That humanist historiography in England was closely related to the origins of that Intel lectual movement in Italy is to be seen in the fact that the first product of this type of his toical literature in England was the scholarly and well-written of England in the Reign of Henry VIP by Polydore Vergil (1470-1535), an Italian ecclesiastic who had made his home in England. His scholarship was not matched in the British Isles until the time of Camden. a century later. England's earliest native humanist historian of note was Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), whose pol ished style found expression in his of Richard III.' Of all the British historians of this period, it is probable that the truest repre sentative of humanism was the erudite Scot, George Buchanan (1506-82). Few of the best Italians equalled him for the purity of his Latin diction and the vigor and clarity of his narrative, but his of Scotland' was most uncritical and credulous, utterly lacking in rationalistic tendencies and marred by a narrow chauvinism. Machiavelli and Guicci ardini found their English disciple in thephi losopher and statesman, Francis Bacon (1561 1626). His 'History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh' was especially notable for bold criticism, 'judicial severity," and the frank expression of the author's opinions. The Eng lish representative of the erudite and critical school of Blondus was the court historian, Wil liam Camden (1551-1623), an avowed admirer of Polybius. In his 'Annals of English and Irish History in the Reign of Elizabeth' he showed, like his French contemporary De Thou, that the political history of the 16th century could not be wholly divorced from ecclesiastical questions.
The transition from humanism to modern political history in England was illustrated by the works of Lord Clarendon (1609-74) and Bishop Burnet (1643-1715). While the general arrangement of Clarendon's 'History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England' re sembled the French 'memoirs,' and though it was most superficial in its analysis of the fundamental social and political causes of the civil wars; it is doubtful if any previous his torian, classical or humanist, possessed Claren don's power of vivid delineation of personali ties. Bishop Burnet, in his 'History of the Reformation of the Church of England' and 'History of My Own Time,' was the first his torian of party intrigues and parliamentary de bates, a subject scarcely available for any pre vious writer. An ardent Whig and Anglican, he belonged more to the forerunners of modern political history than to the list of disciples of humanism.
Spain contributed three important figures to humanist historical literature in Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1503-75),Juan de Mariana (1535- 1625) and Geronimo de Zurita (1512-80). While Mendoza wrote his 'History of the War with Granada' in a pompous, archaic and involved style, he equalled Bacon or Guicciardini in his sharp criticisms and acute judgments. Mariana, a Spanish Jesuit, was a writer of quite a dif ferent sort. He has been called the Spanish Buchanan by Fueter, and his 'History of Spain' in 30 books resembled the work of the Scot in its excellent style and cautious criti cisms of Christian legends. His liberal allot ment of space to ecclesiastical matters was a breach with humanist conventions. Much less able in narration, but a far more critical scholar, was Ger6nimo de Zurita, the historian of the kingdom of Aragon and the most prominent and faithful disciple of Blondus among the Spanish historians of this period. He was espe
cially significant through the fact that he was one of the first historians to make an extensive and fairly critical use of the diplomatic corre spondence in reconstructing the record of polit ical events in the distant past.
The most notable product of the historical scholarship of the French humanists was the work of Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609) in the field of historical chronology. His 'De emendatione temporum' was a bold attempt to put chronology on a scientific basis by revising the "sacred' chronology in the light of the evidence from the history of the "gentile* and nations of antiquity. His 'Thesaurus temporum' was a most notable performance of scholarship, which provided a general history of the development of chronology and included a most valuable reconstruction of the lost (Chronicle) of Eusebius. Scaliger's publicist contemporary, Jean Bodin (1530-96), in his 'Methodus ad facilem historiarum cogni tionem,' produced the first extensive treatise on historical method, with the emphasis on inter pretation rather than upon criticism of sources. Especially significant was the emphasis which Bodin placed upon the influence of geographical factors in historical development, thus opening the way for Montesquieu and Ritter. It was, therefore, to a much greater degree a fore runner of the first chapter of Buckle's (His tory of England' than of Bernheim's (Lehr buch.) A widely different contribution to his toriography was contained in the work of Jac ques Auguste de Thou (1553-1617), conven tionally known as Thuanus. He was probably the most notable French contributor to the sys tematic historiography of humanism. His 'His toria sui temporis,' designed as a continuation of a work of the same title by the Italian humanist, Paulus Jovus (1483-1552), described the civil and religious wars in France in the latter part of the 16th century according to the spirit of an enlightened and tolerant French Protestant. He introduced into historiography the laudable tendencies displayed by his royal master and friend, Henry IV, in statesmanship. As might be expected in the work of one of the jurists who aided in drafting the •Edict of Nantes,' he was scarcely fair to the extreme Catholic party, but his message was a lofty and noble plea for mutual religious toleration in the larger interests of France. His work ex hibited great powers of extended intellectual labor and uniformly maintained a great dignity of tone. He might have equalled Machiavelli and Guicciardini if he had not reintroduced the theory of the divine determination of political causation, and if he had possessed the con structive literary ability which would have enabled him to organize his work into a coherent narrative. He may be said, however, to have improved upon them in one regard, namely, that he showed how essential a proper consideration of ecclesiastical affairs may be to a thorough understanding of political and con stitutional development. The contributions of de Thou's contemporary, Isaac Casaubon, will be discussed in another connection. The finest literary product of the of French humanism was the polished Memoires) of Saint-Simon (1675-1735) dealing with France under the early Bourbons.