Humanism |
The exact point in time when the term "Humanism" was first adopted is
unknown. It is, however, certain that Italy and the re-adopting of Latin
letters as the staple of human culture were responsible for the name of
Humanists. Literoe humaniores was an expression coined in
reference to the classic literature of Rome and the imitation and
reproduction of its literary forms in the new learning; this was in
contrast to and against the Literoe sacroe of scholasticism. In
the time of Ario sto, Erasmus, and Luther's beginnings, the term
umanisa was in effect an equivalent to the terms "classicist " or "
classical scholar."
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Dante had an admiration for ancient letters. At
first, he intended to compose his great epic in Latin verse. Petrarch
considered his Africa a fair effort to reproduce Vergil. In
the exordium of his chief work Petrarc h appeals to the Heliconian Sisters
as well as to Jesus Christ, Savior of the world. He also reviews the
epics of Homer (although he never learned Greek), Statius, and Lucan. He
was overwhelmed with the friendships of many prestigous men of his day, a
mong whom Cardinal Stephen Colonna was prominent. Petrarch is the
pathfinder as well as the measure of the new movement. He idealized the
classical world. His classicist consciousness and his Christian
consciousness are revealed in his writings. Th e experiences of life
constantly evoke in him classic parallels, reminiscences, associations.
Julius Caesar, Papirius Cursor, are nostri, "our people"; Pyrrhus,
Hannibal, Massinissa are externi, "foreigners." His epistles
provide the b est revelation of his soul. Of course, the craving for pure
Latinity and the elevation of such practical power of imitation and
reproduction involved an artificiality of which neither Petrarch nor his
successors were aware. Boccaccio was not only a hu manist, but he, with
appalling directness, revealed the emancipation of the flesh as one of the
unmistakable trends of the new movement. Both he and Poggio, Valla,
Beccadelli, Enea Silvio dei Piccolomini (in his youth) show that the
hatred of the cle rical class instigated literary composition. At the
same time in the caricatures of foulness which these leaders of the new
learning loved to draw, there is no moral indignation, but clearly like
satyrs they themselves relish these things. For this reason the Humanists
of Italy, as such, were not at all concerned in the efforts for a
reformation of the church as attempted in the councils of Constance or of
Basel. Poggio, apostolic secretary, came to Constance with the corrupt
pope John XXIII., bu t spent most of his time in ransacking the libraries
of Swiss monasteries for Latin codices. The defense of Jerome of Prague
before the Council reminded him of Cato of Utica. His correspondent
Lionardo Bruni at Florence warns him to be more circumsp ect in his praise
of a heretic. In the Curia itself a semipagan spirit was bred by the
Humanists. In 1447 Parentucelli, an enthusiast for codices, became pope
as Nicholas V. On Easter, the eminent humanist Filelfo wrote to him from
Milan to congratul ate him on his elevation. Filelfo expressed a general
satisfaction of scholars, citing also the humanitas of Christ
himself, as well as writing somewhat hypocritically of fucata gentilium
. . . sapientia. Some time later, in 1453, Filel fo personally
appeared at the papal court. Nicholas kept the vile "Satyrae" of the
humanist until he had perused them, and gave Filelfo a purse of 500 ducats
when he departed. Enea Silvio de' Piccolomini ascended the papal throne
in 1458 as Pius II., another humanist pope.
Character of the Movement
A very clear view of the Humanistic
movement may be gained from the writings of the biographer and beneficiary
of Leo X., Paul Giovio (Jovius). In his Elogia (Antwerp,1557) he
presents a gallery of literary scholar s, beginning with Dante, and
including Petrarch, Boccaccio, Bruni, Poggo, Beceadelli (the pornographic
poet), Valla, Filelfo, Platina, the Greeks Emanuel Chrysoloras, Cardinal
Bessarion, Trapezuntius the Cretan, Theodorus Gaza, Argyropulos,
Chalcondyla s, Musurus of Crete, and Lasearis. Also, he gives us Lorenzo
de'Medici, Ermolao Barbaro, Politian, Pico di Mirandola, and even
Savonarola. But Savonarola's attacks on Pope Alexander VI., father of
Cesare and Lucrezia, are treated as treason and felon y. The Platonic
academy of Ficinus at Florence had certainly no power to regenerate the
political and moral corruption of its patron Lorenzo. Bibienna, the
favorite of Leo X., was witty at banquets; at Leo's court this cardinal
produced his lascivio us comedy, "Colandra," because Terence was too
grave. Even Thomas More and Reuchlin are included. Among the latter's
academic friends were the anonymous composers of the satiric Epistoloe
obscurorum virorum-the flail of the new learning swung ag ainst the
old. The Italian Humanists were not concerned in the reformatory
movements of the fifteenth century. They drifted into a palpable paganism
or semipaganism, curiously illustrated in the verse, e.g., of Politian,
especially his Greek verse, a nd of him even the lax Giovio writes: "he
was a man of unseemly morals. "They all more or less emphasized "vera
virtus" by which they meant "true excellence," the self-wrought
development of human faculties and powers. Still they knew how to ma
intain friendly relations with those higher clerics who had resources with
which to patronize the new learning. They often accepted clerical
preferment, as did Gievio, who became bishop of Nocera. Often the Latin
verse of their youth proved very awkw ard when they entered upon their
benefices. All were more interested "in viewing the early monuments of
sensual enjoyment" than in study of the New Testament. As they greatly
exceeded the corruption of the clergy in their own conduct, they could not
take any practical interest in any spiritual or theological reformation.
In all the correspondence of Filelfo, extending from 1428 to 1462, there
is but once or twice a slight (deistic) utterance of spiritual concern,
when, in the siege of Milan by Fr ancesco Sforza, 1449, the ducal city
endured terrible sufferings. Jacob Burckhardt says of the Humanists that
they were demoralized by their reproduction of Latin verse. But why did
they delve in Ovid, Catullus, and the like with steady predilection? A t
best a mild deism or pantheism may be perceived in their more serious
writings. Greek, on the whole, was a rare attainment among them,
reproductive ostentation limited most of them to Latin.