22 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of Guido d 'Arezzo ; counterpoint was developed into a doctrine ; optics 

 and acoustics were greatly improved and the foundations of mechanics 

 were laid ; manufactures of all kinds made great progress, notably those 

 of glass and steel ; the art of printing opened literature to all the world 

 — ^the poor and the rich alike. 



If we pass to the field of art there are notable matters to be chron- 

 icled. All the basilicas of Italy, all the mosques of the Arabs, all the 

 Byzantine churches, all the Gothic cathedrals are of this period. Santa 

 Sophia dates from A. D. 532, St. Mark's from 1052, Notre Dame from 

 1163, the Cathedral of York from 1171, St. Peter's from 1450. Of 

 the great painters, Cimabue was born in 1240, Giotto in 1276, Van 

 Byck in 1366, Botticelli in 1447, Leonardo in 1452, Diirer in 1470, 

 Michel Angelo in 1474, Titian in 1477, Eaphael in 1483, Correggio in 

 1494, Holbein in 1495, Tintoretto in 1512, Veronese in 1532. The 

 dates, set down almost at random, cover a thousand years, but the epoch 

 of great progress was from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. 

 When we thus sum up what was accomplished in five hundred years, 

 the period is seen to be full to overflowing. Its interests did not lie 

 in the direction of science — its ideal was not comfort. At the begin- 

 ning of the dark ages the problem of Europe was to tame the hordes 

 of barbarians who had possessed themselves of the lands — to contrive 

 workable compromises between the customs, laws, ideals, institutions 

 of northern and southern races. Given the point of starting the pro- 

 gress is not slow. The advancement of Europe from the sixth to the 

 sixteenth century is an amazing phenomenon and no one can study it 

 closely without a sense of wonder that so much was achieved. 



We who breathe a different air must never forget that the doctors 

 of the church cared little for science, as such, and everything for re- 

 ligion. In the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas there is but one chapter 

 that deals with scientific matters. Moreover, we must always carefully 

 distinguish between the opinion of the philosophers and that of the 

 multitude. The mass of men then, as now, thought little of philosoph- 

 ical matters and took their opinions ready-made. Real tolerance in 

 philosophy is a product of real experience. Princes like Al Mamun 

 and Alfonso X. patronized learning in a large and liberal way. The 

 crowd of doctors, poets, artists, physicians, astronomers, at such courts 

 lived in a harmony which was enforced upon them by their very situa- 

 tion. Outside the courts there was envy and malice among the excluded 

 theologians, a sullen opposition among the people. What men do not 

 understand they suspect as heretical. There is scarcely a moslem or a 

 christian doctor of the middle ages who did not bear the reputation of 

 magician among the common people. Medicine, astrology, alchemy 

 were, almost necessarily, regarded as magical arts. To a populace that 

 sincerely believed in ubiquitous devils all science was suspect. 



