Part 6 — CHAPTER V. GENERAL DISINTEGRATION OF BELIEF.

WITH these superstitions, as with ancient modes of thought generally, the decline in the belief of immortality stands in the closest connection.[1269] This question has the widest and deepest relations with the whole development of the modern spirit.

One great source of doubt in immortality was the inward wish to be under no obligations to the hated Church. We have seen that the Church branded those who thus felt as Epicureans (p. 496 sqq.). In the hour of death many doubtless called for the sacraments, but multitudes during their whole lives, and especially during their most vigorous years, lived and acted on the negative supposition. That unbelief on this particular point must often have led to a general scepticism, is evident of itself, and is attested by abundant historical proof. These are the men of whom Ariosto says: ‘Their faith goes no higher than the roof.’[1270] In Italy, and especially in Florence, it was possible to live as an open and notorious unbeliever, if a man only refrained from direct acts of hostility against the Church.[1271] The confessor, for instance, who was sent to prepare a political offender for death, began by inquiring whether the prisoner was a believer, ‘for there was a false report that he had no belief at all.’[1272]

The unhappy transgressor here referred to—the same Pierpaolo Boscoli who has been already mentioned (p. 59)—who in 1513 took part in an attempt against the newly restored family of the Medici, is a faithful mirror of the religious confusion then prevalent. Beginning as a partisan of Savonarola, he became afterwards possessed with an enthusiasm for the ancient ideals of liberty, and for paganism in general; but when he was in prison his early friends regained the control of his mind, and secured for him what they considered a pious ending. The tender witness and narrator of his last hours is one of the artistic family of the Delia Robbia, the learned philologist Luca. ‘Ah,’ sighs Boscoli, ‘get Brutus out of my head for me, that I may go my way as a Christian.’ ‘If you will,’ answers Luca, ‘the thing is not difficult; for you know that these deeds of the Romans are not handed down to us as they were, but idealised (con arte accresciute).’ The penitent now forces his understanding to believe, and bewails his inability to believe voluntarily. If he could only live for a month with pious monks, he would truly become spiritually minded. It comes out that these partisans of Savonarola knew their Bible very imperfectly; Boscoli can only say the Paternoster and Avemaria, and earnestly begs Luca to exhort his friends to study the sacred writings, for only what a man has learned in life does he possess in death. Luca then reads and explains to him the story of the Passion according to the Gospel of St. Matthew; the poor listener, strange to say, can perceive clearly the Godhead of Christ, but is perplexed at his manhood; he wishes to get as firm a hold of it ‘as if Christ came to meet him out of a wood.’ His friend thereupon exhorts him to be humble, since this was only a doubt sent him by the Devil. Soon after it occurs to the penitent that he has not fulfilled a vow made in his youth to go on pilgrimage to the Impruneta; his friend promises to do it in his stead. Meantime the confessor—a monk, as was desired, from Savonarola’s monastery—arrives, and after giving him the explanation quoted above of the opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas on tyrannicide, exhorts him to bear death manfully. Boscoli makes answer: ‘Father, waste no time on this; the philosophers have taught it me already; help me to bear death out of love to Christ.’ What follows—the communion, the leave-taking and the execution—is very touchingly described, one point deserves special mention. When Boscoli laid his head on the block, he begged the executioner to delay the stroke for a moment: ‘During the whole time since the announcement of the sentence he had been striving after a close union with God, without attaining it as he wished, and now in this supreme moment he thought that by a strong effort he could give himself wholly to God.’ It is clearly some half-understood expression of Savonarola which was troubling him.

If we had more confessions of this character the spiritual picture of the time would be the richer by many important features which no poem or treatise has preserved for us. We should see more clearly how strong the inborn religious instinct was, how subjective and how variable the relation of the individual to religion, and what powerful enemies and competitors religion had. That men whose inward condition is of this nature, are not the men to found a new church, is evident; but the history of the Western spirit would be imperfect without a view of that fermenting period among the Italians, while other nations, who have had no share in the evolution of thought, may be passed over without loss. But we must return to the question of immortality.

If unbelief in this respect made such progress among the more highly cultivated natures, the reason lay partly in the fact that the great earthly task of discovering the world and representing it in word and form, absorbed most of the higher spiritual faculties. We have already spoken (p. 490) of the inevitable worldliness of the Renaissance. But this investigation and this art were necessarily accompanied by a general spirit of doubt and inquiry. If this spirit shows itself but little in literature, if we find, for example, only isolated instances of the beginnings of biblical criticism (p. 465), we are not therefore to infer that it had no existence. The sound of it was only over-powered by the need of representation and creation in all departments—that is, by the artistic instinct; and it was further checked, whenever it tried to express itself theoretically, by the already existing despotism of the Church. This spirit of doubt must, for reasons too obvious to need discussion, have inevitably and chiefly busied itself with the question of the state of man after death.

