CHAPTER IV -- THE RENAISSANCE AND THE RISE OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.
THE "reconquest of the classic world of thought was by far the most important achievement of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
It absorbed nearly the whole mental energy of the Italians....

The revelation of what men were and what they wrought under the influence of other faiths and other impulses, in distant ages with a different ideal for their aim, not only widened the narrow horizon of the Middle Ages, but it also restored self-confidence to the reason of humanity."(1) (1) J.A.Symonds: The Renaissance in Italy; the Revival of Learning, 1877, p.

52.
Everywhere throughout the Middle Ages learning was the handmaid of theology.

Even Roger Bacon with his strong appeal for a new method accepted the dominant mediaeval conviction--that all the sciences did but minister to their queen, Theology.

A new spirit entered man's heart as he came to look upon learning as a guide to the conduct of life.
A revolution was slowly effected in the intellectual world.