The ideas of the Middle Ages had to make way for the ideas of the Renaissance before it was possible for men to grasp the meaning of Scripture as a whole, and found their political as well as their social life upon a wide conception of its spirit. But this was the second part of the process, for which the first part was necessary. Before men advanced to the criticism of Scripture they undertook the criticism of history. Against the Papal view of the political facts and principles of the past, the men of the fourteenth century advanced new principles and interpreted the facts afresh...