mutiny, is a reflex +of this trait of his character, and yet there have been no end of +obstinate men who have never succeeded in accomplishing anything worth +while. Once engaged on the expedition, or in the preliminaries for it, +Columbus' obstinacy of character in the better sense of that +expression was simply invaluable, but the question is. How did he +become engaged on the expedition at this time? + +{xxvii} + +It takes only a little consideration of the history of the time in +which Columbus was educated and the story of the accomplishment of the +men who lived around him during the half century that preceded the +discovery of America to realize exactly why the discovery was made at +this particular time. There has probably never been a period when so +many supremely great things were done or when so many men whose +enduring accomplishment has influenced all the after generations were +alive, as during the nearly seventy years of Columbus' lifetime. In +order to illustrate, then, the background of the history of the +discovery of America, it has seemed worth while to take what may be +called Columbus' Century, from 1450 to 1550, and show what was +accomplished during it. The discovery of America came just about the +middle of it and represents one of a series of great achievements made +by the men of the time which are destined never to lose in interest +for mankind. To know the other great events and great men of the +period is to appreciate better just what the discovery of America +meant and the place that Columbus' work in this regard should have in +the history of human accomplishment. The present volume can be at best +only a very brief review of the great achievements and the story of +the lives of the men of this time. + +John Ruskin once said that the only proper way to know the true +significance of a period of human history was to study the book of its +arts, the book of its deeds and the book of its words, that is, to +weigh the significance of its artistic accomplishment, the meaning of +what its men did for their fellowmen and the worth of its literature +in terms of world achievement. Judged by this standard, Columbus' +Century must be placed among the greatest periods of human +accomplishment in the world's history. It is the Renaissance period +and, as everyone knows, this is a famous epoch in modern times. It has +been a favorite study of a great many scholars in a great many +generations since. It introduced many of the ideas, indeed most of the +important thoughts and inventions on which our modern progress is +founded. It is true that its great impetus came from the impulse given +by the reintroduction of Greek ideas and Greek ideals into the modern +world, but only that {xxviii} there were men of talent and genius, +capable of being stirred to achievement by Greek incentive, nothing +great would have been accomplished. Besides, while it owes much to +Greece, it is great in its own right, and its men added much to what +came to them out of Greece and adopted and adapted classic ideas and +ideals so as to make them of great significance in the modern world. + +As regards The Book of the Arts of Columbus' Century, scarcely more +need be said in this introductory chapter than what has already been +suggested, that this is the Renaissance period. All the world now +knows of the art of the Renaissance and of all that was accomplished +by men who lived during the century after the Fall of Constantinople +in 1453. Every form of art, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, +as well as the arts and crafts, achieved a supreme expression at this +time. Everywhere, particularly in Italy, men started up as if a new +life had come into the world and proceeded to the accomplishment of +artistic results which had apparently been impossible to preceding +generations, and, alas for the notion of human progress! have often +been the despair of succeeding generations. If imitation is the +sincerest flattery, then these artists of the Renaissance period have +indeed been flattered, for it has almost been the rule in the after +time to imitate them and even the greatest of the artists of +succeeding generations have been deeply influenced by the work of +these men and usually have been quite willing to confess how much they +owe to them. + +In Italy the list of names of painters who were at this time doing +work which the world will never willingly let die, is long and +glorious. There has never been a period of equal influence and +achievement in this mode of art in the history of the race. Almost +every city in Italy produced a group of painters during this century +who would make a whole nation famous in any other period. The +Florentine School surpasses all the others in importance, and such +names as Fra Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli, Fra Bartolommeo, Lippo Lippi +and Filippino Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Leonardo da Vinci, +Andrea del Sarto, Masaccio and Michelangelo, occur in its history. +Venice produced in the first half of our period such men as the +Vivarinis, the Bellinis, Titian, Carpaccio, Palma Vecchio, Giorgione +and Lorenzo Lotti, worthy predecessors of the great names that were to +come in the second half--Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese. + + + [Illustration: CARPACCIO, MEETING OF STS. JOACHIM AND ANNA] + +{xxix} +The Umbrian School of painters includes a group of men born in the +hill towns of Umbria, to be credited, therefore, to more than a single +city, but their greatness is sufficient for the glory of any number of +cities,--Gentile da Fabriano, Bonfigli, Perugino and his pupils, +Pinturicchio, Lo Spagna, and many others, above all Raphael. Bologna +possessed the three Caracci, Guido, Domenichino and Guercino. Parma +had Correggio, Ferrara, Dosso Dossi and Garofalo; Padua, Andrea +Mantegna and his master, Squarcione, and Rome, the pupils of Raphael, +Giulio Romano, Sassoferato and Carlo Maratta and Da Imola. These +schools of Italian painting embrace all the modes of expression with +the brush in their scope. + +The other countries of Europe, however, were not without distinguished +representatives of the wondrous art spirit of the time. In Germany, +there were Albrecht Duerer and the Holbeins, in the Lowlands the Van +Eycks' greatest work came just before the opening of the century and +inspired Memling, Van der Weyden, Quentin Matsys and others. In Spain, +such men as Zurbaran and Ribalta were worthy forerunners of the great +geniuses Velasquez and Murillo, who represent the aftermath of the +glorious harvest of the workers in the field of art during this +Renaissance period. They were all willing to confess their obligations +to the great painters of the preceding age and their work is really a +continuation of that Renaissance spirit. The accomplishment of the +painters of Columbus' period proved as copious in stimulus for +subsequent painters as the great navigators' discovery of America +proved the stimulus to explorers, discoverers and empire makers during +the subsequent century. A great wind of the spirit was blowing abroad +and men were deeply affected by it, and accomplished results almost +undreamt of before, and even when the wind of the spirit was dying +down it still moved men to achievements that had only been surpassed +during the immediately preceding period and that were to be looked up +to with admiration and {xxx} envy and given that sincerest of praise, +imitation, during all the succeeding centuries. + +The artists of Columbus Century, this great Renaissance period, were +never merely artists. Some of them, like Michelangelo and Leonardo da +Vinci, though among the greatest painters in the world, preferred to +think of themselves as something else than painters. Leonardo has +painted the greatest of portraits, but was a great engineer, an +architect, an inventor, a scientist, and anything else that he cared +to turn his hand to. Michelangelo was undoubtedly a great painter, yet +this was the least of his accomplishments, for he was greater as an +architect, a sculptor, and perhaps even as a poet, than he was as a +painter. Raphael, besides being a painter, was an architect and above +all an archaeologist. It was a sad loss to classic archaeology that he +did not live to accomplish his plan of making a model of old Rome. He +was a great student of the technics of his art and if he had not died +at the early age of thirty-seven would surely have accomplished much +besides painting. Many of the painters and sculptors of the time had +been goldsmiths or workers in metal, and nearly all of them were +handicraftsmen, handy with their hands and capable of doing things. +Practically all of them were architects and many of them proved their +powers in this regard. A man of the Renaissance always thought that he +could do anything well, and specialism was the last thing in the world +thought of. Their confidence in their own powers gave them a wonderful +breadth of ability to accomplish. + +In sculpture the roll of great names is scarcely less wonderful than +that of the great painters. It includes such men as Verrocchio and +Leopardi, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, the Della +Robbias, Benvenuto Cellini and many others of less fame in this great +period, but who would have been looked up to as wonder workers in the +art at any other time. The sculpture work, for instance, that was +accomplished in connection with Certosa at Pavia, though out of +harmony with some of the true aims of sculpture, shows how beautifully +Renaissance men worked out artistic ideas of any kind. Glorious as is +the list of sculptors in Italy, other countries are by no means +eclipsed by Italian pre-eminence. The work of {xxxi} the great +sculptors of Nuremberg, Adam Kraft and Peter Vischer, as well as of +the coterie of sculptors who did the wonderful group of heroes at +Innsbruck, show how the wind of the spirit of genius in art was +blowing abroad everywhere. In the Low Countries, while we do not +always know the names of the sculptors, their beautiful monuments are +with us. Such beautiful work as the Tomb of Mary of Burgundy, made by +Peter Beckere of Brussels, is an enduring memorial of artistic +excellence. There are wood carvings everywhere through the Low +Countries that display the artistic genius of the time, In France, +Colombe, trained in Flanders, did beautiful work, and Jean Juste and +his son have left a monument of their sculptural genius in the +Cathedral at Tours. Jean Fouchet made the lovely tomb of Agnes Sorel +at Loches, and after the spirit of the Renaissance had come to France, +Jean Goujon and Germain Pilon achieved their masterpieces. The reliefs +of Jean Goujon for the "Fountain of the Innocents" are very well known +and often to be seen in copies. The "Three Graces" of Germain Pilon, +though already there is perhaps some sign of decadence, is a charming +work of art that has never been excelled in the more modern time. + +In architecture, Columbus' Century is, if anything, more famous than +for its accomplishment in other arts. Almost every city in Italy has a +distinguished architect who has left behind him a monument of genius. +Brunelleschi died just before the century; Bramante, Alberti, Leonardo +da Vinci, and above all, Michelangelo, are the great names of the +time. Such other names as Palladio, Sangallo, della Porta, Sansovino +and San Michele come after these, and the work of this group of men +has more influenced succeeding generations than any other. The +monuments of this time include the Cathedral of Santa Croce at +Florence, St. Peter's at Rome and many of the great palaces and +hospitals that now are the subject of so much admiration and attention +from scholarly visitors to Italy. In our own time the reproduction of +Renaissance architectural types and the careful study of what the +Italian Renaissance did in modifying for modern use classic types of +architecture has done more to give us handsome monumental buildings +than any other inspiration that men have had. {xxxii} Unfortunately, +the Renaissance in its adoration of classic types and ideals developed +a contempt for the older Gothic architecture that had many sad effects +on taste in art, but the people of the period succeeded in building a +glorious monument to themselves for all time. + +This same century saw the rise and marvellous development of music in +nearly every department of that art and in a way that strikingly +illustrates how the genius of this time gave to men a power of lofty +expression in every aesthetic mode. In this form of art Italy was not +as in other departments of aesthetics the leader, though she proved +the apt pupil, excelling before the close of the period even her +masters. It is to the Flemings that we owe the great beginnings of +music at this time, as we also owe to them and to their brethren of +Holland so much in all the arts. Ockenheim of Hainault and his pupils, +above all Josquin, developed the technique of polyphonic music, and +Flanders furnished music masters for every important capital in +Europe. Claude Goudimel, born at Avignon, but educated in Flanders, +opened his famous school of music in Rome in the first half of the +sixteenth century, and while not perhaps, as has often been said, the +teacher of Palestrina, he helped to create the Roman school in which +developed the brothers Animuccia and the brothers Nanini. Orlando de +Lasso did his work at this time, and Stefano Vanneo of Recanati +published his treatise on counterpoint in 1531. The use of the chord +of the dominant seventh was invented and St. Philip Neri encouraged +those religious musical exercises which culminated first in the +Oratorio and subsequently in what we know as opera. + +As always happens in a really great artistic period, there was a +magnificent development of the crafts as well as of the arts. When +such men as Verrocchio, probably even Leonardo da Vinci himself, +Pollaiuolo and Benvenuto Cellini were looked upon as goldsmiths as +well as sculptors, it is easy to understand how thoroughly artistic +was the goldsmithery of the time. As a matter of fact, most of the +artists of the Renaissance were trained in workshops. These were not +only technical schools, but art schools of the finest kind. As a +consequence not only in gold and metal work, but in every {xxxiii} +other craft, art impulses of lofty achievement are noted. The stained +glass of the time is among the most beautiful ever made. All +glass-making and porcelain reached a high plane of perfection. It is +interesting to note the decadence of fine glass-making that begins +toward the end of our period. Gem-cutting reached a climax of +perfection at this time that has ranked Renaissance gems among the +most precious in the world. The art of the medal and the medallion was +another artistic specialty of this time in which it has probably never +been excelled and very seldom equalled. In book-making artistic +craftsmanship surpassed itself. Before the development of printing as +the exclusive mode of making books there was a marvellous evolution of +illuminated hand-made books. Many specimens still extant are among the +most beautiful in the world. With these as models the printed books +came to be just as wonderful artistic products and so we have during +Columbus' period the finest book-making that the world has ever known. +Every portion of the book, the print, the spacing, the paper, the +binding was artistically done. What seemed a mere handicraft was +lifted to the plane of art and whenever in the aftertime--and never +more so than in our own period--men have wanted models for beautiful +book-making they have gone back to those produced during this period. + +THE BOOK OF THE DEEDS of the century will be best appreciated from the +names of the doers, the men of action, of this wonderful time. History +was indeed making. What came with the rise of the Portuguese empire +mainly through the influence of Prince Henry and of the Spanish Empire +in America under Ferdinand and Isabella were only the great beginnings +of the wealth and power Europe was to draw from over-sea colonies. +Unfortunately the century was a period of political unrest. The +seething spirit that led to great achievement in every department gave +rise to many wars and disturbances. The Wars of The Roses in England +and the many wars in Italy, with the political disaffection in Germany +and the disturbed state of France, made human life very cheap just +when it was capable of most enduring accomplishment. Great monarchs +like the Emperor Charles V, Francis I, king of France, and Henry VIII +of England worked good and harm {xxxiv} in proportions very hard to +estimate properly. There was never a more tyrannical king than Henry +VIII and probably never a less just one than Francis I. Bishop Stubbs, +the English constitutional historian, has claimed for Charles V the +right to the title great, yet there is so much that is at least +questionable about his career as a ruler that history will probably +never willingly accord it. The military exploits, the courtly +intrigues, the corrupt diplomacy, the exhibition of the ugliest traits +of mankind were all emphasized in this period because great men are +great also in the ill they do, but fortunately there is another side +to the book of the deeds of the century worth while reading. + +Among the events of the century are the great Battle of Pavia at which +Francis I of France was defeated so thoroughly that afterwards, while +confined in the Certosa, he sent the famous despatch to his mother, +"All is lost save honor." This century saw also the famous meeting of +the Field of the Cloth of Gold at which both English and French nobles +went so gaily attired and with so many handsome changes of raiment +that literally not a few of them "carried their castles on their +backs." Their subsequent bankruptcy strengthened the hands of the +crown in both countries. This unfortunately did more than anything +else to lay the foundations of that absolutism which needed the French +Revolution and its successors in other countries of the past century +to break up. It was the time of the famous Diet of Worms and of all +the political and religious disturbances which have been called the +Reformation, though in recent years historians have come to recognize +the movement not as a great epoch-making reform in religion, of which +it brought about the disintegration by its doctrine of individual +judgment, but as a religious revolt affecting the Northern nations of +Europe, disturbing the continuity of the traditions of culture and +education and art which had been so completely under the influence of +the old Church and which among these Northern nations were not caught +up again for several centuries after this unfortunate division in +Christianity. + + + [Illustration: TITIAN, EMPEROR CHARLES V. ] + + +The greatest accomplishment of this period, however, was its +scholarship. In every country in Europe men devoted {xxxv} themselves +to the study of the Latin and Greek classics and opportunities for +education of the highest import were accorded everywhere. They were no +merely dry-as-dust scholars, and the names of such men as AEneas +Sylvius Piccolomini, who was afterwards Pope Pius II; of Aldus +Manutius, the great Venetian printer; of Leon Battista Alberti, famous +not only as a scholar, but as an architect and an artist in every +mode, and Lorenzo de' Medici himself, are only brilliant examples in a +single country of a scholarship that was eminently productive and +influential. In every country in Europe the story is the same. At the +beginning of this book it seemed that the scholarship of the century +might be summed up in a single chapter. I found that even a single +chapter for Italy was quite inadequate and that the Teutonic countries +of themselves required another chapter even for a quite incomplete +record of their scholarly achievements. Rudolph Agricola; Reuchlin, +who was known as "the three-tongued wonder" of Germany; Desiderius +Erasmus, the most influential scholar of Europe in this intellectual +period; Jacob Wimpfeling, the schoolmaster of Germany; Melanchthon, +the gentle _praeceptor Germaniae_, and all the products of the schools +of the Brethren of the Common Life serve to demonstrate the greatness +of the German scholarship of this period. In England there are such +men as Bishop Selling, Cardinal Morton, Archbishop Warham, Dean Colet, +Thomas Linacre, Dr. John Caius, Roger Ascham, Thomas More and many +others who in any other period would be reckoned among the +distinguished scholars. + +And yet the other Latin countries did not lag much behind Italy and +were fair rivals of the Teutonic countries in scholarship at this +time. Queen Isabella herself learned Latin when she was already a +queen on the throne. Court fashions are sure to spread and this did. +Besides the queen encouraged Cardinal Ximenes in the production of +that magnificent monument of scholarship the Complutensian Polyglot +Bible. The development of the universities in Spain only parallels the +corresponding movement in the rest of Europe, but there were probably +more higher institutions of learning founded and above all more +refounded and re-established on a broader {xxxvi} basis at this time +than at any other corresponding period of history. In France the index +of scholarly accomplishment is the foundation of the College de +France, which was to mean so much for French intellectual life. It +made it possible for scholars to pursue their work unhampered by the +fossilized University of Paris, which had become cramped in +old-fashioned ways and for the time being was incapable of doing great +intellectual work itself and yet, owing to the charters and privileges +granted it in its flourishing period, was still capable of crushing +out the true spirit of knowledge and preventing real development. + +There was never a time in the world's history when scholarship, in so +far as that term means knowledge of the great books of the past, +occupied so prominent a place in men's minds or had so much influence. +Nor has there ever been a time when so many of those in power felt +that the very best thing that they could do for their people as well +as for their own fame was the encouragement of learning. Scholars were +more highly honored than at any period in the world's history. Even +ruling princes and the higher nobility felt that they owed it to +themselves to be acquainted with the great works of literature or +pretend at least to a knowledge of them and that a portion of their +policy must be to patronize teachers and scholars of the New Learning. +To be a patron of scholars was considered quite as important as to act +in a similar capacity for painters, sculptors and architects, though +there might be more personal fame attached to securing the works of +the great masters in art. Fortunately these scholars were encouraged +in their labors, and we have a whole series of wonderful editions of +the old classics accomplished at a cost of time and labor and patience +that only a few of those who have labored at such work under ever so +much more favorable circumstances can properly appreciate. Their +editions were issued as beautiful books in this wonderful time, and so +they have remained as precious treasures for us down to our own day. + +The achievements in art and scholarship in this century are well known +and universally recognized. It is seldom appreciated, however, that +the century is almost as great in its {xxxvii} wonderful progress in +science as it is in any other intellectual department. The foundations +of our modern sciences were laid broad and deep at this time, and +achievements of scientific generalization as well as accurate and +detailed observation were made, that may be placed with confidence in +comparison with those of any other time in the world's history, even +our own. Copernicus' theory probably revolutionized men's thinking +more with regard to the earth and the universe of which it forms a +part than the thought of any man has ever done during the whole +history of mankind. The great medical scientists of this period almost +as effectually revolutionized men's thinking with regard to the +constitution of men and animals as Copernicus had done with regard to +the universe. Vesalius, called the father of modern anatomy, has left +us a monument of genius in his work on the structure of the human +body, and his famous contemporaries, Eustachius, another Columbus, the +anatomist, and Caesalpinus as well as Servetus added to the knowledge +of anatomy and physiology which Vesalius had so well begun. Servetus +and Columbus described the circulation of the blood in the lungs about +the same time; and shortly after the close of our period Caesalpinus, +trained in the schools of this time, described the circulation of the +blood in the body. + +In every department of biological science, in anatomy and physiology, +in pathology, in botany, in zoology, in palaeontology, in ethnology +and linguistics, in anthropology, noteworthy advances were made. +Magnificent applications of the knowledge acquired were made for the +benefit of man and animals, new plants for medicine were sought in +distant countries and a great new development of medicine took place. +None of the anatomists and physiologists of the time failed to use +their knowledge for the increase of information with regard to disease +and its treatment. Vesalius besides being a great anatomist was almost +as great a pathologist and one of the epoch-making diagnosticians of +medical history. He was the first since the Greeks to describe an +aneurism, that is the pathological dilatation of an artery through +disease or accident, and the first in the history of medicine to +demonstrate the presence of such a condition on the living subject. +Paracelsus, {xxxviii} Ambroise Pare, Linacre, John Caius and a whole +host of great teachers in Italy are names to conjure with in the +history of medicine and of surgery. There is probably no period in the +world's history that has so many names famous in medicine that the +world will never willingly let die. + +The supremely great accomplishments of this time however, the true, +good and great deeds of the century, were what it did for men. This is +the period when there was more organization for social help and uplift +than at any other period that we know. Every social need was responded +to by the guilds. There were old-age pensions, disability wages, +insurance against fire, accident at sea, burglary, highway robbery, +the destruction of crops, the death of animals and all the other +developments of mutual protection against the unexpected which we have +been inclined to think were developments of our time. There were +30,000 guilds in England, it is said, when they were suppressed by +Henry VIII, and the money in the treasuries, many millions of pounds, +confiscated on the plea that they were religious organizations. They +maintained grammar schools, had burses at the universities, arranged +for technical training and apprenticeships, cared for orphans, +provided entertainments for the people of the town, brought the +membership together in friendly meetings and banquets several times +each year, held athletic contests, encouraged social life and innocent +amusements in every way and represented an ever vital nucleus of +fraternal interest among men. Our chapter on this shows too how +seriously the moneyed men of the time took their duty of philanthropic +care for their townsmen by various institutions. + +A period that did so much for social needs could scarcely be expected +to have neglected its hospitals and as a matter of fact some of the +most beautiful hospitals in the world were built in this period, and +everywhere that a hospital was built it was worthy of its purpose. The +hospitals of a later time, especially the eighteenth and nineteenth +centuries, were little better than jails and were eminently +unsuitable. At this time citizens, instead of thinking that anything +was good enough for the ailing poor, felt that the honor of the city +was concerned, and the hospital, being a municipal building, was +{xxxix} constructed with as much care for its beauty externally and +its utility internally as the famous town halls or churches of the +time. We know how well patients were cared for, since we have abundant +evidence of the clinical teaching of medicine at the bedside. Whenever +hospitals are well built and the attendant physician takes students +with him on his rounds, the best possible treatment of patients is +assured. They cared finely for the insane also and for the +weak-minded. The awful abuses in this regard that came in the +eighteenth century, and from which our own happier though far from +satisfactory conditions represent a reaction, were a lamentable, +almost incomprehensible degeneration from the magnificent work of the +earlier time. + +The women of Columbus' Century are worthy in every way of a place +beside the men of their time. Those who in recent years have talked of +the nineteenth century as the first period in the world's history when +women secured an opportunity for the higher education forget amazingly +many phases of feminine education of the long ago. The University of +Salerno had its department of women's diseases in the charge of women +professors in the twelfth century. There were feminine professors at +the University of Bologna in the thirteenth century, and as a matter +of fact in no century since the twelfth has Italy been without +distinguished women professors at one or more of the Italian +universities. + +Above all those who talk of feminine education as a recent evolution +must be strangely forgetful of the women of the Renaissance. In Italy, +in France, in Spain, in Germany, in England, there were long series of +distinguished women, some noted for their scholarship, some for their +artistic taste, some for their literary power, all of them for a fine +influence on the men of the time and an inspiration to what was best. +Much of the wonderful social history of the time is due to them, but +there is no department of intellectual or moral uplift in which their +names are not prominent. Vittoria Colonna, the D'Estes, the women of +the House of Medici, the Gonzagas in Italy, Queen Anne of Bretagne and +Marguerite of Navarre in France, Queen Isabella of Castile, Queen +Catherine of England, Margaret More, Mary Queen of Scots, Margaret of +Bourgogne, {xl} Lady Jane Grey, Queen Elizabeth--when was there ever +such a galaxy of learned women alive during the same hundred years? +Besides these known in secular literature there was St. Angela of +Merici, the great founder of the Ursulines; St. Catherine of Genoa, +the wonderful organizer of charity; St. Teresa, probably the greatest +intellectual woman who ever lived, and other women distinguished for +supreme qualities of mind and heart almost too numerous to mention. + +The hardest chapters of the book to compress have been those on +Feminine Education and The Women of the Century. What they did to make +their homes beautiful and their home surroundings charming, how they +inspired the artists of the time, what they did to bring out the best +that was in them, this indeed makes a difficult story to tell in a few +pages. Their contributions to the intellectual treasure of mankind +were not very large and only two or three of them have a name that +will endure in literature and none of them in art, but what they +accomplished for the ethical progress of the race at a particularly +dangerous time when the study of pagan authors and of Grecian art had +relaxed the fibre of Christian morality, represents a triumph of +feminine accomplishment of which too much cannot be said in praise. + +THE BOOK OF THE WORDS of the century forms the least important chapter +of the accomplishment of the time, and as compared with the arts and +the deeds its literature seems almost disappointing, yet it must not +be forgotten that this was the Age of Leo X, of which Saintsbury in +"The Earlier Renaissance," in his series of Periods of European +Literature, says, "Of few epochs is it more difficult to speak in +brief space than of this century." He adds that "the age of Leo X was +for no small length of time and under many changes of prevailing +literary taste extolled as one of the greatest ages of literature, as +perhaps the greatest age of modern literature." It fell from this high +estate about a century ago, but the reaction against it was, as always +is the case with reactions, exaggerated, and we are gradually growing +in the appreciation of the greatness of the literature of the time +again. We now know that there are very few periods that have +contributed so much that is really of enduring value to world +literature as this age of Leo X. + +{xli} + +The Latin literature alone of this century would be enough to assure +it a place as one of the wonderful productive periods in world +letters. The "Imitation of Christ" was not written during the century, +though its author seems to have put it into the ultimate form in which +we now know it about the beginning of our period. It was during this +time that it came to be recognized as a great source of consolation, a +marvellous study of the human heart in time of trial and of triumph +and the most influential book that had ever come from the hand of man. +We have gathered together a small sheaf of the tributes that have been +paid to it by some of the serious thinkers in all generations since, +but it would be easy to fill a volume with words of highest +commendation. In the Latin literature of this period also must be +counted Sir Thomas More's "Utopia," which has been read in every +generation that has taken its social problems seriously ever since, +and never more so than in our own time. It deserves a place in world +literature beside Plato's "Republic," and it is far ahead of any of +the attempts at the description of a socialized state made in our +time. For scholars at least Erasmus' writings represent an enduring +contribution to Latin literature of the classic type, a storehouse of +information with regard to the scholarship and also lack of +scholarship of the time. For those interested in mystical subjects St. +Ignatius' "Spiritual Exercises" is another of the Latin works of the +period which, though it can scarcely be classed as literature, for, as +we have said, Ignatius like Michelangelo wrote things rather than +words, must take its place amid Columbian letters of lasting value +since it is more used now than ever before. + +There are not many surpassing works of vernacular literature from this +time, and yet Machiavelli's history represents the only contribution +to historical literature that takes a place in human interests beside +the immortal trio of classical historians, Herodotus, Thucydides and +Tacitus. Ariosto represents one of the favorite works of Italian +scholars, and as the Italians have been the most cultured people in +the world ever since, their critical judgment must be accepted as of +great value. In popular literature the Tales of Chivalry, the +Picaresque romances or tales of roguery and the almost endless {xlii} +number of Italian novels show how wide must have been the popular +reading of the time. In France Villon has always been a favorite for +all classes, and with Charles of Orleans he has been known by scholars +at least outside of France and thoroughly appreciated. French modes of +verse following the Italian came to influence the other countries of +Europe at this time and have never ceased to supply ideas for the form +of the less serious modes of poetry at least for all the generations +down to our own. The influence of Clement Marot, of Brantome and the +Pleiades was felt in every literature of Europe, and has not +completely disappeared even after the nearly four centuries that have +elapsed since their time. + +The literature of the century contains besides the names of Rabelais +as well as Calvin in France, Baldassare Castiglione, Michelangelo, +Vasari, Politian, Bembo, Lorenzo de' Medici, Pico della Mirandola and +the learned ladies Vittoria Colonna, Margaret of Navarre, Lucretia +Tornabuoni, the mother of Lorenzo de Medici, as well as the great +scholars of the period in Italy. In Spain St. Teresa and the great +mystical writers were compensating for the triviality and worse of the +picaresque romances and the tales of chivalry. In Portugal the young +genius of Camoeens was nurtured, while in England Sir Thomas More was +laying the foundations of modern English prose, the great Morality +Plays, "Everyman" and the "Castle of Perseverance," were written, and +the first fruits of English dramatic literature in its more modern +form came in "Ralph Royster Doyster" and "Gammer Gurton's Needle." In +Germany the literary product of the vernacular was less significant, +but Luther's great popular hymns and his vernacular translation of the +Scriptures gave a vigorous birth to modern German verse and prose, +while Hans Sachs and the Minnesingers did as much for popular poetry. +Few periods can present a literature so rich in every country, so +varied, with so many enduring elements and with so much that remains +as the constant possession of scholars ever since. The literature of +the time may not equal its art or even its science, but no apologies +are needed for it. + +In a word, then, the books of the arts, the deeds and the words of +Columbus' Century when read even a little carefully {xliii} show us a +marvellous period in which man's power of achievement was at its very +highest. Its art in every department has never been excelled and has +only been equalled by that of the Greeks, from whom, however, we +possess no painting worthy of the name. Its intellectual achievements +in scholarship and in science give it the leadership in education in +the modern world at least. What it accomplished for men in great works +of humanity represent a triumph of humanitarianism in the best sense +of that word, and present achievements worthy to be emulated by the +modern time. The book of its words is of less import, and yet there +are not more than two or three periods in the world's history that +have surpassed it and there are some modes of literature in which it +is unexcelled. In the midst of this century the discovery of America +instead of being a surprise cannot but seem the most natural thing in +the world. Everywhere men were doing things that for many centuries +men had been unable to do and they were achieving triumphs in every +form of human effort. Given the fact that there was a large +undiscovered portion of the world, it was more likely to be discovered +at this time than at any other time in the world's history. That is +the background of Columbus' Discovery of America, which anyone who +wants to understand its place must know. + +{1} + +BOOK I + +THE BOOK OF THE ARTS + + +CHAPTER I + +GREAT PAINTERS: RAPHAEL + +Any attempt at proper consideration of the book of the arts of +Columbus' Century must begin with the three great names of Raphael, +Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. They are the greatest trio in the +history of art--all their names associated with a single city at the +beginning of their lives but deeply influencing the world of art +before the end of them. Of the three as a painter Raphael is +undoubtedly the greatest, though surely here, if anywhere in the +history of art, comparisons are odious. Each of these geniuses in his +own department of painting was supreme,--as a religious painter +Raphael, as a portrait painter Leonardo, as a great decorative artist +Michelangelo. Raphael rivals Leonardo, however, in the painting of +portraits and some of Leonardo's religious paintings are almost the +only ones worthy to be placed besides Raphael's great religious +visions. Michelangelo, however, could on occasion, as he showed in the +Sistine, prove a rival of either of them in this mode. + +As is so true of the men of this time as a rule, all three of these +men were much more than painters. Raphael died at the early age of +thirty-seven, yet he reached distinction as an architect and as an +archaeologist, besides accomplishing his great painting. Leonardo +insisted on not being thought of as a painter, but as an engineer and +architect, though he has painted the greatest portrait ever made and +beat Michelangelo once in a competition in sculpture. Michelangelo +reached supremacy in all four of the greatest modes of art. He is a +painter second to none in all that he attempted, he is the {2} +greatest sculptor since the time of the Greeks, he is one of the +greatest architects of all time, yet with all this, by what might seem +almost an impossible achievement, he was one of the greatest of poets +and has written sonnets that only Dante and Shakespeare have equalled. +These men of Columbus' Century not only were never narrow specialists +but quite the contrary; they were extremely varied in their interests +and felt in contradiction to what seems the prevalent impression in +our time that such breadth of interest only increased their powers of +expression in anything that they attempted. + +Of the three probably Raphael has had the widest popular influence. +His paintings have all unconsciously to most people colored and +visualized for them the Biblical scenes, especially of the New +Testament, and since his time painters have been greatly influenced by +his compositions. He has deeply affected all the world of art and as +for several centuries now some of his greatest works have been held +outside of Italy, they have been producing their effect and giving +artists the thought of how well deepest vision could be expressed. + +This man, who by universal consent was the greatest painter that ever +lived, was about nine years old when Columbus discovered America. +According to tradition he died on his birthday at the age of +thirty-seven in 1520. In less than two decades of active artist life +he had painted a series of pictures that were a triumph even in that +glorious period of marvellous artistic accomplishment. They have been +the subject of loving study and affectionate admiration ever since. +Many of them have been the despair of the artists who came after him. +But Raphael is not an artists' artist in any exclusive sense of the +word. He is as popular an idol with those who confess to having no +critical knowledge of art as he is the hopeless model of those whose +lives are devoted to art. + +{3} + + [Illustration: RAPHAEL, DRAWING OF SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS + (tapestry, VATICAN)] + + +Unlike many a genius, though his family was poor his early years were +surrounded by conditions all favorable for the development of his +talents. Raphael is his baptismal name and his family name was Santi. +(The name Sanzio often attributed to him has no warrant in history.) +His father Giovanni Santi filled the post of art expert, so far as +that office was formally constituted at that time, to Duke Frederick, +{4} reigning Prince of Urbino, and it was here that Raphael was born. +The Duke was one of the most distinguished and perhaps the most +discriminating of the great Renaissance patrons of art as well as of +letters, and a series of well-known painters, among them Piero della +Francesca, Melozzo da Forli and Justus of Ghent, were in his service +at this time. Duke Frederick's interest in everything artistic had +made the capital of his little principality one of the most important +art centres of this time and his palace is still the Mecca for +visitors to Italy who are interested in the development of art, for it +possesses some of the great masterpieces of the Renaissance painters. +Raphael in his boyhood had in a more limited way almost as favorable +surroundings as Michelangelo enjoyed in Florence, but with his +father's favor of his studies instead of the opposition that this +Florentine contemporary encountered. Urbino was indeed almost as much +of a centre of intellectual influence and progress at this time as the +court of Lorenzo the Magnificent, at which Michelangelo was brought +up. It was at Urbino that Baldassare Castiglione wrote _"Il +Cortigiano,"_ the book of The Gentleman, the elegant setting forth of +what was represented by that term in the Renaissance period. + +When Raphael was about eleven his father died, but fortunately the +maternal uncle under whose guardianship he passed was quite as +favorable to art as his father had been. Yielding to the wishes of the +boy he permitted him to enter the studio of Timoteo Viti, a pupil of +the artist Francia, who had lately returned from his studies in other +portions of Italy to take up his residence in his native country. +During the next few years Raphael devoted himself to that training in +drawing which was to mean so much for him. Just about a century ago a +sketchbook was found, now in the Academy of Venice, having been +purchased for the city, in which there are over a hundred pen-and-ink +drawings of various pictures copied by Raphael, and competent critics +declare that the masterly genius of the artist can already be +recognized in them. + +Besides these he painted a series of pictures in Timoteo's studio. +Some of these have been preserved. Probably the best known is "St. +George and St. Michael," now in the Louvre, though the "Dream of the +Knight" in the National Gallery, {5} London, has been the admiration +of young folk particularly for many generations. There are some who +claim that the most charming of these early pictures painted at Urbino +is the "Three Graces of the Tribune of Chantilly." + + + [Illustration: RAPHAEL, DREAM OF THE KNIGHT] + + +After this Raphael studied for a time, probably for some four years, +with Perugino at Perugia. This period of his life is mainly +interesting from the fact that while he acquired Perugino's technique, +Raphael went far beyond his master, though for a time his development +was probably hindered rather than helped by that master's influence. +Only one of the paintings made at Perugia, "The Coronation of the +Virgin," painted for the Franciscans of that city, and now to be seen +in the Vatican, reveals as art critics declare the real genius of +Raphael shining through and above the qualities that he had borrowed +from his Perugian master. + +After Raphael's years of fruitful student work in the Hill Country so +dear to students of Italian culture for its four periods of great art, +there came his Florentine period, which represents a new and wonderful +evolution of his artistic genius. Here, when he arrived in 1504, +Leonardo da Vinci in his productive forties and the young Michelangelo +in his revealing later twenties were at work at their famous +historical cartoons, and the atmosphere of the city was deeply imbued +with the Renaissance spirit. It is a little difficult now to think of +Raphael as merely a young struggling artist, making his living by +painting portraits for rather commonplace people, and executing his +earlier Madonnas for private oratories, partly from love of his work +but mainly because he needed the money, yet this constituted his +occupation. [Footnote 1] + +[Footnote 1: As pointed out by Grimm in his "Life of Michelangelo" the +patrons of the Renaissance painters at the beginning of that period, +and indeed until after the climax of its development had been reached, +were either of the middle class or consisted of the religious orders +and ecclesiastical authorities intent on the decoration of churches. +The town folk ordered pictures for their homes or for the decoration +of churches. The artist was a craftsman, like the goldsmith or any +other. When artists became the favorites of princes and kings and +rulers, when they came to occupy positions at courts, it was not long +before decadence began. Lives at court were not calculated to bring +out what was best nor to encourage profound thinking nor provide the +leisure which is necessary for great art, and truth lost its +attraction in jealous rivalry and the desire to please a patron.] + + + +His Madonnas soon made him famous. At the end of his first year in +Florence came one of his masterpieces, the "Madonna of the Grand +Duke," still to be seen at the Pitti. At this {6} time Raphael was +under the influence of the great Dominican painter Fra Bartolommeo, +though undoubtedly the specimens of Fra Angelico's work so frequent in +Florence had their power over him. The sweetness and mystical beauty +which, added to the human tenderness of his lovely mothers, make his +Madonnas so charming are the fruit of Raphael's studies in Florence. +Under the influence of the two Dominican painters such great pictures +as "La Belle Jardiniere," of the Louvre, the "Madonna of the +Goldfinch" now in the Uffizi, Florence, and the "Madonna of the +Meadow," one of the treasures of the Vienna collection, were produced. + + +Just before he left Florence he painted for Atlanta Baglioni an +"Entombment" which is his first attempt at an historic picture. The +critics declare that it was spoiled somewhat by overwork at it and +overanxiety to rival some of the great paintings of this kind from +Leonardo and Michelangelo which Raphael had so much admired. However +that may be, it is undoubtedly one of the world's greatest pictures, +especially when the age of the artist, twenty-five, is taken into +account. Just after he finished it he was summoned to Rome by that +discerning patron of genius Pope Julius II. His great opportunity had +arrived. Only a little more than ten years of life lay ahead of him, +but in that ten years the art of the world was to receive almost its +greatest treasures. In their "Italian Cities" the Blashfields have +told the story of his Roman career:-- + + "Raphael's conquest of his surroundings was almost magical: he + arrived a youth, well spoken of as to skill, yet by reputation + hardly even _par inter pares;_ in ten short years--how long if we + count them in art history--he died, having painted the Vatican, the + Farnesina, world-famous altar-pieces, having planned the restoration + of the entire _urbs_, having reconciled enemies and stimulated + friends, and having succeeded without being hated. + +{7} + + "He achieved this success by his great and manifold capacity, but, + most of all, because in art he was the greatest assimilator and + composer who ever lived. The two words are each other's complements; + he received impressions, and he put them together; his temperament + was exactly suited to this marvellous forcing house of Rome, for a + Roman school never really existed, it was simply the Tusco-Umbrian + school throned upon seven hills and growing grander and freer in the + contemplation of Antiquity. + + "To this contemplation, Raphael brought not only a brilliant + endowment but an astonishing mental accumulation; the mild eyes of + the Uffizi portrait were piercing when they looked upon nature or + upon art, and behind them was an alembic in which the things that + entered through those eyes fused, precipitated, or crystallized as + he willed." + +Pope Julius II, himself one of the great geniuses of history, with a +dream of a united Italy long before there was any possibility of its +accomplishment, and with an appreciation of genius that alone would +have given him a commanding place among the world's great rulers, had +summoned to Rome for the decoration of the apartments of the Vatican +some of the greatest painters of the time. Even from distant Flanders +came Reuisch and then there were Perugino, Raphael's old master, now +advanced in years, and Signorelli, quite as old, and Lotto and Sodoma +and Peruzzi and others. It was beside these that Raphael had to do his +work. Within a year of Raphael's coming he, the youngest of them all, +not yet twenty-six years of age, was selected by the Pope--how well +advised he was--as the one to whom all the important decorations +should be entrusted. Then came the opportunity to do the Camera della +Segnatura, that triumph of decorative art. "This chamber of the +Vatican" became, as Raphael's biographer in the Catholic Encyclopaedia +says, "a sort of mirror of the tendencies of the human mind, a summary +of all its ideal history, a sort of pantheon of spiritual grandeurs. +Thereby the representation of ideas acquired a dramatic value, being +no longer as in the Middle Ages the immovable exposition of an +unchangeable truth but the impassioned search for knowledge in all its +branches, the moral life of humanity." + +{8} + +His decorations of the Camera de la Segnatura are probably among the +greatest contributions to decorative art ever made. They are certainly +among the most interesting. Only Michelangelo's wonderful decorations +in the Sistine Chapel rival them and there are some critics who would +concede the palm to Raphael. Here we have the index not only of his +power to paint marvellously but also of his intellectual genius and +his judgment of values in the history of literature and philosophy. +Such pictures as the "Disputa" and the "School of Athens" are real +contributions to the history of human thought. Only a man who was +himself of profound intellectuality on a plane of equality with the +great intellectual geniuses whom he was painting could have conceived +and completed these magnificent groups of the world's greatest men +successfully. It has been well said that to appreciate properly the +pictures of the Segnatura is of itself an education. To be able to +take them in their full significance as essays in art and in the +history of literature and philosophy is to have gone far on the road +to culture. Raphael's achievement here is that of a great mind gifted +with a wonderful power of comprehension as well as an almost +unrivalled faculty of expression. No decorative pictures of the modern +time, however great, can be placed beside them. + +It has often been a source of wonder how Raphael was able to paint so +appropriately the figures of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and others in +his great picture of the "School of Athens." Only the genius that +gives men intuition, that enabled Shakespeare to portray wonderfully +the character of the men of all times and the blind Homer to give us +an enduring picture of man could have enabled him to do it. It was the +time of the New Learning and the recently aroused interest in the +classics, but no mere accumulation of information would ever have made +him capable of such a representation. As Gladstone once said of Homer, +a whole encyclopaedia of information with regard to the Greeks of +Homer's time would not have told us as much about them as Homer has +given us. At the time when he did the painting Raphael was not much +more than thirty and his life had been occupied with painting and not +with the accumulation of erudition. Henry Strachey in {9} his sketch +of Raphael calls attention to the fact that none of the great +contemporary Italian humanists were in Rome at this time. Neither +Bembo nor Bibbiena nor Castiglione were where they might be readily +consulted, and it was only Raphael's genius insight that enabled him +to accomplish so wonderfully the task he had been set. For while the +subjects were probably chosen for him he had to work out the details +for himself, and indeed these wonderful compositions show this very +clearly. + + + [Illustration: Raphael, School of Athens] + + +Raphael revealed for us in the "Camera della Segnatura," as almost no +one else has done, the attitude of mind of his period with regard to +the meaning of life. Years of scholarly devotion to the study of pagan +antiquity and especially the great Greek philosophers and poets, as +well as the remains of its sculpture, had awakened in men's minds a +broader view of life and its significance than had been possible for +centuries. Raphael has summed this up in the wonderful documents that +he has left in the Vatican and put on canvas what the great scholars +of the time tried to express in words. The late Professor Kraus of +Munich in his chapter on Medicean Rome in the second volume of the +Cambridge modern History has told the story of this: + + "The four pictures of the camera represent the aspirations of the + soul of man in each of its faculties; the striving of all humanity + towards God by means of aesthetic perception (Parnassus), the + explanation of reason in philosophical inquiry and all scientific + research (the _School of Athens_), order in Church and State (_Gift + of Ecclesiastical and Secular Laws_) and finally Theology. The whole + may be summed up as a pictorial representation of Pico della + Mirandola's celebrated phrase, _philosophia veritatem quaerit, + theologia invenit, religio possidet;_ and it corresponds with what + Marsilio says in his _Academy of Noble Minds_ when he characterized + our life's work as an ascent to the angels and to God." + +Artists and poets and writers have vied with each other in saying +strong words of high praise with regard to these decorations. The +Blashfields in their "Italian Cities" have told the story of the +limitations under which he worked, those of the room, lighted from two +sides with two walls pierced by {10} windows, and then the fact that +to a great extent probably his subjects were dictated, yet he must +needs body them forth in concrete form and clearly. How well the young +artist not only overcame these difficulties but out of the very +difficulties created the most marvellous portions of his masterpieces +the Blashfields have also told. + +In one paragraph they have detailed the story of Raphael's +associations with the artists of Rome at that period. Because it gives +some idea of the wealth of artistic genius existent in this time it +concerns us deeply here. They say: "The Urbinate (Raphael) strong as +he was, had felt the need of strengthening himself still further by +acquiring the friendship of other artists, and creating a kind of +little court. We are told that almost nightly at his table there met, +Luca Signorelli, Pietro Perugino, Baldassare Peruzzi, Giovanantonio +Bazzi and Lorenzo Lotto. What an age! when a single supper party could +furnish such an assemblage of world-famous artists, who in turn, as +they went from their quarters in the Borgo Vecchio, might meet +Michelangelo returning from the Vatican with the contingent of +Florentines, Bugiardini, Granacci, Aristotile da Sangallo, and +l'Indaco, who were helping him in the Sistine Chapel." + +So much has been said of the Camera della Segnatura that it is +sometimes forgotten that there are other rooms at the Vatican +decorated by Raphael, only less wonderful than this. If they existed +anywhere else they would be prized very highly, and if they were by +any other artist would place him among the great artists of all time. +The Camera del Incendio, so called because of the representation of +"The Fire in the Borgo," has in this scene one of the most dramatic +pictures ever painted. There are other great dramatic subjects finely +treated here, as "The Oath of Leo III" and the "Coronation of +Charlemagne." In this work Raphael was probably assisted to a +noteworthy extent by pupils and associates, yet all of it is stamped +with his genius. There are in the Camera del Eliodoro such pictures as +"Jacob's Dream," the "Sacrifice of Isaac" and the "Burning Bush," +which show Raphael's wonderful power of composition and at the same +time the readiness of genius which enabled him to turn from one +subject to another, accomplishing {11} so much that one is astounded +to think of how ideas must have crowded on him and yet how well all is +done considering that the artist so often needs above all the element +of time to perfect his work. Had Raphael been spared to the ordinary +length of life or to such years as Michelangelo's four score and ten +or Titian's almost five score, what an abundance of his art there +would be in the world. + +One of Raphael's greatest works at Rome is comparatively little +appreciated except by those whose attention has been particularly +called to it. This was his making of the cartoons for the series of +tapestries to be hung in the Sistine Chapel. These tapestries were to +be manufactured in the Low Countries, but the Pope wanted the subjects +that were to be represented to come from Raphael. Raphael consented to +make the cartoons for them, though he knew that they would be cut into +rolls some two inches wide to be handed over to the weavers. He had no +idea that they would ever be exhibited except in the imperfect way in +which tapestry can represent painting. Most artists of high rank would +probably refuse such a commission. Certainly it seemed rather +derogatory to his dignity as an artist to think that he should furnish +only copies that were themselves to have no place among his collected +works and prove at most a dubious addition to his fame. Under these +circumstances it would not have been surprising if the composition and +the manner of execution of the cartoons had been far below that of his +works in painting and fresco. + +He gave himself to the commission, however, whole-heartedly and +executed a series of designs that are among the greatest compositions +that have ever come from an artist's hand. These cartoons, after +having been copied in tapestry, lay in the narrow rolls into which +they had been slit in the tapestry factory in the Low Countries until, +resurrected almost in our own time, they became the most precious +treasures of the South Kensington Museum in London. Here they have +been the favorite study of artists from all countries and have added +laurels to Raphael's crown of artistic glory. He had the artist's true +sense of joy in work and the artistic conscience to satisfy the canons +of his own judgment and taste, even in a task that was to represent +him only at second hand. Almost {12} never in history has the great +artist consented thus to make himself subsidiary to the artisan, and +that Raphael, the greatest of artists, should have done it shows the +genuine spirit of true art as developed at this time. + +Some of these cartoons, as "St. Paul Preaching to the Athenians," are +considered among Raphael's greatest works. Raphael has well been +called the greatest decorator who ever lived, yet he consented to add +his mite to the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, in which +Michelangelo's triumphant work stood out so grandly above, in order +that the hangings on the walls might be worthy of that wonderful +chapel that a great Pope had planned and had had the happy faculty of +securing the greatest men of all time as collaborators in finishing. + +Perhaps nothing shows the wonderful artistic power and influence of +Raphael more than the fact that his compositions have dictated +practically all the interpretation of Bible scenes for the after time. +Quite unconsciously men have adopted his way of looking at things. He +did not costume Biblical characters in the clothes of his own time, +but on the other hand, in spite of his wide knowledge as an +archaeologist, he did not attempt to make his pictures true to the +genuine life of the times and the costuming of the older period. The +set of cartoons particularly illustrate how well he visualized the +scenes and yet the Apostles are dressed in garments that they never +wore. As I write there is before me an engraving of Paul preaching to +the Athenians. That Unknown God whom they had worshipped he is come to +preach to them. It is a wonderful composition. Probably nothing has +ever excelled it. There is probably not a single feature in it, +however, that in any way represents what is true to history in the +scene or the people. After his time for centuries his visualization +satisfied people's minds, so much is genius able to impose itself on +humanity. + +The Sistine Madonna, the only picture of Raphael's painted on canvas, +is usually considered to be the greatest religious painting that ever +was executed and one of the most wonderful realizations of vivid +poetic imagination that the world possesses. Everything in it is full +of sublime suggestion. The majestic attitude of the Madonna posed upon +the clouds, her face of perfect beauty, her far-away gaze of rapt +veneration {13} and absorption in her motherhood, but motherhood of +the Divine, proclaim her a vision from Heaven. No more wonderful +conception of the human mother of the Divinity has ever been reached +and yet critics and artists are a unit in proclaiming that the Virgin +Mother is surpassed in wondrous realization of profound imagination by +the Divine Child Whom she holds so tenderly in her arms. He looks out +into the world from those arms with solemn sacred eyes that somehow +give the idea of His profound interest in all that He sees and of an +all-embracing vision. Then there is the rugged, bearded Pope Sixtus +gazing upward with rapt devotion and the graceful, beautiful Saint +Barbara adequately representative of the modest virgins who all over +the world, for all the time since the coming of Christ, modestly cast +their eyes down before the Virgin Mother and her child. Below are the +two exquisite boy angels, whose charming childish attitudes of rapture +have always roused so much interest. + +It is said that these were the portraits of two little boys who came +to gaze, boy fashion, curiously into the window of the studio while +Raphael was painting. His transformation of the mischievous, +inquisitive, supremely boyish faces into the look of angelic rapture +is one of the triumphs of the picture that have always made it of the +greatest interest. Painted originally for an Italian Church it is now +the treasure of the gallery of Dresden, where it occupies a room by +itself that is more like a shrine to which devout worshippers come +from all over the world and in which as in some sacred place the +visitor distinctly lowers his voice and walks on tiptoe. Nothing tells +more of what the picture means than to watch the crowds that come from +all over the world to see it and the way in which it is almost +worshipped by those whose opinion is worth the most. + +After the Sistine Madonna, unfortunately for art, Raphael's attention +was drawn more and more from its special sphere of work as a painter +and his time was taken up and his attention absorbed by the larger, +wider pursuits of art director and archaeologist. This would not have +been so sad perhaps only for the brevity of the life destined to be +his. Had he lived to three score and ten the ten years devoted to +these {14} phases of art work, as they may well be called, would +probably have proved beneficial to his development. As it was we are +likely to think of it as time wasted by a great genius painter. His +art directorship proves the genius of the man. His workshop at Rome +gradually took on the character of a school of art. In this designs +were prepared not only for fresco but for mosaic work, for tapestry, +for the carving of wood and stone and even for engraving and other +phases of art. Vasari mentions fifty scholars who were employed as +pupils and assistants in this workshop. In the meantime Raphael's +interest in art history and his passion for classical art led him to +dispatch artists to Naples and Athens, to make drawings of noteworthy +antiquities that had been discovered. His manifold interests serve to +show how broad were his own sympathies with everything artistic. + +Towards the end of his life, though Raphael at thirty-five had no idea +that death was impending, he devoted himself to the study of Roman +antiquities and to the direction of the archaeological excavations +which were then being carried on in Rome. He had conceived the design +of reconstructing an entire plan of ancient Rome, based partly on the +discoveries of the excavators and partly on the descriptions of +classical writers. For this he made numerous plans and sketches with +his own hand, and though these have unfortunately perished, there is +in the Library at Munich a copy of the report which he drew up on this +subject. It is in the form of a Latin letter to Pope Leo X, showing +how deeply the Pope was interested in the scheme and that very +probably it was due to his urging that Raphael took it up. This letter +has been declared a monument to the industry and the archaeological +learning of the artist. Ordinarily in the modern time we are likely to +think that the artist devotes himself to his painting and leaves to +the professional scholar such work as this. We do not look for +many-sidedness in the artist. Raphael, however, like Leonardo da Vinci +and Michelangelo, evidently had a magnificent breadth of intellect +that would have given the most precious fruits of the spirit in many +lines besides painting, had he only lived to anything like the years +of so many of his great contemporaries. + + + [Illustration: RAPHAEL, POETRY (MOSAIC, VATICAN)] + + +{15} + + +CHAPTER II + +LEONARDO DA VINCI + +When it was announced that the "Mona Lisa" had been stolen from the +Louvre a thrill of solicitude that was almost dismay went through the +civilized world. Its recovery has been a triumph. It is only a woman's +portrait, herself of no importance, with what some might call a +conventional landscape behind it, all on a comparatively small canvas, +with its colors rather dimmed by time and by unfortunate surroundings +during its somewhat over four hundred years of existence, yet it was +looked upon as one of the most precious art treasures of the race. +Critics with a right to an opinion have often declared that it was +probably the greatest portrait of a human being that had ever been +painted. When we recall how magnificently Rembrandt portrayed the +Dutch burghers of his time, with what marvellous expression Raphael +painted some of the personages he knew and how wondrously Velasquez +painted some of his contemporaries; the placing of Leonardo's "Mona +Lisa" above them by good critics shows what a supreme place must be +accorded to it in the history of art. Art critics have expressed +themselves in almost unmeasured terms as to the significance of the +expression on the face of the "Mona Lisa." They do not hesitate to +proclaim that Leonardo painted the very soul and not merely the bodily +features of a woman. Walter Pater in his "The Renaissance" has written +an almost dithyrambic description of it that is well known and yet +deserves to be quoted again if only to show how a really great critic +can be carried away by a favorite work of art:-- + + "'La Gioconda' is, in the truest sense, Leonardo's masterpiece, the + revealing instance of his mode of thought and work. In + suggestiveness, only the 'Melancholia' of Duerer is comparable to it; + and no crude symbolism disturbs the effect of its subdued and + graceful mystery. We all know the face {16} and hands of the figure, + set in its marble chair, in that cirque of fantastic rocks, as in + some faint light under sea. Perhaps of all ancient pictures time has + chilled it least. + + "The presence that thus rose so strangely beside the waters, is + expressive of what in the ways of a thousand years man had come to + desire. Here is the head upon which all 'the ends of the world are + come,' and the eyelids are a little weary. It is a beauty wrought + out from within upon the flesh, the deposit, little cell by cell, of + strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions. Set + it for a moment beside one of those white Greek goddesses or + beautiful women of antiquity, and how would they be troubled by this + beauty, into which the soul with all its maladies has passed? All + the thoughts and experience of the world have etched and moulded + there, in that which they have of power to refine and make + expressive the outward form, the animalism of Greece, the lust of + Rome, the reverie of the middle age with its spiritual ambition and + imaginative loves, the return of the Pagan world, the sins of the + Borgias. She is older than the rocks among which she sits; like the + vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of + the grave; and has been a diver in deep seas, and keeps their fallen + day about her; and trafficked for strange webs with Eastern + merchants; and, as Leda, was the mother of Helen of Troy, and, as + Saint Anne, the mother of Mary; and all this has been to her but as + the sound of lyres and flutes, and lives only in the delicacy with + which it has moulded the changing lineaments, and tinged the eyelids + and the hands." + +While the "Mona Lisa" was undoubtedly the greatest of Leonardo's +portraits, perhaps the best possible idea of Leonardo's power as an +artist is to be found in the "Last Supper." Instead of making a placid +group he has chosen the moment just after the Lord had said that one +of the Twelve will betray Him and when all are asking "Is it I, Lord?" +He represents not only the individual shock but also the natural +grouping that occurred as a consequence of the announcement There are +four groups of three each, separate and with very distinct interest +and yet they are so arranged as not to break the unity of the picture. +On the left side the outer three {17} are all intently gazing on the +Lord while the external group on the other side are gazing away from +Him, but their hands all point towards Him. The inner three on the +right are talking directly to Him while the corresponding three on the +left are occupied among themselves and yet evidently intent on Him. +There was probably never put together a more expressive set of faces. +Each one is eminently individual, and each one shows marvellously the +character of the Apostle represented. It has been said that it is as +if the painter had made a condensed biography of each one of them with +his brush. All the special characteristics of the different Apostles +that we know are here to be seen in their faces. He has painted the +souls and characters of the men in the imaginary portraits that he +makes. + +There is an old tradition mentioned by Vasari, that charming gatherer +of legends with regard to the old painters, that Leonardo, unable to +satisfy himself with the head and face of Jesus, left it unfinished. +This would indeed have been a sad loss to art. Leonardo hesitated for +long, wondering above all whether he should follow a model, but +finally made his peace with tradition, accepted the type of head for +the Lord that had been created by Giotto, and refining it still more +succeeded in giving a look of mystic superhumanity to it that would +evoke the idea of divinity. It is easy to see how much he borrowed but +it is harder to realize how much he added, yet artists who have +studied it have felt that here indeed was a triumph and that, as far +as possible, Leonardo had represented the human face divine. He +followed his model strictly in the case of the Apostles' heads and +none knew better than he how to select models, but in the head of +Christ he turns from the model and works out his design from ideals of +the human face of which so many existed in his well-stored fancy. The +face of Christ was left somewhat vague, trembling, undissolved like +faces seen in cloud or in the fire. Leonardo himself once counselled +his students to look for suggestions in curious cloud and fire shapes +and even to study the vague forms that occur in imitation of human +faces on cracked and stained surfaces of ruined walls, and some of his +own devotion to this seems to have been of help to him in this +marvellous face. + +{18} + +Much has been said about the head of Judas in this picture. According +to Vasari, Leonardo fairly outdid himself on this face and head and he +talks about "the force and truth with which the master has exhibited +the imperious determination, hatred and treachery of Judas." According +to another legend he had haunted the purlieus of Florence for months, +searching for a head and face expressive enough in its malignity for +his Judas. Possibly one might expect to find a human monster then in +the Apostle traitor. In spite of Vasari's traditions, who here seems +to have indulged his fancy for the sensational, Judas has a very +interesting human face, rather weak than strong, but with redeeming +qualities in it. After all it must not be forgotten that the face had +to recall or at least not negative the fact that this man had been for +three years in the company of the Lord, chosen as one of the Twelve, +with possibilities of as great accomplishment for good as the others +if he had not turned aside. Judas was not foreordained to be a +traitor, but he made himself such. It was not his nature that +compelled him to the crime, but his failure to control certain +elemental passions, above all the craving for money, that led him into +it. Many a good man since has been led off the same way. We have the +face of a man who might have been one of the honored Apostles. That he +was not is his own fault. It is said that the same model was used by +Leonardo for Peter and Judas. If so, surely it was a stroke of genius. +Peter too was weak. He even denied the Master, but had it in him to +realize his weakness and repent. Peter's face is in the light, Judas' +face in the shadow of Leonardo's picture. If Leonardo had not given +Judas the bag to carry, thrown his face out of the line of the +Apostles near him who are in the light, and made him ominously upset +the salt while reaching for a better quality of bread than that near +him, it would have been rather difficult to pick him out from among +the others. + +One thing is absolutely true in this great work of art. All the faces +of the Apostles, with the possible exception of John's, are rudely +strong. The men who were to carry on the work of the Master and +convert the world to Christianity were not effeminate in any sense, +and above all they had been the rough {19} fishermen of Galilee. Their +costumes are modernized, their beards are probably less unkempt than +if they were really Judeans, but here is a group of men whose very +strength of feature makes them striking. + +As has been well said, Leonardo broke up the old formality and +immobility of the earlier painters and brought life and action into +the scene. For the first time the personages are deprived of their +halos and there is nothing to make the group of men anything more than +human beings deeply interested in a great purpose and disturbed to the +depths of their beings by the suggestion from the Master Himself that +now that purpose was to be thwarted by the treason of one of their +number. This conception seems all the more natural when we recall that +none of them had as yet been confirmed in grace, that one was to deny, +another betray and all were to be hesitant and cowardly in a great +moment of trial. + +With all this of thought in Leonardo's picture it might be expected +that all of his attention would be given to the faces and little to +the composition itself and to the setting of the picture. The exact +contrary is what happens. The composition is probably the most +wonderful ever done. The room itself is so arranged that everything +leads the eye toward the centre of the picture where the Master sits, +while behind Him the middle one of three windows, with an arched +casement, frames Him apart from the Apostles. Through these three +windows at the back can be seen one of the varied mountainous +landscapes that Leonardo delighted in. The extent of the landscape +which can be seen shows that the supper was held in an "upper room." +The bare beams of the ceiling in that coffered arrangement common in +Italy, the walls ornamented with large panel spaces filled in with a +damasked pattern are all worked over with artistic completeness of +detail. It is details of this kind one might expect the painter of the +Last Supper to have overlooked in his intentness on the sublime moment +and the characters. The tablecloth, moreover, is beautifully worked +and the linen and the pattern of it and the folds are done with as +meticulous care as one might expect from a _genre_ painter of tissues. +The glasses and table service are very carefully drawn and every +detail was executed with {20} an artistic conscience and eye to +perfection, even of trifles, that reveals the thoroughness and +all-embracing skill of the artist. + +The more one knows of Leonardo's power to paint detail and of his +devoted study of nature, the less surprise is there at the traditions +with regard to his head of Medusa. It was much for an artist to +attempt to make a picture of this hideous head on which were the +writhing serpents, the sight of which, according to tradition, turned +beholders to stone, but he has succeeded in accomplishing a +presentation of the horrible as far as it is possible. The writhing +serpents are done with a devotion to detail and a lifelike naturalness +that only a great observer of nature could have reached. Besides the +serpents in all their varieties there are bats and lizards and vermin +of many kinds in the picture, while the cloudy mephitic breath which +can be seen issuing from the mouth completes the picture. The intense +realism of these details of low animal life is a surprise at that +period, but above all a surprise that it should have been done by a +man who had such wonderful power of idealization when he wished to use +it. It is this combination of qualities so opposite in themselves and +often thought mutually exclusive that makes the never-ending surprise +of Leonardo's genius. That the painter of the "Last Supper" and the +charming "Madonna of the Rocks" should have also made this "Head of +Medusa" is indeed difficult to understand, and yet not more than might +be expected from one of the greatest of the artists of the Renaissance +who is at the same time almost the world's most manifold genius. + + + [Illustration: LEONARDO DA VINCI, MADONNA OF THE ROCKS (LONDON)] + + +With all this of magnificent accomplishment in painting, which sets +him on a pinnacle by himself in this great department of art, it might +be thought that Leonardo's main claim to recognition was because of +his painting. He himself, however, would have been the first to object +to estimation of him on any such grounds. He probably scarcely +considered himself to be a painter at all, or at least occupied +himself with painting only in his leisure moments. He beat +Michelangelo once in a competition in sculpture, but doubtless thought +less of himself as a sculptor than as a painter. He made what his +generation declared to be the greatest equestrian statue {21} ever +modelled and his generation knew what they meant by that, for they had +before them two such triumphs of equestrian statuary as Donatello's +"Gatamelata" and Verrocchio's "Colleoni." Just as in painting, when he +wanted to do sculpture he could do it with a supreme perfection that +is unrivalled. Strange as it may seem, Leonardo thought of himself as +an engineer. He actually took on himself the contract for extending +the canal system around Milan and accomplished it so well that his +work still remains in use. During the course of this he invented the +wheelbarrow, the movable derrick, the self-dumping derrick, various +modes of moving rock, locks for canals and a system for maintaining a +navigable level of water in rivers which were usually nearly dry in +the summer time. + +Leonardo had the thorough appreciation of himself that genius is so +likely to have and that in smaller men seems conceit. He knew that +there was practically nothing to which he cared to turn his hand in +which he could not work out original ideas. He was only in his middle +twenties when he wrote the letter to Ludovico Sforza in which he tells +his future patron very calmly all the things he might be expected to +do if the Duke should have need of them. + + "MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD.--Having studied and estimated the works of + the present inventors of warlike engines, I have found that in them + there is nothing novel to distinguish them. I therefore force myself + to address your Excellency that I may disclose to you the secrets of + my art. 1. I have a method of bridges, very light and very strong; + easy of transport and incombustible. 2. New means of destroying any + fortress or castle (which hath not foundations hewn of solid rock) + without the employment of bombards. 3. Of making mines and passages, + immediately and noiselessly, under ditches and streams. 4. I have + designed irresistible protected chariots for the carrying of + artillery against the enemy. 5. I can construct bombards, cannon, + mortars, passavolanti; all new and very beautiful. 6. Likewise + battering rams, machines for the casting of projectiles, and other + astounding engines. 7. For sea combats I have contrivances both + offensive and defensive; ships whose sides would repel stone and + iron balls, and explosives, unknown to any soul. 8. In {22} days of + peace, I should hope to satisfy your Excellency in architecture, in + the erection of public and private buildings, in the construction of + canals and aqueducts. I am acquainted with the arts of sculpture and + painting, and can execute orders in marble, metal, clay or in + painting with oil, as well as any artist. And I can undertake that + equestrian statue cast in bronze, which shall eternally glorify the + blessed memory of your lordship's father and of the illustrious + house of Sforza. + + "And if any of the above seem extravagant or beyond the reach of + possibility, I offer myself prepared to make experiment in your + park; or in whatsoever place it may please your Excellency to + appoint; to whose gracious attention I most humbly recommend + myself." + +Was there ever a more confident genius? There was never a man who +fulfilled all his promises better. + +What Leonardo was able to accomplish as an engineer can be seen in the +canal some 200 miles in length still in existence by which he +conducted the waters of the Adda over the arduous passes of the +Valtellina to the gates of Milan. In its own way and considering the +conditions under which he had to work and the obstacles that he had to +overcome, this was as great an engineering feat as the digging of the +Panama Canal, certainly a much greater engineering project than the +completion of the Suez Canal, though until Panama came to shroud the +glory of that our generation was inclined to be rather proud of that +achievement. + +So far from being merely an artistic mind Leonardo da Vinci had +typically the scientific and inquiring mind. Whenever a scientific +problem came up to him, no matter how others had solved it before him +and above all no matter how his contemporaries were solving it, he +solved it for himself and almost inevitably in the true light of +science. For instance while he was engineer, in charge, to use our +modern term, of the canals of central Italy, the cuttings necessary +for them brought to light a series of fossils. These were mainly +shells resembling the seashells of his time, though not exactly like +them. Before this a number of such finds had been made and man had +found it very hard to explain them. They were usually {23} uncovered +beneath a rather thick layer of earth. They looked like shells that +belonged to creatures that had lived on a seashore. How could their +presence be explained far from the sea and completely covered up? +Occasionally, when found near the surface on the tops of rather high +mountains a distance from the sea, the explanation had been offered +and generally accepted that they had been deposited there by the +Deluge. The buried shells and especially those deeply buried could not +be thus explained. Scientists, and let us not forget that it was +scientists in the true sense of the term who were especially concerned +with such objects, men who knew their mathematics and principles of +science very well and who had made valuable observations in other +departments of science, evolved a learned theory of their presence. +These were incomplete beings occurring in the earth because of a +surplusage of creative power that had not quite finished its work. +Their development had been arrested as it were before they actually +became living creatures. When Leonardo da Vinci ran across the shells +in the cuttings for his canals, he suggested another and a simpler +explanation as it seemed to him. These were actually marine shellfish, +which had been deposited where they now were at a time when this +portion of land was submerged by the sea. They had become covered +during the process of sedimentation and transformation of the land +which had gradually pushed the sea far away. It always requires a +genius to offer so simple an explanation as that, and as a rule it +seems quite out of the question to most of his contemporaries, because +of its very simplicity. They usually express their disdain for such +simple-mindedness or wrong-headedness rather forcibly, though after a +time they come to accept the explanation of it, but usually refuse to +give the inventor any credit for his idea, because it now seems so +obvious that they cannot think of it as so very new, after all. + +We know that Leonardo had made a series of studies of the shells of +the seashore, though ordinarily it was presumed that his studies had +been directed rather to their artistic beauty than to scientific +knowledge with regard to them. Apparently his very familiarity with +them, however, led him to lay the foundation stone of the science of +palaeontology. There are {24} sketches of a number of the spiral +shells to be found in his notebooks. These are all charming in their +pretty curves, and they caught his artistic eye. Nature never makes +anything merely useful. This strong outwardly rude cover of shell for +the amorphous ugly shellfish--that is, ugly according to most human +standards--is very pretty in its forms and its color. The fine use +that Leonardo made of his study in seashells was pointed out by +someone who studied some of the spiral staircases for the corners of +palaces in Northern Italy which Leonardo is said to have planned. +These were only private stairways leading usually from the ladies' +apartments to the gardens of the castles and were probably designed to +be useful as fire escapes. They projected sometimes from the angles of +the building. We know what hideous things fire escapes can be. These +were very pretty and effectively decorative. They were planned in +imitation of the spirals of some of the whorl seashells that Leonardo +had been studying. + +Everywhere we find that mixture of the devotion to the useful and the +practical as well as the aesthetic, to the scientific as well as the +artistic. He made a series of dissections. These dissections were made +at a time when, if we would believe certain of our modern historians +of science in its relation to religion, the Church had absolutely +forbidden dissection. Such declarations are all the more +incomprehensible because not only did all the anatomists and surgeons +of this century do dissection quite freely, and the greatest +dissections were done in Rome by the Papal Physicians in the Papal +Medical School, but every artist of the time studied anatomy for art +purposes through dissections. We have dissections from Raphael and +from Michelangelo and from many others as well as from Leonardo da +Vinci. + +Leonardo proposed after making a large number of dissections to write +a text-book of anatomy. Ordinarily it might seem that such a text-book +from an artist's hands would be eminently superficial and not at all +likely to further the science of anatomy, though it might be helpful +for students of art, especially in their dissection work. During the +past twenty years, however, a series of Leonardo's sketches made from +his dissections have been republished from a number of {25} +collections of the originals in important libraries in Europe. The +collection at Windsor Castle in England is particularly valuable and +the sketches are very complete. Anyone who looks over these +republications will realize at once that had Leonardo written his +text-book of anatomy and illustrated it with his own drawings, it +would have been an epoch-making landmark in the history of anatomy and +of medicine. + +It was not until a quarter of a century after the artist's death that +Vesalius, but five years old when Leonardo died, published his great +anatomical text-book. At the time Vesalius was only twenty-seven years +of age, but his work revolutionized anatomy and he is rightly greeted +as the father of modern anatomy. Had Vesalius had the opportunity to +consult Leonardo's work, his own would have been greatly facilitated. +It was not merely anatomy for art purposes but for all purposes, +scientific as well as artistic, that Leonardo with characteristic +thoroughness had studied. + +There are studies of his in zoology, made evidently for the sake of +his work in sculpture, that represent important additions to this +scientific department. The same thing is true with regard to botany. +Flowers caught his artistic eye, but they appealed quite as much to +the scientific sense and so we find sketches of many varieties of them +that are very interesting but also very startling from a scientific +standpoint because they show a knowledge of the parts of the flowers +in detail not usually supposed to exist at that time. One is not +surprised to hear that he did distinguished work in mathematics. +Somehow the exact scientific bent of his mind and its literalness in +all matters pertaining to science would lead us to expect that. There +probably never has been a mind so thoroughly rounded out as his. +Aristotle had greater scientific precision and wider knowledge, but +lacked something at least of Leonardo's power to execute his artistic +ideas, or we would surely have some great art from him or traditions +of it. It is even not startling, with this knowledge of the scientific +side of Leonardo's mind, to find that he advanced a theory of +evolution. That generalization far from being new, as is often +imagined, has appealed to many great investigating minds down the +centuries, according to the title of a modern {26} scientist's history +of the theory all the way "From the Greeks to Darwin." + +One of the most interesting anticipations of a set of ideas that are +definitely considered quite modern, and indeed have developed so +recently that we are not quite sure of all their significance as yet, +is Leonardo da Vinci's occupation with muscular movements and the +saving of time and labor by carefully regulating these movements. He +suggested that each different kind of work done by human muscular +labor should be carefully studied, with the idea of simplifying and +reducing the number of movements necessary for its accomplishment in +order to save both time and effort. In a word he anticipated +practically the modern ideas of the efficiency engineer of the present +time though, as I have said, we are rather prone to think these ideas +quite new and recent. + +The personality of this universal genius is one of the most +interesting that mankind has to study. Every detail is of special +import. Leonardo da Vinci was born of the noble Florentine house of +Vinci in the Val d'Arno. He was a precocious child, attracting +attention by his beauty of feature and by his winning ways. There are +stories of his improvising music and songs even when he was very +young. A little later we hear of him pitying the caged songbirds and +buying them and setting them free. As a growing boy he liked colors; +indeed, they may almost be said to have had a fascination for him, and +the bright dresses of the Florentine girls and of the peasants from +the vicinity caught his eye. Tradition also connects him with a fancy +for spirited horses. As if these were not enough to show an artistic +temperament, while still scarcely more than a boy he began to design +and sketch and even mould objects that he was interested in. Vasari's +stories of him show that even at this early date, when he was only a +boy, his sketches and plastic work had for subjects smiling women. + +His vocation seemed clear and his father took him for education to the +workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, then the greatest artist in +Florence and one whose work has always maintained an influence over +succeeding generations. Those of us who have seen his "Colleoni" in +Venice are likely to think {27} of him as a great sculptor. +Undoubtedly he was one of the great sculptors of the world, but he had +the broad artistic spirit of the men of the Renaissance, and there was +no form of art in which he was not interested and in which he did not +accomplish things worthy of his great time to be the admiration of +succeeding generations. Verrocchio was a great painter as well as a +sculptor, but he was also a worker in metals and, as so many of these +artists of the Renaissance, quite ready to design household objects +for even ordinary use, provided only he was allowed to put beauty in +them. Drinking vessels, instruments of music, gates, wooden doors and +above all any objects that were meant for sacred uses he was glad to +take commissions for. + +It was just the place to train such a many-sided genius as Leonardo, +though rather let us say it was just the place for such a many-sided +genius to find and train himself. Certainly the young Leonardo must +have owed very little except suggestion and some minor directions in +technics to anyone else. He very soon came to surpass his master in +painting at least, and the master recognized that fact apparently +without any jealousy. According to the story as we have it, Verrocchio +was employed by the Brethren of Vallombrosa to paint the "Baptism of +Christ." Leonardo was given by the master permission to paint an angel +in the left-hand corner. There was such a striking contrast between +the fresh youthful work of the pupil and the labored work of the +master that Verrocchio is said to have painted no more, or at least +made no more ambitious attempts at great pictures. Sculpture was +always the favorite of the old master, however, so that it was not so +much of a tragedy. + +It was after this, in his early manhood, that Leonardo became +interested in the things of nature around him and made many +investigations into their meaning. He took up astronomy for a time and +anticipated some of the thoughts that Copernicus was to put in order +in his great theory. Such ideas in astronomy were in the air at that +time. Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa had more than hinted at them when, +about the middle of the fifteenth century, he declared that the earth +moved in the heavens like the other stars. Astronomical subjects were +{28} favorite speculations for intellectual genius. Regiomontanus, who +died before he was forty, was alive in Leonardo's boyhood, and after +having begun that series of astronomical leaflets which later were to +influence so deeply Columbus and the Portuguese navigators, was +invited down to Rome to reform the calendar. Toscanelli made the +observations on comets, out of which later their orbits were +confirmed. Every form of natural observation caught the inquiring +Leonardo's eye, and he studied the plants around him and meditated on +crystal formation and occupied himself with all the forms of living +things. Somehow his feeling seemed to be that such broadening of his +intelligence would help him to breadth of expression in art, though +probably it was only his native curiosity occupying itself in the +insatiable youthful years with everything that came to hand. His +achievements in science are sketched hurriedly in the chapter on +Physical Science. + +Leonardo seems to have occupied himself much with mechanical toys. He +made mechanical birds that flew, mechanical lions that walked and a +lizard which crawled and whose horns and eyes moved while the +oscillating wings were constantly in motion. Every one of these +contrivances, however, was the result of serious study. He took up +with great assiduity the problem of flying and was quite sure that he +would be able to make a machine by which men would accomplish +locomotion through the air. He studied the wings of birds very +carefully, and anticipated the knowledge of most of the principles of +flight as they developed in later years. He used his mechanical lion +as a bait to catch the attention of Francis I. The beast is said to +have walked across the audience chamber towards the monarch until, +when close to him, it stood up and disclosed the fact that the "Lily +of France" was stamped upon its heart. Leonardo's own name is derived +from lion and this was supposed to be his declaration of patriotic +affection and loyalty to the French King. + +Something of the _busyness_ of his mind can be understood from the +gossip that one hears about him in the letters of the time or even +from what may be concluded from his own diary. It is said, for +instance, that in the midst of the painting of the "Last Supper" there +was quite an interruption in the work {29} because Leonardo became +very much interested in the invention of a new machine for mincing +meat and making sausages. The head of one of the Apostles was left +unfinished for a time because Leonardo could not get the blades of the +new machine fixed so as to make them more to his satisfaction. +Unfriendly critics said that he would do anything so as to get away +from his painting. Those who least understood declared that this was +because he was trivial of mind and incapable of concentrating his +attention. Anyone who has done artistic work of any kind, or indeed +has devoted himself to literary work of any description, is likely to +understand Leonardo's ways in such matters. The time comes when the +particular vein of thought is exhausted for the moment and new ideas +come slowly and with difficulty. The serious self-critical writer or +artist recognizes that what he does at such times has not the +significance he would like it to have and that he is likely to have to +erase or greatly modify most of it afterwards or to regret it if he +does not. If he is wise, then, he turns aside and gives his mind a +complete rest by devoting it to something quite different from that in +which he has been engaged before. If he insists on continuing his work +after inspiration ceases or his particular vein of thought runs out, +it becomes more and more difficult and more and more of a drudgery. +Finally, unless he is almost entirely without proper +self-appreciation, he literally has to give up the work that has +become so difficult. + +Leonardo did not wait for this, but after a certain set of ideas had +run out devoted himself to other and quite different things. He had +had trouble with cleaning his brushes, and had found that a rather +strong lye could be extracted from fowls' droppings. He at once +devoted considerable time to finding out whether the material thus +obtained could not also be used for the washing of linen. Indeed, his +attention to inventions for the relief of domestic difficulties stamps +him as quite modern in his notions. Besides his sausage-making machine +he invented a spit for the roasting of pigs and designed various forms +of utensils that would be handier than those commonly in use at that +time. + +Some of Leonardo's expressions are well worth chronicling {30} because +they show us so well the character of the man. He did not write any +moral essays, but a number of expressions of his that have been +preserved show that he had decided and very definite opinions with +regard to many important human interests. His greatest picture was +probably the "Battle of the Standards," in which, according to the +descriptions preserved for us, he pictured all the horrors of war. He +depicted the frenzy of contest at its fiercest. In one of his famous +expressions he disposes of war in two words as _pazzia bestialissima_. +I find it a little hard to translate that in the force of the +original, but I suppose it would be something like "the climax of +animal frenzy." Even that is not as strong as that superlative +_bestialissima_ in Italian. + +The ease with which he transferred his services from one distinguished +noble master to another has led some to suggest that he was lacking in +loyalty, or at least was quite satisfied with life so long as he found +someone to pay him for his work. As a matter of fact he often spent +much more in experiments of various kinds than he was paid for the +results of his labors, and money seems to have meant very little to +him. He was known to be generous to his friends, and he once said "the +poor are those who have many wants." He realized very well that +poverty is entirely relative, and if a man is dissatisfied with what +he has he is poor, no matter how much he has. As might be expected, +above all Leonardo realized the preciousness of work. For him indeed +blessed was the man who had found his work. His expression was "as a +day well spent gives joyful sleep, so does a life well spent give +joyful death." + +With the disturbed conditions in Italy in his time he probably had to +suffer many injustices, frequently had his labors interrupted, his +work often undone, and it is easy to understand how much the jealousy +of smaller men around him must have irritated him. He realized, +however, that happiness depends on not permitting one's self to be +bothered by such trifles. The only satisfaction is to go on with one's +works. As he said, "The best shield against injustice is to double the +cloak of longsuffering." His philosophy of life was in many ways +ideal, then. Something of a stoic one needs must be to follow {31} it, +but why should the petty trivialities of foolish human squabbling +disturb a man who has all of art and science spread out before him and +who knows so much more than others of his generation, but whose +knowledge surely must have made it very clear to him how little after +all he knew of all that was to be known? + +Like his Italian contemporaries, generally, Leonardo remained faithful +in his adhesion to the old Church. His charming "Madonna" and his +"Last Supper" could scarcely have come from one who was not a +believer. If these things were mere matters of imagination for the +artists of the Renaissance, they would not have been expressed with +such marvellous reality. We do not know much about his life, though we +know so much about his work and thought. When he came to die, however, +he left a legacy for masses for his soul. This was the custom of the +time and might very well be considered only a conventional +acknowledgment of his adhesion to the customs of his contemporaries. +Besides, however, he left a sum of money for candles to be burnt at +the shrine of the Blessed Virgin in the little village where he had +been raised as a boy and where he had often prayed. This would seem to +indicate that the faith of his childhood was still precious to him or +had come back in its boyish tenderness at the end of his life. His +whole career is that of a wonderfully-rounded man who could scarcely +fail to recognize the place of the spiritual in life and its +significance for man's understanding of the universe. + +Burckhardt concludes one of the chapters of his work on "The +Renaissance in Italy" with words that probably sum up better than any +others Leonardo's character. No one was better fitted to know whereof +he spoke than the great German historian of the Renaissance. "The +colossal outlines of Leonardo's nature can never be more than dimly +and distantly conceived." + + +{32} + +CHAPTER III + +MICHELANGELO + +Probably the greatest artistic genius that the world has ever known, +certainly the man who was best able to express his thoughts most +perfectly in every mode of art, with chisel, pencil, brush and pen, +was the son of Lodovico de Leonardo Buonarroti-Simoni, whom succeeding +generations have known as Michelangelo. He was a member of a noble +Italian family much reduced in the world. They claimed to be related +to the celebrated Counts of Canossa in Northern Italy, and when Angelo +became famous there was a recognition of the relationship by the head +of the Canossa family of that day. Nobility is usually willing to be +related to great genius, but genealogists have not been able to trace +the relationship. When Michelangelo was born (March 6, 1475), his +father was the governor of the Castle of Caprese, which stood on the +crest of a bold and rocky ridge of the Catenaian Alps, overlooking the +wild and rugged hills in which the Tiber and Arno rise. He died two +months before Shakespeare's birth in 1564, when another month of life +would have brought him to his ninetieth year. He is another typical +example of the fact that genius usually inhabits long-lived bodies. +Great men may be short-lived by accident, but as a rule the +over-abounding vitality, which enables a great mind to express itself +greatly, also enables the personality with which it is associated to +reach longevity. + +It is fortunate for us, seeing that Angelo was such a great genius, +that as Lilly said: [Footnote 2] "There are few great men of whom we +possess so many and such authentic documents." His works are the +living monuments of his genius, but we have, besides even minute +details of all his long life, his struggles, {33} his triumphs, his +friendships, his patrons and above all the fire of trial through which +his genius passed in order to secure its expression of itself. + + [Footnote 2: W. S. Lilly: "Renaissance Types." Macmillan, 1904.] + +Michelangelo's mother died when he was very young, her only place in +his life being that she gave him his name because she saw something +divine in him, though perhaps that is not rare. When his father's term +of office expired he returned to Florence, but left his infant son at +Caprese in the care of a wet nurse, the daughter of a stone mason and +the wife of another stone mason. Michelangelo often said that he +imbibed a love for marble and stone-cutting with his first +nourishment. The chisel and mallet were his early play-toys, and +though he was but six when taken to Florence, there is a tradition of +rude charcoal sketches made on the walls by him in his country home. +In Florence he was sent to the school of the famous grammarian, +Francesco Venturino of Urbino, the teacher of the New Learning, who +was also some years later a teacher of Raphael. Michelangelo, +according to tradition, paid little attention to his books, however, +but was constantly to be found with a pencil in his hand, making +sketches of all kinds. He became associated with some art pupils and +artists, and before long most of his time was given up to drawing and +sketching. + +While Michelangelo lived in the Renaissance time, and was undoubtedly +influenced very deeply by the humanistic movement, this influence was +exerted in very different fashion from what is usually supposed by +those who think of the Renaissance as the time when the re-discovery +of the Greek classics made for book-knowledge and a consequent +deepening and sharpening of the intellectuality of man. Michelangelo +had very little interest in books at any time, probably despised +scholarship, had little Latin, though it would have been so easy for +him to have learned it, seeing that his native tongue was Italian, and +had probably no Greek. He died, as I have said, the year that +Shakespeare was born, and much has been made of the supposed +impossibility of Shakespeare's wonderful conception of the universe of +man without more knowledge in the sense of scholarship. Shakespeare +had little Latin and less Greek, but undoubtedly the man who best +deserves place beside him is Michelangelo, who was similarly situated. +{34} Condivi tells us that books were to Michelangelo "a dull and +endless strife." He was very often dreadfully beaten--as the artist +tells it himself, _bene spesso stranamente battuto_--for wandering in +the workshops of artists instead of going to school, or sketching for +himself instead of studying his books. + +His father had intended that his son should go into the silk and +woollen business. When he discovered his artistic proclivities, of +course he forbade such foolish waste of time and punished the lad +severely. It seemed a disgrace that a member of the respectable +Buonarroti family should take up so non-lucrative and +little-considered occupation as that of a painter on canvas and worker +in marble. There was the usual result. Michelangelo could not overcome +his native genius, and after some trying scenes his father finally +consented to permit him to enter the studio of Domenico Ghirlandajo, +who was at the moment the most distinguished painter in Italy. It was +not long, moreover, before Angelo was correcting his master's drawing. +At first Ghirlandajo was disturbed by this, but he was won inevitably +by the distinction of Angelo's work until one day he declared, though +altogether Angelo was only a year in his studio, "this young man knows +more of art than I do myself." Then he was given a place in the +Academy of Lorenzo de' Medici, Ghirlandajo having been asked to +nominate two of his best pupils for the Academy and selecting as one +Angelo. Surely this selection proved that the teacher was not, as some +have said, jealous of the pupil. + +At Lorenzo's academy Michelangelo came in contact with some of the +most distinguished men of Italy of that day. There were Lorenzo's two +sons, Giovanni and Giulio, who afterwards became Popes Leo X and +Clement VII; Pico della Mirandola, the poet and scholar; Politian, the +poet, classicist and philosopher; Ficino, the head of the Platonic +academy at Florence of that day, and Bibbiena and Castiglione, the +latter subsequently the author of the famous book _"Il Cortigiano."_ +The two last-named were Raphael's great friends when a few years later +he was studying in Florence. It is not surprising that under these +circumstances Angelo became very much interested in antique sculpture, +nor that his first independent work was a bas-relief, representing a +battle between Hercules {35} and the Centaurs. This is still preserved +in the Casa Buonarroti, and with its crowded figures reveals the +genius and the assured artistic grasp of the future great sculptor who +executed it. + +Angelo, however, soon realized that if he was to do sculpture +successfully he must study not only the outside of the human body and +the antique sculptures, but he must know all the structures of the +body. Accordingly he had dead bodies conveyed from the hospital to a +special room provided for him in the convent of Santo Spirito, and +dissected them carefully. It has often been said in the modern time +that at this period dissection was forbidden by the Church, but there +is absolutely no trace of any such legislation, and every artist of +the latter part of the fifteenth century did dissection. Michelangelo +rewarded the prior of the monastery for his help in these studies by +carving for him a crucifix out of wood, which revealed the benefit +derived from his dissections. With such zeal for art it is not +surprising that the young man soon found himself capable of doing +sculpture of great artistic significance. We have traditions of a +statue of "Hercules," a high relief of the "Madonna" and a "Sleeping +Cupid," which had an eventful history. A dealer buried it in the earth +for a time and then sold it as an antique. Cardinal Riario, who +purchased it, finding out the trick, invited the sculptor, who knew +nothing of the deception, to Rome, and some of his first important +work was done there. + +His earliest Roman work was of antique subjects, a "Cupid," which has +been lost, and a "Bacchus," now in the Bargello. His first great +commission, however, came from the Cardinal de St. Denis, the French +Ambassador at Rome. This was of a "Madonna" with the dead Saviour on +her knees, just after His taking down from the Cross. The group is now +in St. Peter's at Rome, and though executed when Michelangelo was less +than twenty-five years of age, has come to be looked upon as one of +the great sculptures of the world. Copies of it are now to be seen in +most of the important museums, so that a good idea of his youthful +genius can be readily obtained by anyone desirous of knowing it. + +Some critics have objected that the "Madonna" in the {36} group is +entirely too young to be the mother of the dead son, who lies across +her knees. Michelangelo's own answer to that objection is, of course, +the only one that will interest those who love the group and would +like to know just his meaning. We have it from Condivi, to whom +Michelangelo confided it: + + "Don't you know," he said, "that chaste women keep their youthful + looks much longer than others? Isn't this much more true in the case + of a Virgin who had never known a wanton desire to leave its shade + upon her beauty! ... It is quite the contrary with the form of the + 'Son of God,' because I wanted to show that He really took upon Him + human flesh, and that He bore all the miseries of man, yet without + sin." + +The "Pieta" is probably one of the supreme sculptures of all time, but +Michelangelo's next important work was to place him beyond all doubt +in the rank of world sculptors. This was his "David." It is all the +more interesting because of the difficulties under which he executed +it. A huge block of marble of the finest vein lay in the works at +Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence, which several sculptors had designed +to make use of and at least two or three had begun work on, but then +had given up. Michelangelo saw it and saw in it the possibilities of a +heroic statue. He offered his design, it was accepted by the +authorities, and he set to work. He built a workshop on the spot and +shut himself up for eighteen months, absolutely refusing to let anyone +see his work. The result was the "David" so well known. A copy of it +was afterwards made in bronze and may be seen on the hill above +Florence. It has often been said that the difference in impressiveness +between the bronze and marble statues shows how much better adapted +marble is for the expression of the human figure. The triumph of the +artist, not only in the execution of this triumphant expression of +youth, but also over the strict limitations of his materials, shows +the eminently practical genius of the man who, at the age of thirty, +was able to accomplish such a work. + + + [Illustration: RAPHAEL, POPE JULIUS II] + + +After these great sculptures, Michelangelo entered into a competition +in painting and was chosen as a rival of Leonardo to decorate one side +of the Council Hall of the Signory. Leonardo was already at work when +Michelangelo received his {37} commission. Unfortunately neither of +the paintings was ever completed. Only a portion of Leonardo's cartoon +remains for us, though Michelangelo's, representing some Pisan +soldiers surprised by Florentines while bathing in the Arno, is now at +Holkham Hall in England and has been well engraved by Schiavonetti. +This cartoon was the subject of much study by contemporaries, and +Raphael particularly was greatly influenced by it. + +After this work Michelangelo was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II +and commissioned to make that great tomb which occupied so much of +Angelo's attention for the next quarter of a century, caused him so +many difficulties and disturbances of mind and was destined eventually +to remain unfinished or at least to be of nothing like the +significance that was originally planned. If one looks a little into +Michelangelo's life at this time, surrounded as he was by the +jealousies of his colleagues, disturbed at his work by political +animosities of various kinds, by the slights of those who failed to +appreciate and the open envy of those who favored his rivals, some +idea of the difficulties of his artistic soul will be understood. + +In the midst of his preparations for the making of the great tomb of +Pope Julius, for which he spent nearly a year in the quarries up at +Carrara obtaining the proper kind of marble and working out three or +four statues while the men of the quarries were getting out the other +marble that he wished, the execution of the tomb was put off. +Fortunately the work done at this time was not entirely lost. The two +galley slaves at the Louvre, which are among the greatest sculptures +of their kind ever made, attest Michelangelo's industry, as well as +genius, and they have been favorite studies of artists of all kinds +ever since. + +When the execution of the tomb was put off Michelangelo was summoned +to paint the vault of the Sistine Chapel. It is said that he owed this +commission to the jealousy of rivals who hoped to discredit him. The +Sistine Chapel is a most difficult room for effective decoration, +since it is simply an oblong box with a low-vaulted ceiling. It was +this ceiling that Michelangelo was supposed to decorate in fresco. He +{38} refused at first to accept the commission, saying that he was no +fresco painter, but the Pope insisted. For over three years, except +when eating and sleeping, he was hidden behind the scaffolding, lying +on his back most of the time painting above him, so that he could not +read without placing his book above his head after a while. When the +scaffold was taken down, the triumphant manifestation of his genius +revealed one of the most superb monuments of art that the world +possesses. + +As Grimm says, "If a man wants to get an idea of the art of Giotto and +his pupils, architecture and painting together, he must go to the +Campo Santo at Pisa; if he wants the masterpiece of the following art +period, the extensive development that lies between Masaccio and +Michelangelo, he must go to the Sistine Chapel." + +Fortunately for the after-time it is one of the few great decorative +works of this time that can be studied as the artist left it, or at +least without having to make allowance for the well-meant additions of +restorers. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has been sadly injured by +smoke and by water percolation from the roof and it has faded somewhat +with time under the conditions of use of the chapel, but it has been +spared from the misguided efforts of men by its position. A great Pope +is said to have said, "There are two ways of ruining a work of art, by +destruction and by restoration." He might well have added, especially +in the light of what has happened even in the Vatican to Raphael and +others, "and of the two the latter is the worse." From this +Michelangelo's great work has happily been saved, and as a result it +remains even in its damaged condition one of the acknowledged triumphs +of human art, undoubtedly the greatest decorative work that has ever +been done since the time of the Greeks. + +Some of Michelangelo's greatest work was done for the Julian tomb, and +the triumph of his genius at this time is the "Moses," which was to +have been one of four prophets that were to have found a place on the +monument. It would not be difficult to collect some of the most +effusive expressions of artistic enthusiasm over the "Moses." Men who +are themselves great sculptors have declared that it is the triumph of +man's power over marble. It is extremely difficult, artists have {39} +declared, to give a work in marble a decided facial expression, yet +Michelangelo succeeded in doing it in the "Moses," but, as has also +been said, every portion of the statue partakes of this wonderful +power that he had of making it profoundly expressive. Men whose +opinions are valuable because of their own significant work have been +unstinted in their praise of the now famous knee of the statue and the +wonderful way in which the foot of the right leg rests upon the +ground. All these are but details, however. One must have seen the +statue many times and have had its meaning in every part grow by +repetition of impression, and then something of the wonderful genius +of its sculptor comes home to the beholder. We cannot but regret that +Michelangelo was not permitted in peace to finish the great tomb as he +had planned it, for with the "Moses" as an example we would surely +have had in it the greatest triumph of modern genius in sculpture, if +not indeed of all time. + +This is probably one of the most striking figures ever made. It has +made the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, in which it is, a place of +pilgrimage for artists from all over the world, and for all those +interested in art ever since. Michelangelo has taken the moment when +Moses, descending from the Mount with the tables of the law in his +hands, sees before him the procession of the Golden Calf. In Exodus it +is said, "he waxed hot with wrath." Moses has just come from communion +with the Most High, and his wrath is tempered and sublimated by +religious enthusiasm and by the majesty which the consciousness of his +high mission imparts to him. Every portion of the statue breathes with +the wrath of justice, yet with the sublime feeling of the awfulness of +the crime that has just been committed against the Most High and that +His servant must pitilessly condemn. + +And yet, had the artist been allowed to work on uninterrupted at the +Julian tomb, we might have missed some or all of the great work that +he accomplished under the direction of the Medici Popes in Florence. +While the "Moses" is looked upon as the finest expression of his +powers in mature years, as the "David" is of his younger life, there +are good critics who have not hesitated to say that Michelangelo's +most {40} interesting work is to be found in the series of statues the +very consummation of the sculptor's skill which are in the sacristy of +San Lorenzo. There are four allegorical figures, "Dawn and Twilight," +"Day and Night," which recall the principal phases and the rapid +course of man's destiny, in which Michelangelo has expressed in +imperishable marble his thoughts with regard to life and its +significance. There are, besides, two statues of the "Medici," one, +that of "Lorenzo"--not the great Lorenzo, but his son--and the other, +"Giuliano," the younger son of il Magnifico. So little are these +considered, however, now as portrait statues of the Medici that one of +them is known as _il pensiero_, the thinker, and its fellow is +likewise thought of as expressing an ideal rather than a person. +Michelangelo himself had said that in a hundred years no one would +care whom these statues represented, so looking through the temporal +with a great artist's vision they became in his hands symbols of +immortal moods of humanity. + +Michelangelo's crowning work of a great lifetime came in his later +years when he devoted himself to architecture. In this department of +art he was as great as in any other and probably greater than anyone +who had ever preceded him. Some of his smaller works, as the "Porta +del Popolo" and the twin churches near it, are admirable in +themselves, yet simple and admirably suited to their surroundings. +Millet once said that the essence of beauty in art consists in the +adaptation of truth so as to suit the conditions. The triumph of +Michelangelo's architecture came in the great dome of St. Peter's. As +the great basilica was unfortunately finished in the after-time, no +proper conception of this can be obtained from the plaza of St. +Peter's. Close up only from the roof of the great Church itself does +one get a true idea of its marvellous beauty and stupendous size. It +was intended, of course, to be seen from a long distance, and when +thus seen it stands out with wondrous effectiveness. In the old days, +when men came in carriages over the mountains to Rome, the Dome of St. +Peter's was the first thing to be seen from twenty miles away, and, +thus seen, profoundly impressed the beholder. From Tivoli, for +instance, when nothing else is visible above the horizon except +Michelangelo's mighty dome, and all of Rome, {41} even on her seven +hills, is lost to sight, its stupendous size and wondrous charm can be +properly appreciated. It then appeals to the beholder not as a work of +man, but seems more like some great natural wonder from the hand of +the Creator Himself. + +How Michelangelo succeeded in building it with the materials that he +had at hand, with the assistance--material and personal--that he could +command, and in spite of all the obstacles that were placed in his +path, the misunderstandings, the jealousies, the petty rivalries of +smaller artists, is indeed a wonder. Some of his biographers have been +astonished that he should have known enough of mathematics to be able +to plan and construct it properly. They frankly confess that he had no +opportunity as a young man to make the mathematical studies necessary +for such work and apparently forget that whenever Michelangelo would +do anything he somehow found in himself the power to accomplish his +purpose with absolute thoroughness. He had set out to put the Pantheon +above St. Peter's tomb, and he succeeded in his ambition, for the +great dome, though it does not begin to curve into a dome until it is +more than a hundred feet above the pavement, is somewhat larger in +diameter than the great vault of the Pantheon, the triumph of Roman +power to build, which had been hailed as one of the wonders of the +world. + +One further phase of Michelangelo's accomplishment must be mentioned. +This greatest of sculptors, boldest and most successful of architects +and finest of decorative painters, was also one of the greatest of +poets. "Four-souled" is the apt epithet that has been coined to +express this versatility. It has been said that only Dante and +Shakespeare have equalled him in the writing of sonnets, and there is +no doubt at all that he is one of the most important contributors to +Italian literature, even in the glorious Age of Leo X. Addington +Symonds declared his sonnets to be the rough-hewn blocking out of +poems rather than finished works of art, and the great Italian critic, +Bembo, declared "he says _things_, while other poets say words." His +friend and biographer, Condivi, said, "he devoted himself to poetry +rather for his own delight than because he made a profession of it, +always depreciating himself and accusing his {42} ignorance." His +poems were scribbled on the backs of old letters or drawings or other +papers that chanced to be around, and only occasionally copied and +sent off to his friends. Although often urged by his friends, he would +never consent to make any collection of his poems during his lifetime. +Many of them were faithfully preserved, however, and of some of them +the various readings and corrections show that his artistic sense +would not allow him to let things go from him without, to some extent +at least, giving them a form worthy of the thought. + +Nowhere can one find the character of Michelangelo better expressed +than in his sonnets, and there is a deep religious vein in them which +reveals the profound belief of this greatest of men in all the great +truths of Christianity and his sense of personal devotion to the +Creator and his dependence on Him and the necessity for doing +everything for Him that is extremely refreshing. For Michelangelo this +was the solution of the mystery of life. + +Perhaps the best idea of his sonnets can be obtained from his lines on +Dante. It had come to be the custom during the Renaissance to think +that the only literature worth while thinking about was the classical, +and above all Greek, and that the Middle Ages had produced nothing of +significance in art or letters. Even Dante was not thought to be a +great exception to this rule, though it was admitted that he stood far +above his contemporaries. The word Gothic, as applied to the +architecture, the art and the literature of these rude ancestors, the +descendants of the Gothic barbarians, was invented by the critics of +the Renaissance to express to the full their contempt for the products +of the earlier period. Michelangelo had no illusions with regard to +comparative values. Above all he recognized the surpassing character +of Dante's poetry. His sonnet tells the rest and sympathetically +insists that he would have been willing to have borne even Dante's +years of suffering and exile to produce such marvellous poetry. + + "Into the dark abyss he made his way; + Both nether worlds he saw, and in the might + Of his great soul beheld God's splendor bright, + And gave to us on earth true light of day: + Star of supremest worth with his clear ray, + Heaven's secrets he revealed to our dim sight, + And had for guerdon what the base world's spite + Oft gives to souls that noblest grace display, + Full ill was Dante's life work understood, + His purpose high by that ungrateful state. + That welcomed all with kindness but the good. + Would I were such, to bear like evil fate. + To taste his exile, share his lofty mood! + For this I'd gladly give all earth calls great." + +{43} + +The bitter rivalries and jealousies that surrounded him have sometimes +produced the impression that Michelangelo must himself have been of a +carping disposition, not ready to acknowledge the merits of other +artists, though it is felt in extenuation, as it were, that in this he +only shared the spirit of the time. Any such impression would be quite +unjustified by what we know of Michelangelo. His admiration for the +ancients was unbounded. It was he who, when they were first excavated, +stepped up to the horses that are now on the Capitoline in Rome, and +patting one of them on the back said "get up," as if they seemed to +him so true to life that they ought to walk off. A single paragraph +from the sketch of Michelangelo in the Artists' Biographies [Footnote +3] will show how thoroughly he appreciated some of his immediate +predecessors: + + [Footnote 3: Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1878.] + + "Angelo was a great admirer of the three famous Florentine artists + who had preceded him. Of Ghiberti's 'Gates to the Baptistry,' he + said, 'They are so beautiful that they are worthy of being the gates + of Paradise.' Standing before Donatello's statue of St. Mark, he + cried out, 'Mark, why don't you speak to me?' and on another + occasion he said, 'If St. Mark looked thus we may safely believe + what he has written.' When he was advised to vary the lantern on the + Medici Chapel from that which Brunelleschi had built on the old + sacristy of San Lorenzo, he remarked, 'It may be varied, but not + improved.' Of other artists he spoke no less pleasantly, saying of + Gentile da Fabriano that his name corresponded with the grace of his + {44} style; and of Cesari's medals, that 'art has reached its last + hour, for beyond this it cannot go.'" + +If there ever was a man who had a right to pride himself a little on +his powers and his achievements, surely it was Michelangelo. He had +succeeded in bodying forth thoughts too deep for words in every mode +of human expression, even making words serve his purpose greatly +though inadequately; men of genius had so admired his work and been +influenced by it that all during life he had that sincerest of +flattery, imitation, from men who themselves were among the notable +geniuses of his generation, yet it was he who, in his sonnet towards +the end of his life, begged pardon of his God if he had ever used his +powers as if they were his own and not for the glory of the Creator +who had given them. We have any number of stories of his patient study +of art and architecture, even until the end of his life. Once Cardinal +Farnese met him, when he was past sixty, in solitary contemplation +amid the ruins of the Coliseum. To his question as to why he was there +and alone, Angelo replied, "I am still at school taking my lessons so +that I may continue to learn." He once drew a picture of an old man, +somewhat resembling himself, seated in a child's carriage with the +motto, "I still learn." + +His anatomical studies begun in his early youth at Florence were never +given up, and when other subjects were lacking he dissected domestic +animals and above all welcomed the opportunity to dissect several +horses. Duerer in Germany and Da Vinci in Italy had been faithful +dissectors, and Michelangelo kept up the tradition. + +The personality of this greatest of geniuses that the world has ever +known can scarcely fail to be interesting. Michelangelo is the true +type of one of the greatest periods of human history, and as such +every detail of his life appeals to men. Like many great geniuses, +Michelangelo was what is called a handy man, that is, one who could +fashion implements and objects skilfully with his hands. It is said +that all through his life he preferred not to entrust the making of +the implements of his art to any other hand. He used to make his own +chisels, files, and piercers and to mix his own colors. Even to an +advanced age he continued to use the chisel for himself and was +{45}ever famous for his audacious skilfulness with it. At the age of +sixty he is described as bringing down more scales from a very high +block of marble in a short time than three young marble-cutters could +in three or four times that space. With a single blow, Vigenero +described him as bringing down scales of marble three or four inches +in breadth and with such precision to the line that if he had broken +away, even a very little more, he risked the ruin of his work. + +How lonely he was in the midst of all his great work, and how many +material difficulties there were to weigh on his spirit and keep him +from intoxication with that joy of the artist in accomplishment, which +might even have hurt the work or at least the striving of even so +great an artist as he, can be very well understood through quotations +from some letters to his father, in which, not querulously, but as if +needing someone as a confidant, he pours out his inmost feelings: + + "I stand here in intense anxiety and with the greatest fatigue of + body. I have no friends of any sort, nor do I wish any; and I have + not time enough to eat what is needful. Let no more annoyances be + added to me, for I cannot bear another ounce." In the summer of 1508 + he wrote, "I am sick at heart, ill, and worn out with fatigue, + helpless and penniless." A year later he wrote again: "The Pope has + not given me a groat for a year; and I do not ask for it, for I feel + that I have not merited it, and this because painting is not the + sort of work which is my profession. And yet I waste my time without + fruits--God help me!" + +Michelangelo's views with regard to matrimony are well known. To a +priest who asked him one day why he never married he said, "I have a +wife who is too much for me already; one who unceasingly persecutes +me. It is my art; and my works are my children." And yet his +tenderness of soul and his affection for children was not eclipsed by +his absorption in his art, for Grimm tells the story of a child +stopping him on the street and asking him to make a drawing, and the +artist took the sheet of paper offered him and fulfilled the wish. + +When Michelangelo was an old man of seventy-five, however, he was +ready to give advice to his grandnephew Leonardo in the matter of +marriage. That advice is interesting {46} from a good many +standpoints, but especially because Michelangelo thought that the +choice of a wife was something to pray and ask for special aid from on +High about: + + "Leonardo, I wrote thee about taking a wife, and told thee of three + girls which have been here mentioned to me. ... I do not know any of + them, and cannot say either good or evil of them, nor advise you + about one more than the other. ... Giov. Francesco might give you + good advice; he is old and knows the world. [Michelangelo himself + was seventy-five years young at this time.] Remember me to him. + Above all, seek the counsel of God, for it is a great step. Remember + that the husband should be at least ten years older than the wife, + and that she should be healthy." Again he wrote, "Leonardo, I sent + thee in my last a note as to marriageable girls, which had been sent + me from Florence. ... Thou needst a wife to associate with, and whom + thou canst rule, and who will not care about pomps, and run about + every day to parties and marriages. It is easy for a woman to go + wrong who does these things. Nor is it to be said by anyone that + thou wishest to ennoble thyself by marriage, for it is well known + that we are as ancient and noble citizens of Florence as those of + any other house. Recommend thyself to God and He may aid thee." + [Footnote 4] + + [Footnote 4: It may be interesting to know that the grand-nephew + did take a wife, one of those recommended by his grand-uncle, and + that Michelangelo dictated the names of the children, often went + to see them, loaded them with presents and was their mother's best + friend and confidant.] + +The great artist did not escape the disturbing cares of family life by +his bachelorhood, however, for it became the custom of his brothers to +turn to him for aid whenever there was trouble. His family had +objected to his becoming a sculptor because it was beneath the dignity +of their nobility, but now that he was successful they were quite +willing to use his money freely. He had a scapegrace younger brother +who was particularly a thorn in his side, ever getting into trouble +and being helped out, above all constantly demanding money. +Michelangelo once wrote to him while he was at work on the great +ceiling of the Sistine. + + "If you take care to do well, and to honor and revere your {47} + father, I will aid you like the others, and will soon establish you + in a good shop. ... I have gone about throughout all Italy for + twelve years, leading a dog's life, bearing all manner of insults, + enduring all sorts of drudgery, lacerating my body with many toils, + placing my life itself under a thousand perils solely to aid my + family, and now that I have commenced to raise it up a little, thou + alone wishest to do that which shall confound and ruin in an hour + everything that I have done in so many years and with so many + fatigues." + +Michelangelo's letters of consolation to his brother's (Leonardo's) +daughter, who was delicate and ailing, show how tender were his family +affections. He has sometimes been pictured as the self-centred +bachelor, occupied only with his art. Any such picture of him is but +one of the many one-sided false impressions of these geniuses of the +Renaissance, all of whom, when known intimately, prove to be +whole-hearted human beings with all the human interests deeply +developed. + +One of the most interesting incidents in Michelangelo's life is his +association with Vittoria Colonna. This is one of the most charming +episodes of platonic friendship with wonderful mutual influence for +good chronicled in history. Vittoria was an inspiration to +Michelangelo in his work, and his tributes to her are full of the +loftiest admiration and almost saintlike worship. On the other hand, +no one could have held a higher place in the esteem of Vittoria than +Michelangelo. She had suggested the subjects for certain pictures and +Michelangelo painted them. She wrote in thankfulness and said with +regard to one of them: + + "I had the greatest faith in God, that He would give you a + supernatural grace to paint this 'Christ'; then I saw it, so + wonderful that it surpassed in every way my expectations. Being + emboldened by your miracles, I desired that which I now see + marvellously fulfilled--that is, that it should stand in every part + in the highest perfection, and that one could not desire more nor + reach forward to desire so much. And I tell you that it gave me joy + that the angel on the right hand is so beautiful; for the Archangel + Michael will place you, Michelangelo, on the right hand of the Lord + at the Judgment Day. And, meanwhile, I know not how to serve you + otherwise than to {48} pray to this sweet 'Christ,' Whom you have so + well and perfectly painted, and to entreat you to command me as + altogether yours in all and through all." + +This friendship of Michelangelo and Vittoria has become so celebrated +that to many it may seem that time has woven a romantic halo around +it, far transcending the reality. Only a little study of contemporary +documents, however, is needed to show that the facts are interesting +beyond even the stories that are told. Modern biographers have +enriched the tradition with many details, and Grimm has given a most +beautiful picture of this most famous of friendships between man and +woman which reflects so much honor on both the participants. Nothing +that I know contradicts so many false notions as to the Renaissance +that are widely disseminated and that are only too often taken as a +criterion of modes of thinking and of conduct in this period. All the +so-called Pagan tendencies of the Renaissance are contradicted by it. + +Condivi, Angelo's pupil, who wrote about his master during his +master's lifetime and who was intimately associated with him for many +years, pays an affectionate tribute to Michelangelo's purity of mind +and speech. The great master was a model of magnanimity, and Condivi +says: + + "I have often heard him speak about love; and others who have + listened to him on this subject will bear me out in saying that the + only love of which he spoke was the kind which is spoken of in + Plato's works. For my part I do not know what Plato says, but one + thing I, who have lived with him so long and so intimately, can + assert, that I have never heard any but the purest words issue from + his mouth." + +He was one of the most abstemious of men. He literally thought nothing +about creature comforts. Often he would take a piece of bread in his +hand while at his work and that would be all during the course of a +long day. His meals were likely to be irregular, and he paid very +little attention to them. As for his sleep, he was noted even among +the strenuous livers of his time for his ability to work without sleep +and for the small amount that he took. When he was deeply interested +in some work he would lie down in his clothes, and after a few hours +get up to work again. The surprise is that he should {49} have lived +to the age of nearly ninety under such living conditions, but work +never kills, and if the original vitality is extensive men live on to +the limit of existence much better by consuming their energy than by +allowing it to react within them, as it so often does. Some repentant +expressions of his had been taken to indicate, be it said by modern +writers, never by his contemporaries, that he was of a passionate +nature and had given rein to his impulses in youth. Except these words +of repentance, however, which are rather conventional in his time and +indicate a falling below ideals rather than actual serious faults, we +have absolutely no evidence. On the other hand, we have some +expressions of his which indicate how much difficulty he found in +curbing his passions in youth and how glad he is that he used the +effort, since it saved him from regrets in after life. + +The thought of death was a favorite one with him, and he seems +frequently to have dwelt on it and to have considered that there was +no thought that was better for a man. Not only did it prove +chastening, but above all it helped a man to eliminate the quest of +the trivial and the merely selfish in life. He held the thought of +death as the only consideration that makes us know ourselves and saves +us from becoming a prey to kindred, friends or masters, to ambition, +and to the other vices and sins which rob a man of himself. That was +his main purpose in life, to live it for accomplishment and not merely +for the trifles which easily satisfy so many men. Whenever he was +tempted to permit himself to derogate from his highest aims in life +for the sake of the distinction of the moment, the thought of death +was sobering, and the time when the darkness cometh and no man can +labor brought him back to his best work, no matter what the +difficulties might be in doing it. + +Angelo's relation to religion is all the more interesting because it +is often said that the great men of the Renaissance, because of their +profound study of pagan antiquity, had become touched with paganism. +There is not a trace of this in Michelangelo, however, and surely he +must be considered as the typical great man of the Renaissance. All +his life he had thought of his relation to his Creator and of the +necessity for accomplishing work, not for himself alone nor for +selfish {50} purposes, but with great aims that would be worthy of the +talents that had been given him. Once, when he was having great +difficulties because of opposition to his plans and interference with +designs that he felt must be carried out, he said to Pope Paul III, +"Holy Father, you see what I gain; if these fatigues which I endure do +not benefit my soul I lose both time and labor." The Pope, with whom +Michelangelo was a great favorite and who loved above all his sincere, +straightforward simplicity and his deep feeling of religion, laid his +hands paternally on the great artist's shoulders and said, "Have no +doubt. You are benefiting both soul and body." + +Toward the end of his life his mind became more and more occupied with +religious thoughts, and there was a charmingly simple piety that he +cultivated. This had been expressed often before in his great works of +art, both paintings and sculptures, and still more clearly in his +sonnets. Some seem to think that an artist, because of his occupation, +may express beautiful thoughts on religious subjects, even though he +does not feel them. Somehow it is supposed to be the artist's business +to work himself into such moods and then express them, as if it were +possible to express greatly in art, what one does not really feel. +Most people, however, seem to think that formal expression in _words_ +must mean more in such matters, and for them Michelangelo's sonnets +will doubtless be proofs of his absolute sincerity in religious +matters. Towards the end of his life most of his poetry is deeply +religious in character. He sent two sonnets to Vasari when he was +about seventy-five, as he told the biographer "that you may see where +I keep my thoughts." A more lofty expression of Christian humility and +the spirit of prayerfulness has perhaps never been made. One of them, +because it expresses his recognition of the fact that the trifles of +the world had carried even him away, that _fascinatio nugacitatis quae +obscurat bona_ of the Scriptures, is worth quoting as a summation of +his religious life and feelings: + +{51} + + "The fables of the world have filched away + The time I had for thinking upon God; + His grace lies buried 'neath oblivion's sod, + Whence springs an evil crop of sins alway. + What makes another wise, leads me astray, + Slow to discern the bad path I have trod: + Hope fades, but still desire ascends that God + May free from self-love, my sure decay. + Shorten half-way my road to heaven from earth! + Dear Lord, I cannot even half-way rise + Unless Thou help me on this pilgrimage. + Teach me to hate the world so little worth. + And all the lovely things I clasp and prize. + That endless life, ere death, may be my wage." + +Angelo's last work in sculpture was a group very like his first great +religious group, the "Pieta." It consisted of the Blessed Virgin with +the dead Christ and two other figures. Only the "Christ" was ever +finished. His intention was that this group should be placed on an +altar over his tomb, but his wish was never fulfilled. The +circumstances of his work at it are interesting. Like many an old man, +he often found himself wakeful at night and needed something to occupy +his thoughts. When he arose this way he used to work in solitude and +silence at these figures with loving recollection and care and with +the thought that it would be his monument after death. He had come to +look upon death rather as a friend than an enemy, saying once that +"life, which had been given to us without our asking, had wonderful +possibilities of good in it, and death, which came unsummoned from the +same Providential hand, could surely not prove less full of blessing." + + +Towards sunset on the eighteenth of February, 1564, Michelangelo +turned to his friends and said, "I give my soul to God, my body to the +earth and my worldly possessions to my nearest of kin, charging them +through life to remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ." In making a +will some years before, he left as alternative heir the Church, on +condition that the "income was to be given for the love of God to the +modest poor." + +While Leonardo da Vinci was indeed a universal genius well deserving +of the high title, it must not be forgotten that the age in which he +lived was the age of Michelangelo. The "divine master," his compatriot +artists have loved to call him ever since his own day. It is probable +that he must be {52} conceded to have carried human nature as far in +its power of expression of the beauty and truth of life as any man +that ever lived. The divine in human nature nowhere shines out so +conspicuously as in Michelangelo's achievements. There was no form of +art, no mode of expression, no field of thought in which he did not +excel. It must be confessed that his thoughts were often too high and +too deep for human nature's limitations, and that he did not always +succeed in completing his work in such a way as he himself would have +wished, and above all such as would have made it thoroughly +comprehensible to ordinary mortals. His works give us a better idea of +human nature's possibilities, yet Vittoria Colonna, who knew him so +well, declared that those who admire Michelangelo's works admire but +the smallest part of him. She had come to realize how much more there +was in him than even his works made manifest. Often the artist is a +disappointment after his works. Michelangelo's personality made one +disappointed with his works as if there should be much more in them. + +As his contemporaries knew him then, he was, if possible, greater than +he is revealed to us in his works. Probably no larger man in all the +best sense of that term has ever lived, painter, sculptor, architect, +poet, simple, humble, devout, in friendship a model, as a teacher +deeply beloved--this man, who succeeded so marvellously in everything +that he attempted, is one of human nature's proudest boasts, yet +himself realized poignantly how little he could really accomplish of +all that surged up in his soul. No career in history so makes it clear +that the breath of the Creator is in His creatures to inspire and +exalt. How deeply a creature may influence his kind, Michelangelo +illustrates as perhaps no other. There are certainly not more than a +few chosen spirits to be numerated on the fingers of one hand whom we +think of in the same breath with him when we count up man's beneficent +geniuses, and we can scarcely foresee an end to that influence apart +from the complete destruction of our modern civilization. As Grimm +said at the end of his sixth edition of Michelangelo's life, "It is +not thinkable that the influence on the artistic work of mankind which +has proceeded from him should not continue to wax with the course of +time." + + + +[Illustration: FRA ANGELICO, ST. FRANCIS] + + +{53} + +CHAPTER IV + +SECONDARY ITALIAN PAINTERS OF THE CENTURY. +FRA ANGELICO, PERUGINO, FRA BARTOLOMMEO, +BOTTICELLI, BELLINI, TITIAN, CORREGGIO, +TINTORETTO, VERONESE AND OTHERS + + +Perhaps nothing illustrates better the wealth of genius in what we +have called Columbus' Century than the fact that after detailed +accounts of the lives of Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, +many painters of the first rank still remain to be treated of in the +second place, as it were, a number of them exhibiting some quality +that has given them an almost unique distinction in the history of +art. Some of these great painters are acknowledged to be among the +most distinguished artists of all time. When it is realized that men +like Fra Angelico, Perugino, Botticelli, Titian, Correggio, Tintoretto +and Veronese have to be grouped together in a single chapter, the +necessities of compression in our account of the century will begin to +be appreciated. Each of them deserves, for any adequate presentation +of his work, not a few paragraphs, but a large volume, and about each +of them indeed not one but many volumes have been written even +centuries after their deaths. It must not be forgotten that almost the +same abbreviation of the story must be made for any other phase of the +century's achievements. + +When Columbus' Century opened, Fra Angelico had just been summoned to +Rome to set about what has usually been considered the crowning labor +of his life. This was the painting in fresco of the walls of the small +oratory in the Vatican, since known as the chapel of Nicholas V, +because the decoration of it was ordered by that great pontiff, a man +of deep scholarship and an enlightened patron of the fine arts, whose +aim to make Rome not only the centre of the religious life, but also +of the best influences for art and science for all the world, {54} has +come to be well recognized. Artists and art critics have been almost +fulsome in their praise of these decorations of Fra Angelico. The +walls were covered on three sides with two series of paintings, the +upper portion illustrating the life of St. Stephen, the lower that of +St. Lawrence. That two sets of subjects so similar should have been +treated in close juxtaposition without any repetition in design or +composition is in itself the best possible evidence of the artist's +power and his constructive imagination. The designs show a freshness +of conception very remarkable in a man of advanced years, yet withal +there is absolutely no falling off in the power and sincerity of his +art, and if anything a deepening of the religious feeling so +characteristic of him. When he did this work he was probably past +sixty-five years of age. + +Fortunately in our day, when it is so easy to obtain cheap +reproductions of the works of all the great painters, and when copies +in color of Fra Angelico's paintings may readily be secured, anyone +may know for himself something at least of the sweetness and power of +this charming painter of the early Renaissance. His Madonnas have a +most taking motherly expression and yet are full of the mystic +saintliness that becomes the Mother of God. His angels are a +constantly-repeated argument and impelling appeal for the existence of +these invisible creatures, which have been well declared to look so +real as to be convincing. His pictures of Christ as man and boy are +replete with humanity, and yet have the Divinity shining through the +veils of flesh. No one but a man who believed firmly, completely and +entirely in what he was painting could ever have given us these +marvellous representations. It is easy to understand, then, that when +it comes to his pictures of the saints Fra Angelico has given us, +absolutely true to life, representations of them in various actions as +their activities appeal to him. Among them he has introduced some +portraits of his friends, thus laying the foundation of that portrait +painting which was to develop so finely in the next generation and +which was fortunately to preserve for us the features of so many whom +we would like to have known. In the meantime, in the background of his +pictures he has given us the beginning of modern landscape painting in +all the beauty and {55} charm of his own, simple, single-hearted way +of looking at the beauties of nature. + +One of the most important of the Italian painters of the first half of +Columbus' Century, all the more interesting because he was young +Raphael's master, was Pietro Vannucci, whom, from the name of his +adopted town Perugia, the world of art knows as Perugino. He was born +just before the century began in 1447. His parents were poor, though +not of low condition, and as a boy Pietro worked as a shop drudge with +a painter in Perugia. There has been much discussion as to who this +painter was, and probably the best determination is Niccolo da +Foligno, who is sometimes considered the originator of the school of +Umbrian painters, in which Perugino thereafter took so important a +place. Niccolo was himself a pupil of Benozzo Gozzoli, who owed his +training to Fra Angelico. There were other artists at Perugia under +whose influence young Perugino came, and their names, when taken in +connection with those already mentioned, will show the wondrous art +influences abroad in the period. Vasari mentions also Bonfigli, known +also as Benedetto Buonfiglio, whose work can be seen at its best only +in Perugia and is well deserving of study, and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, in +whom the typical Umbrian landscapes, which are so important a feature +in Perugino's pictures, first make their appearance. A still more +important influence in Perugino's life was Piero della Francesca, who +was perhaps at Perugia for a while, though Perugino may have met him +elsewhere. + +After his apprentice work in art at Perugia, Perugino travelled and +was influenced by such men as Luca Signorelli, Lorenzo and the group +of great painters then at Florence, including Ghirlandajo, Cosi, +Moroselli and Botticelli, as well as the master Verrocchio, in whose +studio, or rather workshop, Perugino probably came in contact with +Leonardo da Vinci and also Lorenzo di Credi. There are two oft-quoted +lines from Giovanni Santi, "two youths alike in age and love, Leonardo +da Vinci and the Perugian Peter of Pieve." It was Perugino's merit to +have reached distinction, even amongst these, and his religious +pictures have a value all their own. After his years of training and +journeying, Perugino had his {56} opportunity at Rome, especially in +the Sistine Chapel. Of his work there, Berenson said in his "Central +Italian Painters of the Renaissance," "It is the golden joyous color +and the fine rhythm of the groups and above all the buoyant +spaciousness of this fresco that win and hold us." He has spoken of +"the golden dreamy summerings" of his pictures in the Louvre, and +especially "the round containing the Madonna with the guardian saints +and angels, all dipped in the color of Heaven, dreaming away in bliss +the glowing summer afternoon." Perugino's power to paint man "not as a +mite against infinity, but as man should be in Eden, dominant and +towering high over the horizon," has given him a place all his own. +"It is this exaltation of human being over the landscape that not only +justifies but renders paintings great." + +Grimm, in his "Life of Michelangelo," goes out of his way to say that +"Perugino's work in the Sistine Chapel far surpasses the others, +though they include such great men as Botticelli, Signorelli and +Ghirlandajo. His simplicity, his symmetry, his thoughtful composition +and finishing of individual figures, though in the others these are +often in masses, scarcely to be distinguished, all these give a +surpassing distinction to his painting." + +Perhaps the greatest tribute to Perugino that has been paid by +subsequent generations is the attribution to Raphael of some of the +works that have since been determined to be Perugino's. "Apollo and +Marsyas" of the Louvre, Paris, which has had its place in the Salon +Carre for thirty years, is a typical example and is still called a +Raphael in the Louvre catalogue, though now it has been almost +definitely assigned to Perugino. Most of the important galleries of +Europe have pictures that they value very highly that were done by +Perugino, and mistakes with regard to his work have always been such +as indicated the highest appreciation of Perugino, for they have been +attributed to great masters. + + + [Illustration: PERUGINO, ENTOMBMENT (PITTI)] + + + [Illustration: BORGOGNONE, ST. CATHARINE OF ALEXANDRIA] + + +One of the great painters of this time who, if he had done nothing +else but influence Raphael deeply, would deserve a place in any +account of the art of this century is Fra Bartolommeo. He was the +intimate personal friend of Savonarola and painted the well-known +portrait of the great preacher after {57} the unfortunate execution of +the friar. At a time when the Order of St. Dominic was very unpopular, +Bartolommeo entered it in 1500, and for a time gave up painting. +[Footnote 5] He returned to his art, however, "for the profit of the +Convent and the glory of God." Quite naturally he was very much +influenced by the works of Fra Angelico, his brother, in religion, +which were all round him in the monastery of San Marco, and also came +under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci, who worked at Florence +during the first decade of the sixteenth century. Bartolommeo had +charge of the studio San Marco, and it was here that Raphael came in +contact with him to the mutual benefit of both the painters, though +Raphael was much the younger man. In 1508 Bartolommeo visited Venice +and came under the spell of the rich coloring of Bellini and Titian. + + [Footnote 5: It is often said that it was fortunate that + Savonarola's preaching did not continue to influence the Florentines + deeply, for if it had it would surely have seriously disturbed art, + and as it is, it is often declared that there must have been many + beautiful works of art sacrificed in the bonfires built in the + streets of Florence under Savonarola's inspiration. In the sketch of + Fra Bartolommeo (M. E. James, London, 1902), the answer to this is + contained in a single paragraph: + + "The artists of Italy had no quarrel with the friar; some of the + best of them were his devoted friends, while many entered his + Order. Fra Filippo Lappacini in 1492, Fra Agostino di Paulo, Fra + Ambrogio and Fra Luca della Robbia, Fra Benedetto (miniature + painter), 1495, Fra Eustachio, 1496. Michael Angelo read the + friar's sermons constantly; Cronaca, the great architect, 'could + talk of nothing else.' Raphael painted him among the doctors of + the Church. Baldini, Lorenzo di Credi and Botticelli loved him."] + + +Fra Bartolommeo's greatest works are probably the "Marriage of St. +Catherine," "The Last Judgment," now in the Church of Santa Maria +Nuova, Florence, the picture which is said to have attracted the +attention of Raphael, and the well-known "Descent from the Cross," or +as it is often called, "Lamentation over Christ," "in which the +expression of suffering on the faces is charmingly differentiated for +the various characters of St. John, the Magdalen and the Blessed +Virgin, and so subdued that a heavenly peace illumines the group." It +has been declared that Bartolommeo united the spirituality {58} of Fra +Angelico to the perfect treatment in form and color of Raphael, +combined with a gentle gravity that was all his own and a devotion +that was part of his life. The "Descent from the Cross" is one of his +last works and, far from showing any sign of failing power, is +masterly and firm. In anatomy and composition and color it is +unsurpassed; in delicacy of feeling and religious devotion it is +considered one of the great pictures of the world. His portrait of +"Savonarola," a work of love on the part of an ardent disciple, is +deservedly his best-known work and is one of the great portraits of +all time, worthy to be placed beside those of such masters of +portraiture as Bellini, Titian, Raphael and even Leonardo. + +Among the other secondary painters of Columbus' time one of the +greatest, an artist who would have stood out above all his +contemporaries in almost any other period of art, is Sandro +Botticelli. He is the only contemporary whom Leonardo mentions in his +"Treatise on Painting." A quarter of a century ago Walter Pater, in +his Renaissance essays, said of him in regard to this distinction of +being mentioned by Leonardo: + + "This pre-eminence may be due to chance only, but to some it will + rather appear a result of deliberate judgment, for people have begun + to find out the charm of Botticelli's work; and his name, little + known in the last century, is quietly becoming important. In the + middle of the fifteenth century he had already anticipated much of + that meditative subtlety, which is sometimes supposed peculiar to + the great imaginative workmen of its close. Leaving the simple + religion which had occupied the followers of Giotto for a century, + and the simple naturalism which had grown out of it, a thing of + birds and flowers only, he sought inspiration in what to him were + works of the modern world, the writings of Dante and Boccaccio, and + in new readings of his own of classical stories; or if he painted + religious incidents, painted them with an undercurrent of original + sentiment, which touches you as the real matter of the picture + through the veil of its ostensible subject." + +In his pictures of "Spring" and the "Birth of Venus," Botticelli has +shown his power to paint great imaginative pictures, and the "Venus" +particularly shows his faculty of expressing the intimate, elusive +psychology of his subject. In {59} his little sketch of Botticelli, +Streeter (Catholic Truth Society, London, 1900) says: + + "Perhaps the most striking thing in this dainty discerned vision of + antiquity is the conscious emphasis laid on the distance from which + the vision is beheld. The sorrow Botticelli had learned to restrain + in his recent 'Madonnas' breaks out afresh in the wistful + plaintiveness of the goddess of pleasure, separated from her true + home by 'the travail of the world through twenty centuries,' by a + 'yawning sepulchre wherein the old faiths of the world lay buried + and whence Christ had arisen.' It would seem, not as some critics + have asserted, that Botticelli strove, and strove in vain, to + achieve the true embodiment of a pagan ideal, but rather that he + sought in this strange mingling of pagan and mediaeval sentiment to + express his own profound instinct of the impossibility, to a later + age, of ever reaching it." + +Botticelli is famous above all for his round pictures. Somehow these +_tondi_, as they are called, became fashionable in Florence about the +middle of the latter half of the fifteenth century, and when he was +about thirty Botticelli painted a series. One need only see the +charming reproductions that are now so often used for decorative +purposes to realize how beautiful they are. The "Madonna of the +Magnificat," so-called because the Blessed Virgin is represented with +pen in hand, as writing her song of praise, though also known as the +"Coronation of the Blessed Virgin" because the angels are represented +as placing the crown on her head, is the most perfect of these. The +lines of the composition, which have been exquisitely arranged so as +to fit into the round frame, have been very aptly compared with those +of the corolla of an open rose. Botticelli was able not only to +conquer the difficulties of this round form of painting, but actually +to elaborate out of the difficulties involved in this form of +composition new beauties, just as a poet may choose a particularly +difficult metre, and actually add to the quality or at least the charm +of his poetry by the exquisite form in which he puts it. + +One of Botticelli's forms of artistic activity that has attracted the +attention of artists and literati very much in the modern {60} time is +his execution of a series of illustrations for Dante. With his +profound sympathy with the mediaeval spirit it might well be +anticipated that he would make as nearly adequate illustrations of +Dante as may be possible. It requires a deep knowledge of Dante to +appreciate these illustrations. They are not at all like modern +attempts to illustrate Dante and are separated as far as Heaven from +earth from Dore's illustrations. They are extremely naive and simple, +and at first are likely to strike a modern as being caricatures rather +than illustrations. The grotesque element in Dante is not minimized to +the slightest extent. It requires much study to appreciate Ruskin's +profound expression that a noble grotesque is one of the most sublime +achievements of art. The illustrations have to be studied in +connection with the text and with a thorough spirit of devotion to +Dante before proper appreciation comes. Great authorities in art and +in the older literature, however, have united in declaring these the +most wonderfully illuminating illustrations of Dante that were ever +made. It is an index of the genius of Botticelli that he should have +achieved so marvellously in a mode of art unfamiliar to him personally +and then quite new in the world. His illustrations were made as copies +for the illustration of a printed book. + +Until Botticelli has been studied faithfully and seriously, most +people are likely to think of him as a painter of what he saw with a +certain poetic charm and a naivete which makes him by contrast +particularly interesting to the modern world. Few realize how much +appreciative students of Botticelli, who are at the same time art +critics, have learned to think of his high seriousness, his lofty +purpose and his marvellous execution in his paintings. It is above all +for his psychology that he has come to be admired in the modern time, +and as our own interest in psychology has deepened, the appreciation +for Botticelli has grown. He was gifted with a profound psychological +insight into character, which he knew how to express with almost +incredible simplicity and directness. Talking of his St. Augustine, +St. Jerome, St. Eligius and St. John, a well-known German critic. +Prof. Steinman, recently said: + +{61} + +[Illustration: BOTTICELLI, ILLUSTRATION FOR DANTE] + + +{62} + + "It would seem that in these four strongly contrasting figures + Botticelli aimed at portraying the four human temperaments in their + separate and distinctive modes of response to the same spiritual + appeal: the fiery enthusiasm of the impulsive St. John, looking + upwards, rapt in wonder; the studious concentration with which St. + Augustine, who here represents the phlegmatic temperament, unmoved, + continues his writing; the nerve-strained longing of St. Jerome, + worn and wasted with many fastings and watchings; and the benignity + of the sanguine St. Eligius, who, gazing before him, raises his hand + in blessing. With consummate skill, Botticelli has distinguished + between the reality of these living figures and the ideal quality of + the celestial vision. And a special artistic interest is given to + this picture, making it a typical instance of the rare versatility + of the painter's genius, by the fact that in the vigorous, massive, + realistic portraiture of the saints, in the fantastic, poetical + delicacy of the angelic choirs, in the stiff, severe traditionalism + of the central figures of the mystery, it shows three separate modes + of imaginative conception, three separate methods in the + manipulation of line and colour, so distinct and individualized that + it would seem almost that they must be the work of three separate + artists." + +A very great painter, who is not often appreciated as he should be +outside of Italy, though in recent years he is much better known, is +Giovanni Bellini, the distinguished Venetian painter. His portrait of +the "Doge Loredano" is now recognized as one of the world's great +portraits, and copies of it are to be seen everywhere. His +masterpieces, however, are his altar pictures, which are noted for +their beauty and devotional quality. His Madonnas particularly are +famous. His well-known painting at Berlin of the "Angels Mourning over +Christ" is probably one of the most humanly touching of mystical +pictures. The "Presentation of the Infant Christ" in the Temple, in +which Mary is shown presenting the child to the High Priest over a +table, while the striking expression of worship on the faces of old +Simeon and Joseph completes the meaning of the picture in wondrous +fashion, is another typical example of Bellini's power to express the +loftiest devotional sentiments. + + + [Illustration: BELLINI, DOGE LOREDANO ] + + +Among those in second rank in this great period of art, one {63} of +the greatest was surely Titian. In any other period he would quite +easily have been the greatest painter of his time. His painting was +done in Venice, and his early training was in glass work and mosaic +work, to which apparently must be attributed his marvellous +development of color in painting. At the age of about fifteen he +entered the studio of Giovanni Bellini, at that time the greatest of +Venetian painters and one of the important contributors to the art of +this period. In this studio a group of young men, including Giorgione, +with whom Titian came to be on terms of intimate friendship, Giovanni +Palma, Lorenzo Lotto and Sebastiano Luciani, all destined to fame, +were brought together. Especially Titian and Giorgione broke away from +the older traditions of painting and became founders in modern art. +All of his long productive life of nearly 100 years, except for very +short visits elsewhere, Titian lived in Venice and did his marvellous +painting there. There are masterpieces by him that are acknowledged by +artists and critics to be among the greatest paintings we have. No one +has been more faithfully studied by art students in all the +generations since his time. Some of his Madonnas are among the most +beautiful in the world and bear comparison even with all but the very +finest of Raphael's. His "Entombment of Christ" in the Louvre is a +surpassing representation of this scene which so often appealed to +artists. The "Assumption" at the Academy in Venice is probably one of +the most visited of pictures in Italy and shows all the best +qualities, though some also of the defects, of the great Venetian. + +Such pictures as the "Presentation of the Blessed Virgin," in the +Vatican at Rome, show how Titian faithfully developed his best powers +until he arrived at the very climax of artistic expression. No more +thoroughly satisfying representations of religious themes were +probably ever made. While he could make wonderful pictures on a large +scale, and his compositions have always been the subject of loving +study, some of his smaller pictures are almost more beautiful than any +he has made, and his series of small Madonnas are only equalled and +very few of them surpassed even by Raphael's treatment of the same +theme. + +As a portrait painter, however, Titian almost excelled his {64} work +as a religious painter. His series of portraits of the Emperor Charles +V are among the world's greatest portraits. His portrayals of Philip +II are thought by some even to surpass those of his father. Titian's +portraits of himself and his daughter are wonderful "counterfeit +presentments" of the real individuals. Indeed, the portraits of his +contemporaries left us by Titian have an eternal interest, and besides +being great works of art they are marvellously illuminating of the +human personalities depicted. They represent not merely a reproduction +of the features of the individual, but preserve for posterity the +character and the very soul. Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael have +surpassed him when they set themselves the same task. Van Dyke is his +equal in some respects, but much less satisfying. Rembrandt and +Velasquez are his peers, but there are those who think that he +combines the best qualities of both these great successors in the same +field to a noteworthy degree. + +Besides his religious pictures and portraits, however, Titian +succeeded in painting some of the greatest representations of ancient +mythological lore that have ever been done. His much-admired picture +of the "Bacchanals" in Madrid and the still more famous "Bacchus and +Ariadne," so often now seen in copies, show how well he could enter +into the spirit of the old Olympian mythology. It was typical of the +Renaissance time in which he lived that he should thus be inspired by +Greek culture and religion. If we did not have from his hands so many +beautiful Christian devotional pictures, which never could have been +painted except by a man who was himself a believer in the religious +scenes and mysteries that he portrays, it would have been almost +impossible to believe, after a study of these pagan pictures, that he +could have retained a devout Christian piety and faith with such a +sympathetic appreciation and an intimate understanding of the +psychology of the old pagan myths. It was this combination, however, +that was perfectly possible to the great minds of the Renaissance +period. The greater they were like Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael, +the deeper was their faith, though the higher their power to portray +phases of religious feeling that might be considered so foreign to +their religious experience as to be quite out of {65} the range of +their sympathetic expression. Smaller men, influenced by Greek +mythology, became merely pagan, but the greater men retained their +faith in its completeness. The smaller men are so much more numerous +that we have the tradition of the Renaissance making men pagan, but +this is not true with regard to the geniuses of the time. + +Titian, as Delacroix said in the article in his _"Dictionnaire des +Beaux Arts,"_ is one of those who came closest to the spirit of +antiquity. The great modern artist and art connoisseur did not +hesitate to declare that nowhere, unless perhaps in such great +monuments of antiquity as the sculptures of the Pantheon, can +antiquity be so well understood as in the pictures of Titian. Yet this +is the painter whom the bishops and ecclesiastics, the monks and +friars and the people of his time, desirous of expressing what was +deepest in their sense of devotion and piety, sought after most +eagerly, because of his wonderful ability to express all the charm of +religious personages and all the power of religious feelings. He has +all the many-sidedness of the Renaissance, yet without any loss of the +mediaeval power to inspire profound Christian feeling. + +A very great school of art of the Renaissance was that which took its +rise in Southern Tuscany and the Romagna, of whom the three best-known +representatives are Piero dei Franceschi, Luca Signorelli and Melozzo +da Forli. Piero's influence on Perugino has already been spoken of. +Berenson declares him "hardly inferior to Giotto and Masaccio in +feeling for tactile values; in communicating values of force he is the +rival of Donatello; he was perhaps the first to use effects of light +for their direct tonic or subduing and soothing qualities; and, +finally judged as an illustrator, it may be questioned whether another +painter has ever presented a world more complete and convincing, has +ever had an ideal more majestic, or ever endowed things with more +heroic significance." + +Piero's two pupils, Melozzo and Signorelli, each of them starting, as +Berenson says, with the heritage Piero left him, yet following the +promptings of his own temperament and the guidance of his own genius, +touched excellence in his own splendid way. Melozzo was the grander +temperament, {66} Signorelli the subtler and deeper mind. Visitors to +Loretto, who see the music-making angels in a cupola there, are likely +to be surprised into an appreciation of the power of the painter to +express something of the witchery of music. Berenson says of them: +[Footnote 6] "Almost they are French Gothic in their witchery, and +they listen to their own playing as if to charm out the most secret +spirit of their instruments. And you can see what a sense Signorelli +had for refined beauty, if, when seated with Guido's 'Aurora,' you +will rest your eyes on a Madonna by him in the same pavilion of the +Rospigliosi Palace." + + [Footnote 6: _Op. cit_, p. 81.] + +One of the very great artists of the Renaissance, who has come into +his own of appreciation in recent years again, is Antonio Allegri, +generally known as Correggio, from the small town near Mantua in which +he was born. He is one of the most surprising figures in the history +of art. So far as we know, he had no teachers and no pupils. He seems +never to have visited any of the cities in which in his time +(1494-1524) so many great pictures might have been seen, nor did he +seek to make the acquaintance of any of his great contemporaries. All +that we know of him was that he had "an uncle who painted, but was no +artist." He influenced the artists of the after-time in Italy almost +more than any of his contemporaries. By some he is placed among the +decadent or "sweet" school of Italian painting, and undoubtedly such +painters as Guido Reni and Carlo Dolci, who were for many centuries +more popular than the greater masters, were deeply influenced by him. +While so negligent of others' achievements in life he was destined to +form a school that attracted more attention from subsequent +generations than almost any of his contemporaries. His pictures +represent a climax of Italian religious art, and his painting of +angels and celestial beings, together with that of Fra Angelico two +generations before, serves to show how wonderfully the Italian +painters of this time were able to visualize spiritual conceptions. + + + [Illustration: CORREGGIO, MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE (LOUVRE)] + + +Grimm, in his "Life of Michelangelo," says of Correggio: "As Parma, +where he (Correggio) painted, lies between Milan, Florence and Venice, +so does Correggio's painting represent a middle term between the +schools of these cities. Greater {67} than all who came after +Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael there are many qualities of his art +in which Correggio excels even these. Unlike the Venetians, he did not +neglect drawing; he embraced the whole of his art and made a distinct +advance." + +Grimm goes as far as to say, "If we could think of streams flowing +together out of the genius of Raphael, Leonardo, Titian and +Michelangelo to form a new spirit, that spirit would be Correggio's. +He has the dreamy smiling sweetness of Leonardo, and to add an +external detail, his fate as to our absolute ignorance of his inner +and outer life; he has the joyous, radiant, uncreated quality of +Raphael with his brief life and its interruption in the very bloom of +it; he has the boldness of Michelangelo, his liking for unprecedented +attitudes and his power to reproduce them in marvellous +foreshortening; he has Titian's soft coloring and the gift to picture +the palpitating naked flesh as if the pulse was beating in it." + +It is one of the world's greatest losses in art that he was cut off in +his prime at the early age of thirty, yet what we have from him shows +the supreme artist, and though we might have had further precious art +treasures, we could scarcely have had a completer revelation of his +genius. + +Leigh Hunt, in his article on him in the "Catholic Encyclopaedia," +emphasizes the far-reaching influence which Correggio's work had over +artists after his time and how deeply the principles of his art +prevailed in painting and sculpture in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries over all Italy and France. + +"Correggio is the most skilful artist since the ancient Greeks in the +art of foreshortening; and, indeed, he was master of every technical +device in painting, being the first to introduce the rules of aerial +perspective. Radiant light floods his pictures and is so delicately +graded that it passes subtly into shade with that play of reflections +among the shadows which gives transparency in every modulation. This +is _chiaroscuro_. Even in Allegri's earliest works it was prominent, +and later he became the acknowledged master of it. His refined feeling +made Correggio paint the nude as though from a vision of ideal beauty; +the sensuous in life he made pure and beautiful; earthly pleasures he +spiritualized, and gave expression of mental beauty, the very +culmination of true art. His angel pictures {68} are a cry of _Sursum +Corda_. The age in which he lived and worked was partly responsible +for this; but his modesty, his retiring disposition, his fondness for +solitude, his ideal homelife, his piety and the fellowship of the +Benedictine monks contributed far more to it." + +A very great painter of Columbus' Century, though he is usually +thought of as of a later period, was Jacopo Robusti, whom we know as +Tintoretto. According to Ridolfi, himself born almost on the date of +Tintoretto's death, the artist was born in 1512, though later dates up +to 1520 have been assumed for him. Like many of the other great +workers of the Renaissance, he too lived to be at least seventy-five +and probably well beyond eighty. The same store of energy that enabled +him to accomplish his work gave him length of days. He was the son of +a dyer, and, as a boy, was fond of drawing, finding the colors used by +his father valuable for practice in painting. While he lived at a time +when many of the great painters of the Renaissance were at work, he +was not deeply influenced by them, but fortunately for himself +developed his own genius. He is famous for his drawing, his power over +which he owed to dissection, drawing from life and from models draped +and lighted in various ways, some of them suspended from the ceiling +so as to get the correct prospective of flying figures. He invented an +ingenious device, a rectangular framework with strings across it +which, held before the eye, taught how to measure the proportions +accurately. While Venetian painters generally are famous for their +coloring, Tintoretto is the master of them all in drawing and one of +the world's greatest artists in Italy. + + [Illustration: GOSSAERT, VIRGIN AND CHILD JESUS (ITALIAN INFLUENCE + OVER FLEMISH)] + +Like every other great worker of the Renaissance, almost without +exception, he had a passion for work and has left us an enormous +amount of finished painting. Some of his paintings, as, for instance, +the "Bacchus and Ariadne," are looked upon as the greatest of their +kind. Some of his great paintings in the palace of the doges at Venice +have been a favorite study of artists ever since his time. Ruskin +considered him one of the greatest painters who ever lived and has +made his name and work familiar to English-speaking peoples. Probably +no one has ever dared to attempt the solution of so many {69} problems +in painting as Tintoretto, and no one has solved them better. He +deeply influenced his own generation and has influenced every +generation since that has had true critical spirit and appreciation +for art. It has been well said of him, and without exaggeration, that +he mastered every detail of his art. Ridolfi tells us his two favorite +subjects of study were the works of Titian and the reliefs of +Michelangelo. He wrote on the wall of his studio these words, _Il +disegno di Michelangelo e il colorito di Titiano_ (the drawing and +composition of Michelangelo and the coloring of Titian). These were +his ambitions. He as nearly accomplished this transcendent purpose as +perhaps it is possible to be done. + +An eminent painter of the Venetian school at this time, who is usually +thought of as belonging to a later period, is Paolo Cagliari, better +known as Veronese. He was twenty-two years of age, however, before +Columbus' Century closed, and as he began his work very early in life +he had received some important commissions before he was twenty-five +years of age. He owes all his training to the great period at least. +His greatest picture, the "Marriage at Cana," was painted practically +within the decade after the close of our period. He was very fond of +huge compositions, and Tintoretto alone outdid him in the conception +of large pictures and the filling of large canvases. Like most of the +painters of the Renaissance, he was a man of tireless energy, as well +as sharing the facility that so many of them possessed; his very large +pictures did not serve to limit the number of his paintings to the +extent that might otherwise be expected. He was a master of decoration +and of the use of the sumptuous color that the Venetians had invented +because of their familiarity with pigments and the making of glass, +and no great decorative painter has equalled him in the effect +produced by this wealth of color. Already the decadence is beginning +and his great paintings lack feeling, and above all exhibit no trace +of religious feeling, though many of them are on religious subjects, +but they are splendid, unexcelled, cold triumphs of composition. + +These great painters of the Renaissance, touched by the humanistic +spirit abroad in the world of their time and with the old Greek ideas +of the place of man as the very centre of {70} the universe, created a +new way of looking at men in their relation to the world around them. +They Hellenized their vision of men and stamped it upon the culture +and civilization of their time. Berenson has suggested in his "The +Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance" that they thus influenced +not only men's way of looking at men, but actually to some degree +transformed men themselves by the mirror they held before them. He +said: [Footnote 7] + + + [Footnote 7: Op. cit, p. 67.] + + + "The way of visualizing, affected by the artists, the humanists and + the ruling classes, could not help becoming universal. Who had the + power to break through this new standard of vision and, out of the + chaos of things, to select shapes more definitely expressive of + reality than those fixed by men of genius? No one had such power. + People had perforce to see things in that way and in no other, to + see only the shapes depicted, to love only the ideals presented. Nor + was this all. Owing to this subtle and most irresistible of all + forces, the unconscious habits of imitation, people soon ended + either by actually resembling the new ideals or, at all events, + earnestly endeavoring to be like them. The result has been that, + after five centuries of constant imitation of a type first presented + by Donatello and Masaccio, we have, as a race, come to be more like + that type than we ever were before. For there is no more curious + truth than the trite statement that nature imitates art. Art teaches + us not only what to see, but what to be." + + + [Illustration: VAN DER WEYDEN, MATER DOLOROSA] + + +{71} + +CHAPTER V + +PAINTING OUTSIDE OF ITALY + +While it is the custom to think of our period, Columbus' Century, as +the time of the Renaissance, owing its inspiration to the rebirth of +Greek ideas into the modern world, it must not be forgotten that quite +apart from this there was a "great wind of the spirit" of art blowing +abroad at this epoch. The Renaissance is thought of as Italian, but +the Teutonic countries exhibit in Columbus' Century a great artistic +development at the beginning quite uninfluenced by the New Learning +that came from the Greek rebirth. Painting, sculpture, architecture +and the arts and crafts, all reached a climax of expression in the +Teutonic countries, especially in the latter half of the fifteenth +century, the evidence for which is to be seen in the monuments +preserved for us particularly in the Low Countries and in Southern +Germany. + +Flemish art above all others reached a high level of perfection at +this time that has scarcely ever or anywhere been surpassed. The work +of the brothers Van Eyck, accomplished just before the opening of +Columbus' Century, paved the way for a great new development of art +and made their invention of painting in oil the favorite medium of +pictorial expression. After such a work as "The Adoration of the +Lamb," at Ghent, no one could doubt either of their genius as artists +or the future of the new mode in painting. Their pupil, Roger Van der +Weyden, did not excel his masters, but carried on worthily the +tradition which they had established, and passed on the torch which +they had lighted to successors whose fame was to be undying. Memling +is indeed a great master in painting, almost never excelled, seldom +equalled and representing a phase of art development quite independent +of the humanistic side of the Renaissance. + +{72} + +The wonderful decorations of the casket of St. Ursula in the Hospital +of St. John at Bruges, done just about the time of the discovery of +America, are not unworthy to be placed beside the greatest art of +Europe from any period. The almost more beautiful "Adoration of the +Magi" in the same place shows a minute finish in detail, a marvellous +power of composition, a charm of expression and a wonderful +application of colors which have not faded during all these four and a +half centuries, which deservedly place it among the world's supreme +artistic triumphs. What Giotto is at Padua in the Arena, and Fra +Angelico in San Marco at Florence, Memling is in the Hospital of St. +John at Bruges. The pictures must be seen in all the glory of their +unfading colors to be properly appreciated or to enable those who are +less familiar with the great work of the Netherlands painters to +understand the encomiums of critics; but even uncolored reproductions +give some idea of the charm of the originals. + +Strange to say, because of the neglect of the biographical details of +their painters' lives by the Teutonic nations, even Memling's name has +not been quite certain until comparatively recent years. Bruges was +one of the great merchant towns of this time, wealthy, populous, busy, +enterprising, ambitious, the home of merchant princes who were as +generous in their patronage of art as the ecclesiastics or nobility of +Italy, or as our own millionaires, though they believed in the +creation of new works of art especially adapted to their surroundings +rather than the collection of those that had an established +reputation. During the first half of the fifteenth century Brabant had +produced the group of famous artists whom we have mentioned, most of +whom worked at some time or other in Bruges. As Weale, himself an +associate of the Royal Academy of Belgium, says in his "Hans Memlinc": +[Footnote 8] "Of none of all the many celebrated men who made this +town their home has Bruges more reason to be proud than of Hans +Memlinc." While his works remained, however, the personal memory of +him was lost, and hence it is only in our time that it has been quite +sure that the initial letter of his name should be "M" and not "H," +though the other form is often used by writers about art, and that the +final letter should probably be "c" and not "g" though in English the +latter terminal has been most frequent. + + [Footnote 8: London: George Bell & Sons, 1907.] + + + [Illustration: QUENTIN MATSYS, LEGEND OF ST. ANN (CENTRE)] + + +{73} + +It was only in 1889 that Father Dussart, S.J., discovered in the +Public Library of St. Omer in a manuscript by the historian, James De +Meyere, an extract from a diary, in which the death of John Memmelinc, +the painter, is placed on the 11th of August, 1494. He was probably +born about 1435, or a little before, so that his accomplishment as a +painter was all in the first half of Columbus' Century. Memling is the +greatest of all these early painters of the Netherlands in his +portraits, and yet there are many religious pictures which are full of +the devotion of the best of the Italians and wonderful in their +composition, in their solution of the technical problems of painting +and their marvellous power of expression which show him to be one of +the great painters of the world. His great picture, which has been +called "Christ the Light of the World," is a triumph in every mode of +the painter's expression. His shrine of St. Ursula, an oblong +tabernacle of carved oak with gabled ends, for which Memling did a +series of miniatures, is one of the most beautiful accomplishments of +this kind in the world. In very contracted panels, Memling has placed +hundreds of beautiful faces and details of architecture, shipping and +water scenes that must be seen to be appreciated. "It has been said +that Van Eyck, even when painting religious subjects, only awakes +earthly ideas, whilst Memling, even when painting earthly scenes, +kindles thoughts of heavenly things. It is easy to see by his +paintings that he was indeed a man humble and pure of heart, who, when +the arts were beginning to abdicate their position as handmaids of the +Church in order to minister to the pleasures of men, preserved his +love for Christian tradition, and in earnest simplicity painted what +he believed and venerated as he conceived and saw it in his +meditations. There is no affectation, no seeking after novelties, no +mixture of pagan ideas in his works." + +Memling's contemporary, Dirk Bouts, deserves scarcely less praise, and +Quentin Matsys is another of the genius painters of the time. The +story of his rise from blacksmith to painter is only a good +illustration, whether legendary or not, of the {74} closeness of the +mechanical arts, those of the goldsmith and the silversmith +particularly, but of all the smiths, to the liberal arts of painting +and sculpture. The divorce of these higher and lower arts from each +other always leads to decadence, not alone in the mechanical, but also +in the liberal arts. The goldsmith or silversmith in the Low +Countries, in Italy, in Nuremberg, easily became a sculptor in the +highest sense of the term, and not infrequently turned his attention +successfully to other arts. It was an ideal condition, showing how +deeply culture had penetrated, and whenever something of it at least +does not exist the liberal arts are sure to be artificial and +borrowed, not native and genuine. + +Memling's successors in the Flemish tradition of painting maintained +their master's distinction, and even when lacking in that genius which +alone enables men to do great work did painting that is far above the +mediocre, and that served to spread the spirit of culture among the +people. Lucas van Leyden, in a short life of less than forty years, +did some beautiful things that shall always keep his memory alive. +Gerard David falls only short of the work of such great contemporaries +as Memling himself. David's pupil, Moestart, nobly continues the +tradition of his master. Michiel Coxcie and others do good work before +the end of Columbus' Century, which, in a country less dowered with +great artists than Flanders, would have secured them places of highest +distinction in the history of national art. + +The generation of Flemish painters after Memling who studied in Italy +represent among them some great artists worthy to be mentioned even +beside their Italian masters, though these are confessedly the great +Renaissance artists. Justus of Ghent is the first of these, an actual +contemporary of Memling and a man who not only learned from but also +in turn deeply influenced the Italians with whom he was brought in +contact. Jan van Mabuse-Gossaert, Bernard van Orley, Blondeel and +Gerard David were touched by the spirit of the Italian Renaissance and +its great painters, yet preserved the native fire of their genius and +displayed national characteristics which have deservedly given them a +place quite apart from the Italian schools. Some of their paintings +are among those the world knows best and values most highly, and they +have gained in prestige in later years as the knowledge and +appreciation of Teutonic art has spread. + + + [Illustration: VAN ORLEY, DR. ZELLE] + + +{75} + +Great as was the distinction and achievement of the Low Countries, at +this time it was not so far superior to Southern Germany as to eclipse +its brilliancy. What Bruges was to the Low Countries, and especially +Flanders as an art capital at the beginning of Columbus' Century, +Nuremberg was to Southern Germany. The city well deserves the name of +Northern Florence, for all the arts flourished luxuriantly and the +monuments attest, even better than any traditions, how much was +accomplished here for art. Her greatest artist in this, very like so +many of his Italian contemporaries, was not limited in his powers of +expression to any one narrow mode, for Albert Duerer was painter, +designer, engraver, but also like Leonardo a mathematician, and like +Michelangelo a writer. Duerer's place as a painter is too well known to +need special description here. He is now acknowledged to be one of the +world's greatest artists, worthy to be mentioned in the same breath +even with his supremely great contemporaries, Raphael, Leonardo, +Titian, Botticelli and Correggio. In recent years he has come to be +more generally known. His pious pictures have a certain Teutonic +literalness added to their mystical quality that gives them +distinction. + +He is one of the great group of cultured intellectual people who made +Nuremberg so famous at this time. While his art has many essential +German characteristics, it is much more than national, though it shows +very well the high standard of excellence that the German painters of +this time had attained. His visits to Italy and the Netherlands +broadened his views, developed his artistic sense, refined his taste +and did much for him, yet the essential German character of his +painting and his absolute individuality as an artist remained. Some of +his Madonnas are quite as charming in their way, though very different +from the Italian, as those of the great Renaissance painters in the +peninsula. His "Adoration of the Magi" will bear comparison with the +masterpieces even of Italy and the Netherlands, and his Madonnas, +though of German type, have a sweetness all their own. In his second +period some of his {76} painting at Venice shows how deeply he was +influenced by the Venetian colorists and yet was never merely an +imitator. + + + [Illustration: DUeRER, TITLE PAGE OF LIFE OF BLESSED VIRGIN + (WOODCUT, 1511)] + + +Duerer did fine work of real artistic quality, not only in painting, +but also in wood engraving, and afterwards in engraving on copper. +Prints from his woodcuts or copperplates still command high prices, +and indeed it is probable that only those of Rembrandt are valued more +highly. He brought these two modes of art to great perfection. He was +a fine craftsman, as well as an artist, and both etching and wood {77} +engraving owe much to his inventive ability and handicraftsmanship. + +As might be expected of this intimate friend of Wilibald Pirkheimer, +he was a scholar as well as an artist, and we have from him three +books, one on the proportions of the human figure, which shows how +carefully he studied the essentials of his art; one on geometry and +one on the art of fortification. Like Leonardo he felt his ability as +an engineer, and like Raphael and Michelangelo was widely interested +not only in every mode of art, but all the intellectual interests of +his time. No more than the Italians he was not a narrow specialist in +any sense of the word, and nothing shows so clearly as his career and +achievements how much the spirit of genius was abroad at this time in +Europe everywhere, lifting men up to heights of accomplishment that +had scarcely been possible before. + +Besides Duerer, the great painters of South Germany were the Holbeins, +father and son. Hans Holbein the elder first came into prominence at +Augsburg as a partner to his brother Sigmund, a painter, none of whose +works have come down to us. His early works are nearly all on the +Passion and show the influence of his studies of the Passion Plays, so +frequently given all over South Germany at this time. Early in the +sixteenth century he came under Italian influence and painted some +pictures that, while naive and primitive, exhibit evidence of high +artistic ability. His fame was eclipsed entirely by his son, Hans +Holbein, known as the younger, though there is no doubt at all of the +influence exerted by Holbein the father on the art of his period, and +his sketchbooks are precious material for the biography and customs of +his contemporaries. + +His son left Augsburg about 1515 to become an illustrator of books at +Basel. The first patron of the younger Holbein is said to have been +Erasmus, for whom, shortly after his arrival, he illustrated an +edition of the _"Encomium Moriae"_ by pen-and-ink sketches, which are +now in the Museum at Basel. After some five years of work as an +illustrator, Hans began to attract attention by his portrait drawings. +Some of these, as J. A. Crowe in his article on Holbein in the ninth +edition of {78} the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" says, are "finished +with German delicacy and with a power and subtlety of hand seldom +rivalled in any school." That he could paint with almost equal +distinction his portrait of Boniface Amerbach, painted in 1519, +furnishes ample evidence, for it is "acknowledged to be one of the +most complete examples of smooth and transparent handling that Holbein +ever executed" (Crowe). + +Art was gradually being pushed out in the German countries, however, +and above all there was no opportunity for religious painting, which +used to form the chief source of income and of inspiration, as well as +the principal resource of painters before this, as it continued to be +in the Latin countries. Besides, the religious revolution had come to +occupy men's minds with disputes about religious subjects, and +interest in art further declined. How well Holbein could have painted +religious pictures is very well illustrated by the famous altar-piece +of the Burgomaster Meyer, with his wives and children, in prayer +before the Blessed Virgin. Few Madonnas are more impressive than this, +but now the beautiful Mother of God was no longer an object of +reverence. Holbein could get no further commissions of this kind, and +was pitifully reduced, it is said, even to the painting of escutcheons +for a living. Erasmus, whose portrait he had so often made in many +different positions, compassionated his poverty and lack of occupation +and sent him with a note of introduction to Sir Thomas More. More +appreciated him at once, had him paint his own portrait and those of +his family and engaged the interest of the nobility in him. + + + [Illustration: CLOUET, FRANCOIS, ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA, WIFE OF + CHARLES IX (LOUVRE) ] + + +Holbein executed portraits of many of the prominent nobility of +England, and after two happy years returned to Basel, taking to +Erasmus the sketch of More's family, which is still to be seen in the +gallery of that city, being indeed one of the precious treasures of +it. With the money made in London, Holbein purchased a house and made +the charming portraits of his wife and children for it, but the next +year witnessed the fury of the Iconoclasts, who, in their so-called +reforming zeal, destroyed in one day almost all the religious pictures +at Basel. It is not surprising to find him two years later back in +England, where the merchants of the Steel Yard gave him a series {79} +of commissions to paint portraits and he was employed also by the +Court to provide the famous series of portraits of prospective Queens +for Henry VIII. Some of these make it very dear that he could do +portraits absolutely without flattery. {80} The series of drawings by +him at Windsor form one of the most precious treasures of the English +Crown. He was busy painting a picture of Henry VIII, "Confirming the +Privileges of the Barber Surgeons," still to be seen in their building +in London, when he sickened of the plague and died in 1543. Crowe +says, "Had he lived his last years in Germany he would not have +changed the current which decided the fate of painting in that +country; he would but have shared the fate of Duerer and others, who +merely prolonged the agony of art amidst the troubles of the +Reformation." + +Everywhere a great spirit entered into art and produced a series of +artists with an originality and a power of expression that has given +them a place in the history of art. The first important development of +the modern period in France came among the illuminators of books and +is well illustrated by the work of Jean Fouquet of Tours, the Court +Painter of Louis XI. I have mentioned some of the books illuminated by +him in the chapter on Books and Prints, and a copy of one of his +illuminations from the famous Livy manuscript will be found there. He +did a series of larger works which entitles him to the name of +painter, and his portraits are worthy of the time. Bourdischon and +Perreal, the first a painter of historical subjects and portraits in +the reign of Louis XI, and the second, attached to the army of Charles +VIII in his Italian expedition, painted many battle scenes. These +first French artists were little influenced by Italian art, and then +come a group, Jean Cousin and the Clouets, especially Francois, who is +often called Janet, who, though under Italian influence to some +extent, yet showed, especially taken in connection with the sculptors +Colombe and Jean Goujon, that France possessed artists capable of +forming a native school. Clouet's portrait of Elizabeth of Austria, +wife of Charles IX, is worthy of the great portrait painters of this +time. + +{81} + +[Illustration: NAVARRETE, ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL (ESCURIAL)] + + +In Spain, as in France, there was a development of art in Columbus' +Century that owes nothing to external influence and shows the +originality of the time. As early as 1454 one Sanchez de Castro, "the +Morning Star" of Andalusia, painted a _retablo_ in the Cathedral of +Seville and a fresco of St. Julian in the Church of the same city. He +was still painting in 1516, so {82} that he must have enjoyed as long +a life as many of the great Italian artists of the time. Juan de +Borgona was working at Toledo in 1495 at a series of paintings which +recall Perugino, yet have an originality of their own. It is not +surprising, then, to find Luis de Morales, born about the beginning of +the sixteenth century, called "the Divine" and hailed as the first +Spaniard whose genius and good fortune have obtained him a place among +the great painters of Europe. One of the master painters of this time +is Juan Fernandez Navarrete, most of whose pictures were painted after +the close of our century, but who had passed some twenty-five years of +his life in it and been subjected to its influence and received his +education from it. He is extremely interesting, because his nickname +_el Mudo_, the Dumb, recalls the fact that he was one of the +unfortunate deaf who, for lack of hearing, cannot speak, and yet +succeeded in developing a great mode of expression for himself. Such +opportunities for the defective are supposed to be quite modern, but +as a matter of fact, in spite of difficulties and obstacles, genius +usually finds a mode of expression. Like Italy, Spain has its schools +of painting, and the school of Andalusia came into prominence under +Luis de Vargas, "the best painter of the Sevillan line from Sanchez de +Castro to Velasquez" (Sterling, "The Artists of Spain"). His earliest +known work was completed just about the end of Columbus' Century. It +is the altar-piece of the Chapel of the Nativity in the Cathedral at +Seville, so often admired. Vargas is famous for his portraits, "for +the grandeur and simplicity of his design, his correct drawing and +fresh coloring and the great purity and grace in his female heads." +[Footnote 9] Pablo de Cespedes, born toward the end of our period, +doing his work afterwards, is very well known. + + [Footnote 9: Painting, Spanish and French, Gerard W. Smith, among + the Art Handbooks.] + +{83} + + [Illustration: CESPEDES, THE LAST SUPPER (CATHEDRAL, CORDOVA)] + +In the School of Valentia, Juan de Juanes is famous for his religious +pictures. His vigor and variety of invention are wonderful and his +coloring is splendid. His numerous faces of Christ were unrivalled, +the best perhaps being that with the Sacred Cup. His pencil was wholly +dedicated to religion, and, {84} according to the tradition, he +habitually communicated and confessed before taking a sacred picture. +He had two daughters, Dorothea and Marguerita, who are famous in the +history of Spanish art, typical, illustrious women of the Spanish +Renaissance. + + + [Illustration: BERTOLDO DI GIOVANNI, BATTLE (BARGELLO)] + + +{85} + + +CHAPTER VI + +SCULPTURE IN ITALY + +Columbus' Century was destined to see the creation of some of the +finest sculpture since the time of the Greeks. Probably in no +department of art does this period stand out as so surely surpassing +any other period of modern times, or indeed any time except the +Periclean, as in its power to furnish great examples of plastic art. +Triumphs of sculpture were accomplished in every medium--stone, +bronze, terra-cotta, wood and the precious metals. The eve of the +century saw the making of some very great sculptures, which portended +the wonderful development that was to come. It was in 1447 that +Ghiberti completed the second pair of doors for the Baptistery at +Florence, which have been the admiration of the world ever since. +After this it was easy to understand that there was no development of +artistic expression in plastic work that might not be expected. All +the expectations possible were realized in the succeeding hundred +years. + +Columbus' Century was ushered in with as great a triumph in sculpture +and by the work of a master as great in his maturity, which came just +then, as Fra Angelico was in painting. Fra Angelico, however, had been +but little touched by the Renaissance spirit of classicism, while +Donatello, the familiar name for Donato di Niccolo di Betti Pardi, +whom the classic impulse was to carry ahead of all contemporary +artists and indeed to make a model and a subject of study for all +succeeding students of sculpture, was born even before the close of +the fourteenth century, but like so many of the distinguished artists +of the Renaissance period, lived a long life of persistent work and +great achievement, and the most important part of that work came after +1450. + +His greatest triumph, the monument to Gatamelata, was set up in Padua +in 1453. There are two equestrian statues {86} that are conceded by +all the world to be supreme works of art, and copies of which are to +be found in many museums throughout our civilization. One of these is +Donatello's "Gatamelata" and the other the "Colleoni," by Verrocchio, +who was a disciple of Donatello. The earlier sculptor had seen some of +the equestrian monuments of the Roman times and had wondered whether +he could not imitate them, or at least accomplish the same purpose. +Undaunted by the difficulties as men seem ever to have been at this +time, he faced not only the problem of making the model that would +express his ideas, but of putting it into the bronze form that would +make it imperishable. He had to master all the problems of equine +anatomy, but above all he had to make himself familiar with the +details of the technique of the founders' art so as to master the +process of casting so large a work absolutely in the round. +Practically he had to discover a great many of these technical points +for himself, and he had to invent methods of accomplishing his +purpose. To most men at any time this would have seemed an almost +impossible achievement. They would have been discouraged from +attempting it. There were many simpler forms of his art that he might +practise, and not take on his shoulders all the technics of the bronze +foundry, but Donatello undisturbedly went on his way and accomplished +his purpose. + +There is nothing more interesting and at the same time nothing more +characteristic of this period of discovery and a achievement--indeed, +it is a worthy prelude to Columbus' Century--than the fact that the +very first equestrian statue, made in the modern times when all the +difficulties, material as well as artistic, were heaped up before the +sculptor, is one of the greatest monuments of that kind in the world's +history. Only the "Colleoni," made a half a century later, surpasses, +if indeed that is to be conceded, yet this was the very first attempt. +This is not so surprising, however, if one realizes the significance +of other work of this time. Within a half a century of the invention +of oil painting some of the greatest masterpieces of that mode came +into existence; within less than half a century of the invention of +printing, some of the most beautiful books that have ever been made +were printed. There has been a {87} tendency in our time, as a result +of much discussion of evolution, to think that such triumphs of +achievement come only after long evolution and as the climax of a +prolonged process of development. On the contrary genius at any time +in the world's history takes hold of a mode of expression for the +first time and secures a triumph in it that will be the envy and +admiration of all succeeding generations. + + + [Illustration: ROSSELINO, ANTONIO, MADONNA] + + +While Donatello's success in this huge equestrian work might be +expected to stamp his genius as much more fitted for monumental +sculpture than any other mode of his favorite art, there is scarcely +any phase of sculpture which he has not illustrated beautifully. The +very spirit of youth is caught and fixed in imperishable bronze in his +"St. George." There is probably no more successful attempt at the +artistic rendering of the "little poor man of God" than Donatello's +sculptured expression of him in his statue of "St. Francis" in the +Church of St. Antony of Padua. + +It was Donatello who, according to M. Muntz, the German authority on +the history of sculpture, recovered the child from antiquity and gave +it back to art. Some of his baby faces are among the most beautiful +ever made, and yet without any of the sickly sentimentality that would +make them pall. Their bodies are alive, their draperies cling or float +as they touch their wearers, or are caught up by the air. Only his +great contemporary, Luca della Robbia, has rivalled him in this +regard, and it is doubtful whether even he has excelled him, though +the world as a rule knows della Robbia for his baby faces and thinks +of Donatello as having accomplished more monumental work. Donatello's +"Bambino Gesu," infinitely human, and his boyish "St. John the +Baptist," precociously serious, in the Church of the Vanchetoni, +Florence, where they are seldom seen unless particularly looked for, +are charming examples of Donatello's power of expression in child +faces. + +In Donatello, as in so many of these artists of Columbus' Century, the +man is almost more interesting than his work. While at Padua doing the +"Gatamelata," Vasari tells us that his works were held to be miracles, +and they were praised so much that finally the master resolved +characteristically to return to Florence. He naively remarked one day, +"If I stayed {88} here any longer I should forget all I have ever +known through being so much praised. I shall willingly return home, +where I get censured continually; for such censure gives occasion for +study and brings as a consequence greater glory." His end was very +sad. He, whose hands had accomplished so much, was stricken with +paralysis and yet lived on for years. His pupils, with whom the great +master was a favorite, took care of him, and even to the end took his +suggestions, worked out his ideas and brought their work to him for +criticism. Galileo, a century later unable to see after having seen +farther into the heavens than any other; Beethoven, unable to hear +after having written some of the most divinely beautiful music ever +conceived, may be compared to Donatello, with his useless skilful +hands. + +Even this sad fate did not sour him, however, but only made him +tenderer to those who needed help. He had no near relatives, and some +distant connections, hearing that his end was near, and as Hope Rea +tells in his "Donatello" (London: George Bell & Sons), to which I am +indebted for most of the details of this sketch, reminded him of their +existence and begged him to leave them a small property which he +possessed near Prato. "I cannot consent to that, relations mine," he +answered them, "because I wish, as indeed seems to me to be +reasonable, to leave it to the peasant who has labored so long upon +it, and not to you who have never done anything in connection with it +and indeed wish for it as some recompense for your visit to me. Go, I +give you my blessing." The epigram, with which old Giorgio Vasari ends +his all too short appreciation of the great master, seems the most +fitting close that could be made to any notice of his life, "O lo +spirito di Donato opera nel Buonarroto, o quello del Buonarroto +anticipo di operare in Donato" ("Either the spirit of Donatello +wrought again in Buonarotti, or the genius of Buonarotti had +pre-existence in Donatello.") + +Among the great artists, in the highest sense of that word, and one of +the great sculptors of this period must be reckoned Luca della Robbia, +with whose name there are naturally associated the names of others of +this family, and particularly Andrea. Luca was chosen as one of the +sculptors to execute {89} portions of the decorative work of the Duomo +at Florence. He did one of the famous _cantorias_, the two sculptured +marble singing galleries which are unfortunately no longer in the +Duomo itself, but in the museum at the Eastern end of the great +church. This was finished in 1438, when Luca, whose years run +coincident with the century, was thirty-eight years of age. Among the +artists from whom the Florentine officials might have chosen for the +execution of these singing galleries was also Donatello, who actually +modelled the other of the pair, and Ghiberti, since famous for the +great doors of the Baptistery. It is sufficient to say that when Luca +della Robbia's singing gallery was finished, the Florentines realized +very well that no mistake had been made in giving him the execution of +it, even though he had such great rivals. + +This is almost the only great work in marble that we have from Luca +della Robbia. He was a scientist, as well as an artist, and he was +very much interested in artistic glazed work. He devoted himself to +making this as perfect as possible and succeeded in adding this as a +wonderful new medium to sculpture. Like so many other of the artists, +painters and sculptors of this time, he was originally a goldsmith, +but became ambitious of doing higher things than those usually +committed to the craftsmen. Vasari tells us that he carved all day and +drew all night, keeping his feet warm through the long winter evenings +by covering them up in a basketful of carpenter shavings. He worked at +the glazing of terra-cotta with the idea at first apparently of +preserving his clay models by baking them. + +Working in this new medium he brought to the execution of the models +for it all his genius as a sculptor and succeeded in accomplishing +some of the most beautiful results. He developed the medium so as to +secure charming color, creamy white figures that stand out from a +cloudy blue background, with a glaze that is perfect and joints that +are almost invisible. It is only in comparatively recent years that a +due meed of appreciation has been accorded to della Robbia's work once +more, though his contemporaries valued him at his true worth, but in +compensation for the neglect his pieces are now among the most costly +works of art whenever they turn up at public {90} sales. While +devoting himself to the new artistic modes, he accepted commissions in +both bronze and marble for the embellishment of Florence, and the +bronze doors of the sacristy of the Duomo are his, as well as certain +reliefs in marble on the Campanile. + +"In fact," as Hope Rea says in his "Tuscan and Venetian Artists," +[Footnote 10] "the total amount of work produced by him in the middle +twenty years of his life shows him to have been one of those strenuous +laborers in art, the like of whom have hardly been seen before or +since the years of the Renaissance." Luca never married, but he gave +every opportunity to his nephew, Andrea della Robbia, who was an apt +pupil, but who confined himself practically entirely to the new style +invented by his uncle. In spite of what might be expected, the young +man, with the advantage of his uncle's training and the possession of +his uncle's secrets, did not do better work, though the amount of it +that he turned out made the della Robbia terra-cotta an important part +of Florentine art. In his hands, and those of his son Giovanni, what +had been as pure an art as any form of sculpture came to be merely a +decorative craft. Andrea's many beautiful pieces, however, and +especially the well-known "Bambine," the swaddled infant medallions of +the Hospital of the Innocents, have been very popular at all times and +have entered into renewed popularity in our day. The great series of +incidents of St. Francis' life, executed by Andrea for the Franciscan +monastery of La Verna, represents the climax of his art work. He was +thoroughly sympathetic with the early Franciscan traditions and he +expressed the details of them beautifully. + + [Footnote 10: "The Tuscan and Venetian Artists: Their Thought and + Work," by Hope Rea. London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1904.] + + + [Illustration: DONATELLO. GATAMELATA] + + +One of the greatest of the sculptors of the Renaissance, who must +indeed be reckoned among the greatest artists of all times, is +Leonardo da Vinci's teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio. He was one of the +wonderful Florentine artists whose genius was recognized by Lorenzo +the Magnificent and was given the opportunity to express his artistic +conceptions worthily by this liberal patron of the arts and +literature. Three of his great {91} works, the tomb of Piero and +Giovanni de Medici in the Church of San Lorenzo; his "David," which is +in the National Museum, the Bargello in Florence and the "Child +Holding a Dolphin," now in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio, were +all three executed for Lorenzo. These are all in bronze, but with the +versatility of the men of his time, Verrocchio could express himself +in other media just as charmingly. Michel has said of the terra-cotta +"Madonna" made for the Hospital of Santa Maria Novella that in it +"supreme distinction of thought is combined with the most scrupulous +observation of nature." The famous marble bust of a "Flower Girl" is +in the Bargello. A silver _basso-rilievo_, the "Beheading of John the +Baptist," is now in the Cathedral Museum at Florence. + +His two masterpieces are "The Incredulity of St. Thomas" and the +statue of Colleoni, the celebrated _condottiere_ who had commanded the +Venetian troops. Both of these are in bronze. Little as the deep +feeling of the scene between Christ and the doubting Thomas might seem +apt to lend itself to expression in sculpture, Verrocchio has +succeeded in making an extremely beautiful and touching work of art. +The Divine Humanity, urging Thomas the doubter to put his hand into +His pierced side, is a wonderful realization of one of the most +pathetic of incidents. The triumph of Verrocchio's genius, however, is +the "Colleoni." It is probably the greatest equestrian statue ever +made. His contemporaries declared that Leonardo da Vinci's figure of +the Duke of Milan on horseback surpassed it. Sometimes doubt is +expressed as to whether Donatello's "Gatamelata" does not rival it. +That question must be left for great artists and sculptors to decide, +and in the meantime there is no doubt at all that Verrocchio was one +of the greatest sculptors who ever lived. Burckhardt declared that "we +have a right to call this equestrian statue the finest in the world." + +Unfortunately Verrocchio was seized with a chill while casting it and +died at the early age of forty-three, or we might have had some still +more wonderful work from him. He is a typical many-sided genius of the +Renaissance, though in sculpture particularly only two, perhaps three, +of his greatest contemporaries ever equalled him; it is even doubtful +if they {92} have excelled his "Colleoni," yet everything that he ever +did was an advance on his previous accomplishment. His disciple, +Leopardi, who finished the casting of the "Colleoni," is another great +sculptor of the time who, in any other period, would be looked upon as +a supreme artist. He has shone with reflected glory, besides, for his +part in the "Colleoni," though it is very doubtful whether any but +very small credit is due to him for the completion of this work which +Verrocchio had left in such a state that but little was required to +make it what it had been ever since, one of the world's greatest +monuments of sculpture. + +A great sculptor of the Renaissance, whose career presents many other +features of interest, however, which have made him famous, is +Benvenuto Cellini. He was born in 1500 and, like many of the artists +and most of the sculptors of the time, began his life work as an +apprentice to a goldsmith. After a troubled early manhood in Rome and +other Italian cities, during which he executed some medals that are +among the best of their kind ever made, and various ornamental pieces +in the precious metals, he was for a time at the court of Francis I. +Afterwards he worked in Florence, lending his genius to the +fortification of the city during the war with Siena. While his career +is entirely exceptional among the great artists of the time it is +often taken for a type of the restless, rather unmoral than immoral, +character that was supposed to be produced by the paganizing influence +of the New Learning. The true types of Columbus' Century among the +artists, however, are such men as Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo, +deeply intent on their work, anxious only for the opportunity to +accomplish high artistic purpose and without any of that restless +unmorality that is at least supposed to have characterized Cellini. It +would be much nearer the truth to point to the lives of such men as +Fra Angelico or Fra Bartolommeo, happy in their monastery homes, or +Correggio, who spent his time so peacefully with the religious of the +little town in which he lived, than to appeal to Benvenuto's chequered +stormy career as typical of the Renaissance. + +Cellini's autobiography, as great a work of imaginative art, very +probably, as any that he ever executed in plastic materials, has +attracted as much attention in literature as his great {93} sculptures +have in art. His name, then, has become familiar to many who know +nothing about the intimate personal careers of the great artists of +the time and who will in all good faith continue to draw their +conclusions as to the character of the men of the Renaissance from +Cellini's rather boastful proclamation of his successful vices, though +this exactly represents the exception which proves the rule to be the +opposite. In spite of his forbidding picture of himself he had moments +of intense religious feeling and highest inspiration. Anyone who has +seen his famous "Christ" in marble in the Escurial will not be likely +to think that he was entirely lacking in deep religious feeling. His +famous bronze group of "Perseus holding the Head of Medusa," to which +deservedly the Florentines have given a distinguished place in front +of the old ducal palace at Florence, is one of the masterpieces of +modern sculpture. W. M. Rossetti spoke of it in his article in the +"Encyclopaedia Britannica" as "a work full of the fire of genius and +the grandeur of a terrible beauty. One of the most typical and +unforgettable monuments of the Italian Renaissance." His story of the +casting of this great monument shows the difficulties under which the +sculptors of the time labored, and yet how triumphantly they overcame +technical obstacles and made great works of art. + +While so great as a sculptor in monumental work, Cellini never thought +art objects of small size beneath his attention, and like Raphael, +willing to make the cartoons for the tapestries of the Sistine Chapel +and composing great pictorial scenes as their subjects, so Cellini, +with a true Renaissance artistic spirit, modelled beautifully any and +every form of work in metal. He modelled flagons, bells and even rings +and jewels, designed coins and medals for the Papal mint and for the +Medici at Florence. It has been said that everything minted under his +direction attained the highest excellence. His work in _alto-rilievo_ +was as fine as that in _basso-rilievo_. All over Europe there are +well-authenticated specimens of smaller pieces from his hands, a bell +in the Rothschild collection, a gold salt-cellar in Vienna, a shield +elaborately wrought in Windsor Castle and even beautifully chased +armor, such as he made for Charles IX of Sweden, which may be seen at +Stockholm. + +{94} + +Of course, for any proper estimation of the Italian sculpture of this +period, the work of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo must bulk very +large. They have been treated in separate chapters, and there is room +here only to say that, while unfortunately we have almost none of +Leonardo's sculpture, we have from his own great artistically critical +generation traditions of magnificent accomplishment. As for +Michelangelo, his own generation admired him only too much, and the +almost inevitable imitation of his genius brought on decadence in +plastic art much sooner than it would otherwise have come. His faults +were imitated without any of the genius in power of expression that +condones them in the great originals. If Michelangelo's sculpture had +been the only contribution of this period to plastic art, that would +have been sufficient to place it high among the periods of greatest +productivity in this department of art. As it is, there were men who +preceded Michelangelo whose genius is unquestioned and whose +achievements have been recognized by the world ever since. + +The roll of sculptors of the century worthily closes with the name of +John of Bologna, who was born at Douai in Flanders, but passed all his +life in Italy, and it is hard to know whether to group him with the +Italian or extra-Italian sculptors. Most of his great work was done +after the end of our century, but as he was probably more than +twenty-five years of age when the century closed, and received all his +training and inspiration from the men of our time, he deserves a place +here. John, who owes his name of Bologna to the fact that one of his +greatest works, the bronze "Neptune," was prepared for the fountain of +Bologna, was often called by his contemporaries _Il Fiammingo_, in +reference to the place of his birth. Probably no sculptor of his time +has been more popular all down the centuries than he, and there are +very few with any claim to education and culture who do not know his +wonderful figure of "Mercury," with winged feet borne aloft upon the +breezes blowing out of the mouth of Aeolus, the god of the winds. +There has probably never been a more masterly expression of light, +easy, graceful movements in statuary than this. It is for his power to +express movement {95} within the limitations of plastic art that John +is famous. His "Rape of the Sabines" in the Bargello in Florence is +declared "to have come nearer to expressing swift-flashing motion and +airy lightness than has ever been accomplished before or since." He +lacked the faults of exaggeration of the later Renaissance and had +many of its best qualities. + + + [Illustration: BENEDETTO ROVEZZANO, CHIMNEY PIECE] + + +The sculptured work on and in the Certosa at Pavia belongs mainly to +Columbus' period. It remains one of the great architectural and +sculptural monuments of the world. It has its defects, which are +mainly due to over-luxuriousness of decoration and failure to make the +decoration and the structure itself harmonize, but it remains a +beautiful example of the art of the time. It has continued to be ever +since a place of pilgrimage for art lovers, and it will doubtless +continue to be so for as long as this present phase of our +civilization lasts. It contains some most effective work, and while +not all of its sculpture is conceived in the true spirit of what +belongs to plastic art, there is much of it that has never been +surpassed except by supremely great sculptors, the men who are looked +upon as the world's geniuses in this department. When the Certosa is +compared with some of the churches which in the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries were thought to be the highest expressions of +artistic excellence, the taste and the ability of the sculptors and +architects of the Renaissance become manifest. + +Perhaps nothing brings out in greater relief the accomplishment of the +sculptors of this period than the deep decadence of the art in the +succeeding century. The only name that stands out with any prominence +during the seventeenth century is that of Bernini, a man of undoubted +talent, who, in a better period of art, might have been a sculptor of +the first rank. Much of his monumental work, however, is thoroughly +inartistic and has been declared "a series of perfect models of what +is worst in plastic art." It is still more illuminating to learn that +this work was looked upon in his time with the loftiest admiration. No +sculptor in any period had quite so much fulsome praise. The +eighteenth century sank, if possible, still lower in all that +pertained to true sculpture, and sculptors often of great technical +skill occupied themselves in making such {96} trivialities as statues +covered with filmy veils, through which forms and features could be +seen, and other tricks of art. It was not until Canova came at the end +of the eighteenth century that there was any gleam of hope for +sculpture, and even this was eclipsed to some extent by the classic +formalism which came in with it. + + +{97} + +CHAPTER VII + +SCULPTURE AND MINOR ARTS AND CRAFTS OUTSIDE OF ITALY + +While Italy excelled in sculpture at this time, as indeed in every +department of art, the other countries of Europe practically all +enjoyed a magnificent period of development in plastic art, not a +little of it thoroughly national in character and some of the most +precious of it quite apart from Italian influence. Besides, there was +a marvellous accomplishment in the subsidiary arts and artistic crafts +well deserving of mention which confirms the place of this period +among the greatest of productive eras. A very noteworthy development +of sculpture took place in the Netherlands, where in the midst of the +rising democracies and the commercial prosperity there was a great +outburst of artistic genius. Wealthy patrons had the good taste to +recognize artistic genius and encourage it. There has never been a +period or country when tradesmen proved more discriminatingly +beneficent. It would be indeed surprising if the country that produced +the Van Eycks and the first great evolution of oil painting with the +work of Van der Weyden, Memling, Quentin Matsys, Gerard David and so +many others on canvas, should not have given us sculpture worthy of +this fine artistic development. + +We do not, as a rule, know the names of the individual sculptors in +the Netherlands, because apparently they looked upon themselves as +artist artisans, whose duty it was to do their work faithfully and +thoroughly, looking for no reward of fame and no special recognition +beyond their own consciousness of having done good work. Their +sculptures are to be seen in many places, in the cathedrals, the town +halls and the other beautiful buildings erected at this time. Louvain, +Brussels and many of the other towns of what is now Belgium {98} +particularly must have had many artistic workers in stone who well +deserved the name of sculptors. They executed not only beautifully +decorative work, but also full-length statues, busts, medallions in +high and low relief, and plastic ornaments of all kinds. The high +quality of their accomplishment can scarcely be disputed, and yet the +lack of their names has often left the impression that there were no +great sculptors at this time; the fine sculpture that has come down to +us is, however, an emphatic contradiction of any such notion. + +Some of the work done in the humble medium of wood is particularly +interesting. The charmingly artistic wood-carving of the consecration +of St. Eloi in the Church of Notre Dame at Bruges is a striking +example. The choir seats of the Church at Louvain are quite as worthy +of high praise, and the wood-carvings in the choir at Harlem so often +admired come from this same period. Perhaps one of the best examples +of the wood-carving of the time is the pulpit of the Cathedral at +Leyden, which was made in this century. + +The tombs of Mary of Burgundy and of Charles the Bold in the Church of +Notre Dame, Bruges, still further emphasize the sculptural capacity of +these generations, though, from the rarity of large masterpieces, +there were apparently but few opportunities to display it on a +monumental scale. These monuments, especially the older one, are +supremely great works of art. A comparison of them is very +illuminating for the history of sculpture in our period. Though +constructed scarcely half a century apart, they are executed under the +influence of the two typical but very different art impulses of this +century. The tomb of Mary, made by Peter Beckere of Brussels in 1502, +is mediaeval and Gothic in spirit. That of Charles, made by order of +Philip II just before 1560, is a distinctly Renaissance work. The +later is much more modern and obvious in the meaning of all its +symbolism, but one need not be an artist to see how much more +genuinely artistic is the earlier tomb. At first glance one seems +almost a replica of the other, except, of course, for the figure of +the deceased and the subjects of the decorations of the sarcophaguses, +but it takes but little study to discover what a descent there is in +the art quality of the Renaissance work. Nowhere can one see the {99} +value of the old and the new nor compare Gothic and Renaissance so +easily as here. + + + [Illustration: PULPIT, LEYDEN] + + +Sculpture developed very wonderfully in Germany during the first half +of Columbus' Century. The commercial prosperity of the time, the +development of industries and the increase of trade caused an inflow +of wealth into many of the cities of Southern Germany particularly, +and not a little of this wealth found its way through the generosity +of donors into the decoration of their churches. The people's faith +was deep and full. Reform had not yet come to disturb it. Germany +devoted itself especially to sculptured decoration in wood. An immense +number of carved altars, pulpits, choir screens, stalls, tabernacles +and other church fittings of very great elaborateness and usually fine +artistic quality were produced. One of the first of the great German +wood-carvers was Joerg Syrlin, who executed the famous choir stalls of +Ulm cathedral, so richly decorated and ornamented with statuettes and +canopies. His son of the same name did the great pulpit in the same +cathedral and was given the commission for the elaborate stalls in +Blaubeuren church. These were finished within a year of the discovery +of America. At Nuremberg wood-carving also reached a high degree of +excellence, and Veit Stoss of Nuremberg, though notorious for his +escapades, was looked upon as the most skilful of artists for church +woodwork. He was invited to Cracow to do the high altar, the +tabernacle and the stalls of the Frauenkirchen. His masterpiece is the +great wooden panel nearly six feet square, carved toward the end of +the fifteenth century, with an immense number of scenes from Bible +history, which is now among the treasures of the Nuremberg town hall. + +Albrecht Duerer himself with Renaissance versatility took up sculpture +and did not despise even the humble medium of wood. He was a clever +wood-carver and executed a tabernacle with an exquisitely carved +relief of Christ on the Cross between His mother and St. John, which +still may be seen in the chapel of the monastery at Landau. The +British Museum possesses a number of miniature reliefs in boxwood +which were also made by Duerer, though he early abandoned wood-carving +for art work in materials that might be expected {100} to be more +enduring. The influence of the wood-carving of this period can be +noted in the work of the sculptors of the time, even after they +abandoned it for stone and bronze. {101} Adam Kraft's great Schreyer +monument in St. Sebald's Church at Nuremberg, for instance, shows very +clearly the influence of wood-carving. There is no doubt, however, +about his high place among the sculptors, even of this glorious +period, in the art. + + + [Illustration: DUeRER, ST. JOHN BAPTIST PREACHING + (BAS-RELIEF IN CARVED WOOD)] + + +The Vischer family for three generations executed a series of very +great monuments in bronze, especially during the second half of +Columbus' Century. The genius of the family was Peter Vischer of the +second generation, who was admitted as a master sculptor into the +sculptors' guild of Nuremberg in 1489. Perhaps the most interesting +thing about his work is his absolute mastery of the technique of his +art. Few men have ever succeeded in casting in bronze to such good +effect. After having finished the magnificent tomb of Archbishop +Ernest in Magdeburg Cathedral, in which some traces of Gothic +influence still linger, Vischer obtained the opportunity for his +masterpiece in the beautiful canopy for the shrine of St. Sebald at +Nuremberg, a veritable triumph of plastic art. Modern, critical +appreciation of it has very well corroborated contemporary admiration. +Its details are a never-ending source of interest and study. Some of +the statuettes of saints attached to the slender columns of the canopy +are among the most charming examples of their kind that we have. They +have grace and dignity, as well as great expressiveness. Near the base +there is a small, evidently portrait, figure of a rather stout, +bearded man wearing a large leathern apron and holding some of the +sculptor's tools with which he usually worked that is considered to be +a figure of Peter himself. It is a marvel of clever realism. + +The story of the execution of this monumental masterpiece is of itself +a lesson in the art work of the time. Peter was assisted by his sons, +and they worked at it almost continuously for more than ten years, +between 1508 and 1519. It was often extremely difficult for them to +secure money enough for their work from the authorities who had agreed +to pay, though stingily enough, yet they devoted themselves to it as +whole-heartedly as if it was a munificently rewarded work. The smaller +figures are executed with marvellous attention to detail, and every +feature of the work, the graceful scroll {102} foliage so abundantly +used, the dragons and even the grotesques, all the details which crowd +every possible part of the canopy, were executed evidently without the +slightest regard for the time and labor which were required for them +and with the good workman's delight in his work. + +It has sometimes been said that these Teutonic sculptors of Nuremberg +were mere workers in bronze who reproduced in that material the ideas +and drawings of others. As pointed out by Cecil Headlam in his little +book on "The Bronze Founders of Nuremberg," [Footnote 11] "The +evidence of our eyes, which enable us to trace the development of +their style, would be enough to refute that opinion even if we were +without the documentary evidence which shows that father and sons +alike were patient and painstaking draughtsmen as well as craftsmen +all their lives." There is no doubt at all that they adopted and +adapted many ideas from the great Italian sculptors of their own and +the preceding time. They were deeply influenced by Sansovino, +Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, but they were not mere imitators and +they were not plagiarists in any sense of the word. To quote Mr. +Headlam again (page 131): + + [Footnote 11: "The Bronze Founders of Nuremberg: Peter Vischer and + His Family," by Cecil Headlam, B. A., formerly Demi of Magdalen + College, Oxford. London: George Bell & Sons, 1906.] + + "They could apply the lessons they had learnt from their careful + study of the Italian Masters, and apply them with successful + originality. It is in the energy which lives in the King Arthur, the + simple yet vigorous composition and execution of bas-reliefs, such + as the Healing of the Blind Man of St. Sebald's tomb, or the Tucher + Memorial, with their wholly admirable treatment of lines and planes; + it is in the tender and spiritual feeling infused into the greatest + of their bronze portraits that the unanswerable vindication lies of + an imitation proved not too slavish and of a study that has not + deadened but inspired." + +Other cities in Southern Germany, as Augsburg and Innsbrueck, and at +least one city in Northern Germany, Luebeck, are in possession of +bronze sculptures which show how thoroughly alive was the spirit of +plastic art all over Germany at this time. + + + [Illustration: KING ARTHUR (INNSBRUCK)] + + +Innsbrueck possesses a series of bronze statues, all of them {103} +executed in the first half of the sixteenth century, which has always +attracted the attention of the world artists ever since. There are +twenty-eight colossal bronze figures around the tomb of the Emperor +Maximilian which stands in the centre of the nave of the Cathedral. +They are designed to represent the heroes of the olden time and one of +them, usually looked upon as the finest, is an ideal statue of King +Arthur of the Briton legends, famous for the nobility of the face and +pose. He is represented in the plate armor of the early fifteenth +century. The statue of Theodoric is also considered to be not only a +very fine example of the work of the period, but also one of the +world's great bronze statues. The difficulties encountered {104} in +the accomplishment of the casting of the bronze for these were so +great that the Emperor invited Peter Vischer from Nuremberg to +superintend at least this portion of the work and it is probable that +his influence was felt also on the modeling. The designs are usually +attributed to local artists at Innsbruck, however, of whose names we +are not sure. In nothing are these older periods so different from +ours as in the utter neglect of artists to make any effort to secure +their personal fame. + + + [Illustration: HENRY VIII ON FIELD OF CLOTH OF GOLD + (FROM THE BAS-RELIEFS OF THE HOTEL BOURG HERALDE, ROUEN)] + + +In France even before the time of the Renaissance, or at least before +the effect of Greek ideas was felt, there was a magnificent +development of sculpture, an inheritance from the older period of the +thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries which had left such +magnificent monuments as the tombs in St. Denis, Le Beau Dieu at +Amiens and the statues in the porch of the cathedral at Chartres. The +first of these French Gothic sculptors of Columbus' Century is +Colombe, trained in Flanders, who founded a school of sculpture at +Tours. He {105} executed the tomb of Margaret of Austria and her +husband Duke Philibert of Savoy in the Marble Church of Brou. Tours +became a great centre of art in the latter half of the fifteenth +century. Its name, the town of spires, indicates that there had always +been aspirations after effect in their ecclesiastical architecture and +this reached a culmination in statuary at this time. With Colombe his +nephews worked while Jean Juste and his son collaborated in the poetic +tomb built in honor of the son and daughter of Charles VIII in the +Cathedral of Tours. Here also they erected the famous tomb of Louis +XII and Anne of Bretagne, which has since been carried to St. Denis. +The Justes had a power of putting touching human qualities into marble +that has always given a special interest to their work. Jean Fouchet +probably made at this time the lovely tomb of Agnes Sorel at Loches +which has been so famous and has helped to make Loches a favorite +pilgrimage place ever since. + +French sculpture touched by the Renaissance reached a further triumph +of artistic development in the first half of the sixteenth century. +Two names particularly stand out, those of Jean Goujon and Germain +Pilon. Though the first signs of that affectation and mannerism which +developed as the Renaissance progressed are to be already noted in +their styles, they combined great technical skill with refinement in +modelling. Undoubtedly the greatest of the French sculptors of the +time was Jean Goujon, whose most pleasing work is the marble group of +Diana reclining beside a stag, which exhibits a power beyond that of +any except the greatest Italian sculptors. He executed a series of +sculptures for the older part of the Louvre which beautifully +harmonizes with the architecture. His reliefs for the Fountain of the +Innocents are one of the best known of his works and have a charm all +their own. + +The other great sculptor, Germain Pilon, trained under the influence +of the Renaissance, did his best work just after the close of +Columbus' Century. His group of the Three Graces bearing on their +heads an urn containing the heart of Henry II, executed for Catherine +de Medici, has been deservedly very much praised. Other men, Maitre +Ponce and Barthelemy Prieur, did work that has attracted much +attention about this same time. A fine portrait effigy of a recumbent +figure in full {106} armor of the duke of Montmorency, which has +always attracted the attention of those of critical artistic taste and +is one of the treasures of the Louvre, is the work of Prieur. + + + [Illustration: GOUJON, JEAN, JEWEL CABINET ] + + +The story of subsequent decadence is as striking in France as in other +countries. No sculpture of any significance appeared during the +seventeenth century, though some of the artists of the time exhibited +great technical skill. Indeed it was not until the coming of Hudon, at +the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, +that there is any relief from the story of mediocrity or worse, and +{107} in his time the plastic arts had reached a very low ebb. Modern +French sculpture is the result of the movement begun by Hudon, but it +is separated from the Renaissance by nearly two centuries of +debasement. + +A very interesting and valuable development of the arts and crafts +that came in the Netherlands at this time was in the execution of art +tapestries. This is the period when weaving of all kinds came to its +highest perfection all over the world. The fifteenth and sixteenth +century Oriental rugs command the highest prices and are among the +most beautiful examples of carpet weaving that we have. In the +Netherlands and in France tapestry reached its highest perfection and +the examples executed at this time are now the precious treasures of +governmental museums and similar public institutions almost without +exception and probably will not change hands again because they are +looked upon as too valuable for educational purposes and the uplifting +of popular taste for public authorities ever to part with them. In the +Netherlands particularly, tapestry-making reached a climax of +perfection. After Michelangelo had been asked to decorate the ceiling +of the Sistine Chapel, Raphael was requested to do a series of +cartoons for the tapestries to be hung around the walls of it, which +were to be executed in Flanders. After their completion they were the +admiration of Rome, and we have many expressions of praise for them +from the great men of the time whose critical ability in all matters +relating to art cannot be doubted. + +Vasari has an enthusiastic tribute, which even discounting his +well-known tendency to praise overmuch under certain circumstances, +still serves to show how thoroughly satisfied this period of great art +was with these masterpieces. He said: + + "One is astonished at the sight of this series. The execution is + marvellous. One can hardly imagine how it was possible, with simple + threads, to procure such delicacy in the hair and beards and to + express the suppleness of flesh. It is a work more Godlike than + human; the waters, the animals and the habitations are so perfectly + represented that they appear painted with the brush, not woven." + + + [Illustration: ARMOR (FIFTEENTH CENTURY MUSEUM OF ARTILLERY, PARIS)] + + +The tapestries were first shown the day after Christmas, {108} 1519, +in the Sistine Chapel for which they had been designed. Some of the +greatest of the Renaissance scholars and artists and literary men were +present on the occasion. It was the custom at that time to send as +Ambassadors to Rome from foreign countries, distinguished scholars and +amateurs. Many of these were present. All were enthusiastic in their +admiration. Rumor said that they were quite unable to express all that +they felt for these new works of art. Everyone present, one of the +guests said in a letter to his sovereign, was speechless at the sight +of these hangings and it is the unanimous opinion that nothing more +beautiful exists in the universe. Another of those present wrote: + +{109} + + "After the Christmas celebrations were over, the Pope exposed in his + chapel seven tapestries (the eighth not being finished) executed in + the West (in Flanders). They were considered by every one the most + beautiful specimens of the weaver's art ever executed. And this in + spite of the celebrity attained by other tapestries--those in the + antechamber of Pope Julius II, those made for the Marchese of Mantua + after the cartoons of Mantegna, and those made for the King of + Naples. They were designed by Raphael of Urbino, an excellent + painter, who received from the Pope 100 ducats for each cartoon. + They contain much gold, silver and silk, and the weaving cost 1,500 + ducats apiece--a total of 16,000 ducats ($160,000) for the set--as + the Pope himself says, though rumor would put the cost at 20,000 + golden ducats." + +Even this account gives evidence that it was not because of their +rarity, but on account of their unique quality that the Sistine +tapestries were so much admired. As a matter of fact, most of the +ruling court families of Italy ordered tapestries for themselves that +have since become famous and most of these were made in France and in +the Netherlands. + +There is absolutely no doubt left now that this is the period when the +best tapestries ever made were woven. George Leland Hunter in his +"Tapestries, Their Origin, History and Renaissance" [Footnote 12] says +that the Golden Age of tapestries was the Gothic Renaissance +Transition--the last half of the fifteenth century and the first half +of the sixteenth century--the hundred years during which Renaissance +tapestries began and Gothic tapestries ceased to be woven, while many +of the greatest tapestries were of mixed style like the story of the +Virgin at Rheims. There are sets woven at various times during this +period which are among the greatest tapestry treasures of the world. +The largest of all these sets is the story of St. Remi in the church +of the same name at Rheims--sixteen feet high with a combined width of +165 feet. When exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1900, one of them, +wrong side out in order to display the richness and solidity of the +ancient unfaded colors, attracted the attention of amateurs from all +over the world. The story of St. Etienne in nine pieces at the Cluny +Museum {110} at Paris was presented to the Cathedral of Auxerre in +1502. + + [Footnote 12: John Lane Co., New York, 1912. pp. 33.] + +As a matter of fact there was scarcely a cathedral or monastery in +France at this time that did not come into the possession of beautiful +tapestries that are now very precious treasures. During recent years +the value of such tapestries have increased very much and our +millionaires have been willing to spend almost fabulous sums in order +to get possession of them. We have had the opportunity here in America +through the munificence of the late Mr. Pierpont Morgan to see some of +them in the Metropolitan Museum and have learned to realize that the +praise of them is well deserved. Mr. Hunter says that "the most famous +tapestries in the world are the Renaissance tapestries, though the +only distinction in most cases between the Gothic tapestries of the +end of the fifteenth and the Renaissance tapestries at the beginning +of the sixteenth, is that in one, whatever architecture or +ornamentation or decoration is used has Gothic motives, while the +models for these same details in the later tapestries is drawn from +the Renaissance." The Brussels tapestries of the early sixteenth +century are particularly beautiful and are the despair of the modern +tapestry makers. Other Flemish cities, however, Arras, Tournai, +Bruges, Lille, Antwerp became famous for their tapestries and Delft, +in Holland, was a worthy rival. The art seems to require too much +patience for our modern artisans to compete with their brethren of the +old time, but doubtless with the rise and appreciation of artistic +handicraftsmanship and the demand for charming decoration of homes and +public buildings regardless of cost, we may look confidently for a +development even in this line. + +The other phases of the arts and crafts also developed very +wonderfully outside of Italy as well as in the peninsula. Beautiful +vessels for altar use, chalices, candlesticks, crucifixes and the like +were made, and indeed this is the supreme period of their manufacture. +Some of the chalices of this time were made by distinguished sculptors +who felt that they could not devote themselves to more suitable art +work than this for Church purposes. Under the inspiration of deep +religious feeling some even of the smaller pieces are among the +world's {111} great works of art. Benvenuto Cellino made morses, +chalices and crucifixes that are famous. Many of these were executed +for patrons outside of Italy. His well-known crucifix in the Escurial +near Madrid, made for Philip II, is a typical example. Processional +crosses lent themselves to decorative effect very well, and some of +them from this time are indeed very beautiful works of art. The same +application of artistic craftsmanship was to be noted with regard to +nearly everything meant for the service of the Church or for use in +municipal building for the decoration of municipal property. The +well-known iron well railing executed, it is said, by Quentin Matsys +(or Massys), when the artist was but a blacksmith and had not yet +taken up painting, is a typical sample of the combination of the +beautiful and useful which characterizes so much of the work of this +time and carries away every point of admiration. + + + [Illustration: SCENT BOX (CHASED GOLD, FRENCH, FIFTEENTH CENTURY)] + + +There was scarcely any form of decorative work that did not receive +high artistic development at this time nearly everywhere throughout +Europe. In recent years enamels have attracted much attention, and the +recent presentation of the Barwell collection to the British Museum +brought the Limoges work into prominence again. The London +_Illustrated News_ reproduced a series of Limoges enamels in the +Barwell collection that are marvellous in color and artistic +excellence. {112} The Courtois, the younger of whom, Jean, died in +1586, are probably the greatest artistic craftsmen in this mode. +Pierre Courtois (or Courteys) made just about the end of our century +the largest enamels which ever came out of Limoges with life-size +figures of the Virtues. Pierre Reymond (Raymond or Rexmont), who was +the Mayor of Limoges in 1567, did some work that attracted attention +as early as 1532. The stream of artistic influence at this time can be +studied very well in his work, for he was influenced by the Germans in +his early maturity, later came under the influence of the Italian +school, though he had been a pupil of Nardon Penicaud, who himself +came of a famous French family of fifteenth and sixteenth century +artists, whose work always possesses distinction. Some of the plaques +and salvers of this time in enamel are among the most precious +treasures of national collections throughout the world. + + + [Illustration: SEATS (fifteenth CENTURY MINIATURES)] + + +Some of the locks and keys and latches and hinges for doors made +during this period are among the most beautiful examples of iron work +in the world. The Cluny Museum in Paris possesses a number of these as +well as other iron work of Columbus' Century which show that the men +of this time had the true artistic spirit in their work. The armorers +of the period made probably the most beautiful armor that has ever +been made, and the finest pieces in collections, especially {113} in +national armories, are nearly all from this time. Scent boxes and +jewel boxes of various kinds in the precious or semi-precious metals +were always executed with fine artistic taste, or at least some of the +best examples of these in the world come from this time. Clocks were +made with a perfection of mechanism and at the same time an ornateness +that give them a place in the art world instead of merely in the +industrial domain. The furniture of the time is noted for its artistic +quality, and some of the smaller pieces made by well-known sculptors +or under their direction were works of art that now are thought of as +world treasures for all time. + + + [Illustration: CLOCK (FIFTEENTH CENTURY, PARIS)] + + +{114} + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CENTURY + + +Just as the introduction of Greek ideas gave a new impetus to +literature and art and sculpture and painting, so it did also, and +perhaps to an even greater degree, to architecture. The effect of +classic thought had begun to be felt before 1450. It was noted first +in ecclesiastical architecture and its influence can be traced +throughout Europe. Brunelleschi, who built the great dome of the +Cathedral in Florence, died in 1444, but not until he had shown the +world of his time how beautiful such a conception was and how it could +be accomplished. He had gone to Rome and studied the Pantheon, as well +as all the other great buildings which the Romans had left in that +city, and during his studies, becoming enamored of the subject, he +mastered every detail of their style and became familiar with every +form of Roman art. He first completed the Church of San Lorenzo in +Florence and then was entrusted with a larger work, the completion of +the Santo Spirito, which Arnolfo and Giotto had left unfinished and +apparently, according to the practice of the Middle Ages, without even +a drawing to show how they intended to complete it. They would have +given it a Gothic roof. Brunelleschi conceived the dome and then, in +the course of his studies and designing, definitely initiated the +development of Renaissance architecture. + +The first important influence in the architecture of our century is +Leon Battista Alberti, who was led to the study of architecture +because of his interest in classical literature and his desire to +restore a classical style in building as well as in letters. In order +to accomplish this, he wrote a text-book of architecture, _"De re +aedificatoria."_ Besides the theory of classic architecture, he also +devoted himself to its practical exemplification, and there are some +models of his work that are well {115} known. The charming little +classic Church of San Francesco at Rimini and the much more important +Church of San Andrea at Mantua were erected under his direction. The +latter Church is noted, according to Fergusson in his "History of +Modern Architecture," [Footnote 13] for "the beauty of its +proportions, the extreme elegance of every part and the +appropriateness of the modes in which classical details are used +without the least violence or straining." All the details of the +classical architecture as applied to Churches are to be found in this +in their simplest and most sincere form. They were to become so +familiar afterwards as to represent a standard of Church architecture. + + [Footnote 13: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1899.] + + + [Illustration: ALBERTI, SAN FRANCESCO (RIMINI)] + + + [Illustration: MICHELANGELO, ST. PETER's (ROME)] + + +The great development of this new style came under {116} Bramante of +Urbino, who was born the year that Brunelleschi died. His most +remarkable monument in ecclesiastical architecture is the Church at +Lodi. Alberti's work had been mainly {117} the restoration of the +Basilican form. Bramante emphasized the domical or Byzantine type. +After these two the change from the mediaeval to the modern style of +architecture may be said to have been completed and under the most +favorable auspices. The dome of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which +Fergusson pronounces "both externally and internally one of the most +pleasing specimens of its class found anywhere," is another monument +to Bramante's genius. Bramante is most famous, however, for his bold +design and magnificent foundations for St Peter's at Rome. He did not +live to complete this, but had his original plan been carried out, the +finished building would have been in many ways more satisfactory than +it is and would have exhibited many less serious architectural faults. + + +An excellent type of the ornate architecture of the Renaissance period +is the facade of the famous Certosa near Pavia. The designs for it +were prepared by Borgognone, a distinguished Milanese artist of that +time, one of whose pictures will be found reproduced in the chapter on +Secondary Italian Painters. He was much more essentially a painter +than an architect, and this the Certosa demonstrates. Many an +architect, with no ambition outside of his own department, would be +eminently well pleased, however, to have succeeded in producing so +beautiful and harmonious a design as may be seen in the facade of the +great Church of the Italian Carthusians. + +The architectural monument of the century is St. Peter's at Rome, +designed originally by Bramante, whose design was developed and +harmonized very beautifully by Sangallo, but only after Raphael had +carried on Bramante's work for some six years and Baldassare Peruzzi +had succeeded him for an equal term, though without accomplishing +much. The defects so often noted come from this succession of +architects. Sangallo's design has been preserved for us and shows what +a magnificent conception he had. Michelangelo's dome might well have +taken its place in this design without any of the overpowering effect +that it has on the structure as completed. In spite of all the +criticism that may be made of St. Peter's, because, as the editor of +the recent edition of Fergusson's "History of Architecture" (Dodd, +Mead & Co., 1899) says, "the {118} big pulls away from the beautiful +and there must be a compromise," it is one of the most wonderful of +churches and one of the most marvellous structures that ever came from +the hand of man. Fergusson himself is severe in criticism, and yet he +says, "in spite of all its faults of detail, the interior of St. +Peter's approaches more nearly to the sublime in architectural effect +than any other which the hand of man has executed." + +In England Renaissance architecture, that is the influence of the +classical, had very little, indeed almost no effect during Columbus' +Century. The genius, as well as the taste of the builders and +architects of the time, however, is well illustrated by the +development of Gothic architecture which took place in this period. +The Italians of the Renaissance decided that the interior of buildings +should be decorated by paintings. The English builders were yet in the +period in which they considered that the interior decoration, just as +the exterior decoration, should flow naturally from the construction +of the building. These two styles are very well illustrated in two +famous structures which were built within the same generation, though +separated by half the width of the European continent, and which are +triumphs of the respective styles of architecture. These are the +Sistine Chapel at Rome and King's College Chapel of Cambridge, the +plans of which, because of the inevitable contrast they suggest and +the supreme effectiveness of both of them, deserve study. Each has a +beauty of its own that advocates of either style cannot help but +admire, and both give magnificent testimony to the power of the men of +this time to express themselves nobly and beautifully in structural +work under the influence of religious ideas. + +In Spain the architecture of the time is noteworthy, though it is +mainly of ecclesiastical character. All of the buildings erected by +Ferdinand and Isabella are in the Gothic style, and the famous Church +of St. John of the Kings at Toledo is as Gothic as the chapel of Henry +VII at Westminster. The Cathedral at Salamanca commenced in 1513 and +that of Segovia in 1525 are both thoroughly Gothic. These buildings +are so well known that the accomplishment of this period in +architecture need scarcely be emphasized. The first distinctively +Renaissance work in Spain is the Cathedral at {119} Granada, which, +though Gothic in certain ways, contains Renaissance suggestions and +modifications of form that have been adopted for many modern Churches. + + + [Illustration: ALBERTI, RUCELLAI PALACE (FLORENCE)] + + +The secular architecture of this period made as great progress as the +ecclesiastical architecture, and it is of even greater interest +because nearly all the ideas in common use among architects for +monumental public buildings or ambitious private structures in our +time are adopted and adapted from the architecture of Columbus' +Century. As in ecclesiastical {120} architecture, the Renaissance +begins in Florence. The erection of two of the magnificent palaces of +the city, still well known and admired, the Riccardi, formerly called +the Medicean, and the Pitti, were the initial steps. The Riccardi was +designed by Michelozzi and has a splendid facade 500 feet in length +and 90 feet in height. The Pitti is 490 feet in length, three stories +high in the centre, each story 40 feet in height, with immense windows +24 feet apart from centre to centre. They show very well what the +architects of this time could accomplish on this grand scale. Both +were completed just about the beginning of Columbus' Century. After +this, the Florentine buildings became more ornate, and yet with the +ornament properly adapted to the structure and producing an effect of +beauty that has deservedly won modern admiration and study. Probably +the two most famous buildings of the first half of Columbus' Century +are the Rucellai and the Guadagni palaces of Florence, the facades of +which have been much admired. The Rucellai Palace was designed by +Alberti, the Guadagni by Bramante. As their ideas dominated +ecclesiastical architecture, so now they were to dominate secular +architecture. + +After Florence comes Venice, and here the wealth of the city, its +Oriental affiliations and the light and air of its surroundings gave +rise to a series of marvellously beautiful ornate Renaissance +buildings, famous throughout the world and especially known to +English-speaking people through Ruskin's "Stones of Venice." The most +famous of these is the Palazzo Vendramini, which may be permitted to +speak for itself. One of the most beautiful buildings in Venice is the +Library of St. Mark, situated exactly opposite the Doge's Palace and +built by Sansovino. Scarcely less beautiful is San Micheli's +masterpiece, the Palace of the Grimani, which is now the post-office. +These buildings are familiar to all. To know them is to admire them, +and the architects of every progressive structural period since have +devoted much study to them. + + + [Illustration: COURT DOGE'S PALACE (VENICE)] + + +A very interesting development of Renaissance architecture took place +in the little city of Vicenza, the birthplace of Palladio and the +scene of some of his best work. Palladio was not so perfect in his +achievements, as some of his admirers have suggested, but he applied +most of the Renaissance ideas to {121} architecture very successfully, +and his influence upon the after-time, as some of the illustrations +which we have selected from his work will show, has been felt at all +times and nearly everywhere. The Thiene Palace, which has been very +much praised {122} and is generally quoted as one of his most +successful designs, has been criticized rather severely by Fergusson, +and yet its effectiveness cannot be gainsaid. + +The Chiericate Palace, another one of Palladio's designs reckoned +among his best, has the objection that it is open and weak at the +angles and solid in the centre and the centre is full above and weak +below, and yet, after mentioning these faults, Fergusson says that +there is "an exquisite proportion of parts which redeems this facade +and an undefinable elegance of detail which disarms the critic of +Palladio's work so that in spite of the worst possible arrangements +they still leave a pleasing impression on the mind of the spectator." +This is, perhaps, damning by faint praise, but it is praise indeed +from Fergusson. Many others have been most enthusiastic about this and +other of Palladio's works, and one has only to look around at our +modern ambitious structures to realize how much of influence Palladio +still has. + +In Genoa there are some very beautiful buildings of this time, though +as their material, despite the name "the city of palaces," was mainly +rubble masonry covered with stucco, the windows without dressings, the +intention being to paint the architectural mouldings on the stucco and +also to paint frescoes between them, the unsatisfactoriness of much of +the architecture for modern study can be realized. In spite of these +limitations, Galeazzo Alessi (1500 to 1572) succeeded in making some +very beautiful buildings. Probably the most admired example is the +building now known as the Municipalata in the Strada Nuova, formerly +known as the Tursi-Doria Palace. + +Vignola (1507 to 1573) occupies the place in Rome that Palladio holds +in Vicenza towards the end of Columbus' Century. A charming example of +his construction is the Villa of Pope Julius near Rome, the facade of +which is certainly his and which, without being ambitious, represents +his power to express simplicity and dignity even in a summer house. + +His great work is the Palace of Caprarola, built some thirty miles +outside of Rome for the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. The building is +all the more interesting because it has furnished ideas for some of +the larger public buildings of our time and contains more than a +suggestion for some recent architectural plans of somewhat startling +character for New York City. + +{123} + + + [Illustration: PALLADIO, BARBARANO PALACE (VICENZA)] + + +{124} + +The plan of the Palace of Caprarola is a pentagon enclosing a circular +court, each of the five sides measures 130 feet and the court is 65 +feet in diameter, while the three stories are each about 30 feet in +height. It is usually considered one of the finest palaces in Italy. +In spite of the difficulty of the task and the singularly unfavorable +nature of pentagonal form for architectural effect externally and +commodious arrangements internally, the architect succeeded admirably. +As the picture of it shows very well, the approach was managed +beautifully and the effect of castellation very well secured. + +The story of architecture, secular as well as religious, outside of +Italy is quite as interesting as that in Italy itself at this time. +Everywhere throughout Europe beautiful buildings were erected in +charming taste and with fine effectiveness. This is particularly true +as regards the municipal buildings of various kinds, the town halls, +the hospitals, the asylums for foundling children, and all the other +structures due to civic munificence at this time. Just as in regard to +painting and sculpture, the Netherlands was the seat of some extremely +beautiful artistic work of great originality and perfection of detail +during this period. There is scarcely an important town of Belgium, +and even a number of those that have become quite unimportant in our +time, which does not present some architectural monument of cardinal +importance in the history of architecture. While Italy is much better +known, Belgium deserves, and in recent years has very properly +received, devoted attention from students and amateurs in all the +arts, and not least has its architecture come into its due meed of +praise and appreciation. + + + [Illustration: HOTEL DE VILLE, LOUVAIN] + + +One of the most beautiful architectural monuments of the later +fifteenth century is the town hall of Louvain. Indeed, it is one of +the most beautiful architectural monuments of its kind in the world. +Schayes, in his "History of Architecture," says, "Not only is the +Hotel de Ville of Louvain the most remarkable municipal edifice in +Belgium, but one may seek in vain its equal in Europe." Its architect, +whose name was unknown until well on in the nineteenth century, was +only a master mason of this capital of Brabant when he was entrusted +{125} with the task of making for the burghers of one of the most +important towns of the time a town hall such as they would consider +worthy of them, but above all surpassing those erected by any of the +neighboring towns. He succeeded eminently in fulfilling the +commission, and fortunately the town hall remains almost in its +original condition as a monument to the wonderful artistic workmanship +of the time. + + + [Illustration: ALCALA, PARANIMFO (STATE APARTMENT OF UNIVERSITY)] + + +George Wharton James, in his book on "Some Old Flemish Towns," says, +"The exquisite Hotel de Ville reminds one of the caskets or +reliquaries which Kings and Queens used to give to be placed upon the +high altars of Cathedrals. There is the same simplicity of design, the +same beauty of line, the {126} rectangle with gables, emphasized by a +graceful tower at each pinnacle, and another at each angle, the whole +finished with a crown spire tipped with a golden fleche." The +decorations are most delicate, reminding one of the lace work of the +country, but it seems almost incredible that this effect should have +been produced so marvellously in stone. + + + [Illustration: ALCALA, ARCHIEPISCOPAL PALACE COURT] + + +In spite of the multitude of decorations, the structure does not +strike one, as do so many of the buildings of the seventeenth century, +as over-decorated, but somehow all the charming sculptured ornament +seems as {127} suitably in place here as it is in the exquisite +patterns of the lace of the town. + +The beautiful Hotel de Ville of Brussels is almost as interesting as +that at Louvain and represents the early part of the Columbus' +Century. At the opposite side of the Grande Place is what is now known +as the Maison du Roi, formerly known as the Broodhuis or House of +Bread, which is scarcely less interesting, though very much restored, +than the Hotel de Ville. The one is a monument of the Gothic of the +middle of the fifteenth century, the other shows the influence of the +Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. The whole of the Grand +Place gives an excellent idea of the devotion of these municipalities +to civic beauty and monumental construction and represents an +anticipation of ideas that are usually considered modern but that were +very thoroughly developed and applied in making the "City Beautiful" +in Columbus' Century. Were there space, much might be said here about +the magnificent town halls of Bruges, Ghent and other cities of the +Netherlands. + +The architecture of Spain, practically always connected with the names +of ecclesiastics and usually built for ecclesiastical or educational +or charitable purposes, shows very well the profound intellectual +genius of the people for whom Columbus' discovery was made and who +were beginning to reap the material benefits of his extension of the +Spanish realms in the Western continent. One of the most important of +the buildings of the time is that of the University of Alcala, under +the direction of the celebrated Cardinal Ximenes, or Cisneros. The +rebuilding commenced about 1510 and continued nearly to the end of +Columbus' Century. It is an extremely beautiful building. The +Archiepiscopal Palace is quite equal to it, and its court has been +very highly praised. Fergusson has spoken highly of the bracket +capitals in the upper story of this court, of which we give a sketch, +and he thinks this invention of the Spanish architect a distinctly new +and valuable idea in architecture which unfortunately has not been +commonly adopted. + +Some of the internal arrangements have been very much admired, and the +Paranimfo, a state apartment in the University, deserves attention not +only for its intrinsic beauty, but {128} from its being so essentially +Spanish in style. The roof is of richly-carved woodwork in panels in a +style borrowed from the Moors. Fergusson says that there is another +and more beautiful specimen of this sort of work in the chapel of the +University above the Cenotaph of the great Cardinal. + + + [Illustration: CLOISTER, (LUPIANA, SPAIN)] + + +Elsewhere in Spain some of these beautiful courts and interiors were +ornamented very highly as became a Southern {129} people, and yet with +an effectiveness and taste that have caused them to be very much +admired in after-times. In the Monastery of Lupiana there is a +cloistered court similar in design to that at Alcala, but even +grander, four stories in height, each gallery being lighter than the +one below it and so arranged as to give the appearance of sufficient +strength, combined with the lightness and elegance peculiarly +appropriate to domestic architecture, especially when employed +internally as it is here. Fergusson, from whom the opinion just +expressed is quoted, thinks that the Spanish architects were far more +happy than their Italian brethren in this regard and mainly because +they borrowed ideas from their own Spanish art rather than kept too +insistently to classic ideas. + +Two royal buildings in Spain, the Palace of Charles V at Granada and +the Alcazar of Toledo, deserve to be mentioned. The Alcazar was begun +before the end of Columbus' Century, but not finished until later. The +sketch of it here presented gives an excellent idea of how simple and +yet properly ornate for monumental purposes the Spanish architects +were making their buildings at this time. The truly Spanish features +of solidity below, with the increasing richness and openness above, is +very effective and is all the more interesting because historians of +architecture declare that this effect was little understood outside of +the Spanish peninsula. + +The upper portion of the famous tower of the Giralda at Seville, which +has always attracted so much attention for its beauty, was being built +just at the close of the century. We in modern America have given it +the tribute of sincerest flattery by imitating it in the tower of +Madison Square Garden. It is interesting to realize that the Spaniards +put a figure of Faith at the summit of the beautiful tower, pointing +strikingly heavenward. Is it significant that we in our time have +found nothing better to put there than the outworn symbol of a statue +to Diana? + +French secular architecture at this time made some fine achievements +which are very well known and have been very much admired. The Louvre +in Paris is a succession of monuments to the architectural spirit of +the French for centuries. I think that there is very general agreement +that the portion {130} of this building erected in Columbus' Century +is not only the most interesting, but the most beautiful. The Pavilion +de I'Horloge is quite charming in its effectiveness. The ornamental +portions are said to have been sculptured from designs furnished by +Jean Goujon. This is enough of itself to make us sure that they would +be beautiful, but they were besides very artistically designed to +heighten the effect of the architecture. + + + [Illustration: ALCAZAR (TOLEDO, EXTERNAL FACADE)] + + +The best-known contributions to architecture by the French in this +time are their famous chateaux. The typical example of these is the +Chateau of Chambord, commenced by Francis I immediately after his +return from his Spanish captivity. While the design is classical in +detail, it is eminently French in character, and it has been a +favorite study of architects ever since. Its repute shows how well +architects at this time {131} accomplished their purpose of making an +impressively beautiful building. At this same time the Chateau of +Madrid, situated in the Bois de Boulogne at Paris and which was +unfortunately destroyed during the Revolution, was built, and the +sketches that are left to us show us its beauty and effectiveness +secured through comparative simplicity. All the famous chateaux of +France were either built or received their most famous additions under +the influence of the new spirit that came into architecture under the +influence of Francis I. Those of Bury and Blois and Amboise and +Chenonceaux were products of this period. The staircase and the wing +in the centre of which it stands at Blois are among the most admired, +or at least the most frequently drawn, of the works of this age. + +All the other departments of architecture, besides the ecclesiastical +and municipal, were affected by the enterprising spirit which entered +into architecture at this time. Leonardo da Vinci offered to build +fortifications under any and all circumstances, the more difficult the +better, and succeeded in doing some excellent work. According to +tradition he laid firm foundations, even under water, for certain +French fortifications, and these still remain. In bridge building +particularly this period did some excellent work. In the chapter on +Social Work and Workers will be found an illustration of the bridge +built across the Avon at Stratford by Sir Hugh Clopton about the time +of the discovery of America, which shows that they could build +beautifully as well as enduringly at this time. There are many private +houses in the towns of Europe erected at this time, some of them even +by families without any pretension to wealth or nobility, which +illustrate very well how sincere and thorough was their domestic +architecture, how beautiful because of its honest straightforwardness +and how eminently enduring. Fra Giocondo, who edited the Aldine +edition of Vitruvius in 1511 and who edited Caesar in 1513, introduced +illustrations into these works, and particularly a plan of Caesar's +bridge across the Rhine. He used his classical knowledge to good +purpose, however, for in the service of the king of France he probably +built two of the noble bridges that still span the Seine. These were +finished early in the {132} sixteenth century. It would not be +difficult to note other examples of this same kind in many parts of +Europe at this time. + +Fergusson summed up the place of this century in architecture very +well in his advice to Italy as to what must be done in order to +restore to that country the precedence that she won in architecture in +the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He said (p. 169): "Italy has +only to go back to the inspirations which characterize the end of the +fifteenth and the dawn of the sixteenth century, to base upon them a +style which will be as beautiful as it would be appropriate to her +wants and her climate. If she will only attempt to revive the +traditions of the great age which is hallowed by the memories of +Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, of Bramante, Sangallo, and even of +Michelangelo, she cannot go wrong. These men erred occasionally from +inexperience, and because the system under which the art was conducted +in their days was such as to render success impossible; but their +aspirations were right, and there was an impress of nobleness on their +works _which has not since been surpassed._ + +"Since their time the history of Italian art may be summed up in a few +words. During the fifteenth century it was original, appropriate and +grand; during the sixteenth it became correct and elegant, though too +often also tinctured with pedantry; and in the seventeenth it broke +out into caprice and affectation, till it became as bizarre as it was +tasteless. During the eighteenth it sank down to a uniform level of +timid mediocrity, as devoid of life as it is of art." + +It is as true for all the countries of Europe as for Italy that what +is needed for the redemption of architecture from the unfortunate +sordid influences which have crept over it is a return to the ideas of +Columbus' Century. Fortunately, since Fergusson wrote his paragraph of +advice for Italy, a great change has come over the attitude of men +generally toward architecture, and beautiful buildings are being +erected nearly everywhere, most of them with Renaissance ideas +prominent in them, but above all with the lessons drawn from this +fruitful period of beautiful construction guiding the minds and hands +of architects and builders. All around us handsome Renaissance +buildings are rising. Inasmuch as they are mere {133} imitations, they +are unfortunate evidence of our lack of originality. If, somehow, +using the same high standards of taste and the inspiration of the +classic authors as did the men of Columbus' Century, we can succeed in +evolving an architecture suited to our conditions and our environment +and appropriate for the uses of our day, then we shall accomplish the +solution of the problem which they solved so well. What they did above +all was to accomplish in building Horace's dictum that "he who mingles +the useful and the beautiful takes every point." The merely useful is +hideous. The merely beautiful is monstrous. Success lies in that +combination of use and beauty, of which Columbus' contemporaries so +ingeniously found the key. + + +{134} + +CHAPTER IX + +MUSIC + +Everyone concedes the supreme accomplishment of Italy in the arts of +painting, sculpture, architecture, and even in the lesser arts and +crafts during the Renaissance period, which we have called Columbus' +Century. It is not always realized, however, that her place in music +is almost equally important and that her accomplishment in this art +came also during this same period. While musical development into +modern forms came as a rule after the close of our century, the great +foundations of modern music were laid at this time. These are not so +deep beneath the surface of developed music, however, as to be hidden +from us entirely at the present time. On the contrary, there are many +composers and musical measures of this period which still have an +interest quite apart from their antiquity and which music-lovers know +very well in spite of the time that has elapsed since their +composition. + +We know nothing of ancient music, and indeed are scarcely able to +conceive just how Grecian music was composed or written and expressed. +It might be thought, then, that the Renaissance, representing the +influence upon the modern world of the rebirth of Greek ideas, would +be lacking in any important development of music. In every other +department, even in that of science, indeed it might well be said, +especially in that of science, the influence of contact with ancient +Greek ideas can be readily seen. They formed the stimulus for study +and often supplied the fundamental information on which modern, that +is Renaissance, developments were built up. Without this aid from the +ancients, then, it might reasonably be expected that music would be +neglected or would certainly be in abeyance, but this is not the case. +There is a great period of musical history, not perhaps so significant +as the progress in other departments of aesthetics, but containing +within itself {135} a magnificent achievement and the germ of all our +modern music. + +Perhaps there is nothing that demonstrates so well the fact that the +Renaissance was not, as it is so often considered, a rebirth out of +nothingness after some 1500 years of darkness and lack of +accomplishment than the history of music. Only that there had been a +great period of advance in Europe before the Renaissance, the stimulus +of Greek would have had very little effect. The old philosophers said +that things are received according to the capacity of the receiver, +and in the modern time a favorite maxim of teachers is that students +take away from a lecture what is of value to them just in proportion +to what they brought to it. It was the height of the culture of the +preceding period that enabled the generations of the Renaissance to +take such good advantage of the New Learning. In music, there being no +New Learning, they had to depend on their own efforts, and the +magnificent fruits of their musical progress show how the genius of +the time was capable of accomplishment for itself. + +As a result of the lack of any stimulus from Greek sources for music, +the first development of it at this time is noted not in Italy, as is +true for other modes of aesthetic evolution because of contiguity to +Greece, but, on the contrary, in the distant West of Europe and +especially in the Netherlands. Henderson, in his "The Story of Music," +declares that "all the countries at this time took Netherlandish +masters," and one finds the names of distinguished teachers of music, +who were from the Low Countries, in centres so far apart as Naples, +Venice, Munich and Madrid. + +The first of these, who was an extremely important factor in the music +of the time, was Ockeghem, or Ockenheim, of Hainault, who, in the +latter half of the fifteenth century, came to be looked upon as +probably the greatest teacher of the time. He is surpassed in fame by +his pupil, Josse Despres, usually known by the name, familiarly used +among his friends, Josquin, who is also a native of Hainault. +Henderson declares that "in technical skill no master has ever +surpassed Ockeghem; and all that he knew he taught Josquin, who made +it the outlet for his real musical genius." Luther said of him, "They +sing {136} only Josquin in Italy; Josquin alone in France; only +Josquin in Germany; in Flanders, in Hungary, in Bohemia, in Spain, it +is always only Josquin." From this testimony, and the otherwise +well-known popularity of this composer's music, it is probable that +there has never been a great European musician who, in his own time, +has gained more universal acclaim among music-lovers than Josquin. + +There is no doubt at all of the merit of his work. Arcadelt, who was +Palestrina's teacher at Rome and himself a distinguished musician of +this time, said of him: "Other composers make their music where their +notes take them, but Josquin takes his music where he wills." +Arcadelt's musical ability is recognized; an Ave Maria by him is still +often sung. + +Other countries were not without an important development in music at +this time. England had been the leader in musical composition and +evolution before Flanders had her turn. In the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries England had developed part singing and also laid +the foundations of counterpoint. In the fifteenth century musical +composition and erudition came to be considered of so much importance +that academic honors were conferred on musicians. John Hamboys, the +author of some treatises on the art of music, is said to be the first +on whom the degree of Doctor of Music was ever conferred. In 1463, +according to the records, the University of Cambridge conferred the +degree of Doctor of Music on Thomas Seynt Just and the degree of +Bachelor of Music on Henry Habyngton. During the following century it +was required that candidates for the degree of Musical Doctor should +present an original musical composition. America has followed England +in the granting of academic degrees for music, though I believe no +other country has done so except Ireland. + +In the latter half of Columbus' Century there was a vigorous native +school of music in Germany which devoted itself, however, almost +entirely to the composition of songs for the people. The best known of +the composers of this time is the famous Hans Sachs of Nuremberg, who, +in the first half of the sixteenth century, wrote so many ballads for +the people and set them to his own music. He was by trade a shoemaker, +and all the musical composers in this particular mode {137} seem to +have been craftsmen who took to musical composition and the writing of +ballads for their music as a recreation after their daily labor. They +organized themselves into guilds, which, in imitation of the old +knightly songsters of the days of chivalry, they called +Meistersingers. In its vigorous originality this movement produced at +the beginning some striking folk music with a wonderful influence on +the life of the people. After a time, however, the spirit of +exclusiveness asserted itself and seriously hurt their work. They +enacted rigid and pedantic laws, refused to admit to mastership in the +guild those who did not follow these laws, and the letter killed the +spirit, and true music disappeared, while men who prided themselves on +their musical ability and taste were trying to uplift it, but were +really regulating it out of existence. The decline in music is, +however, only commensurate with the decline in the other arts and due +to many of the same causes. The latter half of Columbus' Century saw +the rise of the great Roman school of music which, at the end of this +period, was to bring about a culmination of musical achievements that +places this among the greatest musical epochs of the world. As was +true everywhere in Italy, Rome owed its musical incentive and teaching +to a Fleming. The great master was Claude Goudimel, who is said to +have been born at Avignon, but who was educated in Flanders and is +known as a Fleming. Among his pupils at Rome, where he opened a +school, are the most famous musicians of the sixteenth century and +some of the most famous of all time. Among others, probably, were +Palestrina, the supreme master of modern church music, though the old +tradition of Goudimel's great influence over him is now denied; the +brothers Animuccia, one of whom was the penitent and intimate friend +of St. Philip Neri, the founder of the Oratory, after which the +Oratorio is named, and the brothers Nanini, who contributed so much to +Italian music before the end of the sixteenth century. Another of his +pupils was Orlando di Lasso, known as Lassus or Latres of Mons, who +was one of the greatest and most popular of the musicians of this +time. He was known in many countries and popular in all of them. To +him we owe the definite attempt to make words and music run along in +such harmony as would {138} emphasize and thoroughly co-ordinate the +meaning of both. An abuse had been growing for a considerable period +by which prolix florid passages of music were written for single +syllables. Even Josquin had indulged much in this vicious mode. After +Orlando di Lasso's reformation, the practice was to come back again in +the fiorituri of the opera composers, especially the Italians of the +early nineteenth century, and had to be combated by Wagner. There is +little in the revolution effected in music by the modern German +composer in this regard at least that was not anticipated by his great +predecessor, Orlando, full three centuries before. Orlando di Lasso +was known, moreover, for the sweetness, beauty, as well as the great +number and variety of his works. One of his songs, "Matona! Lovely +Maiden!" has been pronounced one of the most charming part songs in +existence. + +Lassus (di Lasso) tried every form of music at this time, but devoted +himself chiefly to musical compositions for church purposes. We have +from him psalms, hymns, litanies, magnificats, motets, as well as more +lengthy musical settings for religious services. Bonavia Hunt, the +Warden of Trinity College, London, and lecturer on musical history, in +his "History of Music" declares that Lassus' settings of the Seven +Penitential Psalms for five voices are among his best works. They +contain elements that have made them a favorite study for students of +music even in our time. Lassus introduced such musical terms as +_Allegro_ and _Adagio_ into music and brought chromatic elements into +musical composition. He was very greatly appreciated in his own day +and was called _Princeps Musicae_, the prince of music. He received as +much honor from statesmen as Palestrina did from churchmen, and the +story of the honor paid to both of them by their own generation is the +best possible tribute to the musical taste of the time. Lassus was +made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Spur. + +The greatest musician of this time, however, probably indeed the +greatest of all times, is Palestrina, who in 1551 was appointed the +musical director of the Julian Chapel in the Vatican with the definite +hope that he would reform the evils that had crept into music and were +making the art in its most recent {139} development so unsuitable for +religious purposes. The Council of Trent, whose sessions were being +held with interruptions at this time, had to legislate so as to secure +suitable music for the mass. Ornamental passages of all kinds, or at +least what were supposed to be such, had been introduced into church +music, until finally it was quite impossible to follow the words of +the service. As Cardinal Borromeo said, "These singers counted for +their principal glory that when one says _Sanctus_ another says +_Sabaoth_ and a third _gloria tua_ and the whole effect of the music +is little more than a confused whirling and snarling, more resembling +the performance of cats in January than the beautiful flowers of May." +He was one of the committee who insisted at various sessions of the +Council of Trent on musical reform, and while their work has sometimes +been falsely represented as derogatory of music itself, all that the +Council wished to accomplish was to secure intelligibility of the +words, and as a matter of fact their insistence on the simplification +of music led to a magnificent new development in the art. + +It has sometimes been said that Palestrina's work represented a +revolution in the music of his time. This is not true, however, for +his great mass music was only an evolution in the hands of the great +master of the musical movement that had preceded his time. The story +of his having been asked to write music very different from that which +had immediately preceded, in order that church music might be +preserved and figured music be thus still used in ecclesiastical +services, has been discredited by recent historical research. At the +end of Columbus' Century a climax in musical expression had been +reached which Palestrina represents and which marked an epoch in the +history of music. The abuses that had crept in were quite apart from +the genuine evolution of music. Henderson, in his "How Music +Developed" (New York: Stokes, 1898, page 73), has told the story: + + "The mass of Marcellus was not written to order, and there was + nothing new in its style. The mass is simply a model of all that was + best in Palestrina's day. It embodied all that was noblest in the + polyphonic style developed by the Netherlands school. Its melody is + pure, sweet and fluent, and its {140} expressive capacity perfectly + adapted to the devotional spirit of the text. Palestrina's + contemporaries, such as Lasso and some of his predecessors, wrote in + the same style. Lasso's 'Penitential Psalms' are much simpler in + style than this mass. Its apparent simplicity lies in the fact that + its profound mastery of technical resources conceals its superb art. + The polyphonic writing is matchless in its evenness; every part is + as good as every other part. The harmonies are beautiful, yet there + is apparently no direct attempt to produce them. They seem just to + happen. But above all other qualities stands the innate power of + expression in this music. It is, as Ambrose has hinted, as if the + composer had brought the angelic host to earth." + +Mees, in his "Choirs and Choral Music," has outlined what +the place of Palestrina's music in church services is, and made it +very clear how helpful it is for devotion instead of suggesting +distractions, as modern music is so sure to do. Dickenson, in his +"Study of the History of Music," says that in "Comparing a mass by +Palestrina with one of Schubert or Gounod he (the hearer) will +perceive not only a difference of style and form, but also one of +purpose and ideal. The modern work strives to depict the moods +suggested by the words according to the general methods that prevail +in modern lyric and dramatic music; while the aim of the older music +is to render a universal sentiment of devotion that is impersonal and +general. Music here conforms to the idea of prayer. There is no +thought of definite portrayal; the music strives merely to deepen the +mystical impression of the ceremony as a whole." + +Mees had said in his work, p. 61: + + "Palestrina's conception of what the music of the Roman church + should be was in perfect accord with the principle held by the early + church: that music should form an integral part of the liturgy and + add to its impressiveness. ... No sensuous melodies, no dissonant + tension-creating harmonies, no abrupt rhythms distract the thoughts + and excite the sensibilities. Chains of consonant chords growing out + of the combination of smoothly-flowing, closely-interwoven parts, + the contours of which are all but lost in the maze of tones, lull + the mind into that state of submission to indefinite impressions + which makes it susceptible to the mystic influence of the ceremonial + and turns it away from worldly things." + + + [Illustration: MELOZZO DA FORLI. ANGEL WITH LUTE (ROME)] + + +{141} + +Perhaps the best proof of the enduring value of Palestrina's work is +to be found in the fact that some of his compositions are still to be +heard in the Sistine Chapel, and that even in our own time [Footnote +14] a definite movement to restore his music to its proper high place +in the service of the Church has been initiated. Whenever, since his +death, music has been really on a high plane, Palestrina has been +thoroughly appreciated. Whenever musical taste has been debased and +men have gone seeking after novelty and bizarre effects and +over-decoration, Palestrina has been neglected. For music, he is what +Dante is to literature and art, the touchstone by which it is easiest +to estimate properly the value of a generation's critical faculty and +spirit of appreciation. Henderson, in his "How Music Developed," +already quoted from, has summed up Palestrina's accomplishment in a +few words: + + [Footnote 14: The decree of Pope Pius X, requiring the restoration + of the Gregorian Chant to the place of honor in the Liturgic + Services and making Palestrina's music the standard to which choir + music should properly conform, seemed to many music-lovers + distinctly reactionary and perhaps old-fogyish. As a matter of + fact, it was a well-judged restoration of such criteria in church + music as would preclude the possibility of modern unsuitable + developments of music finding their way further into church + services. It was open to the same objections on the part of those + who knew no better as the decree of Pope Leo XIII that St. Thomas + Aquinas' Philosophy should be the standard in Catholic schools of + Philosophy and Theology. The two decrees will be set beside each + other in history as examples of the ability of great Popes so to + direct church policy as to preserve the faithful from human + degeneracies of taste and thought. Palestrina's music is as firm a + standard of church music as Aquinas' thought is a safe criterion + in philosophy.] + + "Before leaving the subject of Palestrina, let me endeavor to make + clear to the reader wherein his style is so fine. Composers before + him had begun to aim at the simplification of church music. They + sought to accomplish their purpose by breaking the shackles of + canonic law. The canon had demanded the most exact imitation in the + different voice parts. The new style allowed the greatest freedom. + The result was that free polyphony took the place of rigid canon. + {142} Consequently composers were able to devote more attention to + the development of fluent, beautiful and expressive melody. The + merit of Palestrina's work was that it carried this style to + perfection. His compositions became the models for succeeding + composers, and indeed they remain to this day unequalled as examples + of pure church music." + +Palestrina's career furnishes another striking example of the +opportunities for genius to express itself provided by this period. +According to a contemporary manuscript authority, so that the story is +probably much more authentic than such stories usually are, young +Pierluigi of Palestrina, the ancient Praeneste, while peddling in the +streets of Rome the products of his father's farm, used to sing songs, +one of which was heard by the choirmaster of Santa Maria Maggiore. He +found that the boy had not only a beautiful voice, but a taste for +music, so he gave him the opportunity for a musical education. +Palestrina lived to be over eighty years of age, with manifold +opportunities afforded