And here came in the influence of antiquity, and worked in a twofold fashion on the argument. In the first place men set themselves to master the psychology of the ancients, and tortured the letter of Aristotle for a decisive answer. In one of the Lucianic dialogues of the time[1273] Charon tells Mercury how he questioned Aristotle on his belief in immortality, when the philosopher crossed in the Stygian boat; but the prudent sage, although dead in the body and nevertheless living on, declined to compromise himself by a definite answer—and centuries later how was it likely to fare with the interpretation of his writings? All the more eagerly did men dispute about his opinion and that of others on the true nature of the soul, its origin, its pre-existence, its unity in all men, its absolute eternity, even its transformations; and there were men who treated of these things in the pulpit.[1274] The dispute was warmly carried on even in the fifteenth century; some proved that Aristotle taught the doctrine of an immortal soul;[1275] others complained of the hardness of men’s hearts, who would not believe that there was a soul at all, till they saw it sitting down on a chair before them;[1276] Filelfo in his funeral oration on Francesco Sforza brings forward a long list of opinions of ancient and even of Arabian philosophers in favour of immortality, and closes the mixture, which covers a folio page and a half of print,[1277] with the words, ‘Besides all this we have the Old and New Testaments, which are above all truth.’ Then came the Florentine Platonists with their master’s doctrine of the soul, supplemented at times, as in the case of Pico, by Christian teaching. But the opposite opinion prevailed in the instructed world. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the stumbling-block which it put in the way of the Church was so serious that Leo X. set forth a Constitution[1278] at the Lateran Council in 1513, in defence of the immortality and individuality of the soul, the latter against those who asserted that there was but one soul in all men. A few years later appeared the work of Pomponazzo, in which the impossibility of a philosophical proof of immortality is maintained; and the contest was now waged incessantly with replies and apologies, till it was silenced by the Catholic reaction. The pre-existence of the soul in God, conceived more or less in accordance with Plato’s theory of ideas, long remained a common belief, and proved of service even to the poets.[1279] The consequences which followed from it as to the mode of the soul’s continued existence after death, were not more closely considered.

There was a second way in which the influence of antiquity made itself felt, chiefly by means of that remarkable fragment of the sixth book of Cicero’s ‘Republic’ known by the name of Scipio’s Dream. Without the commentary of Macrobius it would probably have perished like the rest of the second part of the work; it was now diffused in countless manuscript copies,[1280] and, after the discovery of typography, in a printed form, and edited afresh by various commentators. It is the description of a transfigured hereafter for great men, pervaded by the harmony of the spheres. This pagan heaven, for which many other testimonies were gradually extracted from the writings of the ancients, came step by step to supplant the Christian heaven in proportion as the ideal of fame and historical greatness threw into the shade the ideal of the Christian life, without, nevertheless, the public feeling being thereby offended as it was by the doctrine of personal annihilation after death. Even Petrarch founds his hope chiefly on this Dream of Scipio, on the declarations found in other Ciceronian works, and on Plato’s ‘Phædo,’ without making any mention of the Bible.[1281] ‘Why,’ he asks elsewhere, ‘should not I as a Catholic share a hope which was demonstrably cherished by the heathen?’ Soon afterwards Coluccio Salutati wrote his ‘Labours of Hercules’ (still existing in manuscript), in which it is proved at the end that the valorous man, who has well endured the great labours of earthly life, is justly entitled to a dwelling among the stars.[1282] If Dante still firmly maintained that the great pagans, whom he would have gladly welcomed in Paradise, nevertheless must not come beyond the Limbo at the entrance to Hell,[1283] the poetry of a later time accepted joyfully the new liberal ideas of a future life. Cosimo the Elder, according to Bernardo Pulci’s poem on his death, was received in heaven by Cicero, who had also been called the ‘Father of his country,’ by the Fabii, by Curius, Fabricius and many others; with them he would adorn the choir where only blameless spirits sing.[1284]

But in the old writers there was another and less pleasing picture of the world to come—the shadowy realms of Homer and of those poets who had not sweetened and humanised the conception. This made an impression on certain temperaments. Gioviano Pontano somewhere attributes to Sannazaro the story of a vision, which he beheld one morning early while half awake.[1285] He seemed to see a departed friend, Ferrandus Januarius, with whom he had often discoursed on the immortality of the soul, and whom he now asked whether it was true that the pains of Hell were really dreadful and eternal. The shadow gave an answer like that of Achilles when Odysseus questioned him. ‘So much I tell and aver to thee, that we who are parted from earthly life have the strongest desire to return to it again.’ He then saluted his friend and disappeared.

