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<h1>THE THIRTEENTH <br/><br/> Greatest of Centuries</h1>
<p class="center">
BY
<br/><br/>
JAMES J. WALSH, K.C.St.G., M.D., Ph.D., LL.D,
</p>
<h1>I <br/><br/> INTRODUCTION</h1>
<h2>THE THIRTEENTH, THE GREATEST OF CENTURIES</h2>
<p>It cannot but seem a paradox to say that the Thirteenth was the
greatest of centuries. To most people the idea will appear at once so
preposterous that they may not even care to consider it. A certain
number, of course, will have their curiosity piqued by the thought
that anyone should evolve so curious a notion. Either of these
attitudes of mind will yield at once to a more properly receptive mood
if it is recalled that the Thirteenth is the century of the Gothic
cathedrals, of the foundation of the university, of the signing of
Magna Charta, and of the origin of representative government with
something like constitutional guarantees throughout the west of
Europe. The cathedrals represent a development in the arts that has
probably never been equaled either before or since. The university was
a definite creation of these generations that has lived and maintained
its usefulness practically in the same form in which it was then cast
for the seven centuries ever since. The foundation stones of modern
liberties are to be found in the documents which for the first time
declared the rights of man during this precious period.</p>
<p>A little consideration of the men who, at this period, lived lives of
undying influence on mankind, will still further attract the attention
of those who have not usually grouped these great characters together.
Just before the century opened, three great rulers died at the height
of their influence. They are still and will always be the subject of
men's thoughts and of literature. They were Frederick Barbarossa,
Saladin, and Richard Coeur De Lion. They formed but a suggestive
prelude of what was to come in the following century, when such
great monarchs as St. Louis of France, St. Ferdinand of Spain, Alfonso
the Wise of Castile, Frederick II of Germany, Edward I, the English
Justinian, Rudolph of Hapsburg, whose descendants still rule in
Austria, and Robert Bruce, occupied the thrones of Europe. Was it by
chance or Providence that the same century saw the rise of and the
beginning of the fall of that great Eastern monarchy which had been
created by the genius for conquest of Jenghiz Khan, the Tartar warrior,
who ruled over all the Eastern world from beyond what are now the
western confines of Russia, Poland, and Hungary, into and including
what we now call China.</p>
<p>But the thrones of Europe and of Asia did not monopolize the great men
of the time. The Thirteenth Century claims such wonderful churchmen as
St. Francis and St. Dominic, and while it has only the influence of
St. Hugh of Lincoln, who died just as it began, it can be proud of St.
Edmund of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, and Robert Grosseteste, all men
whose place in history is due to what they did for their people, and
such magnificent women as Queen Blanche of Castile, St. Clare of
Assisi, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The century opened with one of
the greatest of the Popes on the throne, Innocent III, and it closed
with the most misunderstood of Popes, who is in spite of this one of
the worthiest successors of Peter, Boniface VIII. During the century
there had been such men as Honorius IV, the Patron of Learning,
Gregory IX, to whom Canon Law owes so much, and John XXI, who had been
famous as a scientist before becoming Pope. There are such scholars as
St. Thomas of Aquin, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, St. Bonaventure,
Duns Scotus, Raymond Lully, Vincent of Beauvais, and Alexander of
Hales, and such patrons of learning as Robert of Sorbonne, and the
founders of nearly twenty universities. There were such artists as
Gaddi, Cimabue, and above all Giotto, and such literary men as the
authors of the Arthur Legends and the Nibelungen, the Meistersingers,
the Minnesingers, the Troubadours, and Trouvères, and above all Dante,
who is universally considered now to be one of the greatest literary
men of all times, but who was not, as is so often thought and said, a
solitary phenomenon in the period, but only the culmination of a great
literary movement that had to have some such supreme expression of
itself as this in order to properly round out the cycle of its
existence.</p>
<p>If in addition it be said that this century saw the birth of the
democratic spirit in many different ways in the various countries of
Europe, but always in such form that it was never quite to die out
again, the reasons for talking of it as possibly the greatest of
centuries will be readily appreciated even by those whose reading has
not given them any preliminary basis of information with regard to
