After a painting by Jacques Wagrez.
]
From Italy the Revival of Learning with its new conceptions of
philosophy and religion spread to France, Germany, the Netherlands, and
England, stimulating everywhere great intellectual life and
achievements.
In France it was ushered in by =Christine de Pisan=, the first French
lady of the 14th Century who, at least in prose, gave evidence of a
finished literary perception. In her works, which were often copied, she
tried to rouse the self-respect of women by informing them about their
sphere and duties. By her work “Cité des Dames” she made them acquainted
with the character of famous women of the past, and endeavored to
inspire their minds in order that they might join in the ethical efforts
of the time.
Christine de Pisan was perhaps also the first woman, who opened a sharp
protest against the narrow views many men of her time had in regard to
woman’s abilities and position. Defying the prejudice of woman’s
inferiority, she gained a complete victory in her literary skirmishes
over several clergymen of high standing.
In Germany the cities of Nuremberg, Augsburg, Strassburg and Basel
became the centers of learned societies, who gathered around scholars
like Schedel, Pirckheimer, Agricola, Peutinger, Reuchlin and Brant. Here
also Dürer, Holbein, Cranach, Schongauer and Vischer enriched the world
with works of art that rank among the greatest of the Middle Ages. But
most important of all, in Germany that great religious movement started
which was in truth the Teutonic Renaissance: the Reformation, in which
Luther, Melanchton, Hutten and Erasmus were the leading spirits.
Kindred movements were started in Switzerland by Zwingli, in France by
Lefevre d’Estaples, Berquin and Calvin; in England by Wycliffe, Bilney,
Cranmer and Cromwell.
While so numerous men and women strove for greater physical and
intellectual liberty, ecclesiastic despotism, to prevent anybody from
thinking independently, denounced all free thinkers as heretics who must
be exterminated by fire and sword. The life of many brilliant men and
women ended at the stake or on the scaffold. But far greater numbers
perished through obscure superstition, for the spread of which the
Church was in the first place responsible.
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