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065 - 2 The Humanism of Italy · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter two of Short History of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter two the Humanism of Italy. Important
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  Speaker 1: general movements without connection with prominent characters, were likewise in
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  Speaker 1: progress to hasten the approach of reform. Chief of these
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  Speaker 1: in the field of intellectual progress was the revival of literature,
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  Speaker 1: which took the name of humanism. The studies were purely
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  Speaker 1: human and literary, as distinguished from the theological themes which
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  Speaker 1: had long held sway in all the universities and learned
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  Speaker 1: circles of Europe. Great attention was given the Greek and
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  Speaker 1: Latin classical writers, even down to our time. In some
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  Speaker 1: places the literature and languages of Greece and Rome are
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  Speaker 1: denominated the humanities. This is especially the case in the
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  Speaker 1: Scotch and English Universe cities. In the Italian Renaissance of learning, however,
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  Speaker 1: Hebrew also came in for its share of attention. Political
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  Speaker 1: events had a large share in producing this new turn
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  Speaker 1: of the world's thought. The great Italian poets of the
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth century had written on topics suggested by classical writers.
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  Speaker 1: Boccaccio depended on Greece for his material, while Dante and
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  Speaker 1: Petrarch drew their inspiration from Roman sources. As notable public
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  Speaker 1: teachers in Italy who contributed largely to the development of
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  Speaker 1: humanism not only in that land but in the countries
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  Speaker 1: north of the Alps. Chrysolaris taught Greek literature in Pavia
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  Speaker 1: and Florence, and John of Ravenna instructed in Latin literature
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  Speaker 1: in Padua and Florence. A further impulse was given to
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  Speaker 1: Greek studies by the fruitless attempt made at the Council
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  Speaker 1: of Florence to secure a formal use union of the
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  Speaker 1: Greek and Roman Catholic churches, when the Byzantine Emperor John
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  Speaker 1: the seventh Palaeologus was present in person and Bessarion, Archbishop
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  Speaker 1: of Nicea, brought his plan for the union of the
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  Speaker 1: lung separated churches. The points at issue were of too
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  Speaker 1: serious a character for any return to a common communion.
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  Speaker 1: The most serious one was the papal primacy, which the
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  Speaker 1: Roman Catholics insisted upon, and which the Greek delegates accepted,
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  Speaker 1: but which the Greek Church repudiated. But these negotiations, however
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  Speaker 1: vain so far as union was concerned, were exceedingly fruitful
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  Speaker 1: in sowing in Italy and especially in the Roman fold,
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  Speaker 1: an ardent love for Greek letters, not only for the
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  Speaker 1: Greek of the church writers, but also for the productions
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  Speaker 1: of the purest Attic authors. Greece became even to ecclesiastical
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  Speaker 1: scholars and students, an enchanted land whose treasures were suddenly
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  Speaker 1: thrown open for the enjoyment of the whole learned world.
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  Speaker 1: The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in fourteen fifty
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  Speaker 1: three was the culmination of the great movements which brought
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  Speaker 1: about a love for the classic studies in Italy. It was,
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  Speaker 1: in fact of more weight than all other agencies combined.
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  Speaker 1: The flight of Greek Christians westward amounted almost to a
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  Speaker 1: national migration. Large numbers fled to Italy, settled along the
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  Speaker 1: Adriatic coast, swarmed into all the interior cities, and soon
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  Speaker 1: began to be felt as a political and spiritual force
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  Speaker 1: throughout the peninsula. Rome, Florence, Siena and all of the
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  Speaker 1: larger cities became the home of learned Greeks, who brought
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  Speaker 1: with them the classic treasures of their former country and
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  Speaker 1: cultivated them in their new home. With such zeal that
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  Speaker 1: the Greek writers, who had been in obscurity for a
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  Speaker 1: thousand years, were soon familiarly known to the Italians. Even
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  Speaker 1: before the capture of Constantinople, Greek scholars from the Eastern
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  Speaker 1: Empire had entered Italy. Between fourteen twenty and fourteen thirty,
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  Speaker 1: George of Trapezium, Theodore Gaza and John Argiopolis had taken
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  Speaker 1: up their residence in Italy, and after the capture there
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  Speaker 1: came a multitude represented by such men as Constantine Lascaris,
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  Speaker 1: Demetrius Chocandilus, and Emmanuel Moscopilus. No branch of Greek letters
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  Speaker 1: was overlooked. Poetry, eloquence, art and philosophy came in for
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  Speaker 1: full recognition. Each department had its enthusiastic representatives. What Bassarian
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  Speaker 1: and Gamastius Pletho accomplished in infatuating large numbers of Italians
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  Speaker 1: with the new mania for the Platonic philosophy was a
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  Speaker 1: chief by others in every sphere of Greek culture. The
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  Speaker 1: revival of the Latin Classics came in as a competing
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  Speaker 1: factor with the Greek. The Italians were too jealous of
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  Speaker 1: the triumphs of their own immortal ancestors to permit the
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  Speaker 1: Greeks to monopolize attention. Hence we find a great school
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  Speaker 1: of learned Italians laboring earnestly for the re enthronement of
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  Speaker 1: their writers of the Augustine Age. Gasparanus, John arrispa Guerinus Pagans,
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  Speaker 1: Laurentius Valla, Nicholas Prothes, Christopher Laudanus, and Angelo Politianus were
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  Speaker 1: representative of this class. The Italian princes favored the revival
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  Speaker 1: of both Greek and Latin letters. The Medici of Florence
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  Speaker 1: from fourteen twenty nine to fourteen ninety two gathered about
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  Speaker 1: them the most learned men of Italy and patronized every
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  Speaker 1: department of classic science and art. Their court was the
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  Speaker 1: most splendid literary center of modern times. In their gardens,
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  Speaker 1: the princes of thought convened and held communion on all
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  Speaker 1: the great themes of science, literature, and art which were
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  Speaker 1: then agitating Europe. From the Medician gatherings, many young minds,
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  Speaker 1: like Raphael derived an inspiration for great work, which afterwards
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  Speaker 1: took form in art and poetry and philology. They constituted
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  Speaker 1: the literary exchange of the century. The religious tendency of
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  Speaker 1: humanism in Italy was purely negative. The general spirit was
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  Speaker 1: not alone indifferent to Christianity, but positively hostile to it.