It cannot but be recognised that such views of the state of man after death partly presuppose and partly promote the dissolution of the most essential dogmas of Christianity. The notion of sin and of salvation must have almost entirely evaporated. We must not be misled by the effects of the great preachers of repentance or by the epidemic revivals which have been described above (part vi. cap. 2). For even granting that the individually developed classes had shared in them like the rest, the cause of their participation was rather the need of emotional excitement, the rebound of passionate natures, the horror felt at great national calamities, the cry to heaven for help. The awakening of the conscience had by no means necessarily the sense of sin and the felt need of salvation as its consequence, and even a very severe outward penance did not perforce involve any repentance in the Christian meaning of the word. When the powerful natures of the Renaissance tell us that their principle is to repent of nothing,[1286] they may have in their minds only matters that are morally indifferent, faults of unreason or imprudence; but in the nature of the case this contempt for repentance must extend to the sphere of morals, because its origin, namely the consciousness of individual force, is common to both sides of human nature. The passive and contemplative form of Christianity, with its constant reference to a higher world beyond the grave, could no longer control these men. Macchiavelli ventured still farther, and maintained that it could not be serviceable to the state and to the maintenance of public freedom.[1287]

The form assumed by the strong religious instinct which, notwithstanding all, survived in many natures, was Theism or Deism, as we may please to call it. The latter name may be applied to that mode of thought which simply wiped away the Christian element out of religion, without either seeking or finding any other substitute for the feelings to rest upon. Theism may be considered that definite heightened devotion to the one Supreme Being which the Middle Ages were not acquainted with. This mode of faith does not exclude Christianity, and can either ally itself with the Christian doctrines of sin, redemption, and immortality, or else exist and flourish without them.

Sometimes this belief presents itself with childish naïveté and even with a half-pagan air, God appearing as the almighty fulfiller of human wishes. Agnolo Pandolfini[1288] tells us how, after his wedding, he shut himself in with his wife, and knelt down before the family altar with the picture of the Madonna, and prayed, not to her, but to God that he would vouchsafe to them the right use of their property, a long life in joy and unity with one another, and many male descendants: ‘for myself I prayed for wealth, honour, and friends, for her blamelessness, honesty, and that she might be a good housekeeper.’ When the language used has a strong antique flavour, it is not always easy to keep apart the pagan style and the theistic belief.[1289]

This temper sometimes manifests itself in times of misfortune with a striking sincerity. Some addresses to God are left us from the latter period of Firenzuola, when for years he lay ill of fever, in which, though he expressly declares himself a believing Christian, he shows that his religious consciousness is essentially theistic.[1290] His sufferings seem to him neither as the punishment of sin, nor as preparation for a higher world; they are an affair between him and God only, who has put the strong love of life between man and his despair. ‘I curse, but only curse Nature, since thy greatness forbids me to utter thy name.... Give me death, Lord, I beseech thee, give it me now!’

In these utterances and the like, it would be vain to look for a conscious and consistent Theism; the speakers partly believed themselves to be still Christians, and for various other reasons respected the existing doctrines of the Church. But at the time of the Reformation, when men were driven to come to a distinct conclusion on such points, this mode of thought was accepted with a fuller consciousness; a number of the Italian Protestants came forward as Anti-Trinitarians and Socinians, and even as exiles in distant countries made the memorable attempt to found a church on these principles. From the foregoing exposition it will be clear that, apart from humanistic rationalism, other spirits were at work in this field.

One chief centre of theistic modes of thought lay in the Platonic Academy at Florence, and especially in Lorenzo Magnifico himself. The theoretical works and even the letters of these men show us only half their nature. It is true that Lorenzo, from his youth till he died, expressed himself dogmatically as a Christian,[1291] and that Pico was drawn by Savonarola’s influence to accept the point of view of a monkish ascetic.[1292] But in the hymns of Lorenzo,[1293] which we are tempted to regard as the highest product of the spirit of this school, an unreserved Theism is set forth—a Theism which strives to treat the world as a great moral and physical Cosmos. While the men of the Middle Ages look on the world as a vale of tears, which Pope and Emperor are set to guard against the coming of Antichrist; while the fatalists of the Renaissance oscillate between seasons of overflowing energy and seasons of superstition or of stupid resignation, here, in this circle of chosen spirits,[1294] the doctrine is upheld that the visible world was created by God in love, that it is the copy of a pattern pre-existing in Him, and that He will ever remain its eternal mover and restorer. The soul of man can by recognising God draw Him into its narrow boundaries, but also by love to Him itself expand into the Infinite—and this is blessedness on earth.

Echoes of mediæval mysticism here flow into one current with Platonic doctrines, and with a characteristically modern spirit. One of the most precious fruits of the knowledge of the world and of man here comes to maturity, on whose account alone the Italian Renaissance must be called the leader of modern ages.

THE END.