him for the display of his genius. The latter +half of his life was spent as one of the most honored men of his +generation. His most brilliant period began when he was nearly seventy +and when he was apparently thinking his career at an end. His complete +works in thirty-three volumes have just been published, the last +volume of the completed edition being presented to Pius X in 1908, who +was most interested in this great modern monument to the Catholic +genius of music. The great composer is worthy to stand beside St. +Teresa, St. Philip Neri and St. Ignatius Loyola as one of the +protagonists of the counter reformation. He did for music and the +Church what others did for education, mysticism and social reform. + +One of the most interesting chapters in the history of music began +just about the end of Columbus' Century. St. Philip Neri, of whom we +have spoken in the chapter on Social Work and Workers of the period, +was himself devoted to music and recognized how much it might mean for +occupation of mind with higher things that would be a source at once +of pleasure and social relaxation. He appreciated also how much of +value music might lend to the proper expression of religious feeling, +and even how much it might add to genuine religious {143} sentiment. +The Miracle Plays of the latter half of the fifteenth century had +always been accompanied by certain songs and glees with words relating +to the sacred subjects often set to popular music. St. Philip +recognized that these performances might be raised to a higher plane +by introducing more music and using the best possible music for their +illustration. Accordingly, in the course of services held in his +oratory, he introduced historical scenes and sacred allegories with a +musical setting, calling as a rule on his musical friends in Rome, and +especially Animuccia, to supply him with compositions. Hence the term +oratorio, the Italian word for oratory, for this class of music. It +was not to reach its highest form of expression, the dramatic, until +the end of the sixteenth century, but it is an invention of Columbus' +period. + +An extremely important invention of this time was the introduction of +the chord of the dominant seventh. The discovery is usually said to +have been due to Claudio Monteverde of the seventeenth century, but +the earliest extant musical works, in which examples of the phenomenal +chord of the dominant seventh with the full freedom of present-day +practice are found, are those of Jean Mouton of Holling in Lorraine, +who died about 1522. For nearly a century after this time this great +discovery, like so many others in every department of science, +struggled for a place. It was finally acknowledged. This discovery +brought music into close relation with science, and demonstrated its +foundation in the natural laws of acoustics. In his article on the +History of Music in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica," Sir George A. +MacFarren, Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge, declared +"that the discovery of the dominant seventh lays open the principle +for which pagan philosophers and Christians had been vainly groping +through centuries while a veil of mathematical calculation hung +between them and the truth." The curious feature of the history of its +introduction lies in the fact that it failed of appreciation from +orthodox musicians for a considerable period and actually met with +organized opposition. + +Even this brief sketch will suffice to show how greatly music +developed during Columbus' Century. There is probably no corresponding +period in the world's history that can show as {144} much real advance +that is lasting progress. Perhaps in no department of aesthetics does +supposed progress come and go from generation to generation more +easily than in music. What certain generations of musical critics have +very highly praised is often judged by their successors quite +worthless. The musical achievements of this period have, on the +contrary, been beacon lights for succeeding generations. Whenever the +principles that came to be accepted at this time have been much +departed from, musical taste has proved false and musical +accomplishment trivial. It is this sort of achievement, absolutely +enduring in its quality, which above all counts for humanity, and it +is nowhere so well illustrated in every department of intellectual +effort as during this century of Columbus. + + + [Illustration: GERMAN MUSICIANS PLAYING ON THE VIOLIN AND BASS VIOL + (LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY)] + + +The organ, as we have it at the present time, practically came into +its modern shape during Columbus' Century. In the latter part of the +fifteenth century the pedals and their {145} application were +developed by the organ-builders of the time, and in the first half of +the sixteenth century pipes in large numbers came to be used, and the +stops were arranged as in the modern organ. There are records of +organ-building, particularly in France about the end of the first +quarter of the sixteenth century, which show that the instrument had +reached a very modern phase and that it was only a question of the +adaptation of such mechanical aids as would enable the organist to +control a greater number of pipes that was now needed to bring about +the further development of this instrument. A good idea of the +perfection of the organ at this time may be obtained from the +description of one built at St. Maurice, Angers, France, in 1511, of +which we have a detailed account in a legal process some years later. +This contained two towers of thirty-five-foot pipe, forty-eight stops +and a separate pedal. The independent pedal came into general use at +this time. About this same time the violin began to develop and came +very nearly into its modern form by the end of Columbus' Century, so +that it was ready for the perfecting process which was to take place +in the following hundred years. + + +{146} + +CHAPTER X + +BOOKS AND PRINTS: WOOD AND METAL ENGRAVING + + +The scholarship of this century is well known to all the world, and +the Renaissance is looked upon as the time when the deep knowledge of +the classics, the New Learning or Humanism as it was called, awoke the +modern spirit. The men of the time learned much from books. It is +interesting to note, then, how much they did for books. The +generations amply repaid the debt they owed to the past by what they +accomplished for the preservation of the ancient writings, and above +all by putting them in a worthy dress for the use and the admiration +of future generations. The Renaissance must probably be considered to +have appreciated books more than any other period in the world's +history and to have done more to give dignity, beauty and permanence +to the objects of their devotion. + +It was no mere accident that just at the beginning of this period, +about 1450, the invention of printing was perfected. Books had been +rising in value and in price, though the demand had been constantly +increasing, until it was only to be expected that some method of +making them available for a much larger number of people must come. +Necessity is the mother of invention, and the need for a thing sets +men's minds at work until they have obtained it. Caxton's experience, +detailed further on in this chapter, is illuminating in this regard. +Great, however, as is the invention, the credit for which apparently +must be shared by the Germans Gutenberg, Fust and Schoeffer, the use +that was made of that invention during the century that followed is +deserving of still higher appreciation. It had indeed come to a worthy +time, but not by accident, for any time receives its deserts and wins +the rewards of its own interests and efforts. + +{147} + + + [Illustration: BORDER FROM THE "BOOK OF HOURS" + OF ANTHONY VERARD (1488)] + + +If ordinary impressions were to be accepted, it might well be expected +that printing having been invented about the middle of the fifteenth +century, the first century would see industrious, but rather crude +applications of the invention, until men became accustomed to its +employment, and then gradually, by that progress which is so often +assumed to be inevitable in mankind, printing would rise to be an art +more and more beautiful as time went on, until in the nineteenth and +twentieth centuries we would have the most beautiful examples of +book-making. As a matter of fact, however, during the first half +century, immediately after the preliminary tentative application of +the art, printing rose to a perfection that has never been excelled +since and only equalled in few periods. + +Between 1475 and 1525 some of the most beautiful printed books ever +made were completed and {148} worthily bound. Columbus' Century can +boast the production of the most beautiful books in the world. +Succeeding centuries saw a decadence in the arts of book-making which +was progressive until the latter half of the nineteenth century. At +that time some of the worst books ever made, with poorly designed, +cheap type, still cheaper but fortunately perishable paper, sadly +inartistic illustrations and ugly bindings, were made (_perpetrated_ +is the expression one book-lover has used). It must not be forgotten +that this same decadence affected everything else, and that painting +and sculpture and architecture reached their lowest ebb also in the +nineteenth century, though the book continued to be in the depths for +longer than any of the other products of the arts. + +Fortunately, William Morris came to call attention to the utter +ugliness of commercialized book-making and to arouse his generation to +a noble effort for the recovery of the lost art. He demonstrated how +artistically books might be made by taking as models the printed books +of Columbus' time. He imitated as far as possible their beautiful +hand-made paper without reflecting surface, of a tint that made the +ink stand out on printed pages with wide margins and judicious +spacing, with type faces eminently suited for easy reading, and made +with an eye to real artistic quality and with ink that has not faded +all these 400 years. All these were book qualities well worthy of +emulation. The work has been taken up in many places since, and now +beautiful books are not so rare as they were, though it is doubtful +whether, even with all our mechanical appliances, our ability to sell +reasonably large editions, the prosperity of the time and the interest +of publishers and bibliophiles, we have succeeded in making any books +that we would dare to set in comparison with a number of the volumes +that were printed in Columbus' Century. + +The perfection which book-making by hand had reached at the time when +printing was invented and began to come into general use made it +comparatively easy for excellent printed books to be made--excellent +in the sense both of good printing and fine illustration. The "Books +of Hours" of the later fifteenth century are among the most beautiful +volumes that were ever made. They were finely written in a dear hand, +{149} beautifully decorated, handsomely illuminated and very suitably +bound. Even the best painters did not hesitate to devote themselves to +the making of illuminated illustrations for favorite volumes. The +French were, as Dante suggests in Canto XI of the "Purgatorio," the +best illuminators in his time, and they continued to maintain this +superiority during the fifteenth century. Gerard W. Smith in his +"Painting, Spanish and French" (Illustrated Handbooks of Art History), +says that "the French school of miniature, though surpassed in +seriousness and originality by those of Flanders and Italy, was yet +skilful in appropriating many of the excellences of both. They +surpassed the former in the general composition of their subjects and +the latter in their perspective." The best known of their artist +illustrators of this time was Jean Fouquet, the Court painter of Louis +XI, whose work as painter is discussed in the chapter, Painting +Outside of Italy. The pictures by him in the illuminated Josephus in +the Paris Library are especially well known and often praised for +their freedom of invention, their variety and the perfection of detail +in their accessories. The compositions made for the illustration of +Titus Livius, Livy the Latin historian, have been pronounced admirable +for their naturalness and life. Fouquet is particularly happy in the +landscapes which he introduces into his pictures and the architectural +details which he adds. The miniature, which we have copied from the +Livy manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale, illustrates all of +these qualities very well and makes it clear that no element of +artistic beauty or picturesque values was lacking in the books that +were being made by hand when printing came to revolutionize the arts +of book-making. + +Some of the extra-illuminated books of this period are among the most +beautiful printed books ever issued in their ornateness. Not long +since Tregaskis advertised a little Book of Hours, printed by _Simon +duBois pour maistre geofroy tori de bourges 1527,_ at sixty guineas. +He describes it as extremely rare and the first in which occurs the +Arabesque border so frequently used by Tory and his successors in +subsequent editions. Dibden, reproducing some of the borders in his +"Bibliographical Decameron," said that he had seen {150} nothing more +beautiful of this kind. Each page is printed within a varying woodcut +border of birds, fish, flowers and insects, with the initials of the +Queen Mother and of the King and Queen crowned, in combination with +the arms of France and Savoy. + + + [Illustration: FOUQUET, JEHAN, MINIATURE PAINTING, FROM THE LIVY MSS. + (BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE, PARIS)] + +This is, of course, the period when these books were most beautifully +done. There are a number of examples of them that have appeared in the +sales in recent years and have {151} commanded high prices not alone +because of their antiquity, but because of the exquisite charm of +their decorations. + +It was in competition with such exquisite books that the early +printers found themselves. No wonder, then, that they were stimulated +to do beautiful work and that their best efforts were aroused. The +fine, broad enterprise of the printers of the time can be very well +appreciated from the rapid development of their art and craft by the +making of fonts of letters for all the different alphabets. Greek type +was made as early as 1465. The first book wholly printed in Greek +minuscules was Lascaris' Grammar at Milan in 1476. The first Hebrew +types appeared as early as 1475. Aldus' famous Italic type, said to be +an imitation of the handwriting of Petrarch, was introduced by Aldus +Manutius of Venice for his projected small edition of the classics. +The cutting of it was probably done by the painter Francia +(Raibolini). It was first used in the Virgil of 1500. Arabic types +were first used for the printing of a book in 1514 at Fano in Italy. +Syriac was used for printing as early as 1538, and just after the end +of Columbus' Century excellent types of this language were in use. A +Psalter was printed in Russian at Cracow as early as 1491, and the +Russian types were used at Prague in 1517. Anglo-Saxon and Irish types +were used shortly after the end of Columbus' Century. + +Music printing began early, the earliest specimen of music type +occurring in Higden's "Polychronicon," printed by Wynken de Worde at +Westminster in 1495. Notes had been printed from wooden blocks +twenty-five years earlier, though some books had spaces left to be +filled in by hand. About 1500 a musical press was established at +Venice. Toward the end of the century special types and presses of +many kinds for music were invented. + +The great English printer of this time, William Caxton, is a +characteristic type of the scholarly printers of the period. We know +almost nothing about his life. He records his thanks to his parents +for having given him an education that fitted him to earn a living, +though he does not say where or how he was educated. Just about the +beginning of Columbus' Century he settled at Bruges, going into +business on his own {152} account, and soon became prosperous. He had +been an apprentice to Robert Large, a wealthy London mercer of the +time, who was one of the influential men of the period. In 1453 Caxton +returned to England for his formal admittance as a member of the +Mercers' Company. His story after this is not unlike that of +Schliemann, the discoverer of Troy in our own time. He retired from +business apparently with a competency, entered the service of Margaret +Duchess of Burgundy, probably in order to have more time for his +literary work, and the next year he finished his translation from the +French of the "Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye," which was +dedicated to Margaret. His book was very much sought after and +circulated in manuscript. The task of copying it was too great and +entirely too slow for the demand. With true business instinct, Caxton +then "practysed & lerned at grete charge and dispense to ordeyne this +said book in prynte." His book was printed at Bruges in 1474. The next +year his second book, the "Game & Pleye of Chess," which he had also +translated from the French, was printed. + +The following year, 1476, Caxton returned to England and set up his +own printing press at Westminster. The first issue from his press was +the "Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers," which bears the date +1477. Though he died fourteen years later, in 1491, he is said to have +issued ninety-six books from the Westminster Press in the intervening +brief period. His publications include the works of Chaucer and Gower, +Sir Thomas Malory's _"Morte d'Arthur"_ and a number of translations +from French, Latin and Dutch, most of them probably made by himself +and all of them under his editorial direction. He issued a number of +smaller pious books which show his deep religious interest. Though +brought up to a trade which he pursued successfully until he had made +money, he was a scholarly man who wrote excellent vigorous English and +had an ardent enthusiasm for literature. He is one of the greatest +forces in English prose before the sixteenth century, and with Sir +Thomas More helped to fix it in the form in which it was to pass to +the Elizabethans and be given our modern shape. His life is the best +possible evidence of the opportunities for education that abounded at +the beginning of Columbus' {153} Century, and which even those quite +outside of what would ordinarily be thought the possible chances for +the higher education might readily secure. + +The story of the great printers of the Renaissance might well be +summed up in the work of the Venetian, Aldus Manutius, who was a +distinguished scholar as well as publisher. Born 1450, he was a pupil +of Guarino of Verona, and having studied Greek very faithfully, +resolved to print all the Greek classics. He adopted the handwriting +of Musurus as the model on which his Greek type was cast and then +proceeded to make arrangements for worthy publication. The ink was +made in the publishing house and only the best materials employed. He +had special paper from the mills of Fabriano, and the bookbinding was +done in a separate department of his own establishment. [Footnote 15] +The result was the magnificent set of Editiones Principes issued by +his house. The first of these was Musaeus, printed in 1493. Altogether +twenty-eight _editiones principes_ of the {154} Greek and Latin +classics were issued in some twenty-two years. His trade symbol, the +Dolphin and the Anchor, signifies speed and tenacity. In reference to +it, Aldus himself once said, "I have achieved much by patience (the +word he used was _cunctando_, literally by taking my time) and I work +without pause." As we have said, Aldus invented the form of type +called Italic, for which he received a patent from Pope Leo X. In 1500 +Aldus printed the first leaf of a proposed Bible in Hebrew, Greek and +Latin--a Polyglot Bible which was never completed. His work was +carried on after his death in 1515 by the Asolani, his +brothers-in-law, and later by Paolo Manuzio, his son, and afterwards +by another Aldus, his grandson. In 1518 the Aeschylus was printed, and +there was then no extant Greek classic of the first rank unprinted. + + [Footnote 15: The lofty motives that impelled men to take up the art + of printing can be very well appreciated from some expressions of + Aldus in this matter. As a boy he had been shy, awkward and + retiring, and although receiving his education in the best schools + of Ferrara and Rome, he had not shown any marked ability. For a time + he seems to have studied for the priesthood, but instead became a + tutor for princely houses. This gave him sufficient for his modest + tastes and a quiet, scholarly life. At the age of forty he gave up + this career, and with little money began to edit and prepare for + printing the works of almost forgotten Greek authors. This was about + the time that Columbus launched his vessels to sail to America. + Early as this date might seem to be in the history of the art, + printing had already been overdone. When Aldus reached Venice there + were or had been 160 printers or publishers in that city. Most of + them were poor, some of them were bankrupt and none of them were + making any money that might be expected to tempt a man of forty + without experience to take up a business career. The state of the + trade at Rome was scarcely better. Italy was disturbed by rumors of + impending war. It was under these conditions that Aldus declared in + the preface of one of his early books: + + "I have made a vow to devote my life to the public good. God is my + witness that this is my most earnest desire. ... I leave a + peaceable life, preferring this which is laborious and exacting. + ... Man was not born for pleasure unworthy of an elevated spirit, + but for duties which dignify him. Let us leave to the vile the + lower life of animals."] + + +Aldus devoted himself to the printing of the classics and quite +neglected the theological works which were so popular, at least among +the printers of the time. After seven years of the hardest kind of +work he said, "In this seventh year of my self-imposed task I can +truly say--yes, under oath--that I have not during these long years +had one hour of peaceful rest." In 1498, perhaps from overwork, but +more likely from neglect of the ordinary care of nature in regular +eating and sleeping, he came down with a severe illness. During his +illness his thoughts went back to his student days and he vowed that +he would become a priest if he recovered. After his recovery, however, +he asked and obtained a release from this obligation. The next year he +married the daughter of an eminent brother printer, Torresano of +Asola, and though there was great difference in their ages, Aldus +being fifty and his wife scarcely twenty, it seems to have proved a +happy marriage. Aldus health was better cared for after this, and then +his thrifty father-in-law, who was a successful publisher, probably +helped him with many suggestions, as a consequence of which Aldus made +his books cheaper and more widely salable, and henceforth we have less +querulousness over the neglect of the public to buy. + +Aldus was one of the busiest of men. His motto was _festina lente_ +(make haste slowly). He says in one of his books, "You do not know how +busy I am; the care I have to give to {155} my publications does not +allow me proper time to eat or sleep." In self-defence against bores, +and it is easy to understand how many there might be in this period of +reawakened interest in scholarship who would think that they could +occupy a few hours pleasantly and profitably for themselves in Aldus' +establishment, he put this warning on his door: + +"Whoever you are, Aldus entreats you to be brief. When you have +spoken, leave him, unless you come like Hercules to help Atlas, weary +of his burden. Know that there is work here for everyone who enters +the door." Practically every important printer and publicist ever +since has had to try to protect himself and his time in some similar +way. Human nature, or at least the human nature of bores, has not +changed any in these five centuries. + +In spite of all that he did for his generation, he met with little of +gratitude and almost less of personal appreciation. There were many +distinguished scholars who were dear personal friends, there were many +high ecclesiastics who admired and helped him, there were many noble +patrons and clients of his house who must have brought him much +consolation. But he had his critics as well: Erasmus could not refrain +from some biting witticisms with regard to the frugality of his table, +being himself somewhat of a glutton. Scaliger indeed said of him that +he drank like three, but did only half the work of one man, while +Aldus was very abstemious. Besides, Aldus complained that his books +were fraudulently reprinted, that his workmen were tempted away from +him after he had trained them, and that he even had to defend himself +against the treachery of his own employees at times. Already at that +time they were beginning to complain of the injustice done the author +by lack of copyright. Erasmus complained: "Our lawmakers do not +concern themselves about the matter. He who sells English cloth for +Venetian cloth is punished, but he who sells corrupt texts in place of +good ones goes free. Innumerable are the books that are corrupted, +especially in Germany. There are restraints on bad bakers, but none on +bad printers, and there is no corner of the earth where bad books do +not go." + +A writer in the old _Scribner's Magazine_ for October, 1881, summed up +what Aldus had accomplished for his profession {156} in a paragraph +that evidently comes from a man who knows his subject well and +probably in the modern time has faced some of the problems that Aldus +had to meet, though with the advantage of the experience of over four +centuries since to help him in solving them. + + "Considering the difficulties he had to encounter, not the least of + them the difficulty of getting compositors who could read Greek MSS. + and compose Greek types, it is a wonder that they are as correct as + they are. Some of them are above reproach. When he offered to the + reader of his edition of Plato, as he did in the preface of that + book, a gold crown for every discovered error, he must have had a + confidence in its accuracy which comes only from the consciousness + of thorough editorial work. Aldus' taste as editor went beyond the + text. Not content with an accurate version, he had that version + presented in pleasing types. Everybody admits the value of his + invention of Italic, even if his use of it as a text-letter be not + approved. But few persons consider that we are indebted to Aldus for + the present forms that he introduced. How great this obligation is + will be readily acknowledged after an examination of the uncouth + characters and the discordant styles of Greek copyists before the + sixteenth century. Aldus' invention of small capitals has already + been noticed. Here, then, are three distinct styles of book-printing + types which he introduced, and which have been adopted everywhere + almost without dissent. Other printers have done work of high merit; +other type-founders have made pleasing ornamental or fancy types; but + no printer or founder since Aldus has invented even one original + style of printing types which has been adopted and kept in use as a + text-letter for books." [Footnote 16] + + [Footnote 16: It was after Grolier's visit to Aldus in Italy that he + took up the making of that collection of beautifully bound and + printed books which have since made him famous; he evidently owed + the inspiration not a little to the great Italian printer.] + +The other most distinguished printer of Columbus' Century whose career +deserves to be sketched at some length was the Frenchman, Geoffrey +Tory or Trinus, who is not so well known as Aldus, coming a little +later in history, but whose work was of the highest artistic +character. + +{157} + +[Illustration: BORDER FROM "BOOK OF HOURS," GEOFFREY TORY (1525)] + + +Like Aldus, he was of poor parents, but attended the best schools in +the Province of Berry toward the end of the fifteenth century and then +travelled in Italy. He afterwards became instructor in Paris in the +College de Plessis, edited an edition of Pomponius Mela, which was +published by Jean Petit, and prepared "AEneas Sylvius" and other works +for Estienne the Elder. Fond of art, Tory began to practise +wood-engraving and gave up his teaching to study wood-engraving in +Italy. He supported himself while studying by painting miniatures for +the adornment of manuscripts and printed books and became a great +master of his chosen art. He engraved initials, characters and borders +for Simon de Collines in Paris, and his work shows the fullest +acquaintance with all the resources of his art. His plates marked with +the Cross of {158} Lorraine are now considered worthy of a very high +place in every choice collection. + +His principal contribution to book-making was his remarkable original +work called "Champ Fleury." This book was divided into three parts for +the instruction of printers. The first of these parts contained a +treatise upon the proper use of letters. The second treated of the +origin of the capital letter and its proper place. The third contained +accurate drawings of letters and a large number of alphabets of +various kinds, so that proper selection of type might be made for +various kinds of books and varying sizes according to space and page. +This work had a far-reaching influence. One result was an immediate +and complete revolution in French typography and orthography--the +abandonment of the Gothic and the adoption of the new cutting of +antique type. After having been used for several centuries, the faces +of the type thus produced were abandoned for a time and are now being +revived. In this book also Tory laid down the rules for the proper use +in French of the accents, apostrophe and marks of punctuation. He did +more than anyone else to settle these vexed problems of usage for the +world. The publication of the book won from Francis I, himself a +scholar and patron of learning and an author to whom so much is owed +in the French Renaissance, the title of King's Printer. Some of Tory's +borders are illustrated on these pages. They have been fruitful models +full of suggestion for such work ever since. + +With the development of printing, the need of methods of multiplying +illustrations for printed books soon made itself felt and was finely +responded to by the genius of the century. Wood-engraving in the +service of book-illustration came in very early in the history of +printing and was, after all, only a development of the wooden blocks, +out of which the first idea of movable types had originally sprung. It +was very crude at the beginning, and yet often with an artistic +expression that gives it great interest. Its possibilities for +printing in company with movable types soon began to be realized, and +as printed books became more beautiful and type faces more artistic, +the necessity for supplying artistic illustrations was felt, and then +it was not long before the need was supplied. Probably the {159} first +wood-engraving designed for book-illustration which exhibits a marked +artistic quality was "The Dream of Poliphilo," in which, as Woodberry +says in his "History of Wood-Engraving," "Italian wood-engraving, +quickened by the spirit of the Renaissance, displayed its most +beautiful creation." It was written by a Venetian monk, Francesco +Colombo, in 1467, and was first printed by Aldus in 1499. The subject +was a worthy one, for though the book is a strange mingling of Greek, +Latin, Hebrew and Arabic traditions and poetic symbolism, it typifies +the spirit of the Renaissance. It represents the search of youth for +the loveliness of universal nature and the perfection of ancient art +under the title of Polia, the charming maiden who combines all the +qualities. Altogether there are 192 designs. They have been attributed +to many illustrious masters, even John Bellini and Raphael, among +others, but were probably due to Benedetto Montagna. + +How soon illustration came to aid in the understanding of the text in +books is very well illustrated by Fra Giocondo's work. When, in 1508, +he published the letters of the younger Pliny in the Aldine edition, +he not only described but illustrated the villas of the ancients. In +1511 he edited the Aldine edition of Vitruvius, with its rude woodcuts +that are yet much more thoroughly illustrative than many a more +ambitious modern book and which include the first modern plan of a +Roman house. When he issued his Aldine edition of Caesar in 1513 this +was illustrated with the earliest of all modern drawings of Caesar's +bridge across the Rhine. Fra Giocondo is in fact the true father of +the illustrated classic, as Sandys suggested in his Harvard Lectures +on the "Revival of Learning" (Cambridge University Press, 1905). It +may be well to add that the good friar was no mere student for +erudition's sake, since, as is noted in the chapter on architecture, +he entered the royal service in France, and in 1497 designed one at +least, if not two, of the noble bridges that still span the Seine. + +The great improvement which came in book-illustration and the making +of prints we owe to Albrecht Duerer, who not only was the first to +discover the capacities of wood-engraving as a mode of artistic +expression, but who saw immediately that it could not equal the rival +art of copperplate-engraving in that delicacy of line and depth of +tone on which the metal-engraving depends for its excellence, but +appreciating the limitations, Duerer prescribed the materials and +processes of wood-engraving. + +{160} + + +[Illustration: PAGE OF "BOOK OF HOURS" MADE FOR SIMON DE COLLINES (TORY)] + + +{161} + +He increased the size of the cuts, gave breadth and boldness to the +lines and obtained new and pleasing effects from strong contrasts of +black and white. As Woodberry in his "History of Wood-Engraving" +(Harper's, New York, 1883) says: "He thus showed the true method of +wood-engraving; but the art owes to him much more than this: he +brought to the practice of it the hand and brain of a great master, +lifted it, a mechanic's trade, into the service of high imagination +and vigorous interest and placed it among the fine arts--a deed of far +more importance than any improvements in processes or methods." In so +doing, may we add that he only accomplished what so many of his +contemporaries did in other arts. The goldsmiths became sculptors and +painters, the decorators became true artists and the scholars learned +from their classical books to execute what they had studied in the +ancients. + +It would be hard to say enough of Duerer's wood-engravings. His prints +must be allowed to talk for themselves. Unfortunately, owing to limit +of space, we are only able to give one of them, but that will furnish +an excellent example of the marvellous qualities Duerer succeeded in +expressing, in what might have seemed before this time a hopelessly +coarse medium. The first of the four famous series of designs by which +his skill in wood-engraving is first shown was published in 1498, but +it was probably finished before that time. It consisted of fifteen +large woodcuts in illustration of the Apocalypse of St. John, to which +a vignette of wonderful nobility and simplicity was prefixed. + +Other men did wonderful work in this new medium, after Duerer had shown +them the way, though none of them surpassed or perhaps even equalled +their master. Portions of the triumphal procession of Maximilian by +Hans Burgkmaier show that his disciples were thoroughly capable of +following in his footsteps. Such men as Hans Schaeuffelin and Hans +Springinklee, as well as Hans Baldung, far surpassed most of their +successors in the artistic quality of their wood-engraving. Lucas van +Leyden and the Cranachs show how artists took to {162} this new mode +of expression, and a series of men working in this century prove the +wonderful power of the time to stimulate men's genius. + +Besides Duerer and the group who were largely influenced by him, one +man, Hans Holbein, deserves special mention because he illustrates +especially the connection of the new art with book-making. Holbein +commenced to practise wood-engraving as soon as he settled in Basel at +about the age of twenty. He began by designing the title page, initial +letters and woodcuts for the publishers of that period. He illustrated +the books of the humanists, especially the "Utopia" of Sir Thomas +More, then a new and popular work, and afterwards designed the +woodcuts for the Biblical translation of Luther, and he did some +excellent caricature work. He is a realist and has illustrated +particularly humble life, incidents of the daily doings of peasants +and children, and these scenes are sometimes introduced as the +background of initial letters, some twenty alphabets of which are +ascribed to him. Geoffrey Tory in France introduced a classical spirit +into wood-engraving, and the sculptors, Jean Cousin and Bernard +Salomon and especially Jean Goujon, who made some excellent cuts for +Vitruvius (1547), and a group of other illustrators in France, serve +to show how the art spread and was used all over the world. + +Another interesting development both in prints and in +book-illustration came in the gradual evolution of metal-engraving, +which, like wood-engraving, reached some of its highest perfection in +Germany. Martin Schongauer, who died in 1488, is the first important +name, though he was preceded by an unknown German engraver usually +spoken of as "The Master of 1466." Schongauer used curved shading and +greatly developed the technique. After him came Duerer, who lifted +metal-engraving, especially copperplate-engraving, into the realm of +art. Probably nothing illustrates so well his power of minute +observation as some of his copperplates. His animals are reproduced +with fidelity and charm, and in the early days of landscape painting +he studied every leaf and branch and tree trunk and knew how to +picture just what he saw. The climax of artistic quality was reached +by Marcantonio in Italy, who worked under the direction of Raphael. +After the work of these masters there was very little left to be added +by subsequent engravers. + + +{163} + + +[Illustration: DUeRER, MARRIAGE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN (WOODCUT, 1511)] + + +{164} + +How much the illustration of books was helped by this new development +of art can be very readily appreciated by those who know some of the +old books. Even technical books, such as text-books of anatomy, were +beautifully illustrated from copperplates that are not merely +conventional pictures, but often real works of art. The plates for +Vesalius' anatomy were probably prepared under the direction of Titian +by one of his best students, Kalkar, and Eustachius' anatomical plates +probably also had the counsel of a great artist. [Footnote 17] + + + [Footnote 17: How much the book-making and bookbinding of this + period is appreciated in our time will perhaps be best and most + easily realized from the following item: "At the sale of Lady + Brooke's Library at Sotheby's, Mr. Quaritch bought for $1,500 the + well-preserved copy of Livy, dated 1543, in a fine contemporary + morocco binding, and paid $1,475 for a copy, dated 1533. of Petrus + Martyr's _'De Rebus Oceanicis, et Orbe Novo'"_ (New York _Herald_, + Nov. 26, 1913).] + + +While the inside of the book was cared for so thoroughly and +thoughtfully the outside of it was not neglected. This is the period +when the most beautiful bindings in the world were made. The name of +the Grolier Club in New York is testimony to this, for when our +American bibliophiles wanted to name their association worthily they +took their title from the great book-lover of Columbus' Century, Jean +Grolier, the Treasurer of France, who did so much to encourage the +beautiful book-making of the time. The collection of books made by +Grolier is probably the most famous ever brought together. They were +beautifully printed on the best of paper as a rule and most fittingly +and artistically bound. The life history of practically every one of +them has been traced, and many a book-lover has purchased immortality +at a comparatively cheap price by having at some time or other been in +possession of one of Grolier's books, for the name of every possessor +is chronicled as a rule. Many a book-owner of our time has his only +chance for being known in the time to come from the fact that he has +one of Grolier's books in his library. + + +{165} + + + [Illustration: BLACK-LETTER WITH BORDERED PAGE (1520)] + + +{166} + +The beautiful bindings need to be seen to be appreciated, but every +phase of artistic adornment in books was exhausted. While leather was +the favorite material for binding, silk and tapestry and plush were +used, and ornamentation of all kinds, metal, tortoise shell and +precious stones, was employed. There probably was never more taste +displayed than at this time, and though subsequent workmen learned to +finish much better, the best bindings of the modern time scarcely +compare with those of Columbus' period in artistic quality. + +Brander Matthews in his "Bookbindings, Old and New," said: "We must +confess that there are very few finishers (of books) of our time who +have originality of invention, freshness of composition or +individuality of taste." He proceeds to say that in our time we have a +more certain handicraft, but less artistic quality. The handicraft has +improved, the art has declined. The hand has gained skill, but the +head has lost its force. + +In our time we are again coming to appreciate properly the value of +beautiful books. There have been periods between ours and Columbus' +Century when only the most sordid ideas obtained in the book world, or +when bad taste ruled and book-binding, like printing and the other +arts, had a period of decadence after the sixteenth century, that is +hard to explain, though it is easy to find reasons for it, and which +continued to sink books into ever greater and greater lack of artistic +qualities until almost the twentieth century. Out of that pit dug by +neglect of interest in the beautiful as well as the useful we are now +climbing, but unfortunately many of our time are inclined to think +that this is the first time there has been that emergence, though we +are only beginning, as yet distantly, to imitate the beauties of +book-making in the mediaeval and Renaissance periods. + +Even more interesting for the modern time is the attitude of these +great collectors of books of Columbus' time toward their precious +treasures. They did not consider that they belonged to themselves +alone, but to all those capable of using them. The distinguished +Italian collector who preceded Grolier, Maioli, had the motto printed +on his books, _Tho. Maioli et amicorum_--that is, "the property of +Thomas Maioli and his friends." A number of other book-collectors, +including Grolier, imitated this. Maioli is said to have had the true +amateur spirit and to have taken up the making of beautiful bindings +for himself. Geoffrey Tory also devoted himself to {167} bookbinding +as well as to wood-engraving and his work for the printers. In a word +it was a time when men were intent on making the book just as +beautiful as possible, while all the time bearing in mind that its +utility must be its principal characteristic. + + [Illustration: PLAYING CARD, FRANCE, FIFTEENTH CENTURY] + + +{168} + +{169} + +BOOK II + +THE BOOK OF THE DEEDS + + +CHAPTER I + +SOCIAL WORK AND WORKERS + + +Any century that does not display an important evolution of works for +the benefit of the poor whom we have "always with us," of organized +effort for the ailing who are inevitable in the present state of man's +existence, as well as some general recognition of social duty towards +the great body of men and women who must always be helped to make +something out of their lives, because they lack initiative and power +of accomplishment for themselves, does not deserve a place among the +great centuries of human existence. Columbus' Century is in this +regard one of the notable periods of human history. It saw the +building of magnificent hospitals in many countries, a phase of its +history so full of importance that we have had to reserve its +treatment for a special chapter on hospitals. It saw the organization +of many means of helping the poor, and particularly of definite +methods for the care of the old and the young, for the disabled and +unfortunate, and the origin of the institutions through which the poor +for their little pledges might secure loans to tide them over the +recurring crises of existence. Besides there were many asylums, in the +best sense of the word, founded for the care of the insane and chronic +sufferers of other kinds, and many other institutions of charity were +organized and established in such forms as to do the greatest possible +amount of good. Above all, this century saw the establishment of a +number of religious orders which were to accomplish social reforms of +many kinds, and the founders of which were to provide by their example +and {170} advice the proper encouragement for many charitable +foundations. + +The most interesting development of helpfulness at this time came in +connection with the many guilds which reached their highest +development at the end of the fifteenth century. These guilds took +care of the disabled, supported the old, took charge of orphans, gave +technical training to the children, founded schools in many places and +often sent the more intelligent boys even to the university, and +provided various entertainments during the year for the members of the +guilds and their neighbors and townsfolk. How universal was their +effect upon the life for instance of the English people will be best +appreciated from the calculation of Toulmin Smith, whose authority in +all that relates to the history of the English guilds is unquestioned, +that there were some thirty thousand of these brotherhood institutions +in existence in England about the beginning of the sixteenth century. + +They touched every phase of the social life of the time and helped in +the solution of many of the social problems. They provided insurance +for their members against loss by fire, by robbery, at sea, by the +fall of a house, by imprisonment and even against loss from flood. +There was insurance against the loss of sight, against the loss of +limb or any other form of crippling. The deaf and dumb might be +insured so as to secure an income for them and corresponding relief +for leprosy might be obtained, so that if one were set apart from the +community by the law requiring segregation of lepers there might be +provision for food and lodging even though productive work had become +impossible. [Footnote 18] There was also insurance for the farmer +against the loss of cattle and farm products. + + [Footnote 18: Walsh, "The Thirteenth Greatest of Centuries," + Catholic Summer School Press Appendix, fifth edition, New York, + 1912.] + +There were no poorhouses and no orphan asylums. We have just come to +recognize once more that the best possible guardian, as a rule, for +children is their mother, if she is alive. It is cheaper in the end to +help her to keep the family together than to put them into +institutions, and the home training is almost infinitely better. They +recognized this fact very {171} clearly in the later Middle Ages and +in Columbus' Century, and if mother were dead, and father could not +keep the children, which was very rarely the case, or if both parents +were dead, the children were distributed in families which adopted +them with the specific agreement that they should be looked upon as +members of the family. The guild officials looked after these children +and saw that they were not abused and obtained special opportunities +for their training, and supplied a dowry very often for the girls when +they married. Indeed, there was a tradition that "the children of the +guild," as these orphans were called, were likely to have better +opportunities in life than those whose parents were still living. + +In spite of all their care for the poor, the time had, as every time +has had, the problem of the ne'er-do-well, the man with the +_wanderlust,_ who will not settle down anywhere and cannot be expected +to keep steadily at work. They dealt with what we have come to call +the tramp rather well. Above all, they avoided many of the abuses of +public begging. The method is worth while noting. When a member of the +guild died every member was expected to attend his funeral. Those that +did not were fined a small sum, but yet sufficient to deter them from +neglecting this obligation unless compelled by some necessity. These +fines went into the common fund for the benefit of the poor and were +given as alms for the intention of the dead brother's soul. Besides, +every member was expected to give a small coin as further alms for the +dead, and this sum of money was deposited with the treasurer of the +guild for this special purpose. Each one who gave an alms was handed a +token, which he might use as he saw fit. When a member of a guild met +someone who looked as though he needed help, instead of giving him +money he handed him this token and then the beggar might obtain +whatever he needed most--food, lodging or clothing--by presenting the +token to the treasurer of the guild, the sexton of the church or any +of the church wardens or the clergy. This prevented the abuse of +charity, gave immediate relief where it was needed and did not +pauperize, because the person benefited knew that the intention in +what was given him was the benefit of a dead brother's soul and not +merely pity for him. + +{172} + +The number and efficiency of the activities of the guild can be best +understood from a study of the history of the Guild of the Holy Cross +at Stratford. Owing to the fact that interest in Shakespeare has led +to a very careful study of every possible scrap of information with +regard to the life of the town during the century before his time, we +are in possession of many details with regard to it. The Guild of the +Holy Cross at Stratford came to represent nearly every form of +initiative for the good of the townspeople. They had their periodic +banquets, provided pageants, took care of the poor, built almshouses +that were very different from poorhouses, cared for the orphans and +disabled and supported the grammar school as well as helping some of +their members to the higher education. The guild became so famous for +its benefactions to the life of the town that distinguished members of +the nobility and judges, members of the professions and prominent +merchants from all the surrounding neighborhood asked and obtained the +privilege of becoming members. The guild acquired property and had a +definite income. We know that in 1481 it acquired the rectory of +Little Wilmcote, where the Ardens, the ancestors of Shakespeare's +mother, had property, with all its profits. + +One very interesting development in Stratford shows the difference +between the poorhouses of subsequent centuries and the almshouses of +Columbus' Century. Just next to the Guild School and Chapel in +Stratford there is a row of little houses rather strange looking now, +but not so unlike the houses of the time in which they were erected as +to be noticeable. There are a dozen or more of these in which the aged +poor were to live, husband and wife occupying the ground floor of a +little house by themselves. Places were also provided in the upper +stories of these houses for the widowers, spinsters and old bachelors +who had become too old for work. They are neat little quarters, in +which the old folks still live contented and which the visitor to +Stratford finds of very great interest. The guild chapel not being far +away, a few hundred feet from the farthest of them, even the feeblest +of the old people who were not actually bedridden could have the +consolation of going to church and special services at convenient +hours {173} were held for them. As a matter of fact, after the +rebuilding of the chapel by Sir Hugh Clopton, a great many of the +townspeople, except on high festival days, used to go to the guild +chapel because of its convenience rather than to Trinity Church +outside the town. The boys at the guild school hard by played in their +yard, where the old folk could see them, thus providing the best +possible pastime for their elders, while during the day the busy +traffic of a main travelled road went by them, furnishing further +distraction. + +The grammar school which was founded and supported by the guild +deserves particular mention. It was free to the children of the +members of the guild, and the schoolmaster was forbidden to take +anything from his pupils. The master of the guild paid him an annual +salary. The date of its origin used to be set down as 1453, but it is +now known to have been in existence much earlier, though a thorough +reorganization took place at this time, giving rise to the idea of its +actual foundation. How successful it was in its work may be gathered +from the number of Stratford men who came to hold high positions in +England--there being no less than three Lord Chancellors in one +century--and from what we know of it in Shakespeare's time. It was +suppressed under Henry VIII, but owing to the disaffection among the +people it, as well as a number of other institutions of the kind, were +reestablished under Edward VI and have come to be known as Edward VI +Grammar Schools. As Gairdner has emphasized, there is very little +reason for this designation. The new foundations were made most +grudgingly and economically, considering the vast funds that had been +confiscated. The grammar school was so effective in its teaching, +however, that even the merchants' sons in Stratford wrote to one +another in rather good Latin. Some of the letters are extant. + +Some of these details serve to show very well the character of the +social work accomplished by the guild, especially in its school and +its almhouses. Sir Sidney Lee continues: "But in 1547 all these +advantages ceased: The guild was dissolved and all the property came +into the royal treasure." The account of what happened to some of +these long-established funds for the benefit of the poor and of +education is to be {174} found in his chapter. They were transferred +to favorites of the King, who used them for various unworthy purposes +and, above all, merely to keep up with the pampered luxury of the +time. + +Rev. Augustus Jessop, the Anglican rector of Seaming, in his volume of +essays, "Before the Great Pillage," tells of other parts of England +and that "the almshouses in which old men and women were fed and +clothed were robbed to the last pound, the poor almsfolk being turned +out in the cold at an hour's warning to beg their bread. Hospitals for +the sick and needy, sometimes magnificently provided with nurses and +chaplains, whose very _raison d'etre_ was that they were to look after +the care for those who were past caring for themselves, these were +stripped of all their belongings, the inmates sent out to hobble into +some convenient dry ditch to lie down and die, or to crawl into some +barn or hovel, there to be tended, nor without fear of consequences, +by some kindly man or woman who could not bear to see a suffering +fellow-creature drop down and die at their own door-posts." + +How all this fine organization of social work ended has often been a +mystery to students of the social history of this time. It is not +difficult to understand, however, when the happenings of the latter +part of Columbus' Century are recalled. Sir Sidney Lee, in his +"Stratford-on-Avon," has told the story of the end of things so far as +Stratford is concerned. I prefer to let him tell the story (page 101): + + + "The politicians who surrounded Henry VIII and Edward VI found the + destruction of religious corporations not more satisfactory to their + consciences than to their purses. In 1545 and in 1547 commissioners + came to Stratford to report upon the possessions and constitution of + the Guild of the Holy Cross. The income was estimated at fifty + pounds, one shilling, eleven pence halfpenny, of which twenty-one + pounds, six shillings and eight pence was paid as salary to four + chaplains. There was a clerk, who received four shillings a year; + and Oliver Baker, who saw to the clock (outside the chapel), + received thirteen shillings and four pence. 'Upon the {175} premises + was a free school, and William Dalam, the schoolmaster, had yearly + for teaching ten pounds. 'There is also given yearly,' the report + runs, 'to xxiiij poor men, brethren of the said guild, lxiijs:iijd; + vz. xs. to be bestowed in coals, and the rest given in ready money; + besides one house there called the Almshouse; and besides v. or + vjli. given them of the good provision of the master of the same + guild.'" + + + [Illustration: CHAPEL OF GUILD AT STRATFORD AND ALMHOUSES + (RESTORED BY SIR HUGH CLOPTON, 1500)] + + +A typical instance of the way that wealthy men looked at their social +duties during Columbus' Century is to be found in the case of Sir Hugh +Clopton of Stratford-on-Avon. He was the Lord Mayor in 1492 and, +having never married, he devoted his leisure and his wealth to +philanthropy. Earlier in life he had made his fortune as a merchant in +London. It was he who built New Place, which afterwards became +Shakespeare's property. Just across the street stood the chapel of the +guild and, as Sir Hugh was a prominent member when this edifice sadly +needed restoration at the end of the fifteenth century, he provided +for this. The chancel was left untouched, but the nave and tower as we +have it were rebuilt by him. He died before the work was finished, but +left enough money to secure its completion. It is a charming example +of the perpendicular Gothic of the time and was decorated by elaborate +paintings illustrating the history of the Holy Cross. {176} These +paintings were afterwards covered with whitewash, because the +"reforming" spirit could not tolerate such representations, but in +recent years some of them have been partly uncovered, disclosing how +interestingly the work was done. + + + [Illustration: SIR HUGH CLOPTON'S BRIDGE AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON] + + +Still more interesting, and perhaps the present generation will +consider it more practical, was Sir Hugh's rebuilding in solid stone +of the old wooden bridge over the Avon at Stratford. It was +constructed of free stone, with fourteen arches, and a long causeway +also of Stone, well walled on each side, was added to it. How much +this was needed can be judged from what Leland the antiquary, who +visited Stratford about 1530 on a tour through England, noted in his +account of his journey as to the great value of this gift. "Afore the +time of Hugh Clopton," he wrote, "there was but a poor bridge of +timber, and no causeway to come to it, whereby many poor folks either +refused to come to Stratford when the river was up, or coming thither +stood in jeopardy of life." The bridge is still standing to convince +us of the workmanlike thoroughness with which its foundations were +laid. + +{177} + +When Sir Hugh Clopton came to make his will, Stratford largely +benefited in other ways, as Mr. Sidney Lee, to whom we owe most of +these details, has noted in his "Stratford-on-Avon" (London: Seeley & +Co., 1907, page 94): + + "He bequeathed also C. marks to be given to xx. poor maidens of good + name and fame dwelling in Stratford, i.e., to each of them five + marks apiece at their marriage; and likewise CI. to the poor + householders in Stratford; as also Lli. to the new building, 'the + cross aisle in the Parish Church there' (Dugdale). The testator did + not, at the same time, forget the needs of the poor of London, or + their hospitals; and on behalf of poor scholars at the Universities, + he established six exhibitions at Cambridge and Oxford, each of the + annual value of four pounds for five years." [Footnote 19] + + [Footnote 19: It might possibly be thought that there were few + opportunities for the making of fortunes of any significance in + England at this time, and that therefore Sir Hugh Clopton's + example would mean very little. As a matter of fact, however, this + was the time when above all, fortunes were made rapidly and money + flowed into England more than ever before. Taine in his "History + of English Literature" quotes Acts of Parliament, the "Compendious + Examination," by William Strafford, and other government documents + which make this clear. He sums the situation up by saying: + + "Towards the close of the fifteenth century, the impetus was + given commerce and the woollen trade made a sudden advance, and + such an enormous one that cornfields were changed into pasture + lands, 'whereby the inhabitants of the said town (Manchester) + have gotten and come into riches and wealthy livings' so that in + 1553, forty thousand pieces of cloth were exported in English + ships. It was already the England which we see to-day a land of + meadows, green, intersected by hedgerows, crowded with cattle, + abounding in ships, a manufacturing, opulent land, with a people + of beef-eating toilers, who enrich it while they enrich + themselves. They improved agriculture to such an extent, that in + half a century the produce of an acre was doubled."] + + +Sir Hugh Clopton's many benefactions illustrate very thoroughly the +feeling of many of those who had made money at this time, that they +were stewards of their wealth for the benefit of the community. Civic +philanthropy is sometimes supposed to be a much more modern idea than +this century, and what was given for charity is sometimes thought to +have been but poorly directed. As a matter of fact, wealthy men were +{178} at least as thoughtful of their benefactions in that time as in +our own. If Sir Hugh Clopton's varied works for his towns-people are +to be considered as typical, and everything points to such a +conclusion, they were even more likely to do enduring good. He did not +specialize, but where he found a good work to do he did it. Indeed, +the whole story of doing good for others in this time deserves the +study of the modern time, because of its solution of many problems +that we are facing now. + +An interesting phase of their collections for charity was the +continuance of the old custom which had existed for several centuries, +of having a special day on which everyone who was approached by +certain solicitors for charity was expected to give something. This +was usually the day after Whit-Sunday. Sometimes in the English +villages, at the entrance to a bridge, or across a market place or the +main street of the town, a rope was stretched and everyone who passed +had to pay a toll for charity. Our modern "tag day" was a revival of +this custom, though in the mediaeval towns, where everybody knew +everybody else, there were less social dangers in the custom. + +The Low Countries were very prosperous at this time and took up +seriously the problem of helping the poor. As we have told more in +detail in the chapter on "Hospitals and Care for the Insane," the +order of Beguines took up the nursing and the visiting of the poor, +and in many places the Beguinages assumed the character to some extent +of institutions for the care of the poor. The word poorhouses has +becomes so unfortunate in its connotations that one would scarcely +think of using it in connection with these almost separate +village-like communities, with abundance of air and light, in which +the young women of the better classes took up their own life in small, +neat, attractive houses and cared for the aged poor and children in +little houses not far from their own. A great number of dependents +were maintained mainly out of the revenues derived from the incomes +which these young women of the better classes brought with them into +the institution and from the funds contributed by friends who were +interested in their good work. Our modern settlements are like them in +certain {179} ways, but there are so many differences in favor of the +older institutions, which represent indeed an almost ideal way of +exercising charity, that the contrast is striking. + +Many of the religious orders that were doing such good work in +Columbus' time have gone through many vicissitudes. Governments have +often turned to enrich their favorites at the expense of charitable +foundations in their hands, and it has been an easy way for +politicians to get money. In spite of all this, some of them continue +to do their work even at the present time. Among these the Beguines +are particularly worthy of note. After the union of Holland and +Belgium, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, William of +Holland attempted to abrogate many of the rights of the Beguines and +confiscate much of their property. The municipality of Ghent, in which +the largest Beguinage was situated, sent a protest, in which they +catalogued the great services of the order in times of war and +epidemics, and the unfriendly purpose of the Holland Government was +changed. In the nineteenth century the list of good works accomplished +by the Beguines is very striking and some of them have been listed by +Miss Nutting and Miss Dock in their "History of Nursing": + + "In 1809-10 the Beguines of Belgium had devoted their whole strength + to the service of the army during an epidemic of fever. During the + war of 1813 their buildings were turned into hospitals, and after + Waterloo they literally gave all they had to relieve the + overwhelming distress. In 1832, 1849, and 1853 they again served + nobly in cholera epidemics. Besides their readiness as nurses, they + have likewise not been wanting as good citizens. In 1821 they + contributed a generous sum toward the establishment of municipal + industrial workshops, and have often acted as an aid society in + dispensing contributions to sufferers from natural disasters, such + as inundations and fires." That is a brief nineteenth-century + chronicle of a charitable organization that was at an acme of its + usefulness in Columbus' Century. + +Such functions of helpfulness for those in need are now exercised by +various organizations which are of comparatively {180} recent date. +Because these organizations are new, it is often supposed that the +duties which they now fulfil were either quite unknown or almost +entirely overlooked in the older time. It only requires a little study +of the details of the social life and the organization of charity +before the Reformation to appreciate how much was accomplished by the +various religious orders. It has been so much the custom in +English-speaking countries particularly to think that the religious +were mainly occupied in their own little concerns, selfishly intent on +the accumulation of means to enable them to live in idleness, that +their real place in the life of the olden time has been almost +entirely lost sight of. They represented the charitable organizations +of all kinds that have come into prominence during this last few +generations and that were so sadly needed. Their duties were +accomplished by men and women who resigned all hope of profit for +themselves and gave themselves entirely to these good works, thus +obviating many of the abuses that are now beginning to be so manifest +in charity organization. + +The story of the establishment of the Monti di Pieta, lending +institutions for the poor in Italy, is one of the most interesting +chapters not alone in the social work of this period, but of all +periods. The original suggestion for them came from that great +scholar, preacher and worker for the good of the people, St. +Bernardine of Siena, who died just before the opening of Columbus' +Century. Their organization, however, we owe to Blessed Bernardine of +Feltre, that worthy son of St. Francis of Assisi, who is generally +represented in his pictures with that symbol of a Monte di Pieta, a +little green hill composed of three mounds and on the top either a +cross or a standard, with the inscription, _"Curam illius habe"_ (Have +the care of it). As thus established these institutions, the Monti di +Pieta, were charitable lending houses, where the poor could obtain +money readily for pledges and usually with very little cost to them +beyond the repayment of the loan. At that time it was felt that +charity might well care for the poor to this extent, and it was the +custom for wealthy people who died to leave legacies by which +unredeemed pledges of household necessaries might be restored to the +poor without {181} the repayment of the loan. Such legacies, by the +way, are not unusual even yet in the Latin countries, and at least two +have been chronicled within the year. The spirit of these institutions +was excellent and they accomplished great good, spreading all over +Italy and finding their way in some form into the Latin countries at +least during Columbus' period. + +St. Catherine of Genoa, whose work was done just about the beginning +of Columbus' Century, is a typical example of the organizer of charity +of this time. As a young widow she began to visit the patients in the +hospital, and finally came to spend all of her time there, except such +as was devoted to the visiting of the sick in their homes and the +bringing of them into the hospitals. Soon she organized a number of +others, or at least they gathered round her until a great work for +charity was being done. Many of the noblewomen of the time devoted +some hours at least every week to visiting the sick in the hospitals. +There is a touching story told of Frances, Duchess of Brittany, who +nursed through a severe illness her husband's successor on the ducal +throne, who had treated her with great injustice. She afterwards +retired to a Carmelite convent, where during an epidemic she nursed +the stricken nuns through its whole course, and at the end of it laid +down her own life. In the next century Evelyn, in his "Diary," tells +of his surprise on visiting the hospitals in Paris to see how many +noble persons, men and women, were waiting on them and "how decently +and Christianly the sick in Charite [one of the great hospitals] were +attended even to delicacy." This was only a continuation of the fine +traditions of the older time, surprising to Evelyn because they had +gone out entirely in Protestant England. + +The period was particularly rich in social workers, especially those +who used Christianity as the basis by which to enable men to help +themselves. One of the greatest of these, whose influence so lives on +even in our own time that Cardinal Newman loved to speak of him as his +beloved Father Philip, was Philip Romolo Neri (1515-1595), better +known as St. Philip Neri, the Apostle of Rome. He proved a rather +brilliant scholar as a young man, but when a successful {182} business +career was opening up for him he gave it all up and in 1533 arrived in +Rome without any money, without having informed his father of the step +that he was taking and after having deliberately cut himself off from +the patronage of an uncle who had resolved to make him his heir. For a +while he tutored and wrote poetry and Latin and Italian, and then +studied philosophy at the Sapienza and theology in the school of the +Augustinians. When he was about thirty he became the close friend of +St. Ignatius Loyola, and many of the young men that gathered round +him, because of his attractive, amiable character, found a vocation +for the intellectual and spiritual life in the infant Society of +Jesus. + +In 1548, together with his confessor, he founded the confraternity of +the Most Holy Trinity for the care of pilgrims and convalescents in +Rome. Its members met for communion once a month and there was +exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a practice which was introduced +by Philip. He sometimes preached even as a layman, and in 1551, at the +command of his confessor, for nothing short of this would have +overcome his humility, he entered the priesthood. He devoted his +attention particularly to men and boys and succeeded in making them +close personal friends. In the midst of this work priests gathered +round him, and finally Gregory XIII recognized the little community as +the Congregation of the Oratory. Pope Gregory XIV, who had previously +been a great personal friend of Philip's, would have made him a +cardinal only for the saint's great reluctance. + +His little band of oratorians, among whom the most conspicuous was +Baronius, the Church historian, did wonderful work in Rome and many +other houses of this congregation came into existence. Few men that +ever lived had so much influence over all those who came in contact +with him as St. Philip Neri, and it is this personal influence that +characterized the work of his congregation in the after-time. Newman +and Faber and many of the distinguished converts of the Tractarian +movement in England became members of the Oratory, and St. Philip's +work has come down to our generation through them with very wonderful +success. His career represents another example of the marvellous power +of the {183} men of this time to create things of all kinds which +influence all succeeding generations. + +St. Philip Neri's contemporary and intimate friend, St. Ignatius +Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, is always thought of as a great +organizer in education, seldom as a social worker. There was no phase +of social need in Rome, however, to which he did not give his personal +attention in spite of the many calls that there were on his time. He +taught little children catechism and insisted that this should be a +special feature of the work of his order in spite of its devotion to +the higher education. He organized various institutions for the poor +and secured by his efforts the foundation of a home for fallen women +in Rome and himself personally conducted through the streets to it +some of those who were to enter. His example in this matter must be +taken as a type of what many thoughtful persons of this time were +ready to do in the accomplishment of what they saw as their social +duties. + +One of the great social reformers of the time whose unfortunate death +has made him the subject of wide attention ever since was Savonarola, +the Dominican monk, whose fate has been a sad stumbling-block of +misunderstanding of the time. He used his great powers of oratory to +bring about a social reform. It was sadly needed. Contact with the old +pagan ideas through the new learning had made many of the people of +the time even more selfish than usual. In the midst of the luxury and +worldly interests of the time there had come a neglect of the old +fellow-feeling of kindness and of charity that had characterized the +Middle Ages. This affected mainly the so-called better classes. It was +this, above all, that Savonarola tried to reform. He succeeded in +stirring up the people wonderfully, and it is probable that no one has +ever succeeded in working such a revolution in the social feelings of +a whole city as Savonarola did. + +As a consequence of his ardent appeals people began a great +reformation of city life by reforming themselves. The confessionals +were thronged with penitents, the audiences outgrew the capacity of +the largest church in Florence, that city of ample churches, and the +very streets that had listened to nothing but pagan poetry for years +resounded to the music {184} of hymns and psalms. A really important +step in reform, however, was the great change in the attitude of mind +of men towards others, and especially those needy or in suffering. Men +sold their goods and gave the proceeds to the poor. Women gathered +together their vanities of all kinds, burned them in the market place +and devoted themselves to the care of the ailing. Old feuds were made +up, and thoughts of revenge put aside, though they had been the +dearest traditions in families for generations. For some time there +was probably never a happier community than Florence. No one was in +want, selfishness was almost at an end and lawlessness quite unknown. +The conditions were too good to last among ordinary humanity. +Political bickering began and political factors of all kinds obtruded +themselves on the movement. The citizens formed themselves into a +Christian commonwealth, over which they wished Savonarola to rule. +After a time, intoxicated by the apparent success of the movement, not +a few hoped to raise themselves to power in the midst of the rather +quixotic political conditions that had developed, and almost needless +to say they were urged on by certain of the ruling princes of Italy, +who hoped themselves to benefit by conditions in Florence. + +Long ago Horace said, "You may put away nature as with a fork, but she +will come back." The supernatural ruled for a time in Florence, but +the natural reasserted itself and then the trouble began. Savonarola +was its victim, but not before he had shown clearly what the evils of +the time were and pointed out the path along which they might be +reformed, though the sudden reformation of them could not be hoped +for. + +Savonarola was a social, and not a religious, reformer. He has often +been proclaimed a pre-Reformation reformer, but there was no doctrine +of the old Church that Savonarola did not accept, and it was for +political and not theological reasons that he was put to death, though +ecclesiastics had so much to do with it. All the characteristic +doctrines of the Church--devotion to the Saints and to the Blessed +Virgin, the Blessed Sacrament, Transubstantiation--are dwelt on in his +writings, and he is even the author of a hymn to the Blessed Virgin +{185} and of a treatise on devotion to her. Nor was he at all carried +away with the idea of self-judgment and independence in religion. No +one teaches more emphatically than he the power of the Pope and the +necessity for obedience to Rome. Nothing stronger or more explicit in +this regard has ever been written than some passages that have been +found in his writings. + +It is too bad that his great social influence for good was not allowed +to work itself out into important social reforms. Great churchmen of +the after-time have recognized the sad misfortune of his death, and +Pope Benedict XIV, whose authority in the matter of the canonization +of Saints and the honor to be paid them is the highest, made use of an +expression which shows in what lofty veneration Savonarola was held by +one of the greatest of the popes. As Cardinal Lambertini, Pope +Benedict said: "If God gives me the grace to get to Heaven, as soon as +I shall have consoled myself with the Beatific Vision my curiosity +will lead me to look for Savonarola." Half a century later a parallel +expression, which is almost more striking, was reported to have been +used by Pope Pius VII, who said: "In Heaven three serious questions +will be solved: The Immaculate Conception, the suppression of the +Society of Jesus and the death of Savonarola." [Footnote 20] + + [Footnote 20: How soon this vindication of Savonarola began to be + felt in the minds of high ecclesiastics will perhaps be best + realized from the fact that when, some ten years after the friar's + death, Raphael was asked to decorate the stanze of the Vatican, he + introduced Savonarola beside St. Thomas Aquinas, among the great + doctors of the Church in the very first fresco that he painted. This + fresco was seen and studied carefully by the Pope and greatly + praised by him. Almost needless to say Raphael's action in the + matter would never have been permitted, only that the reaction in + favor of Savonarola had set in very strongly.] + +As a matter of fact, all the sentiment of the great Catholic scholars +and historians of modern times has been intent on vindicating +Savonarola's character. It is not the Church but churchmen who +condemned him and not for religious but political reasons. +Unfortunately in English the general impression with regard to him is +derived from George Eliot's "Romola," and that distinguished English +novelist, in spite of her erudition, was least of all fitted by +temperament or {186} intellectual training and eminently unfitted +because of her religious ideas to write the life of Savonarola and his +relation to his time. No one saw the social abuses so well as he and +no one called attention to them so effectively. He recognized them as +abuses, however, and not in any sense as consequences of the religious +system. He would have been the last one in the world to have wished +for serious disturbance of the Church. He had for years held high +positions in the Dominican order and was in the most complete sympathy +with the religious orders and the hierarchy of his time. + +One of the greatest of the social workers of this century is +undoubtedly Bartolome de Las Casas, who did so much to moderate the +abuses in the treatment of the Indians, which had unfortunately crept +in under the Spanish sovereignty in the early days. He was the son of +Francisco Casas, who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage and +brought back an Indian boy, whom he left to his son as a servant. +Bartolome studied law at Salamanca, secured a high reputation as a +lawyer and then became the counsel to the Spanish governors of the +Antilles and later of the Island of Hispaniola. After some years of +successful legal practice Las Casas became a priest and devoted +himself to the alleviation of the condition of the Indians. In +becoming a priest his position as a reformer became assured. Strange +as that may seem to some who do not understand the period, he gained +almost complete freedom of speech and, having no solicitude for his +material needs, could devote all his time and energy untrammelled to +his chosen life work. He made mistakes, he was eminently unpractical, +but there is no doubt at all about his absolute devotion to the cause +of humanity and his untiring activity and zeal in the cause of proper +Christian treatment of the Indians. He aroused the attention of the +men of his time and, above all, of the sovereigns of Spain and the +most influential men and women of that country. + +His crusade had much to do with the promulgation of the "New Laws" in +1542 and their amendments in 1543 and 1544. These did not abolish +serfdom, but they greatly limited it, so that it was even said that a +native enjoyed more privileges than a Creole. He refused the bishopric +of Cuzco in Peru {187} declaring that he would never accept any Church +dignity, and it was only after much urging that he consented to become +bishop of Chiapas in Southern Mexico. His powers of administration did +not prove as great as his humanitarian ideals and, while he talked +much of abuses, he was not able to correct them as well as many others +who did not set out to be so radical as he. He has written much and +his books have appeared in many editions. His was a great soul that +found a supreme purpose and devoted to it a long life of ninety years. +A less ardent advocate than he would almost surely have failed of +accomplishing the great reform that was needed. Like our own +Abolitionists, he was too radical in many of his views, and yet his +very enthusiasm carried others along into the execution of great good. +His writings have been a storehouse of information with regard to +conditions in the colonies and, while they have to be discounted from +the standpoint of his tendency to exaggeration of interest in the +Indian questions, that exaggeration is justified to a great extent by +the great humanitarian purpose that dictated it. Las Casas must +undoubtedly be considered one of the world's great philanthropists. + +An important social influence, if the name of social reformer does not +quite suit him, was the Duke of Gandia, who is better known as St. +Francis Borgia. He was a great-grandson of Pope Alexander VI, and his +grandfather, Juan Borgia, who had acquired the hereditary Duchy of +Gandia in the kingdom of Valentia in Spain, was assassinated by an +unknown hand, possibly that of his brother, Caesar Borgia. On the +maternal side the Duke of Gandia was the great-grandson of Ferdinand +the Catholic. His grandfather had been the Archbishop of Saragossa. He +himself became a brilliant courtier at the Court of Charles V, and in +the absence of the Emperor was considered the head of the Imperial +household. He and his wife were the favorites of the Empress. After +the death of the Empress he was commissioned to convey her remains to +Granada and, having to identify them formally there before burial, was +shocked on the opening of the coffin at the change which a few days of +death had brought in the sovereign whom he had served so zealously. He +turned {188} to make his life mean something, not for passing honor +but for the good of others. In fulfilment of this purpose he joined +the Jesuits and eventually became the third General of the order. His +change of life attracted wide attention and did almost more than +anything else to lessen many selfish tendencies among the nobility of +the time due to the pagan spirit of the Renaissance. It was a social +reform that made the Borgian name as much of an inspiration for good +as it had been for ill. + +Perhaps even more important for this period is what may be called the +negative side of its social history. Apparently a great many people +are quite convinced that the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance +were witnesses of many severe cruelties and torturing practices, some +of them legal, which reveal, if not an actual barbarity, a sad, almost +inhuman, lack of kindliness and fellow-feeling on the part of the men +and women of this time. Most people who have heard of cruelties and +torture are quite sure that in general these reached their climax of +bitterness in the later Middle Ages and that even the Renaissance time +was not free from them. In the more recent centuries, particularly the +seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth, men are supposed to be +climbing out of the slough of despond in this matter into which +humanity unfortunately had sunk during the mediaeval period. We rather +pride ourselves on this evolution of humanity, quite forgetting for +the moment how much greater than all the old-time barbarity is the +suffering incident to our industrial development. This is, however, +set down to inadvertence at most, while mediaeval and Renaissance +cruelty is thought of as deliberate. + +There are not many impressions more false than this in history, and it +is entirely due to the ignorance of the date of a number of historical +events which are sometimes massed together as mediaeval or at least +not modern, modern history being supposed to begin as a rule with the +discovery of America. As a matter of fact, the refinements of torture +all came after Columbus' Century. The Virgin of Nuremberg, the iron +boots into which wedges were driven for torture purposes, the iron +gauntlets in which the hands of living {189} people were roasted and +many other of the hideous contrivances that rightly find a prominent +place in history were made in the later sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, and not in Columbus' time nor during the mediaeval period. +The worst refinements of legal torture nearly all were devised in the +course of the witchcraft delusion which swept over Europe in the later +sixteenth and during the seventeenth century. There was comparatively +little witch baiting and witch hunting and very few witches put to +death during the earlier centuries. Witchcraft was a post-Reformation +delusion. + +The Encyclopedia Britannica (Ninth Edition), in its article on +torture, emphasizes particularly the fact that: "It is the boast of +the common law of England that it never recognized torture as legal. +Instances of torture as a means of obtaining evidence were invariably +ordered by the Crown or Council, or by some tribunal of extraordinary +authority such as the Star Chamber, not professing to be bound by the +rules of the common law." "The infliction of torture became more +common under the Tudor monarchs," this article continues. "Under Henry +VIII it appears to have been in frequent use." May I add that its +frequency is an incident of the end of his reign after the religious +difficulties began. "Only two cases are recorded under Edward VI and +eight under Mary. The reign of Elizabeth was its culminating point. In +the words of Hallam, 'the rack stood seldom idle in the tower for all +the latter part of Elizabeth's reign.' The varieties of torture used +at this period are fully described by Lingard, and consisted of the +rack, the scavenger's daughter, the iron gauntlets or bilboes, and the +cell called 'little ease.' The registers of the council during the +Tudor and early Stuart reigns are full of entries as to the use of +torture, both for state and for ordinary offences." + +Under Elizabeth and the Stuarts, and even later, there were cases +fully recognized by the English common law which differed from torture +only in name. To quote the Encyclopedia Britannica again: + +"The _peine forte et dure_ was a notable example of this. If a +prisoner stood mute of malice instead of pleading, he was {190} +condemned to the peine, that is, to be stretched upon his back and to +have iron laid upon him as much as he could bear, and more, and so to +continue, fed upon bad bread and stagnant water through alternate days +until he pleaded or died. It was abolished by George III, and George +IV enacted that a plea of 'not guilty' should be entered for a +prisoner so standing mute. A case of _peine_ occurred as lately as +1726. At times tying the thumbs with whipcords was used instead of the +_peine_. This was said to be a common practice at the Old Bailey up to +the last century. In trials for witchcraft the legal proceedings often +partook of the nature of the torture, as in the throwing of the +reputed witch into a pond to see whether she would sink or swim, in +drawing her blood, and in thrusting pins into the body to try to find +the insensible spot. Confessions, too, appear to have been often +extorted by actual torture, and torture of an unusual nature, as the +devil was supposed to protect his votaries from the effects of +ordinary torture." + +The seventeenth century particularly witnessed the deaths of many +thousands of poor people who were thought to be witches. Persecutions +for witchcraft took place more particularly in the countries most +affected by the Reformation. Germany as well as England had many of +them. Even the crudest forms of torture were invented with almost +devilish ingenuity at this time. It was under the influence of this +delusional psychic contagion and the dread of possession by the devil +that the insane and sufferers from nervous diseases of all kinds came +to be treated more inhumanly than ever before. A climax of inhumanity +in their regard was reached in the eighteenth century, when manacles +and chains and dungeons were employed, until at last the exaggeration +of ill-treatment brought with it reaction and reform. + +Humanitarianism shows a decline, marked and definite and progressive +from the end of the sixteenth until the end of the eighteenth century. +Interest in religion sank as in England until John Wesley came to put +a new spirit into it. The rights of men were less and less respected +and the poor were oppressed by those above them until the awful +conditions that developed in the _ancien regime_ came in France, and +{191} nearly similar conditions in other countries. The French +Revolution had to come. Men could stand no more. As Hilaire Belloc, +one of the best of the modern historians of the French Revolution, +says, "That movement was really an attempt to restore to men the +rights which they had enjoyed during the Middle Ages." + + +{192} + +CHAPTER II + +HOSPITALS, NURSING AND CARE FOR THE INSANE + +An excellent criterion of the social status of any period in history +is the genuine humanitarian purpose that animates it, and how +seriously it takes the duty of caring for those who most need care is +to be found in the character of its hospital buildings and their +maintenance. Tried by this standard, Columbus' Century proves to be +one of the greatest of the centuries of history. This will seem very +surprising to most people, because the general impression has been +that until our generation hospitals were rather ugly buildings of +institutional type, with small windows, sordid surroundings and very +unsuitable internal arrangements for the ailing. There is no doubt at +all that hospital buildings just before our generation--and some of +them unfortunately remain over as living witnesses--were all that has +been thus suggested and if possible worse. Indeed, some of the +hospital buildings of two generations ago were about as unsuitable for +their purpose as could well be imagined. The general feeling with +regard to this fact, however, is not so much one of blame as of pity. +Most people assume that the older generations did not know how to +build good hospitals. They did as well as they could, but until the +development of modern knowledge of hygiene and sanitation, as well as +the demand made on hospital administration by modern surgery, +hospitals could scarcely be expected to be anything but the sordid +piles of buildings they usually were, thought proper if they but +furnished a protection from the weather and sustenance for the sick +poor. + +Anyone who will consult the real history of hospitals, however, will +be surprised to find that the worst hospitals in the world's history +were built in the first half of the nineteenth century. The usual +impression is that, if the hospitals of a {193} century ago were so +bad, those of the century preceding that must have been much worse and +so on progressively more unsuitable until in the Middle Ages they must +have been unspeakable. As a matter of fact, the hospitals of the +thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were beautiful buildings as a +rule, quite as charming structures for their purposes as all the other +architecture of that time--churches, monasteries, abbeys, castles, +town halls and the rest. They had at this time a period of wonderful +surgical practice, of which we have learned from the republication of +their text-books of surgery only in recent years, and there is a +definite, direct ratio between surgery and proper hospital +organization. Whenever there is good surgery there are good hospitals, +and whenever there are good hospitals, surgery will be found occupying +a prominent, progressive place in the history of medicine. + +It is hard to understand the periods of decadence in hospital +construction and maintenance and in nursing care and training, but not +more difficult than to understand the ups and downs of surgery. That +anaesthesia and antiseptic practice should obtain for a while and then +gradually be lost is no harder to understand than that hospitals +should gradually "sink to an almost indescribable level of +degradation." Miss Nutting and Miss Dock, in their "History of +Nursing," have described the century from 1750 to 1850 as "The Dark +Period of Nursing." + +They quote Jacobsohn, the well-known German writer about care for the +ailing, who says "that it is a remarkable fact that attention to the +well-being of the sick, improvements in hospitals and institutions +generally and to details of nursing care, had a period of complete and +lasting stagnation after the middle of the seventeenth century, or +from the close of the Thirty Years' War. Neither officials nor +physicians took any interest in the elevation of the nursing or in +improving the conditions of hospitals. During the first two-thirds of +the eighteenth century he proceeds to say nothing was done to bring +either construction or nursing to a better state. Solely among the +religious orders did nursing remain an interest and some remnants of +technique survive. The result was that in this period the general +level of nursing fell far below that of earlier {194} periods. The +hospitals of cities were like prisons, with bare, undecorated walls +and little dark rooms, small windows where no sun could enter, and +dismal wards where fifty or one hundred patients were crowded +together, deprived of all comforts and even of necessities. In the +municipal and state institutions of this period, the beautiful +gardens, roomy halls and springs of water of the old cloister hospital +of the Middle Ages were not heard of, still less the comforts of their +friendly interiors." + +It so happens that just about the beginning of Columbus' Century there +was a great new development of hospital building. This was only what +might have been expected, for a wonderful new period of architecture +was just beginning and buildings of all kinds were being erected with +a magnificence that has made them the admiration of the world ever +since. Handsome basilicas, Renaissance palaces, town halls were being +executed by the architects of the time so as to make them precious +monuments for future generations. Hospitals came in for their share of +this renewal of architectural interest, and a series of really +beautiful hospital buildings were erected which we have come to admire +very much since we ourselves have wakened up to the duty of building +fine hospitals. The old municipalities felt that buildings erected for +the poorer citizens must not be planned with the idea that anything +was good enough for the poor, but must be suitable to the dignity of +the city. + +One of the most beautiful hospitals of this time is the famous +_Ospedale Santa Maria degli Innocenti,_ which has been called the +finest and most interesting foundling asylum in the world. It was +built under the patronage of the guild of silk merchants in the early +part of the fifteenth century, being completed in 1451, and is a model +of charming architecture, decorated with fine paintings and adorned +with the well-known della Robbia blue medallions. The Italians did +not, however, call it--as in our ruder Northern ways is our custom--a +foundling asylum, thus stamping the tragedy of their existence on the +children, but the Home of Innocents. Surely they were the innocent +victims of the conditions which had brought about their abandonment by +their parents. The {195} children were kept until the age of seven, +and then they were placed about with families who promised to treat +them as their own children. The boys were taught trades; the girls, +trained in all domestic occupations, were, when married, given dowries +by the hospital or the foster parents, or received into convents if +they so wished. As showing how the spirit that organized it in +Columbus' Century lives on, we may quote what Miss Nutting and Miss +Dock say with regard to the hospital in their "History of Nursing" (p. +243): + + + [Illustration: BRAMANTE, GREAT COURT OF HOSPITAL (MILAN)] + + +{196} + + "To-day this richly historic house is in charge of the Sisters of + St. Vincent de Paul, under the direction of a highly scientific and + progressive council chiefly consisting of medical men, and is one of + the most perfectly kept and well managed institutions of the kind in + existence, its union of mediaeval charm with modern science being a + congenial and happy one." + +Other hospitals in Florence are scarcely less interesting. The +hospital where Romola went to nurse her patients is still in +existence, but is no longer a hospital. It is now the very interesting +Accademia dei Belli Arti. One of the beautiful hospitals erected at +this time which may serve as a type of the buildings erected for +hospital purposes is the great Ospedale Maggiore of Milan. Important +portions of this were finished during Columbus' Century. One of its +courts is so beautiful that it has been attributed to Michelangelo, +though it seems more probable that it was due to that almost equally +great architectural genius, Bramante. The famous Santo Spirito +Hospital in the Borgo at Rome was rebuilt by Sixtus IV in the first +half of Columbus' Century and had many of the characteristics of the +best architecture of the time. Practically every city in Italy did +some really fine hospital building at this time. Naples and Venice +added to their beautiful mediaeval hospitals and everywhere there was +high development of humanitarian purpose in this regard. + +Italy, however, was not the only country of Europe to have fine +hospitals. Indeed, every country had a share in this, and wherever +there was a flourishing period of architectural evolution hospitals +came in for their share of the development. In the Low Countries and +Northeastern France, where a series of beautiful cathedrals and +churches were being rebuilt or newly erected, and above all where the +magnificent town halls that have been such a subject for admiration +ever since were being erected, hospitals received great attention. Not +only were fine buildings erected, but a magnificent organization of +nursing and care for the ailing occurred. There was great prosperity +among the people, they were doing the trade of the world, they were +democratic in their ideas and they felt that the dignity of the +municipalities required worthy care for the citizens no matter how +poor they might be. + + + [Illustration: MEMLING, MARTYRDOM OF ST. URSULA + (BRUGES. HOSPITAL OF ST. JEAN)] + + +{197} + +Above all, some of our own ideas in hospitals developed among them and +many of the wealthy came to realize that they could be better cared +for in the efficient hands of trained attendants in properly arranged +hospital quarters than in their own homes. There was not that dread of +hospitals which develops whenever they are exclusively for the +poor--and deservedly, because the patients are inevitably the subject +of many abuses. + +That picturesque Belgian community, the Beguines, had charge of a +number of hospitals at this time which became famous for their +thorough organization and maintenance on a high level of efficiency. +One of these was founded at Beaune by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of the +Duke of Burgundy, just about the beginning of Columbus' Century. Miss +Nutting and Miss Dock, in their "History of Nursing," have given a +description (p. 269) of this, as well as some of the details of the +nursing and management mainly taken from Helyot's "History of the +Religious Orders": + + "It was built with much magnificence, with long wards extending into + a chapel, so that the sick could hear the services, and opening into + square courts with galleries above and below. Patients of both sexes + and of all ranks and degrees were received, both rich and poor. + There was one ward for those most seriously ill, and back of all a + building for the dead, with 'many lavatories and stone tables.' In + the upper galleries were suites of apartments for wealthy patients, + and the gentlefolk came from leagues around. The suites consisted of + a bedroom, dressing-room, anteroom and cabinet. They were richly + furnished, and each patient had three beds, that he might move from + one to another. Each apartment had its own linen, utensils and + furniture, 'and borrowed nothing from any other.' The suites and + wards were named after the King, royal family, dukes of Burgundy, + and other prominent personages. In the middle wards patients of the + middle class were received, and in the lower galleries the poor. The + rich patients had their own food and wine sent to them, and paid for + their medicines, but the rooms and the sisters' services were free. + Few, however, left without bestowing a gift. The poor were cared for + without any cost, but if they wanted {198} anything special they had + to buy it. A little river ran through the court and was carried in + canals past the different departments for drainage. It was noted + that the hospital had no bad odors, such as were found in so many + others, but was sweet and clean." + +The conditions in these hospitals of Columbus' Century were so much +better than we have had any idea of until recent historical studies +revealed them to us, and so many people have somehow become persuaded +that hospitals of the olden time were without proper provision for the +care of the sick, such as we have elaborated again in our time, that +descriptions of other hospitals seem necessary to make the hospital +organization of the time clear. Miss Nutting and Miss Dock declare +that "the hospital at Chalons sur Saone was also very magnificent, and +there, too, there were no bad odors, but in winter delicate perfumes +and in summer baskets of growing plants hung from the ceiling. It had +a large garden with a stream running through it with little bridges +over it." It is easy to understand what a charming place for +convalescents and what a pleasant view for patients could be made out +of such surroundings. There is no doubt that they were well taken +advantage of, for this is the time of the beautiful Renaissance +gardens, when everywhere natural beauty was cultivated to a good +purpose. + +Helyot, in his _"Les Ordres Monastiques."_ describes the beautiful +drug rooms in these hospitals, where the various medicaments were +prepared, many of them being grown in the hospital garden, and also +the other rooms of the hospital, the quarters for the nursing sisters, +and says that "the patients were nursed with all the skill and +goodness of heart and refinement that might be expected from the +conditions surrounding them." He appreciated very well that proper +quarters for patients and nurses make strongly for such nursing +conditions as are sure to be of the greatest possible help in the care +of diseases. + +A special nursing order of Beguines was formed at this time, and as +these religious women were recruited as a rule from the better classes +of the population, bringing in with them such dowries as would enable +them to support {199} themselves in whatever work they might +undertake, it is easy to understand on what a high plane the nursing +must have been. It would remind one of the conditions in the early +days of the trained nurse in modern times, when so many of the +applicants for nursing positions were prepared by their family life at +home for devotion to a liberal profession rather than merely the +taking up of an occupation necessary for livelihood. + +How their efforts were appreciated by patients will be very well +understood from what may still be seen at the hospital of St. Jean at +Bruges. The great painter Memling was for a time a patient in the +hospital. He felt that he owed his life to the good sisters who had +done so much for him, and so he painted a great altar-piece for them +and decorated the famous Shrine of St. Ursula. The pictures were +painted just about the time that Columbus discovered America. They are +among the most beautiful examples of religious painting ever made. The +decorations of the shrine particularly are among the world's great +works of art. They are almost miniatures and contain large numbers of +faces, beautifully executed, but every detail has been worked out by +the great painter, evidently as a labor of love. The texture of some +of the garments as he reproduces them has proved a source of wonder to +artist visitors ever since. Many thousands of visitors find their way +to the hospital every year, and even the small sum of money (twenty +cents) which is charged for admission to see them constitutes in the +annual aggregate an income of thousands of dollars. The hospital, +which is very spacious and has large gardens with the canal winding +alongside of it, is enabled to carry on its work much better as a +consequence of this notable addition to its revenues due to the +gratitude of a patient of over four hundred years ago. + +Many of these hospitals had beautiful decorations. They understood +very well at that time that patients' minds must be occupied if they +are to be saved from the depressing effect of too much thinking about +themselves, and they felt that staring at bare walls was not conducive +to diversion of mind. In many of these hospitals then there were +beautifully {200} decorated walls and great pictures in the corridors. +As these were painted directly on the wall, as a rule they did not +collect dust nor present opportunities for dirt to gather. + +Helyot has insisted on the ample water supply that they made it a rule +to secure for these old-time hospitals. It was felt that the plentiful +use of water was absolutely essential for maintaining healthy +conditions in hospital work. In our modern time we have come more and +more to realize that, while antiseptics are of great value once +infection has taken place and dirt has found an entrance, soap and hot +water are the best possible materials, especially when frequently +applied, to maintain sanitary conditions. + +Many of the habits worn by the religious who were devoted to nursing +had certain features that made them much more hygienic for patients +than ordinary feminine dress. As a rule, they were very simple, often +made of washable materials, the head was always covered and spotless +white was worn around the shoulders and at the wrist. This was +sufficient of itself to keep constantly in mind the necessity for +scrupulous cleanliness. Dirt showed very readily. When the nurses, or +at least those who had the main duties to perform, came of refined +families and wore these habits there could have been no neglect of +cleanliness. + +The best possible evidence for the proper appreciation of the place of +hospitals in life at this time is to be found in Sir Thomas More's +account of the hospitals in Utopia. It must not be forgotten that he +was travelling in Flanders when he wrote it. He pictures the people of +his ideal republic as possessed of fine large hospital buildings, +providing ample accommodations so that even in times of epidemic there +need be no danger of contagion and abundantly supplied with all that +is necessary for the care of the ailing. The standard was not what was +good enough for the ailing poor, but what was worthy of the dignity of +the city caring for its citizens. The proof of the completeness of +their arrangements for the care of patients is to be found in the +added declaration that practically everyone who was sick preferred to +go to the hospital rather than to be cared for at home. This is the +condition of affairs which is now developing among us again, {201} +after a long interval, during which hospitals were the dread of the +poor and the detestation of those who had to go to them. The whole +passage is extremely interesting for this reason: + + "But they take more care of their sick than of any others; these are + lodged and provided for in public hospitals. They have belonging to + every town four hospitals, that are built without their walls and + are so large that they may pass for little towns; by this means, if + they had ever such a number of sick persons, they could lodge them + conveniently, and at such a distance that such of them as are sick + from infectious diseases may be kept so far from the rest that there + can be no danger of contagion. The hospitals are furnished and + stored with all things that are convenient for the ease and recovery + of the sick; and those that are put in them are looked after with + such tender and watchful care, and are so constantly attended by + their skilful physicians, that as none is sent to them against their + will, so there is scarce one in a whole town that, if he should fall + ill, would not choose rather to go thither than lie sick at home." + +The spirit of the century and its power of organization of charity and +good works is well expressed by the foundation of the Brothers of +Mercy in Spain, in 1538, by a Portuguese soldier who had been wounded +in battle, as was not infrequent in those days, and vowed to devote +his life to God if he recovered. He rented a small house in Granada, +where he gathered together a number of sick people and nursed them +with the greatest care. In order to support them he went through the +streets in the evening with a basket begging for his patients. After a +time others came and joined him in his good work. Alms boxes were +placed here and there through the city to remind people of the help +that was needed. Gradually the scope of their work increased, they +were given charge of hospitals, they visited the sick at their homes +and the order spread not only over Europe but throughout the +Spanish-American countries on this continent. Within a hundred years +after the foundation the annual number of patients under their care +was said to have been some two hundred thousand. A number of houses of +the order was {202} founded in Italy, and over their alms boxes down +there the sign was, _Fate bene, fratelli_, (Do good, little brothers). +From this sign they came to be known as the _Fate Bene Fratelli_, the +Do Good Little Brothers. + +The proper care of the insane is usually looked upon as a very modern +phase of humanitarian evolution. Most people think that until the last +hundred years the insane have been hideously neglected, when not +treated with absolute barbarity, and that the rule has been simply to +put them away so that they could not injure themselves or others, +confining, manacling, and otherwise hampering their activities, +regardless of their health or the mental effect on them. In this once +more, as in most of the historical ideas with regard to humanitarian +development, the erroneous notions are due to the fact that the care +for the insane was at its lowest point during the eighteenth and the +early part of the nineteenth century, and that there has been a +magnificent improvement since, though it must not be forgotten that +there has not been a single generation since when there have not been +very serious complaints deservedly uttered of awful neglect of the +insane in some part of the civilized world. We have had revelations +with regard to the care of the insane in the country districts of even +our Eastern States which have been almost incredible. The conditions +that we have come to learn as existing in the South in the care of the +insane, which have been brought to light by the recent investigation +of pellagra, have been of a similar character. The epithet mediaeval +which is applied so often to these conditions is absolutely +unwarranted by our present knowledge of old-time care of the insane. + +It has been concluded that, since care for the insane was so neglected +in the eighteenth century, it must have been almost infinitely worse +in preceding centuries. The same fallacy lies at the root of a great +many false impressions with regard to mediaeval and Renaissance +history. The eighteenth was the lowest of centuries in art, +literature, education, and humanitarian purpose. The preceding +centuries exhibit some very interesting developments of care for the +insane, some of which anticipate our most modern ideas. At Gheel in +{203} Belgium, from the earlier Middle Ages, they cared for defectives +on the village plan. Similar institutions were not infrequent. They +developed the "open door" system of caring for the insane and insane +institutions were mainly in connection with monasteries, well out in +the country, and under good conditions, since they were never crowded. +It is always crowding that brings serious abuses with it and leads to +what seems to be barbarity, but is really an inability to cope with +the large problem with inadequate means. + +It so happened that just before the beginning of Columbus' Century +there was a special development of care for the insane and the opening +of a series of hospitals that represent an epoch in the history of +care for these poor people. The most important part of this +development of the fifteenth century occurred in Spain. Asylums were +founded at Valencia, Saragossa, Seville, Valladolid and Toledo. This +movement has sometimes been attributed to Moorish or Mohammedan +influence, but even Lecky, in his "History of European Morals," has +rejected these assertions which are absolutely without proof. Spain +continued to be the country in which lunatics were best cared for in +Europe down to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Pinel, the +great French psychiatrist who struck the manacles from the insane of +France, declared Spain to be the country in which lunatics were +treated with most wisdom and most humanity. In his book on "Mental +Alienation" he gives some details of the treatment which show a very +modern recognition of the need to be gentle and careful of the insane +rather than harsh and forceful. + +In England a rather important development of care for the insane +occurred during this century in connection with Bedlam Hospital, +London. This, originally founded as a home for the suffering poor, as +its name Bethlehem (house of bread) implies, whether they had any +specific ailment or not, came after a time to be a hospital, and then +as a further development confined its care to the insane. Tyndale is +the first to use the word Bedlam as meaning a madhouse or a madman, so +that the conversion had evidently taken place in his time. One very +interesting custom developed which serves to show the mode of +treatment practised. A "bedlam" came to {204} signify one who had been +discharged from this hospital with the license to beg. After recovery +from their acute conditions the insane were allowed to go out on +condition, if there was no one to care for them, that they wore a tin +plate on their arms as a badge to indicate that they had been for a +time in the asylum. This tin plate aroused the sympathy of those they +met and they were helped in various ways by the people of the time. +Besides, it served as a warning that, since such people had been for a +time in the asylum, they were not to be irritated nor treated quite as +other folk, but on the contrary to be cared for. They were known as +bedlamers, bedlamites or bedlam beggars. They were treated so well +that tramps and other beggars of various descriptions obtained +possession of badges and abused the confidence of the public. + +After Henry VIII's time Bedlam, which had been a religious +institution, passed under the care of the state, and from this time on +the story of abuses of all kinds is repeated at successive +investigations in every other generation. Evelyn, in his "Diary of +1656," notes that he saw several poor creatures in Bedlam in chains. +In the eighteenth century it became the custom for those seeking +diversion and entertainment to visit Bedlam and observe the antics of +the insane patients as a mode of amusement. This was done particularly +by the nobility and their friends. A penny was charged for admission +into the hospital, and there is a tradition that at one time an annual +income of L400 accrued from this source. This would mean that one +hundred thousand people had visited the hospital in the course of a +year. Some of Hogarth's pictures show the hospital being visited in +this way by fashionable ladies. + +In Rome the Popes, recognizing the superiority of the care for the +insane as practised in Spain and in Navarre, opened a Pazzarella at +Rome in the sixteenth century under the care of three Navarrese. This +hospital for the insane "received crazed persons of whatever nation +they be and care is taken to restore them to their right mind; but if +the madness prove incurable they are kept during life and have food +and raiment necessary to the condition they are in." Evidently they +{205} looked for improvement in many cases and expected to allow the +patients to leave the asylum at least for a time, though if their +alienation continued they were kept. Just about the end of Columbus' +Century a Venetian lady of wealth, evidently attracted by the kind of +care given the insane, "was moved to such great pity of these poor +creatures upon sight of them that she left them heirs to her whole +estate. This enabled the management with the approbation of Pope Pius +IV to open a new house." + +It is after the sixteenth century that decadence in the care of the +insane becomes very marked. This reached its climax, as might well be +expected, just about the same time that hospitals and care for the +ailing reached their lowest ebb of efficiency. Burdett, in his +"Hospitals and Asylums of the World," London, 1901, gives his third +chapter the title, "The Period of Brutal Suppression in Treatment and +Cruelty, 1750 to 1850." This decadence was largely due to the fact +that institutions for the care of the insane became State asylums, +with hired attendants, whose only interest after a time was the +drawing of their salary and having as little trouble as possible with +the care of the insane. In the previous centuries they had been under +the care of the religious orders. + + +{206} + +CHAPTER III + +ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA AND THE JESUITS + +While painters and sculptors and architects and poets during the +Renaissance period were creating masterpieces that were to influence +all succeeding generations, a Spanish soldier, using men as his +material, created a human masterpiece for the accomplishment of great +purposes that was destined to be as vital and enduring as any of the +supreme achievements of the time. As Raphael used color and +Michelangelo marble, and Leonardo da Vinci the original ideas of an +inventive genius of first rank, Ignatius Loyola formed men's wills to +a great creative end that was destined to influence not only Europe +but every continent on the globe perhaps more than any other creation +of the time. The Company of Jesus, as he called it--and he liked to +add the epithet little--the band of trained soldiers whose motto was +to be "For the Greater Glory of God" (_Ad Major em Dei Gloriam_) and +whose purposes were to be as various as all the activities that can be +included under such a standard, came to be within half a century after +his death the most powerful body of intellectual men in their +influence over mankind that the world has ever seen. It was not so +much a deliberate creation as a Providential formation, gradually +finding its place in the world under the guiding genius of a great +soul living on after the death of the body it had informed. + +Born in Spain in the Castle of Loyola the year before Columbus +discovered America, the youngest of eleven children, Ignatius until +his thirtieth year was a venturous chivalric soldier. Wounded at the +siege of Pamplona by the French in 1521, when his leg healed in bad +position, he had it rebroken, bearing the awful pain in those +pre-anaesthetic days rather than have his pride annoyed by deformity. +During the enforced idleness he read, after exhausting all the other +reading {207} of the place, especially the romances of chivalry, a +life of Christ and lives of various saints, particularly that of St. +Francis of Assisi, and came to the conclusion that life was only worth +living when lived in imitation of the God Man. Amidst many almost +incredible difficulties, for more than a dozen of years, he formed his +character by spiritual exercises, took up the study of grammar in a +class with little boys, supported himself by begging as one of the +beggar students of the time, and gathered around him at the University +of Paris a group of seven men, who in 1534 took their vows with him as +members of the Company of Jesus. With true Spanish chivalry, their +first object was to win over the Holy Land from the infidels by going +to Jerusalem and converting it. Prevented by war from doing this, they +became teachers and missionaries in Italy. Their zeal was so great and +yet so directed by reason, they were so absolutely unselfish and had a +charm that attracted so much attention, that they accomplished +wonders. The Pope received them with kindness and gave them +provisional confirmation of their rule. Pope Paul III had insisted on +limiting the number of religious orders because of abuses that had +arisen in them, but after reading Ignatius' rule he declared "the +finger of God is here," gave them the fullest confirmation and in 1543 +they were acknowledged as one of the religious orders of the Church. + +Francis Thompson has summed up very strikingly, with a poet's eye for +effect, the situation in Europe when Loyola was born. That will give +the best idea what a confusion there was all around him at the moment +when this son of an obscure nobleman began the work that was finally +destined to bring order out of much of the religious and educational +chaos of the time at least: + + "It was a great, a brilliant, a corrupt epoch, fraught with + possibilities of glory and peril to a youth of Spain. The old order + was yielding. Throughout Europe the nations were loud with the + falling ruins of feudalism, and the consolidation of absolute + monarchies was ushering in the new political creation. In a mighty + dust of war and revolt Christendom itself was vanishing, leaving in + its stead an adjustment of States {208} on a secular basis, to be + known as 'the balance of European Power.' + + "In the year after little Loyola's birth Columbus sailed to begin + the New World. When the boy passed to the Court the day of Ferdinand + and Isabella was done; Charles V was waiting to ascend the Spanish + throne. Before he began the campaign which ended in the breach of + Pamplona, Charles had inherited the sceptre of Spain and been + elected to the Empire of Germany. The great captain, Gonsalvo de + Cordova, was dead; Francis I was King of France, singing _'Souvent + femme varie,_ and preparing to tilt with Charles for the supremacy + of Europe. English Harry was still bluff Hal, no gospel light yet + dawned from Boleyn's eyes and many an English Queen, little dreaming + of that perilous dignity to come, still bore her head on her + shoulders. But a thick-necked young German friar, with the + Reformation in his cowl, was about to cut the tow-rope between the + Teuton nations and the boat of Peter. There was a constable Bourbon + who should presently halloo those revolting Teutons to the sack of + Rome, there was Cellini, a goldsmith, who should brag to have killed + him there: a young Gaston de Foix was to flame athwart Italy, and + leave like a modern Epaminondas--the victors weeping at Ravenna: a + Bayard, last of chivalry in an unchivalric age, was to leave a name + _sans peur et sans reproche._ And there was a young Loyola: what of + him? Why, before Cervantes came to laugh Spain's chivalry away, + should he not be a Spanish Bayard, a Spanish Gaston de Foix, or + indeed both in one?" + +A knight he dreamed to be and a knight he was to be, but very +different from his dreams. Cervantes did not laugh Spain's nor +Europe's chivalry away. Any such thought was farthest from him. +Ignatius Loyola was to demonstrate the chivalry still in many hearts +and was to form and lead men who should accomplish knight-errant tasks +all over the world, thinking not of themselves, but lifting men up, an +army, as I have said he preferred to call it "a little company," of +leaders of others to what seemed less quixotic in his time than in +ours, the greater glory of God, but was not without its visionary +quality even then. A knight undaunted, _sans peur et sans reproche,_ +{209} he surely was, but when he fell his purpose actively survived +him, his own great soul had passed into it and it was destined to +survive him apparently forever. + +After nearly four centuries the Jesuits, as Ignatius' "little company +of Jesus" came to be called, are still at their work--teachers, +missionaries, writers, scientists, editors; anywhere and everywhere +accomplishing the purpose of their founder, doing anything and +everything that seems best fitted to advance according to their motto, +"The Greater Glory of God." When they were suppressed in 1773 there +were about twenty thousand of them. After a full generation of formal +non-existence they rose from the dead, as it were, and now there are +some sixteen thousand of them in the world, with some twenty-five +thousand pupils in their schools in this country alone, and probably +two hundred thousand in their schools all over the world. No body of +men have more influence, nor is that influence used more for good, +than is true of the Jesuits. They are human, and individual members +have their faults. + +Ignatius was named as the first General, and to him is due the +Constitutions of the Order. His only other writing is the little book +of the "Spiritual Exercises," a compendium of the thoughts with which +men were to exercise their souls and hearts during the thirty days of +retreat which they made in order to strip themselves as far as +possible of earthly motives and of all selfishness, so as to take up +seriously the following of Christ. It has been said, and probably with +justice, that this little book has influenced the conduct of men more +since it was written than any that ever came from the hands of man. It +was composed within the same quarter of a century while Machiavelli +was writing "The Prince." The Jesuit constitutions have been the +admiration of all those who have given them deep study and they are +the model of those of most of the religious orders, both of men and +women, founded since his time. They were not written with ideals alone +in mind, but they were a growth in the mind of Ignatius during the +years of his generalate and represent the condensed practical +experience of the Jesuits during the first ten years of their +existence as it passed through the alembic of a genius {210} for +government, directed by a saint's absolute desire only to secure the +greater glory of God. + +The only purpose of Ignatius was to influence men to imitate the life +that the God Man had lived on earth, which had become the absorbing +motive of his own life. He gave himself as a result to all forms of +work for social betterment that would conduce to this. The teaching of +catechism to children was considered most important by him, and he +took it on himself as a personal obligation. The social evil and the +reform of erring women were his special care in Rome, and he did not +hesitate to be seen conducting these women to a house of refuge that +he had had established for them in the city. His work for them +accomplished great and lasting good. He realized that education was +the most important means of influencing men, so to this his order was +particularly devoted. + +Ignatius' supreme quality was his marvellous ability to select the men +who would be of service in great undertakings. St. Francis Xavier, who +became the great Apostle of the Indies, acknowledged that he owed +under Providence his call to this sublime work entirely to Ignatius, +who had turned his ambition from the pursuit of scholarly distinction +to a life directed to the extension of Christianity. The brilliant +young professor at the University of Paris who at first rather +despised the elderly student, apparently slow-witted because of +unaccustomedness to the task of study, came to look upon Ignatius +almost as a second father, and his expression "What doth it profit a +man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" became for him the +keynote of existence. Once he had given himself to the new purpose in +life, Francis Xavier took nothing back, and when Ignatius obtained for +him the privilege of going to the Indies as an apostle he succeeded in +the ten years between 1542 and 1552 in planting Christianity firmly +among the natives in both India and Japan, and was only prevented from +accomplishing as much for China by his premature death in 1552. As it +was, he left the inspiration of his example to be the spirit of the +greatest missionary work in the East that has ever been known. + +This work of the missions was to be one of the principal {211} +features of Jesuit accomplishment during the after-time. While they +conducted some of the most important colleges in Europe and came to +have more than one hundred thousand students under their care within a +hundred years, their missionaries were soon to be found in every land. +The century of Jesuit missions in Japan after St. Francis Xavier's +time is one of the most glorious, edifying and romantic chapters in +Church history. They succeeded in converting many thousands of +Japanese and organizing them into Christian communities. Unfortunately +political troubles within, commercial rivalries of various kinds from +without eventually led to the persecution of the Christians. The +Japanese Christians showed then that they knew how to die with the +firmness of the early martyrs. All the priests were put to death or +banished, and yet so thorough had been the training of the native +catechists that even in our own time, with the opening up of Japan to +missionary work again, village communities have been found in which +the Christian faith was preserved. + +In India their success was not less remarkable and they succeeded in +solving the caste problem, which had been up to this time a hopeless +obstacle in the path of Christianity. Robert de Nobili, the nephew of +Bellarmine, the great theological writer and historian of the Church, +adopted the dress and the extremely difficult habits of life of the +high-caste Brahmin. In a few years he succeeded in converting over one +hundred thousand of this hitherto impossibly exclusive class. He had +many worthy companions as his colleagues and successors. Among others +Andrada, the first Apostle of Thibet, succeeded in penetrating into +the forbidden sacred land of the Lamas and in making many conversions. +All the castes of India were taken care of and there were great +missionary centres at Goa, Mangalore, Madura, Calcutta and Bombay. + +The Chinese missions of the Jesuits were in their own good time not +less successful and in certain ways gave the order even greater +prestige. Distinguished scholars like Father Ricci impressed +themselves upon even the contemptuous Chinese mandarins, established +astronomical observatories and succeeded in gaining the favor of the +Court. As a consequence, their brethren received permission to +evangelize the people, {212} and proceeded to make many thousands of +converts. Unfortunately, here as in Japan, political disturbances in +China itself and Western commercial jealousies, with the fear that the +Jesuits might favor certain nations rather than others in trade, led +eventually to their banishment and the destruction of their missions. + +It is on the American continent, however, that the story of the Jesuit +missions is particularly interesting for Americans. Ignatius himself +founded the missions in South America, opening up the missions of +Brazil through Father De Nobreza in 1549. Later in Chili, in Peru and +in Mexico the Jesuits labored with unexampled success among the +Indians. At the beginning of the seventeenth century they established +the famous Reductions of Paraguay. These were communities of Christian +Indians living in peaceful ways in the most happy community life. The +story of the life led by the Indians in these Reductions reads more +like some ideal commonwealth than an actual chapter of the history of +a savage people gradually being brought to a happy civilization. +Students of social order have often gone back to study the ways and +means by which this great work was accomplished and have been +enthusiastic in their praise of the marvels accomplished. In 1717 +these Reductions in Paraguay counted over one hundred thousand +Christian Indians. With the suppression of the Society in the +Portuguese dominions after the middle of the eighteenth century they +fell into decay, and an accomplished ideal of human life that made men +happier than has perhaps ever before been the case disappeared from +existence. + +In North America the labors of the Jesuits were quite as wonderful as +elsewhere, perhaps even more marvellous in the heroism displayed than +in any other part of the globe. Their labors among the Indians, though +they risked and often incurred torture and death and though their +lives involved the most difficult kind of labors under the most trying +conditions of hardship, lack of food and suffering from the +inclemencies of the climate, and the still more uncertain temper of +the savages, form a chapter in the history of humanity that is among +the most stirring tales of human bravery for a high, unselfish +purpose. The lives of such men as Fathers Daniel, Lallemant, {213} +Breboeuf, Jogues and Marquette are monuments of supreme human devotion +to the great cause of humanity and Christianity. They preceded the +pioneers, and their stories of life among the Indians as told in the +"Jesuit Relations" are the most precious documents in the early +history of exploration on this continent, making important +contributions to the sciences of Indian ethnology and of American +geography, as well as other departments of knowledge. Bancroft said of +them: "The history of their labors is connected with the origin of +every celebrated town in the annals of French America; not a cape was +turned, nor a river entered but a Jesuit led the way." Parkman has +paid a fine tribute to their work as missionaries and pioneers, though +it is sad to see how ill he appreciated the motive of their work and +how he failed almost completely to realize the sublime humanity of +their intentions. + +Everywhere they went they devoted themselves not only to the spread of +Christianity, but also to the gathering of precious scientific +information, which they transmitted to Europe. They brought about the +introduction into Europe of valuable botanical specimens, especially +of medicinal plants and various substances that they found in use +among the Indians. The name Jesuits' bark for quinine is only a +testimony to the fact that it was a missionary of the order in Brazil +who first learned how valuable this substance was in the treatment of +malarial fevers and brought about its introduction into Europe. They +compiled dictionaries of the Indian languages, which are now the only +remains of some of these native American languages, important +contributions to philology. Often these language studies are the only +significant evidence of the relationships among the Indian tribes and +of their real place of origin in the country. The geographical +knowledge that they gathered and transmitted was most precious. + +All this was done in the midst of a self-sacrificing life among the +Indians that a modern reads with ever-increasing astonishment. It +seems almost incredible when it is recalled that the men who bore +these sufferings so heroically were always highly educated, scholarly +graduates of European colleges and often the descendants of gently +nurtured families. Not infrequently the missionaries could see but +very little fruit {214} from their labors for long periods and they +had to be satisfied if they could make even a few converts among the +old and the women and children as the result of years of labor. The +contribution to civilization of these men, formed after the mighty +saintly mind of Columbus' great contemporary Ignatius Loyola, is one +of the greatest things that we owe to Columbus' Century. + +The most important function of the Jesuits, however, as planned by +Ignatius himself, was not missionary work, but education. Ignatius +contemplated that his little Company of Jesus should be, first of all, +teachers. His constitutions arranged the training and outlined the +methods. Before a generation had passed after his death they had some +of the best schools in Europe. Everywhere the Jesuit schools were +attended by the better classes, and the first century of the history +of the Jesuits had not closed before there were more than one hundred +thousand students in attendance in their classrooms. The reason for +this was that their system of teaching and of intellectual discipline +turned out scholars better than any other. What they taught as the +basis of education was the classics. The humanities had come in as a +great feature of education with the Renaissance. When the order was +founded the Renaissance spirit was at its height and the schools of +the New Learning had multiplied all over Europe. The Jesuits adopted +it as the best means of training the mind, and how well they used it +history shows. + +At once, with that careful attention to details so characteristic of +the order, they began to systematize education, and the great _ratio +studiorum_, probably the most significant contribution to the +literature of methods of education ever made, was the result. It +emphasized particularly the necessity for the prelection, that is, of +preliminary discussion and explanation of the lesson which the +students were expected to study for the next day, careful methods of +recitation and demonstration and then finally insisted on the need of +frequent repetitions. Competition was looked upon as a most precious +element for the arousing of student interest. After a period of +neglect, we are coming back to this thought once more. Themes, that +is, written exercises, and especially those {215} in which the +language to be learned was directly employed, were set down as a most +important factor in linguistic education. The actual use of the +language to be learned in class was dwelt on. After the classics the +student was expected to take a course in philosophy, that is, in logic +and general metaphysics and psychology, before graduation. Above all, +moral as well as intellectual training was insisted on. + +In his "Essays on Educational Reformers," Quick summed up in the first +paragraph of his book the place of the Jesuits in education rather +strikingly: "Since the revival of learning, no body of men has played +so prominent a part in education as the Jesuits. With characteristic +sagacity and energy, they soon seized on education as a stepping-stone +to power and influence; and with their talent for organization, they +framed a system of schools which drove all important competitors from +the field, and made Jesuits the instructors of Catholic, and even, to +some extent, of Protestant Europe. Their skill in this capacity is +attested by the highest authorities, by Bacon and Descartes, the +latter of whom had himself been their pupil; and it naturally met with +its reward: for more than one hundred years nearly all the foremost +men throughout Christendom, both among the clergy and laity, had +received the Jesuit training, and for life regarded their old masters +with reverence and affection." + +If the estimation of any body of teachers is to be rightly adjudged, +surely there can be no better source of evidence with regard to them +than what is to be obtained from their students. Almost without +exception pupils of the Jesuits are most ardent in their praise. Only +those who do not know them personally have been bitter in denunciation +of them. To know them well enough is to love and honor them. + +A few of the names of the great pupils of the Jesuit schools will +serve to exemplify the sort of men that they were influencing by their +education. Among them were: Bossuet, Corneille, Moliere, Bourdaloue, +Tasso, Fontenelle, Diderot, Voltaire, Bourdelais, Descartes, Buffon, +Justus Lipsius, Muratori, Calderon, Vico the jurisconsult, Richelieu, +Tilly, Malesherbes, Don John of Austria, Luxemburg, Esterhazy, +Choiseul, St. Francis de Sales, Lambertini, one of the great scholars +of his {216} time, afterwards the most learned of Popes under the name +of Benedict XIV, and the late Pope Leo XIII, one of the greatest of +the moderns. + +Some idea of the productiveness of the Jesuits as scientific, +philosophic and literary writers may be obtained from the catalogue of +their works issued by the Fathers de Backer and which has been brought +up to date by Father Sommervogel. Hughes, in "Loyola and the +Educational System of the Jesuits" in the Great Educators Series +(Scribner's, 1902), has summed up the significance of these works: + + "But at length the two Fathers de Backer published a series of seven + quarto volumes, in the years 1853-1861; and the first step they + followed up, in the years 1869-1876, with a new edition in three + immense folios, containing the names of 11,100 authors. This number + does not include the supplements, with the names of writers in the + present century, and of the anonymous and pseudonymous authors. Of + this last category. Father Sommervogel's researches, up to 1884, + enabled him to publish a catalogue, which fills a full octavo volume + of 600 pages, with double columns. The writers of this century, whom + the De Backers catalogued in their supplement, filled 647 columns, + folio, very small print. Altogether the three folios contain 7,086 + columns, compressed with every art of typographical condensation. + + "Suarez of course is to be seen there, and Cornelius a Lapide, + Petau, and the Bollandists. A single name like that of Zaccaria has + 117 works recorded under it--whereof the 116th is in thirteen + volumes quarto, and the 117th in twenty-two volumes octavo. The + catechism of Canisius fills nearly eleven columns with the notices + of its principal editions, translations, abridgments; the + commentaries upon it, and critiques. Rossignol has 66 works to his + name. The list of productions about Edmund Campion, for or against + him, chiefly in English, fills in De Backers' folio, two and a half + columns of minutest print. Bellarmine, in Father Sommervogel's new + edition, fills fifty pages, double column. + + "Under each work are recorded the editions, translations, sometimes + made into every language, including Arabic, {217} Chinese, Indian; + also the critiques, and the works published in refutation--a + controversial enterprise which largely built up the Protestant + theological literature of the times, and, in Bellarmine's case + alone, meant the theological Protestant literature for 40 or 50 + years afterwards. Oxford founded an anti-Bellarmine chair. The + editions of one of this great man's works are catalogued by + Sommervogel under the distinct heads of 54 languages. + + "In the methodical or synoptic table, at the end of the De Backers' + work, not only are the subjects well-nigh innumerable, which have + their catalogues of authors' names attached to them, but such + subjects too are here as might not be expected. Thus "Military Art" + has 32 authors' names under it; Agriculture 11; Navy 12; Music 45; + Medicine 28. + + "To conclude then this history of our Educational Order, we have one + synoptical view of it in these twelve or thirteen thousand authors, + all of one family. We have much more. This one work 'attesting,' as + De Backer says in his Preface, 'at one and the same time a + prodigious activity and often an indisputable merit, whereof three + and a half centuries have been the course in time, and the whole + world the place and theatre, is a general record of religion, + letters, science and education in every country, civilized or + barbarous, where the Society of Jesus labored and travelled.'" + +Very often it seems to be thought that, since the basis of Jesuit +education was the classics, therefore little or no attention was paid +to the sciences and consequently an important phase of human +intellectual development was neglected and an essential set of +interests of humanity were set back or at least failed of their +evolution. Those who think that, however, fail entirely to know the +history of the Jesuits and their educational efforts and achievements. +As a matter of fact, the Jesuits have always had distinguished +scientists among them, and many of the great discoverers and teachers +in science for the last three centuries and a half have been members +of the order. Very early in their history the Jesuits turned their +attention to astronomy, then the one of the physical sciences most +developed, and nearly every important Jesuit College soon had an +observatory in which good work {218} was done. When Gregory XIII, +scarcely more than a quarter of a century after Ignatius' death, +wanted to bring about the reformation of the calendar, it was to a +Jesuit, Father Clavius, that he turned. Ever since that time there +have been distinguished Jesuit astronomers. In our own time, Father +Secchi, the Jesuit, probably did more important work than any other +single astronomer of the third quarter of the nineteenth century. +Among the names of the Jesuit astronomers are: Father Scheiner, who +made observations particularly on the sun; Father Cysatus, whose +papers on comets are justly numbered among the most important +concerning this subject; Father Zupi, who first described the dark +stripes or bands on Jupiter and first saw the phases of Mercury which +Galileo surmised rather than saw; Father Grimaldi, who studied Saturn +and drew up one of the first maps of the moon worthy of the name; +Father Riccioli, who introduced the lunar nomenclature; Father +Maximilian Hell, whose memory our own Newcomb vindicated, and many +others. + +They were noted for their intimate relations with scholars who were +devoting themselves to similar subjects, and they were close +correspondents of Kepler and succeeded in helping him to keep his +professorship at the University of Gratz when the Emperor of Austria +issued a decree banishing all Protestant professors from Austrian +Universities. [Footnote 21] + + + [Footnote 21: About this same time when Harvey on a trip through + Europe went to visit the Jesuits in their colleges in a number of + towns, the fact was noted by the men who accompanied him, and they + jested with him as regards the possibility of his either converting + the Jesuits or being converted by them. He said, however, that he + found nowhere more sympathetic friends and interested scholars than + among these religious. His friendship for them has even given some + ground for the declaration that he may have been a Catholic.] + + +It must not be thought, however, that the Jesuits were interested only +in astronomy. They had a large number of mathematicians and of +teachers of all the physical sciences. The famous Roman College, +founded in St. Ignatius' time, was always looked up to as the type of +what a Jesuit College should be. It was here that the great scholarly +Father Kircher taught for nearly half of the seventeenth century. He +was invited to Rome to begin his teaching there just {219} before the +condemnation of Galileo. He would not have received the invitation had +there been the slightest feeling of opposition on the part of the +Church or his order to the teaching of science. While teaching at the +Roman College he wrote a series of text-books on all phases of +physical science. There are several text-books on magnetism, one on +light, a second on sound, a third on astronomy, a fourth on the +subterranean world and many others. + +It would be easy to think that these books are mere compilations and +that they were probably scarcely more than small hand-books of the +imperfect knowledge of the time. On the contrary, they are magnificent +large volumes beautifully printed, finely illustrated, bibliographic +treasures full of original observation. They are some of the best +text-books ever issued. Father Kircher's originality is demonstrated +by the fact that he is the perfecter of the projecting stereoscope or +magic lantern, which he was led to invent in his desire to be able to +make demonstrations to his classes. He also founded the Kircherian +Museum, by which the teaching of anthropology and ethnology were +greatly furthered through the curiosities sent to Rome by the Jesuit +missionaries all over the world. His book, "On the Pest," is full of +observations of great value and contains the first suggestions that +infectious diseases are carried by insects. There was no subject that +he touched that he did not illuminate. + +Since that time there have been many distinguished Jesuit scientists, +and they have continued their work down to our own day. At the present +time, one of the best known of biologists in the special field of +entomology is Father Wasmann, S.J., who has published some seven +hundred papers on ants, their hosts and guests, and who, taking +advantage of the help of his brethren all over the world, has +described many hundreds of new species. How successful the Jesuits +have been in their pursuit of science will perhaps be best realized +from the fact that, while in Poggendorff's "Biographical Dictionary of +Science" out of something less than nine thousand names nearly one +thousand are Catholic clergymen, about five hundred of these are +Jesuits. Their occupations first of all as priests often left them but +little leisure {220} for scientific investigations, and yet they +succeeded in stamping their names upon the history of science. + +Two departments of modern science owe much to them. Father Secchi's +wonderful inventions of instruments for meteorology were awarded +prizes by the French Academy of Sciences, and other members of the +order made successful investigations in the science. The Jesuits in +the Philippines and the West Indies have done more to study out the +conditions which precede cyclones and hurricanes so as to give warning +with regard to them than any others. Their work was fully recognized +by the United States Government. Many of the Jesuit colleges and +universities throughout the world now have seismological observatories +for the study of earthquakes, and undoubtedly their intimate +connection and wide distribution will bring important details of +information into this department of knowledge from which significant +conclusions may be reached. + +The work of the Jesuits has come to be better appreciated in +English-speaking countries, where old religious prejudices hampered +its proper recognition, until comparatively recent times. Macaulay, in +his essay on Ranke's "History of the Popes," has summed up the +achievements of the Jesuits in his own striking way. When he wrote the +Jesuits were unknown personally in England, and so it is not +surprising that there are passages in his panegyric that are full of +the old prejudices which had accumulated in English history and by +which the term Jesuitic has become a word of the worst reproach. +Macaulay's wide reading, however, had brought to him a very extensive +knowledge of the wonderful work accomplished by Loyola and his sons +during the two centuries after their foundation. The passage is too +well known to be more than referred to here. + +His tribute to their successful work as missionaries all over the +world, which undoubtedly set the fashion after which Protestant +historians in English-speaking countries have come to acknowledge the +marvellous work of the Jesuits among the savages, is not so well +known: "The old world was not wide enough for this strange activity. +The Jesuits invaded all the countries which the great marine +discoveries of the preceding {221} age had laid open to European +enterprise. In the depths of the Peruvian mines, at the marts of the +African slave-caravans, on the shores of the Spice Islands, in the +observatories of China, they were to be found. They made converts in +regions which neither avarice nor curiosity had tempted any of their +countrymen to enter, and preached and disputed in tongues of which no +other native of the West understood a word." + +No wonder that Parkman, who in some ways has helped to make us +Americans understand them better but who in many ways is utterly +lacking in proper sympathy for them probably because he failed to know +them well personally, said of them: + + "The Jesuit was, and is, everywhere--in the schoolroom, in the + library, in the cabinets of princes and ministers, in the huts of + savages, in the tropics, in the frozen north, in India, in China, in + Japan, in Africa, in America; now as a Christian priest, now as a + soldier, a mathematician, an astrologer, a Brahmin, a mandarin, + under countless disguises, by a thousand arts, luring, persuading, + or compelling souls into the fold of Rome." + +He feels sure that there must be much to condemn in them, since they +have been the subject of so much criticism and persecution. Like many +another, he cannot bring himself to think that their founder's last +wish for them, that they should be persecuted even as their Lord and +Master was, should be the symbol of their fate. Where he knows them +best, however, as in Canada, he has unmixed praise for them, though he +declares that it is not for him to eulogize them, but to portray them +as they were. + +At once the keynote for the proper appreciation of the Jesuits and the +summary of what Loyola accomplished through them is to be found in the +closing paragraphs of Francis Thompson's "Life of St. Ignatius" +(Benzigers': New York, 1909, pp. 318): + + "Issuing from this Manresan cave, forgotten by the world which he + had forgotten, and rejected in the land which bore him, single and + unaided he constructed and set in motion a force that stemmed and + rolled back the reformation which had engulfed the North and + threatened to conquer {222} Christendom. He cast the foundations of + his Order deep; and, satisfied that his work was good, died--leaving + it for legacy only the God-required gift that all men should speak + ill of it. + + "Most singular bequest that Founder ever transmitted, it has + singularly been fulfilled. The union of energy and patience, + sagacity and a self-devotion which held nothing impossible that was + bidden it, were the leading qualities of St. Ignatius; and so far as + his Order has prospered, it has been because it incarnated the + qualities of its Founder. The administrative genius which, among the + princes of Europe or the 'untutored minds' of Paraguay, is perhaps + its most striking secular feature, comes to it direct from the man + who might have ruled provinces in the greatest empire of the + sixteenth century; but chose rather to rule, from the altars of the + Church, an army which has outlasted the armies of Spain, and made + conquests more perdurable than the vast empire which drifted to its + fall in the wake of the broken galleons of the Armada." + +The Jesuits are literally one of the greatest creations of this great +period. Not to know them as such is to miss the significance of their +order and not a little of the true spirit of the epoch from which they +sprang. The arts and