ioo SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



Duns Scotus and William of Occam has already been 

 indicated, and the flight of Occam from a Papal 

 prison to the protection of Louis of Bavaria marks 

 a significant revolt against the power of the Church, 

 a setting up of the rights of nationalities against the 

 universalist tradition of ecclesiastical authority. 



The spirit of the Renaissance made its first appear- 

 ance in Italy, then slowly recovering from the devasta- 

 tion of earlier times. Perhaps the remains of Roman 

 architecture made it easier for the love of the classics 

 to return. A vigorous Northern race had colonized 

 North Italy. They formed the upper class, and were 

 not yet exterminated by the local wars between 

 Italian states then and afterwards so fatal to the 

 nobility. But other lands had purer Northern blood, 

 and the chief Italian advantage in the growth of 

 learning must be sought elsewhere. The clue is given 

 by Salimbene of Parma, a thirteenth-century Francis- 

 can, who remarks on the difference between Italy 

 and other countries in one significant particular. 

 While north of the Alps only the townspeople dwelt 

 in the towns, and the " knights and noble ladies " 

 lived on their estates and superintended the manage- 

 ment of their lands in feudal isolation, in Italy the 

 upper class possessed houses in the cities and there 

 passed most of their time. 



Now while the residence in the country of its natural 

 leaders makes for a healthy and stable political and 

 social life, in an age of slow communication it gives 

 little chance for that contact of mind with mind which 

 leads to creation and culture. The city life of the 

 leisured and intelligent class in Northern Italy gave 

 an ideal environment for the birth of the Renaissance. 



