Western Civ. 1 J

Decline of the Middle The Renaissance Ages

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CULTURE OF THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES In the last few lectures, I have been discussing the period known as the High Middle Ages (1000-1300). It is the period in which the typical medieval institutions reached their fullest development. In this period, the Church, the guilds, the feudal monarchies, and the universities flourished in their characteristic forms. This is also the period when the outlook of the Middle Ages reached its zenith and characteristic medieval ideas found their fullest expression in art and literature. That is my subject for today. One feature of medieval intellectual life sets it apart from that of the ancient world on the one hand and of modern times on the other. Art and literature in the High Middle Ages were almost entirely religious in content and in purpose. There were several reasons for this. The Church played a major, dominant role in intellectual activity. It was wealthier than any other institution, and it provided most of the money to support and pay for art. The universities were Church institutions, and so only churchmen were educated at first. For a long time, only they were able to produce literature. Also, remember that St. Augustine set the tone for medieval thought when he argued that the goal of all human activity should be salvation. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that when Europe began to recover after 1000 and there was money to construct large buildings again, Europeans usually built churches. There were two types of Church architecture. The earliest style of church developed in south Europe. It was called Romanesque because it was based on architectural forms first created by the Romans. The Romanesque churches used round arches to support the roofs and upper parts fo the church buildings. The round arch was a Roman invention. With round arches, the weight of the roof, ceiling, and upper part of the building pushes straight down on the walls. The walls have to be very strong to support the structure. Romanesque churches are massive and solid with small windows and doors. They were decorated with murals and paintings. About 1100, a new style developed near Paris and slowly spread to other parts of the north. It is called the gothic style. The gothic style used pointed arches instead of round ones. With pointed arches, the weight pushes out instead of down. Reinforcements called buttresses were placed along the outside of the walls to hold the building up and together.

P a g e 1 o f 13 Romanesque Architecture Romanesque cathedrals interior and exterior. Note the paucity of light in the interior as a result of few windows due to the need to build thick continuous walls. (Left: interior of the Duomo at Orvietto, Italy. Below: the Romanesque abby church at Maria Laach in Belgium, built in 1093.

Gothic Architecture Exterior and interior views of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, on of the most impressive examples of German High Gothic architecture. Note the amazingly light interior of the church, lit only by sunlight through the great stained glass windows.

P a g e 2 o f 13 Because buttresses provided support instead of walls, it was possible to have very large stained-glass windows to light the church. The windows made the church seem almost transparent from inside. In the High Middle Ages, light was a common symbol of divine grace. In a gothic church, grace seemed to be present everywhere. Literature of the High Middle Ages The greatest figure in medieval literature was an Italian named Alighieri Dante (d. 1321). His most famous work is a long poem called Divine Comedy. It is deeply religious. The Divine Comedy deals with the greatest concern of medieval man: how can one achieve salvation? The poem describes a journey by Dante through Hell and Purgatory to Heaven. The story symbolizes the spiritual journey that all human beings must make to be saved. As he goes through Hell and Purgatory, Dante is guided by the ghost of the Roman poet Virgil, who represents the earthly wisdom and learning of the classical world. Along the way, they meet various persons who symbolize different earthly sins. With the help of Virgil, Dante is able to avoid the sins himself and to continue on his way. Occasionally, however, Dante is unable to go on, and even Virgil cannot help him. In those places a woman named Lucy comes down from heaven to assist them. The name Lucy means light. Light, as we have seen, stands for the grace of God and divine revelation. At the gate of Heaven, Virgil is left behind, and Dante is carried upward through the spheres of Dante (d. 1321) is considered the greatest poet of the Middle the seven planets to God. Ages. The Divine Comedy is a theological argument in verse. Dante argues that both earthly wisdom and learning and faith in divine revelation are needed to achieve salvation. As we have not believe in God have an idea of God in their minds. They seen, Medieval philosophers spent a lot of time trying to figure could not have an idea of God, if God did not exist. out whether faith or reason was the most important way to This argument is important because it raised a philosophical achieve knowledge. Dante argues that salvation is achieved by problem that all later scholastics argued about. It was called the using both! problem of the Universals. A Universal is a particular kind of Philosophy idea. The first men to discuss the problem of the Universals did not really think of it this way, but basically it is a simply the The Scholastic philosophers used logical reasoning to question of what ideas are. In his definition, Anselm assumes understand and to explain Christian theology. But early that if we have an idea in our minds, it has to come from scholastic philosophers used logical argument only to something real outside our minds. Thinkers who believed that supplement faith in. A good example is St. Anselm (d. 1109). were called realists because they said that ideas are real. Those He was the father of scholasticism. Anselm argued that basic who said that ideas are not real but exist only in our minds were Christian ideas had to be accepted on faith, but he also called nominalists. Most of us are nominalists, but almost all believed that Christians could employ reason to prove many of important thinkers before Anselm’s time were realists. Plato those ideas and to understand them better. His motto was, “I believed that ideas were real, and St. Augustine had agreed with believe so that I may understand.” im. Not surprisingly, most scholastics were realists. They argued As an example of his approach, I want to consider one of mainly about the relationship between the reality of ideas and his most important logical arguments. He used it to prove that the reality of concrete objects. Th problem of the Universals is God exists. Oversimplified, it goes like this: Even people who do important because it bears directly on whether logic can be used to discover religious truth.