this period, which has unfortunately been shrouded from the eyes of
most people by the fact, that its place in the midst of the Middle
Ages would seem to preclude all possibility of the idea that it could
represent a great phase of the development of the human intellect and
its esthetic possibilities.</p>
<p>There would seem to be one more or less insuperable objection to the
consideration of the Thirteenth as the greatest of centuries, and that
arises from the fact that the idea of evolution has consciously and
unconsciously tinged the thoughts of our generation to such a degree,
that it seems almost impossible to think of a period so far in the
distant past as having produced results comparable with those that
naturally flow from the heightened development of a long subsequent
epoch. Whatever of truth there may be in the great theory of
evolution, however, it must not be forgotten that no added evidence
for its acceptance can be obtained from the intellectual history of
the human race. We may be "the heirs of all the ages in the foremost
files of time," but one thing is certain, that we can scarcely hope to
equal, and do not at all think of surpassing, some of the great
literary achievements of long past ages.</p>
<p>In the things of the spirit apparently there is very little, if any,
evolution. Homer wrote nearly three thousand years ago as supreme an
expression of human life in absolute literary values as the world has
ever known, or, with all reverence for the future be it said, is ever
likely to know. The great dramatic poem Job emanated from a Hebrew
poet in those earlier times, and yet, if judged from the standpoint of
mere literature, is as surpassing an expression of human intelligence
in the presence of the mystery of evil as has ever come from the mind
of man. We are no nearer the solution of the problem of evil in
life, though thousands of years have passed and man has been much
occupied with the thoughts that disturbed the mind of the ruler of
Moab. The Code of Hammurabi, recently discovered, has shown very
definitely, that men could make laws nearly five thousand years ago as
well calculated to correct human abuses as those our legislators spend
so much time over at present, and the olden time laws were probably
quite as effective as ours can hope to be, for all our well
intentioned purpose and praiseworthy efforts at reform.</p>
<p>It used to be a favorite expression of Virchow, the great German
pathologist, who was, besides, however, the greatest of living
anthropologists, that from the history of the human race the theory of
evolution receives no confirmation of any kind. His favorite subject,
the study of skulls, and their conformation in the five thousand years
through which such remains could be traced, showed him absolutely no
change. For him there had been also no development in the intellectual
order in human life during the long period of human history. Of course
this is comparatively brief if the long aeons of geological times be
considered, yet some development might be expected to manifest itself
in the more than two hundred generations that have come and gone since
the beginning of human memory. Perhaps, then, the prejudice with
regard to evolution and its supposed effectiveness in making the men
of more recent times superior to those of the past, may be considered
to have very little weight as an <i>a priori</i> objection to the
consideration of the Thirteenth Century as representing the highest
stage in human accomplishment. So far as scientific anthropology goes
there is utter indifference as to the period that may be selected as
representing man at his best.</p>
<p>To most people the greater portion of surprise with regard to the
assertion of the Thirteenth as the greatest of centuries will be the
fact that the period thus picked out is almost in the heart of the
Middle Ages. It would be not so amazing if the fifth century before
Christ, which produced such marvelous accomplishments in letters and
art and philosophy among the Greeks, was chosen as the greatest of
human epochs. There might not even be so much of unpreparedness of
mind if that supreme century of Roman History, from fifty years before
Christ to fifty years after, were picked out for such signal notice.</p>
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VIRGIN WITH THE DIVINE CHILD (MOSAIC, ST. MARK'S, VENICE)</p>
<br/>
<p>We have grown accustomed, however, to think of the Middle Ages as
hopelessly backward in the opportunities they afforded men for the
expression of their intellectual and artistic faculties, and above all
for any development of that human liberty which means so much for the
happiness of the race and must constitute the basis of any real
advance worth while talking about in human affairs. It is this that
would make the Thirteenth Century seem out of place in any comparative
study for the purpose of determining proportionate epochal greatness.