INDEX.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, W, Z

A. Academies, educational, 281. Adrian VI., Pope, 121; satires against, 162-164. ‘Africa,’ the, of Petrarch, 258. Aguello of Pisa, 11. Alberto da Sarteano, 467. Alberti, Leon Battista, 136-138. Albertinus, Musattus, fame of, 140-141. Alboronoz, 102. Alchemy, 539, 540. Alexander VI., Pope, 109-117; death of, 117. Alfonso I., 49. Alfonso of Ferrara, 99. Alfonso the Great of Naples, 35, 95, 459-461; contempt for astrology, 513; enthusiasm for antiquity, 225-227, 228. Alighieri Dante.—See Dante. Allegorical representations, 415. Allegory, age of, 408-410; superiority of Italian, 410-411. Amiens, treaty of, 123. ‘Amorosá Visione,’ the, of Boccaccio, 324. Antiquity, importance of, Dante on, 204-205; reproduction of, 230-242. Anti-Trinitarians, 549. Apollo Belvedere, discovery of the, 184. Aquinas, St. Thomas, 6, 7, 60. Arabic, study of, 200-202. Aragonese Dynasty, 16, 35. Aretino, Pietro, the railer, 164-168; father of modern journalism, 165. Ariosto, 134; and the Humanists, 273; his artistic aim in epic, 326; his picture of Roman society, 185; ‘Orlando Furioso,’ the, of, 325, 326, 327; position as a Dramatist, 320; style, 306; satire on sorcery, 535-536. Arlotto (jester), 156. Army list, Venetian, 67. ‘Asolani,’ the, of Bembo, 243. Assassination, paid, 450, 457. Assassins in Rome, 109. Astrology, belief in, 507-518; protest against, 515. Auguries, belief in, 520, 521. Authors, the old, 187-202. Autobiography in Italy, 332, 333. B. Bacchus and Ariadne, song of, by Lorenzo de Medici, 427-428. Baglioni of Perugia, the, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32; and the Oddi, disputes between, 29. Bandello, as novelist, 306; on infidelity, 443-444; style of writing, 382. Baraballe, comic procession of, 158. Bassano, Jacopo, rustic paintings of, 354. Belief, general disintegration of, 541-550. Bembo, Pietro, 231; epigrams of, 267; his ‘Historia rerum Venetarum,’ 248; letters of, 233; the ‘Sacra’ of, 259. Benedictines, the, 463. Bernabö, boar hounds of, 13. Bernadino da Siena, 235, 467, 469. Bessarion, Cardinal, his collection of Greek MSS., 189. Biblical criticism, 501. Biographies, Collective, 330 sqq. Biography, 328-337; comparative, art of, 329. Blondus of Forli, historical writings of, 245, 246. Boar-hounds of Bernabö, 13. Boccaccio, 151; life of Dante, 329; master of personal description, 344; on ‘tyranny,’ 56; representative of antiquity, 205; sonnets of, 314. Bojardo, as epic poet, 325; inventiveness of, 324; style of, 306. Borgias, the crimes of the, 109-117. Borgia, Cæsar, 109-117; death of, 117. Borso of Este, 49, 50, 51; created duke of Modena and Reggio, 19; welcome of, to Reggio, 417, 418. Boscoli, Pierpaolo, death of, 542-543. Botanical Gardens, 292. Brigandage, 449-450. Burchiello as Comedian, 320. C. Calumny at Papal Court, 161. Calvi Fabio, of Ravenna, 278-279. Cambray, League of, 68, 89. Can Grande della Scala, Court of, 9. Canzone, the, 310. ‘Canzone Zingaresca,’ of Politian, 354. Capistrano, Giovanni, 467. ‘Capitolo,’ the, 162-163. Cardano, Girolamo, of Milan, autobiography of, 334. Caricaturists, 159. ‘Carmina Burana,’ the, 173. Carnival, the, 407, 425-427. Castiglione, 388. Catalogues of Libraries, 190, 191. Cathedral, Milan, founding of, 14. Catilinarians, the, 105. Catullus, as model, 264-265. Cellini, Benvenuto, autobiography of, 333-334. Celso, Caterina di San, 400. Certosa, Convent of, founding of, 13. Charles V., Emperor, action of, 123, 124. Charles IV., Emperor, 17, 18. Charles VIII. in Italy, 89, 90; entry into Italy, 413. Children, naming of, 250-251. Chroniclers, Italian, 245; Florentine, condemn astrology, 515. Church dignities, not bestowed according to pedigree, 360; the corruption of, 456; held in contempt, 457-458; regeneration of, 125; secularization of, proposed by Emperor Charles V., 123; spirit of reform in, 123. Cicero, taken as model for style, 253-54. Ciceronianism and revival of Vitruvius, analogy between, 256. Ciriaco of Ancona, an antiquarian, 181. Class distinction ignored, 359-368. Clement VII., Pope, detested, 122; flight of, 123; temperament of, 