"
[Sidenote: IV. 2. State of German Literature, from the Suabian Dynasty
to Charles V.]
This was a great step toward the civilization of Germany, and of the
other countries in which the institutions of the civil law were thus
introduced. They certainly tended to animate the nations, by whom they
were received, to the study of the history and literature of the people
from the works of whose writers they had been compiled. They produced
this effect in several countries of Europe; but their influence in
Germany was very limited: the disposition to subtilize, which was at
that time universal throughout the German empire, led those who
cultivated literature rather to refine upon what was before them, than
to new inquiries. The language of the Pandects is of the silver age; it
might therefore be expected, that it would have improved the general
style of the times; but this improvement is seldom discernible.
[Sidenote: 1438-1519]
[Sidenote: IV. 2. State of German Literature, from the Suabian Dynasty
to Charles V.
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