The revival of classical literature, the rediscovery as it were of an older and a greater world, the contact with a larger, freer life whether in mind, in society, or in politics introduced a spirit of scepticism, of doubt, of denial into the realms of unquestioning belief.

Abelard claimed for reason a supremacy over faith.

Florentine poets discussed with a smile the immortality of the soul.

Even to Dante, while he censures these, Virgil is as sacred as Jeremiah.

The imperial ruler in whom the new culture took its most notable form, Frederick the Second, the "World's Wonder" of his time, was regarded by half Europe as no better than an infidel.