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T I S T O RY O F T H E A T T H E C LO S E O F T H E ' GES ' BY fé OHANNES ANSS EN T RA N S LAT E D FRO M T H E E Y M M T H E L L M N B . C G R A . A I M H R E AN D A . C I S T I . I N T V M E V I W O L S . O U O L . L O N D O N - 5 T E N OST ER H OUS E CH AR l N G CROSS RO D PA R , A 1 8 96 CON T E N T S T H E F I R S T V OL U M E INT RODUCT ION B OOK I POPULAR EDUCATION AND SCIENCE CHAP T HE SPREAD OF THE ART OF PRINTING E LEM E NTARY SCHOOLS AND RELIGIOU S E DUCATION OF PEOPLE E LEMENTARY EDUCATION AND THE OLD E R HUMANISTS TH E UNIVE RSITIE S AND OTHER C ENTRE S OF L EARNI NG B OOK II ART AND POPULAR LITERATURE ARCHITECTURE SCULPTURE AND PAINTING WOOD AND COPPER ENGRAVING POPULAR LIFE AS REPLECT ED BY MUSIC POPULAR POETRY TOPICAL POETRY PROSE AND POPULAR READING B OOK III POLITICAL ECONOMY INTRODUCTION I F . AGRICULTURAL LI E H I S T ORY T H E GE R M AN P E OP L E AT T HE CLOSE OF T H E MIDDLE AGES INTRODUCTION T OWARDS the middle of the fifteenth century the int elle c tual life of the German people , as indeed that of all new Christendom , entered upon a period of develop ment through Johann Gutenberg ’s invention of the - u printing press and the se of movable type . This invention , the mightiest and most important in to the history of civilisation , gave , as it were , wings ’ the human mind , and supplied the best means of pre serving , multiplying , and disseminating every product of the intellect . It sharpened and stimulated thought by facilitating its interchange it encouraged and extended f - of literary tra fic in a hitherto undreamt manner , and made science and art accessible to all classes of society . ’ In the words of a contemporary of Gutenberg s , it fur nished - a mighty , double edged sword for the freedom of mankind ; one , however , which could strike alike for — sin good or for evil for truth and virtue , for and ’ e rror . VOL . I . O Y OF T H E L HISTOR GERMAN PEOPLE For the German nation this invention was coincident with the life and labours of a man who , as ecclesiastical reformer and professor of theology , classics , and mathe m ti a cs no less than as a statesman , stands out as an intellectual giant in the background of the Middle A T his es . g man was the German Cardinal , Nicholas Krebs , named Cusanus , from Cues , near Treves . The ecclesiastical reforms begun by Nicholas in Germany in 1451 by command of the Pope were based o n the principle that one should cleanse and regenerate , n ot trample down and destroy ; that it was not for man di re to remodel things vine , but , rather , to be was modelled by them . And , true to this principle , he first and foremost the reformer of his own person ; his life was to his contemporaries a very mirror of all priestly He . C virtue preached both to the lergy and to the people , a nd what he preached , that he practised ; his deeds were , f unost en in act , his most powerful sermons . Simple and t atious , indefatigable in teaching , correcting , consoling , nd — — a strengthening i a father t o the poor he travelled for years long as ap ostle and reformer throughout the length and breadth of Germany . He revived ecclesiastical disci o pline , l ng sunk in hopeless confusion . He did his utmost towards recovering the neglected education of Of the clergy , as well as the catechetical instruction the people . He wa tched carefully over the office of the i pulpit , and preached with unrelenting severity aga nst b prevailing heavy a uses . In Salzburg , Magdeburg , o o o Mentz , and C l gne he held provincial c uncils ; and b y - o re establishing syn ds , as well as by his regulations for t he o a u inspection of m n steries , he ina gurated permanent o e a a a His lan Of al ref rms in eccl si stic l m tters . p gener ’ n u fo r o o m reform , draw p P pe Pius II . , sh ws ore clearly INTRODUCTION 3 “ than any of his writings how deeply he deplored the e how o accom xisting evils , and zeal usly he worked to lish p a thorough reform in the whole Church , from the se e y papal down to the humblest monaster , without , however , the least detriment to the unity of its s tructure . ’ icolau s T rithemius N of Ousa , says the abbot at the end of the century , appeared in Germany like an angel Of li ght and peace in the