_Universal Chronology (A.D. 1301-1438)_, 385 JOHN RUDD LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME VII page _Jeanne d'Arc stands, banner in hand, during the coronation of Charles VII, before the high altar at Rheims (page 347)_, Frontispiece Painting by J. E. Lenepveu. _Richard II resigns the crown of England to Henry, Duke of Lancaster, son of John of Gaunt, at London_, 262 Painting by Sir John Gilbert. AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE GREAT EVENTS (FROM DANTE TO GUTENBERG: THE EARLIER RENAISSANCE) CHARLES F. HORNE Fifty years ago the term "renaissance" had a very definite meaning to scholars as representing an exact period toward the close of the fourteenth century when the world suddenly reawoke to the beauty of the arts of Greece and Rome, to the charm of their gayer life, the splendor of their intellect. We know now that there was no such sudden reawakening, that Teutonic Europe toiled slowly upward through long centuries, and that men learned only gradually to appreciate the finer side of existence, to study the universe for themselves, and look with their own eyes upon the life around them and the life beyond. Thus the word "renaissance" has grown to cover a vaguer period, and there has been a constant tendency to push the date of its beginning ever backward, as we detect more and more the dimly dawning light amid the darkness of earlier ages. Of late, writers have fallen into the way of calling Dante the "morning star of the Renaissance"; and the period of the great poet's work, the first decade of the fourteenth century, has certainly the advantage of being characterized by three or four peculiarly striking events which serve to typify the tendencies of the coming age. In 1301 Dante was driven out of Florence, his native city-republic, by a political strife. In this year, as he himself phrases it, he descended into hell; that is, he began those weary wanderings in exile which ended only with his life, and which stirred in him the deeps that found expression in his mighty poem, the _Divina Commedia_.[1] Throughout his masterpiece he speaks with eager respect of the old Roman writers, and of such Greeks as he knew--so we have admiration of the ancient intellect. He also speaks bitterly of certain popes, as well as of other more earthly tyrants--so we have the dawnings of democracy and of religious revolt, of government by one's self and thought for one's self, instead of submission to the guidance of others.