P a g e 3 o f 13 The next great scholastic after Anselm was a teacher at and you can deduce the purpose logically on the basis of Paris named Peter Abelard (d. 1142). He placed far more observation. This is a qualified realist position. Ideas are emphasis on logical argument and reason to understand real, but only if they can be deduced logically from the way Christian teaching. He did have great faith in the ability of things actually are. But most important, Aquinas insisted logical argument to establish theological truth. that these two types of truth – one based He wrote logical discussions of such basic on faith and one based on observation Christian doctrines as the Trinity. Many and logical argument would always conservative Church leaders and thinkers agree. And he set out to prove logically objected to the emphasis he placed on on the basis of observation every logic. Many of his writings were eventually single major Christian idea. He was so condemned by the Church. Because of his successful that the thought of Thomas example, however, later thinkers used Aquinas has become the basis of reason to examine Christian teachings. pretty much all Roman Catholic The most important scholastic thinker theology. But in his own time, he was was St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274). He considered a dangerous innovator. His used philosophical logical argument more arguments based on Aristotle fully than any previous religious writer. He disagreed too much with those of St. tried to reconcile classical philosophy with Augustine based on Plato. St. Christian theology. Why did he bother? Augustine’s theology was the one that Around 1200, something happened had always been accepted. that threw scholastic philosophy into an Aquinas’s extensive use of logic was uproar. Four new books of Aristotle were so controversial that some thinkers brought into Western Europe from the began to reconsider the whole basis of Arab lands in Spain. Before this, previous scholastic thought. The most extreme and influential reaction came Europeans possessed only two elementary St. Thomas Aquinas works of Aristotle. They had always from an Englishman, William of thought that his ideas were similar to those Ockham (d.1349). William insisted that of Plato and St. Augustine. But the new books revealed that it was impossible to prove anything about Aristotle disagreed with Plato in many ways. In particular, God or religion using reason. He argued that Christian he disagreed about how you could discover the truth about teachings must be accepted on faith without proof. Then he ideas. Aristotle had stressed that you needed scientific study went even further. He said that it is impossible to prove and observation before you could draw conclusions about logically the purposes of things as Aristotle had done, or to things. Now Medieval thinkers considered Aristotle to be deduce an ideal blueprint for the world, as Plato had done. the greatest of the classical philosophers, and here was It is impossible because universal ideas are not real at all. Aristotle saying that faith wasn’t really a tool that you could They are merely names (nomina) that we give things in our use to uncover truth. This was a real shock! minds. William was the true founder of nominalism. Since The scholastics of the 1200s had to decide whether to ideas are not real, we cannot know anything about them or keep their theology based on Plato and St. Augustine or to prove anything about them logically. All we can know about create a new theology based on Aristotle. St. Thomas or argue about logically are things themselves as we perceive Aquinas chose to create a new system. He wrote a number them with our senses. The true function of reason is to of books, but the most important was the Summa understand things better. Theologiae, the Summation of Theology. He argued that Thus, William of Ockham not only challenged the there are two ways to learn the truth about God and efforts of scholastic philosophers to use logic to understand religion. One way is by studying the scriptures and Christianity, but he also questioned the whole basis of Christian writings and accepting what God has revealed in ancient philosophy. Reason can be used to understand how them on faith. The other way was by carefully observing the the world works, but it cannot be used to understand why world around us. Then, one could demonstrate by logical the world is as it is. That is solely a matter of faith. This is argument God’s purposes in creating the world and God’s the way that most people in the modern world think. plan for men. From God’s plan, one can deduce what God Ockham took the first step toward a modern, scientific view is like. This was Aristotle’s view. Everything has a purpose, that men can have true knowledge only about what they see.