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  Speaker 1: The influence of the Medician court and even of the papacy,
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  Speaker 1: was exerted simply to revive the classics and so put
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  Speaker 1: an end to the theological discussions which had absorbed attention.
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  Speaker 1: There was no disposition to resort to the Bible, but
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  Speaker 1: rather to make the famous writers of the pagan times
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  Speaker 1: a substitute for the inspired authors of the scriptures. Skepticism
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  Speaker 1: was the craze of the hour. Even learned hierarchs considered
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  Speaker 1: it well enough at once to hold office in the
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  Speaker 1: church and observe a suspicious silence on the divine origin
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  Speaker 1: of Christianity. The expression is ascribed to Leo the tenth.
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  Speaker 1: What little use the fable of Christ is to us
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  Speaker 1: and our people has been known to all centuries. Whether
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  Speaker 1: the charge be true or not, it is a fact
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  Speaker 1: that it expresses the theology both of Italian humanism and
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  Speaker 1: the papal court of the fifteenth century. Erasmus, who resided
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  Speaker 1: for a time in Rome, wrote in lamentation over the
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  Speaker 1: blasphemous expressions which he constantly heard from prominent ecclesiastics humanism
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  Speaker 1: elsewhere in Europe was very different from that of Italy
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  Speaker 1: so far as sympathy with evangelical religion was concerned. North
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  Speaker 1: of the Alps, the taste for the classic languages and
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  Speaker 1: masterpieces spread with great rapidity, but it was turned into
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  Speaker 1: a theological and religious channel and served to hasten the Reformation.
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  Speaker 1: The scriptures were studied with all that new interest which
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  Speaker 1: came from the revival of philological learning. Panzer relates that
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  Speaker 1: one hundred editions of the Latin Vulgate Bible were printed
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  Speaker 1: between the years fourteen sixty two and fifteen hundred. The
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  Speaker 1: first edition of the Greek Testament, however, which was printed,
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  Speaker 1: was not edited by a skeptical humanist, but by Erasmus,
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  Speaker 1: and appeared in fifteen sixteen. Hebrew received profound attention, and
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  Speaker 1: hence the Old Testament became a book of minute and
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  Speaker 1: laborious study. This new attention to the Bible led immediately
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  Speaker 1: to a comparison of its high standard of morals and
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  Speaker 1: doctrine with the present fallen state of the Church. In
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  Speaker 1: both these fundamental departments. The invention of the art of
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  Speaker 1: printing was highly favorable to the new intellectual departure, and
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  Speaker 1: humanist works soon spread throughout Western Europe. Heidelberg and Herfert
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  Speaker 1: became centers of German humanism. Maternus Pistorius of Erfurt stood
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  Speaker 1: at the head of the German poetic group. Conrad Muth
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  Speaker 1: of Gotha led in the same direction and assailed the
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  Speaker 1: prevailing scholasticism with irresistible satire. Rudolph Agricola of Heidelberg was
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  Speaker 1: a profound scholar and turned his attention chiefly to the
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  Speaker 1: promotion of Greek criticism. He was a versatile character and
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  Speaker 1: was well worthy of Guisou's eulogy. A good painter, a
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  Speaker 1: good writer, a good poet, and a learned philologist. He
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  Speaker 1: died in fourteen eighty five. John Rushland of Germany, Erasmus
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  Speaker 1: of Rotterdam, and Thomas Moore of England were champions of
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  Speaker 1: the new humanism. Rushland's service late in the department of
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  Speaker 1: Hebrew Studies, he issued a strong protest against the prevailing
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  Speaker 1: neglect of the study of the Old Testament in the
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  Speaker 1: original Hebrew. His Hebrew Grammar fifteen o six was a
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  Speaker 1: masterpiece of learning, and long remained the favorite textbook in
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  Speaker 1: that field throughout Europe. Erasmus confined his philological labors, chiefly
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  Speaker 1: to the Greek, and was the principal promoter of New
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  Speaker 1: Testament studies for the first generation of Protestants in every land.
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  Speaker 1: He turned the New Testament as one would a powerful
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  Speaker 1: piece of artillery, against the whole fabric of the ignorance, superstition,
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  Speaker 1: and immorality of his times. His Greek edition of the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament, enriched with notes and paraphrases, constituted a scriptural
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  Speaker 1: arsenal for fighting the battle of the Reformation. Thomas Moore
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  Speaker 1: was a friend of Erasmus, and became late in life
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  Speaker 1: an earnest literary worker for the cause of reform. The
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  Speaker 1: chapter in his Utopia, which is entitled the Religion of
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  Speaker 1: the Utopians, is a shrewd and correct picture of the
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  Speaker 1: corruption of his times and of the demand for a
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  Speaker 1: new order of morals and learning. End of chapter two