ry Council--its
Judicial and other Power--Character of the Plantagenet Government--
Prerogative--its Excesses--erroneous Views corrected--Testimony of Sir
John Fortescue to the Freedom of the Constitution--Causes of the
superior Liberty of England considered--State of Society in England--
Want of Police--Villenage--its gradual Extinction--Latter Years of Henry
VI.--Regencies--Instances of them enumerated--Pretensions of the House
of York, and War of the Roses--Edward IV.--Conclusion. Page 1

NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII., PART III. 204

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.

PART I.

Introduction--Decline of Literature in the latter Period of the Roman
Empire--Its Causes--Corruption of the Latin Language--Means by which
it was effected--Formation of new Languages--General Ignorance of the
Dark Ages--Scarcity of Books--Causes that prevented the total Extinction
of Learning--Prevalence of Superstition and Fanaticism--General
Corruption of Religion--Monasteries--their Effects--Pilgrimages--Love
of Field Sports--State of Agriculture--of Internal and Foreign Trade
down to the end of the Eleventh Century--Improvement of Europe dated
from that Age. 268

PART II.

Progress of Commercial Improvement in Germany, Flanders, and England--
in the North of Europe--in the Countries upon the Mediterranean Sea--
Maritime Laws--Usury--Banking Companies--Progress of Refinement in
Manners--Domestic Architecture--Ecclesiastical Architecture--State of
Agriculture in England--Value of Money--Improvement of the Moral
Character of Society--its Causes--Police--Changes in Religious Opinion
--Various Sects--Chivalry--its Progress, Character, and Influence--
Causes of the Intellectual Improvement of European Society--1. The Study
of Civil Law--2. Institution of Universities--their Celebrity--
Scholastic Philosophy--3. Cultivation of Modern Languages--Provencal
Poets--Norman Poets--French Prose Writers--Italian--early Poets in that
Language--Dante--Petrarch--English Language--its Progress--Chaucer--4.
Revival of Classical Learning--Latin Writers of the Twelfth Century--
Literature of the Fourteenth Century--Greek Literature--its Restoration
in Italy--Invention of Printing. 318

NOTES TO CHAPTER IX. 474

INDEX. 487

VIEW

OF

THE STATE OF EUROPE

DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.

CHAPTER VIII.

PART III.

THE