P a g e 4 o f 13 Conclusion In the High Middle Ages, Western Europeans created sophisticated art, literature, and speculative thought based on a Christian religious outlook. Between 1000 and 1300, Western Europe reached heights unparalleled since ancient times in almost every ﬁeld of culture. The dominant characteristic of all this culture was it took religious beliefs as its point of departure. But by 1300, some thinkers, like William of Ockham, were beginning to point the way into new areas of intellectual activity, such as scientiﬁc investigation, in which characteristic European religious ideas were to have only a limited part to play.

P a g e 5 o f 13 Decline of the Middle Ages

In an earlier lecture, I tried to show by drawing a line on the board that Medieval civilization was advancing from 1000 to 1300. By 1300, however, the trend had changed. From 1300 to 1450, medieval institutions were beginning to decline and to decay again. We saw one example of that in the declining of papal power last time. The decline and crisis is our subject today. There is no better illustration of the decline of the medieval order of things in this period than the fates of the two Roman Empires – the Eastern Roman Empire of the Byzantines and the Holy Roman Empire of the Germans. By the late 1200s, the old enemies of Europe, the Moslems, were on the offensive again. They were led by a family of Turkish rulers known as the Ottoman Turks (1299-1919). Under several Ottoman rulers, the Turks gradually got control of the Moslem east and began to penetrate into Eastern Roman lands in Asia Minor and Europe itself. Europeans responded to Ottoman expansion as they had previously. In 1396 and Mehmed II... 1444, there were two new crusades by eastern European knights against the Turks. But was Sultan of the Ottoman the Turks had well-organized armies and made the ﬁrst wide use of gunpowder, which Empire for a short time from had been introduced from China. Both crusades ended in disastrous defeats, and the crusading movement ended. Finally, in 1453, the Ottoman ruler Mehmet II 1444 to 1446, and later (1451-1481) captured the city of Constantinople. This event ended the Eastern Roman from 1451 to 1481. At the Empire and gave the Moslems control of large parts of the Balkans including Greece. age of 21, he conquered Although the Holy Roman Empire of Germany did not formally come to an end Constantinople, bringing an in this period, it did cease to operate as a real government. In 1356, the emperor, end to the medieval Byzan- Charles IV of Luxembourg, issued the Golden Bull, which served as a kind of tine Empire. From this point constitution for the Empire. It made the ofﬁce of emperor permanently elective, and it onward, he claimed the title named certain nobles who could vote in the election. The Empire thus became a sort of Caesar in addition to his of loose association of independent states with no real power. other titles.

