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Causes of the Action of the Church.

191

à Kempis, and entitled 'The Imitation of Christ.' It is said to have had probably more readers than any other book except the Bible. Its quick celebrity is a proof how profoundly ecclesiastical influence had been affected, for its essential intention was to enable the pious to cultivate their devotional feeling without the intervention of the clergy. Such a work, if written in the present day, would have found an apt and popular title in 'Every Man his own Priest.' There is no reason for supposing that the condition to which men had at that time been brought, as the general result of Italian Christianity, was one of intense selfishness, as has been asserted; the celebrity of this book was rather dependent on a profound distrust everywhere felt in the clergy, both as regards morals and intellect. And why should we be surprised that such should be the case with the laity, when in all directions the clergy themselves were giving proof that they could not trust their own strength? They could not conceal their dread at the incoming of the Greek; they could not speak without horror of the influence of the Hebrew; they were loud in their protestations against the study of Pagan philosophy, and held up to the derision and condemnation of the world science denounced by them as profane. They foresaw that that fictiti- Danger to the unity ous unity of which they had boasted was drawing to an end; of the that men would become acquainted with the existence and Church. history of churches more ancient, and therefore more venerable than the Roman, and, like it, asserting an authenticity upon unimpeachable proofs. But once let sects with such an impressive prestige be introduced to the knowledge of the West, once let the appearance of inviolate unity be taken from the Latin Church, and nothing could prevent a spontaneous decomposition forth with occurring in it. It must break up into sects, which, in their turn, must break up, in process of time, into smaller and smaller divisions, and, through this means, the European must emerge at last into individual liberty of thought. The compelling hand of ecclesiastical tyranny must be removed, and universal toleration ensue. Nor were such anticipations mere idle suspicions, for such was the course that events actually took. Scarcely had the

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Reformation occurred when sectarian subdivisions made their appearance, and in modern times we see that an anarchy of sects is the inevitable harbinger of individual liberty of thought.

As we have just said, it was impossible to look in any direction on the latter half of the fifteenth century without recogHigher re- nizing the wonderful change. It had become obviously usequirements in evidence. less any longer to assert an immobility of humanity when men were standing face to face with the new forms into which it had been transposed. New ideas had driven out old ones. Natural phenomena could not again be likened to human acts, nor the necessities of man regarded as determining the movements of the universe. A better appreciation of the nature of evidence was arising, perhaps in part through the influence of the lawyers, but in part through a commencing taste for criticism. We see it in such facts as the denial that a miracle can be taken as the proof of anything else than the special circumstances with which it is connected; we see it in the assertion that the martyrdom of men in support of a dogma, so far from proving its truth, proves rather its doubtfulness, no geometer having ever thought it worth his while to die in order to establish any mathematical proposition, truth needing no such sacrifices, which are actually unserviceable and useless to it, since it is able spontaneously to force its own way. In Italy, where the popular pecuniary interests were obviously identical with those of the Church, a dismal disbelief was silently engendering.

Disbelief setting in in Italy.

Invention

And now occurred an event the results of which it is impossible to exaggerate.

About A.D. 1440 the art of printing seems to have been inof printing; vented in Europe. It is not material to our purpose to inits early

history.

quire into the particulars of its history, whether we should attribute it to Coster of Haarlem or Gutenberg of Mentz, or whether, in reality, it was introduced by the Venetians from China, where it had been practised for nearly two thousand years. In Venice a decree was issued in 1441 in relation to printing, which would seem to imply that it had been known there for some years. Coster is supposed to have printed the

Progress of Printing in Europe.

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193

and book.

'Speculum Humanæ Salvationis' about 1440, and Gutenberg and Faust the Mentz Bible, without date, 1455. The art reached perfection at once; their Bible is still admired for its beautiful typography. Among the earliest specimens of print- Early books ing extant is an exhortation to take up arms against the Turks, sellers. 1454; there are also two letters of indulgence of Nicholas V. of the same date. In the beginning each page was engraved on a block of wood, but soon movable types were introduced. Impressions of the former kind pass under the name of block books; at first they were sold as manuscripts. Two of Faust's workmen commenced printing in Italy, but not until 1465; they there published an edition of 'Lactantius,' one of 'Cicero de Officiis,' and one of Augustine de Civitate Dei.' The art was carried to France 1469, and in a few years was generally practised in all the large European towns. The printers were their own booksellers; the number of copies in each edition usually about three hundred. Folios were succeeded by quartos, and in 1501 duodecimos were introduced. Very soon the price of books was reduced by four-fifths, and existing interests required regulations not only respecting the cost, but also respecting the contents. Thus the University of Paris established a tariff for their sale, and also exercised a supervision in behalf of the Church and the State. From the outset it was clear that printing would inevitably influence the intellectual movement synchronously occurring.