literature of the Renaissance produced no work +destined to live so vividly, nor to influence men in all succeeding +generations so deeply, as "the little company of Jesus," as Ignatius +of Loyola conceived and organized it. + + +{223} + + [Illustration: HOLBEIN, SIR THOMAS MORE] + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SIR THOMAS MORE AND SOME CONTEMPORARIES + +While in this great period of the Renaissance, Raphael, Leonardo da +Vinci and Michelangelo, and so many others, were demonstrating the +power of the human mind to express itself in aesthetic modes of all +kinds, and Copernicus and Regiomontanus and Vesalius and Paracelsus +were showing how man's intellect might penetrate the mysteries of the +universe without him and that smaller universe the microcosm that he +is himself, and Erasmus and Pico della Mirandola and Linacre were +exhibiting human scholarship at its highest, a great contemporary in +England expressed human life at its best in strong terms of the human +will. This was Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, put to +death by Henry VIII, but not until he had succeeded in making out of +his life a wonderful work of living art of the profoundest +significance, to which men of all classes have been attracted ever +since. He was a great scholar, a great lawyer, a great judge--the +only man who ever cleared the docket of the English Court of +Chancery,--a writer of distinguished ability not only in his own +language but in Latin, a philosopher who so far as the consideration +of social problems was concerned deserves a place beside Plato: yet +not for any of these attainments is he famous, but for his unflinching +following of what he saw to be his duty even though it cost him +everything that men usually hold dear--life, reputation, property and +even the possibility of poverty and suffering for those he held dear +after his death. + +Sir Thomas More was born in London, February 7, 1478. We are likely to +think of the Wars of the Roses as farther away from us, but they were +not yet over. Edward the Fourth was now firmly fixed on the throne, +but there had been stormy times for the monarchy in his reign. Edward +{224} originally ascended the throne in March, 1461, but the revolt of +the Kingmaker Earl of Warwick had led to the restoration of poor Henry +VI in 1470, and Edward had to flee the country. He returned in 1471, +defeated Warwick at Barnet, April 14, 1471, and Margaret of Anjou at +Tewkesbury, May 4, 1471. There was tranquillity for a dozen of years +after this, but it was not until Henry VII defeated Richard III at +Bosworth in 1485, and then married the Yorkist Princess Elizabeth, +that peace was assured to England. It was into a very disturbed +England, then, that Sir Thomas More was born. As a boy he had as +teacher Nicholas Holt, who seems, with the true Renaissance spirit, to +have been thoroughly able to arouse the youth's interest. At the age +of twelve he entered the household of Cardinal Morton, the Archbishop +of Canterbury. It was the good old custom at that time to have boys +brought up in the households of distinguished nobles or high +ecclesiastical dignitaries, with the idea that association with men of +parts represented the best stimulus for that development of the +intellectual faculties which constitutes real education. + +It was not long before young More attracted the attention of the +distinguished old Cardinal, who prophesied his future greatness. +Roper, who married More's daughter Margaret, tells an incident of the +boy's life at this time and adds that, as a consequence of the +Cardinal's appreciation of him. More was sent to the university. He +says in a famous paragraph that shows us More's precocity and that +sense of humor that was to characterize him all his life: + + "Though More were young of years, yet would he at Christmas suddenly + sometimes step in among the players, and never studying for the + matter, make a part of his own there presently among them which made + the lookers on more sport than all the players beside. In whose wit + and towardness the Cardinal much delighting, would often say of him + to the nobles that divers times dine with him: 'This child here + waiting at the table, whoever shall live to see it, will prove a + marvellous man.' Whereupon for his better furtherance in learning, + he placed him at Oxford." + +After some four years in the Cardinal's household, More {225} went to +the university on the bounty of his patron, and afterwards took up the +study of law and was admitted to the bar. + +When he was twenty-six More became a member of Parliament, and the +next year, in 1505, he married. The story of his marriage has an +interest rather unique of its kind. He had gone down to the home of +John Colt of Newhall, in Essex, with the avowed purpose of getting him +a wife. He had been told that John's elder daughter was just the +person for him. When he got down there he liked the second daughter +better, but married her elder sister so as not to subject her to the +discredit of being passed over. There are those who have said that his +sanctity began right there. It is to be hoped that his wife knew +nothing of it until much later. + +The year of his marriage, when he might reasonably have been expected +to be circumspect as to his political future, More strenuously opposed +in Parliament King Henry's (VII) proposal for a very large subsidy as +the marriage portion of his daughter Margaret. In spite of his youth, +his arguments in the matter were so forcible and in accord with +old-time custom and law in England that the House of Commons reduced +the subsidy to scarcely more than a quarter of the amount demanded. +When his favorite courtiers brought to Henry VII the news that a man +whom he would deem scarcely more than a beardless boy had brought +about the disappointment of his hopes and schemes and deprived him of +an opportunity to fill his coffers, than which nothing was dearer to +the miserly King's heart, it is easy to understand that More was not a +favorite at Court. + +More seems to have considered it advisable to absent himself from +England for a while at this time, because of the king's displeasure. +This provided an opportunity to spend some time at Paris, and also at +Louvain. At Louvain he began that acquaintance with Erasmus which +ripened into the enduring intimacy of later life. No opportunity seems +to have been missed by him to develop his intellect and broaden his +intellectual interests. While he was a lawyer, the Greek authors +became a favorite subject of study and philosophy and science his +diversions. Literally, it might be said of {226} him, that there was +nothing that was human that did not interest him. + +After some time, More returned to London and took up the practice of +law. After the death of Henry VII, in 1509, he became the most popular +barrister of the day and very soon obtained an immensely lucrative +practice. He refused to receive fees from the poor, and especially +from widows and orphans who seemed to him to be oppressed in any way. +Tradition shows him as a sort of legal aid society for the city of +London at that time. He absolutely refused to plead in cases which he +thought unjust. Such punctilious practice of the law is sometimes said +to hamper a successful career and, above all, lead to the loss of the +opportunities that bring a lawyer into prominence. The very opposite +happened with More, and he became the best known of his profession +before he was forty. + +The pleasantest part of More's life was these years of his +professional career. He then had the opportunity to associate +frequently in the most charming of friendly and literary intercourse +with the group of men whose names are famous in the English +Renaissance. He and Erasmus were life-long friends, and perhaps there +is no greater tribute to Erasmus' character than More's devoted +affection for him, and his sympathetic devotion to More. Erasmus +himself, though a much greater scholar, had nothing like the depth and +strength of character possessed by More. The men were in many ways +almost exact opposites of each other, and perhaps they felt how +complementary their qualities were. More was eminently practical, +Erasmus was rather impractical; More was humorous, Erasmus was witty. +More sympathized with all humanity, even when he found something to +criticise; Erasmus' criticism was likely to be bitter and he laughed +at rather than with people, so that he did not make himself generally +loved, but quite the contrary, except for a few close friends, while +the most typical characteristic of More's life is the love and +affection it aroused. + +More's family life is one of the most interesting features of his +career. Erasmus has spoken of it with enthusiastic admiration and, as +he had personal experience of it for rather {227} long periods at +several different times and was himself a highly sensitive, readily +irritable individual, his testimony in the matter is all the more +significant. It may be due to Erasmus' enthusiastic admiration for +More, but in any case it shows us how thoroughly he appreciated and +was ready to place on record his enjoyment of the privilege of being +received as a friend into the household: + + "Does my friend regulate his household, where misunderstandings and + quarrels are altogether unknown! Indeed, he is looked up to as a + general healer of all differences, and he was never known to part + from any on terms of unkindness. His house seems to enjoy the + peculiar happiness that all who dwell under its roof go forth into + the world bettered in their morals as well as improved in their + condition; and no spot was ever known to fall on the reputation of + any of its fortunate inhabitants. Here you might imagine yourself in + the academy of Plato. But, indeed, I should do injustice to his + house by comparing it with the school of that philosopher where + nothing but abstract questions, and occasional moral virtues, were + the subjects of discussion; it would be truer to call it a school of + religion, and an arena for the exercise of all Christian virtues. + All its inmates apply themselves to liberal studies, though piety is + their first care. No wrangling or angry word is ever heard within + the walls. No one is idle; everyone does his duty with alacrity, and + regularity and good order are prescribed by the mere force of + kindness and courtesy. Everyone performs his allotted task, and yet + all are as cheerful as if mirth were their only employment. Surely + such a household deserves to be called a school of the Christian + religion." + +Some who have found a lack in the chancellor's life of what may be +called romance, for both his courtships were eminently matter-of-fact, +may find adequate compensation for this and material for the proper +appreciation of More's affectionate nature in the contemplation of the +intense affection which he displayed for his children, and especially +for his daughter Margaret. Margaret More richly deserved all this +affection of her father, but there is probably not a case in history +where such affection has been so charmingly expressed. {228} +Fortunately for us, the extensive correspondence that passed between +father and daughter is largely preserved for us. The letters are +charming expressions of paternal and daughterly affection. Perhaps the +one that may interest the young folks of this generation the most is +that in which Sir Thomas replies to a letter of his daughter's asking +for money. Probably there would be rather ready agreement that, in the +great majority of cases, paternal answers to filial requests for money +in our time are couched in somewhat different terms. The father wrote +with classic references that are meant to make her studies seem all +the more valuable: + + "You ask me, my dear Margaret, for money with too much bashfulness + and timidity, since you are asking from a father that is eager to + give, and since you have written to me a letter such that I would + not only repay each line of it with a golden philippine, as + Alexander did the verses of Cherilos, but, if my means were as great + as my desire, I would reward each syllable with two gold ounces. As + it is, I send you only what you have asked, but would have added + more, only that as I am eager to give, so am I desirous to be asked + and coaxed by my daughter, especially by you, whom virtue and + learning have made so dear to my soul. So the sooner you spend this + money well, as you are wont to do, and the sooner you ask for more, + the more you will be sure of pleasing your father." + +Linacre, the second of the group with whom More was associated to a +considerable extent, is one of the great characters of the England of +that time. Like More, he had attracted the attention of a great +Churchman, Bishop Selling; when young, he had gone to Italy in his +train and there had had the advantage of intimate association with the +family of the Medici when Lorenzo the Magnificent was training his +boys to be rulers of Italy, political and ecclesiastical. Linacre +stayed some ten years in Italy, mainly during the pontificate of Pope +Alexander VI, of whom so much that is derogatory has been said, but, +instead of having his devotion to the Church lessened by the abuses +that are said to have existed in Italy at this time, he came back to +England as a fervent Catholic. Years afterwards, when toward the end +of life {229} he felt its emptiness, he distributed his property for +educational purposes and became a priest. His foundations in both +Cambridge and Oxford, and especially his foundation of the Royal +College of Physicians, were very valuable contributions to the +intellectual life of England. The College of Physicians lives on under +the constitutions that he provided. His chairs founded at Oxford and +Cambridge were not so fortunate, because the disturbances of the end +of Henry VIII's reign and the time of Edward VI led to the +confiscation of many of these educational foundations, or at least of +their diversion to the King's private purposes. + +Erasmus was the greatest scholar of the time, Linacre was looked up to +as perhaps the best Greek scholar of the period, and, while in Italy, +Manutius in Venice had taken advantage of his knowledge for the +editing of certain of the Greek classics. He himself translated a +number of volumes of Galen into Latin, and the translation was +proclaimed, in Erasmus's words, to be better than the original Greek. + +The third of this group of friends of More was scarcely less +distinguished than the other two. It was Dean Colet of St. Paul's. He, +too, had been touched by the spirit of the Renaissance, but like all +the others of this group, instead of being attracted towards Paganism +or away from Christianity, his devotion to the Church and his faith +had been broadened and deepened by his knowledge. His sermons at St. +Paul's attracted widespread attention. But his personal influence was +perhaps even more telling. + +According to tradition, these men and certain others, as Lyly and at +some times probably John Caius, who afterwards founded Caius College +at Cambridge, used to meet for an afternoon's discussion of things +literary, social and philosophic at the home of Colet's mother in +Stepney. There we have a picture of them arguing over literary +questions with that intense seriousness which characterized the +Renaissance, and in the midst of which Colet had sometimes to restrain +the ardent enthusiasm of the others lest argument should run into +strife. Here, according to tradition, Dame Colet, mother of the Dean, +used sometimes to bring them for a collation some of the strawberries +that had been introduced into England {230} from Holland, probably by +Erasmus himself or through his influence, and some of which were grown +in the Colet garden. With English milk and the sweet cakes of the +time, they made a pleasant interlude in the afternoon or served as a +fitting smoothing apparatus for the end of a discussion that had waxed +hot. + +Such a group of men make an Academy in the best sense of the word. +When Plato led his scholars through the groves of Academus and +discussed high thoughts with them, the first Academy came into +existence and the English Renaissance furnished another striking +example of how the friction of various many-sided minds may serve to +bring out what is best in all of them. The pleasure of such +intercourse only those who have had opportunities of sharing it can +properly appreciate. The meetings must, indeed, have been events in +the lives of the men, and More, who had not had the opportunity to go +to Italy, must have drunk in with special enthusiasm all that their +long years of Italian experience had given to the others. These +interludes from his more serious practical duties at the bar must have +been most happy and marvellously broadening in their effects. + +A good idea of More's interests as a young man between twenty-five and +thirty can be obtained from his setting himself to make a translation +of Pico della Mirandola's "Life, Letters and Works." While Pico was +one of the most learned men of the Renaissance, he was also one of the +most pious. And more than any other he showed the possibility of being +profoundly acquainted with Greek culture, and yet retaining a deep +devotion to religion. More's praise of him in the life that he wrote +shows better than anything else the drift of his own thoughts. The +passage affords a good idea of More's prose style in English, with the +spelling somewhat but not entirely modernized: + + "Oh very happy mind," he writes, "which none adversity might + oppress, which no prosperity might enhance: Not the cunning of all + philosophy was able to make him proud, not the knowledge of the + hebrewe chaldey and arabie language besides greke and latin could + make him vain gloriuse, not his great substance, not his noble blood + coulde blow up his heart, {231} not the beauty of his body, not the + great occasions of sin were able to pull him back into the voluptous + broad way that lead us to hell: what thing was there of so marvelous + strength that might overturn that mind of him which now: as Seneca + saith was gotten above fortune as he which as well her favor as her + malice hath, saitheth nought, that he might be coupled with a + spiritual knot unto Christ and his heavenly citizens." + +More also wrote some verses on the vicissitudes of fortune, in which +he describes her as distributing brittle gifts among men only to amuse +herself by suddenly taking them back again. It was the literal +expression of his own career, and his advice as to how to defy her is +best illustrated by his own life: + + "This is her sport, thus proveth she her might; + Great boast she mak'th if one be by her power + Wealthy and wretched both within an hour. + Wherefore if thou in surety lust to stand. + Take poverty's part and let proud fortune go. + Receive nothing that cometh from her hand. + Love, manner and virtue: they be only tho, + Which double Fortune may not take thee fro': + Then may'st thou boldly defy her turning chance. + She can thee neither hinder nor advance.'" + +The young King Henry VIII became deeply interested in More because of +his brilliancy of intellect, his successful conduct of affairs, his +sterling character and, above all, for his wit and humor. He wanted to +have him as a member of his Court, but this More long resisted. He +preferred independence to a courtier's life, and in spite of the +urging of Wolsey, who had been made a Cardinal by Leo X in 1515, and +alleged how dear his service would be to his majesty, continued to +refuse. After an embassy to Flanders, however, on which he went with +Cuthbert Tunstal to confer with the ambassadors of Charles V, who was +then, however, only Archduke of Austria, upon a renewal of the +alliance with the English Monarch and a further embassy of the same +kind in 1516, {232} More consented to enter the Royal Court. On his +embassy in Flanders he had probably taken the leisure to write out his +"Utopia" in Latin, and it was published on the Continent, though not +published in England until nearly twenty years after his death. The +contact with Erasmus woke More's literary spirit, and Erasmus felt +that there were magnificent possibilities for literature in More's +intellect. Erasmus bewailed his becoming a courtier and says in his +letters "the King really dragged him to his Court. No one ever strove +more eagerly to gain admission there than More did to avoid it." + +More's literary reputation rests more particularly on his "Utopia," +written when he was thirty-seven years of age, during his absence from +England on the commission in the Low Countries with Cuthbert Tunstal. +That absence was but for six months, and this will give some idea of +More's industry. At home he was deep in his law practice, and now when +he had leisure from social and ambassadorial demands he found time to +write one of the most interesting contributions to the science of +government from the social side that probably has ever been written. +It was written in Latin and was first printed at Louvain late in 1516 +under the editorship of Erasmus, Peter Giles, sometimes known under +his Latin name as AEgidius, and others of More's literary friends in +Flanders. It was subsequently revised by More and printed by Frobinius +at Basel in November, 1518. The book became popular on the Continent +and was reprinted at Paris and Vienna, but was not published in +England during More's lifetime. More evidently feared that it might be +misunderstood there, though he had been very careful in the course of +the book to make whatever might seem to reflect upon England appear to +be directly referred to some other country. + +An English translation was not published in England until Edward the +VI's reign in 1551. The standard translation, however, is that made by +Bishop Burnet. It can scarcely but seem strange that the author of the +history of "The Protestant Reformation," who more than any other +almost kept England from relaxing any of her antipopery feeling or +governmental regulations, should translate the last great Papal {233} +Catholic's book for his countrymen, but it is a tribute the +significance of which cannot be missed. Burnet is said to have been +induced to make the translation from the same feelings of protest +against arbitrary government that led to More's writing of it. The +passages quoted here are always taken from Burnet's translation. + +Unfortunately, "Utopia" is mainly known to ordinary readers from the +adjective Utopian, derived from it and which has come to mean a +hopelessly ideal or infeasibly impractical scheme. Doubtless many have +been deterred from even the thought of reading it, because of the +feeling produced that a book of Utopian character could not be of any +serious import. Utopia from the Greek simply means nowhere. More +himself often calls it by the Latin name Nusquama, with the same +meaning. It was simply a country which unfortunately existed nowhere +as yet, in which things were done very differently from anywhere in +civilized Europe at least, but where the people had reasoned out what +ought to be their attitude of mind towards many things which in Europe +following tradition and convention were liable to many abuses and +social wrongs. + +Sir Thomas recognized all the danger there was from the so-called +Reformation and did not hesitate to take his part in the controversies +that inevitably came. As early as 1523 he published the answer to +Luther, in 1525 a pamphlet letter against Pomeranus, in 1528 the +dialogue "Quoth He and Quoth I," in 1529 the "Supplication of Souls," +in 1531 the "Confutation of Tindale," in 1532 his "Apology," in 1533 +"The Deballation of Salem and Bizance" and in 1533 the "Answer to the +Supper of the Lord," probably written by either William Tindale or +George Jay. [Footnote 22] + + [Footnote 22: A good idea of how the spelling of the + English language has changed in four centuries may be + gathered from the title of one of these controversial + works of More's, as it appeared recently in the catalogue + of a bookseller. The frequent use of _y_ where we now use _i_ + would almost make one think that the _i_'s have been + exhausted in the particular font of type, or else that + this typesetter had a special fondness for _y_. This latter + idea is probably true, for, as a matter of fact, in books + printed about this same time so many _y_'s were not + ordinarily used. + + "Sir Thomas More A dyaloge . . . whereyn he treatyed dyvers maters + as of the veneracyon and worshyp of ymagys and relyques, prayng to + sayntis, and goynge on pylgrymage. Wyth many other thyngys + touchyng the pestylent secte of Luther and Tyndale, etc. Newly + oversene. Sm. folio black letter, with the leaf of "fawtes escaped + in the pryntynge."] + +When Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor, fell after the failure of the +divorce proceedings, the King insisted on Sir Thomas More accepting +the position. More must have known how {234} difficult, indeed almost +impossible, the post would be for him. It was dangerous, however, to +oppose Henry VIII's will, and so within a week after the deposition of +Wolsey, Sir Thomas More was installed as Lord Chancellor, an office +that had very seldom before this been held by a layman, though it has +been held by laymen ever since, almost without exception. His +installation is said to have taken place with the joy and applause of +the whole kingdom. There are some who have said that More was glad to +triumph over Wolsey, and that indeed he took advantage of the +opportunity afforded him by the new dignity to abuse his predecessor +and to show that he had schemed to succeed him. There are no grounds +for such expressions, however, and even Wolsey himself had declared +that More was the man who should have the post, the only one fitted to +succeed him. Erasmus, writing on the matter, is quite sure that More +himself does not deserve to be congratulated, for he foresaw the +difficulties ahead, but the kingdom deserves congratulation. He felt, +too, that it would be a loss to literature. As he said: "I do not at +all congratulate More or literature, but I do indeed congratulate +England, for a better or holier judge could not be appointed." + +The most characteristic feature of More's Chancellorship was his +prompt disposing of cases. He realized very well that not only must +justice be done, but as far as possible it must be done promptly, and +the tedious drawing out of cases to great length works injustice, even +though they are justly decided after many years. The Court of Chancery +in England has become a byword for slowness of procedure and has been +satirized on many occasions during the nineteenth {235} century, but +already in the sixteenth century there were many cases before the +Court that had been dragging on for twenty years, and even more. +Delays were mainly due to the fact that Lord Chancellors were occupied +with many other duties and did not always feel equal to the task of +trying cases and weighing evidence. Undoubtedly some delays had been +occasioned by the fact that presents were received, if not by the Lord +Chancellor himself at least by court officials, and the longer cases +were allowed to drag on the more opportunity was there in them for +such irregularities. The clearing up of the calendar of the Court of +Chancery marked an epoch in English legal history and is one of our +best evidences of More's thoroughly practical character. + +It is by his death more than anything else that More is admirable. +Here was a man of marvellous breadth of interests, to whom life must +have meant very much. As a young man he had been brought in intimate +contact with the pick of the intellectual men of his time. In early +manhood he had been the chosen friend of the best scholars in +Europe--men like Colet, Erasmus and Linacre, with international +reputations. He had represented his King abroad in important missions +before he was forty. He had shown himself a great lawyer in spite of a +scrupulosity of conscience that would ordinarily be supposed to make +the successful practice of the law extremely difficult. +Notwithstanding the most thorough honesty in every activity of life +and the absence of every hint even of truckling of any kind to popular +or royal opinion, he had been the favorite of all classes. As an +author he wrote books that the world will not willingly let die. They +are occupied with things that men often push away from them, serious, +high-minded, purposeful, yet they are more read now than they were in +his own time. He was a philosopher worthy to be placed beside the +greatest practical philosopher, and his ideal republic, written in his +own profound vein of humor, is a distinct contribution to that form of +literature. + +To this man there came, about the age of fifty, the highest office +that he could possibly hope to attain in England. He was the favorite +of his King and of the Court. He used his high office for the benefit +of the commonwealth in every way, {236} and above all for the benefit +of the people. He revolutionized methods in chancery and succeeded in +bringing Justice back to haunts of the law, where her presence had +been so rare as almost to be doubted. He had a great future before him +in the possibilities of good for others. Unselfish as he had always +shown himself to be, surely he could have had no greater satisfaction +for his ambition than this. In the midst of his efficient duties there +came a decision to be made with regard to himself. The Lord High +Chancellor of England is often spoken of as the keeper of the King's +conscience. Such More evidently deemed himself to be in reality. +Anyhow, he was the keeper of his own conscience. + +The King, unable to obtain a divorce from the wife whom he had married +twenty years before in order to marry a younger, handsomer woman, had +resolved to grant one to himself and for that purpose assumed the +supremacy in Church as well as in State. The great nobles, knowing his +headstrong character, submitted to this usurpation of authority, which +was besides baited with the possibility of enrichment through the +confiscation of monastic property and its transfer to king's +favorites. Even the bishops of England hesitated but for a time, and +then almost to a man took the oath of supremacy which declared Henry +to be supreme head of the Church as well as the State. There were only +one or two notable exceptions to this. + +It would seem as though after this there ought to be no difficulty for +More. If the bishops and the clergy of the country were willing to +accept the King as the head of the Church, why should a layman +hesitate? And yet More hesitated. He refused to take the oath of +supremacy. It was represented to him that to refuse was dangerous. On +the other hand, it was shown to him, and it must have been very clear +to himself, that if he took it he would obtain great favor with the +King, and that indeed there was almost nothing that he might not +aspire to. Lord Chancellor he was, but ennoblement and enrichment +would surely come to him. The King had always thought much of him, was +now particularly irritated by his refusal, but would be won to him +completely if he yielded. It seemed not unlikely that a peerage would +be his at once, and {237} that higher degrees of nobility were only a +question of time. Times were disturbed, and he might be able to do +much good, certainly he could not expect that other advisers near the +King would do anything but yield to the monarch's whims. + +Here was a dilemma. On the one hand, honor, power, wealth and the +favor of his King, as well as the esteem of his generation; on the +other hand, disgrace, impoverishment of his family by attainder, +imprisonment, probably death. More calmly weighed it all and decided +in favor of following his conscience, no matter what it might cost +him. He did so entirely on his own strength of character and without +any encouragement from others. On the contrary, there was every +discouragement. + +Having made his decision he did not proceed to think that everyone +else ought to have seen it the same way, but on the contrary he felt +for the others, realized all the difficulties and calmly recognized +that they might well be in good faith. When the decision of his judges +that he must die was announced to him, he told them very calmly that +he thanked them for their decision and said that he hoped to meet them +in heaven. The passage is well worth reading in More's own quaint, +simple, forcible language. + +It is probable that there has never been an occasion in the world's +history when the obligation of following conscience has been more +clearly seen and more devotedly acknowledged than when More went to +death for what was called treason, because he refused to take the oath +that the King of England was the head of the Church as well as of the +State. Every human motive was urgent against his following of +conscience in the matter. He stood almost entirely alone. Bishop +Fisher of Rochester, it is true, was with him, but More stated in one +of his letters that even had the bishop found some way to compound +with his conscience and take the oath as so many other upright and +conscientious men, as they thought themselves and others thought them, +had done, he did not feel that he could take it. + +It was urged upon him that the very fact that he stood alone showed +that there must be something wrong about his {238} method of reasoning +and his mode of coming to a decision in the matter. All the bishops of +England had consented to take the oath. Some of them, it is true, had +solaced their conscience by putting in an additional phrase, "as far +as the law of God allowed," or something of that kind, but most of +them had taken it without any such modification, and indeed, as a +rule, the Commissioners who had administered the oath refused to +accept it unless taken literally and without additions. + +Perhaps the hardest trial for More's constancy of purpose came from +his own family. When he was imprisoned they were allowed to see him +frequently, with the deliberate idea that they would surely break down +his scruples. His wife absolutely refused to see why anyone should set +himself up in opposition to all the rest of the kingdom and think that +his conscience should be followed no matter what happened, though so +many other people's consciences were apparently at ease in the matter. +As she said to him over and over again, did he think that he was +better than the Bishops of England and the priests who had taken the +oath, and did he set himself up as the only one who properly +understood and could see the right in the question? Some of her +expressions are typical of women in her position and show us how +little human nature has changed in these four hundred years. More +simply laughed at her quietly and gently and, after explaining his +position a few times from varying standpoints, refused to argue with +her, but occupied the time of her visits with talk about other matters +as far as possible. It was not hard to divert her mind, as a rule, to +any other subject, for she did not see very deeply into anything and, +above all, had no hint at all of the serious condition of affairs in +England. + +His daughter Margaret, of whom he thought so much, was a much more +dangerous temptress than Mistress More, though of course she did not +think of herself in any such role. She has told the story in a letter +to the Lady Allington, More's step-daughter, for his second wife had +been previously married. Lady Allington had written to Margaret a long +letter, in which she related an interview that she had had with +Audley, the Lord Chancellor, who had promised to help {239} More, +though he declared that the remedy was in More's own hands, if he +would put aside his foolish scruples. Audley had said to Lady +Allington that "he marvelled that More was so obstinate in his own +conceit in matter that no one scrupled save the blind Bishop [Fisher] +and he." Always, when wife or daughter came to see him, they first +prayed together, and I may say that the prayers were not short, for +they included the Seven Penitential Psalms as well as other formal +prayers. When Margaret approached the subject of Lady Allington's +letter and how More's obstinacy was alienating his friends, smiling, +he called her mistress Eve, the temptress, and asked if his daughter +Allington had played the serpent with her "and with a letter set you +at work to come tempt your father again and for the favor that you +bear him labor to make him swear against his conscience and so send +him to the devil." + +It was at this time that he emphasized very much the fact that +everyone must make up his conscience for himself. We have the verbatim +report of one of his conversations with his daughter that emphasized +this position very strongly: + + "Verily, daughter, I never intend to pin my soul at another man's + back, not even the best man that I know this day living. For I know + not whither he may hap to carry it. There is no man living of whom, + while he liveth, I may make myself sure. Some may do for favor, and + some may do for fear, and so might they carry my soul a wrong way. + And some might hap to frame himself a conscience, and think that if + he did it for fear God would forgive it. And some may peradventure + think that they will repent and be shriven thereof, and that so + shall God remit it to them. And some may be, peradventure, of the + mind that, if they say one thing and think the while contrary, God + more regardeth the heart than the tongue; and that, therefore, their + oath goeth upon what they think and not upon what they say. But in + good faith, Margaret, I can use no such ways in so great a matter." + +In spite of this, Margaret still urged that he was not asked to swear +against his conscience in order to keep others company, but instructed +to reform his conscience by the {240} considerations that such and so +many men consider the oath lawful, and even a duty since Parliament +required it. + +Bridgett, in his "Life of Sir Thomas More," gives some details of the +conclusion of the discussion that have a very human interest: "When he +saw his daughter, after this discussion, sitting very sadly, not from +any fear she had about his soul, but at the temporal consequences she +foresaw, he smiled again and exclaimed: 'How now, daughter Margaret? +What now, Mother Eve? Where is your mind now? Sit not musing with some +serpent in your breast, upon some new persuasion to offer Father Adam +the apple yet once again.' + +"'In good faith, father,' replied Margaret, 'I can no further go. For +since the example of so many wise men cannot move you, I see not what +to say more, unless I should look to persuade you with the reason that +Master Harry Pattenson made.' (It will be remembered that Pattenson +was More's fool, now in the service of the Lord Mayor.) 'For,' +continued Margaret, 'he met one day one of our men, and when he had +asked where you were, and heard that you were in the Tower still, he +waxed angry with you and said: "Why, what aileth him that he will not +swear? Wherefore should he stick to swear? I have sworn the oath +myself." And so,' says Margaret, 'have I sworn.' At this More laughed +and said 'that word was like Eve too, for she offered Adam no worse +fruit than she had eaten herself.'" + +All the details of the scenes of his death have a deep interest of +their own. He was ready to obey the King in everything, except where +he felt his conscience was involved. When they came to ask him not to +make a speech at his execution, because the King wished him not to, he +thanked them very simply and said he was glad to have had the King's +wishes conveyed to him and that he would surely obey them. He added +that he had had in mind to say something, but that now he would +refrain. When it was called to his attention that the clothes that he +wore would fall as a perquisite to the executioner, and that therefore +the worse he wore the less his loss, he asked if there was anyone who +could do him a greater favor than the headsman was going to perform +and {241} that he would prefer to wear his best. He had actually +donned them when it was represented to him by the Governor that this +was a bad precedent to set, and then he changed them for others. He +was the same, meek gentleman in everything, though it might be +expected that his insistence on his conscience against that of all the +others would mark him as an obstinate man absolutely immovable in his +own opinions. + +The humor that characterized all his life and that had so endeared him +to his friends did not abandon him even to the very end. Twenty years +before Erasmus had written about it, punning on the name, _Encomium +Moriae_, using the Greek word Moria for folly. Years and high office, +serious persecution, bitter imprisonment, lofty decisions involving +death all had not obliterated it. When he was about to ascend the +scaffold the steps of that structure proved to be rather shaky, and he +asked that he should be given a hand going up, though as for coming +down he said he felt that he might be left to shift for himself. On +the scaffold he commended himself to the headsman, gave him a present +and then, as he was placing his head on the block, his beard, which he +had been unused to wearing before he went to prison, coming on it he +pushed it out of the way, saying "This at least has committed no +treason." All the rest was silent communion with his God. + +Thus died one of the greatest men of his race--great in intellect, in +sympathy, in practical philosophy, great above all in character. +_Totus teres atque rotundus_. + +Of his execution Lord Campbell, in his "Lives of the Lord Chancellors +of England," said: "Considering the splendor of his talent, the +greatness of his acquirements, and the innocence of his life, we must +still regard his murder as the blackest crime that has ever been +perpetrated in England under the forms of law." + +In closing his life of him in "The Lives of the Lord Chancellors," +Lord Campbell, who had no sympathy at all with More's religious views +and who is quite sure that the Reformation was a very wonderful +benefit to England, declared: + +{242} + + "I am indeed reluctant to take leave of Sir Thomas More not only + from his agreeable qualities and extraordinary merits, but from my + abhorrence of the mean, sordid, unprincipled chancellors who + succeeded him and made the latter half of the reign of Henry VIII + the most disgraceful period in our annals." + + + + [Illustration: MATTEO CIVITALE, FAITH (BARGELLO)] + + +{243} + +CHAPTER V + +THE REFORMERS + + +During the last quarter of Columbus' Century, Europe was very +seriously disturbed and the minds of men very much occupied with the +movement which has come to be called in English-speaking countries at +least the "reformation," though many historians now prefer to speak of +it as the religious revolt in Germany during the sixteenth century. +There is no doubt that this movement was due to the unrest--political, +social and religious--which came over men at this time. The conquests +in scholarship through the study of the Greek and Latin classics had +awakened men's minds. The great achievements in art and architecture +had still further aroused them to a sense of their own power. The +introduction of Greek ideas into the modern world had brought about +great developments in science. Columbus, largely influenced by +classical studies, had initiated a movement that revolutionized men's +thinking with regard to the earth on which they live. Copernicus, +taught by men who were making commentaries on Ptolemy, saw farther +than his masters and gave the world a new universe at this time. +Physical science was developing and biological science, especially in +all that relates to anatomy and physiology, was receiving a marvellous +impetus. No wonder men felt ready for change. + +Above all, a complete change in the basis of education influenced men +deeply. For centuries education had occupied itself with science, and +particularly the ethical sciences. Philosophy in its various aspects +constituted the curriculum of the old universities. Metaphysics, +logic, rhetoric, grammar, the ethical philosophies or, as we would +say, sciences of the world, of thought, of speech, and of political +and moral science, though of course also mathematics, music and +astronomy, had been the subjects of special attention. Now men {244} +were trained by means of the classics, the New Learning, as it was +called. Quite naturally they came to know so much more about these +than their fathers had ever had the opportunity to learn and, above +all, they had come to think these so much more important than anything +that had been taught their fathers, that the rising generation were +quite sure that they knew ever so much more than preceding generations +had known. A corresponding state of mind developed in our own time +when, as a consequence of the gradual replacement of the classics in +university curricula by science, another generation arose educated +very differently from its forefathers. What has come to be called +modernism, which may be best defined as the feeling that we in the +modern time know so much more than our forefathers did that we can +scarcely be expected to accept complacently the philosophy and +religion that satisfied them, is really an intellectual movement very +similar to that which can be noted nearly everywhere during Columbus' +Century. + +The picture of it as drawn by Janssen, in his "History of the German +People" (Vol. III, p. 17), can scarcely fail to attract attention, +because of its anticipation of what are usually considered to be quite +modern ideas. There was the same lack of respect for the older time, +the same feeling that until their precious time men really did not +know enough to be able to take any serious thought about the Church +and Christianity, and the same tendency to make fun of practices of +the older time simply because of failure to understand the spirit +behind them. The passage is all the more interesting when it is +recalled that nearly every one of the men who thus in his younger +years was so sure of the failure of the Church in its mission came +back in later life and recognized that without Christian unity, and +even the dogmatism which earlier he had so contemned, there could be +no real church. Janssen said: + + "Erasmus did, however, seriously propose a revision of the doctrines + laid down by the early Church. He was inclined to look upon the + transactions, the controversies, and the doctrinal decisions of the + christological period as the first step in the continuous + deterioration of the Church. The Church {245} had since then, he + considered, departed from her 'ancient evangelical simplicity'; + theology had become subservient to a casuistical philosophy, which + in its turn had degenerated into the scholastic methods by which the + actual ruin of Christian doctrine and Christian life had been + brought about. During the whole of his literary career he waged war + against this barren scholasticism with an acrimony that had no + parallel, and its representatives were a butt for his ridicule and + contempt. Ever since the domination of this scholasticism had set + in, the whole Western world, he declared, had been subject to a + spirit of Judaism and Pharisaism which had crushed the true life of + Christianity and theology and perverted it to mere monastic sanctity + and empty ceremonialism. + + "The contempt for the Middle Ages as for a period of darkness and + spiritual bondage, of sophistry in learning, and mere _outwardness_ + in life and conduct, originated with Erasmus and his school, and was + transmitted by them to the later so-called reformers. Thanks to the + high esteem in which Erasmus was held for his culture and + scholarship, his ironical and calumnious writings against the + mediaeval culture, and against the influence of the Church and the + traditions of Christian schools, passed for a long time + unchallenged." + +No wonder that a great many people felt that the religion and +philosophy of life that had been quite good enough for their +forefathers was not good enough for them, because they thought that +they were so far above their forbears in all intellectual attainments. +As a consequence, a great religious revolution that has disturbed +Western Christianity ever since took place. Writers have viewed it +from many and varying standpoints and have agreed to differ about its +significance. The place accorded this revolutionary movement in +history depends entirely on the writer about it. For some historians +it was a great movement in human freedom and the origin of practically +all the blessings of modern civilization. For others it was mainly a +political reaction brought about by ambitious monarchs tempted by the +idea of ruling Church as well as State and, above all, of enriching +themselves by the confiscation of Church property. These two +contradictory views are gradually being brought into some harmony. It +has taken {246} all the power of modern scientific and critical +history, with the consultation of original and contemporary documents +and the critical appreciation of these, to bring us a little nearer +the truth. We are not yet in a position to see this clearly. But we +are much nearer than ever before, and the future is most promising. + +In the meantime, the only way that the reform movement can be treated +concretely and objectively in its place in Columbus' Century is to +consider it, as we have every other important phase of the period's +activity, through the lives of the men who are the acknowledged +leaders and prime movers in it. There are three who, though utterly +out of sympathy with each other, are more responsible for the division +of Western Christianity than any others. These are Luther in Germany, +Calvin in France and Switzerland, and through Knox in Scotland, and +finally Henry VIII in England. Undoubtedly all three of these men were +of great force of character, possessed of a personality that enabled +them to dominate others. Luther and Calvin were besides the masters of +a vigorous style in the vernacular when that mode of expression was +rare enough to make them a power over the masses of the people in +their respective countries. Scholars had always used Latin for learned +discussions of religious subjects up to this time, but now these were +brought into the forum of popular debate through the use of the +vernacular. Above all, every man was told that all he needed to do was +read the Scriptures, interpret them for himself and make out his own +religion without the necessity for submitting to any authority. Hallam +declares that "it cannot be denied that the reform was brought about +by stimulating the most ignorant to reject the authority of their +Church," though he adds in comment that "it instantly withdrew this +liberty of judgment and devoted all who presumed to swerve from the +line drawn by law to virulent obloquy and sometimes to bonds and +death." + +Lord Acton once declared that the most difficult problem in historical +writing would be to have a confirmed Catholic and a confirmed +Protestant agree in the writing of the lives of the reformers, and +especially of Luther. Very many lives of the three men we have +mentioned have been written, and Lord {247} Acton's suggestion might +well be repeated with regard to nearly all of them. In recent years, +however, owing to the publication of contemporary documents consequent +upon the opening of archives and the scientific development of +history, it has been possible to get actual facts rather than opinions +with regard to them and we are now probably in a better position to +judge them and the movement with which their names and activities are +so intimately connected than any generation since their time. As the +editors of the "Cambridge Modern History" declared in their preface, +"the long conspiracy against the revelation of truth has gradually +given way." "In view of changes and of gains such as these (the +printing of archives), it has become impossible for the historical +writer of the present age to trust without reserve even to the most +respected secondary authorities. While we cannot obtain ultimate +history in this generation, conventional history can be discarded and +the point can be shown that has been reached on the road from one to +the other." These expressions are more true with regard to the history +of the Reformation and the reformers than any other period and men. + +All the generalized explanations of Luther's movement that used to be +accepted as accounting for the Reformation and its progress have now +been definitely rejected by the almost universal consensus of +historians. The reaction began at least a generation ago. Hallam, in +his "Introduction to the History of Literature," said: + + "Whatever be the bias of our minds as to the truth of Luther's + doctrines, we should be careful, in considering the Reformation as a + part of the history of mankind, not to be misled by the superficial + and ungrounded representations which we sometimes find in modern + writers. Such as this, that Luther, struck by the absurdity of the + prevailing superstitions, was desirous of introducing a more + rational system of religion; or that he contended for freedom of + inquiry, and the boundless privileges of individual judgment; or + what others have pleased to suggest, that his zeal for learning and + ancient philosophy led him to attack the ignorance of the monks and + the crafty policy of the Church, which withstood all liberal {248} + studies. These notions are merely fallacious refinements, as every + man of plain understanding, who is acquainted with the early + reformers, or has considered their history, must acknowledge." + +Recent historical investigation emphasizes more and more that the +movement was not religious in any sense, except superficially, and +that the forces that gathered behind Luther were political. There was +the opportunity for reigning princes to become both the head of the +Church and the State in their dominions and, above all, to get +possession of the property of the Church and share it with the +nobility or creatures of their own, thus strengthening their hold upon +the government and securing extension of power. We know in our day the +all-persuasive power of political graft and how it saps honesty and +corrupts character. Everywhere the track of it can be followed readily +in the Reformation period. + +Luther was not only the first but the most important of these +reformers. There has been more controversy over the true import of his +work than that of any of the others. He was undoubtedly the leader +through whom the religious revolution of this period was brought +about. He had had predecessors, but the work of none of them had +anything like the significance of his. Within the past ten years his +history has been revolutionized. Denifle, the great historian of the +mediaeval universities, by publishing all the documents that show the +worse side of Luther's character created a great commotion in Germany. +Grisar's later life of the reformer is, in accordance with the +traditions of his order, much more irenic, yet makes it very clear how +many of the very generally accepted favorable impressions with regard +to Luther are contradicted by the many lately unearthed materials with +regard to his life now available. Only those who have read these books +can have any pretence to know the realities of the history of the +religious revolt in Germany, though even these probably must not be +considered as representing ultimate truth. + +With regard to Luther and the other reformers, as well as the +significance of the whole movement, I have preferred to quote only +Protestant authorities in order to avoid the almost inevitable bias of +my own educational training and {249} environment. Even thus I can +only hope to give an approximately impartial discussion of these men +whose work as I see it did more to hurt human development in every +line of thought than anything else in modern history. + +The story of Luther's early life, of the unhappiness of his home, of +the sudden death of his friend which made him turn from a career at +the bar to enter the monastery, all tend to show him by heredity and +personal character as a man of strong impulses ruled by them. There is +no doubt at all that during the early years of his career as a monk +Luther was happy and that the stories of his unhappiness are founded +on inconsiderate expressions of his own in later life, which are +contradicted by documents written in his earlier years. The doctrine +of indulgences, against which he inveighed so vigorously, is as +eminently open to abuse as religion itself--and had undoubtedly been +abused in his time, but the teaching of the Church on the subject +remains exactly what it was in Luther's day and before it, yet has +been accepted by the intelligent members of the Church ever since. +Converts like Newman or Manning, not to mention many others of our +time, find no difficulty at all in accepting it, once they understand +it. The Protestant arguments founded on it are due entirely to +misunderstanding of the true significance of the Church's position in +the matter. Only those who _will_ not cannot understand it. Luther's +declaration that he found the doctrine of indulgences too hard to +comprehend is shown to be one of those interesting ideas as to his +earlier career that developed in his mind in all sincerity in later +life, but which are contradicted by his own writings, for there is +from him an admirable sermon on the subject of indulgences which +contains an excellent exposition of the Church's teaching. + +Luther gradually developed into one of the men so common in the +world's history who are quite sure that the world is wrong in nearly +everything and that they are born to set it right. They believe +thoroughly in themselves, they have a great fund of energy to draw on, +they usually have strong powers of expression and there are a large +number of people waiting to be led by them and not a few quite willing +to take {250} advantage for their own purposes of the movement that +the restless create. It is well understood now that the great majority +of men do not think for themselves, but stand ready to accept other +people's thoughts, and often are more willing to carry out such +thoughts to their logical conclusions, or at least to try to fit them +to practical life, than are the original thinkers. The fate of a +generation depends on whom it chooses as its leaders. Unfortunately, +the choice is not often quite voluntary, but is forced on men by +conditions, or they are imposed upon by the genius appeal of the +leader, and sometimes even more by those who gather round him at the +beginning of a movement and help to give it momentum. + +Luther's relations with Zwingli, the Swiss reformer, show more clearly +than anything else the character of the reformer, his assurance of his +divine mission and his absolute confidence that he has a +Heaven-directed mission. Zwingli would not agree with Luther's +interpretation of the doctrine of the Last Supper. They proceeded to +anathematize each other, and when induced by friends they met at a +conference, each claimed the victory in the argument. The Zwinglians +seem, indeed, to have recognized the force of Luther's contentions, +but dared not yield entirely, and when they returned to their homes +Zwingli spoke very contemptuously of his antagonist's arguments and +loudly claimed that he had completely vanquished him. This drew from +Luther some bitter denunciations, and among other things Luther wrote +to Jacob Probst of Bremen as follows: + + "In boasting that I was vanquished at Marburg the sacramentarians + act as is their wont. For they are not only liars, but falsehood, + deceit, and hypocrisy itself, as Carlstadt and Zwingli show both in + deeds and words. They revoked at Marburg, as you can see from the + articles drawn up there, the things hitherto taught in their + pestilential books concerning baptism, the use of the sacraments, + and the preaching of the word. We revoked nothing. But when they + were conquered also in the matter of the Lord's Supper they were + unwilling to renounce their position even though they could see it + was untenable, for they feared their people, to whom they could not + have returned if they had recanted." + +{251} + +He never forgave Zwingli, and when some time later the Swiss reformer, +acting as a chaplain to the Swiss Protestant Army in a battle with the +Swiss Catholic cantons, was killed, Luther pronounced this event a +special dispensation of Providence. He was fully persuaded that the +special spirit of prophecy had come down over him and that he had been +inspired to denounce Zwingli and to declare that his doom was not far +off. After the news of Zwingli's sad, untimely end, he wrote to his +friend Link: + + "We see the judgment of God a second time--first in the case of + Muenzer, and now of Zwingli. I was a prophet when I said, God will + not long endure these mad and furious blasphemies with which they + overflow, laughing at our God-made bread, and calling us carnivora, + savages, drinkers of blood, and other horrible names." + +This exaggeration of his own importance and conviction of his intimate +relations with the Deity became more and more manifest as time goes +on. The spectacle is not at all unfamiliar, though it is usually +pathological, and the surprise always is how many followers such +characters are able to gather around them at any time in the history +of the race. It is this aspect of Luther's life and the psychic +development of his career that have attracted the special attention of +historians in recent years and received ample illustration from +hitherto unused original documents. + +Some of the recent studies of Luther, written by those who are making +out just as good a case as possible with all the contemporary +information that now is available, have some very illuminating +passages as to the character of the reformer, who has been +traditionally set up as a great religious leader. For instance, the +explanation of how Luther came to permit the Landgrave Philip of Hesse +to take a second wife is very disturbing to those who think of him as +a reformer of religion. McGiffert, in his "Martin Luther, the Man and +His Work" (New York, 1912), has much to say with regard to the permit +undoubtedly granted not only by Luther, but also by Melanchthon for +this bigamy, and then the proposed denial of the marriage, which is, +if possible, more disturbing to the modern world than the permit +itself. McGiffert said (p. 364): + +{252} + + "The proposed denial of the marriage, which seems to throw so + sinister a light upon the whole affair, Luther justified somewhat + sophistically by an appeal to the traditional maxim of the + inviolability of the confessional, requiring the priest, if + necessary, to tell an untruth rather than divulge its secrets. He + justified it also by the more fundamental principle that the supreme + ethical motive is regard for our neighbor's good, and it is better + to lie than to do him harm. To this principle, taught not by a few + ethical teachers of our own as well as other ages, he gave frequent + expression." + +McGiffert, with all his obvious effort to defend Luther, frankly finds +this whole incident too much. He said (p. 366): + + "Regarded from any point of view, the landgrave's bigamy was a + disgraceful affair, and Luther's consent the gravest blunder [!] of + his career. He acted conscientiously [!], but with a lamentable want + of moral discernment and a singular lack of penetration and + foresight. To approve a relationship so derogatory to the women + involved, and so subversive to one of the most sacred safeguards of + society, showed too little fineness of moral feeling and sureness of + moral conviction; while to be so easily duped by the dissolute + prince was no more creditable to his perspicacity than thinking such + an affair could be kept secret to his sagacity." + +The same biographer has summed up the closing years of Luther's life, +from which we have so many records in the shape of letters and +documents of various kinds. As McGiffert says: "There is little sign +of flagging powers in his later writings. The same Luther still speaks +in them with all the racy humor, biting satire and coarse vituperation +of his best days." He continues (p. 373): + + "Despite the multiplicity of his occupations, his closing years were + far from happy. As time passed, he became more censorious, impatient + and bitter. He seems to have been troubled less frequently than in + earlier life with doubts as to his own spiritual condition and + divine mission, but he grew correspondingly despondent over the + results of his labors and the unworthiness of his followers. Instead + of finding the world transformed into a paradise by his gospel, he + saw things continuing much as before, and his heart grew sick with + {253} disappointment. The first flush of enthusiasm passed, and the + joy of battle gone, he had time to observe the results of his work, + and they were by no means to his liking. + + "Conditions even in Wittenberg itself were little to his liking. In + this centre of gospel light he felt there should be a devotion and + purity seen nowhere else. Instead, as the town grew in size and + importance, and manners lost somewhat of their earlier simplicity, + it seemed to his exaggerated sensibilities that everything was going + rapidly to the bad." + +Calvin, like Luther, was another of these vigorous active spirits so +common in this time of the Renaissance who felt that he had a special +call from on High to teach the world doctrines very different from +those received before. Like Luther, he too used his native tongue in +speech and writing with a forcefulness and originality that makes him +one of the founders of the prose of his language. From his earliest +youth of a very serious disposition, caring nothing for the games and +sports in which his fellow-scholars indulged, shunning society and its +pleasures, and prone to censure anything that was not deeply serious +and to condemn everything that smacked of frivolity, he found abundant +opportunity for reform. Severe to himself in the highest degree, +relaxation seemed almost sinful. He insisted that others should follow +the same regime and imputed even the ordinary amusements of life to +sin. He was lacking entirely in that disposition for healthy, happy +and hearty amusement which is a sign of good health of mind and body +and the best possible proof of absolute sanity. The old Church had +encouraged the recreations and amusements of the people. Calvin made +it a cardinal principle of religion that there were to be none of +them. He is probably no more to be held responsible for this, since it +was due to the lack of something in him, than is the color-blind +person for failure to perceive colors. + +Poor Calvin, with no faculty for relaxation, insisted that others +should not indulge theirs, and made it the basis of his religion that +any such indulgence was sinful. From this to the doctrine of +predestination to eternal punishment was not difficult. A God who +meant life to be passed without recreation would surely not scruple to +condemn most of His creatures {254} quite without their own fault to +an eternity of punishment. Why is it when men make their gods they +make them worse than themselves? Even the wise Greeks did not escape +this pitfall. + +There are always a number of people who are ready to follow anyone who +announces any doctrine, no matter how unreasonable it may seem to be, +if only he insists emphatically on his belief and if he evidently is a +sincere believer in it himself. Calvin was one of the dominant spirits +who readily gain control over others, and his severity to himself won +many of the sombre people around him to a devotion to his cause that +partook of worship. They even permitted themselves to be ruled by his +rigid hand, and there probably never has been a place where less +allowance was made for human nature than at Geneva during the days +when Calvin ruled there with a rod of iron and when his particular +mode of the reformation of religion was so completely accepted. To the +dour Scots this austere doctrine appealed particularly, and Calvin's +disciple, Knox, secured almost as much authority in Edinburgh as did +his master down at Geneva. + +Like Luther, Calvin before the end of his life was profoundly +disillusioned with regard to the Reformation and its effect upon +mankind. The unfortunate divisions of the Protestants among +themselves, their readiness to persecute each other, their refusal to +permit anything like religious toleration, above all their rejection, +except for very limited numbers, of his own doctrines, made him +foresee nothing but evil for the future. He knew that he had stirred +mankind deeply in the West of Europe, but he could not foretell +anything but unfortunate results from the conditions that he saw +around him. He once said: "The future appals me. I dare not think of +it. Unless the Lord descends from heaven, barbarism will engulf us." + + + [Illustration: HOLBEIN, HENRY VIII (LONDON)] + + +The blot on Calvin's name through the execution of Servetus has been +extenuated by his adherents, but the certainty of his complete +hostility to the unfortunate physiologist, who insisted in dabbling in +theology at a dangerous time, is now settled. Long before Servetus' +execution at Geneva, Calvin actually secured through his +well-developed system of {255} espionage and delation, extending even +into Catholic countries, the persecution of Servetus by the Catholic +ecclesiastical authorities in France. The details of this have now +been traced very clearly. When Servetus, thinking to find protection +where freedom of interpretation of Scriptures was preached, came to +Geneva his fate was sealed. Calvin himself made it a personal matter +to secure his conviction and bring about his execution. A number of +the reformers are on record agreeing that Calvin's action in this case +was eminently right, and even the gentle Melanchthon would not condemn +it. Nothing makes so perfectly clear as this that the claim made for +the Reformation of fostering or encouraging liberty of thought is +founded entirely on a misconception of what the reformers were trying +to do. The reformers wanted liberty of religious thinking for +themselves, but they were not ready to grant it to others. After all, +we in America do not need to appeal to foreign history in order to +understand that very well, for the Puritan disciples of Calvin, driven +out of England by Anglican religious persecution and intolerance, made +a home for themselves in New England, where they practised the +bitterest intolerance and absolutely refused to allow anyone to live +in their communities unless he or she, as Ann Hutchinson learned to +her cost, conformed unquestioningly to their religious tenets and +practices. + +The history of Henry VIII has less in it to make historians disagree. +His uxoriousness represents the explanation of the revolutionary +changes that took place in the government and the religion of England. +He fell in love with a younger, handsomer woman than the elderly wife, +who for more than twenty years had been, as he confessed himself, his +faithful, loving spouse, and then his first marriage got on his +conscience. The succeeding marriages are the best commentary on this +explanation. His father, Henry VII, had left him a full treasury, and +the son had spent liberally during the early years of his reign, and +finally the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold had almost exhausted the +crown's resources. Many a nobleman had literally carried his estates +on his back and returned from France so heavily mortgaged that the +power of the nobles was broken. This made most of them thoroughly +{256} dependent on the King. When the trouble with the Church came +then, the King himself and most of the nobles were rather glad of the +opportunity to obtain possession of the Church properties, the estates +of the great monasteries, and the many foundations for charitable and +social purposes that existed in connection with Church societies. All +of these might well be brought under the law of the confiscation so as +to fatten the Royal treasury, or at least fall to an expectant +sycophantic nobility. + +The question that many have been unable to answer satisfactorily for +themselves is how could the religion of a whole people be taken from +them under such sordid circumstances if they really held it. It has +been supposed that the change was made possible only by the fact that +for centuries there had been a growing feeling in England of +opposition to a foreign spiritual ruler, the Pope, and that this +culminated in Henry VIII's time and enabled him to assume the headship +of the English Church. James Gairdner has, however, dispelled this +idea completely, though himself an Anglican, and like Augustus Jessop +continuing in his adherence to the English Church. He shows in his +book on Lollardism that there was no widespread growing feeling of +opposition to Rome, and that while of course occasionally, when there +were difficulties between the crown and the Pope, mutterings of +spiritual insubordination were heard, which took the form expressed by +Shakespeare through the mouth of King John in his play, these were but +temporary and individual and not at all a growing sentiment of wide +diffusion. England up to Henry's time had been one of the most +faithful countries of Europe in the support of the Papacy, and +continued to be so until the change actually came. + +As a matter of fact, the people of England were deprived of their +religion by fraud at first, and then by violence. They did not change +it voluntarily. They were deeply attached to their church and clergy. +Augustus Jessop, in his book "Before the Great Pillage," has told the +story of the clergy before the reformation. He said: "Take them all in +all I cannot resist the impression which has become deeper and deeper +upon me the more I have read {257} and pondered, that the parochial +clergy in England during the centuries between the Conquest and the +Reformation numbered amongst them at all times some of the best men of +their generation." He reechoes Chaucer's picture of the village parson +who "did as well as taught." Jessop adds: "Not once, nor twice in our +history these parish priests are to be found siding with the people +against those in power and chosen by the people to be their spokesmen +when their grievances were becoming unbearable." As to the pretended +corruption of the monasteries, that has been disproved by all the +careful investigation of recent years, until it has become perfectly +clear that the abuses were no greater than may be expected at any +time, since men are only human. The evidence for corruption was very +slight, and what there is was manifestly gathered in such a way as to +enable the government authorities to justify their settled purpose to +confiscate the property. It was the need of money that was important. + +Nearly a century ago Cobbett, in his "History of the English +Reformation," had found it almost impossible to select words quite +strong enough to express his feeling with regard to the people who +brought about the English reformation. His expressions were considered +at that time as grossly exaggerated and the result of his tendency to +use strong language. In our time they still remain radical in mode, +but most writers now agree as to the essential truth of the facts on +which they are based. When it is recalled that millions of people have +for centuries thought of the Reformation as one of the greatest +blessings to mankind and the source of nearly every good that we have +in the modern time, it is indeed startling to read Cobbett's words, +yet Cobbett had made a special study of his subject, he was a great +practical-minded investigator, who knew his historical sources well, +who had gone directly to them and who had been shocked by the +difference between ordinary impressions as fostered for religious and +political purposes by historians and the realities that he found. No +wonder that he burst forth in his strong way: + + "The Reformation, as it is called, was (in England) engendered in + beastly lust, brought forth in hypocrisy and {258} perfidy, and + cherished and fed by plunder, devastation and rivers of innocent + English and Irish blood." + +Macaulay described the character of those who were most responsible +for the change of religion, the so-called reformation in England, in +words that are passing strange, considering that he himself would +never think of submitting to "the yoke of Rome" and seems even to have +felt that a great good had been accomplished, though by such vile +means. He says, in his "Essay on Hallam's Constitutional History," +that the reformers were: + + "A king whose character may be described best by saying that he was + despotism itself personified; unprincipled ministers; a rapacious + aristocracy; a servile parliament. Such were the instruments by + which England was delivered from the yoke of Rome. The work which + had been begun by Henry, the murderer of his wives, was continued by + Somerset, the murderer of his brother, and completed by Elizabeth, + the murderer of her guest." + +Some of the most unworthy motives and adjuvants were mixed up in the +reform movement. Indeed, it is possible to collect from non-Catholic +sources more bitter excoriations of the men who made the Reformation +possible than with regard to almost any group of men who accomplished +any other purpose in history. Frederic Harrison, for instance, said: +"It is not to be denied that the origin of the (English) Establishment +is mixed up with plunder, jobbery and intrigue, that stands out even +in the tortuous annals of the sixteenth century; that the annals run +black with red, along some of the blackest and reddest pages of royal +tyranny and government corruption." + +Andrew Lang quotes Professor F. York Powell in a description of how +the reformation in Scotland was brought about in language that is, if +possible, stronger than this of Frederic Harrison: "The whole story of +Scottish Reformation, hatched in purchased treason and outrageous +intolerance, carried on in open rebellion and ruthless persecution, +justified only in its indirect results, is perhaps as sordid and +disgusting a story as the annals of any European country can show." + +Almost needless to say, though the Reformation was a {259} religious +movement and therefore might be expected to be intimately associated +with personal holiness on the part of its leaders, probably no one +would think for a moment of suggesting the title of saint for any of +those whose names are most prominent in the movement. To John Wesley, +who came two centuries and a half later, the name saint might readily +be attributed. He was one of those kindly characters, thoughtful for +others, thoughtless of himself, thoughtful especially of the poor, +whose personal winningness meant much for his cause. The reformers of +the sixteenth century, however, were egoistic leaders of men, with the +self-consciousness of a great purpose and determination to put that +through regardless of the suffering of others involved in it. There +was little that was sympathetic about them, though all of them had +certain compelling qualities of mind but not of heart which won men to +them. Saintliness of character, in the ordinary acceptation of the +word, would scarcely be thought of even distantly in connection with +them. All of them were fighters, and if others suffered in the +conflict they cared little, for they felt that they were in the right +and must do the work of the Lord cost what it might. It is no wonder +that in our own time Professor Briggs of the Union Theological +Seminary, New York, whose own religious experience must have been so +illuminating for him, reviewing the Reformation period, has suggested +that there were other and more saintly reformers alive at this time +whose influence unfortunately was not strong enough to turn the tide +of revolution once it had begun. + +In an article in the _Independent_ (New York) entitled "How May We +Become More Truly Catholic," Professor Briggs said: + + "There were other and in some respects greater reformers in the + sixteenth century than the more popular heroes Luther, Zwingli and + Calvin. Sir Thomas More, the greatest jurist of his time, Lord + Chancellor of England, a chief leader of reform before Cranmer, + resigned his exalted position and went to the block rather than + recognize the supremacy of the King in ecclesiastical affairs; a + true knight, a martyr to the separation of civil and ecclesiastical + jurisdiction. Erasmus, {260} the greatest scholar of his age, + regarded by many as the real father of the Reformation, the teacher + of the Swiss reformers, was unwilling to submerge learning and + morals in an ocean of human blood. He urged reformation, not + revolution. He has been crucified for centuries in popular + Protestant opinion as a political time-server, but undoubtedly he + was the most comprehensive reformer of them all. + + "John von Staupitz, doctor of theology, and Vicar-General of the + German Augustinians, the teacher of Luther and his counsellor in the + early stages of his reform, a man without a stain and above + reproach, a Saint in the common estimation of Protestant and + Catholic alike, the best exponent of the piety of his age, was an + Apostle of Holy Love and good works, which he would not sacrifice in + the interests of the Protestant dogma of justification by faith + only. These three immortals who did not separate themselves from the + Roman Catholic Church, who remained in the Church to patiently carry + on the work of reform therein--these three were the irenic spirits, + the heroic representatives of all that was truly Catholic, the + beacons of the greater reformation that was impending." + + + [Illustration: FILIPPINO LIPPI, MADONNA WITH FOUR SAINTS] + + +This position taken by Professor Briggs has come to be more and more +recognized as the true one from the historical standpoint in recent +years. What has been called the Reformation had in it so many +unfortunate political elements that its force for good was frittered +away by the abuses inevitably connected with political associations. +The counter-reformation, which represented the reaction from the +religious revolt of the early sixteenth century, carried with it the +truer spirit of Christianity and gradually gathered round it those +forces for culture, social uplift and political liberty which mean +most for the benefit of mankind and which thrived so well under the +fostering care of Christianity. It is only with the breaking up of the +ideas and institutions fostered by the reformers that modern progress +along these lines has come. Protestantism hurt art, sadly hampered +education, ruined architecture, shackled philosophy, discouraged +scholarship and, above all, destroyed educational and humanitarian +foundations for mere personal profit, and took away the incentive for +true charity, its doctrine of salvation by faith only obliterating +{261} the divine significance of good works. In the Appendix, some of +these points are emphasized by quotations from well-known authorities, +who have summed up various phases of Reformation influence. These +writers, though themselves in sympathy with the reform movement in its +ideals, see its evil effects and lament them. + + + +{262} + +CHAPTER VI + +GREAT EXPLORERS AND EMPIRE BUILDERS + +Columbus was not the first great successful explorer of this century +that we have called by his name. Many daring navigators, particularly +during the half century preceding the discovery of America, had braved +the perils of the ocean, so literally trackless for them, in order to +add to man's knowledge. A great stimulus to the spirit of navigation +and exploration came with the rediscovery of the Cape Verde Islands by +the Portuguese in 1447. Men dared after this to sail with the definite +purpose of finding hitherto unknown land, and their bravery was +rewarded in 1460 by the discovery of Sierra Leone. Prince Henry of +Portugal then realized that the future of his country, hemmed in as it +was in Europe, would largely depend upon the success of her +navigators. He gathered together and systematized all the knowledge +obtainable in nautical matters, and well deserves the name of Henry +the Navigator. It was under his inspiration that the coast of Africa +and the Senegal and the Gambia were explored. Probably no one more +than he helped to remove the imagined terrors of the deep and gave men +courage to venture ever farther and farther in exploration. His great +purpose was the spread of Christianity, and to this he brought every +incentive from patriotism and every possible help that could be +obtained from science in any way. His name gloriously opened Columbus' +Century. + +It is possible that the old tradition that Henry established a college +of navigation and even, as some have declared, an astronomical +observatory at Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent, with the special purpose +of making observations on the declination of the sun so as to secure +more accurate nautical tables, may be a pious exaggeration of ardent +admirers. Undoubtedly, however, he did a great deal for the scientific +{263} development of navigation and established a tradition that was +well followed in Portugal. John II of Portugal appointed a commission +on navigation consisting of Roderick and Joseph, his physicians, and +Martin of Bohemia. They invented the astrolabe, though the cross staff +continued to be used for some time by navigators and was one of the +few instruments possessed by Columbus and Vasco da Gama. Martin Cortez +described the astrolabe and shows how much more convenient it is than +the cross staff for taking altitudes. + +During the latter part of Columbus' Century, the Portuguese made a +series of magnificent discoveries. In 1486 King John II appointed +Bartholomew Dias as the head of an expedition whose purpose was to +sail around the southern end of Africa. Henry the Navigator had been +attracted by the story of Prester John, the legendary Christian king +of Abyssinia, who was said to rule over a large part of Africa. The +Christian monarchs of the West hoped to get in touch with him. Recent +reports had arrived apparently confirmatory of the tradition, and the +Portuguese under King John wanted to enter into friendly relations +with them. Dias sailed in 1487, reached the mouth of the Congo, which +had been discovered the year before, followed the African coast, +entered Walfisch Bay and erected a column near the present Angra +Pequena. He was driven by a storm then far to the south, but after the +storm sailed easterly and, turning northward, he landed in Mossel Bay. +He followed the coast as far as Algoa Bay and the Great Fish River. On +his return he discovered the cape and gave it the name of _Cabo +Tormentoso_ (Stormy, Dangerous Cape), but on his arrival home King +John proposed the name it still bears--the Cape of Good Hope--with the +desire apparently of dissipating, if not its dangers, at least the +dread of them that so filled men's minds. After this it was a +comparatively easy matter to reach India, at least Dias had shown the +way, and the problem which had occupied Prince Henry of joining the +East and the West, so that the peoples might learn to exchange their +riches, the costly materials of the East and the religious treasures +of the West, was solved. + +The great Portuguese Empire in India is an example of {264} empire +building under the most difficult circumstances, which shows the +energy and the enterprise, the courage and the successful achievement +of the men of this period. India was a very long distance from +Portugal in those days. To think of sending out a colony, the men for +which had to make the long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope with +all its dangers, was a daring thought reaching almost to hardihood. In +the course of a single generation, however, that empire became a +wonderful source of added power and income to the mother country. +Bartholomew Dias more than any other accomplished this for Portugal, +but there were a large number of men of bravery and high +administrative ability who helped in the work. Portugal had the +advantage at this time of producing a supremely great poet, Camoeens, +who could celebrate the work of his fellow-countrymen and immortalize +the story of their achievement. Nearly always the poet comes when a +work worthy of his genius has been accomplished. India proved to be a +school of courage and enterprise for the Portuguese of that +generation, which lifted a little country (the smallest of Europe) to +almost the highest plane of influence and greatness. + +While Columbus' great discovery has overshadowed the work of all the +other explorers and navigators in the Western Ocean at this time, it +must not be forgotten that during this century a large number of +hardy, heroic men, with a determination not due to ignorance or to +mere foolhardiness, but with purposes as sincere and courage as high +as our Arctic explorers, accomplished wonderful results in the +enlargement of human knowledge of the Western Continent and its +inhabitants and varied products. Even before Columbus himself had +reached the American continent, Amerigo Vespucci as well as the two +Cabots had already touched it. Vespucci's biographers insist that his +first voyage to America was made in 1497 and that he coasted along the +northern shore of South America and into the Gulf of Mexico, returning +to Spain November 15, 1498. It was in this latter year that Columbus +first touched the mainland. In 1499 Vespucci went out with a second +fleet and, keeping his former course, he succeeded in reaching the +mouth of the Orinoco River, and returned {265} to Cadiz in 1500. He +made a third voyage in 1501 and reached as far south as 52 deg. of +latitude, having coasted the South American shore from 5 deg. south +latitude to within 4 deg. of Cape Horn. The fourth voyage was undertaken +the next year, and on this Vespucci explored portions of the coast of +Brazil. While it is usually said, and it must be confessed with some +justification, that Columbus was deprived of what may be considered +his proper privilege as first discoverer in not having the continent +of America named after him, there is no doubt that Vespucci deserved +highly of mankind for his daring explorations and his expert +seamanship and hardy navigation. The scientific world owes him still +more for the publication of his maps and detailed description of the +American coast. These served to spread widely definite knowledge with +regard to the new continent. Above all others, with the single +exception of Columbus, even if that exception must be made, he +deserved to have the Continent named after him. [Footnote 23] + + [Footnote 23: The news of Amerigo Vespucci's discovery + seems to have spread rapidly throughout Europe and his + writings became familiar within a few years to a much + greater number of people than we would think possible in + the limited means of communication at the time. In + discussing "The Four Elements," the Morality Play, in the + chapter on English Literature lines are quoted to show + that the play was written within twenty years of the + discovery of America. Ordinarily it would be assumed that + this would mean Columbus' discovery in 1492, but the whole + passage shows that the reference was to Amerigo's, in + Latin Americus', discovery of the Continent. The complete + passage is: + + "Till now, within this twenty years. + Westward he found new lands. + That we never heard tell of before this + By writing nor other means. + But this new lands found lately + Been called America, because only + Americus did first them find."] + + +While we are not likely to think of the Italians as a seafaring +people, Columbus himself is an Italian, so was Amerigo Vespucci, but +still more remarkable the other greatest navigators of the first half +of Columbus' Century, the Cabots, were also of Italian origin. John +and Sebastian Cabot were Venetians, settled at Bristol, and they +reached the continent of {266} North America in 1498 and sailed for a +considerable distance along it. It was on their discoveries that +England based its claims to the North American portion of the +hemisphere. Their merits as bold and fearless, yet intelligent, +navigators have rightly been given the highest recognition. Owing to +their connection with North America, we have known much more about +them than about many of the others who ventured to make long, perilous +voyages of discovery about this time. + +The great Portuguese discoverers after Bartholomew Dias are Vasco da +Gama (c. 1460-1524) and Magellan (1470-1521), almost exactly his +contemporary. Vasco da Gama, who had proved his intrepidity as a +mariner often before, was entrusted with the fleet of four vessels +sent out by the Portuguese in July, 1497, in order to determine +whether the story of Bartholomew Dias, that it was possible to sail +around the continent of Africa and thus reach India, was true or not. +He touched at St. Helena Bay, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and on the +20th of May, 1498, arrived at Calcutta on the Malabar coast. On his +return he was magnificently received by the King, and three years +later he was sent out with a larger expedition which took possession +of India and created the Portuguese Indian Empire. At this time, in +spite of rich rewards, he was evidently distrusted by the King, who +apparently feared his ambition, and for twenty years he lived in +retirement. After that he was called from his seclusion and created +Viceroy of India. Unfortunately, his career as Viceroy lasted but a +few months, yet even in that short time he had succeeded in correcting +many abuses and reestablishing firmly Portuguese authority in India. +Da Gama had the good fortune to be celebrated in an immortal epic by +Camoeens, and it is the tribute of the great poet almost more than his +own achievement that has given him high distinction among the many +great navigators of his time. + +One of the greatest of the explorers of this time was undoubtedly Da +Gama's compatriot and contemporary, Ferdinand Magellan. He had been in +the service of the king of Portugal, but as his services were +unappreciated he went over to the king of Spain and succeeded in +persuading the Spanish Government that the Spice Islands could be +reached by {267} sailing to the West. The Portuguese had previously +reached them by sailing East. Magellan's idea was to find some mode of +getting through or around the American continent so as to sail into +the great South Sea. He reached the land to which he gave the name of +Patagonia, where he noted the presence of men of huge size. South of +this he succeeded in finding a passage which he called San Vittoria +Strait, but which has come much more properly to be known since as the +Straits of Magellan. He shed tears of joy, as Pigafetti who was with +him on the expedition tells, when he beheld the immense expanse of the +new ocean. He found it so placid that he gave it the name it has borne +ever since, the Pacific Ocean. For nearly four months he sailed on the +Pacific without seeing any inhabited land. His sailors were compelled +to eat even the skin and leather wherewith their rigging was bound and +to drink water which had become putrid. It required super-human +courage and perseverance to continue the expedition, but Magellan did +so. He touched at the Ladrone Islands, but unfortunately he was killed +shortly after his vessels reached the Spice Islands, it is presumed by +the natives, though perhaps by his own men, who dreaded his intensity +of purpose to circumnavigate the globe and feared that it would carry +them once more through similar awful sufferings to those which they +had experienced in the voyage through the Pacific Ocean. + +His lieutenant, Sebastian de Elcano, directed his course from the +Moluccas to the Cape of Good Hope, but did not reach it until he had +gone through hardships almost as severe as those suffered in the +Pacific. He lost twenty-one of his men, but succeeded in getting back +to Seville just about three years and one month after they had sailed +from that port. They had accomplished, however, one of the greatest +achievements in the history of the race. They had circumnavigated the +globe and proved beyond all doubt that by sailing westward one might +come round to where one started. It is interesting to know that +Magellan's lieutenant, Sebastian, received high honors and armorial +bearings, with the globe of the world belted by the inscription, "You +were the first to go round me" (_Primus circumdedisti me_). Spain made +many claims {268} to lands discovered on this expedition and it added +notably to the extent of the Spanish Empire. + +The French scarcely more than the Italians are thought of as great +navigators. We are likely to reserve that designation for the +Spaniards, Portuguese and English, yet next in point of priority at +this time there are records of some magnificent French accomplishments +in navigation. We have an account of a voyage by Paulmier de +Gonneville, a French priest, the evidence for which rests on a +judicial statement made before the Admiralty in France, July 19, 1505. +De Gonneville called the large island that he discovered Terre +Australe, so that for a long time it was thought that he was the first +to touch Australia. The description that he gives, however, of the +people and the products of the country evidently applies to some +northern island of the Indian Ocean and not to the great southern +continent. There is good reason to think, however, that in this voyage +important discoveries were made. A little later in the century, +Verrazano, an Italian in charge of a French expedition which sailed +along the coast of North America, entered the harbor of New York, +sailed up the Hudson River and landed an expedition on Manhattan +Island, where in 1524 a religious service, probably the Mass as Rev. +Dr. Morgan Dix suggested, was celebrated. Bennett's discussion of the +matter in his "Catholic Footsteps in Old New York" (New York, 1910) +leaves little doubt of the fact. + +Two Spanish expeditions probably reached Australia during the first +half of the sixteenth century. The first of these was under Alvar de +Saavedra, who was sent out by Cortez. Cortez, having settled himself +in Mexico, wished to get in touch with the East, and especially the +Spice Islands, and it was he who despatched Saavedra, who was a +relative. There is some doubt as to whether this navigator did not +touch New Guinea rather than Australia, but there is no question but +that he navigated across the Pacific Ocean as early as 1528. In 1542 +Bernard della Torre is reported to have landed on the Australian +continent, and critical analysis of his description of the natives and +of the conditions that he found there puts his discovery beyond all +doubt. + +{269} + +The men who were leaders of expeditions to the newly discovered +countries at this time were all of them distinguished for bravery, and +most of them for high administrative ability and a talent for +government and the management of men which stamp them as among the +world's geniuses. In our time much has been said of the ability of +such a man as Cecil Rhodes and what he accomplished as an empire +builder in South Africa. Considering the difference of circumstances, +the lack of means of communication, the immense distances that had to +be traversed and the dangers encountered, there are at least three men +of Columbus' Century who have gained a place in history such as Cecil +Rhodes will never have. The qualities exercised were of the same kind, +but of much higher order, because requiring more independent activity +and the most absolute self-reliance. What Vasco da Gama did in India +for the Portuguese, Cortes in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru for the +Spaniards represent achievements in empire building that have +deservedly given these men an undying name in history. There were +unfortunate abuses in the work. There always are whenever a savage +race is brought under the dominance of what is at least supposed to be +a more civilized people. There always are, even in the heart of our +modern civilization, whenever one class of people can with impunity +take advantage of another. + +The work of these men is perhaps best illustrated by short sketches of +the careers of Cortes and Pizarro. Cortes, sent as a boy to the +University of Salamanca, found that he had no liking for study and +that his restless spirit could not be satisfied with an education and +the career of law which his parents destined him for. He joined an +expedition that brought him to the Antilles at the age of nineteen, +and soon showed the qualities of daring and military aptitude that +made him a favorite with his superiors in the service. As a +consequence, he was named as commander in the expedition to Mexico. He +had solved the Indian method of warfare by decoy and ambush and turned +it against the Indians themselves. He soon became noted for the almost +lightning-like celerity, as it seemed to his opponents, of his +movements. When the Governor of the Antilles, suspecting Cortes of +{270} personal ambitious designs, sent an expedition against him, he +captured its commander by a surprise, though he himself had only +one-quarter of the force that his opponent mustered. Against +overwhelming odds he succeeded in conquering the Mexicans and +establishing Spanish dominion throughout the country. + +While his conquest was disfigured by many of the unfortunate evils +that so often have characterized such events in history, Cortes was +not unkind to the Indians and he endeavored in every way to improve +their condition and lift them up to a higher plane of civilization. +Even Las Casas mentions him favorably and, while his kind treatment of +the Indians is sometimes said to have been part of a deep-laid plan to +use his power over them for selfish reasons and even for treason +against the Spanish Crown, this explanation seems far-fetched. Cortes +knew how easily his position could be undermined at court and, above +all, he knew the fate of many of the men who had accomplished great +things for Spain and of the readily comprehensible suspicions that +were likely to attach to a man who had made so great a success as his. +He was of an independent character and used expressions which +indicated that he would not submit to the treatment that had been +dealt out to others. It is not surprising, then, that after a time he +was excluded from the government of Mexico and had to look elsewhere +for further occupation for his restless ambition. He was allowed to +join the great expedition against Algiers in 1541, but after its +disastrous end did not long survive the failure. Cortes could write +well, and has written the accounts of his own achievements, and these +have been published in a number of editions, with translations into +many languages. They show that he was a clear-headed man of great +ability in an intellectual and literary sense, as well as for +administration, and, while colored quite naturally in his own favor, +they are valuable sources for history. + +Pizarro, _filius nullius_, with his fortune to make, everything to +gain and nothing to lose, set sail at the age of twenty-eight with +Alonzo de Ojeda from Spain. After many hardships he attached himself +to Balboa, and accompanied him across the Isthmus of Panama in the +expedition which discovered the {271} Pacific. After Balboa's death he +followed the fortunes of Pedrarias, the governor of the region. +Hearing of the achievements of Cortes in Mexico and the reports of the +riches of the countries lying along the shore of the Pacific Ocean to +the south, he organized an expedition to conquer them. Their project +seemed so utterly rash and foolhardy, without any prospects of +success, that the people of Panama called those who had joined the +expedition "the company of lunatics." In spite of every +discouragement, Pizarro continued his preparations, and after eighteen +months returned to Panama with an abundance of gold and glowing +accounts of the wealth of the countries he had visited. The Governor, +jealous of his success, withdrew his support and refused to allow him +to continue his explorations. + +Pizarro then crossed the ocean to Charles V, laid his information and +plans before him and Charles, recognizing his ability and the probable +success of his project, conferred on him the Order of the Knighthood +of St. James and made him Governor and Captain-General, with absolute +authority, in all the territories he might discover and subjugate. His +orders could be reviewed only by the Royal Council in Spain. Armed +with this authority, Pizarro proceeded to add the empire of Peru to +that of Charles V, then ruling over more of Europe than anyone since +the time of the Roman Emperors. The romantic story of this achievement +and of Pizarro's assassination have often attracted the attention of +dramatists, writers of fiction, as well as historians. There is no +doubt at all of the magnificent daring, the political talent, nor the +administrative ability of the man who succeeded in doing this in spite +of obstacles that looked absolutely unsurmountable. This was +accomplished by the free use of treachery, breaking of faith, as well +as taking advantage in every way of the natives, but empire builders +at all times have had such elements in them. Pizarro is no worse than +modern conquerors, and in many respects is far better. The stories of +India, Egypt and Africa will look quite as bad before the bar of +history as that of Peru. + +Our own great task of exploration and of colonization and conquest +during the past hundred years has been the opening {272} up of Africa +and the finding of the North and South Poles. The opening up of Africa +represents a really great extension of civilization, and doubtless +will hold an important place in history. It is more than doubtful, +however, if our colonizers and conquerors will be dealt with any more +generously in history, or placed on a higher plane of fellow-feeling +for the natives, than the colonizers and conquerors of Columbus' +Century. The slave trade had been abolished early in the nineteenth +century, and yet there has been the feeling many times during the past +hundred years that the natives of South Africa were being abused +almost as in the days of slavery, and that even the natives of South +America under European influence in certain places were little better +than slaves. Indeed, the whole attitude of mind of the modern time +with regard to the early conquerors has had very interesting light +thrown on it by investigations, which showed that in many states of +our own country there was a system of employing ignorant labor that +could only be characterized as slavery. + +After recalling the "spheres of influence" of the different nations +and the mode in which South Africa has been parcelled out without any +regard for the native inhabitants or their rights in the question, it +becomes clear that the world, for all its complacent condemnation of +the men of the older time, has not changed a particle since Columbus' +Century. The two Latin nations, the Spaniards and the Portuguese, were +the conquerors and colonizers in the early sixteenth century. The +Teutonic nations, England and Germany, because they had replaced Spain +and Portugal as the leading commercial countries, did the work in the +later nineteenth. The differences between the modes of action and the +general conduct of affairs at the two periods are very slight when +compared to the close similarities of motive and purpose. Nations at +both periods were looking for a region by which they could enrich +themselves, and explorers and colonists and pioneers who went out were +actuated by just the same motives at both times. Indeed, it is very +doubtful whether we have point for point accomplished anything like so +much good for the natives as the Spaniards tried to do, and as we have +seen in the {273} chapter on Columbus' Century in America, often with +striking success. + +After all, it must not be forgotten that there are more Indians alive +in Mexico and in South America now than when Columbus landed. It has +been impossible as yet to lift the natives up to the high plane of +civilization of their European invaders, which has been reached only +after many centuries of training, but undoubtedly much has been done. +In many of these countries even the natives are nearly ready for +self-government, and the countries with the handicap of their mixed +races are, considering all the conditions, as prosperous as we are, +and visitors often declare their upper classes possessed of a higher +state of culture than ours. President Taft, after thorough practical +experience in the Philippines, declared that the natives were on the +high road to readiness for self-government and that they represent the +only example of a people who, invaded by civilized conquerors and +colonists, had been gradually lifted out of their barbarism on to a +higher and higher plane. The beginning of this accomplishment came in +Columbus' Century. It is only by comparing what our own and that +century did in the solution of similar problems that we can get any +idea of how admirable in many ways is the work of the earlier period. +If at the end of the next century the natives of Africa shall fare as +well as those of South America and the Philippines, the comparison +will be more satisfactory. + +Our problem of adventurous navigation in the nineteenth century has +been the discovery of the North and South Poles. We have succeeded in +our purpose, but not without much sacrifice of treasure and men and +much suffering. For many people in our time the finding of the Poles +has seemed merely a quixotic undertaking, and, as a matter of fact, +there has been no great practical purpose in it. The voyages of the +navigators of the early sixteenth century must have seemed just as +quixotic, though after any successful voyage the fruits of the +expedition, in a commercial as well as a scientific and cultural way, +could be readily appreciated. When we estimate the difference between +the small sailing vessels of that time and the utter lack of +facilities for the storage and {274} preservation of food as well as +the dangers of the literally trackless ocean, some idea of the bravery +of these hardy adventurers can be appreciated. Our steam vessels, with +preserved foods and medicines usually available and the understanding +of the dangers that they are to meet, has made our voyages +comparatively simple, yet we have felt the inspiration of +accomplishment. Columbus' Century is almost infinitely higher in the +place that must be accorded to it for the spirit and the number of the +men who ventured upon long voyages from which so many never returned +and on which all trace was absolutely lost of many and many a vessel. +In spite of the losses, there was never any dearth of men to take up +the work of exploration and conquest, and their success revolutionized +modern history. + + + +{275} + +CHAPTER VII + +AMERICA IN COLUMBUS' CENTURY + + +Since our English colonization of America did not take place until the +seventeenth century--Jamestown, 1607; Plymouth, 1620--it is ordinarily +presumed, in English-speaking countries at least, that there is little +or nothing worth while talking about in American history during +Columbus' Century, ending as it does in 1550. As a matter of fact, +however, though America was discovered only in 1492, there is an +extremely interesting and significant chapter of American history +between 1500 and 1550. This is, of course, all in the Spanish-American +countries. It has unfortunately been the custom to think of the +Spanish colonies as backward in all that relates to education and +culture, but the history of even this half century here in America, +when some magnificent progress was made, the landmarks of which still +remain, is quite enough to show how far from the realities of things +as they were some of our fondly cherished historic impressions are. +There is not a single phase of civilization that did not receive +diligent attention very early in the history of Spanish America, and +the results achieved were such as to represent enduring progress in +the intellectual life. In education, in printing and the distribution +of books, in art and architecture, in the training of the Indians in +the arts and crafts as well as in the principles of self-government, +and even in science, though this department of human accomplishment is +usually not supposed to be seriously taken at this time, there are +many significant early American achievements. + +It is only in comparatively recent years that in English-speaking +countries there has come anything like a proper recognition of the +work done by the Spaniards in America in the early days of the history +of this continent. It has been the custom to think that, while the +English colonists came {276} to make a home here, the main purpose of +the Spaniards in America was to exploit the inhabitants and the +country and to do just as little as possible for either, provided only +the members of the Spanish expeditions made money enough to enable +them to live in comfort at home in Spain after a few years of stay +here in America. Mr. Sidney Lee, the distinguished editor of the +English Biographical Dictionary and an authority on Shakespeare and +the Elizabethan period, as well as the sixteenth century generally, in +a series of articles which appeared in _Scribner's_ for 1907 on "The +Call of the West," contradicted most of these notions that are so +prevalent with regard to the contrasted attitude of the English +colonists and the Spanish colonizers during the early history of the +continent. He said, for instance, not hesitating properly to +characterize the principal reason for this historical deception: + + + [Illustration: STRADAN (JAN VAN DER STRAET), NIELLO, + IVORY COLUMBUS ON HIS FIRST VOYAGE ] + + + "Especially has theological bias justified neglect or facilitated + misconception of Spain's role in the sixteenth century drama of + American history. Spain's initial adventures in the {277} New World + are often consciously or unconsciously overlooked or underrated in + order that she may figure on the stage of history as the benighted + champion of a false and obsolete faith, which was vanquished under + divine protecting providence by English defenders of the true + religion. Many are the hostile critics who have painted sixteenth + century Spain as the avaricious accumulator of American gold and + silver, to which she had no right, as the monopolist of American + trade, of which she robbed others, as the oppressor and exterminator + of the weak and innocent aborigines of the new continent who + deplored her presence among them. Cruelty in all its hideous forms + is, indeed, commonly set forth as Spain's only instrument of rule in + her sixteenth century empire. On the other hand, the English + adventurer has been credited by the same pens with a touching + humanity, with the purest religious aspirations, with a romantic + courage which was always at the disposal of the oppressed native. + + "No such picture is recognized when we apply the touchstone of the + oral traditions, printed books, maps and manuscripts concerning + America which circulated in Shakespeare's England. There a + predilection for romantic adventure is found to sway the Spaniards + in even greater degree than it swayed the Elizabethan. Religious + zeal is seen to inspirit the Spaniards more constantly and + conspicuously than it stimulated his English contemporary. The + motives of each nation are barely distinguishable one from another. + Neither deserves to be credited with any monopoly of virtue or vice. + Above all, the study of contemporary authorities brings into a + dazzling light which illumes every corner of the picture _the + commanding facts of the Spaniard's priority as explorer, as + scientific navigator, as conqueror, as settler."_ (Italics ours.) + +In education particularly the Spaniards accomplished much for which +they have been given almost no credit in English-speaking countries +until the last few years. As a matter of fact, as the President of a +great Eastern university said at a public dinner not long since, "We +have only just discovered Spanish America." The lamented Professor +Bourne of Yale, who wrote the third volume of "The American Nation" +[Footnote 24] {278} on Spain in America, was one of the earliest +American students of history to realize how much of injustice had been +done by the ordinarily accepted notions of Spanish-American history +that are common in English-speaking countries. In his chapter on "The +Transmission of European Culture," which is a vindication of +Spanish-American intellectual achievements, Professor Bourne proceeds +to institute comparisons between what was done in Spanish and in +English America in the early centuries for education and intellectual +development, and constantly to the disadvantage of the +English-speaking countries. He said: + + [Footnote 24: Harpers, New York.] + +"Not all the institutions of learning founded in Mexico in the +_sixteenth century_ can be enumerated here, but it is not too much to +say that in number, range of studies and standards of attainments by +the officers they surpassed anything existing in English America +_until the nineteenth century_. (Italics ours.) Mexican scholars made +distinguished achievements in some branches of _science, particularly +medicine_ and surgery, but pre-eminently linguistics, history and +anthropology. Dictionaries and grammars of the native languages and +histories of the Mexican institutions are an imposing proof of their +scholarly devotion and intellectual activity. Conspicuous are Toribio +de Motolinia's '_Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana,'_ Duran's +'_Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana,'_ but most important of all +Sahagun's great work on Mexican life and religion." Most of these +works were written after the close of Columbus' Century, but the +ground had been prepared for them and some of the actual accumulation +of facts for them begun in our period. They followed as a natural +development out of the scholarly interests already displayed in the +first half of the sixteenth century. + +Perhaps the most interesting feature of Spanish-American development +of education is the fact that its first landmark is a school for the +education of Indians. Not a few of the Spaniards who came to Mexico in +the first half of the sixteenth century had enjoyed the advantage of a +university education. As their children grew up they felt like sending +them back to Spain for university education, and many were {279} so +sent. The need for the education of the Indians was recognized early, +however, and in 1535 the College of Santa Cruz in Tlaltelolco, the +quarter of the City of Mexico reserved for the Indians, was founded +under the patronage of Bishop Zumarata. Among the faculty were, as +might be expected, graduates not only of Salamanca, the great Spanish +university of the time, but also of the University of Paris, which was +at this period the leading university of the world. It is interesting +to realize that these professors did not consider that they were +fulfilling their whole duty by teaching alone, but also devoted +themselves faithfully to what many have come to look upon apparently +as a modern development of university life, the duty of investigating +and writing. This is the real index of the vitality of a university +and the sincerity of its professors. Among the teachers of Santa Cruz +were such eminent scholars as Bernardino de Sahagun, the founder of +American anthropology, and Juan de Torquemada, himself a graduate of a +Mexican college, whose _"Monarquia Indiana"_ is a great storehouse of +facts concerning Mexico before the coming of the whites, containing +many precious details with regard to Mexican antiquity. + +Just as Columbus' Century was closing, arrangements were made for the +organization of two universities in Spanish America--the one in Mexico +City and the other in Lima, Peru. They received their royal charters +the same year, 1551, but besides the granting of their charters a +definite amount of the Spanish revenues was set aside by the Crown as +a government contribution to their support. It seems worth while to +note that such encouragement on the part of the English Government for +an institution of learning in the American colonies a full century, or +even two, later than this would have been quite out of the question. +Whatever the English colonists did for education they had to do for +themselves. There was no aid and not even sympathy with their efforts. +English universities for several centuries refused to recognize +American universities as on a par with them, and rightly, for their +standards were too low, though it is an extremely interesting +commentary on the educational situation in America, and especially on +the usually accepted {280} notions as to the relative significance of +Spanish and English education here, that both the University of Lima +and of Mexico came to be recognized during the sixteenth century as +sister institutions of learning not only by Salamanca and the other +Spanish universities, at this time among the best institutions of +learning in Europe, but also by the other university of Europe, whose +prestige was the highest, that of Paris. There was a certain +interchange of professors among them, though this was not formally +organized, and graduates of Salamanca and Paris taught at both Mexico +and Lima. Students from these American universities were accorded +their American ratings and allowed to proceed with their work on an +equality with European university men, a privilege scarcely accorded +to English-American university students even yet. + +The scholars of the Old World were quite well aware that the New +Learning was penetrating into the Western Hemisphere and were proud to +think that the humanities were being cultivated beyond the Western +ocean. Before the end of Columbus' Century, Marcantonio Flaminio, whom +Sandys in his "Harvard Lectures on the Revival of Learning" calls the +purest of the Latin poets of the age, a man who was a great friend of +Vittoria Colonna, in sending to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese a volume +of Latin poems by the scholars of Northern Italy, assures the Cardinal +that France and Spain and Germany and distant Brittany would do honor +to those Latin muses, and that even the New World would share in +admiration for them. As he puts it: "Those on whom the light of dawn +arises when the skies of Italy are wrapped in darkness will devote +their nights and days to the study of the Latin poets of Italy." + + "For strange to tell, e'en on that far-off shore + Doth flourish now the love of Latin lore." + +The newly created Universities of Mexico and Lima developed during the +half century following Columbus' Century into full-fledged +institutions of learning amply deserving the name university. Lectures +in medicine were delivered in {281} Mexico in 1578, and a full medical +faculty was organized before the close of the century. Our first +school of medicine in English America did not come into existence for +fully two centuries later. More than half a century before this, +however, special care had been exercised by the Spanish authorities to +prevent the exploitation of the Spanish colonists or the Indians by +pretenders to knowledge in medicine. As early as 1527 strict medical +regulations were drawn up by the municipal council of the City of +Mexico, granting the license to practise medicine only to those who +showed the possession of a university degree in medicine. Even earlier +than this arrangements had been made for the regular training of +barber surgeons, so that injuries and wounds of various kinds might be +treated promptly as well as properly, so that even the poorer classes +might have the benefit of some regular training in those whose +ministrations they could afford to pay for. A pure-drug ordinance, +regulating the practice of the apothecaries, was issued as early as +1529. It was practically only in our own time that similar regulations +were adopted in this country. + +Standards in university teaching were well maintained. Post-graduate +work was literally post-graduate work, and students might take up the +study of medicine or of law or of divinity only after having made +proper preliminary studies in the undergraduate departments of the +university. The Spanish-American universities received a charter not +only from the Spanish crown, but also from the Pope. The formal title +of the University of Mexico was the Pontifical University of the city. +The Papal charter was sought because it was the only way to secure an +international value for academic degrees, for the Papacy was the +international authority of the time. Papal charters for the +universities, however, were granted only on condition that standards +should be maintained. There are any number of these Papal university +charters extant which emphasize this necessity. On the establishment +of a new university the professors had to be graduates of +well-recognized, authoritative universities, in which the examinations +were held in oath-bound secrecy, in order {282} to assure as far as +possible absolute fairness and the maintenance of standards. The +course of studies and the length of time for them had to be arranged +in accordance with the standards of older universities. + + + [Illustration: TITLE PAGE OF LETTER OF COLUMBUS (BASEL, 1494)] + + +{283} + + + [Illustration: PAGE FROM THE LETTER OF COLUMBUS (BASEL, 1494)] + + +{284} + +The Spanish-American universities had the advantage of being closely +in touch with the European universities, and as a consequence had +taken their traditions direct from them. Papal university charters, as +a rule, required explicitly that there should be three years of +university work before medicine or other graduate work might be taken +up, and then four years of medicine before the degree of doctor would +be granted. Even after this, according to the Italian laws of the +thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the practice of medicine must not +be begun by the graduate until he had spent a year in practice with an +experienced physician. This is the year of hospital work that we are +now trying to introduce into the medical schools as a requirement and +which is taken, but voluntarily, by most of those who are seriously +interested in their professional studies. The preliminary +requirements, that is, such formal academic preparation for the study +of medicine as makes it possible for a young man to take up the +subject and properly benefit by it, have only become obligatory by law +in very recent years here in America, and that to a very limited +degree. + +The letter written to the Municipal Council of his native city, +Seville, by Dr. Chanca, who accompanied Columbus on his second +expedition, shows the thoroughly scientific interest and the acute +powers of observation of the Spanish physicians of this time. This is +unquestionably the first written document about the flora, the fauna, +the ethnology and the anthropology of America. Dr. Fernandez de Ybarra +published in the _Journal_ of the American Medical Association, +September 29, 1906, some abstracts from this letter which show that +these expressions are justified by its contents and are not mere +enthusiastic terms for rather commonplace observations. Chanca +described in detail woods of various kinds, fruit, spices, plants such +as cotton, the birds and animals, and above all the customs, +appearance and mode of living of the inhabitants. He gives in detail +their slave-making and cannibalistic tendencies. There was nothing +that escaped Chanca's observation. He found turpentine, tar, nutmegs, +ginger, aloes, though he noted that the aloes were not the same kind +as those in Spain (Barbadoes aloes are still {285} considered +inferior), cinnamon, cloves, mastic and many other things. He notes +the food of the inhabitants, their mode of working, the absence of +iron, yet the well-made implements, the presence of gold in many +places, describes the climate of the country and gives important +details with regard to its meteorology. + +Dr. Chanca had been the physician to their majesties, and he gave up +not only this position, but a large and lucrative practice in order to +become the physician of the colonies. It is principally through him +that we have any account of Columbus' second voyage. This second +voyage was, of course, very different from the first and carried a +thousand five hundred persons, among them many of the nobility who had +recently been in the wars with the Moors and who were looking for new +conquests in America. They were restless and hard to manage, negligent +and rash, they tasted many things without due care and succeeded in +poisoning themselves on a number of occasions, they caught the fevers +of the country and only for the presence of Dr. Chanca it is very +probable that most of them would have perished. Columbus, who thought +that he owed him his life, praises him highly in a letter to the +Sovereigns, asking permission to pay him special fees in addition to +the salary and rations which he was allowed as _scrivener_ in the +Indies. His letter and the estimation in which he was held at the time +is the best possible evidence of the standard of attainments of the +Spanish physicians of Columbus' Century. + +One of the memorable products of American scholarship during Columbus' +Century, that must not be passed over without mention here, is +Garcilaso de la Vega, the historian of Peru, born in our period, +though he did his work afterwards. He was the son of a daughter of the +Incas, the reigning family in Peru when the Spaniards came, and owed +to his mother the suggestion of writing a history of his ancestors and +their land. He travelled over the country consulting the old +inhabitants, the principal among whom were relatives through his +mother and his father was the Spanish Governor of Cuzco, one of the +few Spanish governors, be it said, who did not die a violent death. +Garcilaso was then in an {286} excellent position to gather all the +details of the story, yet without prejudice against the Spaniards. As +he spent his life after the age of twenty mainly in Europe, his +opportunities for thorough understanding of all the conditions were +complete. His work is of a great historic value, and indeed is the +foundation of all that we know of old Peru. It has been translated +into all the modern languages. + +Besides this attention to the higher education and to the education of +the Indians, popular education was cared for sedulously and, above +all, the Indians were instructed in the use of their hands, in the +arts and crafts, and in every way that would make them useful, happy +citizens. The contrast between English America and Spanish America in +this matter is rather striking and has been emphasized by Professor +Bourne in the chapter of his book to which we have already referred. +He said: + + "Both the crown and the Church were solicitous for education in the + colonies, and provisions were made for its promotion on a far + greater scale than was possible or even attempted in the English + colonies. The early Franciscan missionaries built a school beside + each Church and in their teaching abundant use was made of signs, + drawings and paintings. The native languages were reduced to + writing, and in a few years Indians were learning to read and write. + Pedro de Gante, a Flemish lay brother and a relative of Charles V, + founded and conducted in the Indian quarter in Mexico a great + school, attended by over a thousand Indian boys, which combined + instruction in elementary and higher branches, the mechanical and + fine arts. _In its workshops the boys were taught to be tailors, + carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers and painters."_ (Italics ours.) + +Almost needless to say it is only in quite recent years that we have +awakened to the necessity for such teaching for our Indians and, may +it be added, for the poorer classes of our population generally. + + + [Illustration: HOSPITAL, MEXICO (FOUNDED BEFORE 1524)] + + + [Illustration: HOSPITAL, MEXICO (ANOTHER VIEW)] + + +The printing press early found its home in America, and even during +Columbus' Century quite a number of books were published in the +Spanish-American countries. It is often said that the first book +printed in America was the {287} Massachusetts Bay Psalm Book, issued, +I believe, in 1638, but of course this was long anticipated in Mexico +and in South America. In this, as in many other of the details of +Spanish-American culture. Professor Bourne has given authoritative +information. He said: + + "The early promoters of education and missions did not rely upon the + distant European presses for the publication of their manuals. The + printing press was introduced into the New World probably as early + as 1536, and it seems likely that the first book, an elementary + Christian doctrine called 'La Escala Espiritual' (the ladder of the + spirit), was issued in 1537. No copy of it, however, is known to + exist. Seven different printers plied their craft in New Spain in + the sixteenth century. Among the notable issues of these presses, + besides the religious works and church service works, were + dictionaries and grammars of the Mexican languages, Pufa's + 'Cedulario' in 1563, a compilation of royal ordinances, Farfan's + 'Tractado de Medicina.'" + +An enduring and very striking monument of the humanitarian progress +made in Spanish America at this time in medicine is a hospital that +still stands in the City of Mexico. It was built originally by Cortes +and endowed by him, and his descendants still appoint the +superintendent and have much to do with the support of the hospital. +It was erected in 1524, and it might well be thought that at any such +early date as this it would be a very rude structure and the surprise +would be that it is still standing. Miss Nutting and Miss Dock, +however, in their "History of Nursing," have given two pictures of it, +both of which we reproduce here, and which show that it was a +beautiful hospital building and quite worthy of the great beginnings +that were made in other ways in Mexican educational and humanitarian +progress. The pretty courtyard and porticoes were eminently suitable +for the changeable climate of Mexico, and the whole building is a +monument of Spanish culture as well as Spanish charity. [Footnote 25] + + [Footnote 25: The surprise inevitable for many at finding that such + a handsome hospital was erected at this time will be tempered by + recalling that this is the period when some of the most beautiful + hospitals in the world were erected. (See the chapter on Social Work + and Workers.) Besides they began very early to erect beautiful + buildings in Mexico City. The University Buildings, the Cathedral + and other public buildings were worthy of the fine traditions of + architecture prevalent in Europe and especially in Spain at this + time.] + +{288} + +Champlain, the French navigator, having visited the City of Mexico +before the end of the sixteenth century, said of it: "But all the +contentment I felt at the sight of things so agreeable (the beautiful +natural scenery) was but little in comparison with that which I +experienced when I beheld the beautiful City of Mexico, which I did +not suppose had such superb buildings with splendid ample palaces and +fine houses and the streets well laid and where are seen the large and +handsome shops of the merchants full of all sorts of every kind of +merchandise." + +Nor must it be thought that Mexico was the only progressive part of +Spanish America so early in our history. Indeed, so much had been +accomplished in the Panama region by the end of Columbus' Century +that, when Sir Francis Drake raided the place some twenty years later, +the bank of the Chagres River was lined with warehouses, there was a +handsome monastery and beautiful church, and there were many houses of +stone decorated with carvings of many kinds, the residences of the +Governor and the royal officials. When the flow of the Chagres was +arrested in order to make the Gatun dam for the Panama Canal, all +vestiges of this disappeared, though the church was practically the +only building of any importance then standing. It showed by the charm +of its architecture and its interesting carvings how high had been the +culture and how good the taste of the builders almost a century before +there was any permanent settlement in English America. The rise of the +waters of the dam did not cover as important records of human progress +as when the great irrigation dam at Assuan submerged the ruins of the +ancient Temple of Philae in Egypt, nor cover up such interesting works +of art, but it did obliterate some of the evidence for a stage of +civilization in America that in English-speaking countries at least +has been wantonly minimized or sadly misunderstood. + +There are many remains in Panama that give some idea {289} of how much +the Spaniards did during Columbus' Century and how permanent were many +of their constructions. There is an old bridge from the early part of +the sixteenth century which, though built without a keystone, has its +main arch still standing. There is the famous flat arch which +demonstrates so clearly that this region must have been very little +disturbed by earthquakes ever since, because it seems almost +incredible that a structure should stand with so slight curvature for +any length of time, even in an absolutely undisturbed country, yet +this has been in place for nearly four centuries in Panama. There was +a magnificent paved road across the isthmus, the King's Highway, +remains of which are still to be found in excellent preservation. Some +portions of it were used during the course of the construction of the +Panama Canal and proved very serviceable. When we realize what would +have happened to one of our roads in a century, much less four hundred +years, a good idea of their permanency of construction is reached. The +old tower of St. Jerome, still standing, shows how solidly and yet how +ornately the Spaniards built, and there was evidently a magnificent +set of monumental constructions for religious and civil purposes on +the isthmus almost a century before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth +Rock. The story of these early days in American history has not yet +been told in its entirety, but even the details that are available +show us how well the Spaniards labored for permanency of their +foundations in America. + + +{290} + +CHAPTER VIII + +SOME GREAT WOMEN + +Probably what must be considered the most interesting chapter in the +history of Columbus' Century for our generation is that which tells +the story of the women of the time who accomplished purposes that make +their names forever memorable. Great as were the men, the women were +in every way worthy of them, and these women of the Renaissance have +attracted attention ever since, though never more so than now, when we +are beginning to take seriously once more the problem of giving to +women the amplest opportunities for intellectual development and +achievement that they may desire. The Italian ladies of the +Renaissance have been the subject of particular attention, sometimes +indeed to the almost total eclipse of their equally as interesting +sisters of the other nationalities, for in every country in Europe the +Renaissance brought a magnificent development of feminine intellectual +incentive and accomplishment and brought out a fine demonstration of +women's powers. + + + [Illustration: CRIVELLI, MADONNA ENTHRONED] + + +It would be quite impossible to give any adequate idea of the large +numbers of women who at this period manifested intellectual ability of +a high order. All that can be done is to select from the various +countries of Europe those women who at this time did work of such high +order that their names will never willingly be let die and whose +careers will have an enduring interest for mankind so long as our +present form of civilization continues. They not only merit a place +beside the men of the time, but some of them indeed must be classed as +surpassing all but the very highest geniuses of the period. The +variety of their achievement is quite as interesting as its quality. +Above all, the women of Columbus' Century demonstrated their ability +to administer government, to organize particularly charitable +purposes, to secure the building of fine {291} hospitals and proper +care for the ailing poor, and to direct the decoration of their homes +and the beauty of home surroundings, so that Renaissance interior +decoration and gardens have been the special subject of imitation +whenever in the after-time the beautifying of the home has come to +occupy the position that it should. + +The first woman to be considered in Columbus' Century should naturally +be Isabella of Castile, to whom so much of the possibility of +Columbus' achievement is due. Fortunately in recent years her life and +career have come to be much better known and we have reached a more +fitting appreciation of her wonderful administrative ability and +profound influence on her time. There is probably no woman in history +who so deeply influenced her own nation and generation as Isabella. In +a time of very great women she was the greatest. Withal, she was +charmingly feminine and did much to lift the position of her sex in +Spain up to the height of Renaissance achievements. + +There is scarcely any mode of activity on which Isabella has not left +traces of her genius. Her power of inspiring men was very great. She +led her armies in person, and undoubtedly to her more than anyone else +is due the success of the Spaniards against the Moors at this time. +Her genius for peace as well as for war is evidenced by the formation +of a constabulary force in Spain, the _Santa Hermandad_, intended for +the protection of persons and property against injustice of any kind, +though particularly against the violence of the nobles. She found +Spain anarchic, without any power over disorders and with so many +elements of disaffection that it seemed hopeless to think of making it +a unified powerful country. She left it peaceful and prosperous, and +when she died she was the ruler of a greater domain than the Roman +Empire ever possessed. Some of this was undoubtedly her good fortune, +but the happy accidents of history occur, as a rule, only to those who +are able to take advantage of them. She encouraged education and, +above all, obtained a fine education for herself. Her Castilian has +been ranked as the standard of the language by the Spanish Royal +Academy. When a mother, she took up the study of Latin so as to share +her {292} children's education, and learned to know it well. She was +extremely solicitous for the education of her children and, in order +to secure the best possible mental training for them, she established +a palace school, where some of the most scholarly men of the time were +invited to teach. + +As a rule, all that most of us know about Isabella is that she +recalled Columbus to her presence with the words: "I will assume the +undertaking for my own crown of Castile and am ready to pawn my jewels +to defray the expenses of it if the funds in the treasury should be +found inadequate." It was a woman's intuition surpassing in its +insight all the knowledge of those around her. There is perhaps one +other fact that a great many people know, and that is, that during the +siege of Granada she declared that she would not change her shift +until the town had been taken. Told of her in praise at the beginning, +the story has come in more refined times to seem a little ridiculous. +But for anyone who knows the strenuous life, most of which was passed +in the saddle, encouraging, cajoling, threatening, urging, leading, +inspiring the men of her time until what was the most disturbed and +unhappy country in Europe became a firmly consolidated nation, where +prosperity and happiness went hand in hand, the spirit of the woman +will be better revealed in that expression than in anything else. + +There is perhaps no greater woman ruler in all the history of the +world. What she was capable of physically in her long rides on +horseback would seem almost incredible, and yet with all that she was +eminently womanly, a fond mother to her children, noted for her care +of her household and, strangest of all perhaps, a great needlewoman. +Many a church in Spain was proud to display an altar cloth that was +worked by her hands, and the historical traditions that traced them to +her actual hand labor are well authenticated. + +Her daughters as well as her sons received the benefit of the best +education, though, with their mother's example and encouragement, they +devoted themselves to needlework and even to the arts of spinning and +weaving. It is said that Ferdinand the Catholic, her husband, could +declare, as Charlemagne had done, that he used no article of clothing +that {293} had not been made for him by his wife or his daughters. +When she was married to Ferdinand they were so poor that they had to +borrow the money to make the presents to the servants that were +customary on such occasions. It is said that she mended one doublet +for her husband, the King, as often as seven times. Her deep piety, +her firm character, her habits of industry and thrift, and yet her +ability to recognize what was likely to be good for her kingdom and +her people and to spend money freely on it, made an admirable example +for the time. Above all, she discouraged the idle extravagance of the +nobility and succeeded in greatly lessening the immorality at court. +She made a magnificent collection of books, fostered learning at the +universities, encouraged it among the women of the time, and it is no +wonder that historians have spoken so much in praise of her. With all +this she was extremely unhappy in her children--she saw her son die in +the promise of youth, her daughter went mad, other daughters, +including Queen Catherine of England, were destined, in spite of +felicitous auguries in early life, to the most poignant +unhappiness--and mother had to be the source of consolation for them +all. + + + [Illustration: HOLBEIN, QUEEN CATHERINE OF ARAGON] + + +The spirit of Isabella in the matter of the rights of her subjects +will perhaps be best appreciated from the famous expression which she +used on hearing that Columbus had offered some of the Indians whom he +brought home with him to some of the Spanish nobility as gifts. The +Queen indignantly demanded when she heard of it, "Who gave permission +to Columbus to parcel out my vassals to anyone?" Having learned that +some of the Indians were being held as slaves in Spain she issued a +decree that they should be returned to their native country at the +expense of the person in whose possession they were found. + +Prescott has drawn a striking contrast between the character of +Isabella and of Elizabeth. The two names are in origin the same and +there are many details of their careers that tempt to the making of a +comparison. Because Elizabeth is really a product of Columbus' +Century, seventeen years of age before the century closed, Prescott's +comparison is a document of special value for us here, for it tells +the {294} story of two great women of the time, though the work of one +of them was accomplished after the close of our period. He says (p. +188, Vol. III): + + "Both succeeded in establishing themselves on the throne after the + most precarious vicissitudes. Each conducted her kingdom, through a + long and triumphant reign, to a height of glory to which it had + never before reached. Both lived to see the vanity of all earthly + grandeur, and to fall the victims of an inconsolable melancholy; and + both left behind an illustrious name, unrivalled in the subsequent + annals of their country. + + "But with these few circumstances of their history, the resemblance + ceases. Their characters afford scarcely a point of contact. + Elizabeth, inheriting a large share of the bold and bluff King + Harry's temperament, was haughty, arrogant, coarse and irascible; + while with these fiercer qualities she mingled deep dissimulation + and strange irresolution. Isabella, on the other hand, tempered the + dignity of royal station with the most bland and courteous manners. + Once resolved, she was constant in her purposes, and her conduct in + public and private life was characterized by candour and integrity. + Both may be said to have shown that magnanimity which is implied by + the accomplishment of great objects in the face of great obstacles. + But Elizabeth was desperately selfish; she was incapable of + forgiving, not merely a real injury, but the slightest affront to + her vanity; and she was merciless in exacting retribution. Isabella, + on the other hand, lived only for others,--was ready at all times to + sacrifice self to considerations of public duty; and, far from + personal resentments, showed the greatest condescension and kindness + to those who had most sensibly injured her; while her benevolent + heart sought every means to mitigate the authorized severities of + the law, even towards the guilty. . . . + + "To estimate this (contrast) aright, we must contemplate the results + of their respective reigns. Elizabeth found all the materials of + prosperity at hand, and availed herself of them most ably to build + up a solid fabric of national grandeur. Isabella created these + materials. She saw the faculties of her people locked up in a + death-like lethargy, and she breathed {295} into them the breath of + life for those great and heroic enterprises which terminated in such + glorious consequences to the monarchy. It is when viewed from the + depressed position of her early days, that the achievements of her + reign seem scarcely less than miraculous." + +Prescott has declared that her heart was filled with benevolence to +all mankind. In the most fiery heat of war she was engaged in devising +means for mitigating its horror. She is said to have been the first to +introduce the benevolent institution of camp hospitals and her lively +solicitude to spare the effusion of blood even of her enemies is often +told. Her establishment of the Inquisition and the exile of the Jews +are often set over against this, but Prescott did not hesitate to say, +"It will be difficult to condemn her indeed without condemning her +age; for these acts are not only excused, but extolled by her +contemporaries as constituting her constant claims to renown and to +the gratitude of her country." Spaniards of much more modern time have +not scrupled to pronounce the Inquisition "the great evidence of her +prudence and piety; whose uncommon utility not only Spain but all +Christendom freely acknowledged." Undoubtedly it saved Spain from some +of the troubles which devastated Germany during the Hundred Years' War +after the Reformation, when religious divisions so embittered the +struggle and made it impossible for national affairs to prosper or for +men to be brought to any common understanding with regard to anything +for the good of the commonwealth. The difference between the position +of Spain and of Germany in this regard is highly instructive. + +There are so many distinguished women of this period in Italy that a +choice indeed is embarrassing. Probably, however, the general +consensus of opinion would be that the typical great intellectual +woman of this time is Vittoria Colonna, the daughter of the great +Roman family of that name, who became the wife of the Marquis of +Pescara. The Colonnas were at this time in exile at Naples, where her +father was the Grand Constable. Her mother was Agnesina de Montefeltro +of the Ducal house of Urbino and she was brought up after the age of +ten by her prospective sister-in-law, the Duchess {296} Costanza, in +the Island of Ischia. She was intimately related, then, to many of the +important noble families of Italy and her career may be taken as a +type of the possibilities of education and intellectual influence in +her class at this time. Her husband became distinguished as a military +leader and finally at scarcely more than thirty years of age was made +the General of the Imperial forces when the Pope and the Emperor +Charles V made an alliance and drove the French from Milan in 1528. He +had been the commander of the Imperial Army at the battle of Pavia in +1525, after which Francis I, badly beaten and taken prisoner, sent his +mother the famous despatch from his captive cell in the Certosa near +Pavia, "All is lost save honor." + +Francis was too important a prisoner to be left to the fortunes of war +in Italy, so Charles V had him transferred by ship to Madrid. +Emissaries of the French, who tried to win the Marquis of Pescara from +his allegiance to the Emperor, represented this action to him as +something of an insult or at least a lack of trust. They offered him +the throne of Naples if he should abandon the Emperor and come over to +the French. The Marquis had been wounded and was just recovering when +these offers were made. He wrote to his wife, Vittoria, with whom he +was on terms of the most charming affection, telling her of the offer +and asking her advice. With a crown dangling before her and the added +temptation, the subtlest there could be for a woman, of going back as +Queen where she had been only a lady-in-waiting at Court, Vittoria +wrote the famous letter which has deservedly so often been quoted: + + "Consider well what you are doing, mindful of the fame and + estimation which you have always enjoyed; and in truth, for my part, + I care not to be the wife of a king, but rather to be joined to a + faithful and loyal man; for it is not riches, titles, and kingdoms + which can give true glory, infinite praise, and perpetual renown to + noble spirits desirous of eternal fame; but faith, sincerity, and + other virtues of the soul; and with these man may rise higher than + the highest kings, not only in war, but in peace." + + + [Illustration: TITIAN, PRESENTATION OF VIRGIN] + + +{297} + +Not long afterwards her husband died as a consequence of his wounds +and Vittoria was broken-hearted. The letters which they had written to +each other show how much of a love match this was and all the sixteen +years of married life there seems to have been nothing to disturb it. +Vittoria's only consolation now was in religion, and she thought of +entering a convent, but it was felt that she could accomplish much +more good in the world and a special Papal brief was issued permitting +her to spend as much time as she wished in convents, but forbidding +superiors to allow her to take the veil until the poignancy of her +grief subsided and she might be able to make up her mind without being +too much overborne by her sense of loss. Most of the rest of her life +was spent in convents or in almost conventual seclusion. She wrote a +series of poems, many of which are religious. A long series +constitutes a sort of _In Memoriam_ for her dead husband. They are +written in very charming Italian verse and a well-known critic and +writer on Italian literature has described these poems "as penetrated +with genuine feeling. They have that dignity and sweetness which +belong to the spontaneous utterances of a noble heart." During the +last fifteen years of her life she lived very retired in Rome and +exercised her profound influence over many of the great men of the +Renaissance and particularly over Michelangelo. + +Some idea of the place that she held in the cultured society of Italy +at this time may be gathered from the fact that in 1528 Castiglione +submitted his _"Il Cortigiano"_ to her in manuscript for her approval +and criticism. She kept it for a considerable time, read portions of +it to her friends, submitted others to them and then returned it with +the highest praise. She declared that she was quite jealous of the +persons that are quoted in the book, even though they were dead. A +writer who knew this period very thoroughly and who had studied +particularly the lives of the women of the Renaissance declared: + + "Vittoria Colonna was indeed a woman to be proud of: untouched by + scandal, unspoiled by praise, incapable of any ungenerous action, + unconvicted of one uncharitable word. Long in the midst of such + religious and political dissensions {298} as divided and uprooted + families, she yet preserved in all the relations of life that jewel + of perfect loyalty which does not ask to be justified." + +Only too often it seems to be the impression that Vittoria Colonna +stands almost alone in her supreme nobility of character, but that is +only due to the fact that she has been deservedly much talked of. +There are, however, many rivals in all that is best among the women of +Italy at this time. The charm of certain of these women of the +Renaissance can be best understood from the expressions of praise with +regard to them that we have from the distinguished literary men of the +time. One of them, Elizabeth Gonzaga, had some of the most beautiful +things said with regard to her by men whose judgment and critical +faculty commend them to the after world as great scholarly writers. In +the prefatory epistle to his _"Cortigiano"_ Castiglione says in +allusion to the death of this peerless lady, "but that which cannot be +spoken without tears is that the Duchess, also, is dead. And if my +mind be troubled also with the loss of so many friends that have left +me in this life as it were in a wilderness full of sorrow, yet with +how much more grief do I bear the affliction of my dear lady's death +than of all the rest; since she was more worthy than all and I more +bounden to her." Indeed Catiglione's great work was partly written as +a memorial to her. Pietro Bembo, recalling the happy days he had spent +at her court, says, "I have seen many excellent and noble women and +have heard of some who are as illustrious