Medieval Architecture; Its Origins and Development, with Lists of Monuments and Bibliographies Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ...into Latin, and studied by the XIII century with a passion recalling that of the humanists of the Renaissance. In vain the papacy put these dangerous works on the interdict in 1210 and again in 1215; the tide was too strong to be stemmed; men had already learned from the Greek philosopher to assume a skeptical attitude, to resort to reason rather than to faith. It is necessary only to compare Roger Bacon with Abelard, Pierre de Maricourt with St. Bernard, to perceive how completely the experimental, inductive spirit of the XIII century had triumphed over the dogmatic scholasticism of the preceding age. Thorough Aristotleans were the great minds of the XIII century, especially of its last half--witness Alexandre de Hale, Albert le Grand, Thomas Aquinas. The idealism, the artificial literature, the mysticism of the XII century passed away before the rise of the new scientific spirit. v "In the schools of the XII century there was a renaissance of letters not without analogy to the more celebrated movement, i the Renaissance properly so-called. The majority of men who wrote in Latin were litterateurs, humanists, rhetoricians, laden with the spoils of antiquity; even those who, like Abelard and Gilbert de la Poiree, treated abstruse questions, prided themselves upon writing in good style. In the vernacular, on the other hand, flourished the chanson, and the roman courtois--all the literature of chivalry, worldly, agreeable, polished, without depth or sincerity. "A hundred years after St. Bernard and Chretien de Troyes, is the time of St. Thomas and Jean de Menu; all is changed. And it is difficult to imagine a more complete contrast. Henceforward among the clergy there are no more polished orators or poets, no more makers of Latin verses, ...