§ 62. THE INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING. 561
morbid self-mortifications as the most fitting discipline of mortal existence here below, and offered him the satisfaction of all the elements of his nature as his proper pursuit.
Beginning in Italy, this new enthusiasm spread north to Germany and extended as far as Scotland. North of the Alps, it was known as Humanism and its representatives as Humanists, the words being taken from literce humanoe, or humaniores, that is, humane studies, the studies which develop the man as the proprietor of this visible sphere. In the wider sense, it comprehends the revival of literature and art, the development of rational criticism, the transition from feudalism to a new order of social organization, the elevation of the modern languages of Europe as vehicles for the highest thought, the emancipation of intelligence, and the expansion of human interests, the invention of the printing-press, the discoveries of navigation and the exploration of America and the East, and the definition of the solar system by Copernicus and Galileo, — in one word, all the progressive developments of the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, developments which have since been the concern of modern civilization.
The most discriminating characterization of this remarkable movement came from the pen of Michelet, who definfid it as the discovery of the world and man. In this twofold aspect, Burckhardt, its leading historian for Italy, has treated the Renaissance with deep philosophical insight.
The period of the Renaissance lasts from the beginning of the 14th to the middle of the 16th ceiitury, from Roger Bacon, d. 1294, and Dante, d. 1321, to Raphael, d. 1520, and Michelangelo, d. 1564, Reuchlin, d. 1522, and Erasmus, d. 1536. For more than a century it proceeded in Italy without the patronage of the Church. Later, from the pontificate ofJJicaLasJkLJto- the. Medicean popes, Leo X. and Clement VIL, it was fostered by the papal court. For this reason the last popes of the Middle Ages are known as the Renaissance popes. The movement in the courts may be divided into three periods: the age of the great Italian literati, Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio, the age from 1400-1460, when the interest in^classic literature predominated, and the age from '" " 2o
662 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
1460-1540,j5ylLeiilhe iiiiiiauiLof the fine arts was the predominant featujje. The first age contributed immortal works to literature. In the second, Plato and the other classics were translated and sedulously studied. In the last, the fine arts and architecture offered their array of genius in Italy.
To some writers it has occurred to go back as far as Frederick II. for the beginnings of the movement. That sovereign embodied in himself a varied culture and a versatility of intellect rare in any age. With authorship and a knowledge of a number of languages, he combined enlightened ideas in regard to government and legislation, the patronage of higher education and the arts. For tlie varied interests of his mind, he has been called the first modern man.^ However, the literary activity of his court ceased at his death. Italy was not without its poets in the 13th century, butj^js with tlie-imposing figure of Dante that the revival of cultuxe is to be dated. That a Renaissance should have been needed Ys a startling fact in the history of human development and demands explanation. The ban, which had been placed b^ the Church upon the study of the classic authors of antiquity and ancient institutions, palsied polite research and reading for a thousand years. Even before Jerome, whose mind had been disciplined in the study of the classics, at last pronounced them unfit for the eye of a Christian, Tertullian's attitude was not favorable. Cassian followed Jerome ; and Alcuin, the chief scholar of the 9th century, turned away from Virgil as a collection of lying fables. At the close of the 10th century, a pope reprimanded Arnulf of Orleans by reminding him that Peter was unacquainted with Plato, Virgil and Terence, and that God had been pleased to choose as His agents, not philosophers and rhetoricians, but rustics and unlettered men. In deference to such authorities the dutiful churchman turned from the closed pages of the old Romans and Greeks. Only did a selected author like Terence have here and there in a convent a clandestine though eager reader.
In the 12th century, it seemed as if a new era in literature 1 Burckhardt, I. 4. See vol. V., Pt. I. 198 of this History.