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Petrarch, Creator of the Christian Humanist Ronald Witt Petrarch, Creator of the Christian Humanist Among Petrarch’s greatest achievements was his Christianization of the human- ist movement, the integration of ancient pagan learning with Christian literature. In another place I have described the completely secular character of humanism in the two generations prior to Petrarch.1 Nothing in the surviving work of the Paduan Lovato dei Lovati (1240/41–1309), the first Italian scholar to make a serious effort to imitate the style of ancient authors, indicates that he had any kind of Christian commitment. Similarly Albertino Mussato (1261–1329), the leader of the second generation of Paduan humanists, showed no interest in Christian teach- ings until the last two years of his life, when a sudden religious conversion led to his condemning ancient writers.2 Admittedly, the apparent paganism not only of Lovato and Mussato but of others in their circle may reflect only literary posing and not real beliefs. My point is that the first two generations of humanists made no effort to integrate their new approach to ancient Latin literature and history with their Christian society. According to Petrarch writing in the De otio, his own teachers had the same secular attitude as did the Paduans and had little respect for the Bible.3 At a certain point in his life, perhaps even as late as the early 1340s, Petrarch decided to face up to reconciling his passion for antiquity with his Christian beliefs. Thereafter he undertook to frame his autobiography so as to identify himself as a Christian scholar by showing that the study of the ancients was both compatible and useful for living a Christian life. By emphasizing certain aspects of his autobiography and by invention Petrarch created the image of the Christian humanist that was to influence the course of humanism in his own generation and the generation following. Moreover, although his influence diminished in the fifteenth century, his amalgam of Christianity and pagan wisdom was to prove an enduring aspect of the later humanist movement. Fundamental to Petrarch’s belief in the relevance of pagan literature to Chris- tianity was Augustine’s statement in the Confessions that his desire to reform his 1 See Ronald Witt: “In the Footsteps of the Ancients.” The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to Bruni. Boston and Leiden: Brill 2000, p. 170–171. 2 For his attitude on the afterlife, see ibid., p. 121. 3 Francesco Petrarca: De otio religioso. Edited by G. Rotondi. Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apos- tolica Vaticana, 1958, p. 103: “[…] eos qui psalterium daviticum, qua ulla pregnantior scriptura est, et omnem divine textum pagine non aliter quam aniles fabulas irriderent”; Eng. trans. On Religious Leisure. Ed. and trans. by Susan S. Schearer. New York: Italica Press 2002, p. 145. Open access. © 2018 Ronald Witt, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110419306-004 66 Ronald Witt life had initially come from reading Cicero’s Hortensius.4 The fact that Augustine had used his extensive education in pagan literature in his effort to interpret Scripture and develop Christian doctrine persuaded Petrarch of the value of using pagan works for his own understanding of the Christian faith and Augustine’s example legitimized his devotion to the study of ancient literature. Petrarch never devoted a treatise to defining his views on the relation- ship between Christian doctrine and pagan literature. However, in a letter to Francesco Nelli in 1358, he states that he intends to devote the rest of his life to reading Christian writings. He continues to love Cicero and Virgil, Plato and Homer, but “now something greater is at stake and I am more concerned with saving of my own soul than with eloquence.”5 His orators will be Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory while his philosopher is St. Paul. Once doubt- ful as to whether David was a greater poet than Homer or Virgil, now guided by experience and the light of truth, he has taken David as his poet. Conscious that his words might be interpreted as questioning the value of studying the ancients, he continues: Neque ideo tamen quia hos pretulerim, illos abicio, quod se fecisse Ieronimus scribere potius quam sequenti stilo approbare visus est michi; ego utrosque simul amare posse videor, modo quos in verborum, quos in rerum consilio preferam non ignorem. (§ 8) [Not that I prefer the one group (i. e. Christian writers) and attach little value to the other (i. e. the pagan authors), as Jerome wrote that he did, even though, as far as I can judge, he did not act upon his words in his later work. I, it appears, can love both sides at the same time, even though, I know very well whom to prefer when it is a question of expression and whom when it is a question of substance.]6 Petrarch’s On His Own Ignorance and That of Many Others, composed in 1367, is his most extensive discussion of the relationship between pagan learning and Christianity. In this work he links the issue of the relationship to that of the impor- tance of the intellect compared with the will, of knowing compared to loving. Angered at the betrayal of four younger men, supposedly his friends, who behind his back had called him a good man but ignorant, Petrarch replied with a multi- layered attack designed to discredit the accusers and the accusation. Accused of 4 Petrarca: De otio religioso, p. 103; On Religious Leisure, p. 146. 