20 POPULAR SGIENCE MONTHLY. 



opinion should prevail. At its end two consequences necessarily fol- 

 lowed, as has just been said: The essential validity of the methods of 

 experimental science had been vindicated, and scholars understood that 

 a new era had begun. This was the era illuminated by Galileo 's early 

 researches. On the other hand, the Greek Aristotle had conquered. 

 The liberty which comes of conflict was no longer permitted. Ortho- 

 doxy founded itself on the new interpretations and reigned firmly and 

 severely. To the people at large the end of the conflict marked the 

 overthrow of speculative heresy, not the winning of a new world to sci- 

 ence. The pantheistic idealism of Averroes and the Arabs lingered 

 on in a few minds. Cardan, Pomponazzi and Jordano Bruno were 

 tinged by it. But in the church orthodoxy ruled. 



During the early centuries of the christian era no one was concerned 

 to vindicate the claim of the church of Eome to primacy. The bishop 

 of Eome was the successor of St. Peter; his church was the mother of 

 all the churches; it was situated at the capital of the empire. These 

 were its sufficient titles. About the year 500 'apostolic canons' were 

 collected which afterwards grew into the canon-law. Precepts from 

 the Bible, extracts from the writings of the fathers, decrees of church 

 councils, letters (decretals) of the Eoman bishops, formed the body of 

 a distinctive law of the church. But in the schools of Italy the mem- 

 ory of the civil law of the empire had never wholly died out. Early 

 in the twelfth century Irnerius was lecturing in Bologna on the Corpus 

 Juris of Justinian, and from such studies the university arose, just as 

 the University of Paris grew from the teaching of Abelard. A pupil 

 of Irnerius lectured at Oxford. The universities of Paris and Oxford 

 were, however, chiefly concerned with theology and with general cul- 

 ture — with the qvxidrivium or group of higher scientific studies. 



The teachings of Bologna (in law) and of Salerno (in medicine) 

 were more special. They necessarily implied an acquaintance with 

 classic writers and with the history of the empire. It was inevitable 

 that the question of the legal status of the church should be discussed. 

 When and how was it recognized by the empire ? What were its legal 

 sanctions? Upon what grounds were the canon and the civil law to 

 be reconciled? These were soul-stirring questions which the church 

 subsequently answered in its own way. With the answers we have no 

 concern. The civil law dealt with every one of the personal and social 

 relations of mankind ; it had to do with the whole life of civil society ; 

 its principles were not immediately related to the principles underlying 

 the body of the canon law. 



The origins of what we call the revival of learning must be sought 

 in the discussions that inevitably arose from the comparison of prin- 

 ciples so different, and the consequent necessity of an appeal to the 

 original writings of authors of classic times. The renaissance had its 



