/kloc-after the 0/3 century, the academic development in western Europe has been stagnant for a while. The Black Death and the Hundred Years' War brought about economic and social chaos, and it was impossible to have a stable life and quiet study. The spiritual activity that brought scholasticism to its peak seems to be failing.
Nevertheless, human academic views are still in the process of constant change. Throughout this transitional period, we can find the trickle of various ideas. When these trickle surges together, they form the torrent of the Renaissance. As mentioned in the previous chapter, due to the influence of the philosophy of Duns Scott and William ockham, the thought of scholasticism gradually disintegrated, and ockham escaped from the pope's prison and attached himself to Emperor Louis of Bavaria, especially because the power of the church met with great resistance, while the power of the state was established regardless of the tradition of unified church authorities.
Renaissance spirit first appeared in Italy, which was hit hard earlier, and now it is gradually recovering. Perhaps people who live in the ruins of Roman buildings can easily regain their love for ancient books. A tough northern race established a colony in northern Italy and became an upper class. This class did not die because of the civil wars in the Italian city-States, although the civil wars at that time and later made the nobles lose their vitality. But in other countries, the northern race is purer, so the reason why Italy is academically advanced should be found elsewhere. Salimbene of Palma, a Franciscan friar of13rd century, provided a clue. He pointed out that there is an important difference between Italy and other countries. He said that in the area north of the Alps, only urban people live in cities, while "warriors and ladies" live in their estates in order to manage their closed feudal territories; However, in Italy, the upper class owns houses in cities and spends most of their time in them.
Although land owners often live in their territory, which can certainly benefit the countryside, in the era of inconvenient transportation, rural life makes people have little opportunity to exchange ideas and promote the development and creation of wisdom. On the other hand, in northern Italy, the urban life of leisure intellectuals provided an ideal environment for the birth of the Renaissance.
The Renaissance was by no means limited to literature. There are many factors combined to cause an unprecedented ideological fermentation, although literature is the earliest and most important factor. The pioneer of the Renaissance was Petrarch (1304- 1374). In him, we see a spirit completely different from the medieval scholasticism that formed the basis of Dante's poetry. Petrarch first advocated the restoration of good classical Latin to replace the informal Latin of scholasticism; More importantly, he tried his best to restore the true spirit of classical ideas demanding ideals and freedom.
Petrarch's tone was ahead of his time, but at the beginning of the15th century, due to people's growing interest in classical literature, many Greeks came to Italy from the East, and they could teach ancient proverbs in modern languages. 1453, after the Turks occupied Constantinople, this process accelerated, so many good teachers came to their newly-built homes with manuscripts. Seeking manuscripts has become a fashionable fashion; The libraries of churches and monasteries in Italy and northern Europe were looted, and noble businessmen ordered their agents in the East to spend a lot of money to buy Greek books hidden in the East or lost when Constantinople fell. In this way, the language of ancient philosophy and science, after eight or nine hundred years, is familiar to western scholars.
What is more important than this language is the spirit of free discussion contained in it, and the motivation that the medieval spirit of "Classics" has brought to Europe to engage in various studies after hundreds of years. Although the way of thinking at that time was accustomed to the authority of religion, people easily accepted the authority in secular literature, and it was dangerous to pay too much attention to the theory of Greek philosophers, humanists paved the way for the revitalization of science in the future and played an important role in expanding people's minds. Only an open mind can establish science. Without them, it is difficult for people with scientific minds to get rid of the academic shackles of theological prejudice; Without them, external obstacles may be insurmountable.
People who studied with the new master in Italy brought humanism to northern Europe. The earliest is John Mill (1436- 1476), who was born in konigsberg and later called Regio-Montanus. He first combined science with humanities. He translated Ptolemy and other Greek works into Latin. 147 1 year, he established a phenomenon platform in Nuremberg. He made a gravity-driven clock and several astronomical instruments. His astronomical almanac is the predecessor of modern nautical almanac, which was used by Spanish and Portuguese explorers. Up to now, several medieval clocks have been preserved in Wells Church and St Mary's Church in Autrey, England.
However, the mainstream of the German Renaissance promoted the religious reform by studying the Bible. Germany has gained new academic energy and interest, but it has not adopted the Italian ideal of self-cultivation or the Italian elegant pagan spirit. In France, the spirit of Italy is more compatible, so sports there are more humanistic and aesthetic than Teutonic countries.
An important figure in the Nordic Renaissance was Desiderius Erasmus (1467- 1536). He was born in Rotterdam and is famous all over the world. In his view, humanism is mainly a means to fight against contemporary bad habits under the influence of knowledge education: illiteracy in monasteries, illegal behavior in churches, dazzling knowledge of scholastic philosophers, and the degeneration of public and private morality are all among his so-called main bad habits. Scholastic theologians misinterpreted scripture fragments at will, but Erasmus rose to teach people the true meaning of the Bible and the lessons of the early godfather.
During the brief period of light, the Vatican became the center to promote people to study ancient culture. This situation reached its peak with Pope Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici (Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici,1513-1521). 1527, the imperial army occupied Rome, and this new world of academic and artistic life was destroyed. Soon, the Catholic Church changed the policy of enlightened leadership in the past, and blindly opposed it without understanding or control, thus becoming an obstacle on the modern academic road.
At the end of 1 century, China had invented paper, which is said to be the achievement of Cai Lun, and block printing appeared in the 8th century. Paper-making technology was introduced to Europe with the Crusades in the later period. About 100 years later, the invention of movable type printing made the ancient template printing a practical and useful technology, thus replacing the clumsy method of copying on parchment and making books widely circulated.
