The Thirteenth Century as a Turning Point.
It has been suggested that 1268 be selected as a turning point in the history of Europe, marking as it does the practical disappearance for the time being of the empire as a factor in politics, the beginning of the decline of the papacy, and the rise of the third estate, which is illustrated in England by the growth of the House of Commons and in Germany and Italy by the two great city leagues and the power of Venice, Florence and Genoa. If this suggestion is followed, the Hundred Years’ War and the history of the papacy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries may serve to introduce the Renaissance if a discussion of the latter is preceded or followed by a general summary of the political situation in Europe at the opening of the sixteenth century, with special reference to those powers, both new and old, which are to dominate in the new period.