midst of darkn ess and confu re- sion ; he established the unity of the Church , strength ened the authority of its visible head , and scattered abundant seeds of new life . Some of that seed , ’ not through the hardness of men s hearts , did spring up ff some grew up , but , through sloth and indi erence , soon i dl w thered away ; a goo y portion , however , flourished — l and bore fruit , which we to day are sti l enjoying . He was a man of faith and love , an apostle of piety and of all learning . His spirit compassed fields of human ‘ ’ - all wisdom , but God was the starting point of his — knowledge the glory Of God and the bettering Of man hi s kind the beginning and the end of all wisdom . ’ ‘ T O know and to think , writes Nicolaus himself, ‘ see to the truth with the eye of the mind , is always a T h . e j oy , older a man grows the greater is the plea it ff sure which a ords him , and the more he devotes himself to the search after truth the stronger grows i his desire of possessing it . As love s the life Of the heart , so is the endeavour after knowledge and truth the life of the mind . In the midst of the movements Of time , of the daily work of life , of its perplexities and contradictions , we should lift our gaze fearlessly to the clear vault of heaven , and seek ever to obtain a firmer grasp of and keener insight into the origin B 2 4 HISTORY OF T HE GERMAN PEOPLE own of all goodness and beauty , the capacities of our d hearts and minds , the intellectual fruits of mankin s throughout the centuries , and the wondrous work of Nature around us ; but remembering always that in humility alone lies true greatness , and that know ledge and wisdom are alone profitable in so far as our ’ lives are governed by them . The actual field of his labours was spec ulative i t science , and his work in the reform of ecclesiastical o learning . In his system of theology he brought int harmony a variety of conflicting tenets which had hitherto been fiercely battled over in the scholastic For camp . its originality and depth of thought , its clearness of detail , its breadth of conception , and its organic unity , this work may be compared to the great monuments of German Christian architecture of the period . He inaugurated a better understanding r of the g eat masters of ancient scholastics , raised Mysticism from the dark abyss of Pantheism to the more clearly defined conception of God and the ’ O e universe , and pen d the way for a more scientific handling of the whole teaching of Christian faith . But it is in the well- known pamphlet in which he pleads for the casting aside of all religious strife , for the establishment of one common creed , and the gathering together of all mankind under the one Catholic Church of Rome , that the spirit of the so u so Cardinal , at once tr ly philosophical and deeply re imbued with genuine Christian love of humanity , veals itself most characteristically . I I I the same spirit of creative activity Nicolaus devoted himself to natural science , more especially He to physics and mathematics . first , nearly a cen INTRODUCTION 5 ' t ury before Copernicus , had the courage and inde ’ p endence to uphold the theory of the earth s motion and its rotation on its axis . He published an able a tre tise on the correction of the Julian Calendar , and he headed the list Of those astronomers who were the pioneers of modern knowledge of the solar system n it a d s workings . It was personal and literary inter course with him that awakened the creative genius of G von l re eorg Peuerbach and Johann Mul er , the two s torers of the direct and independent method of natural l O research , and the fathers of astronomica bservation nd a calculation . Nicolaus of Cusa was also one Of the first in Ger many to revive the thorough and enlightened study of those master works of classic antiquity which unite in s uch perfect harmony the freedom of Nature with the r r i A t . H s rest aints of love for the classics , which he h ad devoured eagerly at Deventer in the schools Of the ‘ ’ was eu Brethren of the Social Life , raised to such thusiasm in Italy by an exhaustive study of Plato and Ar istotle that he could not rest without doing his ut most to kindle a like zeal in others .

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