A General History for Colleges and High Schools

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Before proceeding to fulfil his threat, however, Bajazet turned back to
capture Constantinople, which he believed in the present despondent state
of its inhabitants would make little or no resistance. Now it happened
that just at this time Tamerlane was leading the Mongols on their career
of conquest. He directed them against the Turks in Asia Minor, and Bajazet
was forced to raise the siege of Constantinople, and hasten across the
Bosporus, to check the advance in his dominions of these new enemies. The
Turks and Mongols met upon the plains of Angora, where the former suffered
a disastrous defeat (1402). The battle of Angora checked for a time the
conquests of the Ottomans, and saved Constantinople to the Christian world
for another period of fifty years.

THE CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE (1453).--The Ottomans gradually recovered
from the blow they had received at Angora. In the year 1421 they made
another attempt upon Constantinople, but were unsuccessful. Finally, in
the year 1453, Mohammed II., the Great, sultan of the Ottomans, laid siege
to the capital, with an army of over 200,000 men. After a short
investment, the place was taken by storm. The Cross, which since the time
of Constantine the Great had surmounted the dome of St. Sophia, was
replaced by the Crescent, which remains to this day.

CHECK TO THE OTTOMAN ARMS.--The consternation which the fall of Byzantium
created throughout Christendom was like the dismay which filled the world
upon the downfall of Rome in the fifth century. All Europe now lay open to
the Moslem barbarians, and there seemed nothing to prevent their marching
to the Atlantic. But the warriors of Hungary made a valiant stand against
the invaders, and succeeded in checking their advance upon the continent,
while the Knights of St. John (see p. 443), now established in the island
of Rhodes, held them in restraint in the Mediterranean. Mohammed II. did
succeed in planting the Crescent upon the shores of Italy--capturing and
holding for a year the city of Otranto, in Calabria; but by the time of
the death of that energetic prince, the conquering energy of the Ottomans
seems to have nearly spent itself, and the limits of their empire were not
afterwards materially enlarged.

The Turks have ever remained quite insensible to the influences of
European civilization, and their government has been a perfect blight and
curse to the countries subjected to their rule. They have always been
looked upon as intruders in Europe, and their presence there has led to
several of the most sanguinary wars of modern times. Gradually they are
being pushed out from their European possessions, and the time is probably
not very far distant when they will be driven back across the Bosporus, as
their Moorish brethren were expelled long ago from the opposite corner of
the continent by the Christian chivalry of Spain.

CHAPTER XLV.

GROWTH OF THE TOWNS: THE ITALIAN CITY-REPUBLICS.

RELATION OF THE CITIES TO THE FEUDAL LORDS.--When Feudalism took
possession of Europe, the cities became a part of the system. Each town
formed a part of the fief in which it happened to be situated, and was
subject to all the incidents of feudal ownership. It owed allegiance to
its lord, must pay to him feudal tribute, and aid him in his war
enterprises. As the cities, through their manufactures and trade, were the
most wealthy members of the Feudal System, the lords naturally looked to
them for money when in need. Their exactions at last became unendurable,
and a long struggle broke out between them and the burghers, which
resulted in what is known as the enfranchisement of the towns.

It was in the eleventh century that this revolt of the cities against the
feudal lords become general. During the course of this and the succeeding
century, the greater number of the towns of the countries of Western
Europe either bought, or wrested by force of arms, charters from their
lords or suzerains. The cities thus chartered did not become independent
of the feudal lords, but they acquired the right of managing, with more or
less supervision, their own affairs, and were secured against arbitrary
and oppressive taxation. This was a great gain; and as, under the
protection of their charters, they increased in wealth and population,
very many of them grew at last strong enough to cast off all actual
dependence upon lord or suzerain, and became in effect independent states
--little commonwealths. Especially was this true in the case of the
Italian cities, and in a less marked degree in that of the German towns.

RISE OF THE ITALIAN CITY-REPUBLICS.--The Italian cities were the first to
rise to power and importance. Several things conspired to secure their
early and rapid development, but the main cause of their prosperity was
their trade with the East, and the enormous impulse given to this commerce
by the Crusades.

