(6) Scholars could not satisfy themselves permanently with the works of Aristotle but began themselves to add to the fund of human knowledge. In Roger Bacon and his sympathizers we find a group of scientific investigators who were preparing the way for the unprecedented achievements in natural science which are the glory of recent times.
Artistic progress.
(7) The developing appreciation of the beautiful is attested by the skill and taste expressed in the magnificent churches of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which were not a revival of any ancient style but the original production of the architects and sculptors of the period.
General Reading.—The most convenient and readable account of mediæval literature is perhaps that of Saintsbury, The Flourishing of Romance (Charles Scribner's Sons, $1.50). For chivalry, see Cornish, Chivalry (The Macmillan Company, $1.75). For Gothic architecture, see C.H. Moore, Development and Character of Gothic Architecture (The Macmillan Company, $4.50). For the art in general, Lübke, Outlines of the History of Art (Dodd, Mead & Co., 2 vols., $7.50). For the universities, Rashdall, History of the Universities of the Middle Ages (Clarendon Press, 3 vols., $14.00).
CHAPTER XX
THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR
Plan of the following four chapters.
105. In dealing with the history of Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the following order has been adopted. (1) England and France are treated together, since the claims of the English kings to the French crown, and the long Hundred Years' War between the two countries, bring them into the same tale of disorder and final reorganization. (2) Next the history of the papal power and the remarkable efforts to better the Church at the great Council of Constance (1414) are considered. (3) Then the progress of enlightenment is taken up, particularly in the Italian towns, which were the leaders in culture during this period. This leads to an account of the invention of printing and the extraordinary geographical discoveries of the latter part of the fifteenth century. (4) In a fourth chapter the situation of western Europe at the opening of the sixteenth century is described, in order that the reader may be prepared to understand the great revolt against the Church under the leadership of Martin Luther.