Preface

THESE ARE DIFFICULT TIMES, BUT THEN AGAIN, DIFFICULT times are not an exception in our history. The early years of the 1400s did not look promising for Europeans. The bubonic plague had returned to every generation after its arrival in 1348, with a devastating outbreak in 1400 to 1401. The Roman Empire was split with a bitter leadership crisis, with one emperor deposed, another murdered, and a third deserted by his army. Finally, the papacy was split between Rome and Avignon in one of the saddest chapters in the history of the Church.

Yet, these were the times that gave rise to the Renaissance. While not totally forgetting medieval imperatives for salvation and God’s teachings, shifting the goals of human knowledge and rejecting superstition ...

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