THE MOVEMENT IN ITALY PATRIOTIC. The inspiration for the revival of learning in Italy did not originate with the universities. Even the new chairs when established in the universities were regarded as inferior, and, in true university fashion, the occupants were tolerated by the other professors rather than approved of by them. Some of the universities-- Pavia and Bologna, in particular--had practically nothing to do with the new movement. [1] Even in the rich and learned city of Florence, the head and front of the revival movement, the church scholars and many university men took little or no part in the restoration of the old studies. The learned archbishop, Saint Antoninus, who presided over the cathedral at Florence during the brightest days of that city's history, pursued his mediaeval scholastic instruction undisturbed, and even wrote a _Summa Theologica_ of his own. [Illustration: FIG. 76. SAINT ANTONINUS AND HIS SCHOLARS Saint Antoninus (1380-1459) was the learned and pious Archbishop of Florence from 1446 until his death. The picture of him giving instruction is from the Venice (1503) edition of his _Summa Theologica_.] The revival movement, on the contrary, was directed in its beginnings by a small group of patriotic Italians possessed of a modern spirit, and was financed by intelligent and patriotic merchants, bankers, and princes. Surrounded on all sides by monuments and remains testifying to Roman greatness, and with Roman speech in constant use by the scholars of the Church, the revival of Latin literature meant more to Italian scholars than to those of any other country. It seemed to them still possible to revive Roman life and make Roman speech once more the language of the learned world. The revival of Latin literature, too, meant much more to them than the revival of Greek. The chief value of the latter was to open up a still greater past, and through this to illuminate Roman life and literature. After about 1500 the enthusiasm for Greek rapidly died out in Italy, and the further interpretation of Greek life and thought was left to the northern nations.