faith. [6] The age of reason and of scientific experiment as a means of
arriving at truth had not yet dawned, and would not do so for centuries to
come. Monks and clerics, representing the one learned class, regarded this
Moslem science as "black art," and in consequence Europe, centuries later,
had slowly to rediscover the scientific knowledge which might have been
had for the taking. Only the book science of Aristotle would the Church
accept, and even this only after some hesitation (Rs. 89, 90).

Western Europe had, however, advanced far enough through the study of the
Seven Liberal Arts to desire corrected and additional texts of the earlier
classical writers, particularly Aristotle, and also to be willing to
accept some of the mathematical knowledge of these Saracens. It was here
that the Moslem learning in Spain helped in the intellectual awakening of
the rest of Europe. Adelhard, an English monk, studied at Cordova about
1120, and took back with him some knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, and
geometry. His Euclid was in general use in the universities by 1300.
Gerard of Cremona, in Lombardy (1114-1187), who studied at Toledo a little
later, rendered a similar service for Italy. He also translated many works
from the Arabic, including Ptolemy's Almagest (p. 49), a book of
astronomical tables, and Alhazen's (Spanish scholar, c. 1100) book on
Optics. Other monks studied in the Spanish cities during the twelfth
century, a few of whom brought back translations of importance. Frederick
II [7] employed a staff of Jewish physicians to translate Arabic works
into Latin, but, due to his continual war against the Pope and his final
outlawry by the Church, his work possessed less significance than it
otherwise might have done. Among the books thus translated was the medical
textbook of Avicenna (980-1037), based in turn on the Greek works by Galen
and Hippocrates of Cos (p. 197). This book described ailments and their
treatment in detail, became the standard textbook in the medical faculties
of the universities, and was used until the seventeenth century. Another