Book Description

Excerpt from Medieval Italy: From Charlemagne to Henry VII Without discussing it, we have accepted from foreign writers the verdict that Italians are by nature a people indifferent to religion, almost devoid, in fact, of the religious sense. It has been said and repeated of us that we have always occupied ourselves exclu sively with jurisprudence, commerce, industry, litera ture, and art. Even in the Crusades we are said to have seen only an occasion for money-making without sharing, to the slightest degree, in the uncontrollable religious enthusiasm which urged other nations to the East for the liberation of Christ's sepulchre from the hands of the Infidel. Such remarks would almost lead one to suppose that St. Benedict, St. Francis, Abbot Joachim, even Arnold of Brescia, Leo I., Gregory the Great, Gregory VII., and many others, were not natives of Italy. And yet our whole history, down to the death of Dante Alighieri, is a continual proof of the contrary. It was during that period that the religious life rose to the highest degree of import ance, and we find no great political event that was not preceded, accompanied, and animated by some religious movement or religious contest. In our country indiffe rence began with the Humanists and the Renascence. Indeed, one of the most striking facts of our history is the sudden - almost instantaneous - change which, from this point of view, then occurred in Italy. Between Dante and Petrarca and Boccaccio, between the Vita N nova, the Divine Comedy, and the Decameron, a century might have elapsed, and yet they were almost contemporary. It is conceivable that foreigners for whom the Renascence is the golden age not only of art and literature but also of our history as a whole, should only see men of the Renascence at every point and in every period. But it is not conceivable that Italians, who ought to understand that in this way the most varied types and periods become confused, should follow the same course. To correct this error, which seems to me a very grave one, it is neither necessary to formulate judgments nor to enter into discussions, much less to write biased history; it is sufficient to narrate well-proved events without muti Iating them in any way, and giving to each its natural proportions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.