Civilization of Renaissance in Italy | Page 4

same studies which have served for this work might easily, in other
hands, not only receive a wholly different treatment and application,
but lead also to essentially different conclusions. Such indeed is the
importance of the subject that it still calls for fresh investigation, and
may be studied with advantage from the most varied points of view.
Meanwhile we are content if a patient hearing is granted us, and if this
book be taken and judged as a whole. It is the most serious difficulty of
the history of civilization that a great intellectual process must be
broken up into single, and often into what seem arbitrary categories in
order to be in any way intelligible. It was formerly our intention to fill
up the gaps in this book by a special work on the 'Art of the
Renaissance'--an intention, however, which we have been able to fulfill
only in part.
The struggle between the Popes and the Hohenstaufen left Italy in a
political condition which differed essentially from that of other
countries of the West. While in France, Spain and England the feudal
system was so organized that, at the close of its existence, it was
naturally transformed into a unified monarchy, and while in Germany it
helped to maintain, at least outwardly, the unity of the empire, Italy had

shaken it off almost entirely. The Emperors of the fourteenth century,
even in the most favourable case, were no longer received and
respected as feudal lords, but as possible leaders and supporters of
powers already in existence; while the Papacy, with its creatures and
allies, was strong enough to hinder national unity in the future, but not
strong enough itself to bring about that unity. Between the two lay a
multitude of political units--republics and despots--in part of long
standing, in part of recent origin, whose existence was founded simply
on their power to maintain it. In them for the first time we detect the
modern political spirit of Europe, surrendered freely to its own instincts.
Often displaying the worst features of an unbridled egotism, outraging
every right, and killing every germ of a healthier culture. But, wherever
this vicious tendency is overcome or in any way compensated, a new
fact appears in history--the State as the outcome of reflection and
calculation, the State as a work of art. This new life displays itself in a
hundred forms, both in the republican and in the despotic States, and
determines their inward constitution, no less than their foreign policy.
We shall limit ourselves to the consideration of the completer and more
clearly defined type, which is offered by the despotic States.
The internal condition of the despotically governed States had a
memorable counterpart in the Norman Empire of Lower Italy and
Sicily, after its transformation by the Emperor Frederick Il. Bred amid
treason and peril in the neighbourhood of the Saracens, Frederick, the
first ruler of the modern type who sat upon a throne, had early
accustomed himself to a thoroughly objective treatment of affairs. His
acquaintance with the internal condition and administration of the
Saracenic States was close and intimate; and the mortal struggle in
which he was engaged with the Papacy compelled him, no less than his
adversaries, to bring into the field all the resources at his command.
Frederick's measures (especially after the year 1231) are aimed at the
complete destruction of the feudal State, at the transformation of the
people into a multitude destitute of will and of the means of resistance,
but profitable in the utmost degree to the exchequer. He centralized, in
a manner hitherto unknown in the West, the whole judicial and political
administration. No office was henceforth to be filled by popular
election, under penalty of the devastation of the offending district and

of the enslavement of its inhabitants. The taxes, based on a
comprehensive assessment, and distributed in accordance with
Mohammedan usages, were collected by those cruel and vexatious
methods without which, it is true, it is impossible to obtain any money
from Orientals. Here, in short, we find, not a people, but simply a
disciplined multitude of subjects; who were forbidden, for example, to
marry out of the country without special permission, and under no
circumstances were allowed to study abroad. The University of Naples
was the first we know of to restrict the freedom of study, while the East,
in these respects at all events, left its youth unfettered. It was after the
examples of Mohammedan rules that Frederick traded on his own
account in all parts of the Mediterranean, reserving to himself the
monopoly of many commodities, and restricting in various ways the
commerce of his subjects. The Fatimite Caliphs, with all their esoteric
unbelief, were, at least in their earlier history, tolerant of all the
differences in the religious