The spirit breathes where it will, however, and there was a mighty
wind of the spirit of human progress abroad in that Thirteenth
Century, whose effects usually miss proper recognition in history,
because people fail to group together in their minds all the
influences in our modern life that come to us from that precious
period. All this present volume pretends to do is to gather these
scattered details of influence in order to make the age in which they
all coincided so wonderfully, be properly appreciated.</p>
<p>If we accept the usual historical division which places the Middle
Ages during the thousand years between the fall of the Roman Empire,
in the Fifth Century and the fall of the Grecian Empire of
Constantinople, about the middle of the Fifteenth, the Thirteenth
Century must be considered the culmination of that middle age. It is
three centuries before the Renaissance, and to most minds that magical
word represents the beginning of all that is modern, and therefore all
that is best, in the world. Most people forget entirely how much of
progress had been made before the so-called Renaissance, and how many
great writers and artists had been fostering the taste and developing
the intelligence of the people of Italy long before the fall of
Constantinople. The Renaissance, after all, means only the re-birth of
Greek ideas and ideals, of Greek letters and arts, into the modern
world. If this new birth of Greek esthetics had not found the soil
thoroughly prepared by the fruitful labor of three centuries before,
history would not have seen any such outburst of artistic and literary
accomplishments as actually came at the end of the Fifteenth and
during the Sixteenth centuries.</p>
<p>In taking up the thesis, The Thirteenth the Greatest of Centuries, it
seems absolutely necessary to define just what is meant by the term
great, in its application to a period. An historical epoch, most
people would concede at once, is really great just in proportion to
the happiness which it provides for the largest possible number of
humanity. That period is greatest that has done most to make men
happy. Happiness consists in the opportunity to express whatever is
best in us, and above all to find utterance for whatever is
individual. An essential element in it is the opportunity to develop
and apply the intellectual faculties, whether this be of purely
artistic or of thoroughly practical character. For such happiness the
opportunity to rise above one's original station is one of the
necessary requisites. Out of these opportunities there comes such
contentment as is possible to man in the imperfect existence that is
his under present conditions.</p>
<p>Almost as important a quality in any epoch that is to be considered
supremely great, is the difference between the condition of men at the
beginning of it and at its conclusion. The period that represents most
progress, even though at the end uplift should not have reached a
degree equal to subsequent periods, must be considered as having best
accomplished its duty to the race. For purposes of comparison it is
the amount of ground actually covered in a definite time, rather than
the comparative position at the end of it, that deserves to be taken
into account. This would seem to be a sort of hedging, as if the terms
of the comparison of the Thirteenth with other centuries were to be
made more favorable by the establishment of different standards. There
is, however, no need of any such makeshift in order to establish the
actual supremacy of the Thirteenth Century, since it can well afford
to be estimated on its own merits alone, and without any allowances
because of the stage of cultural development at which it occurred.</p>
<p>John Ruskin once said that a proper estimation of the accomplishments
of a period in human history can only be obtained by careful study of
three books—The Book of the Deeds, The Book of the Arts, and the Book
of the Words, of the given epoch. The Thirteenth Century may be
promptly ready for this judgment of what it accomplished for men, of
what it wrote for subsequent generations, and of the artistic
qualities to be found in its art remains. In the Book of the Deeds of
the century what is especially important is what was accomplished for
men, that is, what the period did for the education of the people, not
alone the classes but the masses, and what a precious heritage of
liberty and of social coordination it left behind. To most people it
will appear at once that if the most important chapter of Thirteenth
Century accomplishment is to be found in the Book of its Deeds and the
deeds are to be judged according to the standard just given of
education and liberty, then there will be no need to seek further,
since these are words for which it is supposed that there is no actual
equivalent in human life and history for at least several centuries
after the close of the Thirteenth.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, however, it is in this very chapter that the
Thirteenth Century will be found strongest in its claim to true
greatness. The Thirteenth Century saw the foundation of the
universities and their gradual development into the institutions of
learning which we have at the present time. Those scholars of the
Thirteenth Century recognized that, for its own development and for
practical purposes, the human intellect can best be trained along
certain lines. For its preliminary training, it seemed to them to need
what has since come to be called the liberal arts, that is, a
knowledge of certain languages and of logic, as well as a thorough
consideration of the great problems of the relation of man to his
Creator, to his fellow-men, and to the universe around him. Grammar, a
much wider subject than we now include under the term, and philosophy
constituted the undergraduate studies of the universities of the
Thirteenth Century. For the practical purposes of life, a division of
post-graduate study had to be made so as to suit the life design of
each individual, and accordingly the faculties of theology, for the
training of divines; of medicine, for the training of physicians; and
of law, for the training of advocates, came into existence.</p>
<p>We shall consider this subject in more detail in a subsequent chapter,
but it will be clear at once that the university, as organized by
these wise generations of the Thirteenth Century, has come down
unchanged to us in the modern time. We still have practically the
same methods of preliminary training and the same division of
post-graduate studies. We specialize to a greater degree than they
did, but it must not be forgotten that specialism was not unknown by
any means in the Thirteenth Century, though there were fewer
opportunities for its practical application to the things of life. If
this century had done nothing else but create the instrument by which
the human mind has ever since been trained, it must be considered as
deserving a place of the very highest rank in the periods of human
history.</p>
<p>It is, however, much more for what it accomplished for the education
of the masses than for the institutions it succeeded in developing for
the training of the classes, that the Thirteenth Century merits a
place in the roll of fame. This declaration will doubtless seem
utterly paradoxical to the ordinary reader of history. We are very
prone to consider that it is only in our time that anything like
popular education has come into existence. As a matter of fact,
however, the education afforded to the people in the little towns of
the Middle Ages, represents an ideal of educational uplift for the
masses such as has never been even distantly approached in succeeding
centuries. The Thirteenth Century developed the greatest set of
technical schools that the world has ever known. The technical school
is supposed to be a creation of the last half century at the outside.
