RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Currier Cusa
seven grounds: (1) because called by the pope and not by the emperor; (2) because the pope, rejected by the Lutherans as their enemy, could not be their judge; (3) because it should be held in Germany; (4) because the pope is himself a party to the case; (5) because the laity is excluded; (6) because the object is to crush the Evangelicals, not to find truth; (7) because its norm is papal laws, not the Bible. Curtius's entire library was destroyed by fire and some of his writings may have perished at that time.
(Ferdinand Cohrs.)
Bibliography: G. J. Planck, Entstehung . . unseres protestantischen Lehrbegriffs, vi. 57 sqq., 285 sqq., Leipsic, 1800; H. Heppe, Oeschichte des deutschen Protestantismus, i. 123 sqq., Marburg, 1852.
CUSA, NICHOLAS OF (NIKOLAUS CRYFTZ or KREBS; Nicolaus Cusanus): Born at Cues on the Moselle (25 m. n.e. of Treves) 1401; d. at Todi (24 m. s. of Perugia) Aug. 11, 1464. He was the son of a sailor and attended the school of the Brethren of the Common Life at Deventer. Then he studied law at Padua, as well as Greek, Hebrew, philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. Having been ordained, he was sent in 1432 as representative of the
archbishop-elect Ulric of Treves to Life. the Council of Basel. As the pope had
not confirmed the election of Ulric, and Nicholas had to represent the claims of his superior, he naturally joined the antipapal party; but when a disruption of the council took place, he sided in 1437 with the minority which upheld the papal claims. His new associates soon entrusted him with important diplomatic missions, including one to Constantinople, whence he accompanied the Greek emperor to take part in the negotiations for reunion at Florence. After a short rest in his native land, where he finished the important work De docta ignorantia, he entered the service of the pope as legate and devoted his energy especially to opposing the position of the council. His work was recognized in 1449 by his nomination as cardinal. In 1450 he was made archbishop of Brixen, and sent to Germany with extraordinary authority as visitor of the whole German Church. He traveled through Germany, held synods everywhere, reconstructed and " reformed " with great energy. He was less successful in his own diocese. Archduke Sigmund of the Tyrol was ill disposed toward him from the beginning, and was still further alienated when he claimed for his bishopric feudal supremacy over the Tyrol. When Nicholas attempted to reform the monasteries Sigmund protected the disobedient nuns and monks. At Easter, 1460, the duke imprisoned him. Upon his release he went to Rome, and returned no more to Germany. For the rest of his life he was constantly occupied in literary or political matters. His property and library he left to the hospital founded by him at Cues, where various relics of him, including manuscripts, are still to be seen.
Nicholas of Cusa may be regarded either as a scholar or as a churchman. Strongly influenced by the humanist movement, he stood opposed to Bcholastic theology, not to Christian dogma, which with its rich philosophical content serves him as
both the basis and the outcome of his original speculations, resting upon Neoplatonic ideas and deriving a little from Augustine and Dionysius the Areopagite. God is the endless unity, the absolute superlative, at once the greatest and the least; the world, on the other hand, is the realm of the comparative, the greater and the lesser. The world Phi- is the ens under the form of contralosophy. dictions; God is the identity of all contradictions, possibility and actuality at the same time. As absolute activity, will, and knowledge he is the triune God. He is absolutely transcendent; we know of him only that he is unknowable (hence the titles of some of Nicholas's works, De docta ignorantia, Idiota, etc.). Thus philosophy ends in mysticism. On the way of faith through knowledge to vision we become " sons of God." What is new in his philosophy is mainly the mood in which it is written, one of optimism rejoicing in the world, thirst for and joy in knowledge, which turns as much to the works of the ancients as to nature. Though it is not carried out to its logical conclusions, his system contains rich germs of future development. Giordano Bruno called him " divino " and appealed to him as his forerunner. Modern scholars have pointed out his affinity with Leibnitz, Kant, Fichte, and Hegel, and assigned a place to him as a leading representative of Renaissance philosophy, at the point where the modern development begins. He was also a mathematician and astronomer of some importance. At Basel he proposed the correction of the Julian calendar. His conception of the universe is not the Ptolemaic: the planets, even the earth, move each in its own sphere without a common local center.
In regard to the constitution of the Church, in the work dedicated to the CouncU of Basel, De concordantia catholica, he still advocates a moderate conciliarism. He made little use of dangerous historical discoveries, like the spuriousness of the Donation of Constantine; he is far removed from the " destructive radicalism " of Marsilius of Padua. Since he regarded papacy as a necessary and divine institution, and was an enthusiastic believer in the unity and infallibility of the Church, in his struggle against the pope his hands, like those of similar thinkers at the time, were tied. Thus, e.g., he says that the pope can neither dissolve nor prorogue the council, but that the council must conduct itself toward him " without passion, and with the greatest meekness." The unity of his character lies in the practical domain. From beginning to end he was a. reformer, as the word was then understood. His
moral ideal, the imitation of Christ, Church- was the catchword of the time. That manship. he was nevertheless a good medieval
Catholic may be seen from the fact that he could not conceive of the reform of the Church without restoring the full power of the hierarchy. But he tried also to reform the papal court by a strict supervision of morals. What he did in Germany toward awakening religious feeling, promoting the moral education of the people, raising the standard of learning and fidelity to duty among the clergy, has already been referred to.
Cush Cuthbert