Musical expression of feeling and plain chant. The best examples from this period. Invention of part music, its adaptation and development in popular music.
{xxi}
CHAPTER XIII
THE THREE MOST READ BOOKS. 209
A generation and the books it reads. Reynard the Fox, the Golden Legend, and the Romance of the Rose. "Reynard the most profoundly humorous book ever written." Powers of the author as observer. Besides Gulliver"s Travels, Don Quixote and Pilgrim"s Progress. Its relations to Uncle Remus and many other animal stories. The place of the Golden Legend in literature. Longfellow"s use of it. The Romance of the Rose for three centuries the most read book in Europe. The answer to the charge of dullness. The Rose as a commentary on the morning paper. The abuse of wealth as the poet saw it in the Thirteenth Century. Praise of "poverty light heart and gay."
CHAPTER XIV
SOME THIRTEENTH CENTURY PROSE. 221
Prose of the century as great as the poetry. Medieval Latin unappreciated but eminently expressive. The prose style, simple, direct and nicely accurate. Saintsbury"s opinion as to the influence on modern literature of the scholastic philosophers" style. The chroniclers and the modern war correspondent. Villehardouin, Jocelyn of Brakelond, Joinville, Matthew of Paris. Vincent of Beauvais and the first encyclopedia. Pagel"s opinion of Vincent"s style. Durandus"
famous work on symbolism. Examples of his style. The Scriptures as the basis of style.
CHAPTER XV
ORIGIN OF DRAMA. 238
St. Francis and the first nativity play. Earlier mystery plays.
Chester cycle. Humorous pa.s.sages introduced. Complete bible story represented. Actors" wages and costumes. Innocent diversion and educational influence. Popular interest. Everyman in our own day.
Comparison with the pa.s.sion play at Oberammergau. The drama as an important factor in popular education. Active as well as pa.s.sive partic.i.p.ation in great poetry. Antic.i.p.ation of a movement only just beginning again.
CHAPTER XVI
FRANCIS, THE SAINT--THE FATHER OF THE RENAISSANCE. 254
The Renaissance, so-called. Before the Renaissance. Gothic architecture and art. Francis the father of the real Renaissance.
{xxii} Matthew Arnold and "the poor little man of G.o.d." St. Francis as a literary man. The canticle of the Sun. St. Francis" career. The simple life. Ruskin on Francis" poverty. St. Francis in the last ten years. The disciples who gathered around him. A century of Franciscans. The third order of St. Francis. Kings and queens, n.o.bles and scholars hail St. Francis as father. What the religious orders accomplished. St. Clare and the second order.
CHAPTER XVII
AQUINAS, THE SCHOLAR. 270
The n.o.bility and education. Studies at Cologne and Paris. The distinguished faculty of Paris in his time. _Summa Contra Gentiles_.
Pope Leo XIII. and Aquinas" teaching. Foundations of Christian apologetics. Characteristic pa.s.sages from Aquinas. Necessity for revelation of G.o.d"s existence. Explanation of Resurrection. Liberty in Aquinas" writings. Greatness of Aquinas and his contemporaries and the subsequent decadence of scholasticism. Contemporary appreciation of St. Thomas. His capacity for work. His sacred poetry.
CHAPTER XVIII
LOUIS, THE MONARCH. 289
The greatest of rulers. His relations as a son, as a husband, as a father. His pa.s.sion for justice. Interest in education, in books, in the encyclopedia. Tribute of Voltaire. Guizot"s praise. The righting of wrongs. Letters to his son. Affection for his children. Regard for monks. Would have his children enter monasteries. Treatment of the poor. Att.i.tude towards lepers. One of nature"s n.o.blemen. Louis and the crusades. Bishop Stubbs, on the real meaning of the crusades. Louis"
interest in the crusades not a stigma, but an added reason for praise.
CHAPTER XIX
DANTE, THE POET. 300
Dante not a solitary phenomenon. A Troubadour. His minor poems and prose works. His wonderful Sonnets. The growth of appreciation for him. Italian art, great as it kept nearer to Dante. Tributes from Italy"s" greatest literary men. Michael Angelo"s sonnets to him. A world poet. English admiration old and new. Tributes of the two great English Cardinals. Dean Church"s Essay. Ruskin on the Grotesque on {xxiii} Dante. German critical appreciation. Humboldt"s tribute.
America"s burden of praise. Dante and the modern thinker. His wonderful powers of observation. Comparison with Milton. His place as one of the supreme poets of all times. A type of the century.
CHAPTER XX
THE WOMEN OF THE CENTURY. 319
Women of the century worthy of the great period. St. Clare of a.s.sisi"s place in history. Happiness. The supper at the Portiuncula. Peace, in the cloister and woman"s influence. Equality of s.e.xes in the religious orders. St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the first settlement worker. "Dear St. Elizabeth"s" influence on women since her time. Blanche of Castile as Queen and mother. Her influence as a ruler. Difficulties with her daughter-in-law. Mabel Rich, the London tradesman"s wife, and her sons. Isabella Countess of Arundel and courageous womanly dignity.
Women"s work in the century. Service of the sick. Co-education in Italy. Reason for absence in France and England. Women professors at Italian universities. Feminine education four times in history.
Reasons for decline. Women in the literature of the century. The high place accorded them by the poets of every country. Dante"s tribute to their charm without a hint of the physical.
CHAPTER XXI
CITY HOSPITALS--ORGANIZED CHARITY. 337
Charity occupied a co-ordinate place to education. Pope Innocent III.
organized both. His foundations of the City hospitals of the world, the Santo Spirito at Rome the model. Rise of hospitals in every country, Virchow"s tribute to Innocent III. Care for lepers in special hospitals and eradication of this disease. The meaning of this for the modern time and tuberculosis. Special inst.i.tutions for erysipelas which prevented the spread of this disease. The organization of charity. The monasteries and the people. The freeing of prisoners held in slavery. Two famous orders for this purpose.
CHAPTER XXII
GREAT ORIGINS IN LAW. 350
Legal origins most surprising feature of the century. Significance of Magna Charta. Excerpts that show its character. The church, widows and orphans, common pleas, international law, no {xxiv} tax without consent, rights of freemen. Development of meaning as time and progress demanded it. Bracton"s digest of the common law. Edward I.
the English Justinian. Simon de Montfort. Real estate laws.
CHAPTER XXIII
JUSTICE AND LEGAL DEVELOPMENT. 364
Legal origins in other countries besides England. Montalembert and France. St. Louis and the enforcement of law. Fehmic courts of Germany and our vigilance committees. Andrew II., and the "Golden Bull, that legalized anarchy" in Hungary. Laws of Poland. The Popes and legal codification; Innocent III, Gregory IX. Commentaries on law at the universities. Pope Boniface VIII, the canonist. Origin of "no taxation without representation."
CHAPTER XXIV
DEMOCRACY, CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM AND NATIONALITY. 375
Origins in popular self-government. Representation in the governing body. German free cities. Swiss declaration of independence. Christian socialism and "the three eights." Sat.u.r.day half-holiday, and the vigils of holy-days. Christian fraternity and the guilds. Organization of charity. The guild merchant and fraternal solidarity. The guild of the Holy Cross, Stratford, and its place in town government and education. Progress of democracy. How the crusades strengthened the democratic spirit. Their place in the history of human liberty and of nationality.
CHAPTER XXV