PART II.

Progress of Commercial Improvement in Germany, Flanders, and England-- in the North of Europe--in the Countries upon the Mediterranean Sea-- Maritime Laws--Usury--Banking Companies--Progress of Refinement in Manners--Domestic Architecture--Ecclesiastical Architecture--State of Agriculture in England--Value of Money--Improvement of the Moral Character of Society--its Causes--Police--Changes in Religious Opinion --Various Sects--Chivalry--its Progress, Character, and Influence-- Causes of the Intellectual Improvement of European Society--1. The Study of Civil Law--2. Institution of Universities--their Celebrity-- Scholastic Philosophy--3. Cultivation of Modern Languages--Provencal Poets--Norman Poets--French Prose Writers--Italian--early Poets in that Language--Dante--Petrarch--English Language--its Progress--Chaucer--4. Revival of Classical Learning--Latin Writers of the Twelfth Century-- Literature of the Fourteenth Century--Greek Literature--its Restoration in Italy--Invention of Printing. 318

NOTES TO CHAPTER IX. 474

INDEX. 487

VIEW

OF

THE STATE OF EUROPE

DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.