The term ‘renascence’ in the title of this paper is perhaps a misnomer. Neither the blame for its misapplication, however, nor the credit for a just use of it, should be laid at my door. For it has been employed frequently of late with reference to various developments in several Muslim countries. And the chief aim of the following brief examination of the origins and trends of thought within the world of Islam is simply to discover what meaning, if any, it may have in this connection.

When Alexander VI promulgated the bull Inter caetera on May 4, 1493 granting Spain a large part of the new world, there seems to have been no doubt that the natives who dwelt in the ‘very remote islands and mainlands’ would be willing and able to accept the teachings of the Catholic church. For Alexander had been informed that in those far off lands were

very many peoples living in peace and, as reported, going unclothed, and not eating flesh. Moreover, … these very peoples … believe in one God the Creator in heaven, and seem sufficiently disposed to embrace the Catholic faith and be trained in good morals. And it is hoped that, were they instructed, the name of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, would easily be introduced into the said countries and islands.

These optimistic predictions were not fulfilled and, as the Spanish conquest of the Americas proceeded to reveal the existence of millions of natives, the action of the papacy in the conversion and protection of these masses of Indians became an important matter, for as that studious seventeenth century jurist, Antonio de Leon Pinelo, declared:

Inasmuch as the Indies were conceded to the kings of Castile principally in order to favor and convert the Indians, no harm must come of this concession.

Juvenal in his First Satire (vv. 115, 116) remarks on the curious fact that Pecunia, though so devoutly worshipped, yet has no temple of her own

ut colitur Pax atque Fides, Victoria, Virtus, quaeque salutato crepitat Concordia nido.

She is not actually like them an object of cult. The modern reader, while relishing the bitterness of the gibe, is left vaguely wondering how the Romans could seriously worship such ‘personifications’ as Pax or Fides, and his wonder will only increase, if he follows up the subject and traces the cult of the ‘Virtues’ in literature, in inscriptions and, above all, in the imperial coinage. When we talk of ‘personifications,’ we feel ourselves at once in the realm of poetic or artistic imagery and fancy; the ancient Roman, when he spoke of similar figures, felt himself in the realm of religious fact.