[Illustration: A MEDIAEVAL SIEGE, SHOWING BALLISTAE, ETC. (By Alphonse de
Neuville.)]

With wealth came power, and all the chief Italian cities became distinct,
self-governing states, with just a nominal dependence upon the pope or the
emperor. Towards the close of the thirteenth century, Northern and Central
Italy was divided among about two hundred contentious little city-
republics. Italy had become another Greece.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF TYRANNIES.--Just what happened among the contending
republics of Greece took place in the case of the quarrelling city-
commonwealths of Italy. Their republican constitutions were overthrown,
and the supreme power fell into the hands of an ambitious aristocracy, or
was seized by some bold usurper, who often succeeded in making the
government hereditary in his family. Before the close of the fourteenth
century almost all the republics of the peninsula had become converted
into exclusive oligarchies or hereditary principalities.

We shall now relate some circumstances, for the most part of a commercial
character, which concern some of the most renowned of the Italian city-
states.

VENICE.--Venice, the most celebrated of the Italian republics, had its
beginnings in the fifth century, in the rude huts of some refugees who
fled out into the marshes of the Adriatic to escape the fury of the Huns
of Attila (see p. 346). Conquests and negotiations gradually extended the
possessions of the island-city until she came to control the coasts and
waters of the Eastern Mediterranean in much the same way that Carthage had
mastery of the Western Mediterranean at the time of the First Punic War.
Even before the Crusades her trade with the East was very extensive, and
by those expeditions was expanded into enormous proportions.

[Illustration: PALACE OF THE DOGES. (From a photograph.)]

Venice was at the height of her power during the thirteenth, fourteenth,
and fifteenth centuries. Her supremacy on the sea was celebrated each year
by the brilliant ceremony of "Wedding the Adriatic," by the dropping of a
ring into the sea.

The decline of Venice dates from the fifteenth century. The conquests of
the Turks during that century deprived her of much of the territory she
held east of the Adriatic, and finally the voyage of Vasco da Gama round
the Cape of Good Hope (1497-8), showing a new path to India, gave a death-
blow to her commerce. From this time forward, the trade of Europe with the
East was to be conducted from the Atlantic ports of the continent instead
of from those in the Mediterranean.

GENOA.--Genoa, on the western coast of Italy, was the most formidable
commercial rival of Venice. The period of her greatest prosperity dates
from the recapture of Constantinople from the Latins by the Greeks in
1261; for the Genoese had assisted the Greek princes in the recovery of
their throne, and as a reward were shown commercial favors by the Greek
emperors.

The jealousy with which the Venetians regarded the prosperity of the
Genoese led to oft-renewed war between the two rival republics. For nearly
two centuries their hostile fleets contended, as did the navies of Rome
and Carthage during the First Punic War, for the supremacy of the sea.

The merchants of Genoa, like those of Venice, reaped a rich harvest during
the Crusades. Their prosperity was brought to an end by the irruption of
the Mongols and Turks, and the capture of Constantinople by the latter in
1453. The Genoese traders were now driven from the Black Sea, and their
traffic with Eastern Asia was completely broken up; for the Venetians had
control of the ports of Egypt and Syria and the southern routes to India
and the countries beyond--that is, the routes by way of the Euphrates and
the Red Sea.

FLORENCE.--Florence, although shut out, by her inland location upon the
Arno, from engaging in those naval enterprises that conferred wealth and
importance upon the coast cities of Venice and Genoa, became,
notwithstanding, through the skill, industry, enterprise, and genius of
her citizens, the great manufacturing, financial, literary, and art centre
of the Middle Ages. The list of her illustrious citizens, of her poets,
statesmen, historians, architects, sculptors, and painters, is more
extended than that of any other city of mediaeval times; and indeed, as
respects the number of her great men, Florence is perhaps unrivalled by
any city, excepting Athens, of the ancient or the modern world. [Footnote:
In her long roll of fame we find the names of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio,
Macchiavelli, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Amerigo
Vespucci, and the Medici.]

THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE.--From speaking of the Italian city-republics, we
must now turn to say a word respecting the free cities of Germany, in
which country, next after Italy, the mediaeval municipalities had their
most perfect development, and acquired their greatest power and influence.

