ABSTRACT
The universal science of the Middle Ages, the philosophy of the schoolmen, was, as has already been pointed out, a system of thought complete of its kind, based on the infallible truth of the Catholic Church doctrine, with a strictly formalistic conception of nature founded on Aristotle. It was undoubtedly of service in its own time, especially in that it developed the formal sides of thought, but it lacked the possibilities of free expansion and it was thus inevitable that it should finally lose itself in barren subtleties. The intellectual movement which history calls the Renaissance was therefore hailed as a liberation of those in Europe who were true seekers after knowledge. This movement started in Italy, where the connexion with classical antiquity had never been entirely broken and where the system of the mediæval schoolmen had never really thrived, in the Italian colleges during the Middle Ages Latin, rhetoric, and medicine were studied rather than philosophy. The mediaeval Italian felt himself to be the rightful heir of the old Roman people, and it was therefore natural that the cultural revival in that country should take the form of a close study of ancient literature; first of all it was the Roman writers of antiquity and later principally the Greek authors unknown to the Middle Ages who here attracted the interest which in other countries was devoted to the High-Church scholasticism and who offered in exchange an entirely new and freer idea of existence than mediaeval philosophy had been able to offer—an opportunity of developing a more rich and many-sided human life than that which the Church of the Middle Ages permitted. It was also in this sphere — that of the general conception of life — that the great cultural revival in Italy exercised its greatest influence, an influence of unique depth in spheres of culture, art and literature, politics and economy. In the field of pure science this revolution was, at least in the beginning, less complete; the absolute value of truth, which the schoolmen ascribed to the formula: of the Church, the scientists 83of the Renaissance, the Humanists, made over to the writers of antiquity. Aristotle was regarded by them with, if possible, still greater respect than by the mediaeval professors, the only difference being that now one had access to the original writings of the master and could interpret them without the restriction which the Church had formerly laid upon them. There was no possibility, then, of any new conception of nature and its phenomena developing in this direction. But fortunately there were other points of departure for this development.