309. Cleopatra, the discovery of, 184. Clubs, political, 387. Colonna, Giovanne, 177-178; Giulia Gonzaga, 385; Vittoria, 386, 446. ‘Commedia dell’Arte,’ 320, 321. Commentaries, the, of Pius II., 333. Composition, Latin, history of, 252-253. Condottieri, the, despotisms founded by, 22, 23, 24. Convent of Certosa of Pavia, founding of, 13. Cornaro, Luigi, Autobiography of, 335-337; Vita Sobria of, 244. Corpse of girl, discovery of, 183. Corpus Christi, feast of, celebration of, 414. Corruption in Papacy, 106, 107. ‘Cortigiano,’ the, by Castiglione, 381, 388, 446. Cosmetics, use of, 373-374. Council of Ten, 66. Country life, descriptions of, 306; love of, 404-405. Crime, for its own sake, 453-454; prevalence of, among priests, 448-449. Criticism, Biblical, 501. Crusades, the, 485-486; influence of, 285. Culture, general Latinization of, 249-256. ‘Curiale,’ the, 378. Cybò, Franceschetto, 108-109; as gambler, 436. D. Daemons, belief in, 521-524, 531. Dagger, use of the, 452. Dante, Alighieri, 75, 76, 83, 130, 133, 135; as advocate of antiquity, 204-205; satirist, 155; belief in freedom of the will, 498; burial place of, 143; desire for fame, his, 139; influence of, 324; influence of nature shown in works, 299; life of, by Boccaccio, 329; on Epicureanism, 496-497; the Italian language, 378-379; nobility, 360-361; view of the sonnet, 312; ‘Vita Nuova’ of, 333. Decadence of oratory, 241, 242. ‘Decades,’ the, of Sabellico, 248. ‘Decameron,’ the, 459. ‘De Genealogia Deorum,’ 205-207. Demeanour of individuals, 369. Descriptions of life in movement, 348-355. Description of nations and cities, 338-342; outward man, 343-347. Difference of birth, loss of significance of, 354. Dignities, Church, not bestowed according to pedigree, 360. ‘Discorsi,’ the, of Macchiavelli, 458. Domestic comfort, 376-377; economy, 132, 402-405. Dress, importance attached to, 369-370; regulations relating to, 370-371. E. Ecloques of Battista Mantovano, 352, 479. Economy, domestic, 132, 402-405. Education, equal, of sexes, 396; private, 135. Emperor Charles IV., 17; submission to the Pope, 18; Frederick II., 5-7, 69; III., 19; Sigismund, 18, 19. Epicureanism, 496. Epigram, 264, 267, 268, 269, 270. Epigraph, the, 268, 269. Equalization of classes, 359-368. Erasmus, 254. Ercole I., Duke of Ferrara, 487-489. Este, House of, government of the, 46, 48; Isabella of, 43, 44; novels relating to, 51, 52, 53; popular feeling towards, 49, 50. Van Eyck, Hubert, 302, 303; Johann, 302, 303. Ezzelino da Romano, 6, 7. F. Fame, modern idea of, 139-153; thirst for, evils of, 152-153. Federigo of Urbino, 99. Feltre, Vittorino da, 213-214. Female beauty, Firenzuola on, 345-347. Ferrante of Naples, 36, 37, 459-461. Ferrara, flourishing state of, 47; sale of public offices at, 47, 48. Festivals, 406-428; full development of, 407; higher phase in life of people, 406. Fire-arms, adoption of, 98-99. Firenzuola on female beauty, 345-347. Flagellants, the, 485-486. Flogging, 403. Florence, 61-87; general statistics of, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80; home of scandal-mongers, 161; life more secure in, 440-451; and Venice, birthplaces of science of statistics, 69-72. Florentines, the, as perfectors of festivals, 408. Foscari, Francesco, torture of, 66. France, changed attitude of, 91, 92. Frederick II., Emperor, 5-7, 69; III., 19. Frederick of Urbino, learning of, 227; oratory of, 237. Freedom of will, belief in, 497. Friars, mendicant, 462. G. Gallerana, Cecilia, 386. Gamblers, professional, 436. Gambling on large scale, 436. Gaston de Foix, 309. Genoa, 86-87. Germano-Spanish army, advance of, 122. Ghibellines and Guelphs, political sonnets of, 312. Ghosts, 521-523. Giangaleazzo, 13-14. Girls, in society, absence of, 399. Girolamo Savonarola (see Savonarola). Godfrey of Strasburg, 309. Golden Spur, order of the, 53. Gonnella (jester), 157. Gonzaga, House of, of Mantua, 43; Francesco, 43, 44; Giovan Francesco, 213-214; Isabella, 385. Government, divine, belief in, destroyed, 507. ‘Gran Consilio,’ the, 66. Gratitude as an Italian virtue, 440. Greater dynasties, 35-54. Greek, the study of, 195-197. Guarino of Verono, 