These medieval towns, however, during the course of the building of
their cathedrals, of their public buildings and various magnificent
edifices of royalty and for the nobility, succeeded in accomplishing
such artistic results that the world has ever since held them in
admiration, and that this admiration has increased rather than
diminished with the development of taste in very recent years.</p>
<p>Nearly every one of the most important towns of England during the
Thirteenth Century was erecting a cathedral. Altogether some twenty
cathedrals remain as the subject of loving veneration and of frequent
visitation for the modern generation. There was intense rivalry
between these various towns. Each tried to surpass the other in the
grandeur of its cathedral and auxiliary buildings. Instead of lending
workmen to one another there was a civic pride in accomplishing for
one's native town whatever was best.</p>
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PULPIT (PISANO, SIENA)</p>
<p>Each of these towns, then, none of which had more than twenty thousand
inhabitants except London, and even that scarcely more, had to develop
its own artist-artisans for itself. That they succeeded in doing so
demonstrates a great educational influence at work in arts and crafts
in each of these towns. We scarcely succeed in obtaining such trained
workmen in proportionately much fewer numbers even with the aid of our
technical schools, and while these Thirteenth Century people did not
think of such a term, it is evident that they had the reality and that
they were able to develop artistic handicraftsmen—the best the world
has ever known.</p>
<p>With all this of education abroad in the lands, it is not surprising
that great results should have flowed from human efforts and that
these should prove enduring even down to our own time. Accomplishments
of the highest significance were necessarily bound up with
opportunities for self-expression, so tempting and so complete, as
those provided for the generations of the Thirteenth Century. The
books of the Words as well as of the Arts of the Thirteenth Century
will be found eminently interesting, and no period has ever furnished
so many examples of wondrous initiative, followed almost immediately
by just as marvelous progress and eventual approach to as near
perfection as it is perhaps possible to come in things human.
Ordinarily literary origins are not known with sufficient certainty as
to dates for any but the professional scholar to realize the scope of
the century's literature. Only a very little consideration, however,
is needed to demonstrate how thoroughly representative of what is most
enduring in literary expression in modern times, are the works in
every country that had origin in this century.</p>
<p>There was not a single country in civilized Europe which did not
contribute its quota and that of great significance to the literary
movement of the time. In Spain there came the Cid and certain
accompanying products of ballad poetry which form the basis of the
national literature and are still read not only by scholars and
amateurs, but even by the people generally, because of the supreme
human interest in them. In England, the beginning of the Thirteenth
Century saw the putting into shape of the Arthur Legends in the
form in which they were to appeal most nearly to subsequent
generations. Walter Map's work in these was, as we shall see, one of
the great literary accomplishments of all time. Subsequent treatments
of the same subject are only slight modifications of the theme which
he elaborated, and Mallory's and Spenser's and even our own Tennyson's
work derive their interest from the humanly sympathetic story, written
so close to the heart of nature in the Thirteenth Century that it will
always prove attractive.</p>
<p>In Germany, just at the same time, the Nibelungen-Lied was receiving
the form in which it was to live as the great National epic. The
Meistersingers also were accomplishing their supreme work of
Christianizing and modernizing the old German and Christian legends
which were to prove such a precious heritage of interest for
posterity. In the South of Germany the Minnesingers sang their tuneful
strains and showed how possible it was to take the cruder language of
the North, and pour forth as melodious hymns of praise to nature and
to their beloved ones as in the more fluent Southern tongues. Most of
this was done in the old Suabian high German dialect, and the basis of
the modern German language was thus laid. The low German was to prove
the vehicle for the original form of the animal epic or stories with
regard to Reynard, the Fox, which were to prove so popular throughout
all of Europe for all time thereafter.</p>
<p>In North France the Trouvères were accomplishing a similar work to
that of the Minnesingers in South Germany, but doing it with an
original genius, a refinement of style characteristic of their nation,
and a finish of form that was to impress itself upon French literature
for all subsequent time. Here also Jean de Meun and Guillaume de
Lorris wrote the Romance of the Rose, which was to remain the most
popular book in Europe down to the age of printing and for some time