[Illustration: ROBBER KNIGHTS.]

When, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the towns of Northern Europe
began to extend their commercial connections, the greatest drawback to
their trade was the general insecurity and disorder that everywhere
prevailed. The trader who entrusted his goods designed for the Italian
market to the overland routes was in danger of losing them at the hands of
the robber nobles, who watched all the lines of travel, and either robbed
the merchant outright, or levied an iniquitous toll upon his goods. The
plebeian tradesmen, in the eyes of these patrician barons, had no rights
which they felt bound to respect. Nor was the way to Italy by the Baltic
and the North Sea beset with less peril. Piratical crafts scoured those
waters, and made booty of any luckless merchantman they might overpower,
or lure to wreck upon the dangerous shores. This state of things led some
of the German cities, about the middle of the fourteenth century, to form,
for the protection of their merchants, an alliance called the Hanseatic
League. The confederation eventually embraced eighty-five of the principal
towns of North Germany. In order to facilitate the trading operations of
its members, the League established in different parts of the world
trading-posts and warehouses. The four most noted centres of the trade of
the confederation were the cities of Bruges, London, Bergen, and Novgorod.
The League thus became a vast monopoly, which endeavored to control, in
the interests of its own members, the entire commerce of Northern Europe.

Among other causes of the dismemberment of the association may be
mentioned the maritime discoveries of the fifteenth century, which
disarranged all the old routes of trade in the north of Europe as well as
in the south; the increased security which the formation of strong
governments gave to the merchant class upon sea and land; and the heavy
expense incident to membership in the association, resulting from its
ambitious projects. All these things combined resulted in the decline of
the power and usefulness of the League, and finally led to its formal
dissolution about the middle of the seventeenth century.

INFLUENCE OF THE MEDIAEVAL CITIES.--The chartered towns and free cities of
the mediaeval era exerted a vast influence upon the commercial, social,
artistic, and political development of Europe.

They were the centres of the industrial and commercial life of the Middle
Ages, and laid the foundations of that vast system of international
exchange and traffic which forms a characteristic feature of modern
European civilization.

Their influence upon the social and artistic life of Europe cannot be
overestimated. It was within the walls of the cities that the civilization
uprooted by the Teutonic invaders first revived. With their growing wealth
came not only power, but those other usual accompaniments of wealth,--
culture and refinement. The Italian cities were the cradle and home of
mediaeval art, science, and literature.

Again, these cities were the birthplace of political liberty, of
representative government. It was the burghers, the inhabitants of the
cities, that in England, in France, and in Germany finally grew into the
Third Estate, or Commons, the controlling political class in all these
countries. In a word, municipal freedom was the germ of national liberty.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING.

By the Revival of Learning, in the most general sense, is meant the
intellectual awakening of Europe after the languor and depression of the
first mediaeval centuries. In a narrower sense, however, the phrase is used
to designate that wonderful renewal of interest in the old Greek and Latin
authors which sprung up in Italy about the beginning of the fourteenth
century. We shall use the expression in its most comprehensive sense, thus
making the restoration of classical letters simply a part of the great
Revival of Learning.

SCHOLASTICISM AND THE SCHOOLMEN.--One of Charlemagne's most fruitful
labors was the establishment of schools, in connection with the cathedrals
and monasteries, throughout his dominions. Within these schools there grew
up in the course of time a form of philosophy called, from the place of
its origin, Scholasticism, while its expounders were known as Schoolmen.
This philosophy was a fusion of Christianity and Aristotelian logic. It
might be defined as being, in its later stages, an effort to reconcile
revelation and reason, faith and philosophy. Viewed in this light, it was
not altogether unlike that theological philosophy of the present day whose
aim is to harmonize the Bible with the facts of modern science.

The greatest of the Schoolmen appeared in the thirteenth century. Among
them were Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus.
The most eminent of these was Thomas Aquinas (died 1274), who was called
the "Angel of the Schools." He was the strongest champion of mediaeval
orthodoxy. His remarkable work, entitled the _Summa Theologica_, outlines
and defends the whole scheme of Roman Catholic theology.