P a g e 6 o f 13 The local leaders suppressed feudal government and out between Edward III of England(1327-1377) and Philip built stronger institutions in their own states, but they VI (1328-1350). remained independent. In 1433, the office of Emperor In the Hundred Years War, the French steadily lost passed to the family of the Habsburgs, who were Dukes of ground to the English almost until the end. The English Austria (1438-1919). They ignored Germany and tried to won several major battles because their armies were much make Austria into a strong state. The Empire continued in better organized than those of the French. Until late in the name until 1805, but as Voltaire said of it, “It is not Holy; it war, the Valois armies were made up mostly of mounted is not Roman; and it is not an Empire.” knights doing service as vassals. They were poorly England & France organized, poorly disciplined, and generally unreliable. The two countries which had made the most progress in But the English army relied much more heavily on strengthening government – England and France – also professional infantry. They were foot-soldiers armed with experienced serious difficulties in this period. The problems long spears and long-bows (explain). Since the Norman arose out of a great feudal war, called the Hundred Years Conquest, there had been some non-feudal forces in War (1337-1360, 1415-1453). The war grew out of the England recruited from all landowners. Many of these men longstanding feudal relationship between the kings of were small farmers who fought on foot. By the 1200s, it was England and the kings of France. an established rule in England that only the oldest son of a noble was a noble. Younger sons were commoners. Since You should remember that John of England had lost only nobles were knights, the number of knights declined. Normandy to Philip Augustus. The Plantagenets still controlled some lands in southern France and resisted The armies of foot soldiers were not completely French king’s attempts to control them. The Capetian independent from feudalism because great lords were family came to an end in 1328, and the French throne allowed to hire companies of infantry to fight for them. But passed to less able kings, the Valois (1328-1589). War broke the armies themselves were not feudal armies of knights even though the feudal lords controlled them to some extent. This system is sometimes called “bastard feudalism.” The French were also hampered in the second stage of the war by quarrels between the kings and another branch of the Valois family which ruled the large feudal state of Burgundy. In 1363, King John of France (1350-1364) gave the Duchy of Burgundy to one of his younger sons as a payment for not becoming king. The Dukes of Burgundy thereafter tried to make Burgundy independent of the French king and a strong state in its own right. In the second stage of the war, the Dukes of Burgundy allied with the English against France. With their superior armies and the aid of the Burgundians, the English almost succeeded in taking over all of France by the Picture above shows English archers repelling French cavalry. 1420s and 1430s.

P a g e 7 o f 13 War of the Roses Surprisingly enough, the English kings were also weakened by the Hundred Years War as well as by internal quarrels. The power of the English kings was always weakened when they tried to use English to support their interests elsewhere. In order to get the lords to help him in France, Edward III had to concede to Parliament the right to approve all taxes for the war. After Edward’s death, the throne was further weakened by quarrels among his descendants who wanted to control the government. Because Edward lived so long, his eldest son died before he did. So, the crown went to his eleven-year-old grandson Richard II (1377-1399). In 1399, Richard was deposed by his cousin, the Duke of Lancaster. He and his family ruled until 1461 to the disapproval of Richard’s other relatives. In 1455, the Lancaster kings were opposed by their cousins the family of the Duke of York. This set off a civil war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. It lasted thirty years (1455-1485). The war is called the War of the Roses because the popular symbol of the Yorkists was a white rose and that of the Lancasters was a red rose. Henry Tudor founded the Tudor Dynasty in England. The continuing conﬂict between the Yorks and the Lancasters weakened both, and ultimately allowed a cousin, Henry Tudor, to defeat Richard III and end the War of the producers and consumers. It also made men reluctant to Roses in 1485. Henry Tudor became Henry VII, and travel freely and so reduced the volume of trade. Ironically, founded the Tudor Dynasty, which lasted from 1485 to in the long run the Black Death resulted in an enormous 1603. boost to the European economy. With roughly one third of the European population dead, the survivors gained greater The Black Death wealth which, in turn spurred economic growth. More dead Besides the weakening of political institutions which I also meant fewer laborers, which increased demand for have just described and the weakening of the Church which workers and meant that the surviving workers would make I discussed last time, the period after 1300 was also a time of greater incomes. These factors would lead to a revival of economic difﬁculty. To some extent, the economic problems trade and manufacturing that would characterize the grew out of conditions that had nothing to do with the Renaissance. economic system. The wars disrupted trade and placed a heavy burden on resources. The spread of Turkish power helped to restrict trade although it did not eliminate it entirely. We saw earlier that most important trading areas in Italy and north Europe depended on easy access to sources of luxury items in the Eastern Mediterranean. It had been easier and cheaper to trade in this region when it was in the hands of Christians of the Eastern Roman Empire or of the various crusader states. Another external factor in economic decline was a disastrous outbreak of the bubonic plague, known as the Black Death. It began in 1348 and raged unchecked for about three years. It is estimated that one-fourth of the people of Western Europe died of the disease in this three- year period. This meant a drastic drop in the number of

