CHAPTER IV 



THE RENAISSANCE AND ITS ACHIEVEMENT 



The Origins Leonardo da Vinci Copernicus Bruno Galileo Gilbert 

 of Colchester Francis Bacon The Renaissance in France Descartes 

 Pascal Tycho Brahe and Kepler Scientific Academies Newton 

 Medical Science during the Renaissance William Harvey The 

 Rise of Chemistry Voyages of Discovery Botany and Natural 

 History Spontaneous Generation Witchcraft The Christian 

 Platonists Summary. 



AFTER the thirteenth century there was a distinct 

 check in the intellectual development of Western 

 The Europe. The economic and social con- 

 Origins, fusion caused by the Black Death and 

 the ravages of the Hundred Years' War gave little 

 hope of settled life and quiet study, while in all 

 countries the vast influx of the best men and women 

 of the time into the celibate monastic orders must 

 have produced a disastrous effect on the stock of 

 hereditary ability in Christian lands. 



Nevertheless, there was a continual process of 

 change in the mental outlook of mankind, and we may 

 trace, throughout this period of transition, the various 

 streams of thought which, when they met in full 

 vigour, formed the irresistible torrent of the Renais- 

 sance. The loosening of the universal grip of scholastic 

 ideas by the solvent influence of the philosophy of 



99 