for certain qualities, but +in her alone among women all virtues were united and brought together. +I have never seen nor heard of anyone who was her equal and know very +few who have even come near her." + +Every city in Italy possessed some of these noble women at this time. +Prominent among those who are not known as well as they deserve is +Donna Catarina Fiesco or Adorno of Genoa, one of the saintly women of +the time, who, in forgetfulness of self knew how to be so helpful to +others in a wise and womanly way that she has been given the title of +St. Catharine of Genoa. She was the daughter of one of the noble +Genoese ruling families, the Fieschi, the daughter {299} of Conte +Giacomo Fiesco, who was Viceroy of Naples and Papal Chamberlain during +the first half of the fifteenth century. Catarina was born July 10, +1447, the third of seven daughters whose mother also came from an +ancient house of Genoa enrolled in the first Libro d'Oro. Very early +she chose to be a religious, but Giuliano Adorno, a son of Doge +Antoniotto Adorno, fell in love with her and though his reputation was +that of a young blade and sport, he was good-looking and handsome of +figure, and Donna Catarina, having seen him several times at mass, +fell in love with him. Political considerations helped on the match +and indeed seemed to have been most powerful, for after Catarina had +been told of Giuliano's wild ways she refused to marry him and finally +was married in black, positively declining to don the customary red +velvet robe and lavish ornaments of gold and jewels of Genoese brides. +Their marriage, as Catarina evidently had dreaded, was not happy and +after five years Catarina betook herself to a convent. After her +departure her husband went from bad to worse, and finally, cast off by +his indulgent father, was reduced to abject poverty and despair. His +wife sought him out, lifted him up and together they took a house near +the Spedale Maggiore where they received and cared for poor +incurables. Five years later her husband died, "his death having paid +all debts," and Catarina was elected prioress of the women's +department of the hospital. She organized the nursing, reorganized the +hospital service, especially as regards the poor, and took her +official duties as prioress very seriously. She found time, however, +to compose a number of little books for persons in distress of mind +and of body, and some of them have been translated into French and +Spanish. Her "Treatise on Purgatory," setting forth the strength of +Christian piety in the face of death, was published in 1502 and had a +wide popularity in the Latin countries of Europe. She wrote a series +of dialogues that became very popular and were widely used by the +parish clergy in dramatic form in the churches. The two characters in +the dialogues were Good and Evil, and from rival pulpits these +presented their various claims. The custom of having this dialogic +form of church instruction is still extant in {300} Genoa. In 1509 she +died, leaving all of her property and possessions to the hospital, and +her body, miraculously preserved, reposes in a superb crystal casket +within the chapel of the hospital. Of her, as Edgcumbe Staley says in +his "Heroines of Genoa," the well-known Italian proverb has been +quoted: _Vera felicita senza Dio non si da_--True happiness without +God there is none. + +Another of these distinguished intellectual women of the Renaissance +in Italy was the venerable Battistina Vernazza, whose parents were +famous for their benevolence and had a high place in the Libro d'Oro +de' Benemeriti of Genoa. She was born in 1497. Early in life she +showed remarkable talents as a student of Latin and a writer of verses +in Latin and in the vernacular. She entered the Convento delle Grazie +but declined to take the veil until both her parents gave their +consent, and though her father was willing her mother refused to +permit her to be separated from her. After her mother's early death +she entered the convent and there became noted for her piety and +learning. Her writings are mainly controversial and were very famous +in her time. Letters of hers to well-known leaders of the +Protestantizing party are extant. At the death of her father, her +father's considerable fortune came to her. She applied it all to works +of charity, and especially in the direction of the rescue of young +girls from evil associations. She lived to be ninety years of age and +her memory is still so green among the Genoese because of all that she +did for the good of the people that in the quarter of the city where +she was born the Municipal School for Girls bears her name of +Battistina Vernazza. + +Even the smaller towns gave birth to great women, and one of the most +distinguished women of the Century whose name is very little known, +mainly because her modesty would have it so, is Angela of Merici, the +distinguished founder of a religious order for the education of girls +of all classes, whose work has endured down to our time and whose +religious daughters are literally all over the world at the present +day. It is probable that the work of no woman of the Renaissance has +had so far-reaching an effect as that of this humble village maiden +whose one asset in life was her thought for {301} others and for duty. +An all too brief abstract of her story will be found in the chapter on +Feminine Education. + +An important phase of the careers of the women of the Renaissance is +the manliness and independence of spirit which became manifest. It was +at this time that the word virago was first used but employed not as +now as a mark of disrespect, but on the contrary as a high compliment. +Catherine of Sforza, whose manly defence of her castle is well known +and whose life exhibited a series of thoroughly courageous incidents, +was known as the Virago of Forli, though at the same time she was +hailed as "the best gentlewoman of Italy." Isabella Gonzaga manifests +something of this same heroic vein and Clarice de Medici, the wife of +Filippo Strozzi, is in the same group. These women stand out as +remarkable, and yet many of the women of the Renaissance exhibited an +independence of character which is usually thought to be of much later +development. + +There are many educated people who are quite convinced that while the +Renaissance possessed distinguished women deservedly famous for their +unselfish character and their fine moral influence, it possessed an +even greater proportion of women whose vices made them a scandal for +all time and whose influence was far-reaching for evil. Indeed for +many the name of Lucretia Borgia, which has become a byword for +everything worst in human life, is supposed to be a better symbol of +the Renaissance than that of Vittoria Colonna. Probably the best +way--apart from the actual facts in the lives of women already +cited--to show the absolute untruth of this very prevalent impression +is to take the life of Lucretia Borgia herself, for it makes clear not +only how absolutely lacking in historical confirmation are the +ordinary traditions with regard to her, but on the contrary how well +she deserves to be classed among the great good women of the +Renaissance, all the scurrilous abuse of her that has accumulated to +the contrary notwithstanding. There is probably nothing that shows how +little of trust can be placed in contemporary documents unless these +are critically considered, than the complete change of view with +regard to the Borgia family, particularly Lucretia, which has taken +place in the last few years, as a consequence {302} of the more +careful scientific scholarly historical research of recent years. + +The facts in Lucretia's life are comparatively few and rather easy to +understand. Its first part is shrouded in the calumnies so common with +regard to the Borgias. They were Spaniards making their way in Italy +and nothing was too bad to say of them. Her later life was all in the +limelight of publicity and should be the basis of any judgment of her. +When she was about twenty-four after two sad matrimonial experiences +she was married by political arrangement to Alfonso, the son of +Ercole, Duke of Ferrara. Before that marriage careful investigation as +to her character was made and a special envoy sent for that purpose +wrote that "there was nothing at all out of the way with Lucretia +herself. She was sensible, discreet, of good and loving nature and her +manners full of modesty and decorum; a good Christian filled with the +fear of God. ... In truth such are her good qualities that I rest +assured there is nothing to fear from her or rather everything to hope +from her." After her marriage Lucretia lived for nearly twenty years +at Ferrara. When she died in early middle life her funeral was +followed to the tomb by all the people of the city, who revered her as +a saint and looked up to her as one who had done everything that she +could to make life happier for her people. She was buried in the +Convent of the Sisters of the Corpus Christi, in the same tomb as the +Mother of Alfonso, the Duchess Leonora, of whose goodness we have +spoken, and her praises were on every tongue. + +Whatever there is defamatory that is said about Lucretia concerns the +years before this marriage while she was living at Rome up to the age +of twenty-three. A knowledge of that fact alone is quite sufficient to +make the stories with regard to her unexampled viciousness very +dubious. Gregorovius has recently re-examined all the documents and +has completely vindicated her. She was merely the victim of the +violent political hatreds of the time. To take the one item of +poisoning with regard to which her name has been so infamous and her +reputation so notorious, Garnett, in the "Cambridge Modern History," +declares that there is only one case in which the Borgias are supposed +to have used poison for which there is {303} any evidence, and that is +very dubious. With that one Lucretia had nothing to do. In discussing +her divorce from Sforza, he says: "The transaction also served to +discredit in some measure the charges against the Borgias of secret +poisoning, which would have been more easily and conveniently employed +than the disagreeable and scandalous method of a legal process." + +Some of the tributes to Lucretia Borgia from her contemporaries are +highly laudatory. Among her friends were some of the best people of +the time. Aldus Manutius praises her to the skies, lauds her +benevolence to the poor, her care for the afflicted and her ability as +a ruler. There is no doubt at all that she was one of these wonderful +women of the Renaissance whose administrative ability must be admired +more than any other quality. During the absence of her husband she +ruled the State with wonderful prudence, and yet with a justice +tempered always with mercy. It was through her that a law was passed, +protecting the Jews of Ferrara, that became a model for other similar +legislation in the cities of Italy. + +It is interesting to trace the change of attitude of mind toward her +on the part of those who either did not care for her or were actually +bitterly opposed to her. Her sister-in-law, Isabella D'Este, became a +real friend, as her letters attest, though at first she did not like +at all the idea of the union of the house of D'Este with that of the +Borgias, and it required all her father's force of will and all his +political astuteness besides to secure her presence at the marriage. +The letters of ten years later reveal a most intimate friendship +between these two women. Within a year after her marriage she had +completely won her husband, who was altogether indifferent at the +beginning and who married her because of his father's insistence and +entirely for political reasons. When her first baby died at birth her +husband was most solicitous for her, anxious about her health and made +a vow that he would go on a pilgrimage to Loretto for her recovery, a +vow which he fulfilled just as soon as her convalescence was assured. + +The biographer of Bayard, the famous French Chevalier of the time, +_sans peur et sans reproche_, declared apropos of the visit of Bayard +to Madonna Lucretia at Ferrara: "I venture {304} to say that neither +in her time nor for many years before has there been such a glorious +princess. For she is beautiful and good, gentle and amiable to +everyone." Gregorovius declares in his "Lucretia Borgia, According to +Original Documents and Correspondence of Her Day": [Footnote 26] +"Lucretia had won universal esteem and affection; she had become the +mother of her people. She lent a ready ear to the suffering and helped +all who were in need. She put aside, as Jovius, a contemporary, said, +'the pomps and vanities of the world to which she had been accustomed +from childhood and gave herself up to pious works and founded and +endowed convents and hospitals.'" She died at the early age of forty, +so that the nearly twenty years of service for others represent not +the aftermath of a long stormy life, when human passions had burnt +themselves out, but the ripe years of maturity and highest vitality. + + [Footnote 26: Translated by Garner, Appleton, 1913, New York.] + +Caviceo even ventured when he wished to praise the famous Isabella +Gonzaga to say that she approached the perfection of Lucretia. He +adds, and Gregorovius has emphasized this opinion, "she redeemed the +name of Borgia, which now was always mentioned with respect." Indeed +there are few women who ever lived of whom such marvellous encomiums +have been given by men who knew her well personally and who were +themselves often among those in a period of great men and women whose +memory the world will not willingly let die. Whatever of evil is said +of her is said by writers of scandal and littleness in her own time, +Italian enemies of the Spanish house of Borgia, which had come into +Italy and had a great success. These vile traditions, the kitchen +stories of the Renaissance, were gathered together and preserved +because so many people are interested in what is evil rather than +good. At a time when the greatness of the period in which she lived +was ill appreciated and when religious motives tempted to credulity +they came to be generally reported until Victor Hugo gathered them all +together for his characterization of her and with Donizetti's opera +popularized the idea that Lucretia was probably the worst woman who +had ever lived. It has taken much writing of real history to modify +this popular notion, which is not yet corrected, and nothing +illustrates {305} better the fallibility of popular historical +information than this Lucretia story. + + + [Illustration: PALMA VECCHIO, ST. BARBARA] + + +When she came to die her husband said of her, writing to his nephew in +whose regard there was not the slightest question of hypocrisy or +pretence: "I cannot write this without tears, knowing myself to be +deprived of such a dear and sweet companion. For such her exemplary +conduct and the tender love which existed between us made her to me." + +The greatest woman of the French Renaissance and probably the most +influential of the women of the time, with the possible exception of +Vittoria Colonna, was Marguerite of Angouleme. In English-speaking +countries she is better known as Marguerite of Navarre, though in +France she is sometimes spoken of also as Marguerite of Valois or of +France. She was the sister of Francis I, King of France, and devoted +in her affection towards him. Undoubtedly it was she more than any +other who inspired her brother with the idea of founding the College +of France, and it was she who was the patron and guardian of the +French Renaissance. After Francis had been captured at the battle of +Pavia and shipped as a prisoner to Spain she made the long, perilous, +difficult journey that it was in those days from Paris to Madrid with +sisterly devotion, and in spite of trying hardships stayed near her +brother during his confinement. + +The world generally knows her as the author of the "Heptameron" and +has condemned her rather severely because of its too great freedom of +manners and morals. Our own generation, however, which from its +youngest years reads in our daily newspapers much worse stories than +Margaret ever wrote, should not be ready to condemn her. It is +difficult to understand her writing of these stories unless one knows +the conditions of the time. The license that had come in among the +novelists led to the telling of many stories that even our age, +accustomed to the greatest license in this matter, finds too frank. +Margaret, whom her generation has agreed in calling a saint, hoped to +undo the evil of such stories by telling them frankly and adding +morals to them. The stories have been read and the morals neglected. +Her idea was very much the same as the excuse made for the publication +of many {306} criminal stories of all kinds in our time, that +publicity makes for deterrence. The erroneous psychology of this +attempt at justification for a serious breach of ethics is only too +patent. Margaret's good intentions in the matter are undoubted. Good +intentions, however, do not guarantee that acts will be without evil +effects. Margaret was trying to correct the corruption of her time in +very much the same way as many women have been aroused into activity +in ours, only she made the sad mistake of using the wrong means by +thinking that publicity or information would prove a safeguard against +evil instead of an incentive to the very forms of vice that she was +trying to correct--above all for the young. Her significance in +literature is discussed in the chapter on French literature. + +Margaret's personal character is one of the most beautiful in history +and it fully justifies the praise of her contemporaries and even +Vittoria Colonna's words, which would seem fulsome. The most +interesting phase of Marguerite's character is her devotion to the +sick poor. Down at Alencon the large hospital owed its origin to her +and her name was in benediction among the people because of all that +she did. Hers was no mere distant service such as a queen might render +because of the power she had to employ others, but she devoted herself +to personal work for them that made them feel her saintly +unselfishness. The king, her brother, gave her a grant for a foundling +school in Paris. This was known as _La Maison des Enfants Rouges_, The +House of the Red Children, because of the scarlet dresses which were +the uniforms. Francis in his grant says that his sister had told him +how these little children that had been picked up on the streets of +Paris die when they are taken to the Hotel Dieu and that they need the +more special care of an institution for themselves and he is very glad +to come to her assistance. + +When her own boy died at the age of a few months Marguerite, whose +tender family affection can be very well appreciated from her +relations with her brother, was stricken with grief. We have the naive +description, however, of the strength of soul with which she bore it: +"She went into her room, refusing the aid of any of the women attached +to the Court, she thanked the Lord very humbly for all the good it had +pleased {307} Him to do her." She went even farther than that, +however, she forbade that there should be any public grief, had the Te +Deum sung for joy in the church because the death meant the welcoming +into Heaven of an angel and she had placards made to be posted +throughout the city bearing the inscription, "The Lord hath given and +the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." And yet +she herself wore black after this and never changed it and after a +time this became the formal color of ladies' dress at her court. + +One of the important women of the century whose administrative ability +surpassed that of the men of the time is Mary of Burgundy, whose +beautiful tomb is to be seen in Bruges. The monument is one of the +gems of the old town, but is not more than befitting the character of +the lady it was meant to commemorate. Her dealings with the proud +burghers of the Netherlands were those of a sympathetic sovereign +trying to assure prosperity to these thrifty towns whose trade made it +possible for so many of their people to become wealthy and happy +citizens. Had her mode of treating them descended to some of her +successors we would have been spared that ugly record of nearly a +hundred years of bloodshed and war and famine in the Low Countries, +which makes one of the saddest blots on modern history. Her granting +of privileges and conferring of rights with recognition of old customs +in formal documents is now commemorated in many places in the modern +art of the Low Countries, and these constitute her finest tribute and +memorial. + +The last of the women of this century who deserves to be mentioned and +without whom indeed any account of the century would be quite +incomplete is probably the greatest of all the women of the period and +perhaps the greatest intellectual woman who ever lived. The end of the +chapter brings us back to Spain to Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, whom +the world knows as St. Teresa. It is true that most of her work was +accomplished after the close of the century, but as she was born in +1515 and was therefore thirty-five years of age before Columbus' +Century closed, receiving all of her training and formation of mind in +the great Renaissance period, her place is naturally in this epoch. +She is the most important {308} of the women of the Renaissance, +though this is seldom realized, and her reputation instead of +decreasing with the years has rather increased. Even within the last +twenty years a number of lives of her was written in every language in +Europe and no less than a dozen of them have appeared in English. The +feminists of the modern time have turned to her as one of the great +representative women of all time. + +It is worth while recording some of the great tributes to her. Her own +Spanish compatriots call her lovingly their Doctor of the Church. At +Rome at the entrance of the Vatican Basilica where appear in marble +the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church you will see one single +statue raised to a woman and bearing this inscription, _"Mater +Spiritualium"_--Mother of Things Spiritual. It is the statue of Teresa +who has been gloriously proclaimed the Mother of Spirituality, the +Mistress of Mystical Theology and practically a Doctor of the Church, +in the principles of the spiritual life. + +The French and the Spanish are almost at opposite poles in their +critical appreciations, yet Teresa has been honored almost as much in +France as in her native country. Men so different as Bossuet and +Fenelon have united in proclaiming her their teacher in the science of +the saints and have declared her books, "The Way of Perfection," "The +Castle of the Soul," "The Book of Foundations" and "Spiritual Advice," +the most wonderful contributions to human knowledge that have ever +been made. + +Nor was her appeal only to the Latin races in Europe. The German +mystics have always found a special attraction in St. Teresa's work +and this was true not only among the Catholic students in Germany, but +also at nearly all times among the Protestants. In the modern time +Teresa has been the subject of many monographs by German writers. + +In English, though national feeling and religious prejudice might be +expected to make Teresa little known or even deliberately neglected, +her works came to be very well known. In the middle of the seventeenth +century Crashaw became enamored (no other word will express his lofty +sentiments) of her writings and literally thought that no one had ever +had so high a vision of things other-worldly. George Eliot paid {309} +her tribute in the preface to "Middlemarch," and while her own +dissatisfaction with life makes that tribute somewhat grudging and +half-hearted, there is no doubt that our greatest woman novelist of +the nineteenth century had been very deeply influenced by the writings +of the calm light of the sixteenth. + +Scarcely any writer has had as wide a European influence as this +cloistered saint, who wrote only because her confessor commanded her +to and who had no thought of style or of anything other than getting +the thoughts that would come to her as simply as possible before her +Spanish religious brethren. Her Spanish prose is a marvel of simple +dignity and correctness representing the best Spanish prose, even down +to our time. When Echegaray, the well-known Spanish novelist of our +time, received the Nobel Prize for literature a few years ago, he was +asked what he did for the perfection of his Spanish style. He declared +that almost the only book that he read for the sake of its style was +"The Letters of St. Teresa." We have nothing quite like these letters +in English, though Cowper's letters approach nearest to them. They are +full of simplicity, are deeply interesting in their detail of ordinary +life and above all are full of humor. This is the quality that most +people would be quite sure was lacking in the great Spanish nun. Those +who would explain her visions and her mortification on the ground of +hysteria or psycho-neurotic conditions would be undeceived at once in +their estimation of her character did they but read her letters. The +hysterical are above all lacking in a sense of humor and take +themselves very seriously. + +Dante is probably the only writer in European literature with whom St. +Teresa can properly be compared. She has the same power to convey all +the deep significance of other-worldliness, the same universality of +interest, the same marvellous quality that draws to her particularly +those who are themselves of deeply poetic or profoundly spiritual +nature. Men who have spent long years in the study and the experience +of the things with which her writings are concerned, find them most +wondrously full of meaning and are most willing to devote time to +them. The editions of her various works would fill a very large +library, and there is no doubt at all that the {310} writings of no +woman who ever lived occupy so large a place in libraries all over the +world at the present time as those of St. Teresa. + +Beside St. Thomas and Dante as a worthy member of a glorious trinity +of writers, with regard to the subjects that have been most elusive +though most alluring for men, St. Teresa deserves a place. Anyone who +would think, however, that she was merely a mystic would be sadly +mistaken in the estimate of her career. She was above all a thoroughly +practical woman. Her many foundations of the reform Carmelites under +the most discouraging circumstances show the indomitable will of the +woman and her power to live to accomplish. It was she who said when +her poverty was urged as a reason for not making further foundations, +"Teresa and five ducats can do nothing, but Teresa with God and five +ducats can do everything." There is no doubt now that she more than +any other in Spain turned back the tide of the Reformation. Her advice +was eagerly sought on all sides. While carefully maintaining her +cloistered life, she made many friends and influenced all of them for +what was best in them. Her reform of the Carmelites brought many +enemies, above all because other religious orders recognized that they +too would have to share in the reform, yet all was carried out to a +marvellously successful issue with gentleness and sweetness, but with +a firmness and courage that nothing could daunt and a power of +accomplishment that nothing could balk. + +Those who think that Teresa's books are mere essays in pietism or +pleasant reading for moments of spiritual exaltation will be sadly +mistaken. For depth of meaning and profundity of aspiration after the +unknowable, yet approaching it nearer than any other has ever done, +St. Teresa's books are unmatched. For analysis of the soul and for the +manner of its unfolding in its strivings after higher things, Teresa +has no equal. Her pictures of celestial things are a constant reminder +of Dante. Most people think of the "Inferno" as Dante's masterpiece. +Those who know him best think rather of the "Purgatorio," but a few +lofty, poetic souls, steeped in the spiritual, have found his +"Paradiso" the sublimest of human documents. While there are constant +reminders of the {311} "Purgatorio" in many of Teresa's writings, it +is the "Paradise," however, that most frequently recurs in comparison. +What Cardinal Manning said of the "Paradiso" may well be repeated of +Teresa's mystical works. It has been said, "After the _'Summa'_ of St. +Thomas nothing remains but the vision of God." To this Cardinal +Manning added, "after the 'Paradiso' of Dante there remains nothing +but the beatific vision." Those whose life and studies have best +fitted them as judges have felt thus about the Spanish Doctress of the +Church. + +Teresa was eminently human in every regard, and though what might be +considered harsh with herself, she was always kind to those who were +around her, and especially any who were in real suffering. She came by +these qualities very naturally, for her father is noted as an +extremely good man and exceptionally good to his servants and +charitable toward the poor of Avila. Indeed Teresa's biographers +insist so much on these qualities as to make it very clear that the +spirit of the time is represented by this member of the old Spanish +nobility, who took his duties towards others so seriously. Teresa was +not one of the exceptional souls who find convent life easy and even +consoling from the beginning, but on the contrary she has told herself +that she found the first eight days of her convent life terrible. It +seemed to her a prison. She had a physical fear of austerities and +pious books bored her. Perhaps the one very human thought that tempted +her more than any other to enter the convent was her feeling of +independence. The idea of marriage was quite distasteful. As she +expressed it, it was one thing to obey God, but quite another thing to +bind oneself to obey a man for a lifetime. + +As if in compensation for all that the neurologists and psychiatrists +had to say of her, she herself had something to say of nervous +patients. For her, nervousness so-called was largely selfishness. +While sympathetic for feelings of depression, she had no sympathy for +those who would not throw them off by occupation of mind, but yielded +to them. She said, "What is called melancholy is at bottom only a +desire to have one's own way." She believed firmly that one could not +be made good by many rules, but goodness had to come from within and +from the spirit. She was quite impatient with the {312} religious +visitors, that is, special superiors sent to make inspections of +houses of religious who gave a number of new rules for the +communities. She said: "I am so tired with having to read all these +rules that I do not know what would become of me if I were obliged to +keep them." + +It is easy to understand then why Cardinal Manning should have said +that St. Teresa furnishes an example that "spirituality perfects +common sense." She herself was one of the most sensible, joyous and +charming persons. Miss Field in the _Atlantic_ for March, 1903, says: +"Her charm, her sweetness, the loveliness of her conversation were +irresistible." It was Cardinal Manning, I believe, who declared that +"she was one of those sovereign souls that are born from time to time +as if to show what her race was created for at first and to what it is +still destined." + +Teresa once said: "God preserve me from those great nobles who can do +something, yet who are such strange cranks." She reminded her nuns on +more than one occasion when she found in them a tendency to go to too +great lengths in austerity that we have a body as well as a soul, and +that this body when disregarded revenges itself upon the soul. There +are few subjects of importance in life on which St. Teresa has not +expressed herself wisely, and to know her writings is to be able to +quote many marvellous summations of worldly experience that the +cloister might seem to have precluded in her. On the subject of the +relation of low wages and virtue, Miss Repplier in the article on "Our +Loss of Nerve" _(Atlantic Monthly_, September, 1913) quoted St. +Teresa's profound comment which sums up so well our whole social +situation "where virtue is well rooted provocations matter little." + + + [Illustration: MOSTAERT, VIRGO DEIPARA (ANTWERP)] + + + +{313} + +CHAPTER IX + +FEMININE EDUCATION + +There is probably no more interesting phase of Columbus' Century for +our time than its feminine education, for the education of women had a +period of important development in the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries which affected a very large number of women of the time and +afforded abundant opportunity to all those who wished to obtain the +highest intellectual culture. This was not, in spite of the apparently +very prevalent impression to that effect, the first time that women +had been given a chance to secure the higher education, for on the +contrary whenever there was a new awakening of educational interest, +women asked and obtained the privilege of sharing in it and showed how +thoroughly they could take advantage of such opportunities as were +afforded them. In the early days of the universities women had been +welcomed not only among the students but also the professors. They had +full charge of the department of women's diseases down in the south of +Italy where the most important part of the university was the medical +school, and then later at Bologna they had been professors in every +department,--in law, when the law school was the central university +feature, in mathematics, in literature, even in anatomy. As a +consequence of the tradition thus established there has never been a +century since the twelfth in which there have not been distinguished +women professors at some of the Italian universities. + +Earlier when Charlemagne was reorganizing education on the continent +with the help of the Irish and English monks, the women of the court +attended the palace school as well as the men, and we have many +records of their interest. The women of the Benedictine monasteries +shared the interest of the Benedictines generally in literature, made +many copies of books, possessed large and important libraries and even +{314} became distinguished as writers. Hroswitha, the nun dramatist of +the tenth century, who came into prominence in Columbus' Century +because of the issuance of an edition of her work by Celtes, the +German Renaissance humanist, is but one example of the literary +interest in the Benedictine convents which must have been ardent and +widespread. Later we have the works of the great Abbess Hildegarde, +who wrote on many subjects and who was probably the most important +writer of her time. This is certainly true so far as physical sciences +are concerned. St. Bernard, who was her contemporary, has enjoyed more +reputation in subsequent generations than Hildegarde but she was +almost as well known in her own as the great founder of the +Cistercians. + +Earlier still than Charlemagne or the foundation of the convent +schools St. Brigid had established a college for women at Kildare, in +Ireland, to which there came many of the nobility not only of Ireland +itself but also of England and of the neighboring shores of Europe, +seeking the opportunity for higher education. We have learned more of +the details of this Irish phase of feminine education in recent years, +and it has grown ever more and more important in the history of +education. + +At every new phase of educational development, then, the women had had +their share in the movement, and it is not surprising that when the +Renaissance brought with it that deep interest in the ancient +classics, that was known as the New Learning, women also had their +share in this. The very first of the great Italian teachers of the +Renaissance Vittorino da Feltre insisted that there should be two +conditions for his teaching. One was that the young women should be +allowed to take advantage of it as well as the young men and the other +that the poor who desired to study should not be denied access to his +classes. The magnificent success that he made of education at Mantua +was soon followed by similar movements in other Italian cities and +everywhere the tradition of feminine education for those who desired +to have it, came into existence. Guarino's influence for feminine +education is only less than that of Vittorino. As a consequence there +was not a city of any importance in Italy in which there were not some +women {315} noted for their knowledge of the classics and their +interest in the New Learning, and in many of the cities there were +distinguished woman students who, even in their early years, exhibited +scholarly qualifications that made them famous. + +Vittorino da Feltre, the great teacher of the beginning Renaissance, +had during the first half of the fifteenth century a school at Mantua, +where on the border of the lake he was teaching a group of noble +youths and maidens according to the high ideals of education which he +has so well laid down. Their course of study included Latin, Greek, +philosophy, mathematics, grammar, logic, music, singing and dancing. +Besides this, however, his scholars were taught "to live the simple +life, to tell the truth and to remember that true scholarship was +inseparable from virtue and a sense of lofty gratitude towards the +Creator." As might have been expected from the Greek traditions of +education, which were then attracting so much attention, the training +of the body was not neglected and various outdoor games were insisted +on so that there might be a healthy mind in a healthy body. + +Some of the traditions of that school at Mantua make very interesting +reading and show how much some of the intervening periods in the +history of education degenerated from those early days. For instance, +we hear that not infrequently when Vittorino wanted to make a passage +of Virgil impressive his scholars were taken out to Pietole, which has +been identified as probably the village of Andes, in which, according +to Donatus, Virgil was born, and here in the shady groves Virgil would +be read and discussed and then there would be games and a return to +the castle. While Vittorino was broad in his selections in the classic +authors, and Virgil and Cicero and Homer and Demosthenes were read +with explanations and then certain passages required to be learned by +heart so as to form their style, he was no pedant and no friend of any +exhibition of mere erudition. His most important bit of advice for his +students was "First be sure that you have something to say, then say +it simply." No wonder one of the D'Estes declared "that for virtue, +learning and a rare and excellent way of teaching good manners, this +master surpassed all others." + +{316} + +It would be easy to think that perhaps the young noblewomen of the +time got but a very superficial knowledge of the classics, but we have +a tradition of Cecilia Gonzaga, the daughter of the reigning house of +Mantua and Vittorino's favorite pupil, that she could read Chrysostom +at the age of eight and could write Greek with singular purity at the +age of twelve. No wonder we hear of her later as the marvel of the +age. Evidently all prejudice with regard to feminine education was at +an end when Bembo said: "A girl ought to learn Latin, it puts the +finishing touch to her charm." + +Sandys in his Harvard lectures on the Revival of Learning, has told +the story of some of these young women scholars of Vittorino da Feltre +and Guarino with some interesting details which show that success in +scholarship did not prove an inflater of vanity in the young women of +the time nor impair their religious spirit. + + "Women, as well as men, retained a grateful remembrance of the + intellectual training, which they had received from Guarino and + Vittorino. Vittorino's pupil, Cecilia Gonzaga, a daughter of the + ruling house of Mantua, whose fresh and simple grace may be admired + in the medallion of Pisanello, was already learning Greek at the age + of seven; while, among the pupils of Guarino, Isotta Nogarola was + skilled in Latin verse and prose, and quoted Greek and Latin authors + in the course of those learned letters to her tutor, which were not + entirely approved by the public opinion of Verona. In cases such as + these, the studious temper was often associated with retiring habits + and with strong religious feeling; and, like Baptista dei Malatesti, + the former correspondent of Leonardo Bruni, both of these learned + ladies ultimately took the veil." + +While so much attention was paid to the classics, the great Italian +authors were not neglected and the Italian girls of the Renaissance +were brought up to know the classic literature of the vernacular. It +was the custom to have Dante and Petrarch and Ariosto read to them +while they were doing embroidery, and these charming young women of +the Renaissance in every country in Europe had the reputation for +doing most wonderful embroidery. They also learned to play on {317} +various musical instruments, and their voices were cultivated to the +best possible advantage. It is often a source of wonder where they got +the time to do all these things. Some of the letters from the French +and Spanish ambassadors at these various Italian courts tell of the +marvellous ability of these charming young women. As a rule the +ambassador's idea in writing such descriptions was to suggest the +possibility of marriages being arranged between the scions of the +noble houses of their own countries with these women. It was rather +important, therefore, that there should not be much exaggeration or +the ambassador might well be discredited. + +It is easy to think that with all this of intellectual life the young +women of the time must have had very little exercise, especially in +the outer air, and above all must not have indulged in what we think +of as sport. The story of Vittorino da Feltre's school is a +contradiction of this, and besides the traditions that have come to us +show that every young woman of the nobility learned to ride horseback +at this time. All of them could ride boldly. They hunted and many of +them went hawking. Riding was of course an absolutely necessary +accomplishment at that time, for carriages were very rare, and such as +there were were almost impossibly uncomfortable for long journeys. +Good roads had not as yet been made outside of the towns, and the only +way to go visiting friends at any distance was on horseback. Many of +these young women had to travel long distances, especially at the time +of their marriage, and later on they sometimes accompanied their +husbands on rather long journeys. + +In spite of their reputation for scholarship, we have not any very +serious remains of their intellectual efforts, and yet some of them +wrote poetry and prose well above the average in merit, and at least +in Italy their works are still read by students of Italian literature. +For instance, we have the poems of Lucretia de Medici, the mother of +Lorenzo the Magnificent, who had been one of the Tornabuoni family, +merchant princes of Florence, with many of the solid virtues of the +middle class from which she sprang. Tradition tells us that she was +ever her great son's most trusted councillor, and he has left it on +record that he thought her the wisest. She was {318} noted for her +princely alms, her endowment of poor convents, her dowries to orphan +girls, and though it has sometimes been said that these were all so +many bids for popularity, any such discount of her good works wrongs +her deeply, for she was profoundly religious, took particular care to +bring up her children piously, and it is to the fact that she wrote +hymns for them that we owe the poetic works that have come to us and +which rank high among this form of poetry. + +The best known of these women of the Renaissance, that is, the most +famous for their learning, were the sisters D'Este, Isabella and +Beatrice, of whom we have so many interesting traditions. The famous +Battista Guarino of Verona was chosen as teacher for the girls, and +with him they learned to read Cicero and Virgil and study the history +of Greece. They learned Italian literature from the many distinguished +literary men, some of them themselves gifted poets, who came to the +beautiful palace and its gardens at Ferrara, and were welcomed by the +well-known patron of learning, the Duke of Ferrara. They learned to +read French at least and to enjoy Provencal poetry. Their mother, +Leonora of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand, or as he is sometimes +called, Ferrante, King of Naples, was herself a scholarly woman. The +traditions of scholarship at the Court of Naples were deep, and of +long duration. As their father was the famous scholar and patron of +learning, Duke Ercole I, there was a precious heritage of culture on +both sides. Their mother, however, was more known for her piety even +than for her learning, though this was so noteworthy as to be +historical. Her charities made her looked up to by all of her people +until it is not surprising that the chroniclers of her time speak of +her as a saint. + + + [Illustration: BELLINI, MADONNA, ST. CATHERINE AND MARY MAGDALEN + (VENICE)] + + +Often it is said that only a few of the daughters of the nobility had +the opportunity for the higher education, and it is even the custom to +declare that most of these were instances where fathers had expected +sons instead of daughters and then raised the girls as companions and +gave them the education that ordinarily was reserved for boys. George +Eliot's picture of the times as given in "Romola," has sometimes +emphasized this, and she herself seems not to have been quite able to +persuade herself that there were liberal and abundant {319} +opportunities for the education of women in Italy towards the end of +the fifteenth century. It was so difficult in her (George Eliot's) +time for a woman to obtain education that it was almost impossible to +bring oneself to think of ample facilities existing nearly four +centuries before. Anyone who reads Burckhardt, however, or indeed any +of the modern writers on the Renaissance, will not be likely to think +that education was reserved for single daughters of families, or that +they indeed had any better opportunities than others except for the +fact that family attention was centred on them as it is now. +Burckhardt notes that it was especially the wives and daughters of the +_condottieri,_ that is, of the hired leaders of armies, the self-made +men of the time, who were lifting themselves up into positions of +prominence, who were the most frequent among the educated women of the +Renaissance. + +The records are complete enough to show that there was probably as +much, if not more, feminine education in Italy at least than in our +own time. This will probably be hard for many people to believe, but, +as I have said, no important city was without it. What may be called +the important cities of that time nearly all contained less than +100,000 inhabitants and many of them had not more than ten to twenty +thousand. When one finds schools for the higher education of women in +every one of these it is easy to understand how widely diffused the +feminine movement was. Lest it should be thought that the education +provided for or allowed the women of the time was narrow in its scope, +with so many limitations that intellectual development in the true +sense of the word was hampered, it may be as well to recall that women +were even encouraged in the public display of their talents. We read +of the young princesses and their court attendants taking part in +Latin plays given before the Pope and other high ecclesiastics, as +well as visiting rulers at this time. We have the story of Ippolita +Sforza saluting Pope Pius II, who had been the scholarly AEneas +Sylvius before his elevation to the pontificate, with a graceful Latin +address when he came to the Congress at Mantua. Another of the +oratorical princesses of the time was Battista Montefeltro, who is +famous for addresses delivered on many important occasions. + +{320} + +While the D'Estes have been probably better known, historians declare +that the women of the House of Gonzaga reached the highest excellence +in this Renaissance period of feminine education. Everywhere, however, +woman received the opportunity for whatever education she desired. +Down in Naples the old Greek traditions had survived, and when the +disturbance of the Grecian Empire by the Turks brought about a +reawakening of Greek culture in the south of Italy, the women shared +it as well as the men. At the Court of Joanna or Giovanna, whose +career is of special interest as an anticipation of the ill-fated +Mary, Queen of Scots, many of the women reached high intellectual +distinction. It is to these lofty Neapolitan educational influences +that we owe the intellectual development of Vittoria Colonna. +Everywhere, however, the same story might be told. At Rome, at +Florence, at Verona, at Padua, even at Forli and Ravenna and Rimini, +as well as at Genoa, though Genoa was so much more intent on making +money than developing its culture, the women took excellent advantage +of the opportunities for learning, often proved to be more successful +in their studies than their brothers, and though they did not +accomplish much that was to endure in the intellectual life, they seem +to have been thoroughly respected by their contemporaries and looked +up to as cultured, scholarly personalities. + +In his "Heroines of Genoa and the Rivieras," Edgcumbe Staley [Footnote +27] has said something of the productivity of the literary women even +of Genoa during this period. Genoa was known as probably more +interested in mere luxury and less interested in the intellectual life +for its own sake than any of the cities of Italy with which we are +familiar. The Genoese were the merchant princes whose wives and +children, like our own, were much more occupied with the display of +their wealth than in the development of a taste for art and letters +and the cultivation of a true critical faculty. I have already +mentioned some of the products of the Genoese intellectual life among +women, however, and this will add to the impression that I think is so +true that in proportion to the population there were just as many +women interested in education and in {321} literature, women writers +and poets in that time as there are in our own. Mr. Staley said: + + [Footnote 27: Scribner & Sons, New York.] + + "Among the glittering bevies of intellectual and virtuous damsels, + who delighted in the beauties and revelled in the romances of the + Villetta di Negro and similar pleasures, were such _gentildonne_ as + Peretta Scarpa-Negrone and Livia Spinola, who wrote poems of the + heart and the home; Benedetta--Livia's sister--and Caterina + Gastadenghi--she sang and played the folk songs of Liguria; Leonora + Cibo and Pellegrina Lescara, sweet translators of the 'Aeneid' of + Virgil and the 'Odes' of Horace." + +These educated women of the Renaissance were particularly noted for +the application of their education to the concerns of their home. +Their artistic taste was exercised, as we have already shown, in +selecting various ornaments for it and in directing artists in its +decoration. They did not have many art objects around them, but what +few there were had been made as a rule by distinguished artists and +represented something of the personality of the mistresses of the +household. But it must not be thought that they devoted themselves +exclusively to the cult of beauty in things. They realized their +influence for good over the men of their time and exercised it. The +example of Vittoria Colonna is often cited in this regard, but not +because it is exceptional, rather what was characteristic. These +educated women of the Renaissance were model wives and mothers. They +were sedulous for the education of their children, and the poetry that +we have from them, or the letters that have been preserved, and which +show very clearly their high intellectual development, were meant for +their children or for their relatives. Their homes were evidently +always their first thought. They planned their own dresses, often +executed some of the decoration for them, or had them designed or made +under their direction, bought beautiful books for the home, encouraged +the illuminators and the embroiderers and beautiful needleworkers of +the time, and in general proved to be ready and able to help through +their households to give opportunities for the artists, but also for +the artisans and the arts and crafts workers of the time. + +We find a number of their names on the list of Aldus' {322} regular +customers at Venice, his subscribers, who made it possible by assuring +him at least the cost of his books to go on with his magnificent +editions of the classics. We have letters in which they complain of +the cost of these first editions because there were other household +expenses to be met, but undoubtedly they were always greatly helpful +in the educational cause. + +Most interesting perhaps of all that they did is the beautiful +gardens, which, now that our generation through better transportation +facilities is able to live out of town, are coming to be more properly +appreciated than before. The Renaissance gardens have been the subject +of much writing and illustration in our magazines and books in recent +years, and it must not be forgotten that we owe them above all to the +women of the Renaissance. They invited artists and architects, who +designed them, and trained landscape gardeners to execute them, but it +was their interest that was most important. Their gardens came to be +an enlargement of their houses, and in the sunny land of Italy +afforded many refuges for pleasant living, even in the warmest +weather, and for the privacy of even their crowds of guests, which +made their homes welcome repairs for the nobility of the time. + +Perhaps the best criterion of the thoroughness of the education given +women at this time is the influence exerted by the women of the period +on art and artists and literary men of the time, and above all the +cultivated taste displayed in their homes. A typical example is +afforded by Isabelle D'Este whose _camerini_, her private apartments, +are reproduced at South Kensington and described in one of their +manuals on Interior Decoration in Italy in the fifteenth century and +the sixteenth century. As these decorations for the dowager Duchess +D'Este were made just about the middle of Columbus' Century, the +authoritative description of them will be the best document. The +Museum of South Kensington has had one side of her painting room +reconstructed, and it shows, as no mere description could, the beauty +of the apartment and the taste of its owner. + +A quotation from the description of the three rooms as given in the +South Kensington Art Handbook "Italian Wall Decorations of the +Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries" will {323} serve better than any +praise to give an idea of the charming retreat that Isabella made for +herself when her position as Dowager Duchess gave her the leisure as +well as the opportunity to devote herself to the construction of a +retreat which should reflect her personality. + + "The 'Grotta,' on the ground floor of the old Palazzo Bonnacolsi, + remained set apart for her collections of art and for receptions; + princes on their travels, ambassadors on their missions, travellers + of distinction and artists came to visit her. She accumulated in it + statues and rare objects, and even added a 'Cortile,' with fountains + playing during the summer. But the three new rooms at the top of the + 'Paradiso' became the object of her predilection, and it is amidst + such surroundings, the real 'paradise' of Isabella D'Este, that + historians must place her portrait. + + "The first room was dedicated to music, the favorite pursuit of + Isabella. The cupboards were filled with beautiful instruments: + mandolines, lutes, clavichords inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and made + specially for her by Lorenzo of Pavia; and here stood the famous + organ by the same master, the description of which is to be found in + the princess's correspondence. Round the walls of this first room + were reproduced views of towns in 'intarsia' of rare woods, and on + one of the panels figured a few bars of a 'Strambotto,' composed by + Okenghem to words dictated by Isabella, and signed by that famous + singing master. On the ceiling was the 'Stave,' which exists in the + coat-of-arms of the House of Este, and along the cornices friezes + were formed of musical instruments carved in the wood. + + "In the second room, devoted to painting and also to study, six + masterpieces by the greatest painters of the time adorned the walls + above the panelling. + + "The third room was reserved for receptions. Everywhere in the + ceiling, in the compartments, in the friezes (delicately carved in + gilded stucco upon an azure background) are found the devices + commented on at length by the humanists of her court: 'Alpha and + Omega' and the golden candlestick with seven branches, on which a + single light has resisted the effects of the wind, with the motto, + _'Unum sufficit in tenebris;'_ and {324} everywhere is to be read + the mysterious motto of which she was so proud, _'Nec Spe nec + Metu,'_ the highest resolution of a strong mind, which henceforth + 'without hope, without fear,' ended in solitude a tormented life. In + the recess of the thick wall slightly raised above the floor, + Isabella placed her writing table within reach of the shelves + containing her favorite books; while she read there or wrote those + letters addressed to the poets and artists of Italy, overflowing + with enthusiasm for arts and letters, when she lifted her eyes + beyond the tranquil waters at the mouth of the Po, towards + Governolo, she would see coming the gilded Bucentaur with the + coat-of-arms of Ferrara, which brought her news of her family, + D'Este, and that of Aragon." + +Lucretia Borgia at Ferrara not only continued the tradition of +aesthetic good taste so characteristic of the D'Este family into which +she had married, but even her years as mistress of the palace at +Ferrara mark an epoch in its history. She succeeded in securing the +services of some of the greatest of the artists of this wonderful +period, who came and contributed to the decoration of her private +apartments. Unfortunately her _camerini,_ private apartments, in the +Castello Rosso of Ferrara were destroyed by fire in 1634. They had +been adorned with paintings by Bellini, Titian and Dosso Dossi, fitted +into recesses of white marble carved by Antonio Lombardi. These rooms +as elsewhere were of small size, real living rooms, reflecting the +character of the personal taste of the owner. They were sanctuaries of +art and of literature with selected libraries of chosen volumes in +fine bindings and of music with beautiful musical instruments. + +Many of these women of the Renaissance in Italy were famous for their +devotion to works of charity. Indeed I know nothing that is more +admirable than the story of their care for the ailing poor. It is +often presumed that between their interest in education and literature +and the artists of the time, and above all their devotion to the +pleasures of dress and decoration, silks and jewels and perfumes, then +coming in so rapidly from the East, these women must have had very +little time for anything but selfish display of their personal beauty +or intellectual talent. The rapid accumulation of wealth, {325} +proportionally at least as great as in our time, might very readily be +supposed to direct them as it has many other generations from the more +serious side of life. The actual story of their lives is very +different. There were exceptions, who have unfortunately attracted +more attention than others, of whom little that is good can be said. +The proportion, however, who devoted themselves with a nobility of +soul that deserves to be commemorated to unselfish care for those who +needed it was very large. Mr. Staley in his "Heroines of Genoa" (p. +225) has a paragraph on this subject which well deserves to be +recalled, for it refers almost entirely to the women of Columbus' +Century, and it must not be forgotten that Genoa was much more of a +commercial city, with a more rapid rise in wealth, than any other in +Italy except possibly Venice, and the beautiful spirit of personal +service for the poor is therefore all the more admirable. + + "Women in every age and land are prone much more to works of mercy + and religion; of such surely was 'the crown of daughters of + Genoa'--so-called by many writers. Benedettina Grimaldi, 'chaste, + self-denying, amiable, charitable, moderate in dress and personal + pleasures,' a munificent patroness of the great Ospedale di + Pammatone, nursed patients suffering from plague and leprosy and + endowed beds for their treatment and alleviation; Argentina, + daughter of Signore Opicio Spinola, and wife of the Marchese di + Monferrato: Violanta, daughter of Signore Gianandrea Doria; and + Isabella, daughter of Signore Luca Fiasco, and wife of Luchino, + Prince of Milan, were contemporaries in the beneficent field of + charity. Devoted to the offices of religion, they proved the + sincerity of their faith by their eleemosynary services to sick and + dying men and women in prison and to debased mariners in port. + Benevolent institutions were founded and endowed, under the style of + 'Le Donne di Misericordia,' in 1478 and in 1497, 'La Campagnia del + Mantiletto'--'Wearers of the Veil,' by the munificence of + noble-hearted women. All these threw open to the suffering objects + of their regard the healthful pleasure grounds of their villas, and + it was no rare sight to find a lady, fashionably attired, seated + under the {326} colonnade of a temple, or beneath a shady tree, + talking to and cheering poor and friendless sufferers." + +The names of the princesses who were prominent in the feminine +education of this time have led many to conclude that only women of +the higher classes were given the chance to be educated at this time. +To a certain extent this is true, but at all times it must be true, +for they alone have the leisure for the intellectual life. To recall +what the nobility of Italy were at this time is to appreciate better +the real situation. They were the successful merchant-bankers and +their descendants (as the House of Medici), leaders of victorious +armies, the scions of old families, who had made their influence felt +in the politics of their cities for from three, sometimes even less, +to ten, rarely more generations, the children of great navigators or +admirals, even of successful traders and manufacturers--as the glass +makers of Murano and the merchant princes of Genoa--in a word they +represented exactly the same elements of the population as our +better-to-do classes of to-day. It was the daughters of these who were +accorded and took so well at this time the opportunity for education +and culture. + +Besides these there were not a few of what may be called the lower +classes who became famous for their scholarship. This had always been +true in Italy particularly. Catherine of Siena was a dyer's daughter. +Dante's inamorata and her companions, whom we think of as cultured +because of the poems addressed to them, were the daughters of men in +trade. But in the Renaissance the opportunities even for the +comparatively poor to obtain education were greatly widened, and it is +evident that any of the young women of the time who had the ambition +for learning might obtain it and undoubtedly many of them did. The +tradition created by Vittorino da Feltre, according to which women and +those of less means might obtain education, maintained itself and +proved the seed of further developments in the liberal provision of +opportunities for education for all classes. + + + [Illustration: PINTURICCHIO, HOLY FAMILY (SIENA)] + + +The names of a number of women scholars have come down to us who did +not belong to the higher nobility, and some of {327} their +achievements have become a part of the great tradition of scholarship +of the time. Alessandra Scala and Cassandra Fedele, for instance, were +among the most learned correspondents of Politian and were looked upon +as ladies with whom deep questions of scholarship might be discussed +seriously. Domitilla Trivulzio delivered Latin orations before +thronged assemblies and women orators were quite common. The tradition +that women should not speak in public did not obtain at all at this +time in Italy and we hear much of their eloquence. The impression so +prevalent at the present moment, that this is the first time in +history that women have dared to proclaim their rights publicly, is +quite erroneous and is founded on a deep ignorance of realities, with +a corresponding characteristic presumption of knowledge. Isotta of +Verona took part in public controversies with regard to the relative +value of men and women in life. It is strangely familiar to find that, +for instance, one of the subjects which she discussed was whether man +or woman was most to be blamed for what happened in the Garden of +Eden, and still more familiar to find that her argument was that man +was the responsible party. These learned women, however, were touched +also by the tender passion, and one of the most distinguished of the +feminine scholars, Veronica de Gambara, comes down to us in history as +a pattern of conjugal faithfulness, while Gaspara Stampa, the +distinguished poetess, according to tradition, died of love. + +One of the little known scholars among the Women of the Renaissance, +who deserves a better fate than oblivion, is Olympia Morata, a +veritable prodigy of learning. She received most of her education at +the court of Duchess Renee at Ferrara. When she came, at the age of +twelve, to be the companion of the Duchess's daughter, she was already +familiar with Greek and Latin literature. This is surprising enough, +but her subsequent progress is even more remarkable. "At fourteen she +wrote Latin letters and essayed to imitate the dialogues of Cicero and +Plato. At sixteen she lectured at the University of Ferrara on the +Ciceronian Paradoxes" (Sandys). At twenty she married a good German, +of whom almost the only thing we know is that he was her husband, and +she {328} died at the early age of twenty-nine at Heidelberg. When her +literary remains were collected they were dedicated to one who was +reputed "the most learned lady of her age, Queen Elizabeth of +England." + +The movement for the education of women of this time would have been +quite incomplete, however, if the women themselves had not taken part +in the organization of feminine education. In treating of "The Women +of the Century" I have already suggested that this important element +of feminine education was not lacking. There is abundant evidence of +the presence and enduring work of at least one great woman educator, +in the sense of an organizer of educational methods, whose influence +has been continuously felt in many parts of the world ever since and +whose work is not only alive in our time but has shown its power to +adapt itself even to the needs and demands of the twentieth-century +woman. This is, after all, only what might be expected of an educator +of this time, since the other accomplishments of her contemporaries +have proved so lasting in their effects. + +This very interesting woman of Columbus' Century, whose life is +comparatively little known, though her work occupies a very important +place in the history of education ever since, was Angela Merici, the +foundress of the Ursulines. When twenty years of age this daughter of +the lesser Italian nobility became convinced that the great need of +that time was the better instruction of young girls in Christian +doctrine and their training in a thoroughly Christian life. She +converted her home into a school, where at certain hours of the day +she gathered all the little girls of her native town of Desenzano, a +small municipality on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda in +Lombardy, and gave them lessons in the elements of Christianity. The +work, thus humbly begun, proved to have so many factors of worth in it +that it very soon attracted attention. Before long she was invited to +the neighboring city of Brescia to establish a similar school, but on +a much larger scale and more ambitious scope. She did so all the more +willingly because one day during her earlier life in the small town of +Desenzano she had had a vision in which it was revealed to her that +she was to found an association of young women {329} who would take +vows of chastity and devote their lives to the religious training of +young girls. + +After years of patient waiting and thoughtful consideration of the +subject of organizing the education of young women and providing for +continuance of her work--the delay mainly due to the fact that Angela +feared that she might not be capable of accomplishing it properly--she +came to the establishment of a religious order that would take up this +service. When the constitutions which she had written were presented +to Paul III, the Pope, who in spite of his resolve not to increase the +number of religious orders, had felt compelled to approve the Jesuits +after reading their constitutions because, as he said, he perceived +"the finger of God is here"; also found himself forced to approve of +those written by Angela Merici, saying to St. Ignatius, the founder of +the Jesuits, as he did so, "I have given you sisters." What the +Jesuits did for the education of young men during the next two +centuries, the Ursulines did for the young women. They spread rapidly +until they had communities in all the Catholic countries of Europe, +and then houses were established beyond the seas in the Latin-American +countries and almost wherever missionaries succeeded in founding +churches. Mother Incarnation came to Quebec and is one of the most +wonderful women in the early history of the continent. That was before +the end of the seventeenth century. At the beginning of the eighteenth +(1726) they established a house in New Orleans. + +When persecutions came the Ursulines were, as a rule, picked out as an +object of special enmity by those who sought to injure the Church. +During the French Revolution they were the special butt of the +intolerance of the French Republic and gave many martyrs to the cause +of religion. When the Kulturkampf came in Germany they were as +specifically selected for banishment as the Jesuits, and indeed they +have nearly always shared the fate of the Jesuits in times of trial. +They have not been without special distinction by persecution even +here in America. Their convent was burned down at Charlestown in +Massachusetts during the bitter wave of feelings against the religious +orders that had been aroused among Protestants in 1835. Their house +was the very centre of {330} danger in the "Know Nothing" riots in +Philadelphia some twenty years later. + +To-day, four centuries after their foundation, the institute is still +actively alive and doing its work in every part of the world. When the +first sisters elected Angela as their superior they asked that the +name of the institute should be the Angelines, after her own name. She +was shocked and insisted that, as their superior, she would require +them to take the name of Ursulines in honor of St. Ursula. With all +this humility, her personality was so pervasive that it still lives in +all her houses. There are schools for young women in many of the +States of the Union and in many parts of Canada. They are to be found +in distant Alaska, teaching within the Arctic Circle. There are +Ursulines under the equator, both on this continent, in Brazil and in +Africa. This is only another example of the sort of work that the +wonderful characters of Columbus' Century accomplished. Whatever they +did had a vital force in it that made it live and prove a stimulus and +an example to the generations and the centuries down to our own time. +Angela of Merici, though almost unknown outside of the Catholic +Church, was one of the very great women of the Renaissance. Probably +no woman of the time, not even St. Teresa, has had so wide and deep an +influence over succeeding generations as the retiring Angela of +Merici. + +As might well be expected, the movement for feminine education which +was felt so strongly in Italy affected France to a scarcely less +degree. Indeed, there were much more intimate relations between the +nobility of the two countries and among the scholars of the time all +over Europe than is usually supposed. As all the scholarly writing was +done in Latin, the barrier of language was removed and educational +interests readily became very widely diffused. Early in Columbus' +Century, Queen Anne of Bretagne is famous for her insistence on +education for the women of the French Court. There was a school of +Latin at which they all attended, but besides they were expected to +know Italian as well as French, and while doing their needlework books +were read to them that were calculated to enrich their memories and +enhance their literary taste. Queen Anne believed very thoroughly in +the fullest of {331} intellectual development for women, and yet +insisted also on their duties as managers of their households, and +above all as home-makers in the best sense of the term. She knew the +dangers of merely intellectual education, and expressions of hers on +this subject are often quoted. + +The court of Queen Marguerite of Navarre was at least as intellectual +as that of Queen Anne, and besides it had the advantage of the deeper +knowledge of the classics that had come in the meantime. Marguerite +encouraged literature, and herself contributed to it. She had the +large tolerance of mind of the educated woman and used it to protect +some of those who had fallen under the suspicion, so rife at the time +because of the religious troubles in Germany, of favoring or +attempting to teach heretical doctrines. As a consequence, she has +herself fallen under the suspicion of leanings towards heresy and +sympathy with the reformers. This was only, however, to the extent in +which that sympathy was shared by Erasmus and others of the time, who +saw the abuses that needed correction and hoped that the reform +movement would correct them, but who broke with it at once when they +realized that revolution and not true reformation was intended. The +correspondence between Vittoria Colonna and Marguerite is evidence at +once of the intimate relations of the learned women of different +countries and also of the sympathy existing between these two +scholarly women whose influence over their contemporaries meant so +much for the intellectual life of the time. The education given Mary +Queen of Scots, which is mentioned later in this chapter, shows how +much intellectual development was appreciated for the ruling classes +of the time in France. + +There are certain expressions from some of these educated women, +especially those without much to do, that are wonderful anticipations +of some of the things that are heard very commonly now as regards the +attitude of educated women toward man's suppression of her in the +preceding time. How strangely familiar are these words from Louise +Labe, the French poetess of the middle class, one of whose poems of +passion will be found in the chapter on French literature. "The hour +has now struck," she declared, "when man can no {332} longer shackle +the honest liberty which our sex has so long yearned for, when women +are to prove how deeply men have hitherto wronged them." That +expression is not, however, any more familiar than one of the comments +of a masculine contemporary on this occupation of the educated women +of the time with political ideas, which is quoted by Miss Sichel in +her "Men and Women of the French Renaissance": "Political women go on +chattering as if it were they who did everything." + +The women of the time, however, occupied themselves with practical +work of many kinds, and not merely with book-learning or political +scheming. There is a tradition of a feminine architect of the +Tuileries--Mlle. Perron (Porch) being her not inappropriate name. Many +Frenchwomen were particularly interested in the diffusion of education +among the poorer classes, and we have the story of many school +foundations. Mlle. Ste. Beuve, who founded a school and took up her +residence opposite to it, became very much interested in the pupils, +whom she called her "bees," and whom she encouraged by prizes and +distinctions of various kinds. After her death, by the request of the +scholars her place was set at table in their midst for the occasions +on which she used to come to them, for they felt that her spirit was +still with them. Mlle. Saintonge wanted to take up the work of +education, but was opposed by her father. She was very much +misunderstood, and at one time was stoned by the children on the +street. She began with the teaching of five little girls in a garret. +Ten years later she was brought in procession by all the people to the +great new convent school erected for her, because they realized now +how much her work was to mean and how thoroughly unselfish was her +devotion to the cause of education and uplift for their children. In +the course of the single century after the beginning of our period +over three hundred Ursuline schools were opened in France for the +education of girls, and the opportunities for education were greatly +extended. + +Perhaps the greatest surprise for most people in our time is the fine +development of feminine education that took place in Spain during this +period. English-speaking people have, {333} as a rule, inherited +English prejudices with regard to Spain and are likely to be somewhat +in the position of asking, Has any good ever come out of Spain? As a +matter of fact, the century just after Columbus' Century belongs to +Spain for achievement in every department of intellectual and artistic +culture. Her literature, her painting, her philosophy, her educators +ruled the world of thought and aesthetics. For those who know +something of the high worth of Spanish achievement it is no surprise +to learn that education reached a high standard of development in the +peninsula during Columbus' Century and that, above all, feminine +education was magnificently organized, so that the intellectual +achievements of the women of this time deserve a high place in the +world's history. All this is mainly due to the influence of Isabella +of Castile, and has been known for as long as the history of this +period has been properly understood. + +In his "History of Ferdinand and Isabella" Prescott has told the story +of the education and scholarship of Spain with words of high praise. +With regard to the feminine education of the time he said in the +chapter on "Castilian Literature" (Vol. II): + + "In this brilliant exhibition, those of the other sex must not be + omitted who contributed by their intellectual endowments to the + general illumination of the period. Among them the writers of that + day lavish their panegyrics on the Marchioness of Monteagudo, and + Dona Maria Pacheco, of the ancient house of Mendoza, sisters of the + historian, Don Diego Hurtado, and daughters of the accomplished + Count of Tendilla, who, while ambassador at Rome, induced Martyr to + visit Spain and who was grandson of the famous Marquis of + Santillana, and nephew of the Grand Cardinal. This illustrious + family, rendered yet more illustrious by its merits than its birth, + is worthy of specification, as affording altogether the most + remarkable combination of literary talent in the enlightened court + of Castile. The queen's instructor in the Latin language was a lady + named Dona Beatriz de Galindo, called from her peculiar attainments + _La Latina_. Another lady, Dona Lucia de Medrano, publicly lectured + on the Latin classics in the University of Salamanca. And another, + Dona Francisca de Lebrija, {334} daughter of the historian of that + name, filled the chair of rhetoric with applause at Alcala. But our + limits will not allow a further enumeration of names which should + never be permitted to sink into oblivion, were it only for the rare + scholarship, peculiarly rare in the female sex, which they displayed + in an age comparatively unenlightened. Female education in that day + embraced a wider compass of erudition, in reference to the ancient + languages, than is common at present; a circumstance attributable, + probably, to the poverty of modern literature at that time, and the + new and general appetite excited by the revival of classical + learning in Italy. I am not aware, however, that it was usual for + learned ladies, in any other country than Spain, to take part in the + public exercises of the gymnasium, and deliver lectures from the + chairs of the universities. This peculiarity, which may be referred + in part to the queen's influence, who encouraged the love of study + by her own example as well as by personal attendance on the academic + examinations, may have been also suggested by a similar usage, + already noticed among the Spanish Arabs." [Footnote 28] + + [Footnote 28: While Prescott's information with regard to the + education of Spanish women is very interesting, certain parts of + this passage are amusing because they represent mid-nineteenth + century ideas with regard to the Renaissance period. Prescott + talks of the age as "comparatively unenlightened," but then at + that time we had not taken to imitating Renaissance architecture, + studying Renaissance literature and art, copying Renaissance + book-making and binding, admiring the marvellous workers of the + Renaissance in every department and wondering how we could get + some of the superabundant intellectual and artistic life of that + time into ours. Prescott's complacency is typically American of + two generations ago. Since his time we have learned much more of + the old-time phases of feminine education as I have reviewed them + briefly at the beginning of this chapter. We have learned that + every country in Europe had a corresponding feministic movement to + that of Spain, with learned ladies in profusion everywhere. His + innuendo at the end of his paragraph on the subject that the + Spanish development was probably due to similar Arabian customs is + of a piece with that marked tendency in his time to find any source + for good except Christianity. The Christian nations were supposed + to have done nothing worth while till the Reformation. The Middle + Ages were still the dark ages and men were supposed to have + accomplished nothing. I need scarcely say that we have changed all + that and that now the later Middle Ages are looked upon as one of + the most productive periods of human history.] + +{335} + +The English ladies of the Renaissance are quite as distinguished as +their sisters of Italy, France and Spain for their interest in +education and the intellectual life. The first one who deserves +mention was, though a Queen of England, a Frenchwoman by birth. This +was Margaret of Anjou, the wife of the unfortunate Henry VI. If her +husband had possessed half the spirit or administrative ability of his +wife, the future history of England might have been very different. As +it was, the failure of Margaret to secure the throne either for her +husband or her children, left it to the Tudors with all that their +tyranny meant for England and with the unfortunate religious +disturbances which came as a consequence of the headstrong ways of the +passionate descendants of the Welsh knight. Margaret founded Queen's +College, Cambridge, just about the beginning of Columbus' Century and +gave that example of enlightened patronage of learning which was to +bear ample fruit among the Englishwomen of the Renaissance during the +succeeding centuries. One of her successors, Queen Elizabeth +Woodville, who refounded Queen's College when it was threatened with +disaster because of the impairment of its endowment and efficiency by +the Wars of the Roses, is another of the enlightened patronesses of +learning at this time. + +About the middle of Columbus' Century, Margaret Beaufort founded the +Divinity Lectureships of Oxford and Cambridge, since known as the +Margaret Lectureships. She refounded Christ's College and St. John's +College in Cambridge a few years later. She also founded a free school +at Wymbourn in Dorsetshire. Her own intellectual abilities and +education are attested by her translation of the "Imitation of Christ" +at this time. Her wise counsellor in all of her efforts for the +benefit of education was the martyred Bishop Fisher, who has left us a +panegyric of her which enables us to appreciate her place as one of +the distinguished learned women of the Renaissance. Like nearly all of +these women, she was interested not only in books, but also in +artistic work of many kinds and believed that an educated woman's +first duty must be the decoration of the home. She excelled in +ornamental needlework at a time {336} when a great many of the noble +ladies were accustomed to do this sort of art work and when many +beautiful examples of it were produced. Another member of the nobility +who became well known for her intellectual attainments was Mary, +Countess of Arundel, the compiler of "Certain Ingenious Sentences," a +collection of proverbial expressions that had a wide popularity at +this time. + +Toward the end of our Century came the women on whom the Renaissance +had a more direct influence. A great many of the daughters of the +nobility were given the opportunity for the highest education, and +many of them took it very brilliantly. The names of the distinguished +women scholars, or at least of women who were noted for their +attainments, are numerous and include many even of royal blood. +Evidently feminine education had become the fashion, and many others +must have been interested in it since it affected the great ladies so +deeply. It would be quite impossible to think that what occupied so +much the attention of the daughters of the highest nobility would not +also prove a great attraction for many others. Perhaps the best known +of the "blue stockings" of the time is Lady Jane Grey, of whose +attainments we have so sympathetic an account from Roger Ascham. He +says that she was deeply read in philosophy, and that she knew Latin, +Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Arabic and French. We are told that she cared +much more to read her Greek authors than to go to routs and parties, +or even to go hunting, which was the most fashionable amusement of the +time. Besides, she knew music well and was particularly skilled in +needlework. Indeed, there is none of these distinguished scholarly +women of England of whose devotion to needlework we do not hear. + +Mary Queen of Scots comes at the very end of the century, and French +rather than English or Scotch influence was at work in her education, +but the roll of her distinguished teachers shows how seriously the +question of proper education for the future queen was taken at this +period. George Buchanan was her professor of Latin, she studied +rhetoric with Fauchet, history with Pasquier and poetry with Ronsard. +We have at least one very interesting Latin poem that has been {337} +attributed to her, and if the attribution be correct it is excellent +evidence for her scholarliness. [Footnote 29] + + [Footnote 29: + "O Domine Deus! + Speravi in te; + O care mi Iesu! + Nunc libera me: + In dura catena, + In misera poena + Desidero te; + Languendo, gemendo, + Et genuflectendo + Adoro, imploro, + Ut liberes me!" + ] + + +Her rival, Elizabeth, was only seventeen years of age when the century +closed, but this was also the age of Lady Jane Grey, when she was put +to death, yet we hear much of her attainments and Elizabeth was one of +her great scholarly rivals. Like Lady Jane, Elizabeth is said to have +known five languages and to have studied music, philosophy, rhetoric +and history to such good purpose that her accomplishments were much +more than mediocre or conventional. With these examples before us +there can be no doubt at all of the fashionableness of the higher +education for women, and whatever is fashionable attracts the +attention of all classes of women. + +Probably the best example of the provision of opportunities for even +the highest education for women is to be found in Sir Thomas More's +household. He thought that his girls should share equally with his +boys in their opportunities for the new learning. His daughter +Margaret is quite famous for her attainments, Erasmus and others +having praised her so highly. She had a thorough knowledge of Greek +and Latin and much more than a passing or superficial acquaintance +with philosophy, astronomy, physics, arithmetic, logic, rhetoric and +music. The affection of her father for her, his encouragement of her +studies and the intimate relations between them have made her +illustrious not only in the history of feminine education, but in +world history. While near the end of his life More was Lord +Chancellor, his family was not of the higher nobility, and he himself, +as practically a self-made man, belonged only to the professional +classes of the time. It seems not far-fetched, then, to conclude that +a good many of the daughters of lawyers and physicians at this time +must have had abundant opportunities afforded them for as much +education as they cared to have, though of course they would {338} not +have the advantages of More's children, which were due, however, not +to his political importance, but to his friendship for the great +scholars of the time. While Margaret is so well known it must not be +forgotten, though we hear so much less of them, that More's two other +daughters were also very well educated. Leland, the antiquary, wrote +of "the three learned nymphs, great More's fair progeny." If so little +is known of More's other daughters, it is probable that there were not +a few others who had similar advantages to theirs, though no record of +it is in history. + +Among the many demonstrations that this intellectual movement among +women was not confined to Italy, nor even to the Southern nations, is +the career of Charitas Pirkheimer, the Abbess of the Convent of the +Poor Clares in Nuremberg. She became famous as an educated woman with +whom many of the distinguished scholars of the Renaissance were proud +to be associated. Her brother Wilibald, who was her guide and teacher, +appreciated her so much that he dedicated several of his books to her, +and in the preface of one, "On the Delayed Vengeance of the Deity," a +Latin translation of Plutarch's treatise, he praises her education and +her successful devotion to study. More disturbed than astonished, she +protested that she was only the friend of scholars, but not herself a +scholar. When Conrad Celtes published his collection of the works of +Roswitha, he presented one of the first copies of the book to Charity +Pirkheimer, and in a eulogy written on that occasion lauds her as one +of the glorious ornaments of the German Fatherland. He enclosed a +volume of his poems at the same time, and the good abbess very +candidly asked him to devote himself rather to the study of the sacred +books and the contemplation of high things than to the study of the +sensual and low in the ancients. She was a great friend of Johann +Butzbach and of Albrecht Duerer. Christopher Scheurl dedicated to her +his book on "The Uses of the Mass," In his article in the Catholic +Encyclopedia, Klemens Loffler says of her: "But all the praise she +received excited no pride in Charitas; she remained simple, affable, +modest and independent, uniting in perfect harmony high education and +deep piety. It was thus she resisted the severe temptations which hung +over the last ten years of her life." + + +{339} + + + [Illustration: DUeRER NATIVITY ] + + +{340} + +Some expressions of the women of the Renaissance are famous for their +wit and aptness. The famous reply of one of them, the Princess +Christina of Denmark, may be taken as evidence that witty power of +expression was not confined to the women of the Southern countries. +Her picture by Holbein, "The Lady with the Cloak," is so well known +that we seem to be able to recreate her personality rather completely. +She was approached by the ambassadors of Henry VIII after the death of +Jane Seymour with a proposal of marriage. Indeed, Holbein's picture +was made for the purpose of giving the uxorious Henry an idea of the +charms of the young woman. She was only eighteen at the time, but she +was already the widow of Francesco Sforza, and she is said to have +replied she would be quite willing to be the Queen of England if she +had two heads and could be sure of retaining one of them. As she had +only one, however, she could not take any risks in the matter. Julia +Cartwright's life of her, recently published, shows what a clever +woman of the Renaissance she was. Her reply is quite worthy of the +Italian ladies of the time, some of whom were noted for their rather +biting wit. One of the nobility in Italy having said that man's duty +was to fight and not to take part in social ceremonies, one of the +Gonzagas said; "It is too bad, then, that he does not hang himself up +in a closet with his armor whenever he is not actually engaged in +warfare." + +It is often assumed that intellectual development, and especially the +higher education, has a tendency to take women away from that devout +attitude of mind which makes them religious. There are many examples +in the Renaissance time, however, which serve to disprove this idea. +The smaller and more superficial minds may be thus affected. It is not +true for the larger, more profound intelligence. St. Teresa, in her +directions to the Mothers of houses as regards the reception of +postulants, said: "Where there is ignorance and piety do not forget +that the piety may evaporate and the ignorance remain." Many of the +best-known intellectual ladies of the Renaissance time were deeply +pious, Vittoria Colonna is a typical example, so in spite of the +apparent testimony of her famous book to the contrary is Marguerite of +Navarre. + + + [Illustration: VIVARINI, ST. CLARE] + + +{341} + +Lucretia Tornabuoni, the mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent, wrote some +charming religious verse. The difference of opinion between Clarice +dei Orsini, the wife of Lorenzo, and Politian as regards the teaching +of religion to her children, in which she came off victor, is well +known. Above all, these women were all close to the religious women of +the time. Many of them spent some days every year at least, often some +weeks, in favorite convents. They took their rest by following the +daily exercises of the monastic life in various convents. Vittoria +Colonna was noted for this, and during her widowhood spent very much +time in this way. Nothing that I know contradicts so completely the +slanders as to convent life at this time as these intimate relations +with the religious. + +It is noteworthy that in our country and time, just in proportion as +education for women is widely diffused, the practice of more intimate +relations with convents grows more common. Many women of the world, +teachers, writers, take a few days each year now for a retreat in a +convent. Not a few of those who enter religion are very well educated. +A great many of those who belong to the teaching orders are thoroughly +trained, and often fine experts in their specialties. In the +Renaissance period the daughters of the great noble houses sometimes +entered religious orders. Not infrequently they met with opposition, +and especially parental and family influence was exerted to divert +them from their purpose. Paola and Cecilia Gonzaga both became +religious. There was considerable family opposition, especially on her +father's part, against Cecilia's accomplishment of her purpose, but +her great teacher, Vittorino da Feltre, one of whose favorite pupils +Cecilia was, took her side. When her father insisted on finding a +husband for her, Vittorino urged that women should be allowed to +choose their careers for themselves, and above all, if they felt the +call to the spiritual and intellectual life, should be given the +opportunity for the self-development that the peace and ordered life +of the cloister afforded. + +Burckhardt has summed up the qualities of the women of {342} the +Renaissance in a single sentence, that is worth while recalling. So +much is said about the influence of the study of the classics in +producing pagan ideas and looseness of morals and relaxation of old +ethical standards during the Renaissance that it is well to recall +what this deep student of the time thought. His words will be found to +corroborate and sum up the character that we have been trying to paint +of the women of the Renaissance in these pages: + + "Their distinction consisted in the fact that their beauty, + disposition, education, virtue and piety combined to make them + harmonious human beings." + + +{343} + +CHAPTER X + +PHYSICAL SCIENCE OF THE CENTURY + +While it is universally conceded that the Renaissance was a supremely +great period in all the arts and literature, in education and +scholarship, and that its geographical discoveries made it noteworthy +from another standpoint, there is a very prevalent impression that it +was distinctly lacking in scientific development and that indeed the +proper attitude of mind for successful scientific investigation was a +much later evolution. Most of the discoveries of even basic notions in +science are almost universally thought to have been reserved for our +time or at least for generations much nearer to us than Columbus' +Century. + +Nothing could well be less consonant with the actual history of +science than any such impression. At many times before ours man has +made great scientific progress. The greatest mystery of human history +is that often after great discoveries were made they were somehow lost +sight of. Over and over again men forget their previous knowledge and +have to begin once more. There was one of these magnificent +developments of scientific thought in every department during +Columbus' Century and discoveries were made and conclusions reached +which revolutionized other modes of scientific thinking just as much +as Columbus' discovery of America revolutionized geography, or the +work of Raphael or Michelangelo and Leonardo revolutionized the +artistic thought of the world. + +When we recall that it was at this time that Copernicus set forth the +theory which has probably more influenced human thinking than any +other and that this discovery developed directly from the mathematics +of the time and while Vesalius revolutionized anatomy, the discovery +of the circulation of the blood began a similar revolution in +physiology and the foundations of botany and of modern chemistry in +their relations to medicine were laid, some idea of the greatness of +the {344} scientific advance of this period will be realized. +Mathematics, particularly, developed marvellously and it is always +when new horizons are opening out in mathematics that the exact +sciences are sure to have a period of wonderful progress. Beautiful +hospitals were erected and whenever there are good hospitals, surgery +makes progress and that care for the patient which constitutes the +essential part of medicine at all times, receives careful attention. + +Above all the men of the Renaissance took it on themselves to edit and +translate and publish the ancient classics of science and make them +available for the study of their own and subsequent generations. The +debt which the modern world owes to the Renaissance in this matter is +only coming to be properly realized as a consequence of our own +development of scholarship in this generation. Only the profound +scholar is likely to appreciate properly how much we are indebted to +the patient, time-taking work of this period in making books +available. Not only the ancient classics but also the works of the +Middle Ages on scientific subjects were all published. The early +Christian scholars, the Arabians, and above all, the great teachers of +the later Middle Ages were edited and printed as an enduring heritage +for mankind. + +The index of the feeling of the time toward physical science as well +as the interest of the scholars of the period in nearly every phase of +it is illustrated by the life of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, who is +usually known as Cusanus. He was a distinguished German churchman who +was made Bishop of Brixen and afterwards Cardinal and who had the +confidence of the Popes to such a degree that he was sent out as +Legate for the correction of abuses in Germany. He was particularly +interested in mathematics and the great German historian of +mathematics. Cantor, devotes a score of pages to the advances in +mathematics which we owe to Cusanus. According to tradition during his +journeys over the rough roads in the rude carriage of the time, he +studied the curve described through the air by a fly as it was carried +round the wheel after alighting on the top of it. He recognized this +as a particular kind of curve which we know now as the cycloid and he +studied many of its peculiarities and suggested its mathematical +import. + +{345} + +He was particularly interested in astronomy and declared that the +earth was round, was not the centre of the universe and that it could +not be absolutely at rest. As he put it in Latin: _terra igitur, quae +centrum esse nequit, motu omni carere non potest._ He described very +clearly how the earth moved around its own axis, and then he added +what cannot but seem a surprising declaration for those who in our +time think such an idea of much later origin, that he considered that +the earth itself cannot be fixed, but moves as do the other stars in +the heavens, _Consideravi quod terra ista non potest esse fixa sed +movetur ut aliae stellae._ More surprising still, he even seems to +have reached by anticipation some idea of the constitution of the sun. +He said: "To a spectator on the surface of the sun the splendor which +appears to us would be invisible since it contains as it were an earth +for its central mass with a circumferential envelope of light and heat +and between the two an atmosphere of water and clouds and of ambient +air." + +These expressions occur mainly in a book _"De Docta Ignorantia,"_ in +which the Cardinal points out how many things which even educated +people think they know are quite wrong. His other books are on +mathematics, though there is a little treatise on the correction of +the calendar which shows how thoroughly the men of the time recognized +the error that had crept into the year and how capable they were of +making the correction. In a book of his on "Static Experiments" he has +a very original discussion of laboratory methods for the study of +disease which is eminently scientific, and which is described in the +chapter on Medicine. + +The life of George von Peuerbach, also Puerbach and Purbachius, the +Austrian astronomer, one of Cardinal Nicholas' proteges who lived to +be scarcely forty and whose greatest work was done just at the +beginning of Columbus' Century, is an excellent index of the +scientific spirit of the time. About 1440, when he was not yet twenty +years of age, he received the degree of Master of Philosophy and of +the Liberal Arts with the highest honors at the University of Vienna. +After this he seemed to have spent some time at postgraduate work in +Vienna, especially in mathematics under Johann von Gmuenden. Just about +the beginning of Columbus' Century he went to {346} Italy. Cardinal +Nicholas of Cusa became interested in him and secured him a +lectureship on Astronomy at the University of Ferrara. During the next +few years he refused offers of professorships, at Bologna and Padua, +because he wanted to go back to Vienna to teach in his alma mater. +There, with the true Renaissance spirit of non-specialism, he lectured +on philology and classical literature, giving special postgraduate +courses in mathematics and astronomy. It was at this time that Johann +Mueller, Regiomontanus, as he is known, came under his tutelage. +Purbach deserves the name that has been given him of the father of +mathematical astronomy in modern times. + +He introduced the decimal system to replace the cumbersome duodecimal +method of calculation, which up to his time had been used in +mathematical astronomy. He took up the translation of Ptolemy's +"Almagest," replaced chords by sines and calculated tables of sines +for every minute of arc for a radius of 600,000 units. This wonderful +work of simplification naturally attracted wide attention. Cardinal +Bessarion was brought in touch with him during a visit to Vienna and +was impressed with his genius as an observer and a teacher. He +suggested that the work on Ptolemy should not be done on the faulty +Latin translation which was the only one available in Vienna at the +moment, but on some of the Greek manuscripts of the great Alexandrian +astronomer. He offered to secure them and also to provide for +Purbach's support during the stay in Rome necessary for the study. The +invitation was accepted on condition that his pupil Regiomontanus +should go with him. Unfortunately, however, Purbach died before his +journey to Rome. His works were very popular in his own time and his +commentary on the "Almagest of Ptolemy" as completed by Regiomontanus +became one of the standard text-books of the time. Altogether there +are some twenty of his works extant and his "New Theory of the +Planets" remained a favorite book of reference for astronomers even +long after the publication of Copernicus. His industry must have been +enormous but was after all not different from that of many of his +contemporaries. + +Astronomy was to be the great stimulating physical science of the +early part of Columbus' Century and Purbach's successor {347} in the +chain of scientific genius at this time was his pupil Johann Mueller, +or as he has come to be known from the Latinization of the name of the +place of his birth, Koenigsberg (in Franconia, not far from Munich), +Regiomontanus. As we have said, young Mueller made his studies with +Purbach at Vienna, became very much interested in astronomy and +mathematics, at his master's suggestion accompanied Cardinal Bessarion +to Italy and under his patronage took up the work of providing an +abridgment of Ptolemy's great work, the "Almagest," in a Latin +translation for those who might be deterred from the Greek. + +Cardinal Bessarion became very much interested in him and gave him a +chance to study in Italy. Mueller chose Padua and spent nearly ten +years there. Whenever anybody in almost any country in Europe wanted +to secure opportunities for study beyond those afforded by his native +land at this time he went down to Padua. Linacre, Vesalius, John Caius +went there for medicine, Copernicus, a little later than +Regiomontanus, for mathematics and astronomy and it was the ardently +desired goal of many a student's wishes. Mueller spent nearly ten years +in Italy, most of it at Padua and at the age of about thirty-five +returned to Germany to take up his life work. He settled down in +Nuremberg, where in connection with Bernard Walther he secured the +erection of an observatory. Nuremberg, because of its fine work in the +metals, was the best place to obtain mechanical contrivances of all +kinds, and many of these were used for the first time for scientific +purposes at this observatory. It became quite a show place for +visitors and while Nuremberg was developing the literary and artistic +circles in which the Pirkheimers, Albrecht Duerer and the Vischers and +Adam Kraft shone conspicuously, scientific interest in the city was at +a similar high level. + +Mueller made a series of observations of great value in the astronomy +of the time and substituted Venus for the moon as a connecting link +between observations of the sun, the stars and the earth. He +recognized the influence of refraction in altering the apparent places +of the stars and he introduced the use of the tangent in mathematics. +His most important work for the time, however, was the publication of +a series of astronomical {348} leaflets, _"Ephemerides Astronomicae"_ +in which his observations were published and also a series of +calendars for popular information. These announced the eclipses, solar +and lunar, for years before their recurrence and gave a high standing +to astronomy as a science. Some of these leaflets even reached Spain +and Portugal and encouraged Spanish and Portuguese navigators with the +thought that they could depend on observations of the stars for their +guidance at sea. In a way, then, Regiomontanus' work prepared the path +along which Columbus' discovery was made. + +Regiomontanus' work attracted so much attention that he was invited to +Rome to become the Papal Astronomer and to take up the practical work +of correcting the Calendar. Unfortunately he died not long after his +arrival in Rome, though not before he had been chosen as Bishop of +Regensberg (Ratisbon) as a tribute to his scholarship and his piety. +He thus became a successor of Albertus Magnus (in the bishopric), who +had been in his time one of the profoundest of scholars and greatest +of scientists. The tradition of appreciation of scholarship and +original research had evidently been maintained for the three +centuries that separate the two bishop scientists. + +A distinguished scientific student born at Nuremberg the same year as +Regiomontanus was Martin Behem or Behaim, the well-known navigator and +cartographer, who on his return to Nuremberg in 1493 made the famous +terrestrial globe which was meant to illustrate for his townsmen the +present state of geography as the Spaniards and Portuguese had been +remaking it. Behem's work is a striking testimony to the excellence of +geographic knowledge at this time, and only for the preservation of +this globe we could scarcely have believed in the modern time how +correct were the notions of the scholars of the period with regard to +the older continent at least. + +One of the great physical scientists of this time is Toscanelli, the +physician, mathematician, astronomer and cosmographer, over whose +connection with Columbus such a controversy has raged in recent years. +He and Cardinal Cusanus were fellow students at the University of +Padua, where Toscanelli's course consisted of mathematics, philosophy +and medicine. He settled down as a practising physician in Florence +and took up {349} scientific studies of many kinds which brought him +into connection not only with the students of science, but with the +scholars and artists of the time. Brunelleschi and he were intimate +friends, but he was well known outside of Italy, and Regiomontanus +often consulted him. His services to astronomy consist in the +painstaking and exact observations on the orbit of the comets of 1433, +1449-50 and especially of Halley's comet on its appearance in 1456 and +of the comets of May, 1457, June, July and August of the same year. +These show a most accurate power of astronomical observation and +profound mathematical knowledge for that time. His famous chart +indicated just how a navigator might reach the coast of India by +sailing westward, and Columbus is said to have carried a copy of this +chart with him on his first voyage. Whether this is true or not, there +is no doubt of Toscanelli's place in the history of science because of +original work in astronomy, geodesy and geography. + +The most important protagonist of physical science during Columbus' +Century, however, was undoubtedly Copernicus. Columbus gave the men of +his time a new world, but Copernicus gave them a new creation. When +early in the sixteenth century he published a preliminary sketch of +his theory, one of his ecclesiastical friends remarked to him that he +was giving his generation a new universe. There has probably never +been a theory advanced which has changed men's modes of thinking with +regard to the world they live in and their relation to it as the +Copernican hypothesis has done, though it must not be forgotten that +there are some as yet insuperable difficulties which keep it still in +the class of scientific hypotheses. + +The earth had up to this time been universally thought of as the +centre of the universe, much more important than any of the other +bodies, sun, moon or stars, and all the others were thought to move +around it. Their apparent movement was due to the rotation of the +earth, which was quite unrecognized. The immense distances of space +were entirely undreamt of. In the new order of thinking the earth +became a minor planet of small size in our solar system which was of +inconspicuous magnitude when compared to the totality of the other +bodies of the universe. The acceptance of the new theory sank man in +his own estimation very considerably. The change of point of view of +{350} the meaning of the universe necessitated by the Copernican +theory was ever so much greater than that demanded by evolution in our +time. + +It took two centuries for men to adjust their thinking to these new +ideas. Francis Bacon, a full century after Copernicus' time, declared +emphatically that the Copernican theory did not explain the known +facts of astronomy as well as the Ptolemaic theory. In Bacon's time +Galileo was the subject of persecution and the reason for the +persecution was that he was advancing a doctrine which no other great +astronomer of his time accepted, and advancing it for reasons which +have not held in the after-time. The Copernican theory came eventually +to be accepted for quite different reasons from those advanced by +Galileo. + +How Copernicus succeeded in coming to this magnificent generalization +is indeed hard to understand. It is easier to get some notion of it, +however, when his achievement is taken in connection with what was +being done all around him at this time. Living in a century when great +men were accomplishing triumphs in painting, sculpture, architecture +that have been the wonder of the world ever since, and when geography +was being revolutionized, and nearly every science awakened, it is not +surprising that he should have reached a height of mathematical and +astronomical expression beyond any that men had ever conceived before +and that he should have surpassed many of the generations to come +after him, by the clearness of his intuition of the astronomical +mystery of the universe. + +Copernicus had not made many observations nor were such observations +as had been made by him worked out with that painstaking accuracy +which might be thought necessary to reach a great new conception of +the universe. He had the genius to see from even the few and imperfect +data that he had at hand what the true explanation of the diverse +phenomena of the heavens was. He had no demonstrations to advance. He +argued merely from analogy. Even Galileo, a century later, admitted to +Cardinal Bellarmine that he had no strict demonstration of his views +to offer, but that "the system seems to be true." While the feeling of +many scientists in the modern time is that great discoveries come from +patient {351} accumulation of accurate observations in large numbers, +the history of science shows that almost invariably the epochal steps +in progress have come from men who were comparatively young as a rule +and who were not overloaded with the information of their time. The +great artists of the Renaissance could probably have given no better +reasons for their artistic conceptions than Copernicus for his stroke +of genius, but they were all working at a time when somehow men were +capable as they never have been since of these far-reaching +intellectual achievements. + +Copernicus was a Pole who, like other students of his time, gladly +welcomed the opportunity to go down to Italy for post-graduate work, +studied with Novara at Padua mathematics and astronomy and was quite +willing to add the study of medicine, because by so doing he could +secure an extension of the length of time he would be allowed to +remain in Italy. He then returned to be a canon of the Cathedral of +Frauenberg, and spent forty years in quiet patient observation and in +the practice of his medical profession not for money, but for the +benefit of the poor and such friends of the chapter of the Cathedral +as he was under obligations to because of the years they had supported +him in Italy. He probably reached his great astronomical theory when +he was about thirty. He did not publish the preliminary sketch of it +for twenty-five years. He did not publish his great book until just +before his death, keeping it by him, making changes in it and while +thoroughly convinced of its importance, quite sure that, owing to its +lack of definite demonstration, it would not be generally accepted. + +Like so many of these geniuses of the Renaissance he was a simple +kindly man who had many good friends among those around him and who +had one of the very happy lives accorded to those who, having some +great thought and great work to occupy themselves with, have daily +duties that afford them diversion and bring them into contact with +friends in many ordinary relations in life. His humility of heart and +simplicity of character, as well as his deep religious faith, can be +very well appreciated from the prayer which at his own request was the +only inscription upon his tombstone: "I ask not the {352} grace +accorded to Paul, not that given to Peter; give me only the favor Thou +didst show to the thief on the Cross." + +His attitude toward the reform movement, twenty years of which he +lived through in Germany, is interesting. He was an intimate friend of +Bishop Maurice Ferber of Ermland, who kept his see loyal to Rome at an +epoch when the secularization of the Teutonic Order and the falling +away of many bishops all around him make his position and that of his +diocese noteworthy in the history of that place and time. Copernicus +continued loyal to the old Church and in 1541 his great book _"De +Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium"_ was dedicated to Pope Paul III, who +accepted the dedication and until the Galileo matter brought +Copemicanism prominently into question there was never any thought of +Copernicus' book as containing matters opposed to faith. It was then +placed on the _Index_, but only until some minor passages should be +corrected which set forth the new theory as if it were an astronomical +doctrine founded on facts and demonstrations and not a hypothesis +still to be discussed by scientists. + +The scientific spirit of this century is often scouted because in +spite of their scientific knowledge many of the astronomers and +mathematicians of this time as well as, of course, other educated men +following their example, could not quite rid themselves of the idea +that the stars were powerful influences over man's life and health. +The history of this idea, however, minimizes the objection. All down +the centuries men like Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Nicholas of Cusa, +Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola insisted that there could be +nothing in what we now call astrology. Men parted with the older ideas +very slowly, however. Almost a hundred years after Columbus' Century +even Galileo made horoscopes and seems to have thoroughly believed in +them, though some of his prophecies were sadly mistaken. Kepler drew +up horoscopes, confessing that he had not much confidence in them but +that they were paid for much better than other mathematical work and +he sadly needed the money. Lord Bacon could not quite persuade himself +that there was nothing in astrology. As late as after the middle of +the eighteenth century Mesmer's thesis for graduation in medicine at +the University of Vienna, which {353} at that time had one of the best +medical schools of Europe, was on the influence of the stars on human +constitutions. It was accepted by the faculty and he got his degree. +Even in our time, though now the educated contemn, the mass of the +people still have not entirely rejected astrology. The men of +Columbus' Century can scarcely be thought less of for having accepted +it, though many of the scientists of the time did not. + +The counterpart to the great scientific genius that Copernicus was, +the generalizer who discloses a new horizon, was to be found in his +contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci, who was an inventor, a practical +genius applying discoveries to everyday life. He solved most of the +mechanical problems, invented locks for canals, the wheelbarrow and +special methods of excavation, a machine for making files by +machinery, run by a weight, a machine for sawing marble blocks instead +of separating them by natural cleavage, the model of those still +employed at Carrara, as well as machines for planing iron, for making +vices, saws and planes, for spinning, for shearing the nap of cloth, +as well as an artist's sketching stool, a color grinder, a spring to +keep doors shut, a roasting jack, a hood for chimneys, movable +derricks quite similar to those in use among us to-day, with +contrivances for setting up marble columns on their bases, one of +which in principle was used to set up Cleopatra's Needle on the +Embankment in London in our time. A favorite field of invention was +that of all sorts of apparatus relating to war, military engines, +devices for pushing scaling ladders away from walls and many others. +He was probably the greatest inventive genius in the world's history. +He had an eminently practical mind. He devoted himself to the problem +of flying, studied the wings of birds and produced a series of +mechanical devices, tending toward the solution of that problem. + +Taine said of him: "Leonardo da Vinci is the inventor by anticipation +of all the modern ideas and of all the modern curiosities, a universal +and refined genius, a solitary and inappeasable investigator, pushing +his divinations beyond his century so as at some times to reach ours." +There was scarcely anything that he touched that he did not illuminate +wonderfully by his genius. In studying the muscles of animals he +invented a {354} dynamometer, he improved spectacles and studied the +laws of light, invented the camera obscura and in his steam +experiments anticipated Watt. A very curious feature of his work is +his series of experiments with the steam gun, with which he was sure +that great destruction might be worked. + +A very interesting invention of a scientific instrument of some +precision by Leonardo was what may be called a weather gauge. This was +made of a copper ring with a small rod of wood, which acted as a +balance. On it were two little balls, one covered with wax and the +other with material that absorbed moisture readily. When the air was +saturated with moisture this ball grew heavy and inclined the beam +till it touched one of the divisions marked on the copper ring set +behind it. The degree of moisture could thus be seen and the weather, +or at least changes in it, could be predicted. We have a whole series +of such arrangements mainly in the shape of toys in the modern time. +The hygroscopic qualities of cord or the tendency of certain colors to +change their tints when more moisture is present are used to indicate +approaching changes in the weather. Leonardo seems to have been the +first to make use of this practically and he deserves the credit of +priority in the invention. + +His studies in optics might almost naturally be expected from a +painter so much occupied with color and whose intense curiosity +prompted him to know not merely the use of things but the causes of +and the reasons for them. He evolved much of the science of color +vision, suggested the principles of optics that came to be known only +much later, analyzed and explained the construction of the eye, +invented the camera obscura in imitation of it and gave us a theory of +color vision which is as good as any other that we have down to the +present day. These optical studies alone might well be considered as +enough to occupy an ordinary lifetime, but they seem to have been only +the results of a series of interludes of the nature of recreation for +Leonardo. He made his notes on the subject, filed them away with +others, made no attempt to print his conclusions, probably found very +few with whom he could discuss the subject, but he had satisfied +himself. That was what he wanted. + +{355} + +After knowing such facts as this we are not surprised to learn of his +anticipating by some sort of divination the laws of gravitation, the +molecular composition of water, the motion of waves, the undulatory +theory of light and heat, the earth's rotation and rotundity before +Columbus' time and many other surprising things. One finds in his +diary that he was planning the construction of a harbor and studying +the music of the waves on the beach at the same time. + +Poggendorff, in his great Biographical Dictionary of prominent men of +science, quotes Libri's "History of Mathematics in Italy" as authority +for the declaration that Leonardo discovered capillarity and +diffraction, made use of the signs + and -, knew the camera obscura +(without a lens), made observations on resistance, on density, on the +weight of the air, on dust figures, on vibrating surfaces and on +friction and its effects. + +All sorts of machines came from Leonardo's hands. He had a positive +genius for practical invention that has probably never been equalled, +surely not surpassed, even down to our own day. His inventive faculty +worked itself out, in machines of such variety as have never come from +the brain of a single individual before. Nor were these merely +primitive mechanical devices that we would surely despise now. On the +contrary, nearly all of them have endured in principle at least and +some of them almost as they came from him. + +Leonardo also did distinguished work in the biological sciences, so +that Duval, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Paris and +himself well known both for his researches in biology and his +knowledge of the history of science, entitles an article with regard +to him in the French _Revue Scientifique_ (Dec. 7, 1889), "A Biologist +of the Fifteenth Century." His biological discoveries are discussed in +the chapter on the Biological Sciences. + +Sometimes it is asserted by those who are so little familiar with the +history of science that they venture on such assertions rather easily, +that the true scientific spirit had not yet awakened and that while +men were making many observations and acquiring new information they +had not as yet the proper scientific attitude of mind to make really +great discoveries. It is {356} rather amusing to be told that of a +century when Copernicus and Vesalius and so many other distinguished +modern scientists were alive. Some writers suggest that the true +rising of the modern spirit of scientific inquiry did not come until +Francis Bacon's time. Francis Bacon is one of the idols of the +marketplace, but surely no serious student of history accords him the +place in science that our English forbears gave him when they were +insular enough to know very little about continental work, and above +all about Italian workers. + +Francis Bacon, of course, had been long anticipated in all that +concerns the inductive method in science by his much greater namesake +Roger Bacon. In Columbus' Century however, a hundred years before +Bacon's time, Bernardino Telesio, the Italian philosopher, stated +fully the inductive method and recognized all its possibilities. In +_Science_ for December 19, 1913, Professor Carmichael said of him: + + "He abandoned completely the purely intellectual sphere of the + ancient Greeks and other thinkers prior to his time and proposed an + inquiry into the data given by the senses. He held that from these + data all true knowledge really comes. The work of Telesio, + therefore, marks the fundamental revolution in scientific thought by + which we pass over from the ancient to the modern methods. He was + successful in showing that from Aristotle the appeal lay to nature, + and he made possible the day when men would no longer treat the + _ipse dixit_ of the Stagirite philosopher as the final authority in + matters of science." + +The tendency of this century to make scientific principles of value +for practical purposes is well illustrated by the references to the +sympathetic telegraph which began to be much talked of at this time. +According to the story as told, friends at a distance might be able to +communicate with each other by having two dials around which the +letters of the alphabet were arranged with a magnetic needle swinging +free as the indicator. When the needle on one of the dials was moved +to a letter, the other by magnetic attraction was supposed to turn to +the same letter. This ingenious conceit has been attributed to +Cardinal Bembo, one of the great scholars of the Renaissance, who was +private secretary to Pope Leo X. His friend {357} Porta, the versatile +philosopher, made it widely known by the vivid description which he +gave of it in his celebrated work on "Natural Magic," published just +after the close of Columbus' Century. + +A very important development in science came in the application of +chemistry to medicine, both as regards physiology and pathology. Basil +Valentine at the beginning of Columbus' Century led the way and +Paracelsus did much to indicate what the advantage of the application +of chemistry to medicine would be. Paracelsus compared the processes +in the human body with chemical phenomena and declared that +alterations in the chemical conditions of organs were the causes of +disease. He set himself up in opposition to the humoral theory of the +ancients and denied that the heart was the seat of heat manufacture in +the body, for every portion of the system had, he asserted, its source +of heat. It was through Paracelsus that chemistry was added to the +medical curriculum and George Korn in his chapter on Medical Chemistry +in Puschmann's "Handbook" attributes the foundation of certain +professorships for chemistry at the universities of this time to +Paracelsus' influence. Andreas Libavius did much to advance chemical +science in various directions by his study and preparation of +sulphuric acid and his recognition of the identity of the substance +made from sulphur and saltpeter with that obtained from vitriol and +alum. Studies of this kind brought a broad realization of the +possibilities of chemistry. + +The spirit of the period as regards science and the development of the +faculty of observation at this time is very well illustrated by +Columbus' own observations on the declination of the magnetic needle +during his first voyage across the ocean. Brother Potamian has told +the story in "Makers of Electricity" (Fordham University Press, New +York, 1909), page 22: + + "It is one of the gems in the crown of Columbus, that he observed, + measured and recorded this strange behavior of the magnetic needle + in his narrative of the voyage. True, he did not notice it until he + was far out on the trackless ocean. A week had elapsed since he left + the lordly Teneriffe, and a few days since the mountainous outline + of Gomera had disappeared {358} from sight. The memorable night was + that of September 13th, 1492. There was no mistaking it; the needle + of the Santa Maria pointed a little west of north instead of due + north. Some days later on September 17th, the pilots, having taken + the sun's amplitude, reported that the variation had reached a whole + point of the compass, the alarming amount of 11 degrees. + + "The surprise and anxiety which Columbus manifested on those + occasions may be taken as indications that the phenomenon was new to + him. As a matter of fact, however, his needles were not true even at + the outset of the voyage from the port of Palos, where, though no + one was aware of it, they pointed about 3 deg. east of north. This angle + diminished from day to day as the Admiral kept the prow of his + caravel directed to the West, until it vanished altogether, after + which the needles veered to the West, and kept moving westward for a + time as the flagship proceeded on her voyage. + + "Columbus thus determined a place on the Atlantic in which the + magnetic meridian coincided with the geographical and in which the + needle stood true to the pole. Six years later, in 1498, Sebastian + Cabot found another place on the same ocean, a little further north, + in which the compass lay exactly in the north-and-south line. These + two observations, one by Columbus and the other by Cabot, sufficed + to determine the position of the agonic line, or line of no + variation, for that locality and epoch. + + "The _Columbian_ line acquired at once considerable importance in + the geographical and the political world, because of the proposal + that was made to discard the Island of Ferro and take it for the + prime meridian from which longitude would be reckoned east and west, + and also because it was selected by Pope Alexander VI to serve as a + line of reference in settling the rival claims of the kingdoms of + Portugal and Castile with regard to their respective discoveries. It + was decided that all recently discovered lands lying to the east of + that line should belong to Portugal; and those of the west to + Castile." + +The first observation of magnetic declination on land appears to have +been made about the year 1510 by {359} George Hartmann, Vicar of the +Church of St. Sebald, Nuremberg, who found it to be 6 deg. East in Rome, +where he was living at the time. He observed it also in Nuremberg, +where the needle pointed ten degrees East of North. Columbus' +explanation of the declination to his sailors is interesting. He kept +silence about it at first, but when they grew alarmed, believing that +the laws of nature were changing as they advanced farther and farther +into the unknown, he told them that the needle did not point to the +North Star, which had been called the Cynosure, but to a fixed point +in the celestial sphere and that Polaris itself was not stationary, +but had a rotational movement of its own, like all other heavenly +bodies. They trusted him and their fears were allayed and a mutiny +averted. When on his return to Spain he reported the many and definite +observations on the variation of the compass which he had made he was +told by the scientists of the time that he, and not the needle, was in +error, because the latter was everywhere true to the pole. Just why +they were sure it was so they could not tell, but they refused to +believe even observations which showed that it was not so; though +these were reported by a man who had just overturned quite as strong +convictions by sailing westward and reaching land. It is such +contradictions of what seem to be obviously first principles of +science that in all ages have constituted great discoveries and +required genius to make them. + + +{360} + +CHAPTER XI + +BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES + +It is usually assumed that the biological sciences have developed in +comparatively recent years and that above all nearly 500 years ago in +the fifteenth century there could be no question of any developments +that would be of any serious significance in the history of science. +The word biology itself is only about a hundred years old and very +often it is assumed that human interest in departments of knowledge +begins with the naming of them. A period, however, that saw such +magnificent work in the physical sciences and especially such a +revolution of thought by means of observation as came through +Copernicus' theory, was not likely to neglect the biological sciences +entirely. As a matter of fact, biology, taking the word in its +broadest sense, made some magnificent strides at this time. Perhaps no +period until our own witnessed such significant advances in every +department of the biological sciences. + +It is often said that the people of the Middle Ages had very little +interest in the world around them. Indeed, surprise is often expressed +that they should not have occupied themselves more with the wonderful +book of nature lying so invitingly open before them and given +themselves more to nature study. Some have even ventured to seek the +reason and have thought that they found in it an exaggeration of +interest in another world than this, and mediaeval lack of interest in +natural truth has been attributed to over-occupation with the +supernatural. Those who dare to think, however, that the people of the +Middle Ages were not interested in nature know nothing at all of the +great writers of that time. They are profoundly ignorant of the broad +interests of those whom they so lightly criticise. Dante is full of +nature study. More than any modern poet, with perhaps one or two +exceptions, he has used his {361} knowledge of nature and of science +to illustrate his meaning in many passages of his poetry. One needs +but turn to the "Divine Comedy" almost anywhere to prove this. In his +"Treatment of Nature in Dante." Professor Oscar Kuhns of Wesleyan +University has demonstrated this beyond all doubt. + +Three voluminous encyclopaedias of knowledge, including many of the +wonderful facts of nature, were compiled in the thirteenth century. +Such men as Albertus Magnus, who has many volumes of scientific +writing on natural subjects and who made collections and observations +of all kinds, Roger Bacon, who has so many almost incredible +anticipations of modern knowledge, and Thomas Aquinas, who used the +facts of nature as known in his time for the basis of his philosophy +quite as Aristotle did long before, all were enthusiastic nature +students. They did not know many things which the modern schoolboy can +easily learn, for we have accumulated a great deal of information; +since not a little that they thought they knew was wrong,--but that +has been true in every period of the world's history of science and +even our own will not escape that inevitable law, but they knew ever +so much more than is usually thought and what they knew was much more +significant for real scientific progress than any but special students +of their works have any idea of. + +It will not be surprising, then, to find that there were magnificent +foundations laid in the biological sciences in Columbus' Century, and +that indeed the work of this period represents some of the most +important fundamental truths in these sciences. Anatomy, for instance, +received a development during the Renaissance period that made it an +independent scientific department. Men began to think again for +themselves and make their own observations in the first half of the +century. It is rather interesting to see the details that were added +to the previous knowledge of anatomy, for these demonstrate the fact +that they were observing accurately; A few examples will suffice to +make this clear. + +Achillini noticed the _ductus choledochus_, the duct leading from the +liver into the duodenum, and described the ilio-caecal valves. +Berengar of Carpi corrected a number of mistakes that had existed in +Mondino's _Anathomia_, the text-book {362} which had been most used +since the beginning of the fourteenth century, and he discovered the +foramina in the sphenoid bone. He will have, perhaps, still more of +interest for our time, because he was the first to describe the +vermiform appendix. He was also the first apparently to call attention +to the fact that the thorax in men and the pelvis in women are wider +in each case proportionately than in the other sex, and that roughly, +while the feminine form is conical, the masculine is an inverted cone. +Canani added much to the description of the muscles and was the first +to notice the presence of valves in veins, discovering them in the +_vena azygos_. Gabriele Zerbi noted the oblique and the circular +muscles of the stomach and described the puncta lachrymalia, the +ligamenta uteri and other anatomical details which had escaped +description previously. His book on anatomy divided the bones and +muscles and blood vessels into different chapters, and order was +beginning to come out of the confusion that had existed because of the +too-generalized teaching before. + +It is of the anatomists of this time that Puschmann in his "History of +Medical Education" says, "The Italian anatomists had the habit of +making the dissections of bodies for themselves, and it is for this +reason that all the great anatomical discoveries of the time come from +Italy. The anatomical schools of that country were the best in the +world. All the greatest anatomists of the sixteenth century received +their education there, and among the masters of the Italian schools +are to be found the greatest names of which the science of anatomy can +boast." Neuberger in his "Handbook of the History of Medicine" +[Footnote 30] says, "The Italian professors, incited by the brilliant +example of 'Mondino,' surpassed all the other anatomists of the world +because they did not disdain to take in their own hands the anatomical +scalpel, and it is for that reason that at this time anatomy in Italy +was cultivated with greater breadth of vision than elsewhere. The +Italian anatomists initiated at the end of the fifteenth century the +most famous period in the history of the art of dissection {363} and +became the teachers to the physicians of the whole world." + + + [Footnote 30: Neuberger u. Pagel: _"Handbuch der Geschichte der + Medicin";_ Jena, 1903, Vol. II, p. 23.] + + +Martinotti in his "The Teaching of Anatomy in Bologna Before the +Nineteenth Century" [Footnote 31] gives a very good idea of the +thoroughly scientific spirit of their investigations and their ardent +curiosity with regard to anatomical details, as these may be gathered +from the commentaries of Berengar of Carpi. He says, for instance, +"Let no one think that by word of mouth alone or the study of books, +this science of anatomy" [he calls it discipline] "can be learned. For +this the sight and touch are absolutely necessary." "Nor can any real +knowledge of the members of the human body be obtained from a single +dissection, for this a number of dissections are required." He himself +says in suggesting with true scholarly spirit how little he knows in +spite of his opportunities, in order that others may be encouraged to +take as many opportunities as possible, "how many hundreds of cadavers +have I not dissected." This expression is sometimes said to be an +exaggeration, but it is in accord with the whole trend of Berengar's +method of study. A dissection in the old time did not mean a complete +study of the anatomy of the body by anatomical methods, but any +opening of the body, in order to determine a particular point or to +study any special part, was called an anatomy or dissection. Berengar +insists frequently that a number of preparations and sections of the +same viscus should be studied. He confesses that he had sectioned more +than 100 cadavers in order to determine a question in brain anatomy +and yet was not satisfied. + + [Footnote 31: G. Martinotti: _L'Insegnamento dell' Anatomia in + Bologna Prima del Secolo XIX;_ Bologna, 1911.] + +The interests of the artists of the Renaissance in painting not merely +the surface of things, but giving an idea of what they actually were, +led to a great development of curiosity as to the constitution of +human beings. Not a single great artist of the Renaissance failed to +make dissections for himself, and the greater the artist, the more +dissections, as a rule, we know he made. Michelangelo dissected +portions at least of more than 100 bodies, and Leonardo da Vinci +probably did even much more than that. He proposed at one time to +write a {364} textbook of anatomy. Ordinarily, it would be presumed +that any such proposition from an artist could scarcely be taken +seriously in the sense of a scientific text-book to represent real +contributions to anatomy as a science, though it might, of course, be +valuable for artists. In recent years, however, the republication of +the sketches of his dissections shows that Leonardo da Vinci might +have written a very wonderful textbook of anatomy and that his plates +are still valuable for the study of professed anatomists. + +William Hunter declared that "Leonardo was the greatest anatomist of +this period," and, as altogether we have some 750 separate sketches of +dissections which he had actually studied, some idea of how much he +accomplished can be obtained. These sketches represent not merely the +muscles and the skeleton, though they give these very well and +especially suggest their functions very completely, but they also +contain sketches of all the viscera and even cross-sections of the +brain at different planes. This book alone, without anything further, +would give Leonardo a distinguished place in the history of physiology +as well as of anatomy. + +With all this in mind, it is amusing to know the impression rather +prevalent among even educated people that there was Church opposition +to dissection at this time, and to have such books as President +White's "Warfare of Science with Theology" represent Vesalius a +generation after this as dissecting in fear and trembling because of +the danger he was incurring from the violation of ecclesiastical laws +against dissection. No such laws were ever in existence, and +dissection for scientific and artistic purposes was apparently much +better provided for than it is even in our time, and above all much +better cared for by the ecclesiastical authorities who might have +hampered it so much, than it was in the English-speaking countries two +or three generations ago, when ardent students of anatomy had either +to "resurrect" bodies themselves or buy them--as many of them +did--from "resurrectionists," with all the abuses connected with this +practice, in order to secure anatomical material. + +The supreme development of anatomy in Columbus' Century came with +Vesalius. After exhibiting his trend of mind {365} towards scientific +and especially biological studies as a boy by the dissection of small +animals, the suggestion for which had come to him from the study of +Albertus Magnus' books, Vesalius went to Paris in order to find +opportunities for anatomical study; but while profiting not a little +there, he was rather disappointed because of the lack of facilities. +The jealousy of his teacher, Sylvius, which he aroused, made his work +still more difficult, so he went down to Italy, where he knew that he +could secure material for dissection and opportunities for study. +There, before he was twenty-five, they made him professor of anatomy +at the University of Padua, and he had the opportunity to write his +great text-book on anatomy, the _"De Fabrica Humani Corporis,"_ which +has remained a classic down to our day. + +It would be rather difficult to enumerate all the discoveries that we +owe to Vesalius. He well deserves the name of the Father of Modern +Anatomy. Practically all of his productive life comes in Columbus' +Century, and he illustrates how thorough the scientific men of the +time were in their modes of thinking and ways of observation. Details +that might have been expected to escape him are described most +clearly. He was the first to point out that nerves penetrated muscles +and to suggest the physiological function that they performed of +bringing about contraction. He discovered the little blood vessels +that enter bones, the nutrient arteries, but still more definitely +described the nutrition of bones through the periosteum and its rich +blood supply. He added greatly to the knowledge of the time as regards +the anatomy of the abdominal wall and of the large organs of the +abdominal cavity, especially the stomach and the liver. His +descriptions of the sex organs are far in advance of all that his +predecessors had known, and here his anatomical knowledge also became +of value for suggestions in physiology,--the two cognate sciences +were, as might be expected, developing together. Vesalius described +the heart completely and suggested its mechanism, and yet could not +get away from Galen's declaration that the blood passes through the +septum of the heart. His description of blood vessels and their inner +and outer coat shows how carefully his observations were made. He +declared {366} afterwards that he was led to make these investigations +by the memory of his dissection of the bladders with which he used to +play as a boy and which he found to consist of several coats. + +There is scarcely a department of anatomy on which Vesalius' name is +not stamped deeply. He devoted great care, for instance, to the +examination of the brain, emphasized the distinction between the gray +and white matter, described the corpus callosum, the septum lucidum, +the pineal gland and the corpora quadrigemina. + +Two at least of Vesalius' disciples and assistants in teaching deserve +to be named in the great development of anatomy that came at this +time. One of them is Realdus Columbus, to whom we owe the discovery of +the circulation of the blood in the lungs, and the other, Fallopius, +whose name is familiar from its attachment to important structures in +the body which he first described. Columbus we shall have more to say +of under physiology, for the circulation of the blood was an important +contribution to that science. Columbus' work was done at Rome, whither +he was invited by the Popes to teach at the Papal Medical School, and +where his directions and demonstrations were attended by cardinals, +archbishops, and distinguished ecclesiastics. He had been Vesalius' +prosector at Padua and had succeeded him at Bologna, and then was +invited to Rome. He wrote a great text-book of anatomy, which was +dedicated to Pope Paul IV, and it was one of the treasures of the +Renaissance both because of the development of anatomy which it +represents, and its value as one of the early beautifully printed and +illustrated books of the medicine of this time. + +Fallopius, the gifted pupil of Vesalius, of whom Haeser, the modern +historian of medicine, has said that he was "one of the most important +of the many-sided physicians of the sixteenth century," followed his +master's work, corrected some details of it and added many new facts. +We are not quite sure of the time of his birth, but he was probably +less than thirty, perhaps only twenty-five, when he became professor +of anatomy at Ferrara. He subsequently occupied the chair of anatomy +at Pisa, and later of anatomy and surgery at Padua. He {367} added +much to what was known before about the internal ear and described in +detail the tympanum and its relations to the osseous ring in which it +is situated. He also described minutely the circular and oval windows +and their communication with the vestibule and cochlea. He was the +first to point out the connection between the mastoid cells and the +middle ear. His description of the lachrymal passages in the eye was a +marked advance on those of his predecessors, and he also gave a +detailed account of the ethmoid bone and its cells in the nose. His +contributions to the anatomy of the bones and muscles were very +valuable. It was in myology particularly that he corrected Vesalius. +He studied the organs of generation in both sexes, and his description +of the canal or tube which leads from the ovary to the uterus attached +his name to the structure. Another discovery, the little canal through +which the facial nerve passes after leaving the auditory, is also +called after him the _aquaeductus Fallopii._ + +Puschmann in his "History of Medical Education" says of Fallopius (p. +297): "He furnished valuable information upon the development of the +bones and teeth, described the petrous bone more accurately, enriched +myology by admirable descriptions of the muscles of the external ear, +of the face, of the palate and of the tongue, made explicit statements +upon the anastomotic connections of certain blood-vessels--for +instance, of the carotid and vertebral arteries--and discovered the +nervus trochlearis. He instituted accurate investigations upon +particular parts of the organ of hearing and of the eye, by which he +was able to give fuller information upon the _ligamentum ciliare,_ the +_tunica hyaloidea,_ the lens, and other anatomical points." + +As great, if not greater, than either as an anatomist was Eustachius, +to whom we owe a series of important discoveries. He studied +particularly the renal system and the head. His name is enshrined in +the Eustachian tube named after him. It has been said that after +Eustachius' time very little was added to our knowledge of the gross +anatomy of the teeth. He also made important discoveries in brain +anatomy. Unfortunately his text-book was never finished, and the +beautiful illustrations, the first copperplates for an anatomical work +ever made, were {368} not published in his lifetime. They were +faithfully preserved, however, in the Library of the Vatican, for, +like Columbus, he was a professor at the Papal Medical School in Rome, +and were published at the beginning of the eighteenth century by +Lancisi, himself, another Papal physician. + +Another of the distinguished anatomists of the time was Aranzius, who +was the Professor of Anatomy in the Papal University of Bologna for +some thirty-two years just after the close of our period, having +received his training, however, in our century. He gave the first +correct account of the anatomy of the foetus and was the first to show +that the muscles of the eye do not arise from the dura mater but from +the margin of the optic cavity. He confirmed Columbus' views with +regard to the course of the blood in passing from the left to the +right side of the heart, and made a number of discoveries in the +anatomy of the brain. To him we owe the term _hippocampus_, and he +described the fourth ventricle very accurately, calling it the cistern +of the cerebellum. + +The scientific development of physiology followed immediately, as +might be expected, on that of anatomy. Indeed, Vesalius deserves +almost as much credit for what he did for physiology as for his +researches in anatomy. The functions of bones, muscles and organs +were, as we have said, carefully discussed in connection with the +descriptions of their form, location and relations to other organs. + +Probably the best way to present the advance made in physiology at +this time is to review the important steps of progress toward that +greatest generalization in modern physiology, the circulation of the +blood. Much more had been known of it before this time than is usually +thought, and probably even the ancients, especially in Greece, had +more than a hint of it. Before Columbus' Century closed, the discovery +of the pulmonary circulation was an accomplished fact, and there was +more than an inkling of the existence of the general circulation. The +full description of this was not made until afterwards, but it was not +long delayed, and it came from a man who belongs to our time. It did +not receive that thorough scientific statement which was to make it a +fundamental principle in the biological science of the time until +Harvey's day, nor indeed for some {369} time after Harvey's thoroughly +scientific description and demonstration. [Footnote 32] + + [Footnote 32: How clearly Rabelais understood the function of the + circulation, though he did not properly appreciate its physiological + anatomy, may be readily seen from his famous passage on the + circulation, in which he talks about the blood as "the rivulet of + gold which is received with such joy by all the organs because it is + their sole restorative." A portion of the passage is worth while + quoting because it represents a popularization of the scientific + knowledge of the time. Rabelais was writing not for physicians nor + even medical students, but for the educated general public of the + time. He said: + + "The Spleen draweth from the _Blood_ its terrestrial parts, + _viz._, the Grounds, Lees or thick Substance settled in the bottom + thereof, which you term _Melancholy;_ the Bottle of the Gall + subtracts from thence all the superfluous _Choler:_ whence it is + brought to another Shop or Workhouse to be yet better purified and + refined, that is the Heart, which by its agitation of Diastolick + and Systolick Motions so neatly subtiliseth and inflames it, that + in the _right-side_ Ventricle it is brought to Perfection and + through the Veins is sent to all the Members; each Parcel of the + Body draws it then into itself, and after it's own fashion, is + cherished and alimented by it: Feet, Hands, Thighs, Arms, Eyes, + Ears, Back, Breast, yea, all; and thus it is that who before were + _Lenders,_ now become _Debtors,_ The Heart doth in its _left-side_ + Ventricle so thinnify the Blood that it thereby obtains the name + of Spiritual; which being sent through the Arteries to all the + members of the Body, serveth to warm and winnow or fan the other + Blood which runneth through the Veins; The Lights never cease with + its Lappets and Bellows to cool and refresh it; in Acknowledgment + of which good the Heart through the Arterial Vein imparts unto it + the choicest of it's Blood: At last it is made so fine and subtle + within the _Rete Mirabile,_ that thereafter those _Animal Spirits_ + are framed and composed of it; by means whereof the Imagination, + Discourse, Judgment, Resolution, Deliberation, Ratiocination, and + Memory have their Rise, Actings and Operations."] + + +Harvey himself indeed has acknowledged his indebtedness to these men +of preceding generations, and any fair-minded review of the subject +makes it clear that there was a gradual progress towards this +all-important generalization for several generations, and not that +sudden discovery which is sometimes thought to have taken place. In +1546 Servetus, who had been Professor of Anatomy at Paris, but who had +a tendency to dabble in theology that subsequently proved unfortunate +for him, for, as will be recalled, he was burnt to death by Calvin +{370} at Geneva in 1553, sent to Curio, who was teaching anatomy at +Padua, a manuscript copy of his _"Restitutio Christianismi,"_ "The +Restoration of Christendom," in which he described completely the +circulation of the blood in the lungs. + +Because Servetus' description first appeared in a theological work, it +has sometimes seemed to commentators that his expressions were +scarcely more than accidental and that it was only by chance that he +reached such a generalization. To say this, however, is to ignore +Servetus' career. He was an investigator of a thoroughly scientific +spirit, living in a time when discoveries, particularly in the +biological sciences, were being made all round him, and he had made +many dissections, had taught anatomy at the University of Paris and +was exactly in the most appropriate position to make such a new +discovery. He had done some distinguished work in botany, he had +suggested some modifications in pharmacology which met with violent +opposition, but have since been approved, and like so many of the men +of the Renaissance he had "taken all knowledge for his province" with +a wonderful degree of success. Unfortunately he invaded theology and +then got into trouble. He had to fly from Paris, though probably the +prosecution of him was due not a little to the enemies created by his +uncompromising spirit in the controversy over the use of syrups. He +was protected by the Archbishop of Vienne, who had him as physician +for a dozen of years, and it was Calvin who denounced him to the Roman +authorities in such a way that even the friendly Archbishop could no +longer protect him. He was allowed to escape from jail by connivance, +went to Geneva and there met his sad fate. + +It may not be true, as has been said, that by putting him to death +Calvin put back the development of physiology for three-quarters of a +century until Harvey's time, but undoubtedly Servetus' death was a +very unfortunate incident for science. + +Just about this same time a series of discoveries in Italy led up to +the thought of the existence of a circulation of the blood in lungs +and body. Already in the first edition of his great text-book of +anatomy in 1543, Vesalius had expressed doubts {371} with regard to +the Galenic doctrine that the blood passed through the septum of the +heart from one ventricle to another, and these doubts he emphasized in +the second edition. In 1547 Cananus, Professor of Anatomy at Ferrara, +observed the valves in the veins, and these are said to have been +described even before this, though the doctrine of their existence and +function was not generally accepted in science until after the more +complete description made by Fabricius of Aquapendente, who was born +in our century but did his important work afterwards. Columbus, who +was teaching anatomy at the Papal University of the Sapienza in Rome, +was even more complete and explicit in his description of the +pulmonary circulation than had been Servetus. The question as to +whether he knew of Servetus' discovery has never been absolutely +settled, though there seems very little likelihood of it. Apparently +the one possibility is that a copy of the edition of the _"Restitutio +Christianismi"_ which was burned with its unfortunate author, may have +been spared and found its way to Rome. Rome is indeed the least likely +place for such a book to have wandered, and only two copies of that +first edition are definitely known to have escaped. Of these Columbus +could have known nothing. Harvey himself, to quote Professor Foster in +his "History of Physiology," spoke of Columbus with respect as of a +great authority. + +Columbus' work has sometimes been minimized in Western Europe, +especially by the English, apparently in the fear lest recognition for +him should lessen Harvey's glory. Harvey himself, however, quotes +Columbus as an authority in his work on the circulation, and the +Italian anatomist, who had been Vesalius' assistant, was undoubtedly a +great teacher, investigator, dissector, experimenter, observer and +writer with regard to a number of phases of medical science. He was +the first to insist on demonstrations of living animals as valuable in +the teaching of medicine. He declared that one could learn more about +the functions of the body from the dissection of a single dog than +from feeling the pulse for hours and merely studying Galen. He made +demonstrations on living animals and was constantly engaged in trying +to find out function as well as anatomical details. A number of +workers in the medical {372} sciences toward the end of Columbus' +Century were making experiments of various kinds on living and dead +animals in order to develop physiology. Eustachius studied the kidneys +experimentally, and the sensory functions were investigated very +carefully and with the true scientific spirit. + +The completion of the discovery of the circulation of the blood came +in the person of Caesalpinus, who had received all of his education in +Columbus' Century. Anyone who reads his description of the systemic +circulation cannot fail to recognize that he really understood it. His +discovery did not impress his generation as did that of Harvey in the +next generation, nor did he understand so thoroughly the significance +of his discovery. The Italians, however, have quite rightly insisted +on vindicating for him the merit of having discovered the circulation +of the blood, and some of them have even suggested that Harvey learned +of it from him, but nothing can dim Harvey's glory as a great trained +observer and original genius, who appreciated thoroughly the nature of +the revolution that his discovery would work in the medical sciences. +Harvey himself would have been the first to deprecate the lessening of +the glory that was due to his predecessors or to his great teachers in +Italy, one of whom, Fabricius da Aquapendente, belongs partly to our +century. Indeed, in his book on the circulation, Harvey has given more +credit to his predecessors than many of his ardent English advocates +are prone to do in the modern time. + +Professor Foster in his "Lectures on the History of Physiology During +the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," which were +delivered as the Lane Lectures in San Francisco, and some of them also +at Johns Hopkins, concedes Caesalpinus' priority of description. He +says (page 33): + + "He thus appears to have grasped the important truth, hidden, it + would seem, from all before him, that the heart, at its systole, + discharges its contents into the aorta (and pulmonary artery), and + at its diastole receives blood from the vena cava (and pulmonary + vein). + + "Again in his 'Medical Questions,' he seems to have grasped the + facts of the flow from the arteries to the veins, and of flow along + the veins to the heart" + +{373} + +On page 35 of the same work Professor Foster says: "We must, +therefore, admit that Caesalpinus had not only clearly grasped the +pulmonary circulation, but had also laid hold of the systemic +circulation; he recognized that the flow of blood to the tissues took +place by the arteries and by the arteries alone, and that the return +of the blood from the tissues took place by the veins and not by the +arteries." + +Foster is prone to make little of Caesalpinus as a man of +book-learning rather than experimental or observational knowledge and +as a scholarly writer rather than a scientific discoverer. It must not +be forgotten, however, that Caesalpinus, besides being a great +anatomist, is one of the most important contributors to the botany of +this time. He was the director of the first botanical garden regularly +established in Italy, that at Pisa, which still exists, and he is +called by Linnaeus the first true systematic botanist. His work on +plants distributed more than 1500 plants into fifteen classes +distinguished by their fruits. + +Every detail of the circulation is thus seen to have been understood, +and Professor Foster has quoted the passages from Caesalpinus' books +which make the necessity for such an admission very clear. The +Italians have always claimed the discovery of the circulation for +Caesalpinus, and the Southern nations of Europe generally have been +inclined to favor that claim, though the Germans and English have +refused to admit that even Caesalpinus' description, with all its +clearness of detail, can be taken to mean that he understood the new +doctrine that he thus was teaching. Besides, it is pointed out that +Caesalpinus' new doctrines met with very little response and indeed +scarcely any notice from his contemporaries. It must not be forgotten, +however, that Harvey himself hesitated for some dozen years to publish +his demonstration of the circulation of the blood, and there is good +reason to believe that while he presented his views to his class in +1616 and wrote his treatise in 1619, he delayed its publication until +1628 and was even then apprehensive lest its appearance make "mankind +his enemy." It is not surprising, then, in the light of this +recognized attitude of the scientific mind of the time that +Caesalpinus' declarations of half a century before should have been +passed {374} over by scientists without proper recognition of their +significance. + +Any account of the development of the biological sciences at this time +would be quite incomplete without the great story of the botanists who +laid the broad, deep foundation of their favorite science during this +century. The first distinguished name among them is that of Leonardo +da Vinci, the story of whose work in botany seems almost incredible +until the actual notes of his observations are before one. While +Leonardo has been thought of always as a painter and only recently has +the idea of his greatness as a scientist become generally known, he +deserves eminently to be classed as one of the greatest of scientific +geniuses. It was in the biological sciences that he did his most +wonderful work. He knew the anatomy of men and animals very well and +studied whole series of questions touching living beings. He did work +in botany, palaeontology, zoology, physiology, so that Duval did not +hesitate to speak of him in the _Revue Scientifique_ [Footnote 33] as +A Biologist of the Fifteenth Century. He made special observations on +flying, on swimming, on the saving of life in shipwreck, on the +mechanics of joints, on horse movement, so that he anticipated what we +have learned by the camera. His special contribution to physiology was +that certain acts of the nervous system are reflex, that is, without +requiring attention from the higher centres. + + [Footnote 33: December 7, 1889.] + +His studies in color are among the most interesting done up to his +time. These were not merely taken up from the physical standpoint but +especially from the physiological, and his theory of color vision +still attracts attention. He studied sound and made many valuable +observations once more physiological as well as physical. His most +interesting scientific conclusion was doubtless that with regard to +fossils. Having met with them deep below the surface of the earth, he +declared that they were not there by accident nor by any +incompleteness of creation, but that they represented living things +which had been covered up. He even suggested that marine fossils +pointed to the fact that the sea had at some time covered this spot +where {375} the fossils were found, though this was now far from water +and well above its level. + +Some of his information with regard to botany was far ahead of his +time. He not only knew that the rings seen in the wood of the trunk of +a tree represent its age, one ring for each year, but he also knew how +to deduce from the differing thickness of the various rings the +particular kind of season and how favorable it was for growth. In +Italy moisture represents to a great extent the most important element +in a favorable year for plant growth. Leonardo seems to have shown by +the story of certain years in the past that when moisture was abundant +the rings of the trees were thicker than they had been in other years. +He pointed out, too, that the core of the trunk of a tree, the heart +of the wood as we call it, was not in the centre of the tree as a +rule, but always a little to one side because the tree had more +sunlight and heat on one side and grew more in that direction. He +pointed out too that when a tree is injured an abundance of sap is +carried to that spot in order to bring about repair, and that these +processes of repair always make a super-abundance of tissue, as if to +overstrengthen a weaker part--hence the irregularities that are +likely to exist on a tree where injuries have been inflicted. The +sketches of dissections of flowers found in his notebooks show how +well he anticipated many methods of study and details of knowledge in +botany supposed to be much more modern. They have proved as great a +surprise as his anatomical plates. + +The professional botanists of this period have been very thoroughly +reviewed by Professor Edward Lee Greene, Professor of Botany at the +Catholic University and Associate in Botany in the United States +National Museum, in his "Landmarks of Botanical History," which forms +part of Volume LIV in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. He +has called attention particularly to the work of the great German +Fathers of modern botany during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth +centuries. There are five of them who deserve a prominent place in the +history of botany. Otho Brunfelsius (1464-1534), Leonhardus Fuchsius +(1506-1566), Hieronymus Tragus (1498-1554), Euricius Cordus +(1486-1535) and Valerius Cordus (1515-1544). The four first named +represent two distinct {376} kinds of botanical work. Brunfels and +Fuchs busy themselves almost wholly with medical botany. Their one +idea was to describe plants that could be used in medicine or make +special additions to the diet. Most of their plant descriptions are +copied from older authors, some of them even the Greeks, but for +practical purposes they sought to render the identification of medical +plants more easy and certain by supplying pictures of them. There had +been botanical pictures before but they were miserable as a rule, and +both Brunfels and Fuchs greatly improved the representations. As +Greene says "these two might worthily have been styled Fathers of +Plant Iconography." + +Books of botany must have been popular before this and indeed it was +probably because of the ready sale of such works that Brunfels and +Fuchs took up their elaboration of them. Their large picture books now +made it possible for all sorts and conditions of men, lettered and +illiterate, to identify some hundreds of useful plants; a thing which +had never happened in the world before that day. They added little to +scientific botany, however, but fortunately other men, Tragus and +Valerius Cordus, laid serious scientific foundations for the true +science of botany. Neither of these men wished to popularize botany so +much as to make it possible for plants to be so described as to be +readily identifiable by description. As Greene says "on Cordus' part +it is unmistakable that there is a deliberate plan of creating a new +phytography. Therefore and by study of the men and their books I think +we shall perceive that in the Germany of the first half of the +sixteenth century there were two fathers of plant iconography and two +fathers of descriptive botany." + +Greene can scarcely say too much of the work of young Cordus. He says +(page 272): "To understand the exalted character of this genius it is +only necessary to canvass what the youth had also attained to along +other and different lines at the same time. + + "In field work in Germany--for botany alone--not to speak of geology + and mineralogy, in both of which he was, for his time, an expert--he + had wrought out more results than had his older contemporaries, + Brunfelsius, Tragus, and Fuchsius combined. In his repeated journeys + to the great forests and {377} wildest mountain districts, it is + estimated that he discovered several hundred new plants. Sprengel + has given the Linnaean names of some twenty-five of these new + discoveries of Cordus; and that is perhaps double or treble the + number of novelties gathered in by the whole three above named; and + they both were men of longer life and more or less extensive + travel." + +Greene re-echoes the praise of a contemporary in terms which show us +that this young man, who lived less than thirty years, had all the +qualities of a modern successful scientific investigator. Indeed that +contemporary description is worth while having near one as a catalogue +of qualities of the men who in every age succeed in science as a rule. +It comes from Riffius' Preface to Cordus' "Annotations on +Dioscorides": + + "To the best possible education of an intellect naturally keen, + there was united in him that happy temperament to which nothing is + impossible, or even difficult of attainment. To these gifts he added + a truly marvellous industry and assiduity in research; and above + all, a most wonderfully retentive memory for everything he either + saw in nature or read in books. In this he so greatly excelled as to + be able to carry in mind in their entirety descriptions of things + which he had not seen but was looking to find; thus having the + descriptions always available whenever occasion called for the use + of them." + +Conrad Gesner at Zurich declared that the four books of Cordus are +"truly extraordinary because of the accuracy with which the plants are +described. A century and a half later, Tournefort named Valerius +Cordus as having been the first of all men to excel in plant +description. Haller, the distinguished botanist and historian in +Linnaeus' time, credited Valerius Cordus with having been "the first +to teach independence of the poor descriptions of the ancients and to +describe plants anew." Greene says of him: "One sees that in all his +descriptions the same attention is given to the morphology and also to +the life history of the plant in as far as this is known to him. In +his practice of describing each species, both morphologically and +biologically, he is a herald of our late nineteenth and early +twentieth century writers who now that we have the microscope give +life histories with minuteness of detail before impossible." + +{378} + +Evidently Columbus' period gave birth to men as great in the +investigation of plants and as ardent in their desires to get the last +details of truth as were the geographers and the navigators of the +time to reach the ends of the earth and be able to map it out. There +was a great wind of the spirit of investigation abroad and everywhere +there were magnificent results from it. This school of botany in +Germany with Valerius Cordus as the climax of it, whose untimely death +before thirty was indeed an irremediable loss to science, illustrates +this very well. + +While the most important contributions to the science of botany during +that period came from the Germans, Italy did not lag far behind in +this subject, and France, Spain and Portugal supplied their quota to +the science. Above all, it is to the Italians that we owe editions of +Theophrastus, Dioscorides and the elder Pliny, works which contained +so much of information with regard to the science of botany in ancient +times and the modern publication of which brought about a reawakening +of interest in that subject corresponding to what was noted in +connection with every other republication of classical thought in the +various departments of the intellectual life. The most important of +the botanists of Italy was Caesalpinus, professor of botany at Padua +and director of the botanic garden there at the close of the Columbus' +Century, but who was afterwards physician to Pope Clement VIII. To +him, as we have seen in discussing the physiology of the time, we owe +a complete description of the circulation of the blood in the century +before Harvey. Caesalpinus is called by Linnaeus _primus verus +systematicus,_ the first true systematic botanist. His work, _"De +Plantis,"_ contains an immense amount of information and a complete +classification of all the then known plants, some 1520 in number, into +fifteen classes. The distinguishing characters of this classification +are taken from the fruit and show careful observation and thoroughly +scientific attention to details. + +Caesalpinus' place in the history of botany can be best appreciated +from the praise of his colleagues in this department of science. John +Ray, the English botanist of the end of the seventeenth century, in +his history of plants declared that {379} Caesalpinus' book "On +Plants" was indeed a work from which much might be learned. Fabrucci +and Carl Fuchs declare Caesalpinus' treatise to be of first rank. +Thomas Garzon, Pona of Verona and Balthazar and Michael Campi in the +eighteenth century praised his work as thoroughly scientific. We have +already quoted Linnaeus' opinion of him and the modern father of +botany gladly accepted the suggestion of Plumier that a newly +discovered plant should be given the name of Caesalpinus, in order +that that name might be forever memorable in botany. Boerhaave, whom +we think of much more as a physician than a botanist, but some of +whose greatest work was done with regard to medical botany in the +University garden of Leyden, advised a friend and disciple if he could +buy any of Caesalpinus' works, to do so, for they were among the best +on the subject. + +In France Ruellius, whose life is about equally divided between the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, was the physician to Francis I and +a distinguished botanist. He wrote scientific descriptions of a large +number of plants and put beside them the ordinary names which they +were called in various countries as he had obtained them from +peasants, farmers and country-people generally in his travels. His +work was an important contribution to the science of botany. Toward +the end of his life Ruellius, like his distinguished contemporary and +colleague, Linacre in England, became a priest. Another important +French contributor to the science is Pierre Belon of the first half of +the sixteenth century, though he had an interest in many other +biological sciences. He wrote a valuable treatise on coniferous plants +and a monograph on birds. This has attracted particular attention, +because in it "he compared the skeletons of birds and man in the same +posture and nearly as possible, bone for bone." As Garrison in his +"History of Medicine" (New York, 1913) says: "this was the first of +these serial arrangements of homologies which Owen and Haeckel made +famous." Belon travelled in Greece, Egypt and the Orient as well as +widely in Europe, mainly in the interests of _materia medica,_ but +everywhere picking up scientific information. + +In Spain and Portugal writers in botany are the medical {380} +scientists and especially those who searched the Indies, West and +East, for plants with medicinal virtues. They did much both for pure +science and for medicine and some account of their work will be found +in the chapter on "Medicine" and "America in Columbus' Century." As +accumulators of information the biological scientists of all the +countries of Europe during Columbus' Century probably contributed more +to their various departments than their colleagues of any other +corresponding period in the history of science, even our own. They +had, of course, the advantage of fields ripe for the harvest, but they +undoubtedly took full advantage of their opportunities. Of all of them +might be said what Oliver Wendell Holmes said of the anatomists of the +Renaissance. They gathered in the rich harvest of discovery like the +harvesters in a grain field. After them in the next century came the +gleaners, who found many scattered precious grains of knowledge that +their predecessors with their rich harvest to care for had neglected. +Finally, in the later time, came into the field the geese, who found +here and there a grain of knowledge missed even by the gleaners and +who made a great cackling whenever they found one. The kindly satirist +was himself an anatomist, and we may take the exaggeration of his +picture with proper discount, yet with a recognition that it has much +more of truth than we always like to confess even to ourselves. + + + +{381} + +CHAPTER XII + +MEDICINE + +It is not surprising that there should have been a magnificent century +of achievement in medicine at this time because their standards of +medical education were at a high level and were well maintained. The +medieval requirements for medical education had been three years of +preliminary work at the university, four years in the medical schools, +special courses in surgery if practice was to be in that department, +and a year's experience with a physician before personal practice on +one's own responsibility was allowed. The laws of the Emperor +Frederick for the Two Sicilies in the thirteenth century were very +strict in this matter and they constituted the standard which came to +be very generally adopted. In the Italian universities the Papal +charters explicitly demanded these requirements. [Footnote 34] + + [Footnote 34: For full details of this surprising, too little known + formal development of medicine, see Walsh, "The Popes and Science," + Fordham University Press, N. Y., 1907, where all the documents will + be found.] + +We have a series of re-enactments on this subject just about the +middle of the fifteenth century. Above all, clinical experience was +required before the license to practise would be issued. In 1449 the +medical Faculty of Paris required that graduates in medicine should +diligently visit the hospitals or accompany a skilful practitioner in +his visits to patients and refused to grant the license when this rule +was not observed. In Ingolstadt graduates in medicine, according to +the statutes of 1472, were obliged to take an oath that they would +practise only as the representatives of their teacher, or of some +other doctor of the faculty of that place, until they were considered +skilful enough to receive the license for practice on their own +responsibility. + +In the hospitals of this time, which were large and well arranged, +thoroughly ventilated and capable of being well cleansed, {382} there +was ample opportunity for clinical teaching and we know that it was +taken. A manuscript of Galen of the fifteenth century which is +preserved at Dresden has a number of initial miniatures, in which +groups engaged in clinical instruction are noteworthy. In his "History +of Medical Education," [Footnote 35] Puschmann notes the details of +some of these. There is a picture of a patient suffering from some +wasting disease, near whose bed stand a doctor and two nurses, while +the doctor dictates a prescription to his pupils. There is a +demonstration of leg ulcers by a physician to a pupil and a surgical +operation on the leg performed by the pupil in the presence of his +teacher, as well as the opening of an abscess in the axilla. There +were hospitals in every town of 5,000 and this gave ample +opportunities for clinical experience. When hospitals are numerous and +well managed there must be physicians to attend on them and this +provides opportunities for thorough study of patients. + + [Footnote 35: Translation by Hare, London, 1891.] + +The influences that were at work to lift medical education to a higher +plane in practical efficiency may be judged from such expressions as +those of Rabelais, who, in his letter on education in "Gargantua," +suggests as preparatory studies for medicine, Greek and Latin with +even a little Hebrew, for the sake of the Holy Scriptures, and natural +science, especially zoology, botany and mineralogy, and "then +carefully go over again the books of the Greek, Arabian and Latin +physicians, not despising the Talmudists and Cabalists; and by +frequent dissections acquire perfect knowledge of the outer world, the +microcosm, which is man." He himself has shown in a number of passages +that he had taken his own advice and even in his famous description of +the anatomy of Lent in which his comparisons were formerly thought +more or less fanciful, "they are extraordinarily apt and vivid and +show deep knowledge of anatomy," while his descriptions of wounds show +a competent familiarity with surgical anatomy. This might very well be +expected, for Rabelais invented two surgical instruments, one for the +reduction of fractures of the thigh bone and the other for operating +in cases of strangulated hernia. He has at least one passage in which +it is clear that he knew much more about the circulation of the blood +than is usually supposed to have {383} been known in his time and +which demonstrates that there had been a gradual accumulation of +knowledge on this subject before Harvey's time. (See chapter on +Biological Sciences.) + +The interest in medicine can be best realized from the large number of +medical books that were printed almost immediately after the discovery +of printing. After theology medicine was the subject most occupying +the attention of printers. During Columbus' Century a whole series of +the classics of medicine was reprinted and made available for wide +reading. The patience and scholarship required for this can only be +properly appreciated by those who know the labor of reading the +crabbed handwriting of the old manuscripts and collating them and the +time required to elucidate erroneous readings that had crept in +through the negligence of copyists. The world owes an immense debt to +the Renaissance for this work. To a great extent these books have been +neglected for the last two centuries and we are only now coming to +realize how much the scholarly interest of that time meant for +subsequent generations. Many of these books are now being republished +to the great benefit of medicine. Not only were Hippocrates and Galen +and Celsus and the other classics republished, but also the writers of +the intermediate time, Aetius, Alexander of Tralles, the great Arabian +writers and then the important contributors to medicine and surgery in +the later Middle Ages. The value of the debt thus owed is growing in +estimation every year. + +The publication of medical books, even during the score of years +immediately after printing began to be employed, shows the intense +interest in the subject. The first medical publication was a purgation +calendar, that is, a list of the days of the year on which purgations +should be practised. This was printed by Gutenberg, 1457. Heinrich von +Pfolspeundt's "Treatise on Surgery" was printed in 1460; in 1470 +medical treatises by Valescus de Tarenta, Jacopo de Dondis and +Matthaeus Sylvaticus were printed. In 1471 treatises by Mesne and +Nicolaus Salernitanus were put in type. In 1472 the old _"Regimen +Sanitatis"_ was printed and Bellegardo's monograph on "Pediatrics." In +1473 Simon of Genoa's "Medical Dictionary" was set up and in 1476 +William of Salicet's "Cyrurgia" was given {384} to the press. In 1478 +the first edition of Celsus was printed, and the first printed edition +of Mondino's _"Anathomia"_ was ready for sale. In 1479 came the first +edition of "Avicenna." In spite of the great losses of books that have +taken place in the course of time because of fire, water, use and +other enemies, we still possess many medical books printed practically +in every year of the first quarter of a century after the discovery of +printing. Unfortunately the neglect of these old classics during the +eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries did more than all the other +inimical elements put together in reducing the number of medical +incunabula that we might have had. + +The first great medical teacher of Columbus' period was Nicholas +Leonicenus, born in 1428, who studied medicine at Padua, lived for +some ninety-six years and was professor of medicine at Ferrara for +over sixty years. He translated the "Aphorisms" of Hippocrates and +some of Galen's works into Latin, and occupied himself with the +application of the principles laid down in these great classics in his +practice, and above all, in his teaching. He made it the business of +his life to oppose the Arabian over-medication and especially the use +of many drugs on general principles, and he insisted on natural modes +of cure, diet, water, exercise, fresh air and the correction of any +morbid habits that might have been formed. Probably more than anyone +else he influenced the medicine of the first half of Columbus' Century +and his work has come to be well recognized in recent years with the +growth of interest in the history of medicine. + +After him, one of the most important of the physicians of the time was +Thomas Linacre, who, after studying some ten years in Italy, returned +to England to become the attending physician to Henry VIII. His +translations of Galen's works attracted wide attention and Erasmus, +Linacre's friend, once declared that after Linacre's translation Galen +now spoke much better Latin than he had Greek before. Linacre was a +type of the learned physicians of the time and was one of the greatest +scholars of the period. That scholarship did not make men impractical, +Linacre's organization of the College of Physicians of England is +abundant evidence. He found the practice of medicine on his return to +England sadly degenerate, {385} because there was no competent +authority to maintain proper standards of medical education and +prosecute those who attempted to practise medicine without any proper +training and sometimes, indeed, without any knowledge of the subject. +Through the charter from the King, at first for London and +subsequently for England, the duty of caring for the protection of the +public against the illegal practice of medicine was committed to the +Royal College of Physicians. Linacre organized and endowed it, and it +continues to exist and exert an excellent influence over medical +practice in England under its original charter down to the present +time. + +Another of the distinguished contributors to medical practice at this +time was John Caius, who also translated some of Galen's works and +especially the _"De Medendi Methodo,"_ his edition containing a series +of annotations from his teacher Montanus, and from his own +observations on patients. He is deservedly best known for his little +book on the Sweating Sickness, in which he exhibited his power of +observation and his ability to describe what he saw. Gesner, the great +European biologist of the time, who was on terms of intimate relation +by correspondence with Caius and knew his work on plants and animals +very well, styled him, in the preface to his _"Icones Animalium,"_ "a +man of consummate erudition, fidelity and diligence as well as +judgment," and in an epistle to Queen Elizabeth bestows upon him the +eulogium of "the most learned physician of his age." Caius has the +merit of introducing the regular practice of dissection into the +English teaching of medicine. As Linacre had done, Caius too, as he +grew older, used the money which he had accumulated as Royal physician +and in the lucrative practice of medicine in London for academic +foundations. Linacre founded chairs in Greek and medicine at Oxford +and Cambridge, as well as the College of Physicians, and Caius, after +having been the first president of Linacre's Royal College, founded +Caius College at Cambridge, where he died in 1572. His last year of +life had been disturbed by the looting of his rooms of a number of +pious articles connected with the old Church to which he faithfully +adhered, and Mr. Andrew Lang suggests that only Dr. Caius' timely, +though untimely, death (he was but 63 years of age) prevented {386} +him from sharing the fate of the pious articles associated with the +old faith which he had cherished as faithfully as the tenets of that +faith itself. + +One of the important teachers of medicine at this time was Giovanni de +Monte, according to the custom of the time known by the Latinized name +of Montanus. He was distinguished for his application of the +humanities to medicine and his direct translations of Greek medical +books into Latin, so as to avoid the errors which had come from the +roundabout translation in the previous times of Greek into Arabian and +then into Latin. To him, almost more than any other, is due the +reputation that the medical school of Padua obtained at this time, for +he gave a series of clinical lectures on the patients in the Hospital +of St. Francis which were written down. They show how thorough were +his observations and how suggestive his teaching. No wonder that he +had pupils from all over Europe. His pupils thought of him as the +Americans did of Louis during the early part of the nineteenth +century. Many Germans went to hear him. It was a Polish student who +reported some of his lectures and Dr. John Caius was, as we have said, +one of his most ardent students. Montanus insisted on making careful +inspections of the dead bodies in order to control his diagnosis, and +the teaching at Padua under him was thoroughly practical and such as +we are likely to think of as modern. + + + [Illustration: TITIAN, PARACELSUS ] + + +Quite different from the line of learned physicians who drew their +inspiration from the Greek classics of medicine, was another of the +great physicians of Columbus' period who ran counter to all the old +medical traditions and dared to think for himself. This was +Paracelsus, whose motto _"qui suus esse potest, non sit alterius"_--he +who can form an opinion of his own should not borrow that of +others--shows the independent character of the man. He broke away from +the teachings of medicine in Latin and sought far and wide for +anything and everything that might help in the cure of disease. He has +been an extremely hard man for historians to estimate and +appreciations of him have differed very greatly. There is no doubt at +all that he did much to introduce chemical remedies of many kinds into +medicine, though he was a decided opponent of the polypharmacy of his +day, a heritage from the Arabian {387} physicians, who delighted in +giving a large number of drugs. There are expressions of his which +show how carefully he had thought out the problems of the practice of +medicine. He said: "to be a true alchemist is to understand the +chemistry of life." "Medicine is not merely a science but an art. It +does not consist in compounding pills and plasters and drugs of all +kinds, but it deals with the processes of life, which must be +understood before they can be guided." + +Above all Paracelsus recognized that success in medicine depends on +the treatment of the patient rather than his disease, and he insisted +on the idea that nature was, as a rule, eminently curative of diseases +rather than prone to make the affection worse, as physicians at so +many times in the history of medicine seem to have thought. Paracelsus +declared that "the knowledge of nature is the foundation of the +science of medicine and a physician should be the servant of nature, +not her enemy; he should be able to guide and direct her in her +struggle for life and not by his unreasonable drugging throw fresh +obstacles in the way of recovery." He appreciated very clearly the +influence of the mind on the body and said "the powerful will may cure +where a doubt will end in failure. The character of the physician may +act more powerfully upon the patient than all the drugs employed." He +realized also the place of the conditions surrounding the patient as +helpful towards his cure. He said: "the physical surroundings of the +patient may have a great influence upon the cure of his disease. Diet +is an extremely important element of cure and the physician should +know how to regulate the diet of the patient." He called attention to +the fact that trained attendants sympathetic with the patient are far +better for him than relatives who may be over-solicitous and show it, +or neglectful because they wish the death of the patient. + +Paracelsus was the first to write on occupation diseases and his +monograph on _"Bergsucht,"_ "miner's disease," is a monument to his +power of observation. His clinical acuity is further exemplified by +his recognition of the relation between cretinism and endemic goitre. +He also wrote a booklet on mineral baths and analyzed mineral waters +for bathing and drinking purposes, getting at the iron content of +chalybeate {388} waters by testing with gallic acid, and the resultant +ink reaction, and also demonstrating the presence of other salts. He +did more than anyone else to establish properly in medicine the use of +opium (as laudanum), mercury, lead, arsenic, and his chemical +experiments taught him much about copper sulphate and potassium +sulphate and he recognized zinc as an elementary substance. + +He did quite as much for medicine by his negative conclusions and his +opposition to medical practices that had been common up to his time as +by his positive observations. Indeed it might possibly be thought that +there was more to his credit from the negative side. He set himself up +in strenuous opposition to the silly uroscopy and uromancy by which +physicians had deceived others and very often deceived themselves. +Something of the value of the urine in medical diagnosis had been +recognized in the Middle Ages, and then, as practically always happens +in medicine, little-minded men had pretended to be able to learn much +more from it than could possibly be revealed by it. Every disease came +to have its specific urine and diagnosis and prognosis came to be +largely dependent on changes in the color and character of the urine +that were in themselves quite insignificant. Paracelsus brushed all +this ridiculous nonsense aside, but of course, in doing so, made a +great many enemies. Men are much more disturbed, as a rule, by having +their false knowledge corrected than their real knowledge amended. + +Paracelsus also refused to accept the practically universal persuasion +that every disease was an indication for blood-letting. He was sure +that in a great many cases this practice did more harm than good. He +felt the same way with regard to the almost universal purgation that +was being practised for every form of ill. No one recognized better +than he that there were poisonous substances in the body which +produced serious affections. He was quite willing to be persuaded, +too, that these poisonous substances could be at least to some extent +removed from the body by purgatives. He feared, however, lest +purgation might carry off with it many materials more beneficial to +the body than the poisons it would drain were harmful. The idea of an +autotoxemia or an autointoxication {389} is constantly recurring in +medicine, and the supposed remedies for its cure prove subsequently +nearly always to have done more harm than good. Medicine owes much to +Paracelsus for his firm stand in this matter. Shakespeare's genius in +intuition was right when in "All's Well That Ends Well" he ranged the +modern German with one of the greatest of the ancients. "So say I, +both of Galen and Paracelsus." + +Meyer in his "History of Chemistry" has summed up what Paracelsus +accomplished by the co-ordination of chemistry and medicine. As it is +not the purpose of the great German historian of chemistry to give a +panegyric of Paracelsus but simply to indicate his place in the +history of chemical evolution, that opinion must have great weight. He +said, page 71: [Footnote 36] + + [Footnote 36: "A History of Chemistry, from Earliest Times to the + Present Day: Being also an Introduction to the Study of the + Science," by Ernst von Meyer, Professor of Chemistry in the + Technical High School, Dresden; translated, with the author's + sanction, by George McGowan, Ph.D.; third edition; London: Macmillan + and Co., 1906.] + +"Paracelsus was the man who, in the first half of the sixteenth +century, opened out new paths for chemistry and medicine by joining +them together. To him is undoubtedly due the merit of freeing +chemistry from the restrictive fetters of alchemy, by a clear +definition of scientific aims. He taught that 'the object of chemistry +is not to make gold but to prepare medicines.' True chemical remedies +had been used now and again before his time, but Paracelsus differed +from his predecessors in the theoretical motives which led him to +employ them. He regarded the healthy human body as a combination of +certain chemical matters; when these underwent change in any way, +illness resulted, and the latter could therefore only be cured by +means of chemical medicines. The foregoing sentence contains the +quintessence of Paracelsus' doctrine; the principles of the old school +of Galen were quite incompatible with it, these having nothing to do +with chemistry." + +His contributions to surgery are almost more important than those to +medicine, for he insisted on keeping wounds clean and deprecated the +meddlesome surgery of the time. Cutting loose from everything that had +been taught before his time, he {390} almost necessarily made many +mistakes. Besides, in spite of his insistence on scientific +demonstration, he accepted many things for which there was no good +reason. His works, most of which we owe not directly to himself but to +his students, contain many absurdities. There is no doubt at all, +however, that he was a great genius and that the medicine of this +century and of succeeding generations owes much to him. He well +deserves the name of the Father of Pharmaceutical Chemistry which has +sometimes been given to him. He represents one of the important links +in the tradition of medicine and is a man who is ever more appreciated +the more we have learned about him through recent studies of his +writings." [Footnote 37] + + [Footnote 37: Even Paracelsus' mistakes have had something of genius + in them. Above all, his influence has lived on through the + generations. His doctrine of signatures and his study of the effects + of poisons on the human system had more to do than anything else + with the establishment of the therapeutic systems of Hahnemann and + Rademacher.] + +We have some two score of books attributed to him, but probably less +than a score are really his. Probably no one has ever had a higher +view of medicine. He bases it on the relationship which man bears to +nature as a whole and anticipates the very modern idea that disease is +not a negation, but itself a phase of life. Magnetism represents a +great force for him and some form of it is supposed to emanate from +all bodies and place them in relation with each other. The influence +of the stars on human constitutions is only one phase of this +magnetism which binds all the world together. The superabundance of +vitality in certain men gave them a magnetic influence over other men +and this magnetic influence might even persist after death. Hence +mummies were supposed to contain a certain astral balsam and the +consumption of mummy substance gave wonderful vitality to ailing +persons. Like scientists at all times, Paracelsus had to have his +explanation for miracles. He suggested that saints were people with an +abundance of vitality and some of this remained in their bodies after +their deaths just in the same way as it remained in the bodies of +mummies. It was sufficient, then, to come within the sphere of the +influence of these bodies to be affected by it. Miracles, then, were +not exceptions to the laws of nature but merely {391} fulfilment of +laws that men were only just getting to understand. That has been the +favorite mode of explanation for miracles ever since, though a new set +of facts has always been adduced as the basis of the explanation. + +Of course Paracelsus believed in many absurdities. He suggests, for +instance, that it is possible to transplant toothache into a tree +after the following fashion. Having taken away a portion of the bark, +a piece of the wood is cut and with it the gum is pricked until the +blood flows. Then the piece of wood stained with blood is set again in +its place in the tree and the bark is also replaced. He believed also +in the vulnerary ointment, which could cure wounds, not by application +to the wound itself but to the weapon. It was important, however, that +the weapon should be stained with the blood from the wound. He had the +feeling that the morbid elements of an affection or a wound were +contained in the blood and might be neutralized even outside the body. +The vulnerary ointment was composed of moss from the head of a dead +person, preferably one who had been put to death for murder, mummy, +human fat and human blood. It all seems so absurd to us now, but +behind such prescriptions was the theory that some of the vital force +of these human beings could be made over to the diseased person in +order to add to his vitality. Many absurd prescriptions have been made +on theories not nearly so reasonable as this of Paracelsus. + +To this period also belongs the name of Basil Valentine, who has been +called the last of the alchemists and the first of the chemists. Just +now we are passing through a phase of historical criticism which +throws doubt on his real existence, though we have a series of books +under his name published at the end of the sixteenth century. +Tradition declares that he was a Benedictine monk living about the +middle of the fifteenth century, who tested many forms of drugs with +the idea of securing materials for the cure of human diseases. To him +is attributed the discovery of hydrochloric acid, which he called the +spirit of salt, sugar of lead, and a method of preparing sulphuric +acid and probably ammonia. He is best known for his work on antimony +and his book, "The Triumphant Chariot of Antimony," put that metal and +its salts into medical practice {392} for centuries. The indication +for it was that disease was largely due to a toxaemia or accumulation +of poisons in the system, the modern idea of auto-toxaemia, and that +these could be best removed by brisk purgation. The use of calomel +subsequently, the theory underlying venesection and a great many of +our modern surgical fads for the improvement of man's condition by +taking something out of him have the same notion for basis. + +Basil Valentine's works are precious because they insist that +physicians must know the drugs they use and their effects, not merely +by reading about them, but by studying them on patients and on +animals. He himself is said to have tried the effect of antimony on +the swine belonging to the monastery in which he did his work, and +other materials are said to have been tested in the same way. He is +thus really a father of experimental medicine. He cannot say too much +in deprecation of physicians who give medicines which they know little +about for diseases about which they know less. In my sketch of him in +"Catholic Churchmen in Science" (Dolphin Press, Philadelphia, 1907) I +quote a passage from his "Triumphant Chariot of Antimony," in which he +bitterly condemns the practice of physicians who give remedies knowing +practically nothing about them, only that they have been recommended +by someone else. It read like a diatribe of the modern time against +allowing the manufacturing chemist to suggest drugs for medical +practice. The passage makes very clear what is the secret of the +mystery by which remedies come and go in medicine because of +insufficient testing. Valentine said: + + "And whensoever I shall have occasion to contend in the school with + such a Doctor, who knows not how himself to prepare his own + medicines, but commits that business to another, I am sure I shall + obtain the palm from him; for indeed, that good man knows not what + medicines he prescribes to the sick; whether the color of them be + white, black, grey or blew, he cannot tell; nor doth this wretched + man know whether the medicine he gives be dry or hot, cold or humid; + but he only knows that he found it so written in his Books, and + thence pretends knowledge (or as it were, Possession) by + Prescription of a very long time; yet he desires to further + information. {393} Here again let it be lawful to exclaim, Good God, + to what a state is the matter brought! what goodness of minde is in + these men! what care do they take of the sick! Wo, wo to them! in + the day of judgment they will find the fruit of their ignorance and + rashness, then they will see Him Whom they pierced, when they + neglected their Neighbor, sought after money and nothing else; + whereas, were they cordial in their profession, they would spend + Nights and Days in Labour that they might become more learned in + their Art, whence more certain health would accrew to the sick with + their Estimation and greater Glory to themselves. But since Labour + is tedious to them, they commit the matter to Chance, and being + secure of their Honour and content with their Fame, they (like + Brawlers) defend themselves with a certain Garrulity, without any + respect to Confidence or Truth." + +Another of the great physicians of the time was Cornelius Agrippa, +born in 1486, of the old family of Nettesheim. Cornelius was at first +the secretary of the Emperor Maximilian, then a warrior and finally a +student of both law and medicine, yet all was accomplished so +expeditiously that when he was but twenty-four the Parliament of Dole +came in a body to hear his lectures on the Cabalistic Books of +Reuchlin. He practised for a while as a physician at Geneva after +having been an advocate at Metz and, with the tendency to wander that +so many of the men of this time had, we find him afterwards at +Freiburg, at Lyons, then for a time the physician of Louise of Savoy, +but jealousy drove him from the Court and a little later we find him +starving in Antwerp, and then in prison at Brussels. He passed through +Cologne, was at Bonn for a time and is heard from in prison at Lyons. +He seems to have run the whole gamut of human suffering. It is hard to +know what he was imprisoned for, but he seems to have been a man who +easily made enemies, refused to think that anyone else knew much and +probably his necessities led him into the doing of things that were +suspicious at least, if not actually criminal. + +Agrippa was very much interested in magnetism, quite taken with the +idea of human magnetism and above all very much persuaded of the +influence of the mind on the body. He felt {394} the place that +autosuggestion or strong persuasion has in enabling men to accomplish +anything and he said: "We must therefore in every work and application +of things affect vehemently, imagine, hope and believe strongly, for +that will be a great help." He was quite sure that the mind could +influence the body strongly for healing purposes and would doubtless +have been looked upon as an advocate of New Thought or Psychic Healing +or some of the other schools of mental therapeutics in our time, +though he believed also in the use of medicines and remedial measures. +Another phase of his anticipation of some modern ideas may be still +more interesting for our generation, though it only shows how prone +human thought is to run in cycles and how hard it is to find anything +new under the sun: it may be rather surprising to many to learn that +Agrippa seems to have had a definite persuasion that woman was +superior to man. He was what the French would have called "a feminist +of the most modern." A book of his on the subject recently appeared as +a bibliographic treasure in the London bookseller, Tregaskis' +catalogue (No. 736). The title was: "Female Pre-Eminence: or The +Dignity and Excellence of that Sex Above the Male." An Ingenious +Discourse: Written originally in Latine, by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, +Knight, Doctor of Physick, Doctor of Both Laws, and Privy-Counsellor +to the Emperour Charles V. Done into English with additional +advantages. By H. (Enry) C. (are) Printed by T. R. and M. D. and are +to be sold by Henry Milion, 1670. The catalogue contains the note: +"Strong arguments in favor of women's superiority. It is rendered into +English, well embroidered with poetic imagery and rich in furiously +entertaining passages." + +The most important scientific development for medicine came from +pathological anatomy. This science is supposed as a rule to be of much +later origin than the period we are occupied with, but the interest in +the history of medicine in recent years has shown us how much of +attention there was given to pathology and how many observations were +accumulating in the published books of the Renaissance time. There was +much more of such scientific observation in the Middle Ages than is +usually thought. Three men at the beginning of {395} Columbus' +Century, Professor Montagnana of Padua, Professor Savonarola of +Ferrara, the grandfather of the martyred Dominican, and Professor +Arcolani of Bologna, described a number of different lesions which +they had noted in the many bodies that were being dissected at this +time. In the next few years these observations multiply. Benedetti, +the Professor of Anatomy at Padua and the founder of the anatomical +theatre at that university, made reports on gall-stones and +apoplexies. Benivieni, a simple practising physician at Florence, was +probably the first to describe gall-stones and he has a very large +number of pathological observations. He is the first that we know who +made a number of autopsies with the definite idea of finding out the +cause of death and he has come deservedly to be called, as a +consequence, the Father of Pathological Anatomy. Allbutt, the Regius +Professor of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, says of him: +"Before Vesalius, before Eustachius, he opened the bodies of the dead +as deliberately and clear-sightedly as any pathologist in the spacious +times of Baillie, Bright and Addison," and Malgaigne has described his +book as "the only work on pathology which owes nothing to anyone." + +It became the custom then to collect observations of this kind and +Berengar of Carpi, the discoverer of the appendix, who had dissected a +great many bodies, described a number of pathological changes. Aranzi, +the professor of medicine and of anatomy in Bologna, has many +observations of pathological finds in his book and paid special +attention to tumors. Ingrassias, professor of anatomy at Naples, was +also interested in pathology and, as specializing had become the +fashion, his observations were mainly with regard to bones. +Eustachius, the professor of anatomy in Rome, declares in the preface +to his anatomical tables that he was the first to make autopsies for +pathological purposes in Rome, and that he had collected an abundant +amount of material. The publication of Eustachius' anatomy was delayed +until long after his death and his pathological observations were +never published. Columbus in Rome made a series of autopsies even on +high ecclesiastics for the purpose of determining the cause of death +and evidently the science of pathology was gradually coming into +existence. Vesalius made a large number of pathological observations +{396} and promised in his book on normal anatomy to publish them. +Unfortunately he never did so, and his notes seem lost, though it is +not impossible that the manuscript or some portion of it may yet be +found in Spain. + +In many other countries besides Italy, however, pathological anatomy +attracted much attention. Joost van Lom, often known by his Latin name +of Jodocus Lommius, a physician in Brussels, who was royal physician +to King Philip II, published three books of medical observations at +Antwerp just after the close of Columbus' Century (1560) in which +notes of all diseases and problems of prognosis are set forth. Johann +Kentmann, a physician of Torgau, devoted a great deal of attention to +the study of the formation of all kinds of calculi in human beings, +biliary, salivary and intestinal. Francisco Valles, Professor of +Medicine at the University of Alcala in Spain, published a volume of +Galen's _"De Locis Affectis,"_ in which he incorporated many notes of +his own pathological observations. Jacques Houillier (Hollerius) +published about the same time at Paris, where he was professor of +medicine, a book on "Internal Diseases" with many pathological notes. +Johann Weyer (Wierus) also added valuable pathological annotations to +his writings. + +At the end of the century pathological anatomy as a definite +department of medicine had been firmly established. Dodoens +(Dodonaeus), Royal physician to the Emperor Maximilian II and Rudolph +II, made a large number of valuable observations at autopsies and +described cases of pneumonia, ulcers of the stomach, inflammation of +the abdominal organs, aneurisms of the coronary arteries and of the +arteries of the stomach, stony concretions in the lungs, purulent +conditions of the ureters and kidney, and ergotism. Even more +important for the science was the work of Schenck von Graffenberg, +official physician at Freiburg in Breisgau, who gathered together a +larger collection of observations on the diseases of separate organs +than had ever been made since Hippocrates' time. He paid special +attention to the pathological anatomy of these cases and while many of +the observations were his own, a great many of them had been collected +from friends. His work was done after the close of Columbus' Century, +but he {397} himself was over twenty before the century closed and he +was only carrying out the inspiration that had been given by workers +in that tune. Pieter van Foreest (Petrus Forestus), a practising +physician in Delft, deserves almost as much credit as Schenck von +Graffenberg and much more than many of the professors in medicine and +anatomy of this tune. He made a special study of the pathological +conditions of the ordinary diseases and was indefatigable in +collecting information. His own observations include more than 100 +cases with autopsies. With this spirit abroad the future of scientific +medicine was assured. + +A good idea of the accomplishment of the medical teachers of the time +may be judged very well from the life of Fracastorius. Prof. Osler in +his sketch of him published in his book, "An Alabama Student," +[Footnote 38] says: "The scientific reputation of Fracastorius rests +upon the work _'De Contagione.'_ It contains among other things three +contributions of the first importance--a clear statement of the +problems of contagion and infection, a recognition of typhus fever and +a remarkable pronouncement on the contagiousness of phthisis." In the +same sketch Osler adds: "Fracastorius draws a remarkable parallel +between the processes of contagion and the fermentation of wine. It is +not the same as putrefaction, which differs in the absence of any new +generation and is accompanied with an abominable smell. Certain +poisons resemble contagion in their action, but they differ +essentially in not producing in the individual the principle or germ +capable of acting on another poison." This discussion is wonderfully +complete and thorough, yet conservative. Later Boyle declared that a +time would come when someone would discover the cause of fermentation +and probably at the same time throw light on the origin of contagious +disease. That prophecy was fulfilled when Pasteur made his studies in +the fermentation of wine and beer and then went on to lay the +foundation of bacteriology. Fracastorius' thoroughly scientific spirit +will be appreciated from the fact that, like Leonardo, he saw fossils +in their true light and has the first reference in the history of +science to the magnetic poles of the earth. + + [Footnote 38: Oxford Press, 1908.] + + +{398} + +Men whose names are usually associated with surgery often manifested +successful interest, and above all, power of observation in pure +medicine. A single example may be taken in illustration. Anyone who +thinks that observation and theory and investigation of arthritism is +new or that we have occupied ourselves much more with the study of its +symptoms than they did in the olden time should read Pare's chapters +on Gout. He says that the word gout, which appealed to him as French, +was probably used because the humors distil drop by drop, _goutte a +goutte_ over the joints. Or perhaps because sometimes a single drop +(goutte) of the humor of this disease causes very great pain. He +describes the deposits of gypsum-like material, or stony matter like +chalk, which occur in the affection. The severe pains which occur in +connection with the disease Pare does not hesitate to attribute to +alteration of the humors by a poison which he calls _"virus +arthritique"_ He notes that the pains are distinctly influenced by +atmospheric fluctuations, so that one may well say of the gouty that +they carry with them an almanac which may serve them as a weather +indicator all their lives. Serious complications can arise in gout if +the humors of the disease involve other organs than the joints. He +attributed inflammations of the liver, of the pleura, colicky +disturbances of the intestines, to this cause. Continuous fevers +represented for him the effect of the gouty toxin upon the large +vessels, while paralyses might occur if the gouty toxin involved the +"porosities" of the nerves. + +He described a sanguineous gout frequent in the springtime, especially +among young people with acutely inflamed joints, the pain being most +severe in the mornings and the urine red and dense. This is evidently +acute rheumatic arthritis. Bilious gout occurred more among the +middle-aged and the involved joints were yellow rather than red and +the pain attained its maximum intensity in the early afternoons. The +urine was lemon yellow in color but often cloudy. The third form was +pituitary gout which occurred particularly in the winter, having as a +main symptom coryza, affecting the old rather than the young, but +usually without acute pain. The affected area is cold rather than hot +to the touch and the discomfort is most noted during the night. The +urine was pale in color and thick. {399} Melancholy gout, the fourth +form of the disease, was also an affection of old age, producing a +livid color in the joints and making them cold to the touch. The +patients' pains were worse at intervals of three or four days and the +urine had a deep cloudy color. Sanguineous gout was the most curable +of these four and usually lasted two to three weeks; bilious gout was +much more serious and often ended in death. Pituitary and melancholy +gout were chronic diseases of long duration. It is rather easy to see +Pare's powers of observation in all this. He jumped to conclusions and +over-generalized, as men have always done and thus made mistakes. Down +even to the present day, however, physicians have never quite got away +from the tendency to group these acute and chronic painful conditions +of joints under a single word, and rheumatism for many represents the +key to a puzzle that still exists. + +An important development in medicine was the publication early in the +sixteenth century of regulations by the Bishop of Bamberg and the +Elector of Brandenburg, by which physicians or midwives were +authorized to be summoned as experts in medico-legal cases. +Medico-legal autopsies are on record long before this, though there +was always serious objection to their performance because of the +natural feeling of deterrence men have toward the destruction of the +human body. In general, however, the basis of our legal medicine and +the status of the physician in court as an expert was determined at +this time. + +Probably nothing shows so well the great interest of this time in the +development of medicine and particularly therapeutics, as the number +of drugs imported from America and the East Indies, the many +experiments and careful observations made with them and the books +written about them. As a matter of fact no century has given us more +new drugs of enduring value. Schaer in the chapter on the history of +pharmacology and toxicology in modern times in Puschmann's "Handbook +of the History of Medicine" has summed up the work of this period. +Three well-known books of the time containing interesting scientific +material were written by Gonzalo Fernandez, a personal friend of +Columbus who, from his birthplace, is often known as Oviedo, Nicolas +Monardes and Francisco Hernandez. Fernandez was the superintendent of +the {400} government gold mines in South America, but after his return +he wrote his great work, _"Historia General y Natural de las Indias."_ +The second of these, Monardes, deserves well of pharmacology and all +that relates to drugs through his famous collection of the natural +products of America which became widely known through his description +of them. [Footnote 39] Hernandez wrote on Mexican and Central American +plants and his _"Historia Plantarum Novae Hispaniae"_ is an important +source of information. Besides these, Pasi and Conti, Italians who had +travelled in the East Indies, wrote books containing valuable +observations on Oriental drugs and plants, and the Frenchman Bellonius +(Pierre Belon) (See chapter on Biological Sciences) described Arabian, +Persian and Indian products, while the Spaniard, Christobel Acosta, +and the Portuguese, Garcia da Orta and Duarte Barbosa, visited various +parts of the East and East African Malabar and wrote books which, +while not specifically medical, had much to say with regard to the +indigenous plants, especially such as either had been used by the +natives for medical purposes or promised to be of significance in this +way. The Portuguese apothecary Pirez directed a special letter with +regard to Hindustan and Farther India and what might be expected for +pharmacology from these regions to the king of Portugal which is of +great importance. + + [Footnote 39: Monardes proved of so much interest that he was + translated into English before the end of the sixteenth century, and + his book was widely read.] + +The Belgian, Charles de l'Esclus, better known as a rule under his +Latin name of Carolus Clusius, as professor of botany, director of the +botanical garden and superintendent of the Museum in Vienna and later +in Leyden, gathered together an immense amount of information, was in +correspondence with all who were interested in botany and in +pharmacology. He succeeded in making an encyclopedia of information +with regard to these subjects that has ever since been considered one +of the most important fundamental works in the history of this +department of science. + +The spirit of the physicians of the time as regards scientific methods +in clinical medicine and their attitude towards {401} observation as +by far the most important means of obtaining medical truth is very +well brought out by some passages written by John Hall, a poet and +medical writer who wrote a translation of Lanfranc's _"Chirurgia +Parva"_ published shortly after the close of Columbus' Century. To +this was appended "A very Frutefull and Necessary Briefe Worke of +Anatomie" and "An Historiall Expostulation: against the beastlye +Abusers, both of Chyrurgerie and Physyke in our Tyme: with a Goodlye +Doctrine and Instruction Necessarye to be marked & folowed of all +Chirurgiens." In the Expostulation, which may be found in the Percy +Society's republication of old texts for 1844, Dr. Hall said: "Galen +also hath freely admonished that we ought not if we will be perfectly +cunning to trust only to doctrine written in books, but rather to our +proper eyes which are to be trusted above all other authors, yea! +before Hippocrates and Galen." + +It is this trusting to observation rather than books that is, of +course, the key-note of clinical medicine and of medical progress. The +men of this time are often blamed for not having trusted to their +observation more and to their books too much. There is no doubt that +some of them erred rather seriously in this matter. Yet at all times +in the history of medicine the great majority of physicians have not +observed for themselves, but have taken their observation at second +hand from others. Hall has insisted over and over again that as +regards surgery the necessity for observation was extremely important. +In the chapter on Surgery a quotation from his Expostulation on this +matter will be found. + +Even in the department of mental diseases there were distinct +contributions to the problems of this intricate specialty of great +value. This is not so surprising, for above all the men of the +Renaissance could see things for themselves and describe what they +saw. Shakespeare represents the Renaissance in England and no one has +ever succeeded so well as he in describing forms of the milder mental +diseases as they occur in characters like Ophelia or King Lear. +Paracelsus even attempted what has not been achieved yet, a definition +of the insane person. "The person is sick in mind in whom the +reasonable and unreasonable spirit are not present in proper {402} +proportion and strength." He distinguished fools "who are animals +without any sense" from the imbeciles and idiots "who are deranged +beasts." His contemporary, Montanus, who was professor at Padua, and +has been called the second Galen, treated of melancholy in his medical +consultations and ascribed its etiology to _intemperies cerebri._ He +recommended treatment by water, by venesection and by hellebore. Jean +Fernel divided melancholy into what we now know as melancholy in the +proper sense of the word and mania. He considered that both affections +were due to disturbances of the fluids of the brain. Jodocus Lommius +differentiated between delirium, phrenitis, melancholia and mania and +described a particular variety of this last form as hydrophobia. +William Rondelet, Professor at Montpellier, frankly abandoned all +metaphysics in this subject and considered that melancholia was due +either to a defect of the brain or to some disturbance of the body +which brought about a sympathetic derangement of the brain, the +stomach particularly being likely to do this. He gave a rather +striking picture of the fixed ideas that take possession of those +suffering from melancholia. He differentiated mania from melancholia +by saying that the melancholia was due to a frigid humor, while mania +was due to the malignity of the thin and bilious humors of the body. +His contemporary, Francis Varreliora, described cases in which +insanity had occurred as a consequence of love troubles and in which +the cure of melancholy came about through the successful treatment of +an affection such as haemorrhoids that had been disturbing the patient +for a good while. It was a good many generations before medicine +advanced very far beyond the ideas that were put forward by these +physicians of the Renaissance in discussing their mental cases. + +The extent to which balneotherapy was appreciated in this century may +be realized very well from the fact that just after the close of it +Winternach mentions some seventy-five places in Europe where there +were bathing establishments. About the same time Dr. Ruland of +Regensburg, published a monograph of twenty-eight pages containing an +alphabetically arranged list of diseases with the indication of the +particular watering place that would do them good. Indeed just after +{403} the close of Columbus' Century there is abundant evidence of the +very great revival of interest in the old hydrotherapeutic methods +which had taken place during the Renaissance. + +One of the most interesting things about the medicine of this century, +that is often not appreciated, is that it did not go to that excess in +the employment of certain means of treatment to which some of the +succeeding centuries unfortunately did. Columbus' medical +contemporaries corrected the Arabian abuse of polypharmacy, which had +a tendency to manifest itself over and over again during the later +Middle Ages in spite of the well directed efforts of thoughtful +physicians to suppress it. The diffusion of a knowledge of the classic +authors in medicine did more than anything else to secure its +eradication at this time. Physicians used bleeding, but not in every +case, as came to be the custom later, and not to the excess in which +it was employed at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the +nineteenth century. Poor Mirabeau, the orator of the French +Revolution, under the best French skilled care a century ago, was bled +some eighty ounces in the course of forty-eight hours. Under the +impetus given by Basil Valentine's "Triumphant Chariot of Antimony" +they used antimony frequently, but not at all to the extent that it +was employed in the eighteenth century. Purgatives were much more +abused in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than during +Columbus' Century. Under the immediate influence of the Greeks the +physicians of this time were thoroughly conservative, and there is as +little of regrettable therapeutics to be chronicled as at any time in +the world's history. + +Jerome Cardan of this time is one of the geniuses of the history of +science whose career is extremely difficult to understand. His mixture +of credulity with a genuine scientific temper of mind that tests +everything by experiment, combined with his wonderful ability in +mathematics, adds to the difficulty of understanding him. He was a +great believer in dreams but then that was because he was sure that so +many of his own dreams had come true. He was a serious student of all +the borderland subjects between spirit and matter and constituted a +Psychic Research Society in himself, but with the tendency to accept +the marvellous on general principles. He {404} heard that instruments +which had been magnetized could be used for surgical operations +without producing pain and having tried some experiments in the matter +he announced this as a great discovery. He was sure that he had the +power to magnetize others in such a way as to prevent pain, but, after +all, it must not be forgotten that in these he only imitated what has +attracted much attention at many times in the history of medicine and +electricity. As the publisher of the formula for cubic equations he +has a distinguished place in mathematics, and he was looked upon as +one of the great thinkers of his time. His contributions to medicine, +and the estimation he secured for the profession by his popularity +among the great ones of Europe at this time, have made his life most +interesting to our generation. + +Cardan's almost infantile absurdities have sometimes been cited as +indicating a lack of the critical scientific spirit at this time. +Anyone who recalls, however, the attitude of mind of some of the most +prominent scientists of our time towards certain questions, as, for +instance, vaccination, spiritism, and even phrenology and other +psychic subjects, will not be likely to accept any criterion of lack +of the critical faculty that might be set up arbitrarily, because a +scientist exhibited a tendency to accept some things without as +absolute proof as other men demand. Nearly all the great scientists +had certain peculiarities in this regard and Cardan is only an +exaggeration of this tendency. His absurdities have sometimes been +quoted as if they represented common opinions of the learned men of +this time and exhibited their lack of critical judgment, but no one +has scored Cardan's absurd opinions more severely, nor called +attention more emphatically to the fact that this great scientific +genius accepted some childish trivialities, than his contemporary, +Scaliger, who so often entered into controversies with him. + +An instructive contrast to some of Cardan's absurdities is a little +book that has been a classic ever since in popular medicine, Louis +Cornaro's "Means of Obtaining a Long and Healthy Life," which was +published at this time (Padua, 1558). Editions of it have been issued +in nearly every generation since. Cornaro, to give a sentence or two +from Addison's essay {405} on the volume "was of an infirm +constitution till about forty, when by obstinately persisting in the +Rules recommended in this Book, he recovered a perfect state of +health, insomuch, that at four-score he published this Treatise. He +lived to give a fourth edition of it, and after having passed his +hundredth year, died without pain or agony, like one who falls asleep. +This Book is highly extolled by many eminent authors, and is written +with such a spirit of cheerfulness and good sense, as are the natural +concomitants of temperance and virtue." + +The little book insists very much on temperance in eating and drinking +and is quite as sensible in its way as any popular book on medicine +ever written. It is a living proof that in spite of the popular +medical delusions of many kinds so frequent in this period, though not +more frequent than they are in our own, men of sense could view the +question of right living from the proper standpoint and give good +advice with regard to it. In the preface to the latest American +edition (New York, 1912) the publisher said: "The methods followed by +Cornaro and the recommendations and suggestions submitted by him can +be compared to advantage with the teachings of authorities of the +present day, such as Metchnikoff. The book is now presented to the +American public, not only as a literary and scientific curiosity, but +as a manual of practical instruction." [Footnote 40] + + [Footnote 40: The first American edition, annotated by Mason L. + Weems (Philadelphia, 1809), had with what might be thought + characteristic American enterprise Benjamin Franklin's "Way to + Wealth" as an Appendix.] + +It is interesting to bring together some of the sanitary regulations +of this period because it is often presumed that it is only in our +time that public care of the health has come to be recognized as a +duty of the civil authorities. Wickersheimer in his "Medicine and +Physicians in France, at the Time of the Renaissance," [Footnote 41] +has gathered a number of the details. It was forbidden butchers in +Paris to keep meat for sale more than two days in winter or thirty-six +hours in summer. Hotel keepers were not allowed to kill their own meat +because, as {406} they could cook it before selling it, it was easy +for them to "dissimulate bad meats." Restaurateurs were forbidden to +serve meat which had been warmed over or warmed-over soup or +vegetables. Fish was guarded particularly by detailed regulations and +heavy fines were inflicted for its sale, except under conditions that +must have assured its absolute freshness. Butter and fish could not be +sold in the same shop. It was forbidden to put coloring matter in +butter, no matter what the form of color material used, and also to +mix old butter with new. The sellers of spices were required by Louis +XII to watch over the absolute cleanness of their mustard mills and to +employ as workmen only those who were clean and in good health. +Similar regulations existed for the bakers. In a word, they +anticipated in many ways the pure food laws of our time. Unfortunately +these regulations were allowed to fall into abeyance during the +neglect of social order that characterized the notable degeneration of +the eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries. + + [Footnote 41: _"La Medicine et Les Medecins en France a l'Epoque de + la Renaissance,"_ Paris: Thesis 1905.] + +Some of the popular hygiene of the time is very interesting and +distinctly foreshadows practices of our own time. Erasmus gave +directions to students for cleanliness. The hands were to be washed +after each meal; a practice rendered necessary by the absence of forks +and the nails were to be cut and cleaned every week. Gums and teeth +were to be rubbed with a rough towel every day according to Montaigne, +and various tooth powders were commonly employed. The feet and the +hair ought to be washed at least once a week. Among foods, sea-fish +were preferred to river fish and the livelier the fish the better it +was liked. Shellfish were recommended by some and deprecated by +others. Lobsters were usually counted difficult of digestion, and +oysters and other shellfish shared in this prejudice. Popular +traditions as to food were quite like our own. Peas were very much +praised as an article of diet, spinach was considered to be good for +torpid liver, water cress was said to have a favorable action on the +bowels and lettuce as well as most of the material for green salads +was declared to be sedative in action. Cucumbers were indigestible +unless cooked, melons must be ripe and soft and without any spots in +them or they were dangerous, and cabbage and onions were {407} praised +or blamed as articles of food according to the particular part of the +country from which one came. + +Even in the matter of drinks opinions were not so different from those +which are held at the present time, though there was just as much +disagreement as regards their effects as we are accustomed to. In +Normandy, where apples were common and cider a familiar drink, cider +was considered to be much better for men than wine. In the middle and +South of France, however, wine was considered of the greatest value +for health, and white wine was considered to be diuretic while red +wine was recommended for diarrheic conditions. Wine was declared to be +much more wholesome as a drink than water and there is no doubt at all +that in this our colleagues of that time were eminently justified by +their observations. Any water in the neighborhood of cities or +considerable centres of population was almost sure to be contaminated +by sewage of some description and to be distinctly dangerous. Wine was +ever so much less likely to be followed by disease than water. There +were many who recognized how much of evil was done by the abuse of +wine however, and Renou declared that in that century wine had killed +many more people than the sword. He declared that the abuse of wine +led to degenerations of the brain and the liver, disturbances of the +nerves, brought on tremors, convulsions, even paralysis, and was +active in the production of dyspnoea and other serious conditions. + +Dr. Cramer calls attention [Footnote 42] to the fact that in 1481 the +republic of Lucca in Italy elected three citizens to serve as a board +of health. They were given plenary powers to act in case of epidemics. +Their main purpose was to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. +For this purpose they kept in touch with other countries, so as to be +forewarned of places where epidemics were raging, and they had the +right to forbid entrance into Lucca of persons, animals or goods until +after a sufficient delay to insure the absence of infection or +thorough disinfection. The word quarantine of course is very old, +though often the idea is supposed to be new, and there seems no doubt +that in most of the Italian cities health boards and health +regulations anticipating many supposedly modern developments were in +existence. There is even question of {408} the contagiousness of +tuberculosis having been recognized at this time, and measures taken +to prevent its spread. We know that scarcely more than a century after +Columbus' period every principality in Italy has laws declaring +tuberculosis contagious and regulating it. + + [Footnote 42: _Revue Medicale de la Suisse Romaine._ + 1914, XXIX, No. I.] + +Sir Thomas More in his "Utopia" has a very curiously interesting +paragraph with regard to the status of physicians in his ideal +Republic, which shows what his own idea of the place of medicine in +the world is. His long friendship with Linacre might very well have +been expected to give him such a high estimation of the physician. It +is all the more interesting because he expresses depreciation of his +own profession of the law in "Utopia." What is striking in this +passage is his recognition of the lofty place that medicine deserves +to hold in the intellectual world as a department of philosophy and +science. He emphasizes the fact that the less people need physicians +the more they appreciate them, thus anticipating the modern idea that +prevention rather than cure is the great basis for prestige in medical +science. His fine tribute to the honor that medicine should have in +the estimation of men will make his words a fitting close to this +chapter on medicine in Columbus' Century. + + "One of my companions, Thricius Apinatus, happened to carry with him + some of Hippocrates' works and Galen's 'Microtechne,' which they + hold in great estimation, for though there is no nation in the world + that need physic so little as they do, yet there is not any that + honors it so much; they reckon the knowledge of it one of the most + pleasantest and profitable parts of philosophy, by which as they + search into the secrets of nature, so they not only find this study + highly agreeable, but think that such inquiries are very acceptable + to the Author of nature; and imagine, that as He, like the inventors + of curious engines amongst mankind, has exposed this great machine of + the universe to the view of the only creatures capable of + contemplating it, so an exact and curious observer, who admires His + workmanship, is much more acceptable to Him than one of the herd, + who, like a beast incapable of reason, looks on this glorious scene + with the eyes of a dull and unconcerned spectator." + + +{409} + +CHAPTER XIII + +SURGERY + +Ordinarily it is assumed that surgery has received almost its only and +its greatest development in our time. Probably no development of +knowledge that has come to us in the recent revival of interest in the +history of medicine has been more surprising than the finding that +surgery had several periods of great progress before our time. One of +these and the most important came during the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries. Another great phase of surgical advance, after a period of +decline such as seems inevitable in all human affairs, occurred during +the Renaissance. It had its origin in or at least was greatly +influenced by the publication of the chapters on surgery in the Latin +and Greek classics, though strange as that may sound to modern ears +even more was probably accomplished for surgical development by the +printing of the text-books of the later mediaeval surgeons. The new +impetus thus given affected nearly every phase of surgery and +accomplished ever so much more than we would be likely to think +possible, only that the republication of old surgical text-books in +recent years has proved such a revelation to us. + +As I have said in preceding chapters, one of the greatest debts of the +modern time to the Renaissance is due for the printing of old books in +the early days of printing. Scholars were willing to give liberally of +their time and to devote patient labor to secure a good text for the +printers, and somehow or other great printers succeeded in bringing +out usually in magnificent editions, though of small size as regards +the number of copies, not only the ancient but what we have now come +to recognize as the mediaeval classics of medicine and surgery. The +chapters on surgery in such writers as Aetius, Alexander of Tralles +and the Arab writers like Abulcassis are among the most important +contributions to the medicine of {410} their time. The text-books on +surgery of such men as Theodoric, Hugo of Lucca, the Four Masters, +William of Salicet and Guy de Chauliac are landmarks in the history of +a great surgical era. All of these were reprinted usually in +magnificent editions during Columbus' Century. Without such reprinting +at a cost of time and money that we can scarcely understand, many of +these precious treasures of the history of medicine and surgery would +almost surely have been lost. Certainly very few of them would have +remained in the manuscript forms in which they then existed and at +most, only in seriously mutilated conditions. There have been several +centuries since when they would have been utterly neglected, for +almost no hint of their value survived and there was an impression +prevalent that no one knew anything either about medicine or surgery +during the Middle Ages at all worthy of preservation. This publication +of the old text-books gave an impetus to the surgeons of the time that +brought about a great new era in surgery, though there were other +important factors at work in producing this. Above all the development +of anatomy made for a corresponding development in surgery and by +increasing men's knowledge of the tissues through which operations had +to be made, added to their confidence and decreased the mortality of +surgical intervention. The magnificent hospitals of the time are of +themselves the best possible evidence of proper care for patients, not +alone in a medical, but also surgical way. It cannot be too often +repeated that whenever hospitals are well built, properly cared for +and suitably maintained, there is sure to be good medical practice and +a fine development of surgery; whenever hospitals are neglected, +medical and surgical practice both sink to a very low standard. +Hospital construction reached a very high plane during the Renaissance +period, only to sink afterwards, as did every other constructive +effort for humanitarian purposes, to what Jacobsohn, the German +historian of hospitals and care for the ailing, calls an indescribable +level of degradation. Literally, the worst hospitals in the world's +history were erected at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of +the nineteenth century. Hospital organization and maintenance +inevitably sank in the same way. A corresponding decadence in medical +and surgical practice could {411} not help but occur,--fortunately to +be followed by the progress of our own time. There are many, however, +who seem to think that because the twentieth century is so far ahead +of the early nineteenth it must be correspondingly in advance of +preceding centuries. This assumption constitutes the most important +reason for the very common failure in our time to understand properly +the history of medicine and surgery as well, indeed, as that of every +phase of science. + +This was the period when gunpowder began to be used extensively in the +operations of war and it is not surprising that a great deal of +attention was given to gunshot surgery. We have four books, treatises +in their way on gunshot wounds, that were written at this time by men +of large experience. They made mistakes of course, there is no period +in the world's history, even our own, when men have not made mistakes, +but the surgeons of Columbus' Century accumulated an immense number of +observations and gradually worked out a rather valuable set of +suggestions with regard to the treatment of various kinds of wounds. +At the beginning of the century they made the mistake of thinking that +bullets caused both poisoned and burned wounds, and they were +over-anxious to treat these imaginary consequences rather than the +mechanical effects produced in their passage. They gradually worked +out their problems however, even using experiment in order to show the +effects of wounds. Braunschweig, Felix Wuertz, De Vigo and Ferri are +the classics of the time on gunshot wounds and their books have +probably been more read in our generation than in any other since the +end of the sixteenth century. Nothing is indeed more surprising than +the recognition of the value of the observations made by these +old-time surgeons which has come in the last twenty years. + +The greatest of the surgeons of Columbus' Century is the Frenchman, +Ambroise Pare, who has come to be spoken of as the Father of Modern +Surgery. He well deserves the title if we restrict it definitely to +the modern time and do not conclude, as so many do, that there had +been no surgery since the classical period, for, of course, there was +a very great era of surgery during the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries, but as is the way with humanity a period of decadence +occurred, {412} followed by another upward phase in the curve of +history of which in his time Pare is the apex. + +It is to him that we owe the treatment of gunshot wounds by simple +water dressings, or at most by aromatics. When he began his work they +were treating gunshot wounds as if they were poisoned and burned +wounds by pouring boiling oil along the track of the bullet. Pare ran +out of oil on an historical occasion but found that the wounded left +untreated recovered with less pain and complications than those +subjected to the heroic remedy. He recognized the mistake and had the +genius to correct it properly. He reinvented the ligature, though, of +course, it had been in use a number of times before and had gone out +because of the tendency to produce sepsis involved in it, and because +so often secondary hemorrhage occurred from the coming away of the +ligature in the suppuration which ensued. He deserves, as do several +others, the credit of real invention in its use. Pare himself speaks +of this discovery, which he made just at the close of Columbus' +Century, as an inspiration which came to him through Divine Grace. + +In nearly every department of surgery Pare left his mark. He was a +thoroughly practical surgeon. He suggested, as did also Maggi, the +Italian surgeon at this time, exarticulation as an important mode of +amputation. This consisted of the removal of an injured limb or a +gangrenous member at the joint just above, because in this way there +was less danger of complications and a better stump could be obtained +for subsequent use. In order to demonstrate that gunshots did not make +a burned wound he demonstrated that when balls are fired even into a +bag of gunpowder it does not explode. Maggi [Footnote 43] +independently made this same observation but went further and showed +also that shot do not melt when they strike a hard surface and that +balls of wax that are fired do not spread out {413} as if the wax were +melted. This series of experiments made to demonstrate certain +valuable points in gunshot surgery is quite worthy of the most modern +time and indicates well the thoroughly scientific spirit that was +abroad at this period. Pare also suggested that cut tendons should be +sewed, the ends being carefully brought together and that no portion +of the tongue should be removed after injury, but the parts should be +brought together, for there was great power of healing in this organ. +He advised the cutting of the uvula with a ligature gradually made +tighter and he, as well as Franco, devised an apparatus to fill up the +cleft in the bone of a defective palate and other similar mechanical +appliances. + + [Footnote 43: Anyone who doubts the ability of the men of this time + to discuss a practical scientific question from a thoroughly + scientific standpoint with experimental demonstrations and close + reasoning, should read Gurlt's account of Maggi's experiments with + gunshot, and the German surgeon's comparison of the conclusions of + this colleague of the early sixteenth century with the facts brought + out by the discussion of the same subject after the Franco-German + War of 1871 and the experiments which were made just afterwards + along the same line.] + + + [Illustration: HOLBEIN, DR. WILLIAM BUTTS ] + + +Indeed from the mechanical side of surgery Pare is the most +interesting. Orthopedics, that is the treatment mechanical and +surgical of deformed children, in order to bring about their cure or +at least the lessening of their deformity, is generally supposed to be +new, but there are many suggestions for it in the Renaissance period. +Helferich in his _"Geschichte der Chirurgie"_ in Puschmann's +_"Handbuch"_ says, for instance, that Pare's orthopedic armamentarium +was rather extensive. He used various apparatus and specially designed +shoes with bandages in order to bring on the over-correction of club +foot. He treated flat foot in various ways and particularly by the use +of special shoes. He invented a corset with holes in it for +ventilation to be worn for various torsions of the spine and other +spinal deformities. He and Fallopius taught the value of resections +for joint troubles of various kinds and even for deformities. Pare +declared that _genu valgum,_ that is knock-knees, were due to similar +causes as those which produced club foot, or at least that the +affections were related. + +A very interesting incident in his experience is related by Pare in +his memoirs with regard to one of these surprising cases of deep +injury to the brain which seem inevitably fatal, yet the patient +survives. It is, as suggested by Dr. Mumford, a replica of the +well-known Harvard crowbar case, the most famous in American surgery, +in which a quarry man recovered from his injury in spite of the fact +that a tamping iron had passed completely through his head from +beneath the chin upwards, coming out through the top of the skull. +{414} The specimens from the case, secured long afterwards at the time +of the man's death, may still be seen in the Harvard Museum. Pare's +case was very similar but concerns a very important individual. +Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, was wounded before Boulogne, "with +a thrust of a lance, which entered above the right eye, towards the +nose, and passed out on the other side between the ear and the back +of the neck, with so great a violence that the head of the lance, with +a piece of wood, was broken and remained fast; so that it could not be +drawn out save with extreme force with smith's pincers. Yet, +notwithstanding the violence of the blow, which was not without +fracture of bones, nerves, veins and arteries, and other parts torn +and broken, my lord, by the grace of God, was healed." Without the +corroboration of the possibility of this by our modern case, it is +probable that there would be serious doubts as to it. + +The bone surgery of the Renaissance period is particularly +interesting. Fallopius declared for the preservation of the periosteum +of the bone just as far as was possible whenever there was bone +disease or injury. We know now that the periosteum in healthy +condition will bring about regeneration of bone, and it was evidently +because of clinical observation of the satisfactory improvement that +occurred in cases when the periosteum was interfered with just as +little as possible that brought Fallopius to this conclusion. Their +treatment of fractures was excellent and they secured good results. It +was during this time that the older methods of using force in the +reduction of dislocations yielded to the maxim that joints should be +restored along the same path through which the dislocation took place. +A series of surgeons at this time, notably Massa, Ingrassias and Vigo, +wrote about spinal disease, describing "penetrating corruption" of the +spine, persistent suppuration and the subsequent deformity, using the +term _"ventositas spinae,"_ and others that would indicate their +interest in what we know as Pott's Disease. Vigo described fractures +of the inner table of the skull when the outer table is unbroken, and +Argelata described depression without fracture as occurring in young +folks. + +Considerable valuable advance was made in the treatment of fractures +of the skull and injuries of the brain. Vigo {415} brought back the +use of the crown trephine and did much to make the instrument popular. +A great many surgeons invented a variety of instruments for lifting up +depressed bone, or for removing fragments, and each one was sure that +his particular type of instrument was the best to use. It is +interesting to read Helferich's "History of Surgery" in Puschmann's +_"Handbuch"_ on these and other points, because they are arranged in +the order in which the discoveries and rediscoveries and inventions +and reinventions were made. The Renaissance is particularly full of +interesting surgical history. The late effects of brain injury, +dementia, deafness and various forms of paralyses were carefully +studied by such men as Fallopius, Pare and Della Croce. + +Various phases of surgery were taken up and discussed that are often +supposed to be much more modern. The whole question of the transfusion +of blood, for instance, attracted wide attention at this time. Magnus +Pegelius of Rostock suggested that the artery of one patient should be +fastened directly to the artery of another patient in order to bring +about transfusion. The use of this method of treatment, after large +losses of blood or in case of anaemia, is mentioned by a number of +men. At least as much was hoped for from it as in our time from +opotherapy. Jerome Cardan went farther than any in what he looked for +from the transfusion of blood. He always saw the possibility of +mystical results and his suggestion was that the transfusion of blood +might bring about a change in the morals of individuals. It was even +said that the use of animal's blood in the same way might bring about +an endowment of the human individual with certain animal qualities of +disposition. This is quite as absurd yet quite as reasonable as many +of our surgical attempts at the reform of criminals by operation on +their brains. In 1539 Benedictus noted the occurrence of hemophilia or +bleeders' disease. This had been noticed before in the Middle Ages, +but had been lost sight of. + +With regard to varicose veins the Renaissance abandoned the older +methods of operation and suggested the use of bandages. Savonarola, +the grandfather of Savonarola the Dominican, who was burnt to death in +Florence, described various forms of bandages and suggested rest in +the prone position {416} with the feet higher than the head for the +relief of discomfort. Savonarola was much interested in the correction +of deformities and classifies rather carefully the different forms of +gibbosity of the spine, forward, backward and to the side, and +suggests their treatment with bandages that may be put on when soft +and pliable, but which harden after their application. Pare at the end +of the century used a corset made of very thin perforated iron plates +which he insisted should be well padded. This should be changed every +three months and its shape often altered so as to suit the growth of +the body and the changes brought about by itself. + +Some of the developments of surgical technique at this time are +extremely interesting because they illustrate that accurate attention +to detail and inventive ability in surgery that is usually supposed to +be reserved for a much later time. Pare, for instance, invented a +whole series of special apparatus for nearly every phase of corrective +surgery, many of which have been mentioned. Fallopius insisted on +bringing the muscles of the neck together and retaining them in +position by sutures whenever they were severed, because results were +nearly always excellent and function was restored. Every important +surgeon of the time emphasized the sewing of severed tendons. Vidus +Vidius invented a gold or silver tube to be used after tracheotomy in +order to permit breathing through it, and suggested the use of this +instrument also after injuries of the larynx. Monteux devised a magnet +to aid in the extraction of swallowed iron objects that were caught in +the throat. + +All the specialties developed wonderfully at this time. The story of +the Caesarean operation attests the evolution of obstetrics. In 1500 +Jacob Nufer, a veterinarian, performed this operation successfully on +his own wife, and a number of others followed the example until within +twenty-five years after the close of our period, Rousset counts up his +cases of the operation as 15. Gynaecology and obstetrics always +develop together, and Weyer, the Dutch physician and surgeon, who did +so much to rid the world of the witchcraft delusion and point out its +connection with what we know as hysterical manifestations, wrote a +text-book on gynaecology, and Caspar {417} Wolff laid the deep +foundations of the science of gynaecology at this time. Wuertz, who +comes after our period, but was deeply influenced by it, and who must +indeed be considered as a follower of Paracelsus, insisted very much +on the simple treatment of wounds and emphatically opposed the common +custom of "thrusting clouts and rags, balsam, oil and salve into +them." Such teaching would have much to do with making advances in +gynaecology and obstetrics possible. + +Cabrol advised the removal of the breast for cancer and insisted on +its complete removal and also of a part of the pectoral muscle, if +that seemed to the operator to be necessary, because of actual or +apparent involvement. Cabrol also declared that wounds of the heart +were not necessarily fatal and gives the details of one which he +himself had treated and had afterwards seen at autopsy, death having +taken place from another condition. He mentions the fact that stags' +hearts had been found in which there were definite indications of +healed wounds so that the long-time tradition as to the fatality of +heart wounds is not absolute. Della Croce taught that blood or pus or +other fluid should be emptied out of the thorax by aspiration. He +suggested the use of a cupping glass or a syringe, or in case of +necessity even of the mouth for this purpose. He advised the placing +of a metal tube in the thorax for drainage purposes. Arculanus advised +the opening of empyemata by a perforation of the thorax that would +permit drainage. If one had opened spontaneously and become chronic, a +lower opening for better drainage should be made. + +Nor were they less ingenious in their suggestions as to surgical +intervention in conditions within the abdomen. Riolanus explained +ileus as thoroughly as anyone has ever done it and recognized exactly +what the condition was and the only way by which it could be treated. +Pare advised the letting out of gas from over-distended intestines +when these could not easily be returned to the abdomen. Fioravanti +reported a case of splenectomy with the recovery of the patient. All +sorts of bougies for strictures were invented, and many suggestions as +to instrumental relief in difficult strictures made. + +Savonarola suggested the extirpation of _ranula,_ evidently {418} +after having had the experience that the mere emptying of this cyst of +the gland beneath the tongue is practically always followed by the +refilling of it. He gave the technique of puncture for ascites and has +some interesting details of cases, including one in which a fall led +to the traumatic evacuation of the fluid with subsequent cure. He +recommended the puncture of the pleural cavity for pleural effusion, +and above all for empyema whenever the case was in serious condition. +A little bit later, Berengar of Carpi, who is usually considered much +more important in anatomy than in surgery, discussed the question of +fracture of the skull by _contrecoup,_ evidently after considerable +experience. He detailed some cases of _extirpatio uteri_ for +procidentia and developed the technique of inunctions of mercury for +lues. Whether he was the first to do this or not we are not sure. +There is no doubt that his practice attracted wide attention. He was +visited by patients from all over the world and was summoned on +consultations even to great distances in order to see members of the +nobility. There probably never has been a more important discovery in +therapeutics than the use of mercury for specific disease, and the men +of this time to whom must be attributed the development of this phase +of therapeutics deserve the highest praise. It required the most +careful, patient, prolonged observation, and this was successfully +given. + +While gunshot wounds were becoming so frequent as to claim much +attention, wounds from swords and other sharp instruments causing ugly +disfigurements were rather common. Cosmetic surgery attracted +attention. It might be thought that owing to their ignorance of +aseptic surgery there would be no possibility of any great development +of plastic surgery at this time. As a matter of fact, however, not a +little was done that was of great significance for the correction of +disfigurements due to injury and unsightly congenital defects or scars +after disease. A number of procedures for the correction of harelip +and of cleft palate have already been noted. Just at the beginning of +Columbus' Century the technique of the Brancas, father and son, for +the restoration of noses that had been lost by injury or disease +attracted wide attention. Their method was to make the new nose from +the skin of the arm, {419} lifting a flap from the inner portion of +the upper arm, fastening it to the forehead and bandaging the hand +firmly on top of the head so as to keep the flap in place, fed by the +circulation of the arm until it had obtained a firm hold, when the +attachment to the arm was cut and the nose fashioned from the living +tissue thus obtained. Vianeo and Aranzi both described methods of +forming the nose, and it was suggested that a portion of the skin of +the forehead might be used for that purpose. Defects of the lips and +eyelids were cured by slipping tissues over and by freshening the +edges and bringing them together. + +An extremely interesting surgical writer of the beginning of the +sixteenth century is Michele Angelo Biondo, sometimes known by his +Latin name of Blondus. There are some passages in his writings with +regard to the use of warm water as the only proper dressing for wounds +that are rather startling. He tells of some physicians of his time +who, in place of liniments and all the various applications that are +made by the "wax-dealers," simply wash off their wounds with warm +water. He adds that these physicians insist that a great many surgical +patients are not killed by their disease so much as by the custom of +allowing them only small amounts of food and the unfortunate effect +produced on them by the applications to their wounds. He adds further +that these men are not wont to treat patients suffering from fevers by +keeping them on a light diet, but on the contrary they give them wine +and nourishing food instead of slops (ptisans). His comment is that +this sensible method of supporting treatment unfortunately does not +make much headway in the profession. Apparently it was too simple and +natural to appeal to the physician of the time. He adds with fine +irony, "It is said to be preferable to die methodically than to live +empirically." + +Gurlt in his _"Geschichte der Chirurgie"_ (Berlin, 1898), to whom I +owe most of what is here said of the work of these old surgeons, gives +some further details of Biondo's treatment of wounds. After the +staunching of the bleeding, the wound was to be cleansed and then +covered with _oleum abjetinum,_ very probably oil of turpentine, one +part to two parts of oil of roses. With regard to the use of water in +the treatment of {420} wounds, Biondo said: "The most experienced of +the older physicians held water in such dread that they would scarcely +use it in removing dirt from the neighborhood of wounds. I myself, +however, having seen the wonderful effect of water in wounded parts, +cannot help but be amazed at its super-celestial virtue." In spite of +this strong declaration, Biondo in his book gives chapters on all the +old methods of treating wounds and the various applications that were +supposed to work wonders in bringing about healing. The consequence +was that the water doctrine was pushed into the background and +probably attracted very little attention. Here was the germ of a great +discovery, the use of boiled water, evidently with some experience +behind it, and yet it was to remain untried, its true value +unappreciated until four centuries later. + +Paracelsus, who brought about the revolution in medicine at this time, +worked almost as great a change with regard to surgery. At least the +principles that he laid down were as startlingly different from much +of those accepted in his time and strikingly like those we have come +to accept in our time. He insisted that to as great an extent as +possible wounds should be left to nature, for there was a definite +tendency to cure. He inveighed strongly against meddlesome surgery and +declared that not a little of the subsequent complications in wounds +were due to misdirected efforts at cure of them. He talked about +_pestilence_ due to wounds, and declared that he had seen it spread +epidemically from one patient to another in hospital wards. He +discussed pyaemia as _Wundsucht,_ that is, an infectious disease +produced from a wound. Paracelsus described gangrene and proclaimed +its epidemic character. He is the first from whom we have a careful +study of the effects of lightning and almost the first who believed +that it was possible for a man to be struck by lightning and yet not +be killed or even fatally injured. + +In general, the ideas of this time were not nearly so distant from our +own as some of the intermediate periods have been. Fallopius described +union by first intention as resembling that which occurred between two +waxed surfaces when they were brought together in parallel lines and +adhered. {421} Wuertz described a wound fever, evidently erysipelas, +and warned about the possibility of its becoming epidemic. + +Arceo, known also by his Latin name of Francisco Arceus, a Spanish +surgeon, born near the end of the fifteenth century, illustrates the +vitality of surgery in Spain at this time. He has a number of +interesting surgical suggestions and has this to say with regard to +club foot. The foot should be soaked thoroughly for thirty days in +warm water in which some cereal has been cooked. Then the surgeon, +taking the lame foot, should exert all his force to put it back into +its due position and the form that he desires. This can usually be +accomplished without difficulty or delay, partly because of the +preceding softening of the tissues, but above all because of the +tender age and soft tissues of the child. Then a bandage should be +used to maintain the foot in this position until the correction +becomes permanent. Ambroise Pare, as I have said, accomplished similar +results, but he also used a number of forms of apparatus for the cure +of club foot and for the prevention of contractures in the joints as a +consequence of paralysis. He is the first surgeon whom we know to have +interested himself in artificial hands, arms and legs for those +deprived by amputation of members and the first to employ artificial +eyes. Fabricius of Aquapendente, born in Columbus' period, but doing +his work afterwards, recommends massage and bandaging for _pes varus_ +and an iron shoe with side pieces for _pes valgus._ He made the +correction gradual. He said, "I talk from experience, as I have had +much to do with crooked legs, feet and backs and have made them +straight and proper." + +That Germany was not without the distinctive spirit of the time by +thoughtful work in surgery is made clear through the writings of Hugo +von Pfolspeundt, which were found only a few years ago. In what +relates to the mechanics of surgery he made many practical suggestions +and inventions. For harelip he suggested that stitches should be +placed on the mucous surface as well as on the skin surface, after the +edges of the cleft had been freshened in order to be brought closely +together and held in coaptation. He also suggested the use of a +permanent weight extension for fractures and for certain {422} +injuries of the joints. Perhaps his most interesting surgical +development for us is a description of a silver tube with flanges to +be inserted in the intestines when there were large wounds, or when +the intestines had been severed, the ends being brought together +carefully over the tube which was allowed to remain in situ. +Pfolspeundt said that he had often seen these tubes used and the +patient live for many years afterwards. This is an early form of what +is known as the Murphy button in our time, though it was not the first +suggestion of a mechanical device to aid the repair of intestinal +injuries. One of the latest mediaeval surgeons had employed the +trachea of an animal as the tube over which the wounded intestines +were brought together. This became disintegrated after a while in the +secretions, but remained intact until after thorough agglutination of +the intestines had occurred. + +Pfolspeundt was not an educated man and did not even write his own +German tongue with correctness, not to say elegance. He was just a +practical devotee of surgery, probably not even a regularly practising +physician, and yet his writings show how much there was that he knew +of technical details, extremely important for surgical practice, that +are usually supposed to be of much later origin. After all, some of +our own distinguished surgeons have not been educated men in any sense +of the word, and there has sometimes been the feeling that a surplus +of information of what had been accomplished just before his time, +sometimes deterred the physician, as well as the surgeon, from +thinking independently about problems connected with practice and +reaching valuable practical conclusions. + +Besides Pfolspeundt there are at least two other German surgeons of +this time whose writings have come down to us that deserve a place in +a history of distinguished accomplishment in Columbus' Century. One of +these is Jerome of Brunschwig, whose name is spelled in many different +ways, and the other is Hans von Gerssdorff. Brunschwig, or +Braunschweig, used to be considered the oldest writer on surgery in +German until the comparatively recent discovery of Hugo von +Pfolspeundt's manuscript. He published his surgery in 1497, and it +went through nine editions in a few years. It {423} contains a number +of woodcuts, and these probably helped to give it its popularity. + +Brunschwig was very proud of his calling as a surgeon, and quotes what +Galen, Rhazes, Abulcassis, Lanfranc and Guy de Chauliac had declared +should be the qualities possessed by a surgeon and insisted +particularly that he "should have deep knowledge and trained +observation of anatomy, so that whenever it may be necessary to cut or +cauterize, he shall know exactly in what regions to do it, so as to do +just as little damage as possible and that he shall be capable of +diagnosing joint conditions and know what important organs may be +injured by bullet or other wounds with weapons and be able to judge of +the danger of cutting down for their removal." He recommends above all +that the young surgeon should invariably call an older and more +experienced colleague, or even two, in consultation, if the case is +very difficult, and he has doubts about it. + +Some of his details of technique are very interesting as showing how +carefully he thought out even minor problems connected with the +practice of surgery. For instance, he says as to wounds of the face, +that as "the beauty of the countenance is what above every other thing +makes men beautiful, the surgeon must take the greatest care that no +ill-looking or ugly union should take place in it, and just as far as +possible the parts should be brought together and kept in apposition, +with as delicate means as possible, until healing has taken place." + +On the other hand he does not hesitate to discuss even fractures of +the breast-bone, and says that if the patient expectorates blood it is +a bad sign, for almost surely some of the arteries lying under the +bone have been ruptured. He suggests position to help in the +correction of deformity and displacement of the bone, and mentions +that some of the older surgeons sought to raise it up by means of +large dry cups. In fractures of the ribs similar recommendations were +made, but Brunschwig was of the opinion that they did more harm than +good. He recommended bandages, thickened with albumen, or leather +moulded to the part, and he covered the thorax with a large binder. + +{424} + +There is no doubt at all that he knew very well the books of his +predecessors and that he had thoughtfully adapted them in the way that +had been taught him by his forty years of experience. He begins his +book with a dedication to the praise of God and His Mother, not +forgetting the honorable magistrates of the city of Strassburg. He +says in the preface that he is tempted to write his book because there +are many young, inexpert masters of surgery in the care of wounds who +do not understand it and consequently inflict much harm on mankind. He +hopes to be able to instruct them and also others who, living in the +smaller towns and villages, have not had the opportunity to see the +practice of surgery and yet must be able to help the ailing and +injured. The picture of the position of the surgeon of the time is +rather interesting. + +The next of the German surgeons of this period was Hans von +Gerssdorff, who practised in Strassburg. His well-known work is the +"Field Book of Surgery," in which he gives some of the experiences of +long years as a military and municipal physician. The book was issued +with a series of woodcuts, some of them anatomical but most of them +surgical in interest, which are very well executed. His illustration +of an amputation is the first one of this subject ever made, and there +are many pictures of his instruments. We have only room to note some +of his discussions of subjects usually not supposed to be thought of +in his time. He discusses wounds of the liver, especially such as +occur from large wounds of the abdomen, and says that if the liver +substance itself has been wounded the issue will surely be fatal. If +the liver is not wounded, yet appears in the wound, it should be +replaced and the external wounds sewed. His discussions of wounds of +the deep organs are all in about this same conservative strain. + +Gerssdorff has much to say with regard to contractures and anchyloses. +When these deformities are to be corrected, the tissues around the +joints should be softened by means of embrocations and the rubbing in +of old oil, and the contractures gradually overcome by manipulation or +by instrumental means. He invented a number of apparatus for +stretching such contractures, and four of the large pictures reproduce +them. They are partly in the shape of armor or {425} splints so +arranged that they can be bent or made straight by means of a screw. +There is also a screw arrangement for bringing about extension in +various directions. He did not believe very much in going too slowly +about the correction, for he declares that most of the contractures +and anchyloses can be overcome in a few hours. + +In discussing amputations he mentions the use of anaesthetics by the +older surgeons, and quotes from Guy de Chauliac the method of +anaesthesia employed by him, but he thinks that better results are +obtained without the use of such material. He had never employed +anaesthetics himself, though he had performed over 100 amputations. +Perhaps his Teutonic people were able to stand pain better than the +patients of the Latin countries. The refusal to use anaesthetics is +very interesting at this time, for the practice gradually disappeared +and was forgotten. Gerssdorff warns particularly against the use of +opium alone as a means of preventing pain, and Chauliac had done the +same thing earlier. + +The spirit that the surgeons of the time were expected to have is very +well illustrated by a passage from John Hall, written shortly after +the close of Columbus' Century in his "Historian Expostulation," which +is referred to more at length in the chapter on Medicine. He said, "I +would therefore that all Chirurgiens should be learned, so would I +have no man think himself learned otherwise than chiefly by +experience, for learning in Chirurgery consisteth not in speculation +only, nor in practice only, but in speculation well practised by +experience." + +Dr. Hall made a series of rhyming verses which were meant to be +helpful to the young surgeon to enable him to recall his duties +readily. He urged him above all never to treat a case unless he +understood it, when in doubt to call in a consultant and advises him +after consultation to console the patient, but to talk seriously to +some of the patient's friends. Above all not to disturb the patient's +feelings. Among other excellent bits of good advice he insists very +much on the knowledge of anatomy, and two of his rhyming stanzas +regarding it seem worth while quoting to show the spirit in which he +wrote: + +{426} + + "He is no true chirurgien + That cannot show by arte + The nature of every member + Each from other apart. + + For in that noble handy work + There doth nothing excell + The knowledge of anatomy + If it be learned well." + +In a chapter of this kind, almost needless to say, it is impossible to +give any formal account of the surgery of the time. All that I have +been able to do is to point out that in every country in Europe +surgeons were thinking for themselves and facing most of our modern +surgical problems and finding not inept solutions. There is scarcely a +phase of our modern surgery from antisepsis and anaesthesia to +technical details of various kinds, through plastic surgery, the use +of apparatus, manipulation and many forms of instruments, which cannot +be found in the surgical text-books of this time. Gurlt in his great +"History of Surgery" has taken some 400 pages of a large octavo +volume, with the excerpts in rather small type, to tell the story of +the surgery of Columbus' Century. Helferich occupies several hundred +pages of Puschmann's "Handbook of the History of Medicine" with the +details of what was done by the period's surgeons. The specialties +developed, and in all of them important contributions were made. The +great independent, seeking temper of the era is as noteworthy in +surgery as it is in every other department of intellectual effort at +this time. + + +{427} + +BOOK III + +THE BOOK OF THE WORDS + + +CHAPTER I + +LATIN LITERATURE + + +The Latin literature produced during Columbus' period, or at least the +books written in Latin, are literally legion. There has seldom been an +age of greater literary productivity, and in every department men +wrote in Latin. It was the universal language of scholars. Every +educated man understood it; whenever he wrote for educated men he +employed it. When scholars of different languages met it was a ready +resource. This custom did not begin to lose its hold until after the +end of Columbus' Century, though it received a severe shock from +Paracelsus' refusal to use anything but the vernacular and was given +its death blow by the popularization of even theological subjects in +the vernacular during the reformation movement. Latin continued for +two centuries after Luther's time to be the medium of communication +between scholars, but its use gradually went out in the depths of the +degradation of scholarship in the eighteenth century. + +There are many who apparently can see only unmixed good in the gradual +supersession of Latin by the various vernacular languages, but a +universal academic language had many advantages. As a rule, an +educated man needed to know only one language besides his own at this +time. Practical education for scientific purposes, and above all for +law and medicine and philosophy and theology, was very much +simplified. Now the student of science must know, as a rule, at least +two languages besides his own. In recent years we have come to +recognize the need of a universal language, and hence the {428} +successive waves of interest in newly-invented languages. Latin, +however, besides its practical usefulness as a common tongue, rewarded +the student of it by opening up to him a precious literature which +made it well worth his while to have devoted time and labor to its +acquisition. + +The most fertile period of modern Latin was undoubtedly the era of the +Renaissance from 1450 to 1550, yet of all this Latin writing of +Columbus' Century very little endures in the sense of being read for +its own sake in our time. The old books have many of them gone up in +value, but that is mainly because of their special significance in the +history of their particular science or in the development of printing. +Books like Vesalius' _"Fabrica Humani Corporis"_ have become classics +that every scholarly student of medicine must have seen, though in +practical value they have been superseded by later books. Some of the +philosophical and theological works of the period and a number of the +mystical and spiritual works are still read for their own sake, but +with certain exceptions, like Thomas a Kempis' works and others that +we shall mention, these are rather curiosities that appeal to the +erudition of the special student than real living books to be +consulted. + +An immense amount of Latin verse was written at this time. Sannazaro, +one of the ablest members of the Academy of Naples, wrote a poem +comparable in size to Virgil's AEneid on "The Birth of Christ." This +is only one instance. There were literally hundreds of scholars at +this time who thought because they could write Latin verses in which +the rules of grammar and prosody were not violated, and above all if +they could use the words that had been employed by their favorite +Latin authors and repeat felicitously the expressions of Virgil and +Horace and the classic poets generally, that they were making +literature at least if not poetry. Men have always had such illusions, +have always written what was only of interest for their own time and +have had the pleasure and satisfaction derived from the occupation of +mind and the anticipations of reputation and glory. None of this Latin +poetry has survived, and indeed it is only a very rare specialist in +Latin literature, and usually one who has devoted himself to +Renaissance Latin, who is likely to know anything about it. +Undoubtedly some {429} of it was eminently scholarly. There is no +doubt either that not a little of it was of fair poetic quality. It +was all, however, of distinctly academic character, and it has gone +into the limbo of forgotten writing, which now contains such an +immense amount of material. + +There is probably nothing which shows so clearly that the writer, and +above all the poet, is born and not made, that it is originality of +thought and not mode of expression that makes for enduring literature, +as the fate of so much of the product of these Renaissance writers. On +the other hand, there is nothing that better illustrates the value of +originality of thought apart from style than the preservation as +enduring influences upon mankind of a series of books in which style +was probably the last thing that the author thought about, and the +mode of expression had almost no place in his mind compared to his +desire to set forth his thought effectively. + +Three of the books that have lived from this time and will, so far as +human judgment can foresee, always continue to live, are Thomas a +Kempis' _"De Imitatione Christi"_ Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" and St. +Ignatius of Loyola's _"Exercitia Spiritualia"_ All three of them were +written in Latin because that was the language in which they would +appeal to most readers at the time. All three of the authors probably +thought nothing at all about the language that they were using except +for its convenience for others, inasmuch as it could be read by the +men of all nations whom they most wished to reach. All of them are +direct, simple, even forcible in their modes of expression, but there +was surely little filing done and probably very little rewriting. +Thomas a Kempis' book, almost without a doubt, flowed from his pen +just in the way that his words flowed out of his full heart in the +spiritual conferences that he gave to his brethren. There was probably +never a thought given to verbal nicety except to secure as simple an +expression of his overflowing ideas as possible. The "Utopia" is +written in correct, but not classical Latin, and it is very likely +that Erasmus would have found many faults of usage in it, while the +Ciceronians of that time would surely have been horrified at the very +thought of having to read such Latin and would scarcely be able to +understand how anyone could write {430} such unCiceronian phrases. As +was said of Michelangelo, St Ignatius wrote things rather than words, +and the "Spiritual Exercises" are a mine of thought, but not a model +of style in any sense. + +There has been question as to whether the "Imitation of Christ" was +really written by Thomas a Kempis, but that question has now, I think, +been definitely settled. Everything points to the authorship by the +brother of the Common Life, who was born in the little town of Kempen +and lived some seventy years in the Monastery of St. Agnes, acting as +spiritual adviser to his brethren, giving them consolation and advice +in times of trial, directing their thoughts always to the higher life. +There are many Flemicisms, that is, Latin usages which were common in +the Netherlands of this time, in most of the manuscripts. It has been +argued that since these do not exist in all the manuscripts, the +argument founded on them is not absolute. The preponderance of +evidence, however, is for the Flemish copies as being nearer the +original, and the absence of these special modes of expression in +other manuscripts only indicates that a great many copyists of the +time, particularly in Italy and France, were quite aware of these +imperfections of language and endeavored to correct them out of their +better knowledge of Latin. This only serves to show how little the +style of the book had to do with its popularity and that it was the +thought that appealed to the world of the time and has continued ever +since to give the work wide popularity. + +A Kempis himself was born in the fourteenth century, but as he lived +to be past ninety, dying in 1471, more than twenty years of his life, +during which he was active and in possession of his faculties, were +passed in our period. The "Imitation of Christ" was probably written +some twenty years before Columbus' Century began, but did not take the +definitive form in which we know it until about the beginning of our +period. It has a right to a place, therefore, among the great works of +the time. I have sometimes suggested that three men, whose names begin +with _k_ sounds, accomplished magnificent broadenings of human +knowledge at this time. Columbus discovered a new continent, +Copernicus revealed a new universe and a Kempis unveiled a wonderful +new world in man's own soul. {431} He did as much for the microcosm +man as Copernicus for the cosmos or Columbus for our earth. Hitherto +unexplored regions were laid bare and the beginning of the mapping out +of them was made. More than either of his great contemporaries, +however, a Kempis finished his work. Very little has been added to +what he was able to accomplish for man's self-revelation in his little +book. + + + [Illustration: CIMA DA CONEGLIANO, CHRIST (DRESDEN)] + + +The work did not spring into popularity at once, though it gradually +began to be known and used by chosen spirits in many places, and some +of the greatest of the men of the time learned to appreciate it. It is +a charming testimony to the fact that a Kempis himself first did and +then taught that he cared so little for the reputation attached to his +work, that his name was not directly associated with it, and in the +course of time there came to be some doubt about its authorship. "If +thou wilt profitably know and learn," he had said, "desire to be +unknown." It is one of the most difficult of tasks, but the humble +brother of the Common Life who had written a sublimely beautiful book +had learned it. He had written other books, indeed there are probably +at least a dozen attributed to him on reasonably good evidence, yet +had said, "In general we all need to be silent more than to speak, +indeed there are few who are too slow to speak." None of his other +books are quite equal to the "Imitation," yet many of them, as "The +Little Garden of Roses" and "The Valley of Lilies," are well worth +reading and exhibit many of the traits of charming simplicity, +marvellous insight and psychological power that have given his +greatest work its reputation. + +All down the centuries since men have admired and praised the +"Imitation." It has not been a classic in the sense of a book that +everyone praises and very few read, but on the contrary it has been +the familiar reading of a great many of the chosen spirits among +mankind ever since. To have been the favorite book of Sir Thomas More, +Bossuet and Massillon, of Loyola and Bellarmine, of John Wesley, +Samuel Johnson, Lamartine, La Harpe, Michelet, Leibnitz and Villemain +is indeed a distinction. Nor has it appealed only to Christians, for +men like Renan and Comte almost in our own time have praised it very +highly. Far from its reading being confined {432} to scholars by +profession or those much occupied with the things of the spirit, we +find that it was the favorite reading of General Chinese Gordon, +General Wolseley, the late Emperor Frederick and Stanley the explorer. +George Eliot shows her deep appreciation of it in "The Mill on the +Floss," where she says that "It works miracles to this day, turning +bitter waters into sweetness." Sir James Stephen speaks of it as a +work "which could not fail to attract notice and which commended +itself to all souls driven to despair." The late Lord Russell of +Killowen always carried a copy of it with him and used to read a +chapter in it every day quite as Ignatius of Loyola had done three +centuries and a half before. The frequent surprise is the contrast of +the men devoted to it. Pobiedonostseff, the head of the Holy Russian +Synod, the power behind the Czar for so long, used to read in it every +day. + +St. Francis de Sales said of "The Imitation," "Its author is the Holy +Spirit." Pascal said of it, "One expects only a book and finds a man." +De Quincey declared: "Next to the Bible in European publicity and +currency this book came forward as an answer to the sighing of +Christian Europe for light from heaven." Dr. Samuel Johnson declared +that "Thomas a Kempis must be a good book, as the world has opened its +arms to receive it." The sentence in it which he repeated most +frequently and which evidently had come home to him is "Be not angry +that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot +make yourself as you wish to be." Matthew Arnold, whose religious +views might possibly be thought to bias his judgment with regard to it +and whose feeling for style might be supposed to be deterred by its +lack of finish in language, called the "Imitation" "The most exquisite +document after those of the New Testament of all that the Christian +spirit has ever inspired." What may be more surprising to some, he +even did not hesitate to add that "Its moral precepts are equal to the +best ever furnished by the great masters of morals--Epictetus or +Marcus Aurelius." + +Some of the expressions used with regard to the "Imitation" are among +the most laudatory that have ever been used of any book. They come +from men of all kinds, in all generations, {433} in all nations since, +and many of them among the most respected of their time. Fontenelle +declared the "Imitation" "the finest book ever issued from the hand of +man." Caro, the French philosopher, compares it with other books +famous in the same ethical line, only to put it on a pinnacle by +itself. "Open the 'Imitation,'" he says, "after having read the _'De +Officiis'_ of Cicero or the _'Enchiridion'_ of Epictetus, and you will +feel yourself transported into another world as in a moment." +Lamennais declared that the "Imitation" "has made more saints than all +the books of controversy. The more one reads, the more one marvels. +There is something celestial in the simplicity of this wonderful +book." Henri Martin, the French historian, declared, "This book has +not grown old and never will grow old, because it is the expression of +the eternal tenderness of the soul. It has been the consolation of +thousands--one might say of millions--of souls." + +Lamartine in his "Jocelyn" (and it must not be forgotten that +Lamartine was an historian and a critic as well as a poet) wrote: + + "Harassed by an inward strife, + I find in the 'Imitation' a new life-- + Book obscure, unhonored, like to potter's clay. + Yet rich in Gospel truths as flowers in May. + Where loftiest wisdom, human and Divine, + Peace to the troubled soul to speak, combine." + +La Harpe, a dramatist as well as a critic, whose "Cours de +Litterature" was a standard text-book for so long, was in prison and +sadly in need of comfort and consolation when he began to appreciate +the "Imitation." There is almost no limit to his praise of it, and +praise under these circumstances must indeed be considered to come +from the heart. He wrote: "Never before or since have I experienced +emotion so violent and yet so unexpectedly sweet--the words, 'Behold I +am here,' echoing unceasingly in my heart, awakening its faculties and +moving it to the uttermost depths." + +It is not surprising then to find that Dean Church says of it, "No +book of human composition has been the companion of {434} so many +serious hours, has been prized in widely different religious +communions, has nerved and comforted so many and such different +minds--preacher and soldier and solitary thinker--Christians, or even +it may be those unable to believe." Dean Milman in his "Latin +Christianity" declared "that this book supplies some imperious want in +the Christianity of mankind, that it supplied it with a fulness and +felicity which left nothing to be desired, its boundless popularity is +the one unanswerable testimony." He even has some words of praise for +a Kempis' style: "The style is ecclesiastical Latin, but the +perfection of ecclesiastical Latin of pure and of sound construction." +Dean Plumptre, whose studies of Dante and the great Greek poets gave +him so good a right to judge of the place of books in the world's +literature, is one of the worshippers at the shrine of the +"Imitation." The Rev. Dr. Liddon, the great Greek lexicographer, +called it "the very choicest of devotional works, the product of the +highest Christian genius and one of the books that have touched the +heart of the world." + +More than this could scarcely be said of any book. Was there ever a +chorus of praise quite so harmonious? Did praise ever come from men by +whom one could more wish to be praised? Evidently, the "Imitation of +Christ" is for all men at all times. It is the poem of our common +human nature. + +When Sir John Lubbock included the "Imitation" in his list of the +hundred best books some people expressed surprise. The editor of the +_Pall Mall Gazette_ invited the opinions of his readers on the +subject, and some of the most distinguished of English churchmen, as +well as many English men of distinction, said their praise of it +publicly. Archdeacon Farrar, whose sympathies with the fourth book of +the "Imitation" would certainly be very slight and whose opposition to +many Catholic doctrines that a Kempis received devoutly might possibly +be expected to prejudice him somewhat against it, wrote that "If all +the books in the world were in a blaze the first twelve I should +snatch from the flames would be the Bible, 'The Imitation of Christ,' +'Homer,' 'AEschylus,' 'Thucydides,' 'Tacitus,' 'Virgil,' 'Marcus +Aurelius,' 'Dante,' 'Shakespeare,' 'Milton' and 'Wordsworth.'" {435} +The men with whom a Kempis is thus placed in association are among the +accepted geniuses of literary history before as well as since his +time. It would not be difficult to make a sheaf of quotations each one +of them scarcely less laudatory than this of Archdeacon Farrar. They +come from all manner of men, devout and undevout, bookish and +practical, spiritual and worldly, men of wide experience in life, who +have done things that the world will not soon forget, and who, if any, +have the right to speak for the race as regards the significance of +life and what any book can mean for direction and guidance in the +living of it and consolation in its trials and difficulties. + +Lamartine in his "Entretiens Familiers" called it "the poem of the +soul," and declared that it "condensed into a few pages the practical +philosophy of men of all climates and of all countries who have +sought, have suffered, have studied and prayed in their tears ever +since flesh suffered and the mind reflected." + +To adopt his term, the "Imitation" is literally a great poem. It is a +creation and it is a vision. The poet is the creator and the seer. The +greater he is, the more capable he is of taking the ordinary materials +of life and making great poetry of them. The greater the poet, the +more of mankind he appeals to. It is the vision of the experiences of +man and not of individual men that the poet sees. What all have seen +and felt, but none so well expressed is the theme of poetry. The more +one reads of the "Imitation," the more one realizes all the truth of +this characterization of it as poetry. If one takes passages of it as +they have been put into rhythmic sentences the feeling of the poetry +in them is brought home very clearly. For instance, this from Chapter +XXII of the third book: + + "Why one has less, another more; + Not ours to question this, but Thine + With Whom each man's deserts are strictly watched. + Wherefore, Lord God, I think it a great blessing + Not to have much which outwardly seems worth + Praise or glory--as men judge of them." + +Or if the ode--for such it really is--on Love from the fifth chapter +of the third book be read alongside one of the great {436} choruses +from the Greek tragedians, as above all some of those of Sophocles in +"Antigone" or the "Oedipus at Colonos," the lofty poetic quality will +be easier to grasp: + + "A great thing is love, + A great good every way. + Making all burdens light, + Bearing all that is unequal, + Carrying a burden without feeling it. + Turning all bitterness to a sweet savor. + The noble love of Jesus + Impelleth men to good deeds + And exciteth them always + To desire that which is better. + Love will tend upwards + Nor be detained + By things of earth + It would be free. + + Nothing is sweeter than love, + Nothing stronger, nothing higher. + Nothing fuller, nothing better + Nor more pleasant in heaven or earth. + For love is born of God + Nor can it rest + Except in Him + Above all things created. + Love is swift, sincere. + Pious, pleasant and delightsome. + Brave, patient, faithful, + Careful, long suffering, manly. + Never seeking its own good; + For where a man looks for himself + He falls away from love." + +The next most significant book of the Latin literature of the time is +Sir Thomas More's "Utopia." Few books are more surprising in the midst +of their environment. Probably no one {437} has ever so risen above +the social atmosphere around him and breathed the rarefied air of +ideal social conditions as More in the "Utopia." It was written under +the influence of his first acquaintance with Plato's "Republic" and as +a result of his talks with that great French scholar and friend of +Erasmus, Peter Giles, or as he is known in the history of scholarship, +Aegidius. More discussed not merely literary topics, but the +application of the Greek literature that they were both interested in +to the contemporary politics of Europe and the social conditions of +their time. Not yet thirty years of age, More's powers of observation +were at their highest, and his principles of life had not yet been +hardened into conventional form by actual contact with too many +difficulties. With no experience as yet of government and with the +highest ideals of fellowship and unselfishness, he wrote out a +wonderful scheme of ideal government by which the happiness of mankind +would be attained. He saw clearly through all the social illusions and +the social problems, and with almost youthful enthusiasm put forth his +solution of all the difficulties he saw. + +Undoubtedly the "Utopia" is the main literary monument of Sir Thomas +More's great genius. Sir Sidney Lee in his "Great Englishmen of the +Sixteenth Century" (Scribner's, 1904) declares that "it is as +admirable in literary form as it is original in thought. It displays a +mind rebelling in the power of detachment from the sentiment and the +prejudices which prevailed in his personal environment. To a large +extent this power of detachment was bred of his study of Greek +literature." There is, perhaps, no greater series of compliments for +the significance of the classics in education than the fact that these +men of the Renaissance found in the Greek books not only the source of +their literature, but also their art and architecture and even their +science, and above all were given the breadth of mind to follow the +suggestions that they met with. It must not be forgotten, however, +that More was also deeply influenced by St. Augustine's _"De Civitate +Dei"_ Evident traces of this can be found. It is known that he had +been reading the work of the great Latin father of the Church and that +he admired him very deeply. Without any narrowness or bigotry, +inspired by Augustine's great work, it was a {438} Christian Republic +of Plato that the future Lord Chancellor of England sketched for his +generation. + +"Utopia" was published at the end of 1516 in Louvain, then probably +the most prominent and undoubtedly the most cosmopolitan centre of +academic learning in Europe. There were perhaps 5,000 students at the +University there at the moment, and it was one of the large +universities of the world. A new edition was published only four +months later from a famous press in Paris, and within the year the +great scholar-printer, Froben of Basel, produced what we would now +call an _edition de luxe_ at the suggestion and under the editorship +of Erasmus, and with illustrations by Erasmus' friend, for whom More +was to be such a beneficent patron later in England--Hans Holbein. + +It is not surprising to hear that the book was warmly welcomed by all +the scholars of Europe. The epithets which the publishers bestowed on +it in the title page, _aureus, saluiatis, festivus_--a golden, +wholesome, optimistic book--were adopted from expressions of opinion +uttered by some of the best scholars of Europe. Erasmus was loud in +his praise of it, it was warmly welcomed in France, it found its way +everywhere among the scholars of Italy, it was read, though not too +openly, in England, where there was some suspicion of its critical +quality as regards English government and where Tudor wilfulness did +not brook critical review of its acts. + +The book was eminently interesting; there probably never has been a +_social Tendens_ novel before or since that has been so full of +interest. The preliminary chapter of the book is, as Sidney Lee says, +"a vivid piece of fiction which Defoe could not have excelled." More +relates how he accidentally came upon his scholarly friend, Peter +Giles, in the streets of Antwerp in conversation with an old sailor +named Raphael or Ralph Hythlodaye. This name means an observer of +trifles. More takes advantage of the current interest in the +discoveries of the Western Continent by making him a sailor lately +returned from a voyage to the New World under the command of Amerigo +Vespucci. The name America after Amerigo was just gaining currency at +that time and this added to the interest. Ralph had been impressed by +the beneficent forms of {439} government which prevailed in the New +World. He had also visited England and had noticed social evils there +which called for speedy redress. The poor were getting poorer, the +rich were getting richer, the degradation of the masses was sapping +the strength of the country, the wrong things were in honor and social +reform must come, it was hinted, or there would be social revolution. +The book contained a fearless exposure of the social evils very +commonly witnessed in every country in Europe at that time, though +tinged more by More's experience in England than anywhere else. + +Since its publication, the book has been read in every generation that +has taken its social problems seriously. It was not published in +England until 1551, but was translated into English again by Bishop +Burnet in a form that has made it an English classic. It contains such +a surprising anticipation of so many suggestions for the relief of +social evils that are now discussed that I have preferred to put a +series of quotations from it in the Appendix in order to show how +little there is new in human thinking, and above all how a sympathetic +genius at any time succeeds in seeing clearly and solving as well the +problems of mankind as at any other time, in utter contradiction of +the so much talked of evolution that is presumed to bring these +problems gradually before the bar of human justice and secure their +amelioration. The book is worthy to be placed beside Plato's +"Republic," and it will be more read in the near future than probably +any other work of similar nature. In our own generation editions of it +have been issued in every modern language and a number of editions in +English. It is one of the enduring books of mankind that a scholar of +any nation cannot afford to confess not having read and in which the +social reformer will ever find suggestions for human uplift and the +greatest happiness for the greatest number. + +The third great book of the Latin literature of the century is St. +Ignatius's _"Exercitia Spiritualia."