Page 75 - 2024-bfw-wiesner-hanks-ahws14e-proofs

1350–1550 What new ideas were associated with the Renaissance? 57

ruthlessness to build up a state of his own in central England flocked to Italy, absorbed the “new learning,”
Italy. He made good use of new military equipment and carried it back to their own countries. Northern
and tactics, hiring Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) humanists shared the ideas of Ficino and Pico about
as a military engineer, and murdered his political the wisdom of ancient texts, but they went beyond
enemies, including the second husband of his sister, Italian efforts to synthesize the Christian and clas-
Lucrezia. Despite Borgia’s efforts, his state fell apart sical traditions to see humanist learning as a way to
after his father’s death, which Machiavelli ascribed bring about reform of the church and deepen people’s
not to weakness, but to the operations of fate (for- spiritual lives. These Christian humanists, as they
tuna, for-TOO-nah, in Italian), whose power even were later called, thought that the best elements of
the best-prepared and most merciless ruler could classical and Christian cultures should be combined.
not fully escape, though he should try. Fortuna was For example, the classical ideals of calmness, stoical
personified and portrayed as a goddess in ancient patience, and broad-mindedness should be joined in
Rome and Renaissance Italy, and Machiavelli’s last human conduct with the Christian virtues of love,
words about fortune are expressed in gendered faith, and hope.
terms: “It is better to be impetuous than cautious, The English humanist Thomas More (1478–
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
for fortune is a woman, and if one wishes to keep 1535) began life as a lawyer, studied the classics,
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
her down, it is necessary to beat her and knock her and entered government service. Despite his official
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
down.” 4 duties, he had time to write, and he became most
The Prince is often seen as the first modern guide famous for his controversial dialogue Utopia (1516),
to politics, though Machiavelli was denounced for a word More invented from the Greek words for
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.
writing it, and people later came to use the word “nowhere.” Utopia describes a community on an
Machiavellian to mean cunning and ruthless. Medi- island somewhere beyond Europe where all children
eval political philosophers had debated the proper receive a good education, primarily in the Greco-
relation between church and state, but they regarded Roman classics, and adults divide their days between
the standards by which all governments were to be manual labor or business pursuits and intellectual
judged as emanating from moral principles estab- activities. The problems that plagued More’s fel-
lished by God. Machiavelli argued that governments low citizens, such as poverty and hunger, have been
should instead be judged by how well they provided solved by a beneficent government. There is religious
security, order, and safety to their populace. A ruler’s toleration, and order and reason prevail. Because
moral code in maintaining these was not the same Utopian institutions are perfect, however, dissent
as a private individual’s, for a leader could — indeed, and disagreement are not acceptable.
should — use any means necessary. Machiavelli put More’s purposes in writing Utopia have been
a new spin on the Renaissance search for perfection, debated just as much as have Machiavelli’s in penning
arguing that ideals needed to be measured in the cold The Prince. Some view it as a revolutionary critique
light of the real world. This more pragmatic view of of More’s own hierarchical and violent society, some
the purposes of government, along with Machiavelli’s as a call for an even firmer hierarchy, and others as
discussion of the role of force and cruelty, was unac- part of the humanist tradition of satire. It was widely
ceptable to many. read by learned Europeans in the Latin in which More
Even today, when Machiavelli’s more secular view wrote it, and later in vernacular translations, and its
of the purposes of government is widely shared, schol- title quickly became the standard word for any imag-
ars debate whether Machiavelli actually meant what inary society.
he wrote. Most regard him as realistic or even cynical, Better known by contemporaries than Thomas
but some suggest that he was being ironic or satiri- More was the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus
cal, showing princely government in the worst possi- (dehz-ih-DARE-ee-us ih-RAZ-muhs) (1466?–1536)
ble light to contrast it with republicanism, which he of Rotterdam. Erasmus’s long list of publications
favored, and also wrote about at length in the Dis- includes The Education of a Christian Prince (1504),
courses on Livy. He dedicated The Prince to the new a book combining idealistic and practical suggestions
Medici ruler of Florence, however, so any criticism for the formation of a ruler’s character through the
was deeply buried within what was, in that era of careful study of the Bible and classical authors; The
patronage, essentially a job application. Praise of Folly (1509), a witty satire poking fun at
political, social, and especially religious institutions;
Christian Humanism

In the last quarter of the fifteenth century, students
from the Low Countries, France, Germany, and ■ Christian humanists Northern humanists who
interpreted Italian ideas about and attitudes toward
classical antiquity and humanism in terms of their own
religious traditions.

04_howsap14e_48443_ch02_044_079.indd 57 12/10/23 1:41 PM