5 My Translation. Latin text in: Petrarca: Rerum fam. XXII, 10. In: Petrarca: Le familiari. Edited by Vittorio Rossi (vols 1–3) and by Vittorio Rossi and Umberto Bosco (vol. 4). Firenze: Sansoni 1933–1942 (Edizione nazionale delle opere di F. P., 10–13), IV, p. 127: “Amavi ego Ciceronem, fa- teor, et Virgilium amavi […]. Amavi similiter Platonem ex Grecis atque Homerum […]. Sed iam michi maius agitur negotium, maiorque salutis quam eloquentie cura est.” (§§ 5–6) 6 My translation. Latin text in: Ibid., p. 127–128. Petrarch, Creator of the Christian Humanist 67 ignorance because he had disagreed with Aristotle on certain issues, Petrarch declares that he prefers to be judged good rather than wise because morality is superior to wisdom and love to truth. For this reason Latin writers are superior to Aristotle because his moral teach- ings were ineffective. “He teaches what virtue is, I do not deny that, but his lesson lacks the words that sting and set afire and urge toward love of virtue and hatred of vice, or, at any rate, they do not have enough of such power. He who looks for that will find it in our Latin writers, especially in Cicero and Seneca, and what may be astonishing to hear, in Horace, a poet somewhat rough in style but more pleasing in his maxims.”7 Implicitly Petrarch is attacking the Scholastic curricu- lum based on Aristotle as less relevant to the needs of society than one centered on humanistic studies. Petrarch follows this critique by attacking Aristotle’s errors such as his belief in the eternity of the world. Among the ancients Plato and Cicero were far superior in their use of natural reason to attain truth about God and the soul. While coming close to the truth, however, the Platonists failed to reach it, and if occasionally Cicero expressed sentiment that can be interpreted as Christian, the learning of the ancients was dwarfed by what we know through Divine Revelation. As in the letter to Nelli, Petrarch here emphasizes the importance of pagan rhetorical teachings for Christian eloquence, the enormous moral influence that Cicero’s writings exerted on Augustine, and his own love of Cicero: “I confess, I admire Cicero as much or even more than all who wrote a line in any nation.”8 Nevertheless, his love of Cicero must be clearly distinguished from his Christian faith. Like Augustine he believes that had Cicero known Christ and his teachings, he would have become a Christian. Similarly many Platonists, including Augustine himself, were led to Christianity through their study of Plato’s writings. Therefore, Petrarch asks, “If this fundament stands, in what way is Ciceronian eloquence 7 Petrarca: De sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia. In: Petrarca: Prose. Edited by G. Martellotti, P.G. Ricci et al. Milano-Napoli: Ricciardi 1955 (La Letteratura italiana. Storia e testi, vol. 7), p. 744–746: “Docet ille, non infitior, quid est virtus; at stimulos ac verborum faces, quibus ad amorem virtutis vitiique odium mens urgetur atque incenditur, lectio illa vel non habet, vel paucissimos habet. Quos qui querit, apud nostros, precipue Ciceronem atque Anneum, inveniet, quod quis mirabi- tur, apud Flaccum, poetam quidem stilo hispidum, sed sententiis periocundum.” The English translation is taken from On His Own Ignorance and that of Many Others. Trans. Charles Trinkaus. In: The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. Edited by. Ernst E. Cassirer et al. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1950, p. 107. 8 Ibid., p. 760: “Ciceronem fateor me mirari inter, imo ante omnes qui scripserunt unquam qua- libet in gente.” Eng. trans., p. 115. 68 Ronald Witt opposed to Christian dogma?” Nonetheless, Petrarch affirms unambiguously: “[…] any pious Catholic, however, unlearned he may be, will find much more credit with me in this respect [i. e. regarding religious truth] than would Plato or Aristotle.”9 Petrarch is clear: at its highest reach religious truth attained by ancient phi- losophers through natural reason fell short of the truth known to every Christian in his own day. Given the caveat “in this respect” meaning “in regard to religion [hac in parte],” Petrarch in no way intends to impugn the value of ancient learn- ing in other areas of knowledge.
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