The Schoolmen often busied themselves with the most unprofitable questions
in metaphysics and theology, yet their discussions were not without good
results. These debates sharpened the wits of men, created activity of
thought and deftness in argument. The schools of the times became real
mental gymnasia, in which the young awakening mind of Europe received its
first training and gained its earliest strength.

THE UNIVERSITIES.--Closely related to the subject of Scholasticism is the
history of the universities, which, springing up in the thirteenth
century, became a powerful agency in the Revival of Learning. They were
for the most part expansions of the old cathedral and abbey schools, their
transformation being effected largely through the reputation of the
Schoolmen, who drew such multitudes to their lectures that it became
necessary to reorganize the schools on a broader basis. Popes and kings
granted them charters which conferred special privileges upon their
faculties and students, as, for instance, exemption from taxation and from
the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts. The celebrated University of
Paris was the first founded, and that of Bologna was probably next in
order.

The usual course of study in the universities was divided into what was
known as the _trivium_ and the _quadrivium_. The trivium embraced Grammar,
Logic, and Rhetoric; the quadrivium, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and
Music. These constituted the seven liberal arts. Greek, Hebrew, and the
physical sciences received but little attention. Medicine had not yet
freed itself from the influence of magic and astrology, and alchemy had
not yet given birth to chemistry. The Ptolemaic theory of the universe
still held sway. However, in all these matters the European mind was
making progress, was blindly groping its way towards the light.

INFLUENCE OF THE SARACENS.--The progress of the Christian scholars of
Europe in the physical sciences was greatly accelerated by the Saracens,
who, during the Dark Ages, were almost the sole repositories of the
scientific knowledge of the world. A part of this they gathered for
themselves, for the Arabian scholars were original investigators, but a
larger share of it they borrowed from the Greeks. While the Western
nations were too ignorant to know the value of the treasures of antiquity,
the Saracens preserved them by translating into Arabic the scientific
works of Aristotle and other Greek authors; and then, when Europe was
prepared to appreciate these accumulations of the past, gave them back to
her. This learning came into Europe in part through the channel of the
Crusades, but more largely, and at an earlier date, through the Arabian
schools in Spain. Two of the greatest scholars of the thirteenth century,
or perhaps of all the mediaeval ages, Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus, owed
very much of their scientific knowledge to the Arabians.

EFFECTS OF THE CRUSADES.--Having in a previous chapter dwelt on the
effects of the Crusades upon the intellectual development of the European
peoples (see p. 449) there is no need that we here do more than refer to
the matter, in order that we may fix in mind the place of the Holy Wars
among the agencies that conspired to bring about the Revival of Learning.
The stimulating, quickening, liberalizing tendency of these chivalric
enterprises was one of the most potent forces concerned in the mental
movement we are tracing.

RISE OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES.--Between the tenth and the
fourteenth century the native tongues of Europe. began to form literatures
of their own. We have already spoken of the formation and gradual growth
of these languages (see p. 386). As soon as their forms became somewhat
settled, then literature was possible, and all these speeches bud and
blossom into song and romance. This formation of modern European languages
and birth of native literatures, was one of the greatest gains in the
interest of general intelligence; for the Schoolmen used the Latin
language, and their discussions and writings consequently influenced only
a limited class; while the native literatures addressed themselves to the
masses, and thus stirred the universal mind and heart of Europe.

THE REVIVAL OF CLASSICAL LEARNING.--About the beginning of the fourteenth
century there sprung up in Italy a great enthusiasm for Greek and Latin
literature and art. This is what is generally known as the Italian
Renaissance, or the New Birth.

