THE HISTORY OF 

 BIOLOGY DURING THE RENAISSANCE 



CHAPTER XI 



THE END OF MEDIEVAL SCIENCE 



Revival of the study of ancient authors 



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 bar- 

 ren subtleties. The intellectual movement which history calls the Renais- 

 sance 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 mediaeval 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 formulas of the Church, the scientists 



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