the con

ous mental

Some authors have endeavoured to estimate the intellectual Measure of condition of different countries in Europe at the close of the temporanefifteenth century by the literary activity they displayed in the state of napreparation and printing of editions of books. Though it is tions. plain that such estimates can hardly be rigorously correct, since to print a book not only implies literary capacity, but also the connections of business and trade, and hence works are more likely to be issued in places where there is a mercantile activity, yet such estimates are perhaps the most exact that we can now obtain; they also lead us to some very interesting and unexpected results of singular value in their connection with that important epoch. Thus it appears that in all Europe, between 1470 and 1500, more than ten thousand editions of books and

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Italy compared with the rest of Europe.

Effect of printing on literature

and the Church. Cheapening of books.

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pamphlets were printed, and of them a majority in Italy, demonstrating that Italy was in the van of the intellectual movement. Out of this large number, in Venice there had been printed 2835; Milan, 625; Bologna, 298; Rome, 925; fifty other Italian cities had presses; Paris, 751; Cologne, 530; Nuremberg, 382; Leipsic, 351; Basle, 320; Strasburg, 526; Augsburg, 256; Louvain, 116; Mentz, 134; Deventer, 169; London, 130; Oxford, 7; St. Alban's, 4.

Venice, therefore, took the lead. England was in a very backward state. This conclusion is confirmed by many other circumstances, which justify the statement that Italy was as far advanced intellectually in 1400 as England in 1500. Paris exhibits a superiority sixfold over London, and in the next ten years the disproportion becomes even more remarkable, for in Paris four hundred and thirty editions were printed, in London only twenty-six. The light of learning became enfeebled by distance from its Italian focus. As late as 1550, a complete century after the establishment of the art, but seven works had been printed in Scotland, and among them not a single classic. It is an amusing proof how local tastes were consulted in the character of the books thus put forth, that the first work issued in Spain, 1474, was on the 'Conception of the Virgin.'

The invention of printing operated in two modes altogether distinct: first, in the multiplying and cheapening of books, and, second, in substituting reading for pulpit instruction.

First, as to the multiplication and cheapening of books, there is no reason to suppose that the supply had ever been inadequate. As, under the Ptolemies, book-manufacture was carried forward in the museum at Alexandria to an extent which fully satisfied demands, so in all the great abbeys there was an apartment-the Scriptorium-for the copying and making of books. Such a sedentary occupation could not but be agreeable to persons of a contemplative or quiet habit of life. But Greece, Rome, Egypt-indeed, all the ancient governments except that of China, were founded upon elements among which did not appear that all-important one of modern times, a reading class. Information passed from mouth to

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mouth, not from eye to eye. With a limited demand, the compensation to the copier was sufficient, and the cost to the purchaser moderate. It is altogether a mistake to suppose that the methods and advantages of printing were unknown. Modifications of that art were used wherever occasion called for them. We do not need the Roman stamps to satisfy us of that fact; every Babylonian brick and signet-ring is an illustration. Printing processes of various kinds were well enough known. The real difficulty was the want of paper. That The want substance was first made in Europe by the Spanish Moors Damascus from the fine flax of Valentia and Mercia. Cotton-paper, sold paper. as "charta Damascena," had been previously made at Damascus, and several different varieties had long been manufactured in China.

Had there been more readers, paper would have been more abundantly produced, and there would have been more copiers -nay, even there would have been printers. An increased demand would have been answered by an increased supply. As soon as such a demand arose in Europe the press was introduced, as it had been thousands of years before in China.

of paper.

of books

So far as the public is concerned, printing has been an un- Longevity mixed advantage; not so, however, in its bearing on authors. curtailed. The longevity of books is greatly impaired, a melancholy conclusion to an ambitious intellect. The duration of many ancient books which have escaped the chances of time is to be hoped for no more. In this shortening of their term the excessive multiplication of works greatly assists. A rapid succession soon makes those of distinction obsolete, and then consigns them to oblivion. No author can now expect immortality. His utmost hope is only this, that his book may live. a little longer than himself.

cation of

But it was with printing as with other affairs of the market, Multipli an increased demand gave origin to an increased supply, which, books. in its turn reacting, increased the demand. Cheap books bred readers. When the monks, abandoning their useless and lazy life of saying their prayers a dozen times a day, turned to the copying and illustrating of manuscripts, a mental elevation of the whole order was the result; there were more monks who

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