The Renaissance divides itself as follows: 1. The revival of classical
learning; 2. The revival of classical art. It is with the first only, the
intellectual and literary phase of the movement, that we are now
concerned. This feature of the movement is called _Humanism_, and the
promoters of it are known as _Humanists_. [Footnote: That is, students of
the _humanities_, or polite literature.] The real originator of the
humanistic movement was Petrarch [Footnote: The great Florentine poet,
Dante (1265-1321), was the forerunner of Humanism, but was not, properly
speaking, a Humanist. His Divine Comedy is the "Epic of Mediaevalism."]
(1304-1374). His love for the old Greek and Latin writers was a passion
amounting to a worship. He often wrote love-letters to his favorite
authors. In one to Homer he laments the lack of taste among his
countrymen, and declares that there are not more than ten persons in all
Italy who could appreciate the Iliad. Next to Petrarch stands Boccaccio
(1313-1375), as the second of the Humanists.

[Illustration: DANTE. [Footnote: The great Florentine poet, Dante (1265-
1321), was the forerunner of Humanism, but was not, properly speaking, a
Humanist. His Divine Comedy is the "Epic of Mediaevalism."] (From Raphael's
Disputation.)]

Just as the antiquarians of to-day search the mounds of Assyria for relics
of the ancient civilizations of the East, so did the Humanists ransack the
libraries of the monasteries and cathedrals, and all the out-of-the-way
places of Europe, for old manuscripts of the classic writers. The precious
documents were found covered with mould in damp cellars, or loaded with
dust in the attics of monasteries. This late search for these remains of
classical authors saved to the world hundreds of valuable manuscripts
which, a little longer neglected, would have been forever lost. Libraries
were founded in which the new treasures might be stored, and copies of the
manuscripts were made and distributed among all who could appreciate them.
It was at this time that the celebrated Vatican Library was established by
Pope Nicholas V. (1447-1455), one of the most generous promoters of the
humanistic movement.

This reviving interest in the literature of ancient Greece was vastly
augmented by the disasters just now befalling the Greek empire (see p.
462). From every part of the crumbling state scholars fled before the
approach of the barbarians, and sought shelter in the West, especially in
Italy, bringing with them many valuable manuscripts of the old Greek
masters, who were almost unknown in Western Europe, and always an
enthusiasm for Greek learning. There was now a repetition of what took
place at Rome upon the conquest of Greece in the days of the Republic.
Italy was conquered a second time by the genius of Greece.

Before the close of the fifteenth century, the enthusiasm for classical
authors had infected the countries beyond the Alps. The New Learning, as
it was called, found a place in the colleges and universities of Germany,
France, and England. Greek was added to Latin as one of the requirements
in a liberal education, and from that day to this has maintained a
prominent place in all our higher institutions of learning. In Northern
Europe, however, the humanistic movement became blended with other
tendencies. In Italy it had been an exclusive passion, a single devotion
to classical literature; but here in the North there was added to this
enthusiasm for Graeco-Roman letters an equal and indeed supremer interest
in what we have called the Hebrew element in civilization (see p. 368).
Petrarch hung over the pages of Homer; Luther pores over the pages of the
Bible. The Renaissance, in a word, becomes the Reformation; the Humanist
becomes the Reformer.

EVIL AND GOOD RESULTS OF THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL.--There were some serious
evils inherent in the classical revival. In Italy, especially, where the
humanistic spirit took most complete possession of society, it was
"disastrous to both faith and morals." The study of the old pagan writers
produced the result predicted by the monks,--caused a revival of paganism.
To be learned in Greek was to excite suspicion of heresy. With the New
Learning came also those vices and immoralities that characterized the
decline of classical civilization. Italy was corrupted by the new
influences that flowed in upon her, just as Rome was corrupted by Grecian
luxury and vice in the days of the failing republic.

On the other hand, the benefits of the movement to European civilization
were varied and positive. The classical revival gave to Europe, not only
faultless literary models, but large stores of valuable knowledge. As
Woolsey says, "The old civilization contained treasures of permanent value
which the world could not spare, which the world will never be able or
willing to spare. These were taken up into the stream of life, and proved
true aids to the progress of a culture which is gathering in one the
beauty and truth of all the ages." And to the same effect are the words of
Symonds, who closes his appreciative review of the Italian Revival of
Letters as follows: "Such is the Lampadephoria, or torch-race, of the
nations. Greece stretches out her hand to Italy; Italy consigns the sacred
fire to Northern Europe; the people of the North pass on the flame to
America, to India, and the Australasian Isles."

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