Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/495

 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE. ' New structures, that inordinately glow, Subdued, brought back to harmony, made ripe By many a relic of the archetype Extant for wonder ; every upstart church. That hoped to leave old temples in the lurch, Corrected by the theatre forlorn That as a mundane shell, its world late born, Lay, and o'ershadowed it." — Browning. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. The causes which led to the re-introdtiction, or re-birth (Renaissance), of Classic Architecture in Europe at the beginning of the fifteenth century, are instructive, and must be grasped in order fully to understand so great a change. In this section the Renaissance movement as affecting the whole of Europe will be dealt with. I. INFLUENCES. i. Geographical. — The Renaissance movement, arising in Italy in the fifteenth century, spread from thence to France, Germany, and England, and over the whole of Western Europe — over what had been the Roman empire in the West. The Eastern empire did not come under its influence, for the Greeks in the East, who had been the most civilized people in Europe, were now falling before the Turks. ii. Geological, i u r ^ i
 * n^■.^T4.^ r Refer to each country.

111. Llimate. i -^ iv. Religion. — The invention of printing, which aided the spread of knowledge, the spirit of inquiry, and the diffusion of freedom of thought, led, among the Teutonic races, to a desire to break away from Romish influence. This desire was originally fostered by Wycliffe in England (a.d. 1377), and by INIartirj