At the same time, people once again became interested in the discovery of geography. Giovanni da Fontana, a military engineer, described many geographical facts and strange stories when he described "everything in nature" in the middle of15th century. Although the navigation technology at that time was still in the primitive state, the known earth area in Europe still increased rapidly. Using crosshairs or circular astrolabes to measure the height of the solar transit can roughly calculate the latitude of the observation point, but the longitude measurement is not satisfactory. The first hydrological map in Britain is said to be the map of 1489.
Under the guidance of Arabic and Jewish astronomy, the Portuguese first began to explore. Thanks to the initiative of the navigator Prince Henry, they discovered Azo-res in 14 19, and later discovered the ocean in western Africa. First, they wanted to influence the pagans and find a way to India without Muslim interference, and then they wanted to hunt slaves and gold. 1497, vasco da gama bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and first arrived in India. Prince Henry set up an observatory in Sagres, near Cape Saint Vincent, in order to compile a more accurate solar declination table. After the Portuguese succeeded, people from other countries began to compete. For centuries, the Greek theory that the earth is spherical has been known to astrochemists, and now it has become a recognized belief. Starting from this belief, people will naturally have an idea that traveling westward from the Atlantic Ocean can reach the east coast of Asia, and the rich commodities from India and China can reach Europe directly by sea. In fact, the Greeks themselves have long put forward this view, including Poseidonius. After many failures, the successful person and opportunity finally came. Christopher Columbus was born in the port of Cogoletto on the Ligurian coast in northern Italy. After overcoming many obstacles, he finally got the sponsorship of Ferdinand and Isabella, set out from palos Port in Andalusia and arrived in the Bahamas on June 1492 12. Twenty-four years later, Magalhaes's spaceship circled the earth for three years, which proved that the earth was indeed spherical. Unfortunately, early navigators who traveled around the world always sailed from east to west, so they always met with headwinds. It's much easier if you go from west to east.
These great voyages to discover new places opened people's minds at that time. Although this is the most direct effect, it is not the only effect. As the expansion of trade with Xindi has greatly stimulated domestic industry and commerce, the total wealth of materials and people in Europe has increased. This increase comes from two aspects. The first is the remarkable wealth growth caused by new markets and new sources of supply and their direct and indirect economic impacts. Secondly, judging from recent experience, there is also a monetary factor involved here. Money is a chip, it is not wealth in itself; However, changes in the total amount of money in circulation often affect prices and cause major economic changes. The development of trade and industry is often hindered because money and credit cannot expand with it. Lack of money will lead to a decline in the overall price level, which is different from the real low price caused by improving manufacturing methods. It depressed industry, which hindered the development of culture and learning. However, since the development of the New World, because the New World is rich in gold and silver (all countries choose one of them as the monetary standard), the amount of money far exceeds the degree necessary for expanding trade. Money is rich and cheap, so the price goes up. When prices rise, business and industry can make a profit. Not only that, the fixed cost of industry (in terms of money) is not that big; For example, in the16th century, with the continuous decline of the actual value of conventional land rent in goods and services, this kind of land rent has become insignificant. As a result, manufacturing and trade become equally profitable. Wealth and the leisure time of studying knowledge that accompanied it also extended to a larger social scope that could not be achieved in the case of limited materials in the Middle Ages.
It is worth pointing out that there are three most amazing academic development periods in human history: the heyday of Greece, the Renaissance and our century. These three periods are all periods of geographical and economic development, so they are also periods of increasing wealth and leisure life opportunities. In Greece, this life is based on slavery. During the Renaissance, this life depended on resources from the Indies. In the19th century, this life depended on the industrial revolution. In Greece, the political disintegration occurred shortly after the arrival of the academic heyday, and the number of this nation was relatively small. After the modern Renaissance, the strength and population of European countries have greatly increased in the past 400 years, so the number of talents involved in academic undertakings has also increased day by day. So there are more people studying science than ancient Greek philosophers. When we praise the achievements of modern science, it may be helpful to remember this fact. Not only that, but it is also difficult for us to determine whether this process of knowledge improvement can continue; In fact, under the possible social and economic conditions, it is hard to say whether there will be enough smart people to continue this process.
It is often said that after we have found out what we know about several tendencies that contributed to the Renaissance and given them due evaluation, we still have to feel that it is not completely successful to explain the amazing changes in psychological attitude in such a short time with several obvious reasons. Bishop Creighton said:
"Bringing together all the factors and viewpoints that contributed to this change, observers still feel that there is an active spirit behind all this, and we can only capture this spirit very incompletely. It has the ability to blend other factors together and make it suddenly become a whole. This modern spirit is formed at an alarming rate, and we still can't fully explain its process. "
In order to answer these arguments, three points can be pointed out. First, the inflow of gold and the resulting rise in the overall price level have not been fully understood. Secondly, we must remember that the records we have are actually only a tiny part of contemporary academic activities. At that time, few people wrote their thoughts on paper, and even fewer people had access to our works. In the urban life of Italy, the change of views brought about by knowledge must come from dictation, not from reading, and the influence of direct communication between people is bound to be very great. Third, when several factors work together, the initial total effect is only the sum of the effects of each factor. However, in the end, the influences of various factors overlap and reinforce each other; Cause and effect interact and interact with each other. This is the material, moral, academic and other factors that led to the change of16th century, some of which suddenly passed the critical stage. The increase of wealth enhances knowledge, and new knowledge in turn increases wealth. The whole process produced cumulative effects, accelerated progress, and finally formed an unstoppable torrent of Renaissance.