P a g e 8 o f 13 Decline of Medieval Institutions But the major problems resulted more immediately from the way that the medieval economy was organized. We saw earlier that more advanced economic activities – trade and manufacturing – were carried out by the guild system. Problems arose because the manufacturing guilds gradually became more important. The masters of the guilds, who controlled the industries in the cities, gradually expanded their shops employing more apprentices and journeymen to produce goods for them. At the same time, they refused to approve any new masterpieces, so that journeymen had more difﬁculty in opening new shops. The masters wanted to restrict competition. The cities came to have more and more men who worked for wages and who had no chance to open their own shops. This, combined with heavier taxes to support wars, led to labor unrest and even to revolts in some of the cities. There was a serious revolt in Paris in 1358. In agriculture, manoralism had been declining ever since the re-emergence of cities and towns. There were several reasons for this. Towns offered serfs an alternative means of making a living and made it harder to control them. In addition, the lords of the manor wanted to be able to buy some luxury items which were being imported in trade. When money was reintroduced, lords tended to convert the labor services of serfs to rent paid in cash. Thus the serfs became merely renters instead of bound persons. This gave serfs more freedom, but it also deprived them of some rights which they had traditionally had under manoralism. One important right was the right to use common land. Most manors had some land, either pastures or woods, which all serfs could use together for their common beneﬁt. Now the lords began to take over these lands for their own purposes. For example, some of it was converted to pasture for sheep since wool was in great demand. So there were peasant revolts as well as labor revolts.

Summation To sum up, after advancing for 300 years, medieval Europe began to run into difficulty. Now the question we should ask is “Why?” To some extent, it was a matter of bad luck. Many major problems arose accidentally and at the same time. The Black Death, for example, was mostly chance. But I have been trying to build a case for a more fundamental historical examination. The decline came because the institutions developed for medieval Europe had reached the limit of their effectiveness. Most institutions and ideas which characterize a civilization have their own built-in limitations. They will work for a while, but to continue, they have to be able to adjust and change. They eventually reach a point where they can no longer change very readily; then there is a crisis. That is what happened in this case. Medieval institutions had run their course. Feudalism was the basis of government and of ideas about government, but it was not capable of providing the orderly life that more advanced civilization needed. The guild system was beneficial, maybe even necessary, when commerce and industry were just beginning, but eventually, it became a bar to further progress. The same can be said of other medieval institutions. Sometimes when devices of a civilization become outmoded and inflexible, the civilization is unable to adjust, and it falls. But in the case of Western Europe, an adjustment did take place. The result was a new leap forward after 1450.