215. Guelphs and Ghibellines, political sonnets of, 312. Guicciardini, his opinion of the priesthood, 464. Gymnastics first taught as an art, 389. Gyraldus, historian of the humanists, 276. H. Hair, false, 372. Hermits, 471. Hierarchy, hostility to the, 458. Hieronymus of Siena, 471-472. ‘Historia rerum Venetarum,’ the, of Bembo, 248. History, treated of in poetry, 261. Honour, the sentiment of, 433-435. Horses, breeding of, 295-296. Humanism in the Fourteenth Century, 203; furtherers of, 217-229. Humanists, fall of, in 16th century, 272-281; faults of, 276; historian of, 276; temptations of, 275-276. Human Nature, study of intellectual side of, 308-309. Husband, rights of, 442. Hypocrisy, freedom of Italians from, 439. I. ‘Il Galateo’ of G. della Casa, 375-376. Illegitimacy, indifference to, 21, 22. Immorality, prevalent at beginning of 16th century, 432. Immortality, decline of belief in, 541. Individual, the, assertion of, 129, 130, 131; the, and the Italian State, 129-138; the perfecting of, 134-138. Individuality, keen perception of Italians for, 329. Infidelity in marriage, 440-441, 456. Inn-keepers, German, 375. Innocent VIII., Pope, election of, 107. Inquisitors and Science, 291; detrimental to development of drama, 317. Instruments, musical, collections of 393. Intolerance, religious, 6. Isabella of Este, 43, 44. Italians, cleanliness of, 374; discoverers of the Middle Ages, 286; journeys of, 285-288; judges as to personal beauty, 342; supremacy of, in literary world, 151; writing of, 193. Italy, a school for scandal, 160; subject to Spain, 94. J. Jacopo della Marca, 467. ‘Jerusalem delivered’ of Tasso, delineation of character in, 327. Jesting, a profession, 156. Jews, literary activity of the, 199-201. Journeys of the Italians, 285-288. Julius II., Pope, character of, 118; election of, 117. K. Knighthood, passion for, 364. L. Laetus Pomponus, life of, 279-281. ‘L’amor, diveno,’ 445, 446. Language as basis of social intercourse, 378-383. Laöcoon, the, discovery of, 148. Latin composition, history of, 252-253; treatises, and History, 243-248. Latini, Brunetto, originator of new epoch in poetry, 310. Laurel wreath, the, coronation of poets with, 207-209. Law, absence of belief in, 447. League of Cambray, 68, 89. Leo X., Pope, buffoonery of, 157-158; influence on humanism, 224-225; love of jesters, 157; policy of, 119, 120, 121. Letter-writing, object of, 232. Library Catalogues, 190, 191. Life, outward refinement of, 369-377. Lionardo da Vinci, 114. Lorenzo the Magnificent, 90, 95, 108; as describer of country life, 350, 353; parody of ‘Inferno’ by, 159; song of Bacchus and Ariadne, 427-428; tact of, 386-387; theistic belief of, 549-550. Ludovico Casella, death of, 57. Ludovico il Moro, 41, 42, 64, 93. Lutherans, danger from the, 121. Luther, Martin, 121. M. Macchiavelli, 81, 82, 84-86, 96; as comedian, 320; ‘Discorsi il’ of, 458; metrical history by, 263; on Italian immorality, 432. Madonna, the worship of, 483-485. Magicians, 530-533; burning of, 524. Magic, decline of, 537; official, 533-535, 538; practice of, 453. Malatesta, Pandolfo, 27; Robert, 23, 26; Sigismondo, 33, 228-229. Man, the discovery of, 308-327. Manetti, Giannozzo, 197, 225; high character of, 218-220; eloquence of, 240. Mantovano, Battista, eclogues of, 352, 479. Manucci, Aldo, 197. Mayia, Galeazzo, of Milan, 40, 41, 106; Filippo, of Milan, 38-39. Mariolatry, 484-485. Massuccio, novels of, 459-460. Maximilian I., commencement of new Imperial policy under, 20. Medici, House of, charm over Florence, 220-221; passion for tournaments, 366-367. Medici Giovanni, 119-121; Lorenzo, on ‘nobility,’ 361, 362; the younger, 85. Menageries, 296; human, 293-295. ‘Meneghino,’ the, Mask of Milan, 321. Mercenary troops, introduction of, 98. Middle Ages, works on, by humanists, 246, 247. Milano-Venetian War, 99. Mirandola, Pico della, 198-199, 202; death of, 465; on dignity of man, 354-355; free will, 516; refutation of astrology, 516. Mohammedanism, opposition to, 493. Monks, abuse of, in ‘Decameron,’ 459; as satirists, 465; scandalous lives of, 460-461; unpopularity of, 459. Montefeltro, House of, of