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Humanism: Origins

• A movement of ideas which called for change and reform in many different areas, for example religion, politics and education

• Humanism is sometimes described as the New Learning

• It originated in Italy in the 1400s. By the late 1400s humanism had spread to northern Europe. It was a Europe-wide movement.

• Humanists were interested in the non-theological areas of the university curriculum (humanae litterae)

• A scholar interested in these subjects was known as a humanista

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Humanism: Key Ideas• Admiration of the civilisations of Greece and Rome. The

period between the fall of the Roman empire and the fifteenth century was dismissed as a middle age. Cyriac of Ancona: ‘I go back to wake the dead.’

• Renewal of interest in the language of ancient Greek• Love of books• Back to the sources (ad fontes): studying the books which

were the basis of western civilisation including the Bible. At one level a humanist was a reader and editor of old texts.

• Humanism was an aspect of the renaissance. The term renaissance is applied broadly to European history 1450 to 1650 and describes a period of great change and new inventions. Renaissance literally means ‘rebirth’ and began as a movement to rediscover and recreate the classical world.

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Humanism and the Two Ps• Paper-making and printing had

both originated in China. By the renaissance both these inventions had arrived in Europe. From 1275 paper-making centres grew up in Italy. Paper was cheaper and easier to produce than parchment (made from animal hide). Johannes Gutenberg is credited with the invention of movable type printing in Mainz in the 1450s.

• By the 1540s a skilled craftsman could produce 1,300 copies of a single sheet in a day.

• MacCulloch: ‘ Movable type text on paper was radically cheaper than a manuscript to produce and once the rather laborious process of setting up the pages was completed, it was exhilaratingly easy to reproduce large print-runs.’

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Humanism and the Two Ps• Because of printing renaissance

Europe experienced its own information revolution. 1.Medieval scholars had spent a lot of time copying manuscripts; renaissance humanists had more time to read and interpret texts and adopted a more critical and inquiring approach – a more modern approach – to their sources.2. The printing press allowed new ideas to spread more quickly.3. Emergence of a print culture. Educated laymen now read the Bible . Bible-reading among this group became an important part of religious life. Laymen could now interpret the Bible for themselves and were less dependent on standard official readings of the Bible.

• By 1500 six million books had been printed in Europe.

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Erasmus and Christian Humanism

• Humanists who wanted to reform the church were known as Christian humanists. The leading Christian humanist was Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466 -1536).

• Erasmus was hugely influential. In his Handbook of the Christian Soldier (1516) he endorsed a stripped-down version of Christianity. Ritual, external actions and the intervention of the organised church were not central to the Christian life. Instead what mattered was Bible-reading and imitatio Christi (imitation of Christ) – living as Christ lived in the Gospels.

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Erasmus and Christian Humanism

• He supported the publication of vernacular Bibles (Bibles in national languages) – a radical idea at a time when the Church used a Latin translation of the Bible from the third century CE, the Vulgate (common version). I wish that every woman might read the Gospel and the Epistles of St. Paul. Would that these were translated into every language and understood not only by Scots and Irishmen but by Turks and SaracensHis campaign had an effect. Between 1466 and 1522 22 German Bibles were printed.

• Erasmus also satirised the clergy in his Praise of Folly. Churchmen were ridiculed for their wealth, their worldly ambition, their violation of celibacy and their low standard of education.

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New Words into New Ideas• As a humanist Erasmus

studied the texts on which Christianity was based. He went back to the sources (ad fontes), the most important of which was the Bible.

• His most important contribution to Biblical scholarship was his 1516 edition of the New Testament. This was a three-part project: the preparation of a fresh Greek text of the New Testament, a new Latin translation of the Greek original (intended to supplant the Vulgate) and a series of notes interpreting the Latin translation, the Annotations.

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New Words into New Ideas• The greater knowledge of Latin and Greek which had

grown during the Renaissance allowed Erasmus to prepare a more accurate Greek text and a more accurate Latin translation than Jerome had provided a thousand years earlier. Example: Matthew 3.2 - the Greek word metanoiete Jerome had translated as poenitentiam agite or do penance Erasmus translated as resipiscite or come to your senses or repent. Jerome’s translation had been the basis of the medieval sacrament of penance (confession followed by carrying out a task) and the actions of prayer and pilgrimage; Erasmus’s implied a more contemplative and internal process of repentance. Key Point: Erasmus’s scholarship contributed to a new understanding of the Bible

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Humanism in England• Humanist ideas spread to

the outpost of England. They were carried by Erasmus himself who spent four years at Cambridge University between 1511 and 1515.

• Two English humanists were John Colet, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and Thomas More. Colet’s ability as a Greek scholar encouraged Erasmus to learn the language. Erasmus also had patrons in England and was paid a stipend by William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury.

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Humanist Criticisms of the English Church

• In a sermon preached before Convocation in 1511 Colet delivered a typical humanist critique of the church. How much greediness is nowadays in men of the church … they seem not to be put in the humble bishopric of Christ but rather in the high lordship and power of the world ….The second secular evil is carnal concupiscence. Hath not this vice grown and waxen in the Church as a flood of their lustCovetousness is the third secular evilThe fourth secular evil that spotteth the face of the Church is the continual secular occupation wherein priests and bishops nowadays doth busy themselves, the servants rather of men than of God; the warriors rather of this world than of Christ ……