P a g e 9 o f 13 The Renaissance

THERE is a strong sense of unreality about the Renais- sance — that intellectual flowering which is supposed to be a sort of a dividing line between modern European civilization and the Middle Ages. But the Renaissance had no clear beginning and no real end. The “Age of the Renaissance” conventionally begins around 1450. It has no specific dates. There were large sectors of Europe that were never touched by the Renaissance. Some historians have written that the Renaissance was the most remarkable feature of the age, and yet, it affected only a very tiny area of Europe. Thus, this intellectual movement–this rebirth–that did so much to revolutionize our art and literature, philosophy and worldview–that is so immensely significant to us, was untypical and unrepresentative of the time and place that was 15th century Europe. Faced with this problem, many historians of the period have lost interest in the Renaissance. Many historians now like to spotlight magic, poverty, disease, or the Leonardo Da Vinci... horrors of European colonial ventures. But, we should remember the artistic and was an Italian polymath: intellectual achievements made by the exceptional intellects of the Renaissance. The scientist, mathematician, Renaissance is what made 17th century Europe so different from 15th century Europe. engineer, inventor, anato- An American historian complained that,“Ever since the Renaissance invented mist, painter, sculptor, ar- itself some six hundred years ago, there has been no agreement as to what it is.” The chitect, musician, and Renaissance, for example, was not simply about a renewed interest in classical ideas. writer. Two of his works, the We have seen that such a revival had been growing since the twelfth century. Nor did it Mona Lisa and The Last involve either a total rejection of medieval values or a sudden return to the world-view Supper are the most fa- of Greece and Rome. Christianity didn’t suddenly give way to classical pagan religion. mous, and most imitated Perhaps, the essence of the Renaissance involved people who used classical models to portrait and religious paint- test the authority underlying conventional culture and wisdom. ing of all time.

P a g e 10 o f 13 Perhaps the greatest of the Renaissance Florentines was and statues is the human figure, which is always powerful, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). He produced what is colossal, magnificent. If man, and the potential of the perhaps the best known painting in the world — we call it the individual, lay at the center of Italian Renaissance culture, Mona Lisa (1506). Leonardo had limitless talents and limitless then Michelangelo is the supreme Renaissance artist. curiosity. His notebooks contain everything from anatomical Michelangelo's greatest achievement and the best drawings to designs for a helicopter, a submarine, a machine- example of his work as a painter appears on the ceiling of gun. the Sistine Chapel in Rome (1508-1512). These amazing So, what ideas define the Renaissance. The first quality of frescoes depict scenes from the book of Genesis. All the the Renaissance has been defined as “independence of panels in this series, including God Dividing the Light mind.” The ideal Renaissance human was a person who had from Darkness, The Creation of Adam, and The Flood, mastered all branches of art and thought. This “complete exemplify the young artist’s commitment to the heroic man” did not have to depend on any outside authority for qualities of mankind. Whereas earlier church art was the formation of knowledge, tastes, and beliefs. A second dedicated to the glorification of God, and humans had factor related to the first was humanism. Renaissance artists only a minor presence in the work, Michelangelo’s and thinkers focused their works on human activity, the paintings seem to glorify humans as God’s crowning human form, and believed that the abilities and achievement. In his portrayal of the Creation, the accomplishments of humans approached the divine. This is centerpiece of the ceiling, Michelangelo manages to make a very different understanding of man’s place in the universe Adam appear greater than a man– more Godlike – and, at from the views held in the Middle Ages. the same time, he makes God appear tender, caring, in I would like to use the works of three Renaissance men to effect, more human. illustrate the ideas of the Renaissance. They are Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) Michelangelo Buonarotti, Niccolo Machiavelli and Baldesar Castiglione. Few of the Italian thinkers of the Renaissance were particularly original; their greatness lay primarily in their Michelangelo (1475-1564) ways of expressing classical themes and their popularization Michelangelo of Florence is perhaps the best known of classical ideas. This cannot be said for Niccolo figure of the Renaissance. He was a painter, sculptor, Machiavelli (1469-1527). Machiavelli is considered the architect, and poet. The main focus of all of his paintings greatest political philosopher of the Italian Renaissance.

The Creation scene from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Rome.