thereafter. At the South of France the work of the Troubadours,
similar to that of the Trouvères and yet with, a spirit and character
all its own, was creating a type of love songs that the world recurs
to with pleasure whenever the lyrical aspect of poetry becomes
fashionable. The influence of the Troubadours was to be felt in Italy,
and before the end of the Thirteenth Century there were many
writers of short poems that deserve a place in what is best in
literature. Men like Sordello, Guido Cavalcanti, Cino da Pistoia, and
Dante da Maiano, deserve mention in any historical review of
literature, quite apart from the influence which they had on their
great successor, the Prince of Italian poets and one of the immortal
trio of the world's supreme creative singers—Dante Alighieri. With
what must have seemed the limit of conceit he placed himself among the
six greatest poets, but posterity breathes his name only with those of
Homer and Shakespeare.</p>
<p>Dante, in spite of his giant personality and sublime poetic genius, is
not an exception nor a solitary phenomenon in the course of the
century, but only a worthy culmination of the literary movement which,
beginning in the distant West in Spain and England, gradually worked
eastward quite contrary to the usual trend of human development and
inspired its greatest work in the musical Tuscan dialect after having
helped in the foundation of all the other modern languages. Dante is
the supreme type of the Thirteenth Century, the child of his age, but
the great master whom medieval influences have made all that he is.
That he belongs to the century there can be no doubt, and of himself
alone he would be quite sufficient to lift any period out of obscurity
and place it among the favorite epochs, in which the human mind found
one of those opportune moments for the expression of what is sublimest
in human thought.</p>
<p>It is, however, the bock of the Arts of the Thirteenth Century that
deserves most to be thumbed by the modern reader intent on learning
something of this marvelous period of human existence. There is not a
single branch of art in which the men of this generation did not
accomplish excelling things that have been favorite subjects for study
and loving imitation ever since. Perhaps the most marvelous quality of
the grand old Gothic cathedrals, erected during the Thirteenth
Century, is not their impressiveness as a whole so much as their
wonderful finish in detail. It matters not what element of
construction or decoration be taken into consideration, always there
is an approach to perfection in accomplishment in some one of the
cathedrals that shows with what thoroughness the men of the time
comprehended what was best in art, and how finally their strivings
after perfection were rewarded as bountifully as perhaps it has ever
been given to men to realize.</p>
<p>Of the major arts—architecture itself, sculpture and painting—only a
word will be said here since they will be treated more fully in
subsequent chapters. No more perfect effort at worthy worship of the
Most High has ever been accomplished than is to be seen in the Gothic
cathedrals in every country in Europe as they exist to the present
day. While the movement began in North France, and gradually spread to
other countries, there was never any question of mere slavish
imitation, but on the contrary in each country Gothic architecture
took on a national character and developed into a charming expression
of the special characteristics of the people for whom and by whom it
was made. English Gothic is, of course, quite different to that of
France; Spanish Gothic has a character all its own; the German Gothic
cathedrals partake of the heavier characteristics of the Northern
people, while Italian Gothic adds certain airy decorative qualities to
the French model that give renewed interest and inevitably indicate
the origin of the structures.</p>
<p>In painting, Cimabue's work, so wonderfully appreciated by the people
of Florence that spontaneously they flocked in procession to do honor
to his great picture, was the beginning of modern art. How much was
accomplished before the end of the century will be best appreciated
when the name of Giotto is mentioned as the culmination of the art
movement of the century. As we shall see, the work done by him,
especially at Assisi, has been a source of inspiration for artists
down even to our own time, and there are certain qualities of his art,
especially his faculty for producing the feeling of solidity in his
paintings, in which very probably he has never been surpassed. Gothic
cathedrals in other countries did not lend themselves so well as
subjects of inspiration for decorative art, but in every country the
sacred books in use in the cathedral were adorned, at the command of
the artistic impulse of the period, in a way that has made the
illuminated missals and office books of the Thirteenth Century perhaps
the most precious that there are in the history of book-making.</p>
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ARCHANGEL MICHAEL (GIOVANNI PISANO, PISA)<br/>
CHRIST (ANDREA PISANO, FLORENCE)<br/>
STA. REPARATA (ANDREA PISANO, FLORENCE)</p>
