THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the Humanists. In 1447 Parentucelli, an enthusiast for codices, became pope as Nicholas V To him wrote (Easter, 1447) the eminent humanist Filelfo, from Milan, congratulating him on his elevation, expressing the general satisfaction of scholars, extolling learning and mental distinction, citing also the humanitas of Christ himself, as well as writing somewhat hypocritically of fucata gentilium sapientia. Some time later, in 1453, Filelfo personally appeared at the papal court; Nicholas kept the vile " Satyrse " of the humanist until he had perused them, and gave to Filelfo, on parting, a purse of 500 ducats. Enea Silvio de' Piccolomini ascended the papal throne in 1458 as Pius II., another humanist pope, a worldly man, and formerly long a counselor of princes.
A very clear view of the Humanistic movement may be gained from the writings of the biographer and beneficiary of Leo X., Paul Giovio 3. Character (Jovius). In his Elogia (Antwerp, of the 1557) he presents a gallery of literary Movement, scholars, beginning with Dante, and including Petrarch, Boccaccio, Bruni, Poggo, Beccadelli (the pornographic poet), Valla, Filelfo, Platina, the Greeks Emanuel Chrysoloras, Cardinal Bessarion, Trapezuntius the Cretan, Theodorus Gaza, Argyropulos, Chalcondylas, Musurus of Crete, and Lascaris; also Lorenzo de' Medici, Ermolao Barbaro, Politian, Pico di Mirandula, and even Savonarola. But Savonarola's attacks on Pope Alexander VI. , father of Cesare and Lucrezia, are treated as treason and felony. 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 lascivious 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 Epistolce obscurorum virorum (q.v.) — the flail of the new learning swung against 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, and 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 maintain friendly relations with those higher clerics who had resources with which to patronize the new learning. They often accepted clerical preferment, as did Giavio, who became bishop of Nocera. Often the Latin verse of their youth proved very awkward 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 Francesco Sforza, 1449, the ducal city endured terrible sufferings. Jacob Burckhardt (Die Cultur der Renaissance, § vi., Basel, 1860) 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? At 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.
Erasmus of Rotterdam (q.v.) in his person and career marks the point where the " new learning " had arrived at the parting of the ways. 4. Erasmus. He felt an affinity for Lucian; his Encomium Morice, a vitriolic satire, dealt not gently with clerical corruption. He edited the New Testament and dedicated it to Leo X. He had no desire to abandon the old Church; the bounties and pensions which he received were all derived from princes or clerics who adhered to the papacy. He pretended that he could not read the German writings of Luther. Erasmus wrote that " Luther's movement was not connected with learning," and, at the same time he wrote to Pope Hadrian VI.: " I could find a hundred passages where St. Paul seems to teach the doctrines which they condemn in Luther." Other utterances show his unwillingness to serve the Reformation or to be held responsible for any part of it: "I have written nothing which can be laid hold of against the established "orders. I would rather see
things left as they are than to see a revolution which may lead to one knows not what. Others may be martyrs, if they like. I aspire to no such honor. I care nothing what is done to Luther, but I care for peace. If you must take a side, take
the side which is most in favor." His keen sense of actual dependencies in the movement of things led him to see situations and realities with wonderful clearness; but his genius, like that of many scholars, was essentially negative. When he was fifty-one, not long before 1517, he wrote to Fabricius at Basel: " My chief fear is that with the revival of Greek literature there may be a revival of paganism. There are Christians who are Christians but in name, and are Gentiles at heart." In the fall of that grave year 1525, when central Germany had been harried by the PeasantsVWar, he wrote (Oct. 10, 1525): " You remember Reuchlin. The conflict was raging between the Muses and their enemies, when up sprang Luther, and the object thenceforward was to entangle the friends of literature in the Lutheran business, so as to destroy both them and him together."
It is customary to speak of German Humanists, also Colet and More and Linacre may be so oalled perhaps as representing the new learning 5. Effect in Britain. But these in the main were on men of great spiritual earnestness. As
Theological for the wider knowledge of Greek gram- Science, mar and letters, of course it quickened the study of the New Testament. As to the positive aspects of theological and spiritual regeneration, little, very little, can be attributed to the movement of the Humanists. The overvalua-