Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from History French Literature, Vol. 2: From the Classical Renaissance Until the End of the Reign of Louis XIV
The mighty flood of new ideas, inventions, restorations, emancipations of thought and belief, which flowed in upon the human mind as soon as the Renaissance had broken down the accumulated obstructions of the Middle Ages, was not permitted to advance without many a check and hindrance. The jealousy of scholasticism, which saw the very foundations of its pseudo-ancient learning undermined; the hatred of the Church, whose power and influence were threatened by the revindication of reason and private judgment; the tyranny of constituted authorities, who were not slow to catch the contagion of fear, and listened eagerly to the timid counsels of their advisers - these, as we have seen, set their faces against every manifestation and development of the spirit of innovation, and succeeded only too often in their crusade of suppression. Of all the engines employed in this war against light and liberty the most effective was found in the Society of Jesus, which, by a decree of Parliament, I was authorised to open its schools and lecture-rooms independently of tho Universities.
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