The Renaissance. 81 



universally accepted. The Guelfs or supporters of the Pope quoted the 

 committal of the keys to S. Peter. The Ghibellines or adherents of the 

 Emperor said " render unto Caesar,'' while those who sat on the fence 

 quoted the two swords of the Gospel, and maintained that Emperor and 

 Pope were co-equal as God's Representatives. The theory of unity was 

 recognised by all parties. While to-day everyone makes his own place 

 by his own work and powers, in mediaeval ages a man was born into a 

 definite place in the social system, and could not rise out of the position 

 in which he was born. His individu llity counted for nothing. 



And fourthly the Middle Ages are a byword for gloom and unprogres- 

 siveness. With a few exceptions such as the attractive manners of 

 chivalry, the adventures of the Crusaders, picturesque legends of heroes 

 and the songs of the Troubadors, the Middle Ages were a period of stag- 

 nation and joylessness. Beauty was a snare, and pleasure a sin ; art had 

 no freedom. Authority laid down how sacred pictures were to be painted ; 

 many thought it sinful to represent Christ with natural beauty. The 

 study of the nude was forbidden, and monks disregarding the maxim that 

 cleanliness is next to godliness, boasted that they had not seen their own 

 bodies for years. Art was most melancholy, as anyone can recognise 

 who has been to Italy and seen the pictures of that period. People 

 actually took comfort in the assurance that the end of the world was at 

 hand, and the general spirit of gloom is shown by the " Vision of Piers 

 Plowman " and Dante's " Inferno." This was the state of Europe before 

 the Renaissance which was now to pass away, and to give place to some- 

 thing quite different. 



The chief characteristics of the new era were naturally the reverse of 

 those of the Dark Ages, and may be called : — (1 ) Individualism. (2) Criti- 

 cal Spirit. (3) Aestheticism. (4) Love of the Antique. (5) Inconsis- 

 tency. Of these perhaps the emergence of the individual is the most im- 

 portant. People began to claim the right to think for themselves and to 

 use their own reason. Convention had to give way before progress and 

 development, and the two most striking types that can be given of this 

 new order of things are Machiavelli's political doctrines and Martin 

 Luther's free-thinking. The same was true of nations, each of which now 

 began to play its own hand, and it was not so long afterwards that Francis 

 I, that Most Christian King, concluded an alliance with the Sultan of 

 Turkey. Such an occurrence would have been impossible before the 

 Renaissance. 



And as men began to think for themselves, they gave up taking things 

 for granted, and indulged in free discussion and criti:ism. Statements 

 of fact and theory were subjected to critical judgment, and their life was 

 short if they did not pass this ordeal. 



Aestheticism, the love of beauty in the abstract, was another striking- 

 characteristic. The worship of beauty was common to the whole. To be 

 artistic was something which counted even more than to be learned or 

 clear-thinking. Unfortunately, form came to be considered more than 

 meaning, and in all branches of art, grace in the method of expression 



