THEIR INFLUENCE ON WESTERN EUROPE. Western Europe of the tenth to the twelfth centuries presented a dreary contrast, in almost every particular, to the brilliant life of southern Spain. Just emerging from barbarism, it was still in an age of general disorder and of the simplest religious faith. [6] The age of reason and of scientific experiment as a means of arriving at truth had not yet dawned, and would not do so for centuries to come. Monks and clerics, representing the one learned class, regarded this Moslem science as "black art," and in consequence Europe, centuries later, had slowly to rediscover the scientific knowledge which might have been had for the taking. Only the book science of Aristotle would the Church accept, and even this only after some hesitation (Rs. 89, 90). Western Europe had, however, advanced far enough through the study of the Seven Liberal Arts to desire corrected and additional texts of the earlier classical writers, particularly Aristotle, and also to be willing to accept some of the mathematical knowledge of these Saracens. It was here that the Moslem learning in Spain helped in the intellectual awakening of the rest of Europe. Adelhard, an English monk, studied at Cordova about 1120, and took back with him some knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. His Euclid was in general use in the universities by 1300. Gerard of Cremona, in Lombardy (1114-1187), who studied at Toledo a little later, rendered a similar service for Italy. He also translated many works from the Arabic, including Ptolemy's Almagest (p. 49), a book of astronomical tables, and Alhazen's (Spanish scholar, c. 1100) book on Optics. Other monks studied in the Spanish cities during the twelfth century, a few of whom brought back translations of importance. Frederick II [7] employed a staff of Jewish physicians to translate Arabic works into Latin, but, due to his continual war against the Pope and his final outlawry by the Church, his work possessed less significance than it otherwise might have done. Among the books thus translated was the medical textbook of Avicenna (980-1037), based in turn on the Greek works by Galen and Hippocrates of Cos (p. 197). This book described ailments and their treatment in detail, became the standard textbook in the medical faculties of the universities, and was used until the seventeenth century. Another Moslem whose translated writings had great influence on Europe was Averroës (1126-1198) who tried to unite the philosophy of Aristotle with Mohammedanism (R. 88). His influence on the thinkers of the later Middle Ages was large, he being regarded as the greatest commentator on Aristotle from the days of Rome to the time of the Renaissance. [Illustration: FIG. 52. ARISTOTLE]