The New Learning

There is still dispute concerning the processes by which medieval habits of thought were in England supplanted by the newer attitude and discipline to which the terms Renaissance and Humanism are applied. 1 English humanism was a matter of thought and training more than of spontaneous emotion, of borrowing from Italy, France, and Germany more than of native impulse. The movement affected English literature, narrowly considered, rather slowly and rather indirectly. It came in by two doors: the court and the university.