THE

CHAPTER XI.

INDEPENDENT CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE ADVANCE OF CIVILIZATION.

In the preceding chapter we examined the leading elements of European civilization as they were successsively developed, and shewn how they passed from speculative opinion into settled conviction, and how they then became embodied in institutions which influenced the internal condition of society, and the external relations of states. These revolutions were neither the result of force, nor of wisdom: no great masses were put in motion to subvert established order; no skilful statesman arranged the combinations of profound policy, to effect these mighty changes ;they were the result of a progressing advancement of intellect, sometimes accelerated, and sometimes retarded, by accidental causes. About the close of the fifteenth century, however, an unparalleled impulse was given to the progress of European civilization, by the simultaneous invention, or at least introduction from the East, of the mariner's compass, gunpowder and artillery, an improved system of arithmetic, and the art of printing. Combined with these, were a renewed study of the Roman law, the cultivation of Greek literature, the restoration of the fine arts, and the opening of new paths to industry and commercial enterprise. Useful as these inventions, discoveries, and revivals

were, their origin and history is involved in great obscurity it would, indeed, be impossible, within our limits, to enumerate, much less to discuss, the controversies to which they have given rise; but we shall rather briefly examine some of the beneficial effects which they produced on the condition of European society.

Among the most prominent evils of feudalism, noticed in the preceding chapter, we particularly mentioned the want of a code of laws and a regular system of jurisdiction. The barbarous expedients of ordeal and wager of battle were so obviously repugnant to common sense, that the Church succeeded in bringing many civil suits under the canon law, and ecclesiastical jurisprudence became an object of such admiration and respect, that exemption from civil jurisdiction was courted as a privilege, and conferred as a reward. Towards the middle of the twelfth century, a copy of the Pandects of Justinian is said to have been accidentally discovered in Italy, and the superiority of the system of Roman jurisprudence to the vague and rude traditions of barbarism was so obvious, that in less than half a century law became a highly honoured profession, and universities for its study were founded in Bologna, Naples, Padua, and other places.

The social effect of the study of law was very great. Hitherto, arms were considered the only profession worthy of a gentleman; and the education of the higher ranks was confined to war and its usages; even their exercises and pastimes had a military character. But when law began to be studied, a knowledge of it was rendered necessary to the discharge of magisterial

and judicial functions; a new profession - different from arms, but not less honourable-was introduced among the laity, and was zealously pursued, as a new road to wealth and eminence.

Civil law being separated from ecclesiastical, the lawyers succeeded to a large portion of the power which had formerly been possessed by the clergy; and thus a jealousy arose between the two professions, which soon ripened into open hostility. The lawyers were naturally opposed to the ecclesiastics and the nobles-for it was with them an object of great importance to remove the trial of causes from the spiritual and baronial courts, into the royal courts, where they themselves practised. Their interest in extending the royal jurisdiction, made them, at the first, zealous supporters of the royal prerogative; but when their courts were firmly established, they became strenuous supporters of the majesty of law. Hence the lawyers, who, in the reign of Elizabeth and the earlier years of the reign of James I., carried the notions of prerogative to their utmost extent, were, in the reign of Charles I., equally zealous in enforcing the constitutional rights of the people. The expansion of law and the legal profession, not only put an end to the dominion of feudal force, but imposed restrictions on the usurped power of the papacy, and on the despotic tendencies which were manifested when royalty acquired the ascendency in Europe.

From the time that the Eastern empire was deprived of the Exarchate of Ravenna, the knowledge of the Greek language and literature rapidly declined in Europe, and sunk almost into complete oblivion. The

disputes between the Greek and Latin churches prevented the ecclesiastical powers of Europe from sanctioning any effort for the revival of these studies. Even when a Latin empire was established in Constantinople, the crusaders, by whom it was founded, paid no attention to the literary treasures contained in the city. Heeren, indeed, asserts that the great destruction of the works preserved in the Byzantine libraries was owing to the conquest of the Latins, and that they left little for the Ottomans to devastate.

When Constantinople was taken by the Turks, a great number of illustrious and learned Greeks sought shelter in Italy. They reached the Peninsula at a time when the writings of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccacio, had created a general taste for literature, and they were gladly received as teachers of poetry, philosophy, and eloquence. Great resistance was made to the new study by the partisans of scholastic philosophy. In the university of Oxford, a number of professors and students, calling themselves Trojans, opposed the study of Greek with a virulence that sometimes led to personal violence. But in spite of such efforts, a taste for Greek literature was generally diffused among the learned, and was even favoured by the ecclesiastical authorities.

The reading of the New Testament in the original Greek weakened the estimation in which the authorized version of the Latin church had been hitherto held. The Vulgate Translation, made when Latin was the vernacular language, had, like the prayers and formularies of the church, become unintelligible to the people. It may indeed be noticed, as one of those

inconsistencies into which men fall by a literal interpretation of precedent, that the presenting the Scriptures and forms of prayer to the laity in an unknown tongue, which was so prominent an objection against the Romish church in the age of the Reformation, was virtually the result of the efforts made by the earlier Latin church to render both intelligible to the people.

The Vulgate version, though literal and accurate, is deficient in spirit; it is thoroughly imbued with western mind, and wants the oriental colouring which is so marked a characteristic of the original. This is more particularly the case in the Old Testament; the translator was not acquainted with the usages of oriental life; he has, therefore, accommodated the patriarchal and Jewish history to the climate and customs of southern Europe; and this error is the more to be lamented, as it is manifested, not so much by any particular phrase or passage, but by the general impression resulting from the whole. In the New Testament the same error is, however, apparent; and one instance of it-the confusion between demons and devils has left its traces in most of the western translations. The study of the New Testament in the original, if it did not produce any radical change in the doctrines of Christianity, presented them under new aspects, and with a greater degree of force and power than they are offered in the Vulgate.

As a proof of the little intercourse between the Greeks and Latins previous to the capture of Constantinople, we may notice the neglect of the composition called the Greek Fire, in the western wars. At the end of the eleventh century, the Pisanese fleet was