Page 306, line 5, for Claude read Louise de Savoie. PREFACE HAVING been asked to give some account of the two great revolutionary movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries from the standpoint of the old religion, I have attempted in the following pages to represent the various aspects of the Reformation and the Renaissance in their relation to the Catholic Church and to the world at large, endeavouring also to show that while they remained distinct forces they sometimes joined issues and played each other's game. In the term Reformation I have included not only the violent measures employed by the enemies of the Church to overthrow authority that was coeval with Christianity, but also the long and more or less effectual efforts within the Church, prior to the Protestant schism, to combat existing abuses; and finally the universal post-Tridentine revival of Catholic life and work. The Renaissance-a movement far less capable of exact definition-was the development of many phases of human life. Even before the period when the fall of Constantinople cod/whe flooded Europe with Greek monuments of learning, and classical letters exercised so great a fascination over the minds of scholars that nothing but the ancient world seemed to them any longer worthy of attention, the art of the Middle Ages was already ceasing to be a recognised vehicle for spreading Christian doctrine. Gradually schools of technique had come into being, and painters, now less intent on the lesson to be conveyed by the sufferings of their dying Christs and the joys of the Mater speciosa than on finding the most perfect expression for their art, began to talk learnedly of schemes of composition and colour. And simultaneously with these two phases of the Renaissance—the return to pagan literary culture and the development of painting as a fine art-appeared a conception of the end and meaning of life entirely at variance with mediæval ideas. The humanism of the Renaissance-literally the triumph of human over divine science-soon influenced every section of society. To lovers of learning it meant the acquisition of a whole storehouse of ancient lore; to lovers of art it meant beauty of form such as the Greeks imitated. at the best periods of their history; to the majority it meant emancipation from hitherto undisputed precepts, the settling down to the enjoyment of the good things of this world, the glorification of God's gifts to man. The Catholic Church (in her broad sympathies) made friends with the Renaissance of letters, designed her sanctuaries according to classical art and classical architecture, and even as far as might be condescended to the new craving for earthly delights, only drawing a prohibitive line where nature threatened to degenerate into naturalism, liberty into licence, love of freedom into hatred of authority. At that line alone the later Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation met and kissed each other. The result was anarchy and schism in Germany, schism and royal despotism in England, frank paganism in Italy, while France became a prey on the one hand to the licentious literature brought into vogue by Rabelais, and on the other to the narrowminded fanaticism of Calvin and his followers. Some portion of the material for the present volume has already appeared as articles in The Month and the Dublin Review. By the permission of their respective editors I am allowed to weave it into this narrative. J. M. S. October 1903. |