<p>It might be thought that in sculpture, at least, these
Thirteenth-Century generations would prove to be below the level of
that perfection and artistic expression which came so assuredly in
other lines. It is true that most of the sculptures of the period have
defects that make them unworthy of imitation, though it is in the
matter of technique that they fail rather than in honest effort to
express feelings appropriately within the domain of chiseled work. On
the other hand there are some supreme examples of what is best in
sculpture to be found among the adornments of the cathedrals of the
period. No more simply dignified rendition of the God Man has ever
been made in stone than the statue of Christ, which with such charming
appropriateness the people of Amiens have called <i>le Beau Dieu</i>, their
beautiful God, and that visitors to their great cathedral can never
admire sufficiently, admirably set off, as it is, in its beautiful
situation above the main door of the great cathedral. Other examples
are not lacking, as for instance some of the Thirteenth-Century
effigies of the French kings and queens at St. Denis, and some of the
wonderful sculptures at Rheims. In its place as a subsidiary art to
architecture for decorative purposes, sculpture was even more
eminently successful. The best example of this is the famous Angel
Choir of Lincoln, one of the most beautiful things that ever came from
the hand of man and whose designation indicates the belief of the
centuries that only the angels could have made it.</p>
<p>In the handicrafts most nearly allied to the arts, the Thirteenth
Century reigns supreme with a splendor unapproached by what has been
accomplished in any other century. The iron work of their gates and
railings, even of their hinges and latches and locks, has been admired
and imitated by many generations since. When a piece of it is no
longer of use, or loosens from the crumbling woodwork to which it was
attached, it is straightway transported to some museum, there to be
displayed not alone for its antiquarian interest, but also as a model
and a suggestion to the modern designer. This same thing is true of
the precious metal work of the times also, at least as regards the
utensils and ornaments employed in the sacred services. The chalices
and other sacred vessels were made on severely simple lines and
according to models which have since become the types of such sacred
utensils for all times.</p>
<p>The vestments used in the sacred ceremonials partook of this same
character of eminently appropriate handiwork united to the chastest of
designs, executed with supreme taste. The famous cope of Ascoli which
the recent Pierpont Morgan incident brought into prominence a year or
so ago, is a sample of the needlework of the times that illustrates
its perfection. It is said by those who are authorities in the matter
that Thirteenth-Century needlework represents what is best in this
line. It is not the most elaborate, nor the most showy, but it is in
accordance with the best taste, supremely suitable to the objects of
which it formed a part. It is, after all, only an almost inevitable
appendix to the beautiful work done in the illumination of the sacred
books, that the sacred vestments should have been quite as supremely
artistic and just as much triumphs of art.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, every minutest detail of cathedral construction
and ornamentation shared in this artistic triumph. Even the
inscriptions, done in brass upon the gravestones that formed part of
the cathedral pavements, are models of their kind, and rubbings from
them are frequently taken because of their marvelous effectiveness as
designs in Gothic tracery.</p>
<p>Their bells were made with such care and such perfection that, down to
the present time, nothing better has been accomplished in this
handicraft, and their marvelous retention of tone shows how thorough
was the work of these early bell-makers.</p>
<p>The triumph of artistic decoration in the cathedrals, however, and the
most marvelous page in the book of the Arts of the century, remains to
be spoken of in their magnificent stained-glass windows. Where they
learned their secret of glass-making we know not. Artists of the
modern time, who have spent years in trying to perfect their own work
in this line, would give anything to have some of the secrets of the
glass-makers of the Thirteenth Century. Such windows as the Five
Sisters at York, or the wonderful Jesse window of Chartres with some
of its companions, are the despair of the modern artists in
stained glass. The fact that their glass-making was not done at one,
or even a few, common centers, but was apparently executed in each of
these small medieval towns that were the site of a cathedral, only
adds to the marvel of how the workmen of the time succeeded so well in
accomplishing their purpose of solving the difficult problems of
stained glasswork.</p>
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PASCHAL CANDLESTICK (BAPTISTERY, FLORENCE)<br/>
RELIQUARY (CATHEDRAL ORVIETO, UGOLINO DI VIERI)</p>
<p>If, to crown all that has been said about the Thirteenth Century, we
now add a brief account of what was accomplished for men in the matter