_ This is not a book to be read, +however, but to be lived. It is a book of material for thought rather +than of words to be conned. It has deeply influenced every generation +of men ever since. If it had done nothing else but form all the +members of his own order ever {440} since, that would be enough of +itself to stamp it as a very great human document. It has, however, +deeply influenced all the religious orders both of men and women since +it was written, and is now the basis of nearly all of the formative +exercises on which the modern religious life is based. It is +undoubtedly the work of a great spiritual and intellectual genius who +above all knew how to suppress himself. There is not a word too much +in it, and the one complaint has been of an abbreviation beyond what +would make it readily intelligible. Those who have studied it most +deeply, however, find no difficulty of understanding, though they +recognize the impossibility, unless perhaps after many years of +devotion to it, of comprehending all of its precious significance. It +is the directions for the spiritual life in shorthand, and it is +surprising that a man should have committed it to all the +possibilities of misunderstanding in its present form, but its lack of +too great detail makes it all the more precious and leaves that room +for the expression of the individuality of the one who gives the +exercises that is so necessary. + +The fourth book that deserves a place in any account of the Latin +literature of this period is Erasmus' _"Colloquia"_ though doubtless +some might plead for a place for the _"Encomium Moriae,"_ which has +had an academic immortality at least. The _"Colloquia"_ is eminently a +book for scholars written in the elegant Latin that Erasmus could +employ so effectively, and it went through many editions in his +lifetime and has had many reprints ever since. It was distinctly a +book of style rather than of matter and of academic rather than +popular interest. Scholars at all times have turned to its pages for +refreshment and information and have been regaled by its charming +style and its wit. It is entirely too bitter to be always admirable, +but many of its satirical parts give an excellent idea, though +undoubtedly exaggerated if taken as a picture of the times, of the +conditions of education at the moment. It has not been often +translated, and hence, in our generally complacent ignorance of Latin, +is less known in our time than in any other since its publication. Its +career in comparison with the three other volumes of Latin literature +in this chapter, its contemporaries, emphasizes the difference between +the place of {441} style and thought in the world literature. The +scholars of the period doubtless looked upon Erasmus' book as a very +triumph of scholarship, a great contribution to world literature. "The +Imitation of Christ," "Utopia" and the "Spiritual Exercises" were read +originally not for themselves, but for a purpose. These have +maintained an active life, however, while at most the _"Colloquia"_ +has enjoyed a rather inanimate academic existence. + +This does not detract from the merit of the book, however, nor from +that of Erasmus' other contributions to the Latin literature of the +time. Latin was at best an adopted language, however, and the +expression of native genius in it could scarcely be expected. The +prose has been eminently more fortunate than the verse, and it is to +the former, not the latter, that we turn in order to find some of the +great contributions of the period to world literature. + + + +{442} + +CHAPTER II + +ITALIAN LITERATURE + +As I have said in the Introduction, in spite of the supreme greatness +of the artistic products of Columbus' Century, its paintings, +sculpture and architecture, the literature of the time was not only +not neglected, but occupies a place in the history of culture only +second to that of the Periclean age of Athens. For a long time, +indeed, the Age of Leo X, as it was called, was considered to be a +serious rival in its literary treasures to that marvellous period of +Greek thinking and writing. Subsequently the literary world passed +through a period of exaggerated critical depreciation of it. There has +been, however, a growing tendency in recent years, indeed during the +last half century, to restore older appreciation of the literature of +this period and to value it highly. + +In every country in Europe there were books written during this time +which not only will never die, but which are part of the familiar +reading of the scholars at least of all time. Not that there are not +many popular elements in this literature, but its scholarliness has +made it a special favorite, and there are not a few books written at +this time which no one with any pretence to education would willingly +confess to being ignorant of. Ariosto, Machiavelli, Rabelais, Villon, +Sir Thomas More, Erasmus, St. Teresa, Marguerite of Navarre and the +Pleiades, as well as the Collects of the English Prayer Book, all +these have an enduring significance in the realm of world literature +that has brought about the publication of editions and translations of +them in every cultivated language even in our generation over four +centuries after their original production. + + + [Illustration: TITIAN, ARIOSTO ] + + +The Italian literature of the century is especially rich. It would be +quite impossible to give it any adequate treatment in a chapter, for +this is the Renaissance period, and the literature {443} of the +Italian Renaissance has been treated in many volumes. The most +important of the writers is undoubtedly Ariosto, who has been much +more appreciated by his own people than by other countries, though at +times of deep interest in literature he has always had a profound +influence on writers beyond the bounds of Italy. Saintsbury, in "The +Earlier Renaissance," has summed up his best qualities in some +sentences that, considering the distance in time and place and +temperament which separate poet and critic, may very well be taken as +highest praise. Ariosto, he says, "is very nearly if not quite supreme +in more than one respect. It may also be said that he never fails and +that this freedom from failure is not due to tame faultlessness or a +cowardly absence from the most difficult attempts--that it will go +hard--but we must rank him, at lowest, just below the very greatest of +all. Such a place is, I believe, his right even on the calculus of +those who refuse the historic estimate or at least admit it with +grudging. It has been said that as Rabelais he represents the greatest +literature of his time penetrated most fully by the extra literary as +well as the literary characteristics of that time; and it may be added +not merely that few times have been so thoroughly represented, but +that few have ever so thoroughly lent themselves to representation." + +With what is perhaps almost pardonable compatriotic enthusiasm, +considering his really great merits as a poet, he has been called the +Italian Homer, and his great work, _"Orlando Furioso"_ has been called +"the most beautiful and varied and wonderful romantic poem that the +literature of the world can boast of." In it are woven together with +charming art the two great romantic cycles of Charlemagne and Arthur. +It is the poetic apotheosis of chivalry written in wonderful +perfection of style and taking form and with marvellous variety of +incident. While the great poem has been a favorite rather with the +Italians than with foreigners, when one realizes how deeply cultured +Italian readers have been as a rule for all the centuries since +Ariosto's time, it is probable that no higher compliment than this +devotion of his compatriots could be paid to him. The "Orlando" has +not been without honor, however, in foreign countries, among those +whose opinion is most {444} to be valued. It cast into the shade the +numberless poetical romances that had been written during the +preceding century. None of the many imitations that it evoked have +approached it either in beauty of form or style or in deep underlying +human interest. Ariosto knew above all the human heart and had +excellent control of pathos. He is especially capable in making the +impossible or the improbable seem reasonable. Now, after four +centuries, we know that he is of all time and belongs to the culture +of all centuries. + +Modern readers unacquainted with the writings of the older time are +often inclined to think that the interests of the older writers were +very different from those of humanity to-day and that, as a +consequence, the reading of them would surely be a great bore. Even a +little reading of Ariosto would show how eminently human and for all +time a classic writer is and how literally it is true that he is often +a commentary on the morning paper. One or two of Ariosto's comparisons +which show his interest in humanity and in life around him will serve +to illustrate this. His observation of children is as close as that of +Dante: + + "Like to a child that puts a fruit away + When ripe, and then forgets where it is stored, + If it should chance that after many a day + Thither his step returns where is his hoard. + He wonders to behold it in decay. + Rotten and spoiled, and richness all outpoured; + And what he loved of old with keen delight + He hates, spurns, loathes, and flings away in spite." + +Like Dante, too, he was an observer of animals and noted especially +the ways of dogs. + + "And as we see two dogs the combat wage, + Whether by envy moved, or other hate, + Approaching whet the teeth, nor yet engage. + With eyes askance, and red as coals in grate, + Then to their biting come, on fire with rage. + With bitter cries, and backs with spite elate, +{445} + So came with swords and cries and many a taunt + Circassia's knight and he of Chiaramont." + +Ariosto's other poems, besides his Epic, are of minor significance. He +wrote a series of satires that are rather chatty essays, on subjects +literary and personal, in verse, than satires in our sense of the +word. Above all, Ariosto took his own disappointments in life +good-humoredly, and his optimism would remind one of Cervantes in +certain ways. Garnett in his "History of Italian Literature" (page +151) says, "His lyrical pieces are not remarkable, except one +impressive sonnet in which he appears to express compunction for the +irregularities of his life: + + "How may I deem that Thou in heaven wilt hear, + O Lord divine, my fruitless prayer to Thee, + If for all clamor of the tongue Thou see + That yet unto the heart the net is dear? + Sunder it Thou, who all behold'st so clear, + Nor heed the stubborn will's oppugnancy. + And this do Thou perform, ere, fraught with me, + Charon to Tartarus his pinnace steer. + By habitude of ill that veils Thy light. + And sensual lure, and paths in error trod. + Evil from good no more I know aright. + Ruth for frail soul submissive to the rod + May move a mortal; in her own despite + To drag her heavenward is work of God." + +In Italy the _sacre rappresentazioni,_ as the Miracle and Mystery +plays were called, had a distinct period of development, though not +equal to that of the English, and good specimens of them have not been +preserved for us. We have evidence of the influence of them, however, +in the fact that some of the scholarly poets of the time wrote plays +founded on the myths of the old Olympian religion after the model of +some of these mystery plays. Politian's _"Orfeo"_ is perhaps the best +example of this. It was little better than an improvisation composed +in the short space of two days at Mantua on the {446} occasion of +Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga's visit to his native town in 1472, but it +marks an epoch in the evolution of Italian poetry. Addington Symonds +has even gone so far as to say that "it is the earliest example of the +secular drama, containing within the compass of its brief scenes the +germ of the opera, the tragedy and the pastoral play." It contained +portions that were to be sung as well as to be spoken, and there are +episodes of _terza rima,_ Madrigals, a Carnival song, a Ballata as +well as the choral passages that are distinctly operatic. After +Orpheus has violated the law that he must not look upon his wife until +they have reached the upper world, his complaint is of lyric quality +that has something of the Grecian choric ode in it. Addington Symonds +in his "Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe" has translated the +passages so as to give an excellent idea of the character of the play: + + + "Who hath laid laws on Love? + Will pity not be given + For one short look so full thereof? + Since I am robbed of heaven, + Since all my joy so great is turned to pain, + I will go back and plead with Death again! + + + TISIPHONE + + Nay, seek not back to turn! + Vain is thy weeping, all thy words are vain. + Eurydice may not complain + Of aught but thee--albeit her grief is great. + Vain are thy verses 'gainst the voice of fate! + How vain thy song! For death is stern! + Try not the backward path: thy feet refrain! + The laws of the abyss are fixed and firm remain." + +Addington Symonds has given a number of examples of the popular +Italian poetry of the Renaissance [Footnote 44] which show the +qualities of this mode of literature very well, and above all +illustrate how like in its character it is to the lighter modes of +{447} verse at all times and especially our own. Politian, the great +scholar whose learning filled the lecture rooms of Florence with +students of all nations and whose critical and rhetorical works marked +an epoch in the history of scholarship, was able to unbend at times +and write _ballate,_ as they were called, though they were very +different from our ballads, which were to be sung during the dances in +the piazzas on summer evenings. Stanzas from some of these will serve +to show their character. The last stanza, for instance, of his May +Ballad is on the world-old theme, "Gather ye rose-buds while ye may." + + "I went a-roaming, maidens, one bright day. + In a green garden in mid month of May. + + For when the full rose quits her tender sheath. + When she is sweetest and most fair to see. + Then is the time to place her in thy wreath, + Before her beauty and her freshness flee. + Gather ye therefore roses with great glee. + Sweet girls, or ere their perfume pass away. + + I went a-roaming, maidens, one bright day, + In a green garden in mid month of May." + + + [Footnote 44: "Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe," + New York, 1880] + +Many of the Italian scholars of the period gave the time to the +writing of ballads, and one which has been ascribed to Lorenzo dei +Medici is often quoted. In it the word _signore,_ which means lord, is +used instead of the name of the lady, because she is the lord of the +singer's soul. + + "How can I sing light-souled and fancy-free + When my loved lord no longer smiles on me? + + One only comfort soothes my heart's despair. + And mid this sorrow lends my soul some cheer; + Unto my lord I ever yielded fair + Service of faith untainted pure and clear; + If then I die thus guiltless, on my bier + It may be she will shed one tear for me. {448} + + How can I sing light-souled and fancy-free + When my loved lord no longer smiles on me?" + +These ballads were often on the pagan theme of snatching life's +opportunities while one might, a popular expression of the Renaissance +time, an echo of Horace's _Carpe diem,_ "snatch the day," which the +Roman had taken from his Greek models. Every now and then, however, +there is a more serious note in the Carnival songs written to be sung +during the revels at the Carnival time, when it is surprising to find +such a thought emphasized. One of the best known of these Carnival +songs is attributed to Lorenzo de' Medici: + + "Fair is youth and void of sorrow; + But it hourly flies away. + Youths and maids, enjoy to-day; + Naught ye know about to-morrow. + + Midas treads a wearier measure: + All he touches turns to gold: + If there be no taste of pleasure, + What's the use of wealth untold? + + What's the joy his fingers hold, + When he's forced to thirst for aye? + Youths and maids, enjoy to-day; + Naught ye know about to-morrow." + + + [Illustration: PALMA VECCHIO, POET (SOMETIMES CALLED ARIOSTO)] + + +After Lorenzo's death one of these Carnival songs, to express the +grief of his people for him, written by Antonio Alamanni, was sung by +maskers habited as skeletons who rode on a car of death, the music to +it being that of a dead march. As a contrast to the less serious songs +it is worth quoting: + + "Sorrow, tears, and penitence + Are our doom of pain for aye: + This dead concourse riding by + Hath no cry but penitence! {449} + + E'en as you are, once were we: + You shall be as now we are: + We are dead men, as you see: + We shall see you dead men, where + Naught avails to take great care. + After sins, of penitence. + + We too in the Carnival + Sang our love-songs through the town + Thus from sin to sin we all + Headlong, heedless, tumbled down;-- + Now we cry, the world around. + Penitence! oh, penitence! + + Senseless, blind, and stubborn fools! + Time steals all things as he rides: + Honors, glories, states, and schools, + Pass away, and naught abides; + Till the tomb our carcass hides. + And compels this penitence." + + +Strange as it may seem, the Italian prose of Columbus' Century has had +a wider vogue and influence than its poetry. Two literary springs in +prose have flowed out of Italy--fiction and history. The greatest of +modern historical writers is undoubtedly Machiavelli. His name has +been so much deprecated because of the doctrines that he is thought to +have suggested that very few people realize what a profound student of +human nature he was and how deep was his philosophy. His famous book, +_"Il Principe"_ (The Prince), was written within a decade of Columbus' +death and at once attracted wide attention. This great political +monograph is a calm analysis of the various methods whereby an +ambitious conscienceless man may rise to sovereign power. It is +usually supposed to be a setting forth of his own absolutely +principleless philosophy. As a matter of fact, it is quite as much a +lesson in politics for all the world, and while it might be studied +faithfully by a man who wanted to usurp sovereign authority in a free +state, it contains a series of lessons, which he who {450} runs may +read, for all citizens to know just how the downfall of their +liberties may be brought about. There probably was never a +contribution to political philosophy that has attracted so much +attention. It is one of the few books that the serious politicians of +all countries and nearly every generation since Machiavelli's time +have considered it worth while to read. As a matter of fact, it is +esteemed so highly as a human document that it is almost considered a +serious defect in scholarship for anyone who claims to be educated to +confess ignorance of it. + +After a set of discourses on Livy, Machiavelli was commissioned to +write the history of Florence. This is the first attempt in any +literature to trace the political life of a people, showing all the +forces at work upon them and the consequent effects. He places the +portrait of Florence on the background of a very striking group of +pictures drawn from Italian history. Necessarily, since he was +employed at their suggestion for the purpose, the Medici are given a +place of first rank and very great prominence. This was not mere +subserviency, however, but was a very proper estimation of the role +played by that house in the fortunes of Florence. He puts into the +mouths of his historical characters speeches after the manner of Livy +and Thucydides, and some of these speeches are masterpieces of Italian +oratory. His style is vigorous and without any thought of +ornamentation, informed only by the effort to express his meaning +completely and forcibly. Later he wrote a play which John Addington +Symonds, the English critic whose deep knowledge of Italian literature +gives his opinion much weight, did not hesitate to call "the ripest +and most powerful single play in the Italian language." There may be +difference of opinion as to Machiavelli's place in philosophy, and +above all in ethics, but there can be no doubt about his genius as an +historian and a writer, as a profound student of men and their ways +and one of the greatest contributors to political philosophy. + +We have come to discount all that has been said in derogation of +Machiavelli's personal character, though it must not be forgotten that +even in the older time there were men who realized that his book was +an essay in political philosophy that {451} made a wonderful +revelation and not in any sense a confession of personal opinions. It +has been said that we owe the expression, "Old Nick," as used +familiarly for the devil, to the fact that Machiavelli's first name +Was Nicholas. Sam Butler long ago wrote: + + "Nick Machiavelli had ne'er a trick, + Though he gave his name to our old Nick." + +In our own time some of the men whose wide knowledge and large +experience have best fitted them to express an opinion on Machiavelli +have been most emphatic in their high estimation of his character and +influence. Above all, they have insisted on the enduring character of +his work and the fact that it appeals to the essential in human +nature, not to the passing fads of any single generation. Two such +different men in intellectual training as John Morley and Lord Acton +are agreed on this as they could not have agreed on most other things. +Morley said that "Machiavelli was a contemporary of any age and a +citizen of any country." Lord Acton said that he was "no vanishing +type, but a constant and contemporary influence." + +Besides a novel, which we quote from later in this chapter, and his +political and historical works, Machiavelli wrote a series of plays +and poems which are of high literary value. Garnett in his "Italian +Literature" says that "he came nearer than any contemporary, except +Leonardo da Vinci, to approving himself a universal genius. No man of +his time stands higher intellectually, and his want of moral elevation +is largely redeemed by his ample endowment with the one virtue chiefly +needful to an Italian of his day, but of which too many Italians were +destitute--patriotism." + +Another of Columbus' great contemporaries among Italian writers was +Guicciardini, the Italian historian (1483-1540). Unlike most of the +great historians, he was a man of affairs. When less than twenty he +was sent as Florentine Ambassador to the King of Spain, and in his +early twenties, under Pope Leo X, governed Modena and Reggio with such +talent as drew wide attention to him. He was the Lieutenant-General of +the Anti-Imperial Army in 1527, later was one of the Eight at {452} +Florence, and from 1531 to 1534 ruled Bologna as Papal Vice-Legate. He +tells the story of Italy from 1492 to 1534 in great detail. He writes +as an eye-witness who had himself been prominent in most of the scenes +that he describes. The mass of matter is not allowed to obscure the +picture as a whole, and the work has distinct literary value. Probably +never in the world's history has such a description of events come +from a man who was himself one of the most prominent actors in them. +His work has been declared "the greatest historical work that had +appeared since the beginning of the modern era" ("Encyclopaedia +Britannica"). + +About the middle of the nineteenth century Guicciardini's hitherto +unpublished works were given to the public in ten volumes and served +to throw wonderful light on the historian himself. His _"Ricordi +Politici"_ deserve to be placed beside Machiavelli's "Prince," and it +is easy to understand, after reading them, that Guicciardini regarded +his friend Machiavelli somewhat as "an amiable visionary or political +enthusiast." There has probably never been a set of human documents +that illuminated the heights and depths of humanity so well as these +writings of the Renaissance. To read Machiavelli, Guicciardini's +_"Ricordi,"_ Benvenuto Cellini's "Autobiography" and Rabelais is to +see the contradictions that there are in this microcosm man better +than is possible in any other way. If we but add Montaigne, who was +educated in our century, the picture is complete. These men of the +Renaissance saw clearly and deeply into humanity through the lens of +themselves. Guicciardini, devoid of passion as well as of high moral +standards in personal life, eminently loyal to his patrons at all +times, just so far as administration of law went, and unquestionably +able, possesses all that ordinarily is assumed to bring the admiration +if not the respect of men, yet no one can read his "Reminiscences" +without feeling the deepest repugnance for his cynicism, selfishness +and distrust of men. Ranke has impugned his good faith as an +historian, and his quondam repute is gone. It is this very contrast, +as exhibited in his writings, that makes Guicciardini's works as +valuable a contribution to the story of humanity as the many +masterpieces of his contemporaries. + +{453} + +One of the writers of this time who must not be omitted, though his +merit has not always been recognized, is Vasari, whose "Lives of the +Painters" has interested every generation in every country who have +occupied themselves much with the great artists. Himself an artist, +living on intimate terms with many of the men whose lives he sketched +and gathering anecdotes about them and rescuing many a personal trait +from oblivion that otherwise would have been lost to posterity, Vasari +succeeded in making an extremely valuable as well as interesting book. +Some of his anecdotes have been discredited, and he has often been +open to the criticism of lack of critical acumen in his compilations +of materials, but his industry, his recognition of what was likely to +be of interest and his untiring efforts to make his sketch as complete +as possible, deserve the recognition which they have obtained. While +his style is apparently most artless, he possesses, as Garnett has +said, "either the science or the knack of felicitous composition to an +extraordinary degree." It must not be forgotten that this apparent +lack of art is often the highest art, and so it is not surprising to +hear Vasari spoken of as the Herodotus of art. His good taste in art +as well as in literature is demonstrated by his admiration for the +first fruits of the early Tuscan school which were neglected in his +day. He was one of the genial, lovable men of the time who made many +friends. + +The most popularly interesting phase of the literature of the +Renaissance and Columbus' Century for our time is doubtless the +fiction that was written so plentifully and so widely read during the +period. Whenever a large number of people become interested in +reading, after a time more and more superficial reading is provided +for them until finally the most trivial of story-telling becomes the +vogue. This has happened at a number of times in the world's history. +It can be traced in Rome with the decadence, in the Oriental +countries, as Burton's edition of the "Thousand and One Nights" shows +so clearly, and in our own time as well as during the fifteenth and +sixteenth century. Another interesting development is the tendency for +the fiction that is popular among the better and supposedly more +educated classes, gradually {454} to be occupied more and more with +sex problems and sexual questions of all kinds. Whenever many have +leisure and a smattering of education, this occurs. It is quite +noticeable during the Renaissance period, though a great many good +stories were written of excellent literary quality without any tinge +of this. + +The writing of novels in Italy had begun with Boccaccio in the +fourteenth century, and continued with Sacchetti and Giovanni Il +Fiorentino. About the middle of the fifteenth century, however, this +mode of writing became all the fashion, and the number of novels, +though of course by the word _novelle_ the Italians meant a short +story, is almost without end. Very many of them have been lost, but a +very large number have been preserved. The first of the writers of the +time was Massuccio Salernitano, who flourished during the latter half +of the fifteenth century and died towards its close. Doni has said of +him, "Hail then to the name of Salernitano, who, scorning to borrow +even a single word from Boccaccio, has produced a work which he may +justly regard as his own." It is to him that we owe the first form of +what afterwards became "Romeo and Juliet." Massuccio was a realist and +called "Heaven to witness that the whole of his stories are a faithful +narrative of events occurring during his own time." Fifty of his +novels at least are extant. + +Often these novel writers did not attempt any other mode of +literature, and indeed not infrequently were not scholarly in any +sense of the word, but the next of the Italian novelists of the time, +Savadino degli Arienti, was an accomplished scholar and historian. His +history of his native city Bologna is still considered very valuable +by his countrymen. He entitled his tales "Porretane" because he +declared that they had been recited at the baths of Porreto, which was +the favorite summer resort and place of public amusement for the +Bolognese. The recital of these would be supposed to occupy somewhat +the place that moving pictures do now. There is a variety of amusing +adventures, witty stories, love tales, and sometimes tragic incidents +for contrast. Besides his novels and his history, Ariente wrote an +account of illustrious ladies, _Delle Donne Clare,_ dedicated to +Giunipera Sforza Bentivoglio, {455} which shows very clearly how the +women of the Renaissance, as we have come to know them, were +appreciated by their masculine contemporaries very early in Columbus' +Century. + +After Savadino comes Luigi da Porto. Crippled by a wound early in +life, he turned from the army to literature and became the friend of +many of the scholars of the time, especially Cardinal Bembo and +members of the Gonzaga family. To him we owe "Juliet" in its best and +purest form. It is the only story we have from him, but it secured +world-wide reputation at the time and has never lost its interest for +mankind. Porto was followed by Leonardo Illicini, another writer of a +single novel which has been preserved and has gone through a number of +editions. Illicini, or Licinio, as his name is sometimes given, was a +physician, for a time the court physician to the Duke of Milan, +afterwards professor of medicine at Ferrara and one of the +distinguished philosophers of the time. Every man is said to have one +good story in him, if he only has the time and energy to write it, and +Illicini wrote his and attracted the attention of his distinguished +friends and contemporaries by the nobleness and beauty of the +sentiments which he incorporated into it and which make it a singular +exception to the usual tenor of Italian novels. + +Like Illicini, Machiavelli, the historian and political philosopher, +took it upon himself to write a novel which few people have read and +yet which has a certain exaggeration of social satire which sets it +rather closely in touch with our time. The story represents indeed a +curious ever-recurring phase of the attitude that men are +accustomed--for jest purposes only--to assume toward marriage. +According to the story, the devils were very much disturbed over the +fact that most of the married men who came to hell blamed their coming +on their wives. Hell had been well enough so long as people were +willing to admit that they were punished deservedly, but society there +became very uncomfortable under this new dispensation. The devils +resolved to send one of their number up to earth to find out about it. +Belphagor, one of the fallen Archangels, having assumed the body of a +handsome man of thirty and a large fortune, is commissioned {456} to +marry and live with a wife for ten years. He finds no difficulty in +getting a bride, having "soon attracted the notice of many noble +citizens blessed with large families of daughters and small incomes. +The former of these was soon offered to him, and Belphagor chose a +very beautiful girl with the name of Onesta." The name, which +signifies purity, is evidently chosen for a purpose by Machiavelli, +for, while the wife is as pure as an angel, she has more than the +pride of Lucifer. + +A good idea of the way the story develops can only be obtained by +quoting a passage from the translation of the novel: + + "He had not long enjoyed the society of his beloved Onesta before he + became tenderly attached to her, and was unable to behold her suffer + the slightest inquietude or vexation. Now, along with her other + gifts of beauty and nobility, the lady had brought into the house of + Roderigo such an insufferable portion of pride that in this respect + Lucifer himself could not equal her, for her husband, who had + experienced the effects of both, was at no loss to decide which was + the most intolerable of the two. Yet it became infinitely worse when + she discovered the extent of Roderigo's attachment to her, of which + she availed herself to obtain an ascendency over him and rule him + with an iron rod. Not content with this, when she found he would + bear it, she continued to annoy him with all kinds of insults and + taunts, in such a way as to give him the most indescribable pain and + uneasiness. For what with the influence of her father, her brothers, + her friends and relatives, the duty of the matrimonial yoke, and the + love he bore her, he suffered all for some time with the patience of + a saint. It would be useless to recount the follies and + extravagancies into which he ran in order to gratify her taste for + dress and every article of the newest fashion, in which our city, + ever so variable in its nature, according to its usual habits, so + much abounds. Yet, to live upon easy terms with her, he was obliged + to do more than this; he had to assist his father-in-law in + portioning off his other daughters; and she next asked him to + furnish one of her brothers with goods to sail for the Levant, + another with silks for the West, while a third was to be set up in a + goldbeater's establishment at Florence. In such objects the greatest + part of his fortune was soon consumed. At length the carnival season + was at hand; the festival of St. John was to be celebrated, and the + whole city, as usual, was in a ferment. Numbers of the noblest + families were about to vie with each other in the splendor of their + parties, and the Lady Onesta, being resolved not to be outshone by + her acquaintance, insisted that Roderigo should exceed them all in + the richness of their feasts. For the reason above stated he + submitted to her will; nor, indeed, would he have scrupled at doing + much more, however difficult it {457} might have been, could he have + flattered himself with a hope of preserving the peace and comfort of + his household and of awaiting quietly the consummation of his ruin. + But this was not the case, inasmuch as the arrogant temper of his + wife had grown to such a height of asperity, by long indulgence, + that he was at a loss in what way to act. His domestics, male and + female, would no longer remain in the house, being unable to support + for any length of time the intolerable life they led. The + inconvenience which he suffered, in consequence of having no one to + whom he could intrust his affairs, it is impossible to express. Even + his own familiar devils, whom he had brought along with him, had + already deserted him, choosing to return below rather than longer + submit to the tyranny of his wife. Left, then, to himself, amidst + his turbulent and unhappy life, and having dissipated all the ready + money he possessed, he was compelled to live upon the hopes of the + returns expected from his ventures in the East and the West. Being + still in good credit, in order to support his rank, he resorted to + bills of exchange; nor was it long before, accounts running against + him, he found himself in the same situation as many other unhappy + speculators in the market. Just as his case became extremely + delicate, there arrived sudden tidings, both from the East and West, + that one of his wife's brothers had dissipated the whole of + Roderigo's profits in play, and that while the other was returning + with a rich cargo uninsured, his ship had the misfortune to be + wrecked, and he himself was lost." + +Belphagor fled and, having suffered much from his pursuers, finally +escapes, and at the end of the novel is having a rather good time at +the court of the King of France, where he has entered into possession +of the daughter of the King and is attracting much appreciated +attention from friends, relatives, courtiers, physicians and the +clergy by the acts which he causes her to perform. An Italian to whom +Belphagor had confided his secret comes to Court and recognizes the +particular devil's activities. He tries to persuade Belphagor to leave +his victim, but the demon refuses absolutely. Finally the Italian, +catching Belphagor unawares, calls out that his wife is coming after +him. With a shriek, the poor devil abandons his victim and is glad to +find his way back to hell. + +During the first half of the sixteenth century there are a whole +series of Italian novelists, each one of them the writer of many +novels. One of the earliest of these is Firenzuola, who is said to +have been a monk and who was a scholar, for among his collected works +are a translation of "Apuleius' {458} Golden Ass," treatises on +animals, two comedies, as well as critical and literary work of other +kinds. After him came Cinthio, who wrote "Hecatomithi or Hundred +Fables." He was a very prolific writer, perhaps the most popular in +his own time, with recurring periods of popularity since. His praises +were celebrated by nearly all the scholars of the period. His writing +was vivid but daring, and the style shows the beginning of that +degeneration, from over-consciousness of effort to make it scholarly, +so often characteristic of a period when genius is giving place to +mere talent. One of his stories furnished the incidents for +Shakespeare's "Tragedy of Othello," and this has given Cinthio a place +in the commentators on Shakespeare. Another of the Italian novelists +whose memory has been frequently renewed for a similar reason was +Matteo Bandello, who is often spoken of as the best from a literary +standpoint, as he is the most voluminous of the Italian novelists of +this period. He is almost the only one of them, besides Boccaccio, +known beyond the confines of Italy, and though he was a priest and +afterwards a bishop, his stories are as immoral as those of the other +novelists of the time. + +Indeed, the most important characteristic of all this novel-writing in +Italy is that most of the stories were quite without moral qualities, +not a few of them were licentious and some of them made their appeal +mainly through the liking for descriptions of cruelty to which mankind +is apparently always attracted. In our time the corresponding reading +is the daily newspaper. The stories of the crime and cruelty of the +day before that are told each morning are about of the average length +of these _novelle_ as written by the Italian novelists of the +Renaissance. There is the same demand for them and they are just as +much talked about. For literary quality the novels are infinitely +higher than our modern newspaper stories. The interesting thing about +these novels of indecency and cruelty is that the claim of their +authors at least was that they were written in order to bring about +reformation and the correction of evil by spreading the knowledge of +it and so making people realize its hideousness. Whenever any excuse +is given for our publication of the cruel and immoral details {459} of +crime in our newspapers, it follows this same specious line of +reasoning. Not a few of the writers of the popular novels were +clergymen. Bandello was made a bishop, yet continued his writing of +novels. It is perfectly possible for good, well-meaning men at any +time to be mistaken in the accomplishment of a purpose, and popularity +was as great a bait as the making of money is in our time. + +One of the most interesting contributions to Italian prose at this +time is the "Autobiography" of Benvenuto Cellini, which finds its +place very properly after the fiction of the period. The book has been +famous in the modern time, particularly since Goethe translated it, +and has gone through many editions in nearly every language in Europe. +Long ago, Walpole pronounced it "more amusing than any novel," and it +is probably rather as fiction than as genuine autobiography that it +must be judged. The style is simple, direct, straightforward, and the +wonderful romance has great historical value, for Cellini was in +contact with most of the great men and many of the higher nobility of +his time, and he has used his experiences as the groundwork of the +story. It is hard to tell now how much of it may be true, for +Cellini's great works of art would seem to contradict it, in so far as +it represents him as a frequent brutal murderer, while the amount of +labor that he must have given to the many works we have from him would +seem to make impossible that he should have spent quite so much time +as his life would hint in light living and idleness, while the +affection of his contemporaries and their respect for him in his +declining years would seem to be further contradiction. He was +evidently one of those men who like to be thought worse than they +really are and like so many of the artists of all times who are +anxious to produce the impression that their works were flashes of +genius and not the result of careful patient labor as well. + +One of the books that had a very wide influence at this period and +which deserves much more than Benvenuto's romance to be thought +typical of the time is Baldassare Castiglione's _"Cortigiano,"_ in +which the author depicts the ideal courtier or gentleman of the time. +The method of presentation is by a series of conversations held at the +Court of {460} Urbino among the distinguished persons who frequented +it in the time when most of the best-known characters of the +Renaissance found their way occasionally up to the little hill town. +Castiglione's standard for the gentleman is very high, not only in +personal conduct, but especially in intellectual accomplishment. His +purpose to draw the picture of a scholar-gentleman, the ideal of an +accomplished knight, seemed to his contemporaries to have been +successfully fulfilled. The book was widely read. It influenced not +only Italy and France and the Latin-American countries, but above all +affected the English deeply. Mr. Courthope says that, "Carried to the +North of Europe and grafted on the still chivalrous manners of the +English aristocracy, the ideal of Castiglione contributed to form the +character of Sir Philip Sidney. Augustus Hare in his "Ladies of the +Italian Renaissance" (New York, 1904) says: + + "Spenser declared that the aim of his book is the same: 'To fashion + a gentleman in noble person, in virtuous and gentle discipline.' We + might fill a volume with instances of the marvellous influence which + the work of Castiglione had upon Elizabethan literature, as we hear + it echoing through the sonnets of Shakespeare, Spenser's hymns 'Of + Heavenly Love,' Ben Jonson, Marlowe, Burton, the poets and early + dramatists, even the grave Ascham; and, amongst later writers, + Shelley's 'Hymn to Intellectual Beauty' is steeped in the same + Italian Platonism." + +As a rule, indeed, it may be said that what was best in the literature +and art of the Italian Renaissance had a much wider influence than the +worse elements in it. It is only in after-times that many of the +unfortunately too human contributions to the intellectual life of this +period have been revived among scholars and have come to be looked +upon as expressive of the spirit of the time. In every movement there +are always the lesser men whose notes are discordant and who +exaggerate the significance of their own ideas and often exhibit the +worst side of human nature. To conclude from them, however, as to the +real temper of the time and its influence would be a sad mistake. +Castiglione meant ever so much more in the Europe of his day than +Cellini. The {461} "Courtier" sank deep into the minds of poets, +artists and literary and educated folk of all classes and aroused what +was best in those who were influencing their generation. The +"Autobiography" was read much more widely, but mainly by people whose +influence over others was to be slight, while the poets and writers +and artists did not take it very seriously, but spent a leisure hour +or two over it as over any other romance, and turned to their work +again. + + +{462} + +CHAPTER III + +FRENCH LITERATURE + + +The French literature of Columbus' Century is but little, if at all, +below that of Italy in world influence and interest. It was ushered in +by that alluring character, the vagabond poet, Villon. He was twenty +the first year of our century, and having, providentially for the +world of literature, escaped hanging, wrote poetry that has always +attracted the attention of poets of every land, and besides has had a +popular vogue whenever men have looked beyond their own time and +country for literary interests. Few poets of modern times have had +among the educated of all countries so many ardent admirers--devotees +they might well be called--as Villon. The power of expression of the +Renaissance that was just opening was incarnate in him, and no one has +ever said better what he sang, though his message was limited enough. +His "Ladies of the Olden Time," probably addressed in its epilogue to +Prince Charles of Orleans, his poetic contemporary, to whom it is said +that he owed his being saved from hanging, is the best known, and is a +typical example of his work which reveals the reason for its enduring +qualities: + + "Say where--in what region be + Flora that fair Roman dame, + Hipparchia where, and Thais, she + Who doth kindred beauty claim? + Echo where? who back the same + Voice from lake and river throws, + Lovely beyond human frame: + But--where are the last year's snows? + * * * * * * + Queen Blanche, white as lily is, + Who used to sing with siren strain; {463} + Bertha, Alice, Beatrice, + Ermengarde who held the Maine, + Joan, blessed maiden of Lorraine, + At Rouen burnt by English foes. + Where are they, O Virgin Queen? + But--where are the last year's snows? + + Prince, nor in a week or year + Bid me where they be disclose. + Lest you still this burden hear. + But--where are the last year's snows?" + + +With Villon came Prince Charles of Orleans, of whom we would probably +know very little except for the fact that twenty years of imprisonment +in an English prison gave him the opportunity for devotion to poetry. +His beautiful lines on the death of his wife are a _chef-d'oeuvre_ of +mourning poetry and one of the gems of literature. The Prince's appeal +to Death as to what has made Fate so bold as to take the noble +Princess, who was his comfort, his life, his good, his pleasure, his +richness, demanding why it had not rather taken himself, has been +often translated. There is another of his little poems addressed to +her which has often been quoted and yet cannot be quoted too often: + + "How God has made her good to see! + So holy, full of grace, and fair; + For the great gifts that in her be. + All haste her praises to declare. + + Of her, what soul could weary be? + Each day her beauty doth repair. + How God has made her good to see! + So holy, full of grace, and fair. + + So hither, nor beyond the sea. + No damsel nor dame I know. + Who can like her all graces show; + Only in dreams such thought can be-- + How God has made her good to see!" + +{464} + +One of Clement Marot's shorter poems contains his formula for what +constitutes happiness in life. It is the same formula that has been in +the mouths of all the poets at all times who have cared to express +themselves on the subject, though some critics have been unkind enough +to say that it was not always in their hearts--"Happy the man whose +mind and care a few paternal acres share." Marot goes somewhat more +into detail. His poem is an anticipation of the sonnet of the great +master printer of Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, at the end of this +century. Because of its many associations it deserves a place here: + + "This, Clement Marot! (if you wish to know) + Can upon man a happy life bestow. + Goods you don't earn, but by bequest acquire, + A pleasant wholesome house and constant fire. + Hated by none, yourself devoid of hate. + And little meddling with affairs of state: + A wise and simple life, true friends, and like + A good plain fare, with nought the eyes to strike, + With all in easy converse to combine: + Pass careless nights, not careless made by wine; + A wife to have--kind, joyous, chaste and bright; + And well to sleep, which shorter makes the night: + Contented with your rank, nor wish for higher; + And neither death to fear, nor death desire + This, Clement Marot! (if you wish to know) + Can upon man a happy life bestow." + +Francis I was himself a poet, and his poems and letters were collected +and published in the first half of the nineteenth century. "In default +of a great talent, he had a real passion for poetry," says Imbert de +Saint-Amand, and like the Trouveres he liked to make use of the lyre +and sword by turns. Sainte-Beuve in his _"Portraits Litteraires"_ +declared that "Francis I, from the day he ascended the throne, gave +the signal for this puissant labor which was to aid in expanding and +definitely polishing the French language. Thanks to the impulse given +by him from above, there was soon a universal {465} clearing of the +ground all around him." The verses in which he formulated one of the +most melancholy and most striking judgments that ever monarch +pronounced on the nothingness of the grandeurs of this lower world, +deserve to be quoted: + + "The more my goods, the more my sorrow grows; + The more my honors, less is my content; + For one I gain, a hundred I desire. + When nought I have, for nothing I lament; + But having all, the fear doth me torment, + Either to lose it or to make it worse. + Tired, full well may I my misery mourn, + Seeing I die of envy but to have a good. + Which is my death and I esteem it life." + +The most important writer in France at this time, however, was +undoubtedly Francis' sister, Margaret of Navarre or Angouleme. Her +"Heptameron" has been widely read in practically every generation +since her own, and though some doubt has been thrown on her authorship +of it, it is probable that the age-long attribution to her must +remain. The book is about as evil in its influence as any that was +ever written. Its author was undoubtedly a saint. She had the best of +intentions, and her work illustrates how easy it is for good +intentions to go wrong. Hell was paved with good intentions then as +now. As I have suggested in the chapter on Some Great Women of the +Century, a corresponding mistake is being made by many good women now +in the crusade of providing sex information as a protection for the +young. Margaret's work is one of the best specimens of French prose of +the time. Saintsbury, in his volume on "The Early Renaissance," calls +it a very remarkable book which has, as a rule, been undervalued, +"presenting almost equal attractions for those who read for mere +amusement, to those who appreciate literature as literature, and to +those who like extra literary puzzles of various kinds from authorship +to allusion." + +Margaret's reputation has suffered more than was deserved from the +condemnation of the "Heptameron." Her personality merits to be judged +rather from the charming poetry of a {466} mystical character which +she wrote. Her book, "Les Marguerites de la Marguerite des +Princesses," is too well known to be much more than mentioned here. It +has a charming grace and an exquisite delicacy. It is the true index +to her character. As Imbert de Saint-Amand has said in his "Women of +the Valois Court," "Poetry and religion were her two consolers." Her +resolution when she looked at her crucifix and burst into poetry was: + + "It is my will and firm intent + To be no more what I have been, + Nor to amuse myself in this poor world. + Seeing the griefs that reign there and abound. + And which by day and night torment my heart." + +There are bursts of piety in her collection worthy of her great +mystical contemporary, St. Teresa. The following would almost remind +one of St. Teresa's cry, "I die that I may die." + + "Lord, when shall come the day + I long to see, + When by pure love I shall + Be drawn to Thee? + That nuptial day, O Lord, + So long delays. + That no content I find + In wealth or praise. + Wipe from these sorrowing eyes + The tear that flows, + And grant me Thy best gift, + A sweet repose." + +The French poetess, Louise Labe, _la cordiere,_ the cord-wainer's +wife, as she was called, in reference to her husband's occupation, +deserves a place because she represents at once the opportunities even +of the lowly born of her sex for the higher education at this time, +and her writings exhibit a natural grace and ardent passion that place +them in a high rank of lyric poetry. Poetesses of passion there have +been a-plenty since, {467} yet it is doubtful if many of them have +surpassed much the French lady of the Renaissance from the middle +classes. The sonnet form would seem highly unsuitable to us for such +passionate expression, but it was the fashion to use it, and Louise +Labe anticipates by some three hundred years Mrs. Browning's use of +this form for a very similar purpose. One of her sonnets may very well +be read beside some of those of Mrs. Browning. + + "As soon as ever I begin to take. + In my soft bed, the rest which I desire, + Forth from my frame does my sad soul retire, + And hastes toward thee its eager way to make. + Then in my tender heart, ere I awake. + The bliss I gain to which I most aspire. + The bliss for which to sigh I never tire. + For which I weep as though my heart would break. + A kindly sleep, O sleep to me so blest, + Happy repose, full of tranquillity. + Grant that each night I may renew my dream. + And if my sad heart, by all love possest. + Must ne'er be happy in reality. + Yet while I sleep so let me falsely seem." + +The humor of the end of Columbus' Century is very well illustrated in +some of the epigrams of Melin de Saint Gelais, like Marot, the son of +a poet and brought up in poetic circles, who knew how to write elegant +trivialities, or who was, as the French say, _maitre en l'art de +badiner avec elegance._ Curiously enough, it was he who imported the +sonnet from Italy. It had been hitherto unknown to French poets, but +was unfortunately, as it must seem to most of us, destined to eclipse +the ballades, rondeaux, virelais and other poetic forms that had been +for so long in vogue in France. I prefer to quote here two of his +shorter epigramatic poems which serve to show how old the new is in +wit and humor: + + "You find great fault with me, my friend. + Because your neighbor I commend, + And yet from you all praise withhold: {468} + But say, why should I waste my time + Praising your merits or your rhyme? + You do it best a hundredfold." + +The second treats in vivid satire the eternal question of the honor +due the scholar: + + "Friend! tell of these two things the just degree, + Great learning or great wealth; the better which? + I know not. But the learned still I see + Paying great court and homage to the rich." + +The _"Defense et Illustration de la Langue Francaise,"_ which is the +manifesto of the Pleiades, was written by Joachim du Bellay just at +the end of Columbus' Century and published in February, 1550, +according to the modern calendar, but 1549 in the old, which made the +year begin on Lady Day (March 25). With that a group of men, most of +them about twenty-five years of age, entered upon a new period of +French literature. A sham middle age had been lingering on,--the mere +remnants and echo of the Romance of the Rose, and now a new spirit was +to enter into French literature. The genius of it had all been cradled +in Columbus' Century. The poets of the Pleiades came to teach the +modern note. Pierre Ronsard was the greatest of them, and in five +years all Europe knew something of the new birth in French poetry. Two +such very different minds as those of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth +of England became ardent admirers and indeed almost patrons of the new +poets, and particularly of Ronsard. Many of the poems had been +conceived, and some of the best were issued within a year or two after +the close of what we have called Columbus' Century. The little lyric +_"Mignonne! Allons voir si la Rose,"_ which has always been a favorite +in every generation with any poetry in its soul, was known throughout +Europe within a year of its publication in 1552. + +There is another ode of Ronsard's of much more serious vein which +serves to show that the poets of the older time could think of other +things besides love and beauty and the rose, and face the sterner +problems of their time and sing the {469} meaning of them with poetic +depth. Because its subject is quite as eternal in its interest as that +of the love poems and has perhaps more significance for our time, I +prefer to quote it: + + "Why, poor peasant, should you dread + Sceptered hand or crowned head? + They shall soon--slight shades--be sent + The number of the dead t' augment. + To all mortals--dost not wis?-- + Death's wide gate e'er open is. + There th' imperial soul must wend, + There as speedily descend, + Charon's fatal boat to find, + As the soul of serf or hind. + + Courage you who delvers are; + These great thunderbolts of war + No more than yourselves shall go + Armed with breastplate there below, + As though battling as of yore. + Mail shall profit them no more-- + Lance and shield and battle blade-- + Than shall you your scythe and spade. + + Rhadamanthus, judge severe, + Be you sure no more will fear + Armor in his dread abode + Than the peasant's wooden goad; + Nor does more or less admire + Richest robe or mean attire, + Or the gorgeous pageantry + Where the king in state doth lie." + +Joachim du Bellay, snatched away at the early age of thirty-five +after having passed many years in illness, owed his inspiration to +write poetry to his reading of the classics. It was he who wrote the +proclamation of the Pleiades which I have already mentioned. Had his +fate been happier, doubtless there {470} would have been many great +poems from him and he would have been a serious rival of his friend +Ronsard. As it is, there are from his pen some poems that will always +have an interest for the French and for the educated in every country. +One of the more serious deserves to be quoted. + + "If, then, our life is shorter than a day + Lost in all time; if the revolving year + Hurries our days past hope to reappear; + If all things born must fail and pass away-- + + What, O my prisoned soul, dost dream of? say! + Why so much love our days of darkness here. + If to take flight to an abode more dear, + Well-feathered wings you on your shoulders sway? + + There is the good which ever soul desires. + There the repose to which the world aspires, + And there is love and pleasure evermore. + + There, O my soul, rapt to the highest skies, + You will in actual substance recognize + Th' ideal beauty which I now adore." + +In the French prose of our century there is Comines at the beginning, +a not unworthy fourth in that wonderful quartette of French historical +writers which began with Villehardouin at the end of the twelfth +century, gave us Joinville in the thirteenth, Froissart in the +fourteenth and Comines in the latter half of the fifteenth. He is one +of the historians who will ever be read; with a political sagacity and +philosophic outlook on history that give him a place of his own. He +was no mere chronicler, and the individuality of his work, that +quality by which history is raised into literature, sets him far above +many a modern writer of what is called history, though it is merely a +collection of materials for some historian who will inform them with a +soul. At the end of the century there was Michel de L'Hopital, whose +orations, numerous memoirs and special treatises mainly connected with +explanations of {471} law have the defects of legal writing at all +times, and yet exhibit a power of expression that has seldom been +equalled at any time. + +After Rabelais, undoubtedly the greatest of the prose writers of the +time was Amyot, whose first work, a translation of a Greek romance, +"Theagene et Charicle," was published in 1546, and who, in the +subsequent years of a life that reached almost to ninety, published +his translations of Plutarch, a work for which he received the +designation of preceptor of the royal children and the Bishopric of +Auxerre. He was the grand almoner. + +Amyot's translation of Plutarch has been declared practically a new +and original work. Montaigne said of it: + +"I am grateful to Amyot above all things for having had the wit to +select so worthy and so suitable a work to present his country. We +ignorant folk had been lost, had not this lifted us out of the mire; +thanks to it, we now dare speak and write, and ladies give lessons out +of it to school-masters; 'tis our breviary." For English-speaking +people its significance is greatly enhanced from the consideration +that it was really Amyot's version which, in the English dress of +Florio, became Shakespeare's Plutarch. Anyone who knows how closely +Shakespeare followed his Plutarch will appreciate, then, what an +important influence on world literature Amyot was destined to have. + +This translation of Plutarch has come to be looked upon as probably +one of the best translations ever made. It has sometimes been said +that "to translate is to betray" and that the best translations are at +most tapestries seen from the wrong side, but Amyot's "Plutarch" must +be considered an exception to this rule. Erasmus said of Linacre's +translation into Latin of Galen that it was better than the original +Greek. Amyot's "Plutarch" has become a French classic, though the +Greek author was by no means classic in the limited sense of the word +in the original. Racine would read no other because he thought there +was nothing to equal it in French. Amyot's works are a treasure house +of the French language, and modern French critics often regret that +many of his expressions have been allowed to sink into desuetude. + +{472} + +France glories in the possession of another of these striking +characters of the Renaissance period, Rabelais, about the estimation +of whose character and place in history, just as with regard to +Machiavelli, the world has not quite made up its mind. There is no +doubt at all as to his genius, nor his breadth of view and +comprehensive grasp of the knowledge of his time, nor of his ability +as a vigorous writer, though his crudities of style and frequent +indulgence in vulgarity, have made him a writer largely for men, and +even many of these have been deterred from the study of his writings +because of the glaringness of these faults. His defects were largely +those of his time, for they were accustomed to call a spade a spade in +the Renaissance. It was not because of looseness of his own life that +his crudities of style are so manifest. Careful investigations and +research in our time have made it very clear that there are many +misunderstandings with regard to his personal character which should +be removed. Rabelais ran the whole gamut of life in his time. He was +first a friar, then a monk, took his medical degrees at Montpellier, a +physician who gained considerable prestige for his knowledge of +medicine, a writer of books that were widely read, a scholar whose +journeys to Rome gave him a breadth of knowledge unusual even in his +time, and the intimate friend of some of the great and good churchmen +and literary men of his time. + +The old legend which represented him as a gluttonous and wine-bibbing +buffoon, wandering in revels as an unfrocked priest, must now be +abandoned. His transitions from friar to monk, to physician, were all +accomplished with due ecclesiastical permission, and in spite of the +freedom of speech and liberalizing tendencies to be found in his +writings he never got into serious trouble with the ecclesiastical +authorities. Evidently he was looked upon as a genius whose good will +might be depended on to keep him from serious heretical divagations, +though occasionally his superabundant vital spirit would lead him into +expressions that were often indiscreet and sometimes needed +correction. His relations with Guillaume and Jean du Bellay and with +the bishops of Maillezais and Montpellier, as well as the +distinguished jurist, Tiraqueau, furnish most convincing proof of the +high regard in which he was held not {473} only by men of his own +rank, but by those far above him in power and station--Princes of the +Church and patrons of humanism. + +In spite of their deterring vulgarity, his works have been much read +ever since and are still often in the hands of scholars and those who +want to appreciate one phase at least of the true inwardness and +all-comprehensiveness of the spirit of the Renaissance. The number of +Greek and Latin writers from whom he quotes is very large, and his +reading must have been very wide. He seems also to have known some +Hebrew. Very few of his contemporaries realized at all that in his +writings he had made an enduring contribution not only to French, but +to world literature. So good a critic, however, as Joachim du Bellay +in the "Defence and Illustration of the French Tongue" alludes to him +as the man "who has brought back Aristophanes to life and who imitates +so well the satirical wit of Lucian." + +The fact that his book should be published at this time without its +author incurring serious censure, much less persecution, is a proof +that the usual persuasion of many who write on the history of this +time that heresy-baiting was a favorite occupation of the Churchmen is +unfounded and shows how absurd is the impression entertained by not a +few that the slightest imprudence might have even fatal consequences. +Men like Etienne Dolet and Giordano Bruno lost their lives at this +time on heretical charges, but that was because their writings seemed +to the Church, and above all the civil authorities of the time, to +undermine authority and to propagate anarchy. This has always been a +dangerous suspicion for a philosophic writer to fall under at any +time, and is not without its serious dangers, social rather than +legal, even in our time. In other matters, however, as the example of +Rabelais shows, there was, if not a modern liberty, at least a large +tolerance of expression, provided the thoughts were tempered by humor +and the character of the writer known to be such that genuine ill-will +or anarchic tendencies towards civil and ecclesiastical authorities +were not the manifest purpose of the writings. + +The interest of our own generation in Rabelais is best {474} +illustrated by the foundation in 1902 of the Societe des Etudes +Rabelaisiennes at Paris. The organ of the Society, the _Revue des +Etudes Rabelaisiennes,_ made its first appearance in January, 1903, +and has already added much to our knowledge of Rabelais. It has now +been thoroughly demonstrated that Gargantua was a popular and +folk-lore character long before Rabelais' time, and that he assumed +the character only in order to give popular vogue to his own ideas. In +spite of the cruder side of his work he has so much to say that is +valuable with regard to education, valuable even for our time, so much +of correction of popular errors and emphatic restatement of the +philosophy of life by which men may secure their happiness, not +through selfishness, but love for their fellowmen, that whenever men +think deeply for themselves and do not merely drift in the wake of +other thinkers, Rabelais will always attract attention. It is always a +good sign when Rabelais becomes popular in France, for men are usually +thinking more deeply than before. Like Dante, he is a touchstone of +sincerity and honesty of thought and purpose among his countrymen. + +Rabelais is a most difficult man to sum up for those who are not +French. Saintsbury in his "Earlier Renaissance" has perhaps furnished +the best brief appreciation when he said: + + "On the pure credit side his (Rabelais') assets are so great that + one can only marvel at the undervaluation of them by any competent + auditor. . . . You _may_ say some things against him, and some of + these _some_ things truly. But three things will remain. He is (let + the competent gainsay it if they dare) one of the greatest writers + of the world; he is one of the great satirists of the world; and he + is--as not all great writers and very few great satirists have + been--one who sincerely and strenuously loved his fellowmen." + +In the first paragraph of his "Francois Rabelais" [Footnote 45] +(written for the French Men of Letters Series), Arthur Tilley, whose +"Literature of the French Renaissance" had shown how competent he was +to judge, has summed up the character and place of Rabelais. It is to +Tilley that I owe most of the {475} details that are given here, and +his paragraph will serve as a fitting conclusion. + + [Footnote 45: Lippincott, Phila., 1907.] + + "It is a characteristic of the very greatest writers that they sum + up, with more or less completeness, the thought, the aspirations, + and the temper of their age, and this not only for their own + country, but for the whole civilized world. Of this select band is + Rabelais. He is the embodiment not only of the early French + Renaissance, but of the whole Renaissance in its earlier and fresher + manifestations, in its devotion to humanism, in its restless and + many-sided curiosity, in its robust enthusiasm, in its belief in the + future of the human race." + + +{476} + + +CHAPTER IV + +SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE LITERATURE + +The Spanish literature of the period contains some all-important +material of great significance not only for Spanish literature itself, +but also for the literature of the world. In the chapter on Women of +the Renaissance, I have called attention to the interest of Queen +Isabella in things literary, and while she did not produce any formal +literary work, her letters have been pronounced by the Spanish Academy +classic documents in the Spanish language. The most important +contribution to Spanish literature during the century came also from a +woman, though she doubtless had as little thought of making literature +when she wrote as did the Queen. This was St. Teresa, to whose works +serious writers on spiritual subjects in all countries and at all +times, often in spite of differences of belief, have turned as +classics of spirituality. Her literary work consists of the treatises +which she wrote by order of her confessors on mystical subjects and +then her many letters. It is these last, particularly, that have been +widely read in the modern time and that are world classics in their +order. Probably no one has been more misunderstood than St. Teresa. +She has come to be considered by many, who, as a rule, know nothing at +all of her at first hand, as one of the almost impossible saintly +personages whose hours of concentration in prayer and fasting and +other mortifications have driven them into states of mind bordering on +the irrational, if not frankly hysterical. Indeed she is often +considered to be the most striking type of these. + + + [Illustration: FRANCIA, VIRGIN WEEPING OVER BODY OF CHRIST (LONDON)] + + +David Hannay, in his "The Later Renaissance" in Professor Saintsbury's +series, Periods of European Literature (New York: Scribner's, 1898), +who has read her works with care, says: "Her letters, which are not +only the most attractive part of her writing, but even the most +valuable, show her {477} not only as a great saint, but as a great +lady with a very acute mind, a fine wit and an abounding good sense. +Her own great character is stamped on every line. Nobody ever showed +less of the merely emotional saintly character 'meandering about, +capricious, melodious, weak, at the will of devout whim mainly.'" + +To get the real charm of St. Teresa's writings, one must read her +letters, and from those it is almost impossible to take such +selections as might be included in the brief space allowed here. +Fortunately they have come to us as she wrote them. Fray Luis de Leon +was himself literary enough to save them from a worthy +father-confessor, who would have "improved upon and polished her +periods." The world came near losing the marvellous language of which +Crashaw said, "Oh it is not Spanish, but it is Heaven she spoke." + +Some idea of her simplicity and power of expression can be appreciated +from the "Hymn to Christ Crucified," familiar to English readers in +Dryden's version, which has been attributed also to St. Ignatius +Loyola and St. Francis Xavier, but which seems more appropriately +ascribed to the Seraphic Mother of Crashaw's burning words, "sweet +incendiary," "undaunted daughter of desires" and "fair sister of the +seraphin." The poem is, no matter who may have been its author, at +least a striking example of the style of the time. + + "O God, Thou art the object of my love, + Not for the hopes of endless joys above. + Nor for the fear of endless pain below + Which those who love Thee not must undergo: + For me, and such as me, Thou once didst bear + The ignominious cross, the nails, the spear, + A thorny crown transpierced Thy sacred brow. + What bloody sweats from every member flow! + For me, in torture Thou resign'st Thy breath, + Nailed to the cross, and sav'st me by Thy death: + Say, can these sufferings fail my heart to move? + What but Thyself can now deserve my love? + Such as then was and is Thy love to me. + Such is, and shall be still, my love to Thee. {478} + Thy love, O Jesus, may I ever sing, + O God of love, kind Parent, dearest King." + +The most original contribution of Spain to pure literature were the +Tales of Chivalry, which became so popular at the end of the fifteenth +century. _"Amadis de Gaul"_ is claimed by the French, but the French +original has been lost and the Spanish one is not only well known, but +characteristically Spanish, partaking of the very temper of the +people. The first known edition is early in the sixteenth century, and +within fifty years Spain produced twelve editions of it. A whole +series of books of similar kind followed it. Many of these were +totally lacking in literary quality, but they achieved popularity. Our +own first novelists were literary folk. They have been succeeded by +hack writers, who watch the fashion of the moment and make ever so +much more money and sell ever so many more copies than did the great +novelists. Something like this happened in Spain. These tales of +chivalry have sometimes been made a matter of reproach to the +intelligence of the Spaniards of the time, but then what shall we say +of our own much more widespread occupation with stories if possible +more trivial and absurd? + +We are not without tributes from distinguished men to the interest +they found in some of these stories. The _"Palmerin de Inglaterra"_ +which Cervantes' priest "would have kept in such a casket as that +which Alexander found among Darius' spoils intended to guard the works +of Homer," attracted so much attention from Edmund Burke that he +avowed in the House of Commons that he had spent much time over it. +Dr. Johnson confessed to having spent the leisure hours of a summer +upon _"Felixmarte de Hircania." "Amadis de Gaul"_ classed by +Cervantes' barber as "the best in that kind," is perhaps the only one +of the tales of chivalry that a man need read. The usual assumption +that it is a story of France, because of the word Gaul, is quite +mistaken. Amadis is a British Knight, Gaul stands for Wales, +Vindilisora is Windsor, while Bristol becomes Bristoya. The action +occurs "not many years after the Passion of our Redeemer." There are +marvellous adventures, something happens on every page, {479} combats +with giants, magical spells of all kinds, miracles, hair-breadth +escapes, last-moment rescues, till fidelity is rewarded and Amadis +marries Oriana, daughter of the King of Britain, and they all live +happy ever after. + +After the Tales of Chivalry came the Novelas de Picaros, picaresque +novels we have called these Tales of Roguery in English. The two modes +of fiction represent the opposite extremes. The tales of chivalry were +almost entirely imaginary. The picaresque novels were rather +naturalistic studies from low life. The first of these was the +_"Celestina"_ but the one that was most influential is the _"Lazarillo +de Tormes,"_ which curiously enough has been attributed, though on +dubious evidence, to the famous Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and also to +Fray Juan de Ortega of the Order of St. Jerome. The stories represent +the ever-recurring tendency of mankind to be interested in a rogue, to +be ready to laugh at his rascalities and especially his capacity for +cheating his betters that has been used so effectively by Plautus and +was the germ of the idea in the plot of Gil Bias and Scarron and +probably suggested Shakespeare's "Jack Falstaff." There are phases of +our modern fiction that display the same tendency. + +Fitzmaurice Kelly in his "Spanish Literature" (Appleton's Literatures +of the World Series, New York, 1898) said of the _"Lazarillo de +Tormes"_: + + "After three hundred years, it survives all its rivals, and may be + read with as much edification and amusement as on the day of its + first appearance. It set a fashion, a fashion that spread to all + countries, and finds a nineteenth century manifestation in the pages + of 'Pickwick'; but few of its successors match it in satirical + humor, and none approach it in pregnant concision, where no word is + superfluous, and where every word tells with consummate effect. + Whoever wrote the book, he fixed forever the type of the comic prose + epic as rendered by the needy, and he did it in such wise as to defy + all competition." + +By a very curious contrast, the literature of Spanish origin from this +century which has most influenced the world, being translated into all +the languages and read and studied deeply, is exactly the opposite +pole of these prose epics. For the {480} world's best-known writers on +spirituality and mysticism have been Spaniards, the greatest of them +lived at this time and they are still being read everywhere, edition +after edition appearing in many languages. The great names among the +mystics whose writings were either completed during our century, or at +least the foundation for whose work was laid because their authors +came to their maturity during this time, were John of Avila, Luis de +Granada and Luis de Leon. John of Avila is the best known of these and +occupied something of the position of master to the others. His most +famous book, "The Spiritual Treatise," is still widely read in +religious institutions and is familiar to all those who have made any +serious study of the religious life. As there are and have been ever +since his time hundreds of thousands of religious in the world, many +of them representing the highest culture and good taste, "the apostle +of Andalusia," as he was called, has had a large circle of chosen +readers for all these centuries. His book is written with an ardent +eloquence in the deeply spiritual passages, and as Hannay has said, +"has always a large share of the religious quality of unction." There +are many profoundly intelligent and seriously thoughtful men of our +time who consider it one of the most wonderful books ever written. + +Luis de Granada's book, "The Guide for Sinners," was translated into +all the languages of Europe and read not only by the clergy, but by +the people. His book of "Prayer and Meditation on the Principal +Mysteries of Faith" was much more in the hands of the clergy and +religious, but was scarcely less famous. Luis de Leon's "Perfecta +Casada" gained a wide reputation, and his other books on "The Names of +Christ" and "The Book of Job" had a place in every important religious +community in Europe. + +Two names in the Spanish poetry of this period are immortal in Spain, +and their writings are familiar to the students of literature the +world over. They are Boscan and Garcilaso de la Vega. The younger man, +Garcilaso, sent Castiglione's _"Il Cortigiano"_ to Boscan and +suggested its translation into Spanish. Fitzmaurice Kelly, in his +"Spanish Literature," has said, "Though Boscan himself held +translation to be a thing {481} meet for 'men of small parts,' his +rendering is an almost perfect performance." This led Boscan to put +into Spanish form many other Italian pieces, not so much by +translation as by imitation more suited to the genius of the Spanish +language. Not a great genius, not a lordly versifier, endowed with not +one supreme gift, Boscan ranks as an unique instance in the annals of +literature by virtue of his enduring and irrevocable victory. + +Garcilaso, his young friend, is far ahead of him in poetic genius. He +was a soldier-poet, "taking now the sword and now the pen," as he said +himself, and he died at the early age of thirty-three. His death +occurred as the leader of a storming party in romantic circumstances, +under the eye of the Emperor and the army. The first to climb the +breach, he fell mortally wounded into the arms of the future +translator of Ariosto and of his more intimate friend, the Marques de +Lombay, whom the world knows best as St. Francis Borgia. "His +illustrious descent, his ostentatious valor, his splendid presence, +his seductive charm, his untimely death: all these, joined to his gift +of song, combined to make him the hero of legend and the idol of a +nation. Like Sir Philip Sidney, Garcilaso personified all +accomplishments and all graces." Curiously enough it is not the +martial but the pastoral that Garcilaso sings and "the light that +never was on land or sea," of peace with poetic melancholy, that may +so easily be the subject of criticism, yet has always been the +favorite retreat of a great many poets at many recurring times. + +At the Western end of the Spanish Peninsula the Portuguese, distinct +in language, had a literature of their own which reached its +perfection just after Columbus' Century, but the promise of which can +be seen during our period. The greatest of their poets is Camoeens, +whom the German critic Schlegel did not hesitate to place above not +only his two great contemporaries of the sixteenth century, Ariosto +and Tasso, but above all the modern epic poets and even above Virgil. +His poem has been read in translation in all the languages of Europe. +While it was not written in what we have called Columbus' Century, the +poet had given evidence of the greatness of his genius before 1550, +and some of the sonnets of his {482} early years have deservedly been +looked upon as worthy perhaps of a place among the greatest examples +in that form. Mrs. Browning's reason for calling her "Sonnets from the +Portuguese" by that name was that probably the most beautiful love +sonnets in the world had been written in that language. The Portuguese +language was given the form in which it was to survive at this time, +and it is always when a language is being formed that somehow geniuses +come to round out its powers of expression and at the same time give +it the form which it is to maintain partly as a consequence of their +genius having expressed itself in it in certain enduring modes. + +Some of the shorter poems written by Camoeens when he was a young man +between twenty and twenty-five, that is, before the close of Columbus' +Century, are so characteristic of the _vers de societe_ at all times, +and yet are such delightful bits of versification with here and there +a touch of charming poetic quality, that they have more than passing +interest for the modern time. I venture to quote several of them to +illustrate their variety, but at the same time because, though all are +attributed to Camoeens, it is doubtful whether some of them were not +written by others and afterwards transferred to him because of his +greater fame. They illustrate very well the poetic vein of the +Portuguese of the time, though ordinarily it is not assumed that +Portugal was touched by the spirit of the Renaissance to any great +degree or that her literature is of any significance. Most of them are +with regard to love, though not all of them are as serious as the +rondeau so often quoted: + + "Just like Love is yonder rose, + Heavenly fragrance round it throws. + Yet tears its dewy leaves disclose, + And in the midst of briars it blows, + Just like Love. + + Cull'd to bloom upon the breast. + Since rough thorns the stem invest. + They must be gather'd with the rest. + And with it, to the heart be press'd. + Just like Love. + {483} + And when rude hands the twin-buds sever + They die--and they shall blossom never, + --Yet the thorns be sharp as ever, + Just like Love." + +In lighter vein is the canzonet to the lady who swore by her eyes, a +custom which was rather common according to the tales of chivalry so +popular shortly before this time. The first and last stanza will give +a good idea of it: + + "When the girl of my heart is on perjury bent, + The sweetest of oaths hides the falsest intent. + And Suspicion, abash'd, from her company flies, + When she smiles like an angel--and swears by her eyes. + + Then, dear one, I'd rather, thrice rather believe + Whate'er you assert, even though to deceive. + Than that you 'by your eyes' should so wickedly swear, + And sin against heaven--for heaven is there!" + +At times the Portuguese poet could be rather serious. The two stanzas +from the beginning of a canzonet, which contrasts the making of money +with the doing of good as the proper aim of life, has often been +quoted: + + "Since in this dreary vale of tears + No certainty but death appears. + Why should we waste our vernal years + In hoarding useless treasure? + + No--let the young and ardent mind + Become the friend of humankind, + And in the generous service find + A source of purer pleasure!" + +The poet is said to have fallen in love with a maid of honor at the +court far above him in rank. For this impudence, he was banished from +court, and unable to live so near, yet so far, resolved to go as a +soldier to Africa. Somehow or other a {484} last meeting with her (she +died at the early age of twenty) was managed before his departure, and +he discovered in her eyes, as she bade him good-bye, the secret that +she was as deeply in love as he. He went where duty called, fought +bravely, losing the sight of an eye in one of the battles, and, loaded +with martial honor, was permitted to return to court. When he +returned, his inamorata was no more. The sonnet written when he +learned the sad news is more artificial perhaps than he would have +written in his maturity, but it and others gave Portuguese literature +the fame for love sonnets which suggested to Mrs. Browning the title +"Sonnets from the Portuguese" for her love poems: + + "Those charming eyes, within whose starry sphere + Love whilom sat, and smil'd the hours away. + Those braids of light that sham'd the beams of day. + That hand benignant, and that heart sincere; + Those virgin cheeks, which did so late appear + Like snow-banks scatter'd with the blooms of May, + Turn'd to a little cold and worthless clay. + Are gone--forever gone--and perish here, + --But not unbath'd by Memory's warmest tear! + --Death! thou hast torn, in one unpitying hour. + That fragrant plant, to which, while scarce a flow'r. + The mellower fruitage of its prime was given; + Love saw the deed--and as he lingered near, + Sigh'd o'er the ruin, and return'd to Heav'n!" + +The literature of the Spanish peninsula was to have its flourishing +period in the century following that we have called after Columbus, +but there is enough of enduring literary products to show that men's +minds were deeply affected by the great spirit of the time and to lay +broad and deep foundations for the Golden Age of Spanish literature +that was to follow so soon. + + + +{485} + +CHAPTER V + +ENGLISH LITERATURE + +The English literature of Columbus' Century obtained some of its +triumphs very early in the period in a literary department, that of +dramatics, in which other nations achieved little success. England in +the latter part of the fifteenth century produced a series of plays +whose high place in literature was only recognized properly during the +past two or three generations. Ordinarily it is assumed that dramatic +literature of serious significance did not develop in any modern +language until much later than this time. Indeed, as a rule, the +English drama of Shakespeare's time is supposed to be the first +development of any importance in this department. The Spanish drama +developed almost immediately after our Shakespearean period, the +French came half a century later, and curiously enough Italy and +Germany did not develop a national drama until the nineteenth century. +The mystery and morality plays of the latter half of the fifteenth +century in England have been revived in recent years and have +illustrated beyond all doubt the genius of their authors and the fine +evolution of drama at this time. Specimens that have been played in +many places, in public performances, have proved to possess a gripping +power over audiences, surpassing the dramatic literature of our own +time, and the dramatic ability and genius of the men who wrote them +has now come to be generally recognized. + +"Everyman," for instance, has been played to crowded houses in many of +the large cities of the country, audiences listening intently for the +two hours without an intermission and then paying the highest possible +tribute by going out always in silence. The story is only a dramatic +rendition of the place in life of the "four last things to be +remembered"--death, judgment, heaven and hell--of interest to every +man. Such a subject would seem to be quite out of harmony {486} with +the temper of our time and above all with the mood in which our people +attend the theatre. The man who wrote it and was able to give it such +enduring interest was a dramatic genius of the first order, for he was +able to take the familiar things of life, even those to which men are +not prone to give much attention, and make them compelling. + +Mystery plays have come to have much more significance for us since +the wide popularity of the Passion Play at Oberammergau. Thousands of +people go up to the little village of scarcely more than a thousand +inhabitants every ten years to see and hear the simple villagers tell +the old, old story of the Passion and Death of Him that died on the +Cross for us. Some, perhaps, of the attendance is due to the fact that +it has become a fad to go, yet most of it is a real act of devotion, +but to a shrine that is literary and truly dramatic as well as +religious. From all over the world people have flocked to it and have +confessed the dramatic force of the story in its simple setting in +such a way as to make us realize what a powerful appeal the old +mystery plays must have had for the people of the later Middle Ages +when they came to their perfection of presentation. The appeal that +the Passion Play had to the older folk, the Nativity Plays had for the +children, though also for their elders and especially the women. + +It is exactly during Columbus' Century that these mystery and morality +plays reached their highest development and greatest perfection of +expression and presentation. In England this development proved to be +the fertile field out of which sprang the great Elizabethan dramatic +literature. There are all the elements of a great dramatic literature +in them. There is simplicity and directness with the presentation of +subjects that have the highest appeal and yet very humanly done, so +that wit, and above all, humor, has its role, and the problems +concerned are those which interest all mankind. So little is known +about this phase of dramatic literature, though it represents such a +charmingly simple expression of dramatic poetry, containing a lesson +of sincerity, naturalness and occupation with the higher things, which +our generation needs above all in order to be lifted out of the rut of +over-attention to problem plays, that some review of it seems +necessary not {487} only for a complete picture of the literature of +Columbus' time, but also for the sake of the enduring social +significance of this early dramatic literature. + + + [Illustration: Page from early popular printed religious book + (woodcut)] + + +While we have greater examples of this mode of literature from +England, in nearly every country in Europe the Passion Plays had a +wonderful development toward the end of the fifteenth century. They +were particularly striking, both in their literary value and their +presentation in the Teutonic {488} countries and in England. There was +a whole series of plays in England, many of which have come down to +us. There is question whether "Everyman" was originally of Dutch or of +English origin. The first production of it was as a translation of the +Dutch _"Elkerlijk."_ In Germany, the period in which the Passion Play +reached its highest development was from about 1450 to 1550. The great +Frankfurt Passion Play, the Alsfelder and the Friedburger plays came +at this time. Many other towns, however, had their special Passion +Plays written for them and presented in their own way. There was the +Vienna Passion, the St. Gall Passion and the Maestricht Passion. But +there were Passion Plays also at Eger, at Augsburg, Freising and +Lucerne. From very early times Passion Plays were given in various +parts of the Tyrol, always attracting the deep attention of the +people, and it is here that the single example which has survived +still serves to show us how genuinely dramatic and how powerful in +their appeal were these plays. [Footnote 46] + + [Footnote 46: It is almost amusing to be told that knowledge of the + Scriptures was kept from the people at this time, before the + Reformation, when these popular plays to which all the countryside + flocked, and in which so many took part, were making them thoroughly + familiar with all the details of Christ's life. There was much more + than this, however, for connected with many of the Passion Plays + were cycles of tableaux or presentations of special scenes in which, + beginning with the Creation, the whole story of the Bible, and + particularly those portions which are related to the coming of + Christ, were set clearly before them. No better way of impressing + upon the people the great truths of Christianity or the life of + Christ as the central fact of the world's history could possibly + have been imagined. The people were not encouraged to read difficult + passages, which even the profoundest theologians find it hard to + understand, to take their own meaning out of them and to argue about + them, convicting everyone of heresy who did not agree with their + interpretations of them, but they were taught the deep moral and + religious significance of all the Old and New Testament. They + learned the value of the Scriptures as literature as well as their + quality as the underlying document of religion, but above all they + were taught their relation to life. All this was so put before them + that it came as an amusement and not a task, and from their earliest + years they became familiar with the great thoughts underlying + religion so as to secure its influence over them.] + +Dodsley's collection of Old English Plays, which, in its {489} fourth +edition as edited by W. Carew Hazlitt (London, 1874), contains a +number of old plays little known, is particularly rich in material +from this century of Columbus. The series of morality plays, "The +Interlude of the Four Elements," "Everyman," "The Pardoner and the +Friar," "The World and the Child," "Hick's Corner," "God's Promises," +and the "Four P's," are typical examples. They all show the true +dramatic spirit, and while lacking the theatrical technique of modern +plays, are almost infinitely superior in their expression of the +realities of human interest and their revelation of the depths of +human sympathy to the presentation of superficialities which now pass +for drama. + +It was towards the end of Columbus' Century that the "Marriage of +Witte and Science," which was not published until 1570, was written. +This was marked off into five acts and the scenes designated, being +the first play in which such an arrangement had been made. The modern +dramatic mould was thus created. It is easy to understand that on the +deep foundations, literary and technical, thus laid in the century +before 1550, the great structure of the Elizabethan drama could be +built up. + +How much the appreciation for the morality plays has risen may be +judged very well from some recent expressions with regard to them by +students of the drama. Everyone is particularly loud in praise of +"Everyman." In the introduction to "Everyman with other Interludes" in +the Everyman series, the writer says that "to turn from Bayle's play +(one of the later moralities, 'God's Promises') to the heart-breaking +realities of 'Everyman' is like turning from a volume of law to the +edifying sermons of one of the gospels." He adds: + + "It was written, no doubt, like most of the plays in this volume, by + a churchman; and he must have been a man of profound imagination and + of the tenderest human soul conceivable. His ecclesiastical habit + becomes clear enough before the end of the play, where he bids every + man go and confess his sins. Like many of the more poignant scenes + and passages in the miracle plays that follow it, this morality too + leaves one exclaiming on how good a thing was the plain English of + the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries." + +{490} + +It would be a mistake to think that only the serious side of life was +portrayed in these old dramas. Quite the contrary, they were full of +humor, and the writer of the Introduction to Everyman, already quoted, +says in this regard: "In these religious and moral interludes, the +dramatic colouring, however crude, is real and sincere. The humours of +a broad folk-comedy break through the Scriptural web continually in +the guild plays like those in which Noah the ship-builder, or the +proverbial three shepherds, appear in the pageant. Noah's unwilling +wife in the 'Chester Deluge,' and Mak's canny wife in the Wakefield's +shepherd's play, where the sheep-stealing scenes reveal a born +Yorkshire humorist, offer a pair of gossips not easy to match for rude +comedy. Mak's wife, like the shepherd's in the same pastoral, utters +proverbs with every other breath: 'A woman's avyse helpys at the +last!' 'So long goys the pott to the water, at last comys it home +broken!' + + "'Now in hot, now in cold, + Full woeful is the household + That wants a woman!' + +And her play upon the old north-country asseveration, 'I'll eat my +bairn,' + + "'If ever I you beguiled, + That I eat this child + That lies in this cradle,' + +(the child being the stolen sheep), must have caused townsfolk and +countryfolk outrageous laughter. Mak's wife is indeed as memorable in +her way as the Wife of Bath, Dame Quickly, or Mrs. Gamp." + +Some idea of the extent to which the men of this time went in +attempting spectacles on a large scale may be appreciated from "Mary +Magdalen," which combines elements of all the various kinds of +religious plays of the time. It was a miracle play because it treats +of the life and death of St. Mary Magdalen. It is a mystery play +inasmuch as it introduces scenes from the Life of Christ. + +{491} + + + [Illustration: PICTURE OF THEATRE ON TITLE PAGE OF COMEDIES OF + TERENCE, STRASBURG (1490)] + + +{492} +It is a morality play because abstract personages are introduced upon +the stage in the presentation of the struggle between good and evil in +human life. Dr. Furnivall has divided the play into two parts, with +fifty-one scenes altogether, twenty in the first and thirty-one in the +second part. There is some evidence that some of the scenes were +inserted only to give time for a shift of scenes. Probably they had +two pageants or movable trucks which would remind one somewhat of the +movable stage that was attempted in the last generation. The burning +of the temple and some of the incidents of the wanderings at sea may +very well have provided opportunity for spectacular effects of +ambitious character. We have no record of how far they went in this +regard, though some hints of attempts in the direction of surprising +scenic introductions are to be found in contemporary documents, and we +know that in Italy they staged an earthquake very effectively. + +The play of "The Four Elements" was written just at the beginning of +the sixteenth century. The date of its writing is designated by one of +the speeches of Experience in this play, who says: + + "Till now, within this twenty years. + Westward be found new lands, + That we never heard tell of before this + By writing nor other means." + +The passage illustrates the tendency to make these plays instructive +as well as entertaining, and many similar passages might be quoted to +show that a definite effort was made to convey information by means of +them, though, as a rule, this had much more reference to religion and +to social life than to things more distant from every-day living. + +One of the important dramatic writers of the first half of our +Columbus' Century was John Skelton, born about 1460, and who was one +of the most prominent of literary men of England of his time. He had a +series of literary quarrels with many of the prominent writers, +Alexander Barclay and William Lily, the grammarian, among others, and +for a time he {493} enjoyed the patronage of Wolsey, but apparently +could not restrain his tendency to satire and so fell into the +Cardinal's bad graces. Alexander Dyce edited his works in two volumes +in 1843 and called particular attention to the genuine worth of his +four dramatic compositions, the "Interlude of Virtue," the comedy +called "Achidemoios," the "Nigramansir" (necromancer) and +"Magnyfycence." Only one of these, the last, now remains, though there +are traditions with regard to the others, and the single one left +shows what precious material was lost. + +An even more important contributor to this mode of dramatic literature +and very significant predecessor of Shakespeare was John Heywood, a +friend and neighbor of Sir Thomas More in Hertfordshire, who wrote a +series of dramatic works, consisting of five interludes. Of these the +"Four P's" is the best known and is the typical example of this form +of dramatic literature. Its full title is "A Very Mery Enterlude of A +Palmer, A Pardoner, A Pothecary and A Pedlar," and the story turns on +the contest arranged between them, and especially the first three, as +to which could tell the greatest lie. Palmers were real or supposed +returned pilgrims from the Holy Land, bearing palms as a symbol of +their pilgrimage, and were noted as a rule for their ability to tell +strong stories. Pardoners were wandering merchants who sold printed +prayers and various objects of devotion to which indulgences, pardons, +in the language of the day were attached. They too were noted for +drawing the long bow. The Pothecary and the Pedlar, because of their +familiar gossip with the people, knew all the news of the neighborhood +in which they lived, and had the reputation of being able to add to +the vividness and sensational qualities of stories so that the Four +P's might very well be expected to give some fine illustrations of the +ability to lie. + +The Palmer takes the prize in the contest with the very first story. +All are agreed at once that no one can even hope to surpass it. The +passage in which he does so is worth while quoting because it gives an +illustration at once of the language and style as well as of the kind +of humor to be found in Heywood's interludes: + +{494} + + "And this I would ye should understand, + I have seen women five hundred thousand; + And oft with them have long time tarried. + Yet in all places where I have been, + Of all the women that I have seen, + I never saw or knew in my conscience + Any one woman out of patience." + +Thus, quietly, and with this force of earnest asseveration, does the +largest and most palpable lie leap out of the Palmer's lips. The +contestants themselves are at once unanimous in their decision. + +Pothecary: "By the mass, there is a great lie!" + +Pardoner: "I never heard a greater, by our Lady!" + +Pedlar: "A greater! Nay, know ye any so great?" + +In his account of the Pardoner, Heywood does not hesitate to satirize +many of the pretensions of this class and especially their catering to +the superstition of the ignorant by the sale of impossible relics of +all kinds. Catholics realize very well that such frauds are practised +at all times. Even in our day men go around selling prayers, the +recital of which is supposed to give thousands of years of indulgence +and other like absurdities. Besides, the trade in manufactured relics +is well known, and the ecclesiastical authorities have tried to +regulate it at all times. Heywood has his Pardoner offer for sale such +relics as a bit of the thumb nail of the Holy Trinity and a feather +from the wing of the Holy Ghost and like impossible absurdities. +Impositions in the name of religion are still with us. It is +interesting to know that before the religious revolution they were +fought with that best of weapons, satire. + +Before the end of Columbus' Century the first English comedy in the +modern sense had been written. It was by Nicholas Udall and was +called, from its hero, "Ralph Royster Doyster." He was a swaggering +simpleton, a conceited fop of the time who is played upon by one +Matthew Merrygreek, a needy humorist who represents the parasite of +the old Latin drama under the influence of which this first English +comedy was written. For Nicholas Udall was the Headmaster of Eton +School, and the play in lively rhyming couplets, {495} interspersed +with merry songs, was written to be played by the Eton boys according +to their custom of having several plays each year. The play partakes +somewhat of the nature of farce and contains a number of situations of +the kind that have always drawn a laugh and will doubtless always +continue to do so. In one of the scenes in the play, Ralph and his man +are beaten in a brisk battle by the women of the play armed with +broomsticks. A lesson in the need for punctuation is introduced, +showing how completely the sense of writing can be reversed by putting +the stops in the wrong places. Udall wrote some other plays, notably +one called "Ezekias," used for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth on +her visit to Cambridge. + +The other form of literature besides the drama which came to ripe +fruition at this time in England is also of a popular character. It +consists of the stirring English ballads which were gathered into a +volume by Bishop Percy in his "Reliques" at the end of the eighteenth +century. There probably has never been more stirring martial singing +than is to be found in the "Ancient Ballad of Chevy Chase" or "Adam +Bell" or "Clym of the Clough." It has been well said that "in graphic +terseness, in poetic simplicity, in fiery fervor, in tenderness of +pathos, our modern poetry does not approach these old ballads." Sir +Philip Sidney said of "Chevy Chase," "I never heard the old song of +Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart more moved than with a +trumpet." While the language is simple, the verse rude, the thoughts +rugged and the story over-full of sympathy for the outlaw, at all +times, even the most refined, these ballads have stirred English +hearts. The writers of them are unknown, but they had the genius of +true poets, the power of vision and striking ability of expression. +The ballads will live as long as our English tongue and will continue +to be read even by the cultured, distant in every way from the +rudeness of the time in which and the men for whom these ballads were +written. + +After the Ballad Poetry of this period came quite naturally Sir Thomas +Malory's _"Morte d'Arthur."_ There have been many and varying +expressions of opinion with regard to the merit of this work, and it +is at best a medley from many {496} sources. What Mr. Andrew Lang has +called its "splendid patchwork" is harmonized and solemnized by the +dignified conclusion "in tenderness and inexpiable sorrow." In spite +of its many sources there is a unity of spirit and feeling, and Malory +was an admirable narrator. Malory's vitality is attested by edition +after edition in the nineteenth century. The book has an appeal to +human nature that is eternal and that will always give it a +distinguished place among the books of the educated at least. Of style +in the literary sense of that term there is very little, and Malory's +anomalous constructions have always puzzled grammarians, but as +Garnett says in his English Literature, [Footnote 47] "These do not +render him obscure for the readers of any period." Caxton laid English +literature under an immense obligation by insuring the preservation of +the work, through his selection of it to be one of his early-printed +books. It has done credit to his taste in popular literature ever +since. + + [Footnote 47: "English Literature: an Illustrated Record in Four + Vols." Garnett and Gosse: New York, 1903.] + +In the latter part of the fifteenth and the first years of the +sixteenth century a wonderful development of English poetry took place +in Scotland. Just before Columbus' Century opened, James First of +Scotland, who had been detained in an English prison for nineteen +years, began the literature of Scotland in glorious fashion. The +loneliness of these years prompted him to seek and gain that literary +culture which has made his name famous in the world of letters. It is +possible that the "King's Quair" (a quire or book), which is a +poetical record of his sight of Jane Beaufort, granddaughter of John +of Gaunt, from his prison window, and his winning her as his queen, +may not be from his hand. There is no doubt at all, however, of his +taste in literature, his patronage of it and of his establishment of +the tradition which has made the English literature of Scotland so +important during most of the centuries since. Four poets of the middle +of Columbus' Century in Scotland deserve to be named, Blind Harry, +Robert Henryson, Gawin Douglas and William Dunbar. All of them are +still read affectionately by Scotchmen, but there are very few among +the educated people of the English-speaking countries who would {497} +care to confess ignorance of them, and to many they are favorite +poets. Dunbar is the greatest of poets in English from Chaucer to +Shakespeare, and Scottish critics at least have been loud in its +praise. Mr. Craik says: + + "This admirable master, alike of serious and of comic song, may + justly be styled the Chaucer of Scotland, whether we look to the + wide range of his genius, or to his eminence in every style over all + the poets of his country who preceded and all who for ages came + after him. Burns is certainly the only name among the Scottish poets + that can yet be placed on the same line with that of Dunbar; and + even the inspired ploughman, though the equal of Dunbar in comic + power and his superior in depth of passion, is not to be compared + with the older poet either in strength or in general fertility of + imagination." + +The two English poets of our period are Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, +and Sir Thomas Wyatt, who, in spite of inequality in merit, possess so +much in common that their names are closely associated. How well they +were appreciated in Elizabeth's time and how much their influence +meant for Shakespeare's contemporaries may be judged from Puttenham's +expression, who said in 1589: + + "Henry, Earl of Surrey, and Sir Thomas Wyatt, between whom I finde + very little difference, I repute them for the two chief lanternes of + light to all others that have since employed their pennes upon + English Poesie; their conceits were loftie, their stiles stately, + their conveyance cleanly, their termes proper, their metres sweete + and well proportioned." + +To Surrey, English literature owes two important literary +innovations--the introduction of the sonnet and the use of polished +blank verse. The influence of Italy and of the classic authors can be +seen very clearly, and his version of the second and fourth books of +the AEneid, in what Milton called "English heroic verse without +rhyme," was a fundamental influence in English poetry. His sonnets are +mainly the amatory effusions which were becoming fashionable +everywhere at this time and which Shakespeare indulged in in his turn +a little later. Some of his biographers and editors have woven a +series of fanciful theories over his relations to the {498} "fair +Geraldine," in whose honor many of the best sonnets were written, but +it is doubtful whether these love poems are anything more than the +wandering poetic fancies of the time. Surrey's unmerited death on the +scaffold at the early age of thirty has deepened the romantic interest +that attaches to his name as a poet. Sir Thomas Wyatt, though more +than a dozen years older than his friend Surrey, must be considered +his disciple in poetry. He, too, wrote some of the new sonnets on the +theme that occupied so many of the poets of the time--Love--but, as +in the case of Surrey also, we have from him some satires and metrical +versions of the psalms. + +Probably the greatest contribution to the English prose of the time is +Sir Thomas More's "Life of Edward V." Mr. Hallam pronounced it "the +first example of good English--pure and perspicuous, well chosen, +without vulgarisms or pedantry." Many others have declared More the +first great master of English prose and even the father of English +prose. There have been dissentient voices among the critics from these +high praises. There is no doubt, however, that More wrote a direct +straightforward English that deeply influenced the course of English +speech, and tradition has given him a high place among the great +English orators. The language undoubtedly received a deep impress from +him, and though his most important work in literature is "Utopia," +written in Latin, his high place in English cannot be denied. + +Authorities on English have always recognized this, but owing to +religious feelings, and the anti-Catholic tradition created during +Elizabeth and James' time, More's work has been neglected, except by +the deeper scholars. Samuel Johnson, in the "History of the English +Language," prefixed to his dictionary, devotes nearly one-third of all +the space that he takes for his purpose to More. He apologizes +somewhat for his copiousness of quotation from the chancellor, but +justifies it by saying that, "It is necessary to give a larger +specimen both because the language was to a great degree formed and +settled and because it appears from Ben Jonson that his works were +considered as models of pure and elegant style." + +A recent writer, [Footnote 48] Prof. J. S. Phillimore, says of More's +style: {499} "His usual prose has the easy elastic abundance of +Boccaccio and a lawyer's love of proving a point exhaustively in +controversy. But he has all the qualities of a great prose style: +sonorous eloquence, less cumbersome than Milton; simplicity and +lucidity of argument, with unfailing sense of the rhythms and +harmonies of English sound. He is a master of Dialogue, the favorite +vehicle of that age; neither too curiously dramatic in the ethopoia of +the persons, nor yet allowing the form to become a hollow convention, +the objector in his great Dialogue (the Quod he and Quod I) is +anything but a man of straw. We can see that if Lucian was his early +love he had not neglected Plato either. Elizabethan prose is tawdry +and mannered compared with his: at his death Chaucer's thread is +dropped, which none picked up till Clarendon and Dryden. With his +colloquial, well-bred, unaffected ease, he is the ancestor of Swift. +His style--so Erasmus tells us--was gained by long and careful studies +and exercises; he took a discipline in Latin, of which the fruits were +to appear in English, when the increasing gravity of the times warned +him that it would be well to speak to a larger public than Latin could +reach. Even where he is prolix--and that may seem prolix in +black-letter folio which reads easy and pleasant enough in modern +form--his merry humor is not long silent." + + [Footnote 48: _Dublin Review,_ July, 1913.] + +As in French, some of the translations into English at this period are +almost as admirable prose as Amyot's "Plutarch." Even when the +translations of the time have the quaintness of the English of that +period, they are admirable in their closeness to the original and in a +certain rhythm of their sentences. Of Berner's translation of +Froissart's "Chronicles," Snell in "The Age of Transition" ("Handbooks +of English Literature," Scribners) says: "The English is so thoroughly +idiomatic that in reading it one loses all sensation of the book being +merely an interpretation, and resigns one's self to its easy and +familiar flow with the same joyful complacency as if it were an +original work. On the other hand, if one insists on breaking the spell +and comparing it with the French text, one is struck not only with the +felicity, but also the fidelity of the rendering." + +The literary quality of the prose of the first half of the {500} +sixteenth century in England is best revealed in the translations of +the Scriptures done into the vernacular at this time and in the +unequalled Collects of the English Prayerbook. Tyndale and Coverdale +are responsible for the translations of the Scriptures, and to Cranmer +is usually attributed the writing of the Collects, though, as has been +said by Saintsbury, "this attribution derives but very faint +corroboration from the Archbishop's known work." It was with these +models of marvellously expressive, thoroughly idiomatic English, +exquisite examples of style, that the translators of the King James +version of the Bible were placed in a position to give us the +wonderful fundamental literary work that was to come from their hand +half a century later. It has been said that one argument of the most +irresistible kind for the divine authorship of the Scriptures lies in +the faculty which they have of making all the translations of them +great literature. It was their influence that is felt in the English +Prayerbook and in those parts of the Breviary which we owe to the +first half of the sixteenth century. + + + [Illustration: MANTEGNA. ST. GEORGE ] + + +{501} + +CHAPTER VI + +SCHOLARSHIP IN ITALY + +One of the most important chapters in the great accomplishment of the +men of this century is its scholarship--that is, the critical and +appreciative knowledge of what men had written before their time and +especially of the great classical works of antiquity. In this, almost +needless to say, Italy is not only a pioneer, but was the _alma mater +studiorum_--of whom Linacre was so proud--for those desirous of +knowledge of the classics and true scholarship from all over the +world. From every country, France, Spain, Germany, distant Poland and +Denmark, as well as England, those looking for opportunities for study +that could not be obtained at home flocked to Italy. Besides, Italian +teachers are to be found teaching everywhere, though Italy herself +proved no stepmother to those who came to be nurtured in good learning +at her great institutions. Many a foreigner who had proved his ability +was given a professorship and spent many years in teaching others in +Italy as he had been taught himself. + +This is the age of printing, and it was of first importance that good +editions of the classics should be printed as soon as possible in +order to prevent any further degeneration of their texts and avoid all +further risk of losing the precious treasures of antiquity. Scholars +in Italy took up the making of good texts, and within a century after +the invention of printing, all the important Greek and Latin authors +had been published in scholarly editions, the texts of which still +command respect. The amount of labor required for this, the judicious +scholarship demanded, the patience that was needed and the unselfish +devotion to a most trying task, only scholars can properly appreciate. +No debt that we owe to the Renaissance is greater than this, what it +accomplished for classical literature, and by far the greater part of +this debt is owed to Italy. + +{502} + +Everywhere, that is, in every important city, there was a school of +the New Learning, and usually some munificent patrons of what they +came to call Humanism because it represented humanity's highest +interests, supporting scholars who were writing and correcting +manuscripts and afterwards forming libraries of the printed books and +making it possible for the great printers to continue their work by +subscribing for their first editions. Only that the Church was deeply +interested in this new movement, it would have been quite impossible +for it to have continued. Unfortunately, as always happens whenever +men get new knowledge, many of them, that is, the restless and the +smaller minds among them, who are always likely to be in a great +majority in any new movement, were taken with the idea that they knew +so much more than those who went before them that they could not be +expected to accept old-fashioned ideas in religion and philosophy. +Because of the disturbances produced by such restless characters, +there sometimes seems at this time to be opposition between the Church +and the New Learning. This false impression is partly due to the fact +that in certain countries, notably Germany and England, the reform +doctrines were, as pointed out by Gasquet, often called the New +Learning, to which, of course, there was opposition. Most of the great +classic scholars, however, were ecclesiastics, some of them of very +high rank and influence in the councils of the Church, even Cardinals +and Popes, and in general the vast majority of the prominent scholars +were in the closest of sympathy with the ecclesiastical authorities. +The exceptions are so few as to make the existence of this rule very +clear, though so much of emphasis has been placed on the exceptions in +the modern time that an entirely false impression with regard to +Church opposition to education has been produced in a great many +minds. + +The first name that deserves to be mentioned among the scholars of +Italy is AEneas Sylvius of the family of Piccolomini, who is better +known under the name of Pius II, which he bore as Pope. He is a +typical example of the scholars of the Renaissance, in so far as that, +as a younger man, his studies of classical antiquity led him to the +expression of pagan ideas in life as well as in language. At the age +of forty he {503} reformed and became as well known for his devotion +as for his previous looseness of character. He was created Imperial +Poet by the Emperor Frederick III, and his reputation for scholarship +created a fashion in this regard that did great good for the rising +movement of the New Learning. His influence as Pope continued this, +though he made it the main business of his pontificate to organize +Europe against the Turks so as to prevent the further increase of +their power with all that would mean for the destruction of culture as +well as religion. Indeed, his love for letters seems to have been at +least as great an incentive for the organization of the crusade as his +duty as an ecclesiastic. When he heard of the Fall of Constantinople, +he exclaimed, "How many names of mighty men will perish! It is a +second death to Homer and to Plato. The fount of the muses is dried up +forevermore." How much he was thought of by his contemporaries and how +much the example of his scholarship meant will be best appreciated +from the Piccolomini Palace and other buildings of Pienza, but +particularly the exquisitely beautiful Piccolomini Library at Siena. +Pinturicchio's decorations for this library are only added testimony +to the admiration of his generation. Sylvius' letter to Ladislas, the +young king of Bohemia and Hungary who had sought his advice with +regard to education, is one of the important documents in the history +of education. It contains the oft-quoted passage with regard to the +place of memory in education: + + "We must first insist upon the overwhelming importance of Memory, + which is in truth the first condition of capacity for letters. A boy + should learn without effort, retain with accuracy, and reproduce + easily. Rightly is memory called 'the nursing mother of learning.' + It needs cultivation, however, whether a boy be gifted with + retentiveness or not. Therefore, let some passage from poet or + moralist be committed to memory every day." + +One of the greatest scholars of the period and one of the leaders in +the Renaissance movement towards the classics which brought about the +reawakening of artistic and literary men at this time was Cardinal +Bessarion, whose long life of over eighty years gave him nearly a +quarter of a century in {504} Columbus' period. He came with the +Emperor John Palaeologus to the Council of Ferrara in 1438, where his +reputation for scholarship and vast erudition in all theological +matters gave him great authority among the Greek Bishops. To him more +than any other must be attributed the formal reunion with the Latin +Church, which was the happy issue of that Council. To him, therefore, +was committed the honor of reading the Greek formula of the Act of +Union. Unfortunately, the union was but short-lived, but Bessarion +changed to the Latin rite and in 1439 was created Cardinal. + +The Cardinal was high in favor with succeeding Popes and just at the +beginning of Columbus' Century was sent as papal legate to Bologna, as +"an angel of peace," in the hope that he would be able to quell the +factional disturbances and pacify the divided interests. Cardinal +Bessarion succeeded admirably in this difficult mission, calmed the +internal dissensions and succeeded in introducing wise reforms into +the city government and the administration of justice. His principal +attention, however, was given to the University. He rebuilt the +building and gathered there some of the most famous teachers of the +world, encouraging particularly the study of the classics, and above +all of Greek. He himself supplied out of his personal revenues +whatever was lacking in the salaries, and he gathered around him a +notable band of scholars, writers and poets, and began that +magnificent outburst of interest in the intellectual life which was to +make Bologna so famous. + +He continued to be active in his influence on the scholarship of Italy +until well beyond eighty years of age, yet was always a factor in the +practical life of his time. When he was eighty-one he wrote for Pope +Paul II a letter on the organization of a new crusade against the +Turks. When he was eighty-three he went on an embassy to Paris in +order to bring about the union of the Western nations for a crusade. +While at Rome during his later years, Bessarion gathered round him the +scholars and writers in all departments. The scientists of the time +particularly owe much to his patronage. He was a friend of Peurbach of +Vienna, of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, of Regiomontanus and many +others. In his house the first Accademia was founded, and he was known +as the patron of {505} letters. He gathered an immense number of +valuable manuscripts at very great expense, had copies of others made +and gave his treasures at his death to found a library in Venice, his +collection forming the nucleus of the famous library of St. Mark. + +After these two great Churchmen and patrons of learning and education, +there are a series of scholars whose names deserve to be mentioned for +the influence which they exerted on the learning of Europe at this +time. At the beginning of our century came the Greeks, who were driven +out of their native country by the conquest of the Turks. Demetrius +Chalcondyles, Theodore Gaza, George Trebizond and Joannes Argyropulos, +unable to pursue their studies in peace in the midst of the alarms +produced by the Turks, reached Italy before the Fall of +Constantinople. Gaza was lecturing on Demosthenes at Ferrara in 1448, +where among his pupils was the subsequently distinguished German +scholar Rudolph Agricola. The first year of our century Gaza was +invited to Rome by Pope Nicholas V to fill the chair of philosophy and +take a principal part in the plan which the Pope had conceived for the +translation of the principal Greek classics. Gaza's translations were +mainly concerned with scientific Greek works, Aristotle "On Mechanical +Problems" and "On Animals" and Theophrastus' "Botany." For a time he +withdrew to a monastery, but was recalled to Rome by Pope Paul II to +take part in the _editio princeps_ of Gellius. After the death of +Bessarion he retired once more to his monastery, where he died in +1475. His Greek grammar became famous and was used as a text-book by +Budaeus in Paris and by Erasmus in Cambridge. He is described by +Manutius as easily chief among the Latin and Greek scholars of his +age, an age replete with scholarship be it said, and he is eulogized +by Scaliger over a century later as _magnus vir et doctus,_ a great +man and a learned. + +George Trebizond, after teaching for many years in Venice, was invited +to Rome, where he became one of the Papal Secretaries. He also took +part in the plan for translating the Greek classics, and his +translations include the "Rhetoric and Problems of Aristotle" and "The +Laws and Charmenides of Plato." Argyropulos taught first at Padua and +then for {506} fifteen years under the patronage of the Medici at +Florence. He, too, was invited to Rome by the Pope and was highly +esteemed there. His part in the great plan of translation concerned +mainly the works of Aristotle, whose "Ethics," "Politics," +"Economics," "On the Soul" and "On Heaven" were all printed in his +versions. He was the master of Politian, and his lectures were +attended by Tiptoff, the Earl of Worcester, and by Reuchlin, the great +German humanist. It was to Reuchlin that Argyropulos, after having +heard him read and translate a passage of Thucydides, exclaimed with a +sigh, "Lo! through our exile Greece has flown across the Alps." +Chalcondyles, at the early age of twenty-six, made an immediate +conquest of his Italian audience at Perugia in 1450. Subsequently he +lectured at Padua, being the first teacher of Greek who received a +salary at any of the Universities of Europe. For twenty years he +lectured in Florence, and there prepared the _editio princeps_ of +Homer, the first great Greek author to be printed. After the death of +Lorenzo de Medici he withdrew to Milan and there edited "Isocrates" +and "Suidas." His emendation of Greek texts is the best proof of his +scholarship, and few men of his time equalled his power in this. He +was noted for the gentleness of his disposition and his integrity of +character, and he made many friends. There is a famous picture by +Ghirlandajo in Santa Maria Novella at Florence which contains +portraits of Ficino, Landino, Politian and Chalcondyles. + +The work of all of these men was greatly assisted by Pope Nicholas V, +who was himself distinguished as a scholar in this scholarly time. +During his pontificate in the first years of Columbus' Century he did +more for the encouragement of learning than anyone else of the time. +His wide knowledge of manuscripts made him personally an expert, and +he gathered from all lands and is the founder of the Vatican +collection of manuscripts. Besides the translations of Aristotle, +Thucydides, Herodotus, Xenophon, Polybius and Epictetus, Diodorus +Siculus, Strabo and Appian were translated under his direction. The +catholicity of his taste, and above all the inclusion of the +scientific books of the Greeks, is a tribute to the liberty of spirit +of the Pope. On his death-bed he declared that his {507} greatest +consolation was that he had been liberal in the rewarding of learned +men. + +After the Papal influence, the most important factor for the +encouragement of scholarship was the academies which were founded at +this time. Lorenzo de Medici revived, after an interval of 1200 years, +the ancient custom of celebrating the memory of Plato by an annual +banquet. Out of this arose the _Accademia_ of Florence, nearly every +one of the members of which were distinguished scholars. The best +known among them are Landino and Ficino, both of whom had been +Lorenzo's tutors, Pico della Mirandola and Politian. The first account +that we have of the Academy is to be found in the introduction to +Ficino's edition of Plato's "Symposium." He tells that his rendering +of all the seven speeches in the "Symposium" was read aloud and +discussed by five of the guests. Undoubtedly Ficino was the centre of +the _Accademia_ and one of the greatest scholarly influences of the +time. At the age of forty he took Holy Orders and was noted for the +next twenty-five years, until his death, as a faithful priest whose +scholarship was devoted to showing how Plato illuminated Christianity. +In the latter part of his life he lectured on and translated Plotinus. + + +The best known of these scholars in Florence was undoubtedly Politian, +much more interested in Latin than in Greek, though Sandys, in his +"History of Classical Scholarship" (Cambridge University Press, 1908), +says that he was probably the first teacher in Italy whose mastery of +Greek was equal to that of the Greek immigrants. Though he died at the +early age of forty, we owe to him valuable textual criticisms of +Lucretius, Propertius, Ovid, Statius, Ausonius, Celsus, Quintilian, +Festus, and Catullus and Tibullus. His monograph on the chronology of +Cicero's letters, his discussion of the use of the aspirate in Latin +and Greek and of the differences between the aorist and the imperfect +as illustrated by the signatures of Greek sculptors, as well as his +power of solving textual difficulties, made him one of the great +contributors to the magnificent work accomplished at this time for +classical scientific grammar and erudition, as well as for the +provision of proper texts of the classics for the world. Besides pure +{508} literature, he was interested very much in law and made a +special study of the "Pandects" of Justinian. He refused to follow +those who slavishly imitated Cicero, and denounces the Ciceronians as +the mere apes of Cicero. His expressions in the matter are famous. "To +myself the face of a bull or a lion appears far more beautiful than +that of an ape, although the ape has a closer resemblance to man. But, +someone will say you do not express Cicero. I answer I am not Cicero, +what I really express is myself." + +Academies were formed in other cities and accomplished excellent +results for scholarship, though at times they fell under the suspicion +of the authorities of dabbling in politics or of actually favoring +political factions or even revolutionary ideas. Nearly always they owe +their origin to the patronage of high ecclesiastics or those who were +in very close sympathy with the Church and always they contained +clergymen of distinction. After that of Florence the next in +chronological order was that of Rome. There is even some question +whether the Roman Academy was not the first in time, only it did not +receive this name until after it had been adopted in Florence. The +most important figure in the Roman Academy was the man who, for want +of a better, assumed the old Roman name Pomponius Laetus. He was +narrow enough of intellect to refuse to learn Greek, because he feared +that it would spoil his Latin style. The members of the Roman Academy, +under his ruling spirit, celebrated the foundation of Rome on the +annual return of the festival of the Palilia, a custom which is still +retained by many of the Roman academies. Pomponius did his gardening +according to the precepts of Varro and Columella, the Latin writers on +agriculture, and nothing pleased him better than to be regarded as a +second Cato. It is to him that is due the revival of the regular +performances of Plautus' plays. + + + [Illustration: CORREGGIO, BLESSED VIRGIN AND ST. SEBASTIAN] + + +Among the most important members of the Academy were Platina, who +became the Librarian of the Vatican, and Sabellicus, who afterwards +became the Prefect of the Library of San Marco in Venice. For a time, +owing to suspicion of its political, perhaps also its religious, +tendencies, the Roman Academy was suppressed and some of its members +put in prison, but under Pope Sixtus IV it was revived and all its +{509} old customs restored. Pomponius wrote commentaries on the whole +of Virgil, on Sallust and Curtius, on Pliny's letters and Quintilian +and on his agricultural favorites, Varro and Columella, and his +equally great favorites, Festus and Nonius Marcellus, the grammarians. +In order to complete his similarity with the old Romans, he had +expressed the desire at one time in life that after death his body +should simply be placed in an ancient Roman tomb on the Appian Way. +When he died at the age of seventy he had changed the views of his +earlier years and was given a magnificent Christian funeral. So great +was the veneration for his scholarship that his obsequies in the +Church of _Ara Coeli,_ in the midst of the Roman antiquities that he +had loved so well, were attended, as Gregorovius tells us, by some +forty bishops. + +This Roman Academy continued to exist, now flourishing, now occupied +with trivialities, as is the way with such institutions, until the +sack of Rome in 1527. As Sandys says ("Harvard Lectures on the Revival +of Learning," Cambridge University Press, 1905), "Its palmy days were +in the age of Leo X, when it included the most brilliant members of +the literary society of Rome, men like the future Cardinals, Bembo and +Sadoleto, as well as Paolo Giovio and Castiglione. It encouraged very +much the study of Latin particularly, and its members wrote Latin +poems and delivered Latin orations and above all encouraged the +development of Roman Archaeology, the preservation of Roman remains of +all kinds, the editing of books and the recovery of every possible +phase of information with regard to Roman life." + +There were minor academies in Rome, one of which, the Vitruvian +Academy, occupied itself mainly with architecture. But as was true +also at Florence, where there were a number of minor academies, some +at least of these were only cloaks for political discussions and +organizations, and as a consequence brought other and more serious +bodies of the same name under suspicion. + +The next academy of importance is that of Naples, which came into +existence probably just about the beginning of Columbus' Century +during the reign of Alfonso of Aragon, the magnanimous patron of +learning. Its most prominent {510} members were Antonio of Palermo, +whose Italian name of Beccadelli is often used; Pontano and +Sannazzaro, the poets, and Laurentius Valla, the historian and +professor of rhetoric. Valla subsequently became professor of rhetoric +in Rome at the invitation of Pope Nicholas V, who wanted his +assistance for the carrying out of the great plan of translations from +Greek to Latin of all the great authors which he constantly cherished. +Valla became Papal Secretary under Nicholas' successor, Pope Calixtus +III, but unfortunately he died at the early age of fifty. He deserves +extended notice because he is one of the founders of historical +criticism, and he began that denunciation of exaggerated belief in +Aristotle very proper in itself, but which unfortunately went too far +and led to under-estimation of the medieval scholars who had studied +Aristotle so sedulously, and even of Aristotle himself. His discussion +of the Donation of Constantine attracted much attention and showed +very clearly how scholarship might be used to good purpose for the +correction of false notions even long after events had happened. + +The _Accademia_ at Venice deserves more than a passing mention +because, though founded much later than the others, it set itself the +very practical purpose of bringing about a systematic publication of +the Greek classics. It was founded by Aldus in 1500, who called it the +New Academy of Hellenists, and was as strongly Grecian as Pomponius' +Academy was Roman. Its constitution was written in Greek, Greek was +spoken at its meetings and Greek names were adopted by its Italian +members. Fortiguerra of Pistoia, the Secretary of the Academy, thus +became Carteromachus. The principal aim of the Academy was to produce +in each month an edition of at least 1,000 copies of some good author. +Among the honorary foreign members were Linacre, some of whose +translations Aldus published, and Erasmus, who visited Venice in 1508 +and who expressed himself as delighted with the opportunity to take +part in the deliberations of the Academy. How successful the Academy +was in its purpose of encouraging scholarly printing, all the world +knows. Aldus produced no less than 27 _editiones principes_ of Greek +authors and Greek works of reference. At the time of his death in 1515 +all the {511} principal Greek classics had been printed. The Academy +had been a large factor in helping him in this magnificent +achievement, which meant more for scholarship throughout the whole of +Europe than perhaps any other single movement occupying so short a +time. + +There are many of the scholars of the Renaissance whose names are +scarcely known outside of the narrow circle of modern specialists in +their departments, though their influence was felt for many +generations and their work is worthy of the highest praise. A typical +example of these is Ambrogio Calepino, the Augustinian monk, to whom +we owe the first great modern Latin dictionary. Under the title of +"Cornucopia" it appeared first at Reggio in 1502 and was reprinted +many times during the sixteenth century. The Alduses at Venice printed +no less than eighteen editions of it. This lexicon came to be the +groundwork on which subsequent lexicographers, recognizing its merit, +built up their larger works. There was an edition of it in seven +languages by Facciolati, printed at Pavia in 1718, which was reprinted +many times. The name of Calepinus became a synonym for the word +dictionary or lexicon and is frequently used, without capitalization +as a common noun, in Italy during the subsequent generations. His +magnificent work well deserved this recognition, for it is a monument +of the classical scholarship of the first half of Columbus' Century. + +One of the greatest of the Italian scholars of the first half of, +Columbus' Century was that distinguished member of the Florentine +Academy whose books were the special favorites of Sir Thomas More, +Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who died at the early age of thirty-one +after dreaming the dream of the unity of all knowledge and becoming +absorbed in planning a vast work which was to form a complete system +of knowledge. He had devoted himself to Greek and to Christian +theology and philosophy and even rendered himself liable to suspicion +by his delvings into Cabalistic lore and had deeply impressed the +generation among whom he lived. His reputation as a marvellous +precocious scholar, who died all untimely, still endures, and Sir +Thomas More's study and discussion of his works gave him a reputation +in England which added greatly {512} to his fame throughout the whole +West of Europe. He was happy in his end, for he passed away on the +very day in which the invader of Italy, Charles VIII of France, +marched into Florence. + +Scholarship continued to hold the highest place in Italy until +political troubles, and above all the sack of Rome in 1527, drew men's +minds from peaceful pursuits, scattered libraries and made patronage +of scholarship most difficult for rulers and ecclesiastics. + + +{513} + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SCHOLARSHIP OF THE TEUTONIC COUNTRIES + + +Germany and the closely-related Teutonic countries are the only part +of Europe which did not create a distinct national literature during +this Renaissance period. It is true that Hans Sachs' popular poetry +comes from this time, and this has always been popular in Germany and +has often been reprinted, but it has never had any influence on world +literature and represents an almost solitary phenomenon in the history +of German literature. The reformers wrote vigorous German prose, and +in the controversial articles which were so frequent at the time, and +above all in the translations of the Scriptures into the vernacular, +laid the foundation of modern High German which must be traced to this +period, but even Germans scarcely claim the existence of a German +literature of the Renaissance. + +On the other hand, the scholarship of Germany at this time was as +remarkable in its own way as Germany has ever been in subjects in +which it was interested. Probably nowhere in Europe did scholarship +penetrate more deeply among the people, and nowhere were freer +opportunities for mastery in the classical languages afforded than +along the Rhine, at Nueremberg and the neighboring cities and even in +districts to the north of these. The German thought of the time was +written in Latin and much of it was merely academic and passing in +character. Some of it, however, as a Kempis' works, above all the +"Imitation of Christ," were destined to an immortality of enduring +influence. Not a little of the educational writings of Erasmus and +those particularly of other students of the Brethren of the Common +Life were to witness many revivals of interest down to our own day, +when they are again attracting wide attention. Scholarship diverted +the intellectual {514} energy that would have been devoted to the +production of a national literature for the Germans, and must be +studied deeply to appreciate the Germany of the time. + +For any proper understanding of scholarship outside of Italy during +the Renaissance period, which corresponds with Columbus' Century, the +most important preliminary is a knowledge of the institution and +spirit and the work and pupils of the Brethren of the Common Life. The +significance of their history has not been generally recognized, +especially in English-speaking countries, until recent years, and even +now many fail to appreciate its high import. Prejudice against +religious orders, acquired through sympathy with the Reformation, +obscured the value of this great factor in the education and +scholarship of the Teutonic countries which can indeed scarcely be +exaggerated. The order of the Common Life was, especially in the first +half of what we have called Columbus' Century, the great foster mother +of scholars whose reputations have deservedly lasted till our time and +have now become imperishable landmarks in the history of scholarship. +The mention of the names of such pupils of theirs as Agricola, Thomas +a Kempis, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, Alexander Hegius and Wimpheling +would be quite enough to afford ample proof of this. + +The members of this religious order took no vows, nor did they ask or +receive alms. According to their constitution, they worked for their +daily bread, though their first aim was to cultivate the life of the +spirit, and they were required by their rules to devote themselves in +connection with this purpose to their intellectual development, to +education, the copying of classics and the writing of books. Their +founder, Geert de Groote (1340-1384), belonged to a rather wealthy +merchant family, and when he took orders he obtained ecclesiastical +preferment as a canon at Utrecht and at Aachen. Somewhat like St. +Francis of Assisi, in the midst of what might well seem a +conventionally successful life, he fell ill and had the experience +that Dean Stanley described when he said "things look different when +viewed from the horizontal position." On his recovery, Geert de Groote +resigned his canonries, gave his goods to the Carthusians and spent +seven years in solitude. {515} thinking over the significance of life +and what was man's true purpose in it. At the end of that time he came +out to preach, and his preaching met with wonderful success. Thousands +flocked to listen to him, and soon many young men wished to join with +him in his simple mode of life, to be directed by him and to help him +in his work. + +Almost without his wishing it, a religious community grew up around +him, and when Geert de Groote died, near the end of the fourteenth +century, his successor, Florence Radewyns, founded the famous +monastery of Windesheim, the mother-house of the new religious life. +These new religious taught especially the middle and lower classes, +copied books and themselves wrote commentaries in language as simple +as possible on all manner of spiritual subjects. Their schools became +centres of the spiritual and intellectual life of the Low Countries +and the Rhineland, and during the course of the fifteenth century they +grew in numbers and in the attendance of scholars. Deventer, one of +their most famous schools, counted over 2,000 students about the time +of the discovery of America, and some of the greatest men of this +first part of Columbus' Century had been students of the Brethren of +the Common Life. + +Mr. Hamilton Mabie, in his collection of essays, "My Study Fire," has +paid a worthy tribute to these dear old scholars and teachers which +sums up succinctly and sympathetically their work and its +significance. He said (page 92): + + "I confess that I can never read quite unmoved the story of the + Brethren of the Common Life, those humble-minded, patient teachers + and thinkers whose devotion and fire of soul for a century and a + half made the choice treasures of Italian palaces and convents and + universities a common possession along the low-lying shores of the + Netherlands. The asceticism of this noble brotherhood was no morbid + and divisive fanaticism; it was a denial of themselves that they + might have the more to give. The visions which touched at times the + bare walls of their cells with supernal beauty only made them the + more eager to share their heaven of privilege with the + sorely-burdened world without. Surely Virgil and Horace and the + other masters of classic form were never more honored than {516} + when these noble-minded lovers of learning and of their kind made + their sounding lines familiar in peasant homes." + +Many people seem inclined to think that the education of the poor +became possible only in our time. The guild schools of the Middle Ages +are a contradiction of this, but the story of the Brethren of the +Common Life shows how much organized effort was given to the +educational care for poor students. In his "Life of Thomas a Kempis," +Kettelwell has told what they did for the poor and also how broad and +wide were the foundations of the education that they laid (p. 165): + + "But there was another safeguard which was of great service in + preserving them (the Brethren) from being led away by fanaticism or + wild enthusiasm, because it gave them a useful object and purpose in + life to look after, and that was the encouragement they gave to + intellectual pursuits and the interest they took in education. Much + of the instruction given in schools at that time was often only + within the reach of those who could pay for it, whilst there was no + little defect in imparting it. . . . The Brothers of the Common + Life, on the contrary, not only promoted the giving of instruction + gratuitously, or assisted those unable to pay for it, and thus + brought the arts of reading and writing within the reach of many + that could not otherwise attain them; but, what was of more + consequence, they infused into education quite a new life, and + imparted to it a purer and nobler aim. + + "It is well known to the student of history that a great improvement + in the character of education took place about this time, and that + the advance of learning in the Northern parts of Germany is greatly + indebted to the efforts of the Brothers of the Common Life. Though + Gerard charged the members of the Brotherhood to look to Christ as + the source of all light and truth, all life and peace, and without + Whom all learning or gifts were but as vain shadows, yet he would + not confine them to none but Christian authors. Among the ancient + philosophers he would have his educated disciples to read the works + of Plato and Aristotle, and valued the former for his excellent + discourses in the person of Socrates. The morals of Seneca pleased + him much, and he recommended them to the Brothers as a rich mine of + wisdom. He himself {517} was versed in the art of medicine and knew + something of law, and it is evident that some of his disciples were + much esteemed for their knowledge of them. And from what Thomas a + Kempis says of Gerard, he would have the clerics to study geometry, + arithmetic, logic, grammar and other subjects. From which it will be + perceived that the Brothers of the Common Life were urged to the + pursuit of what at that time was a liberal and enlightened + education, and consequently were the first in their generation, and + in those parts, to promote and encourage it, and were thereby the + less likely to be led away or inflated by an ignorant or foolish + enthusiasm." + +They did copying, but under instructions made their copying of value +for their own education. This was an important development (p. 167): + + "It had begun, as we have shown, in great simplicity under the + blessing of God. To the young clerics he (their founder) had joined + certain priests and laymen, thus making a mixed society. Idleness + and accumulation of worldly goods had been the rock on which so many + of the Monastic Orders had made shipwreck, and therefore, to the + cultivation of the Interior life had been joined some useful + employment and the pursuit of fine letters. And that the mind should + not become enervated by the work of copying manuscripts being too + long carried on as a mere manual operation, Gerard had prescribed to + each of the clerics that he should make extracts of the finest sayings + he met with, especially of the Fathers and of the Saints, and even + make minutes of his own reflections, and inscribe them in a certain + book called 'Rapiarium.' And, as the enthusiastic deacon of Deventer + always joined example with precept, he himself transcribed and + published many little works composed from the works of the Saints, + most of which are now lost. It is doubtless from this custom, which + Thomas a Kempis largely carried out in the early days of his + connection with the Brotherhood, that we are mainly indebted for + those many little devotional works which he afterwards wrote, at the + head of which he places the books of the _'De Imitatione Christi.'"