Urbino, 43; Federigo, 44-46; Guido, in relation to astrology, 512. Montepulciano, Fra Francesco di, 473. Morality, 431-455. ‘Morgante Maggiore,’ the, of Luigi Pulci, 323-324, 494-495. Murder, public sympathy on side of, 447. Music, 390-394. Mystery plays, 406-407, 411-413, 416. Mythological representations, 415, 416. Myths, new, 259. N. Naming of children, 250-251. Natural Science in Italy, 289-297. Nature, beauty in, discovery of, 298-307. Navagero, style of, 265. ‘Nencia,’ the, of Politian, 354. ‘Nipoti,’ the, 106, 107. Niccoli, Niccolo, 188-189, 217; on ‘nobility,’ 361-362. Nicholas V., Pope, faith in higher learning of, 223. Novels of Bandello, 306; of Massuccio, 459, 460. O. Oddi, the, and the Baglioni of Perugia, disputes between, 29. Old writers, influence of, on Italian mind, 187. Omens, belief in, 518-521. ‘On the infelicity of the Scholar,’ by Piero Valeriano, 276-277. Orator, the, important position of, 233, 234-238. Oratory, Pulpit, 238. Oriental Studies, revival of, 197. ‘Orlando Furioso,’ the, of Ariosto, 325, 326, 327. Outward refinement of life, 369-377. P. Palingenius, Marcellus, ‘Zodiac of Life,’ of, 264. Painting, rustic, of Jacopo Bassano, 354. Pandolfini, Agnolo, 132; on home management, 402-404. Pantomime, the, 407, 416, 417. Papacy, the, and its dangers, 102-125; corruption in, 106, 107, 109. Papal Court, calumny rife at, 161; State, spirit of reform in, 123; subjection of, 110. Pardons, sale of, 108. Parody, beginnings of, 263. Peasant life, poetical treatment of, 351-352. Perfect man of society, the, 388-394. Personal faith, 491-492. Petrarch and Laura, 151; ascent of Mount Ventoux by, 301-302; as geographer, 300; contempt of astrologers, his, 515; fixer of form of sonnet, 310; ideal prince of, 9-10; influence of nature on, 300, 301; in Rome, 177-178; life of, 313-314; objection to fame, his, 141-142; on tournaments, 365; representative of antiquity, the, 205. Petty tyrannies, 28-34. Piacenza, devastation of, 101. Piccinino, Giacomo, 25, 26; Jacopo, 99. Plautus, plays of, representations of, 255, 317-319. Poems, didactic, 264. Poetry, elegiac, 264, 266, 267; epic, 321-323, 325; Italian, second great age of, 305-306; Latin modern, 257-271; lyric, 306; Maccaronic, 270, 271; precursor of plastic arts, the, 312. Poggio, on ‘Knighthood,’ 365; on ‘Nobility,’ 361-362. Policy, Foreign, of Italian states, 88-97. Politeness, Manual of, by G. della Casa, 375-376. Politics, Florentine, 73-74. Politian, as letter writer, 233; ‘Canzone Zingaresca’ of, 354. Pope Adrian VI., satires against, 162-164. Pope Alexander VI., 109-117; death of, 117. Pope Clement VII., deliverance of, 123. Pope Innocent VIII., election of, 107. Pope Nicholas V., 188. Pope Paul II., 105; attempts as peacemaker, 438; personal head of republic of letters, 223; priestly narrowness of, 505. Pope Paul III., 123. Pope Pius II., 105; as antiquarian, 180-181; as descriptive writer, 349; believer in witches, 526-527; celebration of feast of Corpus Christi by, 414; contempt for astrology and magic, 508; eloquence of, 235, 240; love of nature, 303-305; views on miracles, 501. Pope Sixtus IV., 105, 106, 107. Porcaro, Stefano, conspiracy of, 104. Porcello, Gian, Antonio dei Pandori, 99, 100. Poggio, walks through Rome of, 176. Preachers of repentance, 466-479; personal influence of, 458. Printing, discovery of, reception of, 194. Processions, 406-407, 418-425. Prodigies, belief in, 520-521. Prophets, honour accorded to genuine, 467. Public worship, neglect of, 485. Pulci, epic poet, 323-325. ‘Pulcinell,’ the mask of Naples, 321. R. Rambaldoni, Vittore dai, 213-214. Rangona, Bianca, 336. Raphael, 30; appeal of, for restoration of ancient Rome, 184; original subject of his picture, ‘Deposition,’ 32. Rationalism, 500, 501. Reformation, German, 122; effects on Papacy, 124. Regattas, Venetian, 390. Relics, pride taken in, 142-145. Religion in daily life, 456-489; spirit of the Renaissance, and, 491-506. Religious tolerance, 490, 492, 493; revivals, epidemics of, 485. Renaissance, the, a new birth, 175; and the spirit of religion, 491-506. Repentance, preachers of, 466-479. Reproduction of antiquity: