History of the Catholic Church, vol 1 | Page 7

to the Continent principally during the Carlovingian revival.[1] In the
cathedral, collegiate, and monastic schools the classics were still
cultivated, though beyond doubt compilations were used more
frequently than were the original works; and even in the darkest days of
the dark ages some prominent ecclesiastics could be found well versed

at least in the language and literature of Rome. It looked, too, for a time,
as if the intellectual revival of the twelfth century were to be turned
towards the classics; but the example of men like John of Salisbury was
not followed generally, and the movement developed rapidly in the
direction of philosophy. As a consequence, the study of Latin was
neglected or relegated to a secondary place in the schools, while Greek
scholarship disappeared practically from Western Europe. The
Scholastics, more anxious about the logical sequence of their
arguments than about the beauties of literary expression, invented for
themselves a new dialect, which, however forcible in itself, must have
sounded barbarous to any one acquainted with the productions of the
golden age of Roman literature or even with the writings of the early
Fathers of the Latin Church. Nor was it the language merely that was
neglected. The monuments and memorials of an earlier civilisation
were disregarded, and even in Rome itself, the City of the Popes, the
vandalism of the ignorant wrought dreadful havoc.
So complete a turning away from forces that had played such a part in
the civilisation of the world was certain to provoke a reaction.
Scholasticism could not hold the field for ever to the exclusion of other
branches of study, especially, since in the less competent hands of its
later expounders it had degenerated into an empty formalism. The
successors of St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure had little of their
originality, their almost universal knowledge, and their powers of
exposition, and, as a result, students grew tired of the endless
wranglings of the schools, and turned their attention to other
intellectual pursuits.
Besides, men's ideas of politics, of social order, and of religion were
changing rapidly, and, in a word, the whole outlook of the world was
undergoing a speedy transformation. In the Middle Ages religion held
the dominant position and was the guiding principle in morals, in
education, in literature, and in art; but as the faith of many began to
grow cold, and as the rights of Church and State began to be
distinguished, secularist tendencies soon made themselves felt.
Philosophy and theology were no longer to occupy the entire
intellectual field, and other subjects for investigation must be found. In

these circumstances what was more natural than that some should
advocate a return to the classics and all that the classics enshrined?
Again, the example set by the tyrants who had grasped the reins of
power in the Italian States, by men like Agnello of Pisa, the Viscontis
and Francesco Sforza of Milan, Ferrante of Naples, and the de' Medici
of Florence, was calculated to lower the moral standard of the period,
and to promote an abandonment of Christian principles of truth, and
justice, and purity of life. Everywhere men became more addicted to
the pursuit of sensual pleasure, of vain glory, and material comfort; and
could ill brook the dominant ideas of the Middle Ages concerning the
supernatural end of man, self-denial, humility, patience, and contempt
for the things that minister only to man's temporal happiness. With
views of this kind in the air it was not difficult to persuade them to turn
to the great literary masterpieces of Pagan Rome, where they were
likely to find principles and ideals more in harmony with their tastes
than those set before them by the Catholic Church.
The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, then, mark a period
of transition from the Middle Ages to modern times. They saw a sharp
struggle being waged between two ideals in politics, in education, in
literature, in religion, and in morality. In this great upheaval that was
characterised by a demand for unrestricted liberty of investigation, a
return to the study of nature and of the natural sciences, the rise and
development of national literatures, and the appearance of a new school
of art, the Humanist movement or the revival of the study of the
classics, the /literae humaniores/, played the fundamental part. In more
senses than one it may be called the Age of the Renaissance.
Nor was it a matter of chance that this revival of interest in classical
studies should have made itself felt first in Italy, where the downfall of
the Empire, and the subsequent development of petty states seem to
have exercised a magical influence upon the intellectual development
of the people. The Italians were the direct heirs to the glory of ancient
Rome. Even in the days of their