_ + + +It would be easy to think that probably these good religious devoted +themselves much more to the cultivation of piety than {518} of good +literature, and that perhaps even their devotion to culture was rather +superficial. As a matter of fact, however, their schools became famous +for their thoroughness, and all along the Rhine the sons of "the +butcher and the baker and the candlestick-maker" learned to read and +write Latin fluently, corresponded in Latin letters and above all seem +to have received very precious inspirations for the intellectual life +that were not extinguished even by a merely money-making career. A +good many of the graduates of their schools became famous in the +German scholarship of this period. Not all of them became clergymen, +though of course a great many did. + +Probably the most important of their students was Cardinal Nicholas of +Cusa, the greatest and most original thinker of the fifteenth century. +Strange as it may seem, his achievements in the intellectual life were +nearly all made in mathematics and in science. His work is sketched in +the chapter on Physical Science of the Century. Because of an +important contribution to medicine, he has a chapter in my "Old-Time +Makers of Medicine" (Fordham University Press, N. Y., 1911). + +The thoroughly practical character of Cusanus' mind and its education +from books and experience can be readily appreciated from a paragraph +of his with regard to the unification of his Fatherland, in which his +far-seeing patriotism anticipated the most modern views. + +Cusanus was sent out as Papal Legate to Germany, just about the +beginning of Columbus' Century, in order to correct abuses and bring +Christendom into closer touch with the Holy See. During the course of +his journeys in Germany he recognized all the weakness and the evils +connected with the splitting up of the German people into many petty +principalities. He saw clearly how much their union under one head +would mean for the people themselves, their happiness and progress, +and above all for the peace of mankind. Nearly four centuries before +the actual accomplishment of the dream of the German Empire, he +expressed himself very emphatically on this point, and curiously +enough drew his main arguments from economic conditions and the +failure of any assurance of lasting peace afforded by the existence of +many petty governments. {519} It is characteristic of his very +practical scientific bent of mind that he should have entered so far +into the details of the accomplishment of his vision as to suggest the +making of a budget and the giving of formal accounts of how the money +was spent to the legislative body. + + + [Illustration: CIMA DA CONEGLIANO, + INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS (VENICE)] + + + "The law and the kingdom should be placed under the protection of a + single ruler or authority. The small separate governments of princes + and counts consume a disproportionately large amount of revenue + without furnishing any real security. For this reason we must have a + single government, and for its support we must have a definite + amount of the income from taxes and revenues yearly set aside by a + representative parliament and before this parliament (_Reichstag_) + must be given every year a definite account of the money that was + spent during the preceding year." + +Some idea of the intellectual aspirations of the time and the attitude +of men towards knowledge and truth may be gathered from a paragraph of +Cardinal Cusanus, which is so comprehensive and so full of the love of +wisdom in the best sense of the word as to be classical and to deserve +a place in the notebook of every teacher. It may well be taken as the +motto of the schools of the Brethren of the Common Life. + + "To know and to think, to see the truth with the eye of the mind, is + always a joy. The older a man grows, the greater is the pleasure + which it affords him, and the more he devotes himself to the search + after truth, the stronger grows his desire of possessing it. As love + is the life of the heart, so is the endeavor after knowledge and + truth the life of the mind. In the midst of the movements of time, + of the daily work of life, of its perplexities and contradictions, + we should lift our gaze fearlessly to the clear vault of heaven, and + seek ever to obtain a firmer grasp of and a keener insight into the + origin of all goodness and beauty, the capacities of our own hearts + and minds, the intellectual fruits of mankind throughout the + centuries, and the wondrous works of nature around us, at the same + time remembering always that in humility alone lies true greatness, + and that knowledge and wisdom are alone profitable in so far as our + lives are governed by them." + +One of the greatest of the students of the Brethren of the {520} +Common Life is the famous Rudolph Agricola, who was educated at +Deventer, but, with the intellectual curiosity characteristic of his +time and the ardor for study and opportunities for intellectual +development which was so often seen in Columbus' Century, wandered on +to Erfurt, Louvain, and then Cologne and Paris in order to miss no +possible educational opportunity. When he was twenty-five he went down +to Italy, where he studied law and rhetoric at Pavia and then to +Ferrara, where he studied Greek under Theodore Gaza. He held a +political office for some time, but John of Dalberg, Bishop of Worms, +recognizing his scholarship, secured for him the opportunity to teach +at Heidelberg. He lectured on Aristotle and translated Lucian. Above +all he was the great pioneer of humanism in Germany, and by his +personal influence lighted a torch that was soon to illuminate the +country. He wrote to Rudolph von Langen once when he was seeking a +headmaster for the Cathedral School at Muenster: "I entertain the +highest hope that by your aid we shall one day wrest from proud Italy +her vaunted glory of pre-eminence in education and literature." + +Jacob Wimpheling, who came later to be known as "the Schoolmaster of +Germany," is another one of these students of the Brethren of the +Common Life who reached distinction. He was educated at Schlettstadt +in what is now Alsace. Like the others, he wandered far afield, +however, for his scholarship. He studied at Freiburg and Erfurt and +also at Heidelberg and was probably in Italy for a time. He returned +to Heidelberg as professor, his lectures being mainly upon St. Jerome. +In nearly every city in which he stayed for any length of time he +founded literary societies and devoted himself to the reform of +educational methods. He insisted above all on the importance of moral +training in education, and has made it very clear that he felt that an +educated man without high moral training was more dangerous for evil +than one without education. His writings obtained a wide circulation +and did much to determine the character of education for two +centuries. His idea was that education should produce able and +conscientious citizens rather than accomplished scholars. He was +eminently practical in his way of looking at things and deprecated +{521} the notion so common at many times in history that the storing +of the memory with information, instead of the training of the mind by +thoughtful work so as to make it capable of the best judgment when +that is needed, is the true ideal in education. + +One of the pupils of Agricola in Greek, though he was an older man, +was Alexander Hegius, who, during the last fifteen years of his life, +which correspond almost exactly with the last fifteen years of the +fifteenth century, made the school of Deventer the great educational +centre of North Germany. Among his pupils at Deventer was Erasmus. +Hegius did much to put an end to the older mediaeval ideas in +education, which had become outworn, and to bring in the study of the +classics. One of his great friends, Rudolph von Langen, was a student +of Erfurt who visited Italy and came back full of enthusiasm for +humanistic studies and finally succeeded in founding a school of the +New Learning at Muenster, where he was the Canon of the Cathedral +Church. He tried to secure Hegius as the headmaster of this school, +but had to be content with his pupil, Murmellius, who wrote a series +of very useful textbooks at this time. + +The greatest of the pupils of the Brethren of the Common Life, who is +also one of the greatest scholars of all time, is Desiderius Erasmus. +Probably no better idea can be obtained of the high estimation in +which scholarship was held at this time in Europe than from the career +of Erasmus. He was welcomed everywhere. He was looked upon as one of +the moving forces of the time. His opinions were eagerly sought, his +books were read, he had the friendship not only of scholars, but of +high ecclesiastics, the nobility and even royalty. He did an immense +amount of work and exercised a deep influence over his time. His +influence over England was especially deep, and he aided Dean Colet in +his great design for the future school of St. Paul's by writing his +treatise, _"De ratione Studii";_ he was a friend of Bishop Warham and +of Sir Thomas More; through the influence of Bishop Fisher of +Rochester he became Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge; +in a word, he entered into all the intellectual life of the time +everywhere. He was in Italy for years, helped Aldus, the printer, at +Venice, drawing inspiration from the {522} libraries, the scholars and +the classic remains. His many monographs and dialogues meant much for +the diffusion of right views as to classical education. His editions +of Latin authors comprise Seneca, Suetonius, certain works of Cicero, +Pliny and Terence. His Greek texts include Aristotle and Ptolemy. He +made recensions of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom, +with three editions of St. Jerome. His edition of the Greek Testament +is probably more important than any of these. + +One of the important scholars and teachers of Germany at this time, +though anyone who reviews his life work with some care will surely be +inclined to think that his import has been exaggerated because of his +connection with the reform movement, and that in comparison with many +other scholars of the time he does not deserve that high pre-eminence +of reputation which has been accorded him, was Philip Schwarzerd, who +translated his family name of Black-earth into the Greek Melanchthon +and is known by that name. He was but one of the many great German +scholars at this time, though many people seem to think that he stands +almost alone, a striking example of the supposed freedom of +intellectual development that was ushered in by the Reformation. + +Melanchthon, through the influence of his uncle, Reuchlin, became +Professor of Greek at Wittenberg. He had been a lecturer on Virgil, +Terence and Cicero. During his teaching he wrote a Greek and Latin +grammar and edited many editions of the classics and published a +series of commentaries on Cicero, Terence, Sallust, Ovid, Quintilian, +as well as selections from Aristotle's "Ethics" and "Politics." He was +a gentle, kindly scholar, deeply Christian in his principles, without +any sympathy at all with the paganizing spirit of many of the lesser +humanists, above all outside of Germany. His gentler spirit was +overborne by Luther's strong character. He is said to have told his +mother on her death-bed that the old Church was a good one to die in, +though the reformed might be well enough to live in. The spread of the +Reformation in Germany led to the adoption of his text-books widely, +hence his name _preceptor Germaniae._ + +Scholarship was not, however, confined to the Rhineland {523} and the +Western part of Germany. Many of the cities of the Eastern portion had +magnificent developments of education and classical scholarship at +this time and shared in the art impulse of the period. Nuremberg, +Augsburg, Innsbruck, Vienna, as well as Stuttgart, Ingoldstadt and +Tuebingen, shared in the movement. The great teacher in this part of +Germany was Johann Reuchlin, who studied Greek at Paris and at Basel, +as well as in Italy, taught at Basel, Orleans and Poitiers and then +spent nearly twenty-five years in teaching at Stuttgart, Ingoldstadt +and Tuebingen, where he was Professor of Greek and of Hebrew. When he +was but twenty he produced a Latin dictionary called _"Vocabularius +Breviloquus,"_ noted for its brevity, conciseness and orderly +arrangement, which passed through twenty editions in less than thirty +years. He became so proficient in Latin, Greek and Hebrew that he was +called "the three-tongued wonder of Germany." His Hebrew text-books +gave a great impetus to the study of that language and literature in +Germany. + +He was very highly thought of, was sent on various diplomatic missions +to Italy, occupied important judicial positions under the government +and wielded an immense influence over the men of his time. He died +some five years after the beginning of the Lutheran movement, but had +no sympathy with the Wittenberg professor's schismatic attitude. When +he found that his nephew Melanchthon, for whom he had secured the +chair of Greek at the University of Wittenberg, had attached himself +to Luther, he expressed his disapproval and cancelled the bequest of +his library, which had previously been destined for Melanchthon. +Reuchlin was a representative of the widest culture of the time, a +source of inspiration and incentive to scholarship for all who came in +contact with him. A bitter controversy over some of his writings +occupied the attention of all literary Germany during the early part +of the sixteenth century, showing how widespread was interest in all +intellectual questions at this time. + +The men who led in the defence of Reuchlin in this controversy were +mainly Ulrich von Hutten, Johann Jaeger of Dornheim and Conrad Muth, +or as he came to be known from his Latin name _Mutianus Rufas,_ +another of the students of {524} the Brethren of the Common Life, a +school-fellow of Erasmus at Deventer. He had subsequently studied in +Italy, where he became an intimate of Pico della Mirandola and took +the degree of Doctor in Law at Bologna. Sandys has told his story in +his "History of Classical Scholarship" (page 257): + + "On his return he (Muth) settled at Gotha, where he placed, in + golden letters, over the door of his canonical residence, the words + BEATA TRANQUILLITAS, and thereafter devoted his thoughts to 'God and + the Saints and the study of all Antiquity.' He took the keenest + interest in his younger friends, the humianists of Erfurt, inspiring + them with an eager desire for the spread of classical literature, a + hatred for the pedantry and formalism of the old scholastic methods + and a critical spirit which felt little reverence for the past. + After organizing the victory of the humanists over the scholastic + obscurantists of the day, their leader lived to see his 'tranquil' + home ruthlessly plundered by a Protestant mob, at a time when the + quiet waters of Humanism had been overwhelmed by the stronger stream + of the Reformation." + +One of the great German scholars and editors of the Renaissance was +Conrad Celtes, whose real name was Conrad Picket, but was changed with +the typical classicizing tendency of the Renaissance to the antique +form Celtes. He had received his education under such men as Bishop +John of Dalberg and Rudolph Agricola, and then after travelling in +Italy, where he was in intimate relations with Pomponius Laetus, +Ficino and the famous printer Aldus Manutius, he was, on his return to +Germany, crowned poet laureate at Nuremberg and there also received +the doctor's degree. During his travels through the Northern +countries, he founded, in imitation of the Roman Academy, literary +societies in many of the cities. There was the _Societas Literarum +Vistuliana,_ whose seat was at Cracow; the _Sodalitas Literarum +Danubiana,_ founded originally in Hungary, but afterwards transferred +to Vienna, and the _Sodalitas Literarum Rhenana,_ which had members +along the Rhine. + +This last Academy was founded at Mainz the year before the discovery +of America. Three of the most distinguished men of the time were among +its members. {525} Johann von Dalberg, the Bishop of Worms, whose name +occurs so often in the history of the scholars of the time because of +his munificent patronage of learning, was its first president. The +Abbot Trithemius of Trittenheim and Wilibald Pirkheimer of Nuremberg +were among its prominent members. Trithemius spent much time and money +in the collection of old manuscripts. Pirkheimer was eminent as a +statesman and a patron of humanism and as a translator of Greek texts +and a student of archaeology. + +Besides founding these academies, Celtes lectured in many universities +and issued an edition of the writings of Hroswitha, the nun dramatist +of the tenth century. It was such a surprise to his generation (it is +scarcely less to ours, so little diffusion of true historical +information is there) to find that there had been any literature in +the convents along the Rhine in the tenth century, that for some time +there was considerable discussion as to whether Celtes had not forged +these writings, but it has been definitely settled on absolutely +unimpeachable evidence that Celtes only edited manuscripts that he +found. + +As Librarian of the Imperial Library, founded by Maximilian I of +Vienna, Celtes gathered together many Greek and Latin manuscripts and +generally exercised his influence to secure precious old documents +from destruction by proper care for them. As a poet he attracted no +little attention in his own time, though his poetry is not of a high +order. He was the head of the Poets' Academy at Vienna, the first +institution of its kind in Europe, and his influence as a scholar and +a literary man was much more than his originality as a writer. He was +an intimate friend of Charity Pirkheimer and many of the Nuremberg +group of humanists, and some of the freedom of his poetry might seem +to indicate a lack of religion, but these friendships apparently +indicate carelessness in religious matters, but not rejection of +religion. On a number of occasions Charity Pirkheimer reproved him for +the freedom of his poetry. + +The careers of the Pirkheimers give a good idea of the interest in +scholarship on the part of both men and women in Germany during this +Renaissance period. Charity Pirkheimer, afterwards the Abbess of the +Convent of the Poor Clares in Nuremberg, deserves mention in this +regard as much as her {526} brother, but the sketch of her career +properly finds a place among the Women of the Renaissance. Wilibald +Pirkheimer deserves the immortality that his scholarship has secured +for him. He translated Xenophon, Plato, Plutarch and Lucian into +Latin, but the spirit of the time will be better understood when it is +recalled that he also made translations of Euclid and Ptolemy. The +ordinary assumption that interest in the old pagan authors lessened +attachment to the Church is refuted by his translations of the Greek +Fathers also into Latin. He was himself the author of a history of +Germany which won for him the title of the German Xenophon. His +interest in letters, however, was only one portion of his scholarship, +for astronomy, mathematics and the natural sciences were not only +favorite subjects of study, but fields in which he carried on +successful investigation. Besides, he took up the study of numismatics +with great assiduity, and helped to bring about a general recognition +of its value as a distinct department of historical research. + +It was typical of the universality of the aesthetic interests of the +men of the times in which he lived that Pirkheimer was also deeply +attracted to art and that Albrecht Duerer was one of his closest +friends. We owe to the great German artist a characteristic picture of +the scholar. Like Erasmus, Wilibald Pirkheimer recognized the +necessity for reform in the Church in Germany, and at the beginning of +the reform movement he sided with Luther and wrote in defence of the +German reformer and the doctrines that he was teaching. In the course +of a few years, however, he came to see that the religious revolt, far +from correcting the evils, was emphasizing them, and besides was so +disturbing men's minds in Germany as to make the proper cultivation of +the fine arts and literature impossible. In addition he soon learned +that the so-called reformers were bent on disturbing the convent in +Nuremberg in which so many of his feminine relatives found not only +peace and happiness and the opportunity to cultivate the spiritual +life, but also to live the intellectual life to the full measure of +their desires. Charitas, his sister, was the Abbess of the Convent of +St. Clare, and among the nuns there were another sister, Clare, and +Wilibald's daughters, Catherine and Crescentia. {527} He wrote a +defence of the monastic life for women, in which he pointed out the +opportunities for peace, and joy in the cultivation of the +intellectual life, as well as the spiritual life, enjoyed in these +institutions. During the writing of this apologetic work he became +himself entirely convinced of the necessity for adherence to the old +Church. + +The relations of the humanists, the classical scholars and devotees of +the New Learning in Germany, to the Church have been the subject of +many and varying opinions. Sandys has summed this up very well in a +paragraph which deserves to be quoted because of the importance of the +subject, the authority of the writer and the probability that the +position which he occupies as regards both Germany and the Church make +him, as far as is possible in a subject so fraught with personal +feelings, an impartial critic. He said (page 258): + + "The humanists of Germany may be divided into three successive + schools distinguished from one another in their relation to the + Church, (1) The Earlier or Scholastic Humanists, who were loyal + supporters of the Church, while they were eager for a revival of + classical learning and a new system of education. They are + represented by the three great teachers of North Germany, Rudolfus + Agricola, Rudolf von Langen and Alexander Hegius; also by + Wimpheling, the restorer of education in South Germany; by + Trithemius, one of the founders of the Rhenish Society of + Literature, and by Eck, the famous opponent of Luther. They worked + for the revival of learning in all branches of knowledge, while they + hoped that the New Learning would remain subservient to the old + theology. (2) The Intermediate or Rational Humanists, who took a + rational view of Christianity and its creed, while they protested + against the old scholasticism, and against the external abuses of + the Church. 'They either did not support Luther, or soon deserted + him, being conscious that his movement would lead to the destruction + of all true culture.' Their leaders were Reuchlin and Erasmus, + Conrad Muth, the Canon of Gotha. 'Their party and its true work of + culture were shipwrecked by the tempest of the Reformation.' (3) The + Later or Protestant Humanists, who were ready to 'protest' against + {528} everything, young men of great talent, but of less learning, + whose love of liberty sometimes lapsed into license. Their leading + spirit was Ulrich von Hutten. In course of time, some of them became + Rational Humanists; others, supporters of Luther. 'While Erasmus, + Reuchlin and Muth viewed Luther's propaganda with distrust,' these + younger Humanists 'flocked to the new standard of protest and + revolt, and so doing brought culture into disgrace and shipwrecked + the Revival of Learning in Germany.'" + +The earlier German humanists were not carried away by the idea that +the only thing worth while studying was the New Learning, and that +only the classics of Greece and Rome could form the proper substance +of any right education. In the later period of German humanism this +exaggeration was very common. In the earlier period, however, the +place and the value of the German language itself is recognized, and +due acknowledgments were made to the men of the later Middle Ages for +all that they had accomplished for scholarship and for real progress +in philosophy and theology. Janssen in the third volume of his +"History of the German People" has sketched this very clearly (pages +1-3): + + "The earliest humanists had contemplated classical antiquity from + the point of view of absolute faith in Christianity, and they had + pressed the classics into the service of their creed. They valued + the works of the ancient writers for the deeply religious nature of + the ideas embodied in them; they regarded them as echoes of + primaeval inspiration; but they were at the same time decided and + active opponents of mere pagan systems of thought and life. They + studied antiquity in a scientific spirit of exhaustive research, and + they justified their incorporation of pagan materials into their + systems of culture on the plea that these classic works were an + indispensable groundwork of scholarship, a splendid means of mental + gymnastic training for forming independent judgment and sharpening + the intellect for the apprehension and presentation of truth. By the + profounder knowledge they acquired of the intellectual life of the + ancient world, they hoped to facilitate the understanding of the + Scriptures and to put fresh life and reality into the contemporary + systems of philosophical and theological {529} study. It was this + motive that had inspired the unwearied labors of Nicholas of Cusa + and his pupil Agricola in their efforts to graft the study of + classic literature on the German University curriculum; that had led + Alexander Hegius to make the classics the groundwork of education, + and Jacob Wimpheling to write his epoch-making words. 'It is not the +story of the heathen writers in itself which is dangerous to Christian + culture,' said the latter, 'but the false apprehension and handling + of them. It would undoubtedly be absolutely fatal if, as is often + the case in Italy, by means of the classics, pagan ways of thought + and life, prejudicial to pure Christian morality and the patriotic + spirit of the rising generation, were spread abroad or were to creep + into the teaching of our writers and poets. But, on the other hand, + the legitimate use of the ancient writers might render the most + invaluable services to Christianity and learning. Had not the + Fathers of the Church themselves derived the greatest help in their + explanations of Scripture from the study of these profane writers, + and had they not in consequence recommended them to the veneration + of Christian students? St. Gregory Nazienzen,' he went on to say, + 'had described the opponents of classic study as the enemies of true + learning, and Pope Gregory the Great had shown conclusively that + classic study was a useful preparation and an indispensable aid to + the understanding of theology.' + + "For the same reasons the leading theologians of the fifteenth + century, Heynlin von Stein, Gregory Reisch, Geiler of Kaisersberg, + Gabriel Viel, Johannes Trithemius, had been zealous advocates and + promoters of the labors of the Christian humanists. + + "'With a good conscience,' says Trithemius, 'we can recommend the + study of the ancient writers to all such as do not make use of them + in a worldly spirit for mere intellectual sport, but for the serious + cultivation of their mental powers, and who, after the example of the + Fathers of the Church, seek to cull from them good fruit for the + nourishment of Christian scholarship.'" + +These quotations will serve to show how clearly all the value of the +classical studies to scholarship, yet all the danger to real education +as well as to Christianity was recognized by {530} the scholars of +this time. They represent a critical wisdom often presumed not to have +been developed at this time. Critical judgment is supposed to be a +much later evolution. Those who make such a presumption, however, are +led by ignorance of the realities of the education and scholarship of +this time which has only properly come into its own true appreciation +in comparatively recent years. German scholarship during the +Renaissance period, that is, in Columbus' Century before the +Reformation came to disturb it, represented as fine an expression of +German ability and intellectual genius as has ever come to that +capable people. + + +{531} + +CHAPTER VIII + +SCHOLARSHIP OUTSIDE OF ITALY AND GERMANY + +While Italy was literally the _alma mater studiorum_ during the +Renaissance, and Germany probably accomplished more in scholarly +education at this time that influenced succeeding generations than any +other country except Italy, all the countries of Europe shared very +largely in the New Learning and did much for classical scholarship +before 1550. Indeed, it is probable that to a great many thoroughly +educated students of this time the comparisons of achievement that I +have suggested will seem invidious or at least uncalled for. Certainly +no one appreciates more than I do the magnificent work of the +scholarly humanists of France, Spain, Portugal and England during +Columbus' Century. Each of them shared magnificently in the +intellectual incentive that had been given by the reintroduction of +classical studies and especially of Greek, and each of them, in fine +compensation for the impetus lent them by the movement, gave back to +it achievements in scholarship that swelled the tide and helped in the +diffusion of Humanism throughout all of Western Europe at least. There +are national accomplishments of all of these countries that are worthy +of note, and each of them accomplished much at this time in education +that will never be forgotten. + +Probably the easiest way to tell the extent of the scholarship of +France during Columbus' Century is to say that many good authorities +have declared that before the end of the century France had taken away +from Italy the palm for classical scholarship. The first important +teacher of the French was, however, an Italian, Jerome Aleander, who +arrived in France shortly after the beginning of the sixteenth century +with an introduction from Erasmus. He lectured on Greek as well as +Latin, and probably also on Hebrew. He became Rector of {532} the +University of Paris in 1512, but returned to Rome in 1517 and was +appointed Librarian to the Vatican. His distinguished services for +learning and the Church brought him a cardinal's hat, and he became +one of the most prominent members of the Papal Court at this time. It +was under his direction that the first Greek printing in France was +done. Three of Plutarch's treatises on Morals were printed in Paris in +1509 in order to serve as text-books for his pupils. + +His successor as a teacher of the classics in Paris was the +distinguished Frenchman Budaeus, who, before the end of his life, came +to be looked upon as perhaps the most eminent of living scholars. He +went on diplomatic missions to Popes Julius II and Leo X and thus +became very much interested in the New Learning. He learned Greek for +himself, and under Francis I and Henry II his fame as a Greek scholar, +to quote Sandys, [Footnote 49] was "one of the glories of his +country." "He opened a new era in the study of Roman Law by his +annotations on the 'Pandects' of Justinian, and a little later he +broke fresh ground as the first serious student of the Roman coinage +in his treatise _'De Asse,'_ It was the ripe result of no less than +nine years' research, and in twenty years passed through ten editions. +Its abundant learning is said to have aroused the envy of Erasmus" +(Sandys). + + [Footnote 49: "A History of Classical Scholarship," Cambridge + University Press, 1908, p. 170.] + +His devotion to study became a proverb. It is said that even on his +wedding day, by an exceptional act of self-denial, he limited his time +of study to three hours only. It is interesting to learn that his wife +shared his enthusiasm for study at least to the extent of aiding him +in every possible way by devoted attention, which prevented him from +being interrupted or harassed by any cares. Once, when he was busy +reading in his library, one of the servants suddenly rushed in to +inform him that the house was on fire. The scholar, without lifting up +his eyes from his book, simply said: "Go and tell my wife; you know +very well that I must not be bothered about household matters." He +suffered greatly from headaches, which the best physicians of his day +vainly endeavored to cure by the application of the actual cautery to +his scalp. {533} After a time, however, it was suggested to him that +what was needed was not a cure, but a better regulation of his life. +He learned to take long walks, and spent some time each day +cultivating his garden to the great alleviation of his headaches. + +His greatest contribution to the scholarship of the time was his +successful urging of Francis I, helped as he was by that monarch's +sister, Marguerite of Navarre, to establish the College de France, +though for a time at the beginning it had no such ambitious title, but +was called simply the Corporation of the Royal Readers. It had no +official residences or even public lecture rooms. As was said at the +time, "it was built on men." Budaeus' statue rightly stands before the +College buildings now, for he was the real founder. The amount that +was accomplished for genuine education and scholarship before the +buildings were erected and the machinery of a college set going shows +how much more men mean than an institution. + +This Corporation of the Royal Readers had at first teachers of Greek, +Hebrew and Mathematics, five in number. The first two teachers in it +were Pierre Danes, Danesius as he is known, who edited an important +edition of Pliny and later of Justin Martyr and afterwards became +Bishop of Lavaur and took an important part in the Council of Trent, +and Jacques Toussain, an industrious scholar, the compiler of a Greek +and Latin Dictionary. Three men are said to have attended Toussain's +lectures for some time, whose influence on the after-time was to be +very marked, and yet the contrast of whose characters is very +striking. They were Ignatius Loyola, John Calvin and Francois +Rabelais. Turnebus was also one of the students of Toussain, and +himself later became a distinguished professor, first at Toulouse and +afterwards as the successor of his master at Paris. Toussain had been +famous for his erudition. He was a living library. Turnebus, though +attracting great attention when a young man by his marvellous memory, +became a specialist in Greek textual criticism. He published a series +of Greek texts, including Aeschylus and Sophocles, just at the end of +Columbus' Century, and edited Cicero's "Laws." He wrote commentaries +on Varro and the elder Pliny. + + + [Illustration: FRANCIS I LISTENING TO MACAULT's TRANSLATION + OF DIODORUS SICULUS, TITLE PAGE OF WOOD-ENGRAVING (TORY)] + + +We have from Montaigne, who was one of his pupils just as our century +closes, a curiously interesting description of {534} Turnebus, which +serves to show that the genus professor has been at all times about +the same and that his pupils have loved him often just in proportion +as they have found many things to laugh at in his dress and manners. +It is, indeed, a distinction, {535} however, to have been the thus +beloved master of Montaigne, himself no laggard in scholarliness. + + "I have seen Adrianus Turnebus, who, having never professed anything + but studie and letters, wherein he was, in mine opinion, the + worthiest man that lived these thousand years, . . . notwithstanding + had no pedanticall thing about him but the wearing of his gowne, and + some external fashions, that could not well be reduced and + uncivilized to the courtiers' cut. For his inward parts, I deeme him + to have been one of the most unspotted and truly honest minds that + ever was. I have sundry times of purpose urged him to speake of + matters farthest from his study, wherein he was so clear-sighted, + and could with so quicke an apprehension conceive, and with so sound + a judgment distinguish them, that he seemed never to have professed + or studied other facultie than warre, and matters of state." + +The French educators of this time seem to have realized very well the +true meaning of education. Rabelais is usually not taken seriously, +except by students of his works who have given them much attention, +but his books contain a number of most interesting contributions to +this subject. His striking contrast between what education had been +when he was a boy and in his old age, drawn by Gargantua, represents +the great advance that took place in education at this time. The +paragraphs may be taken as the testimony of a contemporary to the +devotion to scholarship on the part of both men and women which then +developed in France. He has the usual Renaissance contempt for Gothic +culture, a contempt that exists even at the present time among those +who know no better. + + "I had no supply of such teachers as thou hast had. The time was + still dark, and savouring of the misery and calamity wrought by the + Goths, who had entirely destroyed all good literature. But by Divine + goodness its own light and dignity has been in my lifetime restored + to letters, and I see such amendment therein that at present I + should hardly be admitted into the first class of the little + grammar-boys, although in my youthful days I was reputed, not + without reason, as the most learned of that age. . . . + +{536} + + "But now all methods of teaching are restored, the study of the + languages renewed--Greek, without which it is a disgrace for a man + to style himself a scholar; Hebrew, Chaldean, Latin; impressions of + books most elegant and correct are in use through printing, which + has been invented in my time by Divine inspiration, as on the other + side artillery has been invented by devilish suggestion. + + "All the world is full of knowing folk, of most learned preceptors, + of most extensive libraries, so that I am of opinion that neither in + the time of Plato, nor Cicero, nor Papinian was there ever such + conveniency for study as is seen at this time. Nor must any + hereafter adventure himself in public, or in any company, who shall + not have been well polished in the workshop of Minerva. I do see + robbers, hangmen, freebooters, grooms, of the present age, more + learned than the doctors and preachers of my time. + + "What shall I say? Women and young girls have aspired to this praise + and celestial manna of good learning. So much is this the case that + at my present age I have been constrained to learn the Greek tongue + which I had not contemned, like Cato, but which I had not had + leisure to learn in my youth; and I do willingly delight myself in + reading the Morals of Plutarch, the fine Dialogues of Plato, the + Monuments of Pausanias, and the Antiquities of Athenaeus, whilst I + wait for the hour when it shall please God my Creator to call me and + command me to depart from this earth." + +With all his jesting, humorous spirit (some people would call it +ludicrous buffoonery), Rabelais had no illusions with regard to the +true meaning of education. The concluding sentences of Gargantua's +letter to his son on Education may very well be taken as representing +the serious side of Rabelais' views with regard to the place of +religion in education and his profound recognition of the utter +failure of any education which did not include moral training. His +golden words, "science without conscience is the ruin of the soul," +have often been quoted. It is doubtful, however, whether most people +have realized how precious is the context in the midst of which these +words occur. The whole passage is well worth while for educators at +least to have near them: + +{537} + + "But because (according to the wise Solomon) wisdom entereth not + into a malicious soul, and science without conscience is but the + ruin of the soul, it behoveth thee to serve, love, and fear God, and + in Him to put all thy thoughts and all thy hope, and to cleave to + Him by faith formed of charity, so that thou mayest never be + separated from Him by sin. + + "Hold in suspicion the deceits of the world. Set not thy heart on + vanity; for this life passeth away, but the Word of the Lord + endureth for ever. Be serviceable to all thy neighbors and love them + as thyself. Revere thy preceptors. Flee from the company of those + whom thou wouldst not resemble, and receive not in vain the graces + which God hath given thee. + + "And when thou shalt perceive that thou hast attained unto all the + knowledge that is acquired in those parts, return unto me, that I + may see thee and give thee my blessing before I die. + + "My son, the peace and grace of our Lord be with thee. Amen." + +One of the important teachers at this time in France was Julius Caesar +Scaliger, born in Italy, particularly famous for the part that he took +in the controversy over Ciceronianism, and who defended Cicero from +the attacks of Erasmus, maintaining that the Latin orator was +absolutely perfect. Scaliger is notorious for having introduced the +bitterest kind of personalities into classical controversy. +Unfortunately, his example was widely followed. His son is the better +known Scaliger, but was only ten years old at the time our century +closes. His education gives an idea of the educational methods of the +century. When he was but fourteen he was required to produce daily a +short Latin declamation and to keep a written record of the perennial +flow of his father's Latin verse. It was thus that he acquired his +early mastery of Latin. But he was already conscious that "not to know +Greek was to know nothing" (Sandys). + +In Spain there was a magnificent development of scholarship which +began to make itself felt shortly after the discovery of America. +Here, as elsewhere, contact with Italy gave the initiative. A Spanish +nobleman, Guzman, who visited Italy during the Council of Florence, +returned with translations of some of Cicero's works and of +Quintilian, and interest was {538} awakened. Antonio of Lebrixa, +commonly called Nebrisensis, after spending twenty years in Italy, +returned in 1473 to lecture at Seville, Salamanca and Alcala and to +publish grammars of Latin and Greek as well as Hebrew. After this +Barbosa, a pupil of Politian, taught Greek at Salamanca. Many of the +Spanish bishops who visited Rome in the performance of their +ecclesiastical obligations came back with manuscripts, and above all +with awakened interest in classical studies to scatter the seeds of +the New Learning. Indeed, this constituted a large factor in the great +movement for humanism in all the Western countries at this time. + +The most important factor for Spanish culture and scholarship, +however, was the famous Cardinal Ximenes, sometimes known by his +family name of Cisneros. With a career of importance opening out +before him in the ecclesiastical life, Ximenes, who had been the Grand +Vicar to Cardinal Gonzales of Sigueenza, resigned that office to become +a Franciscan of the Strict Observance. His administrative ability soon +brought about his election as Guardian of his monastery, and he became +known among his brethren for his devotion to the spiritual life. The +year of the discovery of America he was selected as the confessor of +Queen Isabella. He accepted with the condition that he should be +allowed to live in his monastery and appear at Court only when sent +for. He had much to do with the successful appeal of Columbus to her +Majesty. Three years later he was chosen to succeed his friend Mendoza +as Archbishop of Toledo. This post carried with it the Chancellorship +of Castile at this time. Ximenes refused the dignity, and it was only +after six months of delay, and then in obedience to the express +command of the Pope, that he accepted it. As archbishop he continued +to live as a simple Franciscan, devoting the greater part of the +immense revenues attached to his see to the relief of the poor and +particularly for the redemption of captives. Just at this time the +activity of the Turks made this one of the burning social needs of the +time. + +Ximenes was even reprimanded, it is said, by the Pope for neglecting +the external splendor that belonged to his rank. He would not wear an +episcopal dress, except in such a way {539} that his Franciscan habit +might remain visible underneath. His fulfilment of his duties as +Chancellor of Castile gave him ample opportunity for the exercise of +his administrative ability and demonstrated his power and high sense +of justice. He used his high office to the fullest extent to encourage +culture and above all classical studies. In 1504 he founded the +University of Alcala, obtaining some of the most distinguished +scholars from Bologna, Paris and the other Spanish universities to +fill its chairs. Practically all the religious orders established +houses at Alcala in connection with the University. Among those who +were attracted to Alcala was Nunez de Guzman, who brought out an +edition of Seneca that earned the praise of Lipsius, and who besides +suggested valuable emendations of Pliny's "Natural History." He also +published, mainly at the suggestion of Cardinal Ximenes, it is said, +an interlinear Latin rendering of Saint Basil's tract on the study of +Greek literature. He is known as Pincianus from Pintia, the ancient +name of Valladolid, his birthplace, and much of his enthusiasm for +classical studies had been derived from visits to Italy during which +he collected a number of manuscripts that he brought back with him as +precious treasures. + +The great work of Cardinal Ximenes, however, was the publication under +his patronage of the first Polyglot Bible, known as the Complutensian +Polyglot from Complutum, the ancient name for Alcala. This occupied +fifteen years, cost an immense sum of money, considerably over a +million of dollars in our values, occupied a great many scholars, +attracted wide attention and above all created an interest in +linguistic studies that spread all over the country and was felt even +in other countries. This was completed only four months before the +Cardinal's death and was dedicated to Leo X. Most of the revenues of +his archbishopric, which had accumulated because of his careful use of +them, he left to his beloved University of Alcala. In spite of a +self-denial in the matter of food and drink that had been carried to +an extent which it was feared might injure his health, and what seemed +to many even at that time, a serious deprivation of sleep for prayer +and study, continued amid all his great administrative work,--for he +was often regent of the kingdom and displayed great ability in {540} +military organization--he lived to the age of eighty-one. He has been +honored as a saint, though this honor has never been confirmed by any +formal declaration. + +After this, the development of scholarship was comparatively easy. Men +like Vives, Vergara, who published a Greek grammar, praised by many of +the scholars of the time and thoroughly appreciated by Scaliger, and +Sanchez, who was professor of Greek at Salamanca when he was but +thirty-one, carried on the New Learning. Sanchez' text-book on Latin +syntax called "The Minerva" came to be more used throughout Europe +than almost any other. Haase declared that he had done more for Latin +grammar than any of his predecessors, and Sir William Hamilton, the +English philosopher, even held that the study of "Minerva" with the +notes of the editors was more profitable than that of Newton's +_"Principia."_ Sandys notes that "it is at any rate written in good +Latin and the author shows a familiarity with the whole range of Latin +literature as well as Aristotle and Plato." + +After this, indeed, grammar, the science of language, came to a great +extent to be under the domination of Spanish minds. Nunez, or as he is +known by his Latin name Nunnesius of Valencia, who studied in Paris +and was professor of Greek at Barcelona, was the author of an +interesting little Greek grammar which, according to Sandys, differs +little from those now used in schools. With the coming of the Jesuits, +Emmanuel Alvarez produced the Latin grammar in which for the first +time the principles of the language were formally laid down and the +fancies of ancient grammarians laid aside. It became the text-book in +all the Jesuit schools, has often been reprinted since, is the +foundation of all our modern Latin grammars and is said by experienced +teachers to surpass all its successors. Spain did not neglect other +phases of scholarship, however. Agostino, after graduation at +Salamanca, taught law at Padua and at Florence, became a member of the +Papal Tribunal in Rome, studying the inscriptions and ancient +monuments as well as the manuscripts of the old city. Later he became +the Bishop of Lerida and then Archbishop of Taragona. He published a +treatise on Roman Laws, often reprinted, but his masterpiece in +classical archaeology was his {541} book on coins, inscriptions and +other antiquities, published originally in Spanish and attracting +wide, popular attention. + +Portugal follows in scholarship the rest of the peninsula and owed its +initiative to contact with Italian sources. Resende taught Greek at +Lisbon and Evora and counted among his pupils the famous Achilles +Statius, whose career comes mainly after the conclusion of Columbus' +Century, though he was twenty-six before the century closed and his +scholarship is a product of our period. He won his high reputation in +Rome by a work on ancient portraits and by commentaries on the _"Ars +Poetica"_ of Horace, when he was not yet thirty, and confirmed this by +subsequent fine work on Catullus and Tibullus. He was associated with +Muretus in an edition of _Propertius,_ and his studies on the +"Illustrious Men of Suetonius" attracted the attention of the learned +world of his time and was highly praised by Casaubon. The Jesuit +Father Alvarez, whose grammar I have already mentioned, though of +Spanish extraction, lived in Portugal and was educated and taught +there. The University of Coimbra took on renewed vigor just at the end +of Columbus' Century and its classical school became famous especially +under the Jesuits. The University became noted for its Teachers' +College, for graduates who purposed to follow teaching as a vocation, +and for its opportunities for the training of the teaching religious +orders. + +England was often looked upon at the beginning of the Renaissance as +so distant from the centres of culture on the Continent that very +little was expected of her in scholarship. Of course, the same thing +was more or less true with regard to Germany, not because of distance +in space, but of speech. The peoples of the Latin languages felt a +brotherhood to each other which they did not share with the Germans or +English, whose speech it must be confessed, somewhat after the narrow +fashion of the Greeks of the older times towards all nations not Greek +in origin, they considered barbarous. It is always true that nations +quite fail to understand each other, and our own attitude toward Italy +at the present time, though the civilization and culture of the world +owes more to Italy than to all the other nations of modern history put +together, is typical of this constant tendency to national +misunderstanding. {542} The Italians were very much surprised to have +pupils from England rather early in Columbus' Century, and still more +surprised apparently to have them succeed admirably. They soon came to +appreciate them highly, and such men as Linacre, John Free and Caius +were even made teachers at Italian universities. Over and over again, +the Italians expressed their gratification at the spread of +scholarship among the English and their congratulations on their +success in the New Learning. The congratulations were amply deserved. + +Bishop Creighton, in his "Early Renaissance in England," [Footnote 50] +says that the first English humanist was Lord Grey of Codnor, who went +from Balliol College to Cologne, which was famous at the time for its +general culture and education, but as he desired to get classical +culture more particularly, he stole away to Florence at night lest his +going should be hampered by the many friends that he had made at +Cologne. He found much of interest at Florence, ordered a library +there and then went to Padua, where he studied for a time. He was +attracted to Ferrara, however, by the reputation of Guarino, and from +there went to Rome, where the scholarly Nicholas V nominated him +Bishop of Ely. One of the next of the great English scholars was John +Free, a physician, whose expenses during his Italian trip were paid by +Lord Grey, and who had no less success among the Italian scholars. The +scholarly doctor was appointed Bishop of Bath in 1465, but died before +his consecration. + + [Footnote 50: Cambridge University Press, 1895.] + +Perhaps the most interesting feature of Italy's welcome for these +students from Britain, "which is situated outside the world," was the +absolutely unprejudiced way in which they were chosen to important +posts in the University in competition with the Italians. Reynold +Chicheley, who studied at Ferrara under Guarino, became Rector of the +universities there. John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, compelled to +leave England by political conditions at the beginning of the latter +half of the fifteenth century, went to Venice and to the Holy Land and +studied Latin at Padua, visited the aged Guarino at Ferrara, as Sandys +in his "History of Classical Scholarship" tells us, and heard +Argyropulos lecture on Greek. The Latin oration {543} which he +delivered in the presence of Pope Pius II (AEneas Sylvius) is said to +have drawn tears of joy from the eyes of the Pope because of the +feeling of satisfaction that classical scholarship was now a world +possession. + +Erasmus, who was certainly in a position to judge both because of his +own scholarship and his many years of residence in England, wrote a +letter in December, 1499, to a friend in Italy in highest praise of +English scholarship. It is a panegyric of his English friends, but it +is a glorious tribute: + + "I have found in England . . . so much learning and culture, and + that of no common kind, but recondite, exact and ancient, Latin and + Greek, that I now hardly want to go to Italy, except to see it. When + I listen to my friend Colet, I can fancy I am listening to Plato + himself. Who can fail to admire Grocyn, with all his encyclopaedic + erudition? Can anything be more acute, more profound, more refined, + than the judgment of Linacre? Has nature ever moulded anything + gentler, pleasanter, or happier, than the mind of Thomas More?" + +In England, as elsewhere, the Reformation worked sad havoc on +education. The confiscation of educational endowments and the +suppression of monasteries and the scattering of their libraries +almost put an end to scholarship in England. The descent in education +continued until the end of the eighteenth century. Only in the past +hundred years has England begun to recover lost ground. + +At this time men mainly studied Latin, but towards the end of the +fifteenth century they took up Greek, The first Englishman who studied +Greek in the revival of learning was William Selling, a Benedictine +monk. Sandys tells us that "Night and day he was haunted by the vision +of Italy, that next to Greece was the nursing mother of men of +genius." He was the uncle of Linacre, who had the privilege of +accompanying him on his embassy to the Pope in 1485. Modern English +classical scholarship in both Greek and Latin begins with Linacre and +his two friends, William Grocyn and William Latimer. Latimer was a +great friend of Sir Thomas More. The younger of the group of English +Greek scholars was William Lily, who, while on a pilgrimage to +Jerusalem, studied Greek in Rhodes. He was one of the poor scholars of +history {544} who worked his way through school in the midst of all +kinds of difficulties and privations. While earning his living in +Venice he succeeded in keeping up his studies. + +Grocyn was one of the greatest of the Greek scholars of this +generation in Europe. He proved that the book known as the +"Ecclesiastical Hierarchy" was not by Dionysius the Areopagite, to +whom it had been so long attributed, and thus gave the first proof of +the critical scholarship of English students of Greek. Still another +distinguished Greek scholar was John Fisher, afterwards Bishop Fisher, +whose patron, Lady Margaret, under his direction did so much for +education and particularly for classical scholarship in England. + + +{545} + +APPENDIX I + +SIR THOMAS MORE AND MAN'S SOCIAL PROBLEMS + +There is a very general impression that this is the first time in +history that the general social problems of humanity have been taken +seriously and solutions of them deliberately sought. At least there is +a very prevalent feeling that no generation before our time recognized +all of these problems so well as we do and seriously tried to reach +rational solutions in spite of vested interests of all kinds and +old-time prejudices and traditions. Because Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" +represents a complete contradiction of this complacent attitude of +mind toward our sociological interests, it seems worth while to quote +here a series of passages from his book which illustrate very well how +as a young man of twenty-seven he faced all our social problems, which +are of course those of humanity at all times when in a reasonably +civilized condition, and saw as clearly as anyone has ever done, and +expressed quite as thoroughly, the rational solutions of them. + +Perhaps the most surprising passage is that with regard to religious +toleration, which in Utopia was complete. It has often been said that +More himself afterwards, as Lord Chancellor, violated his own +principles in the matter, but he has been ably defended from such +imputations by some of the best lawyers of England. The supposed stain +on his character is due to religious prejudices in those who write. +After religion, the question of armament for nations is More's most +important contribution to political science, and there is a full +discussion of the evil of standing armies and of the foolish reasons +for keeping the nations on a war footing. As might be expected, there +is severe condemnation of the vulgar display of such objects as costly +precious stones, and More has the children of the Utopians even make +great fun of such childish barbaric tendencies. The over-value of gold +is laughed to scorn. More's idea of a certificate of health before +marriage anticipates many eugenic ideas of our day in a very simple +way. The future Lord Chancellor had a fine appreciation for +physicians, though surprisingly enough not so much for his own +profession of lawyer, and his descriptions of the hospitals of Utopia +shows how thoroughly they comprehended what a hospital should be and +how little there is of any development in our modern plans for +hospitals, though we are so inclined to think of these as a great +evolution in hospital construction. + +{546} + +There are many other phases of thought that he introduces which are +extremely interesting in our time. Indeed one can scarcely turn a page +of the "Utopia" without finding that it fulfils what James Russell +Lowell suggested as at least the accidental definition of a classic +when he said that "to read a classic is to read a commentary on the +morning paper." The books the Utopians were interested in show More's +own breadth of interest in great literature, and the fact that the +great scientific writers are included contradicts many modern notions +as to the limitations of intellectual curiosity at this time. In +Utopia they reject astrology, have music during meals, which are +prepared in common, saving much time for the individuals, think that +discipline is the watchword of education, have invented door springs, +care for their forests, anticipating all our conservation ideas, and +divided their time so that there is six hours of work and eight hours +of sleep and the rest for culture and recreation. These are but +examples chosen at random of the surprises that meet one constantly in +the book. + +The passage with regard to religious toleration is all the more +striking because, written in 1515, or at the latest 1516, it +represents his opinion before the beginning of Luther's disturbance +and just before that series of disturbances began in Europe which +during the next three centuries was to prove of such serious detriment +to art and literature and education, as well as the politics of +Europe. It runs as follows: + + "At the first constitution of their government, Utopus having + understood that before his coming among them the old inhabitants had + been engaged in great quarrels concerning religion, by which they + were so divided among themselves that he found it an easy thing to + conquer them, since, instead of uniting their forces against him, + every different party in religion fought by themselves. After he had + subdued them he made a law that every man might be of what religion + he pleased, and might endeavor to draw others to it by the force of + argument and by amicable and modest ways, but without bitterness + against those of other opinions; but that he ought to use no other + force but that of persuasion, and was neither to mix with it + reproaches nor violence; and such as did otherwise were to be + condemned to banishment or slavery. + + "This law was made by Utopus, not only for preserving the public + peace, which he saw suffered much by daily contentions and + irreconcilable heats, but because he thought the interest of + religion itself required it. He judged it not fit to determine + anything rashly, and seemed to doubt whether those different forms + of religion might not all come from God, who might inspire man in a + different manner, and be pleased with this variety; he therefore + thought it indecent and foolish for any man to threaten and terrify + another to make him believe what did not appear to him true. And + supposing that only one religion was really true, and the rest + false, he imagined that the native force of truth would at last + break forth and shine bright, if supported only by the strength of + argument and attended to with a gentle and {547} unprejudiced mind; + while, on the other hand, if debates were carried on with violence + and tumults, as the most wicked are always the most obstinate, so + the best and most holy religion might be choked with superstition, + as corn is with briars and thorns; he therefore left men wholly to + their liberty, that they might be free to believe as they should see + cause; only he made a solemn and severe law against such as should + so far degenerate from the dignity of human nature as to think that + our souls died with our bodies, or that the world was governed by + chance, without a wise over-ruling Providence: for they all formerly + believed that there was a state of rewards and punishments to the + good and bad after this life; and they now look on those that think + otherwise as scarce fit to be counted men, since they degrade so + noble a being as the soul, and reckon it no better than a beast's: + thus they are far from looking on such men as fit for human society, + or to be citizens of a well-ordered commonwealth; since a man of + such principles must needs, as oft as he dares to do it, despise all + their laws and customs: for there is no doubt to be made, that a man + who is afraid of nothing but the law, and apprehends nothing after + death, will not scruple to break through all the laws of his + country, either by fraud or force, when by this means he may satisfy + his appetites. They never raise any that hold these maxims, either + to honors or to offices, nor employ them in any public trust, but + despise them as men of base and sordid minds. Yet they do not punish + them, because they lay this down as a maxim, that a man cannot make + himself believe anything he pleases; nor do they drive any to + dissemble their thoughts by threatenings, so that men are not + tempted to lie or disguise their opinions; which being a sort of + fraud, is abhorred by the Utopians: they take care indeed to prevent + their disputing in defence of these opinions, especially before the + common people: but they suffer, and even encourage them to dispute + concerning them in private with their priest and other grave men, + being confident that they will be cured of those mad opinions by + having reason laid before them." + + +Standing armies would seem to be a subject that would interest +statesmen mainly in the present time. It would rather be expected that +we had evolved the arguments we now use against them in comparatively +recent years. Some of Sir Thomas More's remarks then are extremely +interesting because they show the problem as we have it fairly stated +and the reasons for and against armies set forth very simply, but very +emphatically. Four hundred years has made no difference in the +situation, though we are prone to think of evolution as having made +great changes in that length of time. Only the evils have been +emphasized. More said at the beginning almost of his "Utopia": + + "In France there is yet a more pestiferous sort of people, for the + whole country is full of soldiers, still kept up in time of peace + (if such a state of nation can be called a peace); and these are + kept in pay upon the same account that you plead for those idle + retainers upon noblemen: this being a maxim of those pretended + statesmen, that it is necessary for public safety to have a good + body of veteran soldiers ever in readiness. They think raw men {548} + are not to be depended on, and they sometimes seek occasions for + making war, that they may train up their soldiers in the art of + cutting throats, or, as Sallust observed, 'for keeping their hands + in use, that they may not grow dull by too long an intermission.' + But France has learned to its cost how dangerous it is to feed such + beasts. The fate of the Romans, Carthaginians and Syrians, and many + other nations and cities, which were both overturned and quite + ruined by those standing armies, should make others wiser." + + +And still we can find no better reason for large armies than what +Thucydides called [Greek text], "the balanced fear," which we have +come to designate by the courtlier term, the balance of power. + +The passage in "Utopia" in which More discusses the wearing of fine +clothes and of precious stones and jewels has often been quoted. After +400 years it will still come home with great force to all those who +think seriously on the subject. Of course it is literal common sense, +but then what has common sense ever availed against fashion? The +mid-African wears brass rings and fancy calico because they are hard +to get and expensive and therefore give distinction to their wearer. +His cultured European brother--and sister--wears what is equally +childish and barbaric because costly and distinctive and will +doubtless continue to do so. Sir Thomas More's ideas on the subject +are interesting, but will fall on quite as deaf ears in our generation +as in all the others since his time. + + "I never saw a clearer instance of the opposite impressions that + different customs make on people than I observed in the ambassadors + of the Anemolians, who came to Amaurot when I was there. As they + came to treat of affairs of great consequence, the deputies from + several towns met together to wait for their coming. The ambassadors + of the nations that lie near Utopia, knowing their customs and that + fine clothes are in no esteem among them, that silk is despised, and + gold is a badge of infamy, used to come very modestly clothed; but + the Anemolians, lying more remote, and having had little commerce + with them, understanding that they were coarsely clothed, and all in + the same manner, took it for granted that they had none of these + fine things among them of which they made no use; and they, being a + vainglorious rather than a wise people, resolved to set themselves + out with so much pomp that they should look like gods and strike the + eyes of the poor Utopians with their splendor. Thus three + ambassadors made their entry with a hundred attendants, all clad in + garments of different colours, and the greater part in silk; the + ambassadors themselves, who were of the nobility of their country, + were in cloth of gold, and adorned with massy chains, earrings, and + rings of gold; their caps were covered with bracelets set full of + pearls and other gems--in a word, they were set out with all those + things that among the Utopians were either the badges of slavery, + the marks of infamy, or the playthings of children. It was not + unpleasant to see, on the one side, how they looked big, when they + compared their rich habits with the plain clothes of the {549} + Utopians, who were come out in great numbers to see them make their + entry; and, on the other, to observe how much they were mistaken in + the impression which they hoped this pomp would have made on them. + It appeared so ridiculous a show to all that they never stirred out + of their country, and had not seen the customs of other nations, + that though they paid some reverence to those that were the most + meanly clad, as if they had been the ambassadors, yet when they saw + the ambassadors themselves so full of gold and chains, they looked + upon them as slaves and forbore to treat them with reverence. You + might have seen the children who were grown big enough to despise + their playthings, and who had thrown away their jewels, call to + their mothers, push them gently, and cry out, 'See that great fool, + that wears pearls and gems as if he were yet a child!' while their + mothers very innocently replied, 'Hold your peace! this, I believe, + is one of the ambassadors' fools.' Others censured the fashion of + their chains, and observed, 'that they were of no use, for they were + too slight to bind their slaves, who could easily break them; and, + besides, hung so loose about them that they thought it easy to throw + them away, and so get from them.' But after the ambassadors had + stayed a day among them, and saw so vast a quantity of gold in their + houses (which was as much despised by them as it was esteemed in + other nations), and beheld more gold and silver in the chains and + fetters of one slave than all their ornaments amounted to, their + plumes fell, and they were ashamed of all that glory for which they + had formerly valued themselves, and accordingly laid it aside--a + resolution that they immediately took when, on their engaging in + some free discourse with the Utopians, they discovered their sense + of such things and their other customs. The Utopians wonder how any + man should be so much taken with the glaring, doubtful lustre of a + jewel or a stone, that can look up to a star or to the sun himself; + or how any should value himself because his cloth is made of a finer + thread; for, how fine soever that thread may be, it was once no + better than the fleece of a sheep, and that sheep was a sheep still, + for all its wearing it." (John G. Saxe told the last generation how + great a difference it made whether one wore the product of an India + plant or an India worm.) + + +Immediately following this there is almost a more striking passage +with regard to wealth and the changes that it makes in the attitude of +the minds of men towards one another that would seem surely to have +been written by a modern socialist. + + + "They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a + thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed that even man, for whom + it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of + less value than this metal; that a man of lead, who has no more + sense than a log of wood, and is as bad as he is foolish, should + have many wise and good men to serve him, only because he has a + great heap of that metal; and that if it should happen that by some + accident or trick of law (which sometimes reduces as great changes + as chance itself) all this wealth should pass from the master to the + meanest varlet of his whole family, he himself would very soon + become one of his servants, as if he were a thing that belonged to + his wealth, and so were bound to follow {550} its fortune! But they + much more admire and detest the folly of those who, when they see a + rich man, though they neither owe him anything, nor are in any sort + dependent on his bounty, yet, merely because he is rich, give him + little less than divine honors, even though they know him to be so + covetous and base-minded that, notwithstanding all his wealth, he + will not part with one farthing of it to them as long as he lives!" + +Perhaps his greatest contribution to social ethics and the solution of +social problems is to be found in his emphatic assertion of the right +of the laborer to a living wage in the best sense of that much abused +term and his insistent deprecation of the fact that laborers must not +be exploited so as to enable men to accumulate great wealth that is +sure to be abused. More believed in profit-sharing very heartily and +had no hesitation in expressing himself. Above all, he deprecates the +injustice worked by predatory wealth. It was the judicial mind of the +greatest Lord Chancellor England has ever had, who, after speaking of +the Utopian state as "that which alone of good right may claim and +take upon it the name of commonwealth," continues: + + "Here now would I see, if any man dare be so bold as to compare with + this equity, the justice of other nations; among whom, I forsake + God, if I can find any sign or token of equity and justice. For what + justice is this, that a rich goldsmith, or an usurer, or to be + short, any of them which either do nothing at all, or else that + which they do is such that it is not very necessary to the + commonwealth, should have a pleasant and a wealthy living, either by + idleness or unnecessary business, when in the meantime poor + laborers, carters, ironsmiths, carpenters, and ploughmen, by so + great and continual toil, as drawing and bearing beasts be scant + able to sustain, and again so necessary toil, that without it no + commonwealth were able to continue and endure one year, should get + so hard and poor a living, and live so wretched and miserable a + life, that the state and condition of the laboring beasts may seem + much better and healthier? . . . And yet besides this the rich men, + not only by private fraud but also by common laws, do every day + pluck and snatch away from the poor some part of their daily living. + . . . They invent and devise all means and manner of crafts, first + how to keep safely without fear of losing that they have unjustly + gathered together, and next how to hire and abuse the work and labor + of the poor for as little money as may be. These devices when the + rich men have decreed to be kept and observed under color of the + commonalty, that is to say, also of the poor people, then they be + made laws. . . . Therefore when I consider and weigh in my mind all + these commonwealths which nowadays anywhere do flourish, so God help + me, I can perceive nothing but a certain conspiracy of rich men + procuring their own commodities under the name and title of + commonwealth." + +Everywhere one finds supreme common sense. For instance, Sir Thomas +More points out that while the Utopians "knew astronomy and were +perfectly acquainted with the motions of the {551} heavenly bodies; +and of many instruments, well contrived and divided, by which they +very accurately compute the course and positions of the sun, moon and +stars; but for the cheat of divining by the stars, by their +oppositions or conjunctions, it has not so much as entered into their +thoughts." This sentence was written about the time that Copernicus +was working out his conclusions with regard to the Universe as we now +know it. Most people might presume that astrology had by this time +lost all its weight. More than a century later, however, Galileo and +Kepler were drawing up horoscopes, and astrology was very commonly +accepted during the seventeenth century. Even in the eighteenth +century, Mesmer wrote a thesis for his doctorate at the University of +Vienna on the influence of the stars on human constitutions. The +really great thinkers in humanity had all of them refused to accept +astrology, but it is a tribute to the genius of this man of +thirty-seven who had been trained at the law to have reached so true a +conclusion. + +Almost any page of "Utopia" furnishes a quotation that shows how +penetrating was More's view of the significance of life not alone for +his own time, but for all time. Literally I turned over the page from +the quotation with regard to astrology and find this: "A life of +pleasure is either a real evil, and in that case we ought not to +assist others in their pursuit of it, but on the contrary to keep them +from it all we can as from that which is most hurtful and deadly; or +if it is a good thing, so that we not only may but ought to help +others to it, why then ought not a man to begin with himself?" He has +many sentences on that page with reference to the philosophy of what +we now call learnedly hedonism. "They infer that if a man ought to +advance the welfare and comfort of the rest of mankind, nature much +more vigorously leads them to do this for themselves. They define +virtue to be living according to nature, so they imagine that nature +prompts all people on to seek after pleasure as the end of all they +do." + +Ideas with regard to many modern questions are touched on only in +passing and yet with sufficient detail to make us realize that +problems that we are sometimes likely to think of as new were faced +and solved in that older time. For instance, the question of +afforestation and the necessity for keeping up a readily available +supply of wood is touched on. + + "For one may there see reduced to practice not only all the art that + the husbandman employs in manuring and improving an ill soil, but + whole woods plucked up by the roots, and in other places new ones + planted, where there were none before. Their principal motive for + this is the convenience of carriage, that their timber may be either + near their towns or growing on the banks of the sea, or of some + rivers, so as to be floated to them; for it is a harder work to + carry wood at a distance over land than corn." + +{552} + +One might think that perhaps so practical a man as More would not +believe in the usefulness of books for his ideal republic and it might +even be thought that, devoted to law and to politics, he would not be +over-familiar with the classic authors. Here is his paragraph on the +subject, however, that reveals at once his estimation and his tastes. + + "I happened to carry a great many books with me, instead of + merchandise, when I sailed my fourth voyage; for I was so far from + thinking of soon coming back that I rather thought never to have + returned at all, and I gave them all my books, among which were many + of Plato's and some of Aristotle's works: I had also Theophrastus on + 'Plants,' which, to my great regret, was imperfect; for having laid + it carelessly by, while we were at sea, a monkey had seized upon it, + and in many places torn out the leaves. They have no books of + grammar but Lascaris, for I did not carry Theodoras with me; nor + have they any dictionaries but Hesichius and Dioscorides. They + esteem Plutarch highly, and were much taken with Lucian's wit and + with his pleasant way of writing. As for the poets, they have + Aristophanes, Homer, Euripides, and Sophocles of Aldus's edition; + and for historians, Thucydides, Herodotus and Herodian." + + +His description of how the Utopians divide up their time is +interesting from many standpoints. Six hours of work, eight hours of +sleep and the rest to be employed in learned leisure with lectures, +sports, games and various exercises is indeed an ideal that human +nature would find hard to surpass at any period of the world's +history. Such a division would probably make for human health and +happiness better than anything that has ever been tried. + + "But they, dividing the day and the night into twenty-four hours, + appoint six of these for work, three of which are before dinner and + three after; they then sup, and at eight o'clock, counting from + noon, go to bed and sleep eight hours: the rest of the time, besides + that taken up in work, eating, and sleeping, is left to every man's + discretion; yet they are not to abuse that interval to luxury and + idleness, but must employ it in some proper exercise, according to + their various inclinations, which is, for the most part, reading. It + is ordinary to have public lectures every morning before daybreak, at + which none are obliged to appear but those who are marked out for + literature; yet a great many, both men and women, of all ranks, go + to hear lectures of one sort or other, according to their + inclinations: but if others that are not made for contemplation, + choose rather to employ themselves at that time in their trades, as + many of them do, they are not hindered, but are rather commended, as + men that take care to serve their country. After supper they spend + an hour in some diversion, in summer in their gardens, and in winter + in the halls where they eat, where they entertain each other with + music or discourse. They do not so much as know dice, or any such + foolish or mischievous games. They have, however, two sorts of games + not unlike our chess." + +{553} + +Probably the most striking testimony to the life and character of Sir +Thomas More is to be found in the fact that writers who have studied +his career most carefully are agreed that he exemplified all the great +principles that he has laid down in his "Utopia" in his own +environment and family life. Maurice Adams, in his Introduction to the +Camelot edition of the "Utopia," says: + + "Utopia was but the author's home writ large. His beautiful house, + on the river side at Chelsea, was, through his delight in social + life and music, and through the wit and merriment of his nature, a + dwelling of joy and mirth as well as of study and thought. It often + rang with song, and was cheery with the laughter of children and + grandchildren, he himself, in his own words, 'being merry, jocund + and pleasant among them.' Erasmus, who was often his guest, has + given us many delightful glimpses of his family life, of his + children and their tasks, and the monkey and rabbits which amused + their leisure. To the solitary and ever-wandering Erasmus, More's + house was a haven of refuge from the discomforts and vexations of + his bachelor existence. In one of his epistles he writes, 'More has + built near London, upon the Thames, a modest yet commodious mansion. + There he lives, surrounded by his numerous family, including his + wife, his son and his son's wife, his three daughters and their + husbands, with eleven grandchildren. There is not any man living so + affectionate to his children as he, and he loveth his old wife as if + she were a girl of fifteen. Such is the excellence of his + disposition that whatever happeneth that could not be helped, he is + as cheerful and as well pleased as though the best thing possible + had been done. In More's house you would say that Plato's academy + was revived again, only, whereas in the academy the discussion + turned upon geometry and the power of numbers, the house at Chelsea + is a veritable school of Christian religion. In it is none, man or + woman, but readeth or studieth the liberal arts, yet is their chief + care of piety. There is never any seen idle; the head of the house + governs it: not only by a lofty carriage and oft rebukes, but by + gentleness and amiable manners. Every member is busy in his place, + performing his duty with alacrity; nor is sober mirth wanting." + + + +APPENDIX II + +AFTER THE REFORMATION + +It is such a commonplace of history as written in English, at least, +that the beginnings of our modern progress are to be traced to the +time when the movement called the Reformation freed men's minds from +the domination of the Church, which had used every effort to keep men +in darkness in order to secure their readier submission to Church +teaching, that the tracing of all our modern developments to the +century before the movement began may surprise many readers. Not only +is it true, however, that for nearly a hundred years before the +Reformation was there a climax of intellectual and artistic +achievement in every department in every {554} country in Europe, but +what is much more striking is that immediately after the "reform" +movement set in, decadence made itself felt everywhere. Art in all its +phases, painting, sculpture, architecture, education and scholarship, +literature, and, above all, humanitarianism, reached magnificent +expression during the first three quarters of Columbus' Century. In +the fourth quarter, coincident with the spread of the reforming +doctrines, decadence begins in nearly every phase of human activity +and continues until the revolutions of the late eighteenth and early +nineteenth centuries gave a new stimulus to independent thinking. It +has seemed necessary, owing to the position taken in the preceding +pages, to illustrate these facts by quotations from well-known +non-Catholic writers. + +No fallacy is cheaper than that of arguing because one set of events +happens after another, therefore it is due to that other. It would +take a much deeper and broader study of history than any that we have +made here, or could make in our limited space, to trace the philosophy +of the history of Columbus' Century and the succeeding centuries and +to indicate the causes at work and their effects. All that can be +pointed out here is that the facts of intellectual history represent +an exact contradiction to the usually accepted impression that +whatever is best in the modern time can be traced to the Reformation. +On the contrary, immediately after the reform movement, human +achievement declined for many generations, and the revival of the past +hundred years represents a reversion to ideas and modes of thought +current before the religious revolt and the evolution of which was +interrupted by that movement. + + +EDUCATION, BOOKS, INSTITUTIONS + +An historical opinion which is considered by a great many people who +are sure that they are well informed to be quite above all question, +is that the Reformation had a wonderfully beneficial effect on +education. As a matter of fact, education, which had been at a very +high degree of cultivation during the Renaissance period, began to +decline immediately after the Reformation nearly everywhere in Europe, +and only for the schools of the Jesuits, would have reached a serious +depth of degradation. As it was, there is a steep descent in the +Protestant countries, until in the eighteenth century Cardinal Newman +thought that education at Oxford was at its lowest possible ebb, and +when Winckelmann wanted to teach Greek in Germany he had to have his +pupils write out copies of Plato, because no edition of the author had +been issued in that country for two centuries. Authorities in the +history of education have emphasized this, and no one more so than +Professor Paulsen, who, after a wide academic experience throughout +Germany, held at the end of his life the chair of philosophy at the +University of Berlin. His book on the history of German education was +{555} translated into English and published with an introduction by +President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University. One does not +have to go very far in it before finding the great German authority's +opinion with regard to the influence of the Reformation on education. +He says: + + "After 1520, Humanism, an aristocratic and secular impulse, was + overtaken and succeeded by a movement of vastly greater power and + depth, the religious and popular movement of the Reformation. For a + brief space the Reformation may well have seemed a reinforcement of + Humanism, united as both these were in their hatred of scholastic + philosophy and of Rome. Hutton and Luther are represented in + pamphlets of the year 1520 as the two great champions of freedom. + Inwardly, however, they were very different men, and very different + were the goals to which they sought to lead the German people. + Luther was a man of inward anti-rationalistic and + anti-ecclesiastical religious feeling, and Hutton a man of + rationalistic and libertinistic humanism. Hutton did not live to see + the manifestation of this great contrast; but after 1522 or 1523, + the eyes of the Humanists were open to the fact, and almost without + exception they turned away from the Reformation as from something + yet more hostile to learning than the old Church herself. In very + truth, it appeared for the time as if the Reformation would be in + its effects essentially hostile to culture. In the fearful tumults + between 1520 and 1530 the universities and schools came to an almost + complete standstill, and with the Church fell the institutions of + learning which she had brought forth, so that Erasmus might well + say, 'Where Lutheranism reigns, there is an end of letters.'" + + +Those who hold a brief for the Reformation and its much vaunted +beneficent influence on education may be tempted to retort that at +least the German religious movement gave liberty of teaching to the +German University. It is a constantly emphasized Protestant tradition +that the incubus of the Church on teaching institutions before this +time had been most serious in its consequences, and that developments +in education had been prevented because of this. Those who assume that +the reformers, so-called, introduced academic liberty into Germany +will find very little support for any such claim in Professor Paulsen. +Paulsen insists that exactly the opposite is true, and that far from +bringing freedom of thought, the new religious movement still further +shackled university and teaching freedom and the liberty of speech and +writing, so that a sadly stilted period of educational development +comes on the scene in Germany. He talks from the standpoint of his own +department of philosophy, and evidently resents the shackles that were +placed on freedom of speculation at this period. + + "During this period also a more determined effort was made to + control instruction than at any period before or since. The fear of + heresy, the extra anxiety to keep instruction well within orthodox + lines, was not less intense at the Lutheran than at the Catholic + institutions--perhaps it was even more so, because here doctrine + {556} was not so well established, apostasy was possible in either + of two directions, Catholicity or Calvinism. Even the philosophic + faculty felt the pressure of this demand for correctness of + doctrines. Thus came about these restrictions within the petty + States and their narrow-minded established churches, which well-nigh + stifled the intellectual life of the German people." + + +A good deal of the misunderstanding of the effect of the reform +movement on education is due to the fact that the novelty of the +reformers' doctrines in religion and theology led to the use sometimes +of the term, the New Learning, for their teaching. The same term, +however, had come to be used for the study of the Latin and Greek +classics, and the supposed opposition of the Church to the humanistic +teachings is founded on the confusion of these two terms. Of course +the ecclesiastics of the old Church opposed the New Learning in as far +as it related to the reformers' doctrines with regard to free will, +the lack of merit in good works and denials of other religious +doctrines. They were, however, the most ardent patrons of the New +Learning in as far as that term may be applied to the study of the +classics. As a matter of fact, the Jesuits, founded at this time, +based all their teaching on the classics and their schools spread all +over Europe. + +As to the lack of interest in books, in education, in scholarship, +even in the preservation of the great monuments of national literature +after the change of religion in England, the easiest way to know it is +to read Bishop Bale's account of what happened to the valuable books +which had belonged to the old monastic and educational institutions at +the Reformation. He approved of the suppression of the monasteries and +was an ardent reformer, but he cannot help calling attention to the +absolute neglect of the treasures of literature, not only on the part +of the nobility and the common people, but on the part of the very +universities themselves. It is easy to understand what an awful state +of affairs there must have been to draw this indignant protest from so +good a king's man and follower of the new order and protestant against +everything Catholic. Bishop Bale said, in his preface to Leland's "New +Year's Gift to Henry VIII," in 1549: + + "Never had we been offended for the loss of our libraries, being so + many in number and in so desolate places, for the more part, if the + chief monuments and most notable works of our excellent writers had + been preserved. If there had been in every shire of England but one + solemn library for the preservation of those noble works and + preferment of good learning in our posterity, it had been yet + somewhat. But to destroy all without consideration, a great number + of them which purchased those superstitions mansions reserved of + those library books . . . some to scour their candlesticks, and some + to rub their boots. Some they sold to the grocers and soap-sellers, + and some over sea to the book-binders, not in small number, but at + times whole ships full to the wondering of {557} the foreign + nations. Yea, the universities of this realm are not all clear in + this detestable fact. But cursed is . . .(he) which seeketh to be + fed with such ungodly gains and so deeply shameth his natural + country. I know a merchant man, which shall at this time be + nameless, that bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty + shillings' price, a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff hath he + occupied in the stead of gray paper by the space of more than these + ten years, and yet he hath store enough for as many years to come. I + judge this to be true, and utter it with heaviness, that neither the + Britains under the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the English people + under the Danes and Normans, had ever such damage of their learned + monuments as we have seen in our time." + +It used to seem some condonation of these sad evils to say that the +suppression of the monasteries was brought because of the evil lives +of the monks. Protestant historians were wont to proclaim that they +were plague-spots of immorality which had to be eradicated. The +careful investigation of historians in our time has completely refuted +any such conclusion as this. A few of the smaller monasteries were +found not to be living up to their high ideals. A few, but a very few +monks, were found to be unworthy of their calling. Even with all the +desire that there was to discredit them, nothing could be found to say +against the greater monasteries, and the governments had to employ +other means in order to bring about their suppression with some shadow +of legality. Creatures of the king were forced into the position of +abbot and then by prearrangement surrendered the monasteries and their +possessions to the crown. Every advance in critical history in modern +times has tended more and more to the vindication of the monks. + +An American in our own time might well be expected to hold the balance +straight without disturbance from old-time prejudices. Rev. Dr. George +Hedges, Dean of the Episcopal Theological School, of Cambridge, Mass., +in his "Fountains Abbey: The Story of a Medieval Monastery," said (p. +88): + + "The quiet judgment of the modern historian is in favor of the + monks, and finds most of them to have been men of respectable and + pious lives. The sober persons in white cassocks, who confessed + faults in the chapter meeting and cheerfully suffered chastisement + for them to which the man in the street gave not a moment's thought, + had a passionate longing to be good. They were intent upon the + living of a righteous life." + +He says, further quoting from Burke, "An enemy is a bad witness; a +robber is a worse." + + + +EFFECT ON ART + +It is generally recognized now that the religious revolt ruined art. +Religion had supplied the motives for great art, but most of these, +and especially the tender feeling of reverence for the Mother of God +and of the saints and the belief in angels, disappeared at {558} this +time or were sadly hampered in their expression, and the whole +tendency of the reform movement was iconoclastic. Image worship was +one of the bitterest imputations against the old Church. It is +curiously interesting to note that just in as much as art has +developed in Protestant countries again, the churches have been raised +from bare conventicles and meeting-houses to shrines of artistic +beauty once more. It must not be forgotten, however, that this is +quite contrary to the "protests" that were originally made against the +old Church and that the ideas involved in this rejection of art in the +Church, helped to lead many in artistic uncultured minds away from +Catholicity in that time of storm and stress. + +In his chapter on Parish Life in England in his well-known book, +"Before the Great Pillage," Rev. Augustus Jessop, who in spite of his +bitter condemnation of what happened at and after the Reformation, has +never, I believe, become a Catholic, tells of the marvellous beauty of +the Church structures in the ages which used to be called dark and are +now known to be full of light, and then tells what happened after the +so-called Reformation. + + _"And we get fairly bewildered by the astonishing wealth of skill + and artistic taste and aesthetic feeling which there must have been + in this England of ours, in times which till lately we had assumed + to be barbaric times._ Bewildered, I say, because we cannot + understand how it all came to a dead stop in a single generation, + not knowing that the frightful spoliation of our churches and other + parish buildings, and the outrageous plunder of the parish guilds in + the reign of Edward the Sixth by the horrible band of robbers that + carried on their detestable work, effected such a hideous + obliteration, such a clean sweep of the precious treasures that were + dispersed in rich profusion over the whole land, that a dull despair + of ever replacing what had been ruthlessly pillaged crushed the + spirit of the whole nation, and _art died out in rural England, and + King Whitewash and Queen Ugliness ruled supreme for centuries."_ + (Italics ours.) + + +Under art is, of course, included sculpture and architecture, as well +as many of the artistic crafts. It is easy to understand that under +the influence of the carping spirit of the Reformation all of these +became decadent. Men gave up old-time faith for individual judgment of +religious truth. The sterilizing influence of the controversial period +which followed can be readily understood. Gerhard Hauptmann, the +German dramatic poet, to whom the Nobel Prize for literature was +recently awarded, characterized this decadence of art under the +reformers in a very striking passage. + + "I, as a Protestant, have often had to regret that we purchased our + freedom of conscience, our individual liberty, at entirely too high + a price. In order to make room for a small, mean little plant of + personal life we destroyed a whole garden of fancy, and hewed down a + virgin forest of esthetic ideas. We went even so far {559} in the + insanity of our weakness as to throw out of the garden of our souls + the fruitful soil that had been accumulating for thousands of years, + or else we ploughed it under sterile clay. + + "We have to-day, then, an intellectual culture that is well + protected by a hedge of our personality, but within this hedge we + have only delicate dwarf trees and unworthy plants, the poor progeny + of great predecessors. We have telegraph lines, bridges and railroads, + but there grow no churches and cathedrals, only sentry boxes and + barracks. We need gardeners who will cause the present sterilizing + process of the soil to stop and will enrich the surface by working + up into it the rich layers beneath. In my workroom there is ever + before me the photograph of St. Sebald's tomb. This rich German + symbol arose from the invisible in the most luxurious developmental + period of German art. As a formal product of that art, it is very + difficult to appreciate it as it deserves. It seems to me as one of + the most wonderful bits of work in the whole field of artistic + accomplishment. The soul of all the great medieval period enwraps + this silver coffin, giving to it a noble unity, and enthrones on the + very summit of Death, Life as a growing child. Such a work could + only have come to its perfection in the protected spaces of the old + Mother Church." + + +All the arts of decoration suffered similarly and no art failed to be +affected unfavorably. Music, which had had one great period of +development in the old Plain Chant in the later Middle Ages under +ecclesiastical influence, was just entering on another and glorious +development under the patronage of the Church when the reform movement +began. Plain song had given such masterpieces as the Lamentations, of +which Rockstro said that no sadder succession of single notes had ever +been put together, and the Exultet sung in the Mass on Holy Saturday, +which he declares represents a similarly high expression of joy. Now +figured and harmonic music was about to have its place. Palestrina's +Masses and St. Philip Neri's Oratorios were just beginning. The +reformers, however, would have nothing to do with music. +Congregational singing was adopted from the old Church, but for music +as an art to uplift religion and add its tribute of devotion there was +no place. Part song had originated in Church ceremonials, as dramatic +literature originated in the ceremonies connected with the celebration +of the various mysteries. Like every other human and natural +aspiration, music was under suspicion in the new religion, and the +consequence was a serious detriment to the development of the art. It +was not until the gradual loosening of the bonds of the Puritanic +elements in the Protestant religion that music began to come to her +own again. + + + +DECLINE OF CHARITY + +In humanitarianism and the solution of social problems, the +Reformation was particularly backward. The leaders in the new +religions were so intent upon explaining their own doctrines and modes +of thinking and gathering disciples and having other people {560} +think as they did, that charitable works suffered severely. The +destruction of the monasteries and convents left many needy, but there +were but few to care for them. Above all, the new doctrine of +justification by faith alone, which declared that good works were of +no import so long as men believed in a particular way, took away the +motive for much of the charitable work that had been done before. It +is not surprising, then, that hospitals and the care of the ailing and +the old reached a depth of degradation that is rather hard to +understand. We in the twentieth century know how low hospital care and +nursing had sunk in the early nineteenth century, and we have been +inclined to think that it must have been much worse in the generations +preceding. It is a surprise, then, to find that the first half of the +nineteenth century represents what has been well called by Miss +Nutting and Miss Dock, in their "History of Nursing," the Dark Period +of Nursing, during which "the condition of the nursing art, the +well-being of the patient and the status of the nurse all sank to an +indescribable level of degradation." + +Jacobson, in his Essays on "The History of Care for the Ailing," +[Footnote 51] traces just when this decadence began, not long after +the reform movement succeeded in gaining a firm foothold, and he +outlines in detail just how the descent came about. He says: + + [Footnote 51: Beitraege zur Geschichte des Krankencomforts, + _Deutsche Krankenpflege Zeitung,_ 1898, in 4 parts.] + + "It is a remarkable fact that attention to the well-being of the + sick, improvements in hospitals and institutions generally and to + details of nursing care, had a period of complete and lasting + stagnation after the middle of the seventeenth century, or from the + close of the Thirty Years' War. Neither officials nor physicians + took any interest in the elevation of nursing or in improving the + condition of hospitals. During the first two-thirds of the + eighteenth century, he proceeds to say, nothing was done to bring + either construction or nursing to a better state. Solely among the + religious orders did nursing remain an interest, and some remnants + of technique survive. The result was that in this period the general + level of nursing fell far below that of earlier periods. The hospitals + of cities were like prisons, with bare, undecorated walls and little + dark rooms, small rooms where no sun could enter, and dismal wards + where fifty or one hundred patients were crowded together, deprived + of all comforts and even of necessaries. In the municipal and state + institutions of this period, the beautiful gardens, roomy halls, and + springs of water of the old cloister hospital of the Middle Ages + were not heard of, still less the comforts of their friendly + interiors." + + +The more careful study of the guilds, particularly, has served to show +what an immense social wrong was done by this confiscation of what for +the moment, strictly for government purposes, was called Church +property. At the beginning of Henry VIII's reign, {561} it has been +calculated by Toulmin Smith that there were some 30,000 guilds in +England. These had very large sums in their treasuries. They responded +to all the social needs that we are now only just waking up to once +more. They provided old age and disability pensions, insurance against +fire and flood, against loss by robbery, by imprisonment, and against +the loss of cattle and farm products; there were forms of insurance +against the loss of sight, against the loss of a limb or any other +form of crippling. The amount of money confiscated from the treasuries +of these guilds has been calculated at a value in our money of several +hundred millions of dollars. When it is recalled that the census of +England made in Elizabeth's time, just before the Great Armada was +expected, showed a total population of less than five million, the +amount of good that could be accomplished by this vast sum of money, +not in the hands of a few, but distributed in 30,000 treasuries and +used for social purposes, can be readily understood. After the reform +in England, practically no more was heard of the guilds, and social +wrongs began to be multiplied. + + +SUPERSTITION AND TORTURE + +It is often said that with the Reformation came the end of +superstition and of that exaggerated faith in religion which keeps +people from using their reason and that over-attention to the things +of the other world instead of this which keeps them from being +practical and prosperous. The subsequent history, however, of the +countries most affected by the German religious revolt, far from +bearing out this declaration, shows how much harm came from the +absence of a strong central religious authority and how much of loss +to idealism there was in the diminution of the childlike faith which +had meant so much, not only for religion, but for literature and for +art in the preceding centuries. + +There was no obliteration of superstition, but superstition changed +its object, and now, instead of being poetic, often became cruel and +intolerant. The witchcraft delusion, for instance, which represented +the worst manifestation of superstition which mankind has perhaps ever +suffered from, affected the Protestant countries much more than the +Catholic countries. Thousands and thousands of people were put to +death as witches in Germany, and it was from the Protestant countries +that the delusion spread, by psychic contagion, to the Catholic +countries of Europe. Catholic countries not in intimate relations with +Protestant countries, like Ireland, were not affected by it. Though +Ireland has been the most Catholic of countries, not a witch has been +put to death there, by any formal process of law, for over five +hundred years. Here in America the witchcraft delusion is one of the +sad blots on our history. Many other forms of superstition manifested +themselves, and when there {562} were not religious motives there were +other reasons. Men apparently cannot keep from being influenced by +things they do not understand. Healers of all kinds take the place of +the religious healing of the medieval period, and medical and +scientific superstitions replace religious supercredulity. Electric +belts and pads replace relics. Over-estimated remedies and utterly +inefficient cures of all kinds are believed in much more now without +reason than ever medieval folk allowed themselves to be carried away +by religious superstitions. + +A similar historical error proclaims that torture and suffering for +opinions and cruel punishment went out with the Reformation, or at +least wherever that movement gained a firm foothold. This is +absolutely untrue, for the trials of the witches everywhere were +accompanied by torture, and cruel punishments were the rule, +particularly in the Protestant countries. It is rather amusing +sometimes to read, in newspaper and magazine articles, descriptions of +the torture of the Inquisition and the heartlessness of medieval +people, ecclesiastics in the same breath with the mention of the Iron +Maiden and the famous torture boots of Nuremberg. These, however, were +inventions not made for the Inquisition nor for the Middle Ages, but +for the post-reformation period in Protestant Nuremberg. And it must +not be forgotten that Nuremberg was one of the most cultivated cities +of Germany and that its people were highly educated, and that it was +exactly in such a reform city that torture and cruel punishments were +invented and developed. Torture was one of the modes of getting at +truth for legal purposes under the Roman law. It continued almost +until our own time to be a legal mode of procedure. Even at the +present time it has not entirely gone out, and while the means of +physical torture are removed, the "third degree" and various phases of +mental torment replace them. + + +POLITICAL DECADENCE + +Above all, the political import of this movement, so often thought to +be purely religious, must not be forgotten. The nobility lost at this +time, to a great extent, their independence. The king became supreme, +and the new nationalism which developed in Europe knit countries and +peoples very close together which had only been very loosely connected +before. Ferdinand was King of Aragon and Isabella Queen of Castile +when their marriage brought these kingdoms together. Subsequent +developments at this time made the Spanish peninsula a unit. +Practically the same thing happened in France. Pope Julius II planned +a united Italy. It was scarcely half a century after the close of +Columbus' Century that the Scotch and English crowns became united. +Many of the great nobles of these countries lost their prestige. The +foolish extravagance of {563} the Field of the Cloth of Gold is said +to have cost many a nobleman of France and England his estates, or at +least made him absolutely independent in the favor of the king. + +In the midst of this political revolution a change in the prevailing +religion made a very valuable asset for monarchs whose position was +not over-secure or whose treasury was exhausted, for it handed over to +them the care of the Church and its property as well as of the State +and its revenues. This enabled them to confiscate large sums of money, +to confer Church estates on noble favorites; but, above all, it left +them without any strong organized ethical factor within the State to +oppose any acts of injustice that they might do. Their Lord +Chancellors had been bishops before, but now they were political +favorites and often the veriest of time-servers. Lord Campbell's +characterization of some of the English post-reformation chancellors +is illuminating for this. The amount of political injustice that +resulted is easy to understand, though it is not easy to comprehend +how the people stood it. + +The constitution of the English House of Lords since the Reformation +represents, by contrast, in a very striking way the difference between +the old and the new in political matters. At the present time the +House of Lords is almost exclusively hereditary. About one-seventh of +its members are there by appointment or election, and a large part of +even this moiety is chosen from the descendants of the hereditary +nobility. Before the Reformation sixty per cent of the House of Lords +consisted of the Lords Spiritual. Many of these were Bishops, but more +of them were Abbots and Priors of Religious Houses, Masters and +Generals of Religious Orders and other officials representing the +monasteries as large landholders, who at the same time represented +considerable bodies of peasantry, tillers of the soil of monasteries, +who were so happy, as was often said, to be under the cross. Not a few +of the bishops were the self-made sons of the middle class, or even +the poor. A great many of the abbots and representatives of religious +orders came from even the lower orders. They were men who had been +chosen by their fellow-religious to rule over them because they were +considered to have the best qualities of heart and soul for such +positions. In the course of centuries a great many of these men were +saints, that is, represented that character and disposition which made +the men of the after-time declare that they had lived heroic lives of +unselfishness and care for others. + +It is true that at times some of the Lords Spiritual were the sons of +the nobility, favorites of kings, men who used political influence in +order to secure Church preferment; but the proportion of these was +never very large, and while many are known, it is because the history +of many centuries is gone over for them. Probably no better second +chamber for conservative legislation could {564} possibly be organized +than this one of the House of Lords before the Reformation actually +was. The majority of the men in it were representatives, not of one +class, but of all the classes of England. There were always many +peasants' sons and the sons of little tradesmen, and these men had +often risen by merit and yet only under such circumstances as +precluded family ambition at least, and usually their advancement was +due to their known lack of personal ambition. As a rule, their +unselfishness had been the principal trait by which they secured +preferment. They had the best interests of the poor classes +particularly at heart. Without any chance for ambition for themselves, +without any desires for the enrichment of a family which did not exist +for them, there were as many safeguards around their fulfilment of +their duty as representatives of the people as can possibly be drawn. +Even such safeguards will not prevent all abuses, but they come as +near doing it as is possible. Nothing is more illuminating, as regards +political conditions from a social standpoint, than this comparative +study of the pre-reformation House of Lords with that of the present. + +In political freedom, the times after the Reformation represent +decadence mainly because of the placing in the hands of the civil +government the authority in both political and religious matters. As a +consequence of the elimination of the Church authorities as +independent factors in the life of the people instead of subservient +to government officials, there was a serious inroad upon the rights as +citizens that had been obtained by hard striving during preceding +centuries. Modern political developments are not so much a new +assertion of modern democracy as a reversion to the democratic +principles of the Middle Ages. That will seem to many people +profoundly paradoxical. It is only a paradox, however, to those who do +not know the political life of the Middle Ages. Magna Charta was drawn +up and signed, the fundamental laws of Spain and France adopted, the +Golden Bull in Hungary promulgated, and the Swiss declaration of +independence issued all in a single century of the preceding time--the +thirteenth. Such principles as that there shall be no taxation without +representation were then formulated, and the free cities acquired +rights for their citizens and laid the foundation of that government +of the people, by the people and for the people which is the basis of +modern democracy. All this was seriously disturbed at the time of the +reform movement, and a decadence similar to that which took place in +humanitarianism and the hospital and nursing movement may be traced +with regard to political liberty. It culminated at the end of the +eighteenth century in that awful cataclysm of the French Revolution +which tried to reassert all the old principles of political freedom +and correct all the abuses at once and right the cumulated wrongs of +centuries that was doomed to failure. The series of revolutions of the +early {565} nineteenth century were needed to give people back +something like the rights that they had had in the Middle Ages and to +create a public sentiment once more favorable to democratic +institutions. Hilaire Belloc, who probably knows the French Revolution +as well as any in our generation, declared not long since that it +represented an effort to bring the world back to those ideals of +democracy which had developed in the Middle Ages. Our period +represents exactly the end of the Middle Ages, and it is after the +Reformation that the decadence of the fine old democratic spirit which +had been fostered within the bounds of the old Church may be noted. + +Above all, popular happiness decreased and indeed almost disappeared +throughout Europe as the result of the reform movement. Before that, +the Church holy days, nearly twoscore in number in the year, provided +ample opportunities for leisure and recreation, and the Church +societies, by the giving of the mystery and morality plays, and the +guilds by their banquets and outdoor meetings, the various "ales," as +they were called, had furnished frequent occasions for hearty, healthy +amusement. All this stopped with the Reformation. Puritanical +conceptions of religion rubbed the holy days, that were also holidays, +out of the year. We are now engaged in putting them back as +anniversaries of national events and of the births of national heroes +instead of the celebrations of Christian feasts and saints' days, as +bank holidays and memorial days of various kinds. The sects became so +much occupied with discussions of dogma that they took almost no +interest in the amusements of the people. Now men met to dispute over +doctrines that they could not understand, and instead of the beautiful +ceremonies of the old religion, with their satisfying appeal to all +the senses and their charm and teaching quality, even as mere +spectacles, they listened to long-winded, dry-as-dust sermons as a +matter of duty, and went home to sit gloomily in darkened rooms for +the observance of what they called the Sabbath. Before the +Reformation, the people, after the Church services, used to meet for +games and recreation upon the green in front of the Church, and the +young folks had had opportunities for their Sunday pleasures of all +kinds. Only in recent years, with the breaking up of the bonds of +Protestantism, have we gone back to revive medieval ways. + +The nations drew away from each other, and the internationalism that +had been developing and that had been fostered by community of Church +interest disappeared. National governments became more consolidated, +but the peoples became more and more separated in sympathy. Until +commerce developed in the modern time, that fine internationalism +which had so often been exhibited in spirit, at least during the +Middle Ages, was at an end. The Crusades had done much to break down +the barriers of narrow nationalism. {566} The religious orders had +still further fostered intercourse and increased sympathy among the +nations. The universities, with their various nations among the +students, had been nurturing grounds for better feeling among men. All +this was now practically at an end. Not only that, but sectionalism in +politics and sectarianism in religion drew men farther and farther +apart and made them look upon those of other nations with less and +less sympathy. The political change made for the concentration of +power in the hands of rulers and the strengthening of the states for +war, but it took away many of the rights of men and, above all, +lessened their sympathies for their kind, except among their own +people, and obliterated that spirit of good fellowship among the +educated and cultured people of the world which had been so well +nurtured in the time before. It is only during the later nineteenth +century that there has come to be that spirit of friendly intercourse +among nations once more which existed in the later medieval and +earlier Renaissance periods. + + +{567} + +INDEX + + + Abbot Trithemius, 525 + Academic liberty, 555 + Academies, Italian, 508 + Academy, + of Naples, 509; + of Noble Minds, 9; + of Lorenzo de' Medici, 34; + Roman, 509; + Vitruvian, 509 + Accademia at Venice, 510 + Accademia dei Belli Arti, 196 + Accidents, happy, xxv + Achidemoios, 493 + Achillini, 361 + Acts and scenes division, 489 + Adoration of the Lamb, Van Eyck, 71 + Adoration of the Magi, + Duerer, 72; + Memling, 72 + Advance of surgery, 414 + AEgidius, 232, 437 + AEneas Sylvius, 502, 543 + AEschylus, 533 + Age of Leo X, xl, 41 + Agostino, 540 + Agricola, Rudolph, xxxv, 505, 520, 524, 527 + Agrippa, Cornelius, 393 + Agrippa and New Thought, 394 + A Kempis, 517; + and Marcus Aurelius, 432; + and Epictetus, 432 + A Kempis' Imitation, 431; + other books, 431 + Alberti, Leon Battista, xxxi, xxxv, 114; + De re aedificatoria, 114; + San Francesco (Rimini), 115 + Albertus Magnus, 348, 361 + Alcala, Paranimfo, 125; + University of, 539 + Aldus Manutius, 151, 303, 521; + accomplishments, 154; + advice to bores, 155; + _editiones principes,_ 510 + Aleander, Jerome, 531 + Alessi, 122 + Alexander VI, 228 + Allegri, Antonio (Correggio), 66 + Almagest of Ptolemy, 346 + Almshouses at Stratford, 175 + Amadis de Gaul, 478 + Amerbach, Portrait of Boniface, 78 + America, + and Africa, colonized, 272; + discovery of, xxv; + first book printed in, 286-7; + first printing press, 287; + in Columbus' Century, 275 + Amerigo Vespucci, 264 + Amyot, translation of Plutarch, 471 + Anaesthesia, 425 + Anathemia, Mondino's, 361 + Anatomy, + pathological, 395; + Renaissance and, 361; + Teaching of, in Bologna, 363 + Anchyloses, 424 + Animuccia, xxxii, 143; + brothers, 137 + Anne of Bretagne, xxxix, 330 + Annotations on Dioscorides Cordus, 337 + Antimony, and auto-toxaemia, 392 + Antonio Lebrixa, 538 + Antonio of Palermo, 510 + Antwerp, 110 + Apollo and Marsyas, 56 + Appendix, vermiform, 362 + Apuleius, Golden Ass, 458 + Aquinas, 361 + Arabic types, 151 + Arcadelt, 136 + Archiepiscopal Palace Court, 126 + Architecture, Michelangelo's, 40 + Arcolani, 395 + Arculanus, 417 + Argelata, 414 + Argyropulos, 506, 542 + Ariosto, + comparisons, 444; + Italian humor, 445; + Sonnet of, 445 + Armor, 113 + Arnold, Matthew, 432 + Arras, 110 + Art, and Savonarola, 57; + after Reformation, 559 + Art decadence, 98; + Arthur, King-statue (Innsbrueck): 103 + Arts, + deeds, and words, xxvii; + The Book of the, xxviii + Ascham, Roger, xxxv, 336 + Asepsis, 418 + Asse, De, 532 + Astrology, 352 + Asylums, 169; + founded at Saragossa, Seville, Toledo, Valencia, and Valladolid, 203 + Athenaeus, antiquities of, 536 + Augsburg, 102 + Australia, discovery of, 268 + Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, 459 + Auto-toxaemia always with us, 392 + + + B + + Balboa, 271 + Baldung, Hans, 161 + Bale, on neglect of books, 556 + Ballad, Lorenzo dei Medici, 447 + Ballate, 447 + Balneotherapy, 402 + Bandages, moulded, 423 + Bandello, 458 + Baptism of Christ (Verrocchio). 27 + Baptista dei Malatesti, 316 + Barbosa, 538 + Barclay, Alexander, 492 + Baronius, 182 + Basil Valentine, 391 + Bath, Wife of, 490 + Bayard, 208 + Beaufort, Margaret, 335 + Beccadelli, 510 + +{568} + + Beckere, Peter, of Brussels, xxxi + Bedlam, at London, 203 + Bedlam, Hogarth's, 204 + Bedlamites, 204 + Beethoven, 88 + Beguines, 178 + Behem, Martin, 348 + Bellarmine, 216 + Bellay, Joachim du, 468, 469 + Bellini, Angels Mourning over Christ, 63 + Bellini, Presentation of Infant Christ, 63 + Bellinis, the, xxix + Belloc, Hilaire, 191 + Belon, Pierre, 379 + Bembo, Pietro, xlii, 298 + Benivieni, 395 + Benozzo Gozzoli, xxviii, 55 + Benvenuto Cellini, xxx, 92 + Berengar of Carpi, 361, 418 + Berenson, 70 + Bernardine of Feltre, 180 + Bernard van Orley, 74 + Bernini, 95 + Bessarion, Cardinal, 346, 503; + and Cusanus, 504; + and Purbach, 504; + and Regiomontanus, 504 + Bibbiena, 34 + Bible, Complutensian Polyglot, xxxv + Blashfields, Italian Cities, 6 + Blaubeuren, Stalls in, 99 + Blind Harry, 496 + Blondeel, 74 + Blood, + circulation of, 371; + transfusion, 415 + Boerhaave, 379 + Bollandists, 216 + Bologna, xxix; + Papal University of, 368 + Bonfigli, xxix, 55 + Book, + appreciation, 146; + bindings old and new, 166; + first American, 287; + Massachusetts Bay Psalm, 287; + making, decadence in, 148; + illustration, 159 + Books, + illuminated, xxxiii; + reform and destruction of, 556; + twelve best, 434 + Borgia, Aldus Manutius (Garnett), 303 + Borgia, Lucretia, 301; + at Ferrara, 303 + Borgias, the, 302 + Borgo, the Fire in the, 10 + Borgognone, 117 + Boscan, 480 + Botticelli, xxviii, 53, 55, 56, 58, 75 + Botticelli's Birth of Venus, 58; + illustrations for Dante, 60: + Madonna of the Magnificat, 59; + Mythology, 59; + Psychology, 58; + Spring, 58; + Tondi, 59 + Bourbon, 208 + Bourdischon, 80 + Bourne, Prof., 277, 286, 287 + Bouts, Dirk, 73 + Bramante, xxxi, 117, 196; + Church at Lodi, 116; + Great Court of Hospital (Milan), 195; + Santa Maria delle Grazie, 117 + Brancas, surgeons, 418 + Brantome, xlii + Braunschweig, 411 + Breboeuf, 213 + Brethren of The Common Life, xxxv, 517 + Bridgett, Life of Sir Thomas More, 240 + Briggs, Prof., 259 + Brothers, + Do-Good Little, 202; + of Mercy, 201 + Browning, Mrs., 484 + Bruges, 110; + tombs at, 98; + town hall at, 127; + sculpture of, 98 + Brunelleschi, xxxi, 349 + Brunfels, 376 + Bruno, Giordano, 473 + Brunschwig, 422 + Brussels, + Broodhuis at, 127; + Hotel de Ville, 127; + Maison du Roi. 137 + Budaeus, 505, 532; + absorption in study, 532 + Bude, 532 + Bugiardini, 10 + Burckhardt, 91, 319, 341; + on Leonardo, 31 + Burdett, Hospitals and Asylums of the World, 205 + Burgkmaier, Hans, 161 + Burke, Edmund, 478 + Burnett, Bishop, 232 + Burnett's Utopia, 233 + Burning Bush, 10 + Butzbach, Johann, 338 + + + C + + Cabot, John and Sebastian, 265 + Cabrol, 417 + Caesalpinus, xxxvii, 372, 379 + Caesarean operation, 416 + Cagliari, Paolo, 69 + Caius, John, xxxviii, 229, 347, 385, 542 + Caius College, 229 + Calepinus, 511 + Calixtus III, 510 + Calvin, xlii, 246; + and intolerance, 254 + and Servetus, 255, 370; + Loyola, Rabelais, fellow students, 533 + Calvin's austerity, 253 + Cambridge Modern History, 302 + Camera del Eliodoro, 10 + Camera del Incendio, 10 + Camerini of women of Renaissance, 322 + Camoeens, xlii, 264; + and Da Gama, 266 + sonnet by, 484 + Campbell, Lord, Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England, 241 + Canani, 362 + Cancer, surgery in, 417 + Canossa, Counts of, 32 + Canova, 96 + Cantor, 344 + Cape Verde Islands, discovery of, 262 + Caprarola, Palace of, 122 + Caracci, xxix + Cardan, Jerome, 403 + Carlo Dolci, 66 + Carlo Maratta, xxix + Carnival songs, 448 + Carpaccio, xxix + Cartoons of Raphael, 11 + Cartwright, Julia, 340 + Castiglione, Baldassare, 4, 298 + Catherine, of England, xxxix; + of Genoa, xl; + of Sforza, 301 + Caviceo, 304 + Caxton, William, 151 + Caxton's experience, 146 + Celestina, 479 {569} + Cellini, Benvenuto, 92, 206; + _alto_ and _basso rilievo,_ 93; + autobiography, 459; + Christ by, 93; + Perseus and Head of Medusa, 93 + Celsus, 507 + Celtes, 338, 524 + Certosa at Pavia, xxx; + sculpture, 95 + Cervantes, 208; + and books of chivalry, 478 + Cespedes, The Last Supper, 83 + Chalcondyles, 506 + Champ Fleury, 158 + Champlain, on Mexico, 288 + Chanca, Dr., 284 + Chancery, + calendar cleared, 235; + Court of, 234 + Charity, decline of, after Reformation, 559 + Charlemagne, 313; + Coronation of, 10 + Charles V, xxxiii, 208 + Charles, of Orleans, xlii, 463 + Charles the Bold's tomb, 98 + Chaucer, 152 + Chess, Game & Pleye of, 152 + Chevy Chase, 495 + Chicheley, 542 + Chiericate Palace, 122 + Chivalry, Tales of, 478 + Christ the Light of the World, 73 + Christ, Imitation of, xli, 430 + Christi, De Imitatione, 429 + Christina, Princess of Denmark, 340 + Church, Dean, 433 + Cicero, 522 + Ciceronianism, 508 + Cinthio, Hecatomithi or Hundred Fables, 458 + Circulation of Blood, + Caesalpinus, 369; + Columbus, 366; + Harvey, 368; + Rabelais, 369; + Servetus, 369 + Circulation, systemic, 372 + Cisneros, 538 + Claude Goudimel, xxxii, 137 + Claudio Monteverde, 143 + Clement Marot, xlii + Clocks, 113 + Clopton, Sir Hugh, 131. 173, 175 + Clouet, Elizabeth of Austria, 79 + Clouets, 80 + Club-foot surgery, 421 + Clusius, Carolus, 400 + Clym of the Clough, 495 + Cobbett's History of Reformation, 257 + Coimbra, Teachers' College at, 541 + Colet, Dean, xxxv, 229, 235, 543 + Colet, Dame, 229 + Collects of the English Prayerbook, 500 + College de France, xxxvi, 533 + College of Santa Cruz, 279 + Colombe, xxxi, 80, 104 + Colombo, Francesco, 159 + Colonists, English and Spanish, 276 + Colonization, ancient and modern, 272 + Columbus, + character, xxvi; + letter, 283; + lifetime, xxvii + Columbus, Realdus, xxxvii, 366 + Columella, 508 + Common Life, Brethren of, 514 + Company of Jesus, 222 + Condivi, 41 + Conrad, 338 + Contagion of tuberculosis, 408 + Convents and educated women, 341 + Copernicus, 223, 243, 349; + and Reformation, 352 + Copperplate engraving, 160 + Copyright, lack of, 155 + Cordova, 208 + Cordus, Valerius, 376 + Cornaro, 404 + Cornelius a Lapide, 216 + Corporation of the Royal Readers, 533 + Correggio, xxix, 53, 66, 75, 92; + and Leonardo, 67; + and Michelangelo, 67 + and Raphael, 67 + Corsets, surgical, 416 + Cortes, 269 + Cortez, Martin, 263 + Cortigiano and Cellini's autobiography, 461 + Courteys, + Jean, 122; + Pierre, 122 + Cousin, Jean, 80 + Coverdale, 500 + Coxcie, Michiel, 74 + Cranach, 161 + Cranmer, 500 + Cretinism and endemic goitre, 387 + Culture, Transmission of European, 278 + Cusanus, 344, 518; + and Bessarion, 504: + love of truth, 519 + + + D + + Da Imola, xxix + Dalberg, Johann von, 525 + Dame Quickly, 490 + Danes, Pierre, 533 + Danesius, 533 + Daniel, 212 + Dante, 149; + sonnet by Michelangelo, 42 + David, Gerard, 74, 97 + Da Vinci, 44 (see Leonardo) + Dean Colet, 229 + Decadence, political, after Reformation, 562 + Deed, The Book of the, xxxiii + Defectives, Village care for, 203 + Delacroix on Titian, 65 + Delft, 110 + Delirium, 402 + Della Croce, 415 + Della Porta, xxxi + Della Robbia, 89 + Della Robbias, xxx + Denifle and Luther, 248 + De Quincey, 432 + D'Este, + Isabella, 303; + Beatrice, 318 + Deventer, 517 + De Vigo, 411 + Dias, Bartholomew, 263 + Dibden, 149 + Dickenson, Study of the History of Music, 140 + Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, 152 + Dietetics, popular, 406 + Dionysius, the Areopagite, 544 + Discoveries and drugs, 400 + Diseases, + occupation, 387; + mental, 401 + Disputa, 8 + Dodsley's Old English Plays, 488 + Doge's Palace, 120 + Dolet, Etienne, 473 + Dominant seventh, xxxii; + chord of, 143 + Donatello, xxx, 65, 70, 102 {570} + Donatello's, + Bambino Gesu, 87; + St. Francis, 87; + St. George, 87; + St. John the Baptist, 87 + Donizetti, Lucretia Borgia, 304 + Dorothea de Juanes, 84 + Dosso Dossi, xxix + Douglas, Gawin, 496 + Drake, Sir Francis, 288 + Dream of the Knight, Raphael, 4 + Drug abuses later, 403 + Drugs, American and Oriental, 400 + Dunbar, William, 496; Scotch Chaucer, 497 + Duerer, Albert, xxix, 75, 99, 161. 378; + Marriage of the Blessed Virgin, 163; + Melancholia, 15; + Nativity, 339; + St. John the Baptist preaching, 100; + wood-engravings, 161; + writings, 77 + Dussart, S. J., Father, on Memling, 73 + + + E + + Echegaray on Teresa, 309 + Educated women, number of, 320 + Educated women's homes, 321 + Education, feminine, xxxix; + phases of feminine education, 313; + physical training and feminine, 317; + feminine, in Spain, 332; + feminine, and Rabelais, 536; + feminine, opportunities for, 320 + Edward VI Grammar Schools, 173 + Efficiency, Studies in (Leonardo), 26 + Eliot's, George, Romola, 185 + Elizabeth, 337; + and Isabella, 293 + Elizabeth, torture under, 189 + Emperor Frederick, 432 + Encomium Moriae, 77, 440 + Englishmen of the Sixteenth Century, Sidney Lee, 437 + English Prayerbook, Collects of the, 500 + Engraving, + copper, 162; + wood, 162 + Ephemerides Astronomicae, 348 + Erasmus, xxxv, 223, 226, 259, 337, 521, 528; + Colloquia, 440; + on scholasticism, 245; + on copyright, 155; + and More, 226; + Escala Espiritual, La, first American printed book, 287 + Estienne the Elder, 157 + Euclid, 526 + Eustachius, xxxvii, 395; + anatomical plates of, 164; + discoveries, 367 + Eustachian tube, 367 + Evelyn, 181, 204 + Everyman, 485 + Exercitia Spiritualia, 429 + Experts, medico-legal, 399 + + + F + + Fabrica Humani Corporis, 365 + Fabricius of Aquapendente, 421 + Fallopius, 366, 415; + discoveries, 367 + Farnesina, 6 + Farrar, Archdeacon, 434 + Fathers of Church and Pagan Culture, 529 + Fedele, Cassandra, 327 + Felixmarte de Hircania, 478 + Female pre-eminence, 394 + Ferdinand and Isabella, xxxiii, 208, 292 + Ferrara, xxix + Ferri, 411 + Festus, 507 + Ficino, 34, 507, 524 + Field, Miss, on St. Teresa, 312 + Field of the Cloth of Gold, xxxiv, 255 + Filippino Lippi, xxviii + Fiorovanti, 417 + Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 237, 521 + Florence, Academy at, 507; + and social reforms, 184 + Fontenelle, 433 + Forli, Virago of, 301 + Fortune, making a, 177 + Foster, Professor, 372 + Fouchet, Jean, 105 + Fountain of the Innocents, xxxi + Fouquet, Jehan, 80, 149; + miniature painting from the Livy MSS., 150 + Four Elements, the Interlude of, 489 + Four P's, 489, 493 + Fra Angelico, xxviii, 53, 92; + angels of 54: + Madonnas of, 54; + paintings of, 54 + Fra Bartolommeo, xxviii, 6, 56, 92; + Descent from the Cross, 57; + Lamentation over Christ, 57; + Marriage of St. Catherine, 57; + The Last Judgment, 57; + Savonarola, 58 + Fra Gioconda, 131, 159 + Fracastorius, 397 + Fracture of the skull by contrecoup, 418 + Francia, 151 + Francis I, xxxiii, 533; + contempt of the world, 464-5 + Frederick of Urbino, 2 + Free, John, 542 + Froissart translation, 470 + Fuchs, 376 + Furniture, 113 + Fust, 146 + + + G + + Gairdner, 256 + Galileo and Copernicus, 350 + Gammer Gurton's Needle, xlii + Gamp, Mrs., 490 + Garcilaso de la Vega, 285, 480 + Garofalo, xxix + Garnett, 302 + Gaspara Stampa, 327 + Gasquet, 502 + Gaston de Foix, 208 + Gaza, Theodore, 505, 520 + Geert de Groote, 514 + Geiler of Kaisersberg, 529 + Genoa, Heroines of, 300 + Gentile da Fabriano, xxix + George Eliot on Teresa, 308 + German People, History of the, 528 + Germany, + Preceptor of, 522; + schoolmaster of, 520; + the Humanists of, 527; + three-tongued wonder of, 523: + united, 519 + Gerssdorff, Hans von, 422 + Gesner, Conrad, 377, 385 + Ghent, town hall of, 127 + Ghirlandajo, 34, 55, 56, xxviii + Giles, Peter, 232, 437 + Giorgione, xxix, 63 + Giotto, 65 + Giulio Romano, xxix + Glass-making, xxxiii + God's promise, 494 {571} + Goldsmiths sculptors, xxxii, 341 + Gonzaga, + Cecilia, 316; + Elizabeth, 298; + Isabella, 301, 304; + Paola, 341; + women of the house of, 320 + Gonzagas, xxxix + Good Hope, Cape of, 263 + Gordon, General Chinese, 432 + Goudimel, Claude, 137 + Goujon, Jean, xxxi, 80, 105 + Gounod, 140 + Gout, + bilious, 399; + melancholy, 399; + Pare on, 399; + pituitary, 399; + sanguine, 399 + Gower, 152 + Graft, political, 248 + Grammar, Spanish specialty, 540 + Granada, Cathedral at, 118-9 + Greek, first book printed in, 151 + Greene, Prof. Edward L., 375 + Gregorovius, 302 + Grey, Lady Jane, xl, 336; + Lord, of Grimm, 5; + Life of Michelangelo, 56; + on Correggio, 66; + on Michelangelo, 52 + Grisar's Luther, 248 + Grocyn, 543 + Grolier, 156, 164, 166 + Groote, Geert de, 514 + Guarino, 542 + Guercino, xxix + Guicciardini, 451 + Guido, xxiii + Guilds, + flourishing, xxxviii; + insurance, 170; + grammar schools of, 173; + of the Holy Cross at Stratford, 172: + social work of the, 170; + the children of the, 171 + Gunshot wounds, experiments in, 412 + Gurlt, History of Surgery, 412 + Gutenberg, 146 + Guy de Chauliac, 410 + Guzman, 537 + Gynaecology and obstetrics, 416 + + + H + + Hallam on Reformation, 246 + Haller, 377 + Hamboys, 136 + Hannay, David, 476 + Hans Holbein, 162 + Hare, Augustus, 460 + Harvey, 369 + Headlam, Cecil, 102 + Health, Board of, at Lucca, 407 + Heart surgery, 417 + Heathen writers and Christian culture, 529 + Hebrew types, 151 + Hellenists, new academy of, 510 + Helyot, Lea Ordres Monastiques, 198 + Hemophilia, 415 + Henderson, The Story of Music, 135 + Henry VIII, xxxiii, 246 + Henry, the Navigator, xxxiii, 262 + Henryson, Robert, 496 + Heptameron, 305, 465 + Hernandez, 399 + Heynlin von Stein, 529 + Heywood, John, 493 + Higden, 151 + Hildegarde, Abbess, 314 + History of the English Reformation, 257 + of the Popes, 220; + of wood-engraving, 161 + Hogarth's Bedlam, 204 + Holbein, xxix, 77, 162; + and the Iconoclasts, 78; + religious pictures, 78 + Hospital, first American, 287; + of St. John at Bruges, 72, 199 + Hospitals, 169; + and surgery, 410; + decline after Reformation, 560; + decoration of, 199; + gardens of, 199; + in Spain, 201; + medieval, 192; + modern, 192; + nursing, 198; + of the Innocents, 90; + old-time, 192; + organization of, 197; + private patients in, 197; + Santo Spirito, 196; + Sir Thomas More on, 200-201 + Hotel de Ville of Louvain, 124 + Houillier (Holleris), Jacques, 396 + Hours, Book of, 148 + House of the Red Children, 306 + Howard, Earl of Surrey, 497 + Hroswitha, the nun dramatist, 314 + Hugo von Pfolspeundt, 421 + Hugo, Victor, on Lucretia Borgia, 304 + Humanists, The, + and antiquity, 528; + and Christianity, 528; + and England, 531; + and France, 531; + The Earlier or Scholastic, 527; + The Intermediate or Rational, 527; + The Later or Protestant, 527; + Throughout all of Western Europe, 531; + Portugal and, 531; + Spain and, 531 + Hunt, Bonavia, 138 + Hunter, George Leland, on tapestries, 109 + Hunter, William, 364 + Hutchinson, Ann, 255 + Hutten, Ulrich von, 523 + Hydrophobia, 402 + Hygiene, popular, 406 + Hythlodaye, Raphael or Ralph, 438 + + + + I + + Ignatius Loyola, 208 (see St. Ignatius) + Ignorantia, De Docta, 345 + Illicini, 455 + Incunabula, medical, 383 + Indian manual training, 286 + Indulgences, + Luther and, 249; + Manning and, 249; + Newman and, 249 + Ingrassias, 414 + Innocents, Hospital of the, 90 + Innsbrueck, xxxi, 102 + Inquisition in Spain, 295 + Insane, Care for, + in Spain, 203; + Brutal suppression of in 1750, 205; + Visiting, as entertainment, 204 + Insanity, studies in, 401 + Interlude of Virtue, 493 + Isaac, Sacrifice of, 10 + Isabella of Castile, xxxix; + administration, 291; + and Elizabeth, 293; + children of, 292; + benevolence of, 295; + Indians and, 293; + Inquisition and, 295; + Letters of, 476; + studies of, 291; + style of, 292; + unhappiness of, 293 + Isabella D'Este's apartments, 323 + Italian academies, 510; + teachers everywhere, 501 + Italy, + best gentlewoman of, 301; + graduate study of, 347, 501; + medical world teaching in, 386 + +{572} + + + J + + Jaeger, Johann, of Dornheim, 523 + Janssen, 244, 528 + Jan van Mabuse, 74 + Jessop, Rev. Augustus, 174, 256; + Before the Great Pillage, 257 + Jesuit, + astronomy, 218; + bibliography, 216; + competition, 214; + constitution, 209 + Missions in Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, North America, + Mexico, Peru, 211; + relations, 213; + schools, 214; + scientists, 217; + students, 215; + themes, 214 + Jesuits, + Bacon and, 215; + bark, 213; + Bancroft and, 213; + Descartes and, 215 + Harvey and, 218; + instructors in Europe, 215; + Kepler and, 218; + meteorology and, 220: + Parkman and, 215; + philology and, 213; + seismology, 220 + Jewel boxes, 113 + Jodocus Lommius, 396 + Jogues, 213 + John of Avila, 480 + John of Bologna, + Mercury, 94; + Neptune, 94; + Rape of Sabines, 95 + John of Dalberg, 520, 524 + John II of Portugal, 263 + John, Prester, 263 + Johnson, Samuel, 432; + on More, 498 + Joinville, 470 + Joost van Lom, 396 + Joerg, Syrlin, 99 + Josquin, xxxii, 135; + Ave Maria, 136 + Juan de Borgona, 82 + Juan de Juanes, 82 + Julius II, Pope, 7; + Tomb of, 37 + Juste, Jean, xxxi, 105 + Justinian, Pandects of, 532 + Justin Martyr, 533 + Justus of Ghent, 4, 74 + + + K + + Kalkar, 164 + Kelly, Fitz-Maurice, 479 + Kettelwell, Life of Thomas a Kempis, 516 + Kildare, 314 + King's Highway, 289 + King's Quair, 496 + Kircher, 218 + Kircherian Museum, 219 + Kraft, xxxi; + Adam, 101 + Kraus, Professor, 9 + + + L + + Labe, Louise (La Cordiere), 331 + Ladies of the Olden Time, 462 + La Gioconda, 15 + La Harpe, 433 + Lallemant, 212 + Lamartine, 433 + Lamennais, 433 + Lancisi, 368 + Landino, 507 + Lang, Mr. Andrew, 385 + Langen, Rudolph von, 521, 527 + Lapide. 216 + Lascaris' Grammar, 151 + Las Casas, 186; 270; + and Indian abuses, 187 + Lasso, _princeps musicae,_ 138 + Lassus, 138 + Latimer, 543 + Latin, universal academic language, 427 + Latres of Mons, 137 + Laws, pure food, 406 + Lazarillo de Tormes, 479 + Learning, New, 246; + confusion of, 502 + Lecky, 203 + Lee, Mr. Sidney, 276, 437 + Leland the antiquary, 176 + Leonardo da Vinci, xxx, 1, 5, 55, 67, 75, 92, 102; + and Michelangelo, 36; + as biologist, 355; + as engineer, 21; + as scientist, 353; + botany, 25; + canals, 22; + career, 26: + dissection, 24; + geology, 23; + inventions, 21, 353; + mechanical toys, 28; + optics, 354; + on war, 30; + philosophy of life, 30; + proposed text-books of anatomy, 364; + studies in efficiency, 26; + study of flying, 28; + weather gauge, 354; + zoology, 25 + Leonardo's Christ, 17 + Leonicenus, Nicholas, 384 + Leopardi, xxx, 92 + Leyden pulpit, 98 + Liddon, 434 + Lille, 110 + Lilies, The Valley of, a Kempis, 431 + Lily, William, 492, 543 + Linacre, xxxv, xxxviii, 223, 228, 235; + translations by, 471 + L'Indaco, 10 + Linnaeus, 378 + Lippo Lippi, xxviii + Literature, + English Dramatic, 485; + Latin, 428; + mystical, 480; + Portuguese, 481 + Liver fatalities, 424 + Livy, + edition of, in 1543, 80; + illuminations, 80 + Lollardism, 256 + Longevity, Cornaro on, 404 + Lords, House of, before and after Reformation, 563 + Lorenzo de' Medici, xxxv, xlii, 4, 40; + poetry, 447; + lament for, 448 + Lorenzo di Credi, 55 + Lorenzo Lotto, 63 + Lo Spagna, xxix + Lotti, Lorenzo, xxix + Lotto, 7 + Louvain university, 225; + town hall of, 124 + Low Countries, 307 + Lubbock, Sir John, 434 + Luebeck, 102 + Luca delta Robbia, 89 + Lucas van Leyden, 74, 161 + Lucca health board, 407 + Lucretia Borgia's apartments, 324; + husband's grief, 305 (see Borgia) + Lucretia Tornabuoni de' Medici, xlii, 317 + Lucretius, 507 + Luigi da Porto, 455 + Luis de Granada, 480 + Luis de Morales, 82 + Luis de Vargas, 82 + Luis de Leon, 480 + Luther, 135, 246; + and Denifle, 248; + Grisar, 248; + McGiffert, 251, 252; + indulgences, 249; + on divorce, 251; {573} + permits bigamy, 251; + relations to Zwingli, 250 + + + M. + + Mabie, Mr. Hamilton, 515 + Macaulay, 220; + on the reformers, 258 + MacFarren, Sir George A., 143 + Machiavelli, 449: + Acton on, 451; + drama, 450; + history, 450; + Morley on, 451; + novel, 455; + place in literature, 450; + style of, 450; + "The Prince," 209 + Madrigals, 446 + Magellan, Ferdinand, 266; + Straits of, 267 + Maggi, 412 + Magnet in surgery, 416 + Magnetism, 390 + _Maioli et amicorum,_ 166 + Malory, Sir Thomas, 152, 495 + Mania, 402 + Mantegna, Andrea, xxix + Manuzio, Paolo, 154 + Marcantonio, 162 + Marcellus, The Mass of, 139 + Margaret of Anjou, 335 + Margaret of Angouleme, or Navarre, or Valois, (See Marguerite.) + Marguerita de Juanes, 84 + Marguerite of Angouleme, (or Navarre, or Valois), xxxix; + affection for brother, 305: + charity, 306; + grief, 306; + Heptameron, 465; + Marguerites de la Marguerite, 466; + religious poetry, 466 + Marguerite of Bourgogne, xxxix + Marot's, Clement, sonnet on happiness, 464 + Marquette, 213 + Marriage of Witte and Science, 489 + Martin of Bohemia, 263 + Martinotti, 363 + Martyr's _De Rebus Oceanicis, et Orbe Novo,_ 164 + Mary of Burgundy's tomb, 98, 307 + Mary, Queen of Scots, xxxix, 331, 336 + Masaccio, xxviii, 65 + Massa, 414 + Massuccio Salernitano, 454 + Masters, Four, of Salerno, 410 + Matsys, Quentin, xxix, 73 + Matthews, Brander, 166 + Maximilian I, 525 + McGiffert on Luther, 252 + Medallion, xxxiii + Medici, Clarice de', 301 + Medici, Lorenzo de', (See Lorenzo.) + Medicine and philosophy, 408; + clinical, 382; + incunabula of, 383; + in Mexico, 281 + legal, 408; + medieval, 381; + observation in, 401; + printing and, 383; + Rabelais on, 382; + Renaissance in, 382 + Meistersingers, 137 + Melancholia, 402; + Duerer, 15 + Melancholy as self-will, 311 + Melanchthon, 522; + Servetus, 255 + Melin de Saint Gelais, 467 + Melozzo da Forli, 4, 65 + Memling, xxix, 71, 97, 199 + Memmelinc, 72 + Memory, importance of, 503 + Mercy, Brothers of, 201 + Metal-engraving, 162 + Method, inductive, 356 + Mexico and Medicine, 281 + Mexico's palaces, 288 + Meyer, History of Chemistry, 389 + Michelangelo, xxviii, xxx, xxxi, xlii, 1, 5, 6; + admiration of, 43; + age of, 51; + and architecture, 40; + and Dante, 41; + and Leonardo, 36; + and Vittoria Colonna, 47; + as architect, painter, poet, sculptor, 52; + dissection and, 44; + early works, 35; + handiness, 44; + last words, 51; + lack of jealousy, 43; + little interest in books, 33; + lonely, 45; + modesty, 44; + on matrimony, 45-6: + personality, 47; + Shakespeare and, 33, 41; + the "divine master," 51 + Michelangelo's + David, 36; + Moses, 38; + religion, 49; + St. Peter's (Rome), 116 + Middle Ages, contempt for the, 245 + Mignonne! Allons voir, 468 + Milman, Dean, 434 + Modernism, Renaissance, 244 + Mona Lisa, 15 + Monardes, 400 + Monarquia Indiana, 279 + Monasteries, + evils of, 557; + suppression of, 557 + Montagnana, 395 + Montaigne, 533 + Montanus, 385, 386 + Montefeltro, Battista, 319 + Monte, Giovanni de, 386 + Monti di Pieta, 180 + More, Margaret, 337, 227 + More, Sir Thomas, xxxv, xlii, 223, 259. 543; + apology of, 233; + as barrister, 226; + as chancellor, 234; + Confutation of Tindale and, 233: + daughter of, 238; + Deballation of Salem and Bizance, 233; + Erasmus and, 226; + family life, 226; + household, 227; + humor, 241; + oath of supremacy, 236; + obstinacy, 239; + on hospitals, 200, 545; + on marriage, 225; + on physicians, 545; + precocity, 224 + Quoth He and Quoth I, 233; + religious toleration, 545; + sordid successors of, 242; + standing armies and, 545; + Supplication of Souls, 233 + wealth display barbaric, 545 + Moriae, Encomium, 241 + Moroselli, 55 + Morris, William, 148 + Morte d' Arthur, 152, 495 + Morton, Cardinal, xxxv; + household of, 224 + Moses, Michelangelo's, 38 + Mouton, Jean, 143 + Mummies, 390 + Municipalata palace, 122 + Muretus, 541 + Murmellius, 521 + Music, xxxii; + Columbian, 134; + Doctor of, 136; + polyphonic, xxxii, 139 + Musurus, handwriting of, 153 + Muth, Conrad, Mutianus, Rufus, 523, 527 + + + N. + + Nanini brothers, xxxii, 137 + Nature imitates art, 70 + Nature study, + in Dante, 361; + medieval, 360; + Renaissance, 360 + Nativity, + Duerer, 339; + Plays, 486 {574} + Navarrete, 82 + Navigation, French, 268 + Neri, St. Philip, xxxii + Nervousness, selfishness and, 311 + Neuburger, 362 + Newman, Cardinal, 181 + Newton, xxvi + New York, Discovery of, 268 + Nicholas V, 510; + chapel of, 53 + Nicholas of Cusa, 27, 344, 518, 529; + on truth, 519; + on united Germany, 519 + Nigramansir, 493 + Novelas de Picaros, 479 + Novelle, Italian, 454 + Nunez, 540 + Nuremberg, xxxi, 75, 99; + Bronze Founders of, 102; + intellectual center, 347; + Virgin of, 188 + Nursing, + Dark Period of, 193; + decline after Reformation, 560; + history of, 179; + uniforms, 200 + Nusquama, 233 + Nutting and Dock History of Nursing, 179 + + + O. + + Ockeghem, or Ockenheim, xxxii, 135 + Olympia Morata, 327 + Opera, xxxii + Oratorio, xxxii + Orlando Furioso, 443 + Orthopedics, 413; + Spain in, 421 + Osler, Prof., 397 + Ospedale Maggiore of Milan, 196 + Oviedo, 399 + + + P + + Padua, xxix + Paganism and the New Learning, 529 + Palace, + Grimani, 120; + Guadagni, 120; + of Caprarola, 122; + Pitti, 120; + Riccardi, 120; + Rucellai, 120; + Thiene, 121; + Tursi-Doria, 122; + Vendramini, 120 + Palestrina, xxxii, 136 + Palilia, 508 + Palladio, xxxi, 120 + Palma Vecchio, xxix, 63 + Palmerin de Inglaterra, 478 + Pamplona, 206 + Papal Physicians, + Caesalpinus, 373; + Columbus, 366; + Eustachius, 367; + Lancisi, 368 + Papinian, 536 + Paracelsus, xxxvii, 223, 386; + Father of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, 390; + medical chemistry and, 357; + miracles and, 390; + surgical hints, 419; + wound epidemics and, 420 + Paraguay Reductions, 212 + Pardoner and the Friar, 489 + Pare, xxxviii; + Father of Modern Surgery, 411; + on gout, 398; + orthopedic armamentarium, 413 + Pascal, 432 + Passion Plays, 486, 488 + Pater, Walter, 15, 58 + Pathology, + Aranzi, 395; + Arcolani, 395; + Benivieni, 395; + Berengar, 395; + Eustachius, 395; + Montagnana, 395; + Savonarola, 395; + Vesalius, 395 + Paul Preaching to the Athenians, 12 + Pausanias, Monuments of, 536 + Pavia, Battle of, xxxiv + Peasant and Prince, 469 + Perreal, 80 + Perugino, xxix, 5, 7. 53, 55 + Peruzzi, 7, 10, 17 + Petau, or Petavius, 216 + Peter of Pieve, 55 + Pfolspeundt, Heinrich von, 383; + advice to young surgeons, 423 + Phillimore, Prof, J. S., 498 + Phrenitis, 402 + Physicians, Royal College of, 229; + More's praise of, 408 + Phytography, Cordus, 376 + Picaresque novels, 479 + Piccolomini, AEneas Sylvius, (See Pius II.) + Pico della Mirandola, xlii, 9, 34, 223, 230, 507, 511, 524. + Pierluigi of Palestrina, 142 + Piero dei Franceschi, 65 + Piero della Francesca, 4, 55 + Pieta of Michelangelo, 36 + Pillage, Before the Great, 174 + Pilon, Germain, xxxi, 105 + Pincianus, 539 + Pinel, 203 + Pinturicchio, xxix, 503 + Pirkheimer, Charitas, or Charity, 330, 525; + Conrad Celtes, 338; + friend of scholars, 338 + Pirkheimer, Wilibald, 338: + Academy of Mainz, 524; + friend of Duerer, 77; + numismatics, mathematics, science, 526 + Pius II, xxxv, 502, 543 + Pizarro, 270 + Placques, 112 + Plant Iconography, 376 + Plantin, Christopher, 464 + Platina, 508 + Plato, 8, 516, 526, 530 + Platonic love, 48 + Plays, + Mystery and Miracle in England, 485; + in Italy, 445; + on the continent, 487; + Morality, xlii; + Nativity, 486; + Passion, 488 + Pledges, unredeemed, 180 + Pleiades, xlii, 468 + Pliny, 535; + the Elder, 378 + Plumptre, Dean, 434 + Plutarch, 526, 536; + morals of, 536 + Poetry, + Latin, 428; + of passion, 467 + Poggendorff, 219 + Poliphilo, Dream of, 159 + Politian, 34, 327, 507; + Orfeo of, 445 + Pollaiuolo, xxxii + Polychronicon, 151 + Polyglot, Complutensian, 539 + Pomponius Laetus, 508, 524 + Ponce, Maitre, 105 + Pontano, 510 + Portugal, scholarship in, 541 + Porretane, 454 + Portuguese, Sonnets from, 484 + Pott's Disease, 414 + Predestination, 254 + Prescott, 293; + on Ferdinand and Isabella, 333; + on the Inquisition, 295; + Isabella and Elizabeth contrasted, 293 + Prieur, Barthelemy, 105 + Prince, The, 449; + and Peasant, 469 + Printing, medical, 383 {575} + Prohibitionist, early, 407 + Propertius, 507 + Ptolemy, 526; + Almagest of, 346 + Puerbach, or Purbachius, 345; + and Bessarion, 504 + Purgatory, Treatise on, 299 + Puritan intolerance, 255 + Puschmann, History of Medical Education, 362 + Pyaemia, 420 + + + Q + + Queen Elizabeth (see Elizabeth) + Quentin Matsys, 97 + Quintilian, 507 + Quoth He and Quoth I, 233 + + + R + + Rabelais, xlii; + and feminine education, 536; + and medicine, 382; + circulation of blood and, 369; + misunderstood, 472; + place in literature, 474; + Renaissance and, 475; + tolerance of time, 473 + Radewyns, Florence, 515 + Ralph Royster Doyster, xlii, 494 + Ranke, 220; + on Guicciardini, 452 + Raphael, 1, 67, 75, 92, 107; + as archaeologist, 14; + as art director, 14 + Rapiarium, 517 + Rea, Hope, 88 + Recreation before Reformation, 565 + Reductions of Paraguay, 212 + Reformation, 243; + and academic freedom, 555; + and art, 554; + and education, 554; + and decadence, 554; + and internationalism, 566; + and House of Lords, 563; + and political descent, 564; + and popular happiness, 565; + and progress, 553; + and sectarianism, 566; + Andrew Lang on, 258; + Copernicus and, 352; + Frederic Harrison on, 258; + Macaulay on, 258; + ruins art, 558; + ruins scholarship, 555 + Regiomontanus, 28, 223; + and Bessarion, 504 + Reisch, 529 + Rembrandt, 15 + Renaissance, xxvii; + Italian, xxxi; + ladies of the, 290; + Science in, 343; + The Later, 476 + Repplier, Miss Agnes, "Our Loss of Nerve," 312 + Reuchlin, xxxv, 523, 528; + Cabalistic Books of, 393 + Reuisch, 7 + Revolt, Religious, in Germany, 243 + Revolution, French Reactionary, 191 + Rhodes, Cecil, and Cortes, 269; + and Pizarro, 269; + and Vasco da Gama, 269 + Ribalta, xxix + Ricci, Father, 211 + Ricordi, 452 + Robbia, Andrea della, Bambine of, 90 + Robbia, Luca della, 89 + Robusti, Jacopo, 68 + Roman antiquities, 14 + Rome, Ancient, Raphael's reconstruction, 14 + Rome, Social Work at, 182 + Romeo and Juliet, 454 + Roses, Little Garden of, 431 + Roses, Wars of the, 223 + Rossetti, William, 93 + Ronsard, 468 + Rudolph von Langen, 520 + Ruellius, 379 + Rugs, Oriental, 107 + Ruskin, xxvii; + on Noble grotesque, 60; + Stones of Venice, 60 + Russell of Killowen, 432 + + + S + + Sachs, Hans, 136 + Sacristy of San Lorenzo, 40 + Sahagun, 278 + St. Ambrose, 522 + St. Augustine, 522; + De Civitate Dei, 437 + St. Bernardine of Siena, 180 + St. Brigid, 314 + St. Catherine, of Genoa, 181, 298; + Treatise on Purgatory, 299 + St. Chrysostom, 522 + St. Francis de Sales, 432 + St. Francis Xavier, 210 + St. George and St. Michael, 4 + St. Gregory Nazienzen, 529 + St. Ignatius Loyola, 182, 439; + Spiritual Exercises of, xli, 439 + St. Jerome, 522 + St. Philip Neri, 137, 142; + the Apostle of Rome, 181 + St. Teresa, 307, 340, 476. (Sec also Teresa.) + St. Sebald, shrine, 101 + Saint-Amand, Imbert, 464 + Sainte-Beuve, 464 + Saintsbury, xl, 443 + Salvers, 112 + Sanchez, Minerva, 540 + Sandys, 280, 524, 527, 532, 540 + Sangallo, xxxi, 117 + San Michele, xxxi, 120 + Sannazaro, 510 + Sansovino, xxxi, 102 + Santa Croce Cathedral, xxxi + Santi Raphael, 2 + Sarto, Andrea del, xxviii + Sassoferato, xxix + Satire of Religious Abuses, 455 + Savadino, degli Arienti, 454 + Savonarola, 56, 183, 185; + and art, 57; + Benedict XIV, 185; + Pius VII, 185; + Raphael, 185; + the reformer, 184; + vindication of, 185 + Scala, Alessandra, 327 + Scaliger, 505. 537 + Scent boxes, 113 + Schoeffer, 146 + Schaeuffelin, Hans, 161 + Schenck von Graffenberg, 396 + Schwarzerd (Melanchthon), 522 + Scholarship, xxix; + and wealth, 468; + place of, xxxv; + decadence in, 95; + Teutonic, 513 + Scholarship in Italy, decadence of, 512 + Scholasticism, Erasmus and contempt, 245 + Schongauer, Martin, 162 + School of Athens, 8 + Schubert, 140 + Science, + in Renaissance, 343; + Jesuits and, 217; + Progress of, xxxvii + Sciences, Biological, 360 + Scripture, knowledge of, 488 {576} + Sculpture, Certosa, 95; + decadence in, 95 + Sebastiano Luciani, 63 + Secchi, S. J.. Father, 218 + Selling, William, 543 + Seneca, 516, 522 + Servetus, 369; + and Calvin, 255 + Seutonius, 522 + Shakespeare and Michelangelo, 33 + Sidney, Sir Philip, 481 + Signorelli, 10, 56; + and Melozzo, 65 + Simon de Collines, 157; + Book of Hours, 160 + Sistine Chapel, 8; + tapestries in, 111 + Social Work and Workers, 169 + Societas Literarum Danubiana, 524 + Societas Literarum Vistuliana, 524 + Socrates, 8, 516 + Sodalitas Literarum Rhenana, 524 + Sodoma, 7 + Sophocles, 533 + Sorel, Agnes, tomb of, 105 + Spain, + and care for insane, 203; + architecture, 118; + Feminine education, 333; + in America, 278; + scholarship, 537 + Spanish America, 277; + Literature, Golden age of, 484 + Spiritual Life in shorthand, 440 + Spirituality and common sense, 312 + Splenectomy, 417 + Springinklee, Hans, 161 + Squarcione, xxix + Staley, Edgcumbe, 300 + Stanley, Dean, 514; + the explorer, 432 + Statius, 507 + Staupitz, John von, 260 + Stefano, Vanneo, xxxii + Strachey, Henry, 8 + Stratford, Chapel of Guild and Alms-houses at, 172, 176 + Stratford-on-Avon, 131, 176 + Suarez, 216 + Superstition, Post-reformation, 561 + Supper, Last, Leonardo's, 16 + Supremacy oath, More and, 236 + Surgeons, learned, 425 + Surgery, + and anatomy, 526; + cosmetics in, 418; + experience in, 425; + hospitals and, 410 + Sweating sickness, 383 + Sylvaticus, 383 + Sylvius, Matthaeus, 365, 383 + Symonds, J. Addington, 41, 446 + + + T + + Taft, President, on Philippines, 273 + "Tag Day," 178 + Taine, History of English Literature, 177, 353 + Tales of Chivalry, 479; + of Roguery, 479 + Tapestries, + Sistine, 11; + art and, 107; + Cluny, 111; + Golden age of, 109; + Morgan, 110; + Rheims and, 109; + Their Origin, History and Renaissance, 109 + Tapestry, French and Flemish manufacture of, 110 + Telegraph, sympathetic, 356 + Telesio, Bernardino, 356 + Terence, 522 + Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, (St. Teresa), 307 + Teresa, St., Crashaw on, 477; + "Doctor of Church," 308; + humor of, 310; + hymn, 477 (see St. Teresa) + Teresa, + _mater spiritualium,_ 308; + mystic, 310; + power of, 310: + style of, 309; + writings, 477 (see St. Teresa) + Terra Cottas, 89 + Theater, Picture of, 491 + Theophrastus Dioscorides, 378 + Theodoric, 410 + Thiene Palace, 121 + Thompson, Francis, 207; + Life of St. Ignatius, by, 221 + Three Graces of the Tribune of Chantilly, 5 + Tibullus, 508 + Tilly, Arthur, on Rabelais, 474 + Tindale, Confutation of, 233 + Tintoretto, xxix, 53; + Bacchus and Ariadne, 68 + Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, 542 + Titian, xxix, 53, 75: + Assumption by, 63; + Bacchanals of, 64; + Bacchus and Ariadne, 64; + Entombment of Christ, 63; + Presentation of Blessed Virgin, 63 + Tolerance of Rabelais' time, 473 + Torquemada, Juan de, 279 + Torture, date of, 188; + post-reformation, 561; + under Tudors, 189 + Tory, Geoffrey, 149, 156; + Book of Hours, 157; + King's printer, 158 + Toscanelli, 28, 348 + Tournai, 110 + Tournefort, 377 + Tours, xxxi + Toussain, Jacques, 533 + Tracheotomy tube, 416 + Tragus, 376 + Tramps, 171 + Translations, Classic, 499 + Trebizond, 505 + Tregaskis, 149 + Trithemius, 525, 527, 529; + and Christian scholarship, 529 + Trivulzio, Domitilla, 327 + Troye, Recuyell, of the Historyes of, 152 + Truth, Love of, Cusanus, 519 + Turnebus, 533 + Tursi-Doria Palace, 122 + Tyndale, 500 + Types, + Arabian, 151; + Anglo-Saxon, 151; + Greek, 151; + Hebrew, 151; + Irish, 151; + Italian, 151; + Russian, 151; + Syrian, 151 + + + U + + Udall, Nicholas, 494 + Ulm, Choir stalls of, 99 + University + of Lima, 279; + of Mexico, 279 + University, Papal charters, 281 + Ursula, Shrine of St., 73 + Ursulines, + Charlestown fire, 329; + foundation of, 329; + in America, 329; + New Orleans in 1726, 329 + Utopia, xli, 232, 436; + and Plato's Republic, 439; + Astrology, 551; + Author's home, 553; + books in, 552; + division of day in, 552; + forest conservation, 551; + life of pleasure in, 551; + illustrations in, 162; + More's, 429; + Religious toleration in, 546; + standing armies in, 547 + + +{577} + + V + + Valentine, Basil, 357; + works, 392 + Valles, Francisco, 396 + Valves in veins, 361 + Van Eyck, brothers, xxix, 71, 97 + Vanneo, Stefano, xxxii + Vannucci, Pietro, 55 + Van der Weyden, Roger, 71, 97 + Varro, 508, 533 + Vasari, xlii, 17, 87, 89, 107, 453; + Herodotus of art, 453 + Vasco da Gama, 263 + Veit Stoss, 99 + Velasquez, 15 + Vendramini Palace, 120 + Venturino, Francesco, 33 + Vergara, 540 + Vernacular, 246 + Vernazza, Battistina, 300 + Verona, Isotta of, 327 + Veronese, xxix, 53; + Marriage at Cana, 69 + Veronica de Gambara, 327 + Verrazano, 268 + Verrocchio, xxx, 55, 90; + Colleoni, 21 + Vesalius, xxxvii, 25; + Father of anatomy; 164, 365 + Vespucci, Amerigo, 264 + Vidus Vidius, 416 + Viel, Gabriel, 529 + Vignola, 122 + Vigo, John de, 414 + Villa of Pope Julius, 122 + Villehardouin, 470 + Villon, xxxvi, 462 + Virago of Forli, 301 + Virgil, study of, 315; + birthplace of, 315 + Virgins, youthful, 36 + Vischer family, xxxi, 101, 104 + Vischer, Peter, 101 + Visualization, artistic, 70 + Vittoria Colonna, xxxix; + and Michelangelo, 47; + character, 297; + letter on honesty, 296; + writings, 297 + Vittorino da Feltre, 314 + Vivarinis, xxix + Vives, 540 + + + W + + Warham, Archbishop; xxxv, 521 + War, the climax of animal frenzy, (Leonardo), 30 + Wars of the Roses, 223 + Wasmann, S. J., Father, 219 + Wealth and scholarship, 468 + Wesley, John, 190, 259 + West, The Call of the, 276 + Weyden, Roger van der, xxix, 97 + Weyer (Wierius), Johann, 396, 416 + Wickersheimer, 405 + William of Salicet, 410 + Wimpheling, 520, 527, 529 + Windesheim, 515 + Wine, abuse of, 407 + Winternach, 402 + Witchcraft, 190 + Wolff, Caspar, 417 + Wolseley, General, 432 + Wolsey, Cardinal, 234 + Women, + and Renaissance gardens, 322; + chances of education for, 326; + wrongs of, 332 + Women's apartments, 322 + Woodberry, 161 + Wood-carving, + Bruges, 98; + German, 99 + Wood-engraving, 161 + Woodville, Elizabeth, 335 + Worms, Diet of, xxxiv + Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 497 + Wynken de Worde, 151 + Wuertz, Felix, 411, 417 + + + X + + Xenophon, German, 526 + Ximenes, Cardinal, xxxv, 438 + + + Z + + Zwingli, 250 + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Century of Columbus, by James J. 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