Latin correspondence and orations, 230-242. Republics, the, 61-87. Revivals, epidemics of religious, 485. Riario, Girolamo, 107; Pietro, Cardinal, 106. Rienzi, Cola di, 15, 176. Rimini, House of, the, 29; fall of, 33. Rites, Church, sense of dependence on, 465. Roberto da Lecce, 467, 470. Rome, assassins in, 109; city of ruins, 177-186; first topographical study of, 179; Poggio’s walks through, 176. Ruins in landscape gardening result of Christian legend, 186. S. ‘Sacra,’ the, of Pietro Bembo, 259. Sadoleto, Jacopo, 231. Saints, reverence for relics of, 481-482; worship of, 485. Salò, Gabriella da, belief of, 502. Sannazaro, 151, 260, 265-267; fame of, 261, 268. Sanctuaries of Italy, 486. Sansecondo, Giovan Maria, 392; Jacopo, 392. Satires, Monks the authors of, 465. Savonarola, Girolamo, 467, 473-479; belief in dæmons, 531; eloquence of, 474; funeral oration on, 475; reform of Dominican monasteries due to, 474. Scaliger, 254. Scarampa, Camilla, 386. Science, national sympathy with, 289-292; natural, in Italy, 289-297. ‘Scrittori’ (copyists), 192-193. Secretaries, papal, important position of, 231. Sforza, house of, 24; Alessandro, 28; Francesco, 24, 25, 26, 39, 40, 99; Galeazzo Maria, assassination of, 57-58. Sforza, Ippolita, 385; Jacopo, 24, 25. Shakespeare, William, 316. Siena, 86. Sigismund, Emperor, 18, 19. Sixtus IV., Pope, 105, 106, 107. Slavery in Italy, 296. Society, higher forms of, 384-387; ideal man of, 388-394; in, Italian models to other countries, 389. Sociniaris, 549. Sonnet, the, 310-311, 312. Sonnets of Boccaccio, 314; of Dante, 312. Spain, changed attitude of, 91, 92. Spaniards, detrimental to development of drama, 317. Spanish-Germano Army, advance of, 122. Spanish influence, jealousy under, 445. Speeches, subject of public, 239-241. Spur, golden, order of, 53. Spiritual description in poetry, 308-327. Statistics, science of, birthplace of, 69-72. St. Peter’s at Rome, reconstruction of., 119. Stentorello, the mask of Florence, 321. Superstition, mixture of ancient and modern, 507-540. Sylvius Æneas, see Pope Pius II. T. Taxation, 5, 8, 13, 35, 36, 47. Teano, Cardinal, 255. ‘Telesma,’ the, 533-535. ‘Telestae,’ the, 533-535. Terence, plays of, representation of, 255. ‘Teseide,’ the, of Boccaccio, 259. Tiburzio, 105. Tolerance, religious, 490, 492, 493. Torso, the, discovery of, 184. Tragedy in time of Renaissance, 315-316, 317. Treatise, the, 243. ‘Trionfo,’ the, 407, 419, 420, 423; of Beatrice, 419-420. ‘Trionfi,’ the, of Petrarch, 324. ‘Trovatori,’ the, 310. Trovatori della transizione, the, 311. Turks, conspiracies with the, 92, 93. Tuscan dialect basis of new national speech, 379. Tyranny, opponents of, 55-60. Tyrannies, petty, 28-34. U. Uberti, Fazio degli, vision of, 178. Universities and Schools, 210-216. V. Valeriano, P., on the infelicity of the scholar, 276-277. Vatican, Library of, founding of, 188. ‘Vendetta,’ the, 437-440. Vengeance, Italian, 436-400. Venetian-Milano war, 99. Venice, 61-87; and Florence, birthplace of science of statistics, 69-72. Venice, processions in, 73; public institutions in, 63; relation of, to literature, 70; stability of, cause of, 65-66; statistics, general of, 69, 70, 71, 78. Villani, Giovanni, 73; Matteo, 76. Vinci, Lionardo da, 138. Violin, the, 392. Visconti, the, 10, 15, 18, 22, 38, 40; Giangaleazzo, 513; Giovan Maria, assassination of, 57, 58. ‘Vita Nuova,’ the, of Dante, 333. ‘Vita Sobria,’ the, of Luigi Cornaro, 244. Vitelli, Paolo, 99. Vitruvius, revival of, and Ciceronianism, analogy between, 156. Venus of the Vatican, discovery of, 184. ‘Versi Sciolti,’ the, origin of, 310. W. War as a work of art, 98-101. Wit, analysis of, 159-160; first appearance of, in literature, 154; modern, and satire, 154-168. Witch of Gaeta, the, 525. Witchcraft, 524-530. Witches, 524, 525, 526; burning of, 524, 526, 528. Women, Ariosto on, 395; equality of, with men, 395; function of, 398; heroism of, 398; ideal for, 398; position of, 395-401. Worship, public, neglect of, 485. Z. Zampante of Lucca, director of police, 50. ‘Zodiac of Life,’ of Marcellus Palingenius, 264.

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