of liberty and the establishment of legal rights, we shall have a
reasonably adequate introduction to this great subject. Liberty is
thought to be a word whose true significance is of much more recent
origin than the end of the Middle Ages. The rights of men are usually
supposed to have received serious acknowledgment only in comparatively
recent centuries. The recalling of a few facts, however, will dispel
this illusion and show how these men of the later middle age laid the
foundation of most of the rights and privileges that we are so proud
to consider our birthright in this modern time. The first great fact
in the history of modern liberty is the signing of Magna Charta which
took place only a little after the middle of the first quarter of the
Thirteenth Century. The movement that led up to it had arisen amongst
the guildsmen as well as the churchmen and the nobles of the preceding
century. When the document was signed, however, these men did not
consider that their work was finished. They kept themselves ready to
take further advantage of the necessities of their rulers and it was
not long before they had secured political as well as legal rights.</p>
<p>Shortly after the middle of the Thirteenth Century the first English
parliament met, and in the latter part of that half century it became
a formal institution with regularly appointed times of meeting and
definite duties and privileges. Then began the era of law in its
modern sense for the English people. The English common law took form
and its great principles were enunciated practically in the terms in
which they are stated down to the present day. Bracton made his famous
digest of the English common law for the use of judges and lawyers and
it became a standard work of reference. Such it has remained down
to our own time. At the end of the century, during the reign of Edward
I, the English Justinian, the laws of the land were formulated,
lacunae in legislation filled up, rights and privileges fully
determined, real-estate laws put on a modern basis, and the most
important portions of English law became realities that were to be
modified but not essentially changed in all the after time.</p>
<p>This history of liberty and of law-making, so familiar with regard to
England, must be repeated almost literally with regard to the
continental nations. In France, the foundation of the laws of the
kingdom were laid during the reign of Louis IX, and French authorities
in the history of law, point with pride, to how deeply and broadly the
foundations of French jurisprudence were laid. Under Louis's cousin,
Ferdinand III of Castile, who, like the French monarch, has received
the title of Saint, because of the uprightness of his character and
all that he did for his people, forgetful of himself, the foundations
of Spanish law were laid, and it is to that time that Spanish jurists
trace the origin of nearly all the rights and privileges of their
people. In Germany there is a corresponding story. In Saxony there was
the issue of a famous book of laws, which represented all the grants
of the sovereigns, and all the claims of subjects that had been
admitted by monarchs up to that time. In a word, everywhere there was
a codification of laws and a laying of foundations in jurisprudence,
upon which the modern superstructure of law was to rise.</p>
<p>This is probably the most surprising part of the Thirteenth Century.
When it began men below the rank of nobles were practically slaves.
Whatever rights they had were uncertain, liable to frequent violation
because of their indefinite character, and any generation might, under
the tyranny of some consciousless monarch, have lost even the few
privileges they had enjoyed before. At the close of the Thirteenth
Century this was no longer possible. The laws had been written down
and monarchs were bound by them as well as their subjects. Individual
caprice might no longer deprive them arbitrarily of their rights and
hard won privileges, though tyranny might still assert itself and a
submissive generation might, for a time, allow themselves to be
governed by measures beyond the domain of legal justification. Any
subsequent generation might, however, begin anew its assertion of its
rights from the old-time laws, rather than from the position to which
their forbears had been reduced by a tyrant's whim.</p>
<p>Is it any wonder, then, that we should call the generations that gave
us the cathedrals, the universities, the great technical schools that
were organized by the trades guilds, the great national literatures
that lie at the basis of all our modern literature, the beginnings of
sculpture and of art carried to such heights that artistic principles
were revealed for all time, and, finally, the great men and women of
this century—for more than any other it glories in names that were
born not to die—is it at all surprising that we should claim for the
period which, in addition to all this, saw the foundation of modern
law and liberty, the right to be hailed—the greatest of human
history?</p>
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THE CHURCH [SYMBOLIZED] (PARIS)</p>
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