P a g e 11 o f 13 At the end of the 15th century, Italy had become the the shocking political theories of Machiavelli. In The Book center of a series of international struggles. Dissension and of the Courtier (1516) Castiglione suggested guidelines for strife was never far from the surface in local and Italian proper aristocratic conduct. This cleverly written “how to politics. Both France and Spain had invaded the peninsula book” of etiquette stands in sharp contrast to the earlier and were competing with each other for the allegiance of works on the subject. Previous authors taught Medieval the Italian states. These Italians States were often torn virtues. They recommended that aristocrats and courtiers themselves by internal dissension be sober, self-restrained, and pious. which made them easy prey for Courtiers were expected to give foreign conquers. In 1498 their lives in service to their country, Machiavelli entered the service of their ruler and their family. the newly founded the Republic Castiglione wasn’t particularly of Florence. His duties largely interested in that stuff. He lived in involved diplomatic missions to an Italy dominated by magnificent other states. While living in princely courts, where courtiers Rome he became fascinated with were expected to spend their time the achievements of Cesare in the company of their ruler. So, Borgia, the son of Pope Castiglione taught how to attain Alexander VI. Borgia had the elegant and seemingly effortless successfully restored order and qualities necessary for acting like a stability to the city of Rome. “true gentleman.” The key word Machiavelli observed with here is Acting. Castiglione approval that Cesare had popularized the ideal of the achieved this by through a “Renaissance man”: one who is combination of ruthlessness and accomplished in many different shrewdness and a complete pursuits and is also brave, witty, and subordination of morality to “courteous,” meaning civilized and achieve his political ends. learned. In 1512, the Republic of Baldesar Castiglione (1478-1529) Castiglione did not ignore the Florence was overthrown. female sex. Earlier writers, if they Machiavelli found himself talked about women at all, stressed without a job. Disappointed and embittered, he spent the the woman's role in “hearth and home.” Castiglione stressed remainder of his life in exile devoting his time to writing and the ways that court ladies could be “gracious entertainers,” study. His most important work is entitled The Prince. In and why it was in their own interest to exhibit many of the this book, Machiavelli describes the policies and practices of same courtly traits like intelligence and wit, as men. Thus, he government, not in accordance with some lofty ideal, but as was one of the first European male writers to offer women an they actually were. He states that the Supreme obligation of independent role outside of the household, a fact which the ruler is to maintain the power and safety of the country should not be underrated even though his stress on “pleasing over which he rules. No consideration of justice or mercy, of affability” today might seem demeaning. Castiglione's book morality or ethics, of the sanctity of treaties, should be was widely read throughout Europe for over a century after allowed to stand in a ruler's way. Machiavelli maintained its publication. It spread Italian ideals of “civility” all over that all men are prompted and guided exclusively by motives the continent. of self-interest. Thus, rulers should not expect or take for Conclusion granted the loyalty or affection of his subjects. The aims The principal product of this new thinking that we call and goals of the state can only be achieved through the Renaissance lay in a growing conviction that people were ruthlessness and duplicity, and without regard to morality or capable of mastering the world in which they lived. The justice. great thinkers, writers and artists of the Renaissance were Baldesar Castiglione filled with self-confidence. They felt that God-given ingenuity Perhaps the work of another Renaissance diplomat, could, and should, be used to unravel the secrets of God’s Baldesar Castiglione, is more agreeable to our tastes than universe; and that man’s fate on earth could be controlled and improved.

P a g e 12 o f 13 This was a decisive break with the mentality of the Middle Ages. Medieval men and women saw themselves as the pawns of Providence, overwhelmed by the unknowable workings of their environment and of their own nature. Medieval attitudes were dominated by a paralyzing anxiety about human shortcomings, human ignorance and human inadequacy in the face of an all knowing, all powerful and wrathful God. Filled with sin and incapable of bettering their lot, Europeans of the Middle Ages believed that they could do little more than bear the burdens of life on this world and prepare as best they could for the next. The effects of the Renaissance steadily spread from Italy throughout Europe. Renaissance thought and art ﬂourished in France, the low countries, England, and even into Eastern Europe. While the Renaissance had, perhaps, little effect on those who lived in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, it had a profound effect on succeeding generations. Its contribution to the future of Western civilization may be summed up in a single word that deﬁnes all of the basic intellectual pursuits of the period. That word is humanism. Humanism is a focus on the dignity of human beings as the most excellent of God’s creatures below the angels. Some Renaissance thinkers argued that man was excellent be cause he alone of earthly creatures could obtain knowledge of God; others stressed that humans could master their own destiny. Either way, Renaissance thinkers taught civilization the belief in the nobility and potential of the human race.

Finis ❦

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