Humanism in Germany
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{{Onesource|date=October 2007}}
{{POV|date=December 2007}}
{{POV-title|date=December 2007}}
{{humanism}}
[[Humanistic]] studies were late in finding entrance into [[Germany]]. They were opposed not so much by priestly ignorance and prejudice, as was the case in [[Italy]], as by the [[scholastic theology]] which reigned at the universities.
==Origins==
German Humanism may be dated from the invention of the [[printing press]] about [[1450]]. Its flourishing period began at the close of the [[15th century]] and lasted only till about [[1520]], when it was absorbed by the more popular and powerful religious movement, the [[Reformation]], as [[Humanism in Italy|Italian Humanism]] was superseded by the papal [[counter-Reformation]]. Marked features distinguished the new culture north of the [[Alps]] from the culture of the Italians. The university and school played a much more important part than in the South. The representatives of the new scholarship were teachers, even [[Erasmus]], who taught in [[Cambridge]], and was on intimate terms with the professors at [[Basel]]. During the progress of the movement new universities sprang up, from Basel to [[Rostock]]. Again, in Germany, there were no princely patrons of arts and learning to be compared in intelligence and munificence to the [[Renaissance]] popes and the [[Medici]]. Nor was the new culture here exclusive and aristocratic. It sought the general spread of intelligence, and was active in the development of primary and grammar schools. In fact, when the currents of the [[Italian Renaissance]] began to set toward the North, a strong, independent, intellectual current was pushing down from the flourishing schools conducted by the [[Brethren of the Common Life]]. In the Humanistic movement, the [[German people]] was far from being a slavish imitator. It received an impulse from the South, but made its own path.
[[Image:Albrecht Dürer 104.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Albrecht Dürer, self-portrait, 1500]]
In the North, Humanism entered into the service of religious progress. German scholars were less brilliant and elegant, but more serious in their purpose and more exact in their scholarship than their Italian predecessors and contemporaries. In the South, the ancient classics absorbed the attention of the literati. It was not so in the North. There was no consuming passion to render the classics into German as there had been in Italy. Nor did Italian literature, with its loose moral teachings, find imitators in the North. Boccaccio’s Decameron was first translated into German by the physician, [[Henry Stainhowel]], who died in [[1482]]. North of the Alps, the attention was chiefly centred on the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]]s. [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Biblical Hebrew language|Hebrew]] were studied, not with the purpose of ministering to a cult of antiquity, but to reach the fountains of the Christian system more adequately. In this way, preparation was made for the constructive work of the Protestant Reformation.
What was true of the scholarship of Germany was also true of its art. The painters, [[Albrecht Dürer]], who was born and died at [[Nuremberg]], 1471–1528, [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]], 1472–1553, and for the most part [[Hans Holbein the Younger]], 1497–1543, were free from the pagan element and contributed to the spread of the Reformation. Kranach lived in [[Wittenberg]] after [[1504]] and painted portraits of [[Martin Luther]], [[Philip Melanchthon]] and other leaders of the German Reformation. Holbein gave illustrations for some of the new writings and painted portraits of Erasmus and Melanchthon. His [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]], now at [[Darmstadt]], has a German face and wears a crown on her head, while the child in her arms reflects his concern for the world in the sadness of his countenance.
==Italian roots of the humanism in Germany==
[[Image:Pintoricchio 012.jpg|thumb|right|Pope Pius II]]
If any one individual more than another may be designated as the connecting link between the learning of Italy and Germany, it is [[Aeneas Sylvius]]. By his residence at the court of [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III]] and at Basel, as one of the secretaries of the council, he became a well-known character north of the Alps long before he was chosen pope. The mediation, however, was not effected by any single individual. The fame of the Renaissance was carried over the pathways of trade which led from Northern Italy to Augsburg, Nurnberg, Constance and other German cities. The visits of Frederick III and the campaigns of [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII]] and the ascent of the throne of [[Naples]] by the princes of [[Aragon]] carried Germans, Frenchmen and Spaniards to the greater centres of the peninsula. A constant stream of pilgrims itinerated to [[Rome]] and the Spanish popes drew to the city throngs of Spaniards. As the fame of Italian culture spread, scholars and artists began to travel to [[Venice]], [[Florence]] and Rome, and caught the inspiration of the new era.
To the Italians Germany was a land of barbarians. They despised the German people for their ignorance, rudeness and intemperance in eating and drinking. Aeneas found that the German princes and nobles cared more for horses and dogs than for poets and scholars and loved their wine-cellars better than the muses. Campanus, a witty poet of the papal court, who was sent as legate to the [[Diet of Regensburg]] by [[Paul II]], and afterwards was made a bishop by Pius II, abused Germany for its dirt, cold climate, poverty, sour wine and miserable fare. He lamented his unfortunate nose, which had to smell everything, and praised his ears, which understood nothing. Such impressions were soon offset by the sound scholarship which arose in Germany and Holland. And, if Italy contributed to Germany an intellectual impulse, Germany sent out to the world the printing press, the most important agent in the history of intellectual culture since the invention of the alphabet.
==Universities==
{{main|Medieval university}}
Before the first swell of the new movement was felt, the older German universities were already established: [[Charles University in Prague]] in [[1347]], [[University of Vienna]] in [[1365]], [[University of Heidelberg]] in [[1386]], [[University of Cologne]] in [[1388]], [[University of Erfurt]] in [[1392]], [[University of Würzburg]] in [[1402]], [[University of Leipzig]] in [[1409]] and [[University of Rostock]] in [[1419]]. During the last half of the [[15th century]], there were quickly added to this list universities at [[University of Greifswald|Greifswald]] and [[Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg|Freiburg]] [[1457]], [[University of Trier|Trier]] 1457, [[University of Basel|Basel]] 1459, [[University of Ingolstadt|Ingolstadt]] 1472, [[Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen|Tübingen]] and [[Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz|Mainz]] 1477, and [[Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg|Wittenberg]] 1502. [[Ingolstadt]] lost its distinct existence by incorporation in the [[University of Munich]], [[1826]], and Wittenberg by removal to [[University of Halle|Halle]].
Most of these universities had the four faculties, although the popes were slow to give their assent to the sanction of the theological department, as in the case of [[Vienna]] and [[Rostock]], where the charter of the secular prince authorized their establishment. Strong as the religious influences of the age were, the social and moral habits of the students were by no means such as to call for praise. Parents, Luther said, in sending their sons to the universities, were sending them to destruction, and an act of the Leipzig university, dating from the close of the 15th century, stated that students came forth from their homes obedient and pious, but "how they returned, God alone knew."1061e to university archives and library.
==Education==
The theological teaching was ruled by the [[Schoolmen]], and the dialectic method prevailed in all departments. In clashing with the scholastic method and curricula, the new teaching met with many a repulse, and in no case was it thoroughly triumphant till the era of the Reformation opened. Erfurt may be regarded as having been the first to give the new culture a welcome. In [[1466]], it received [[Peter Luder of Kislau]], who had visited [[Greece]] and [[Asia Minor]], and had been previously appointed to a chair in Heidelberg, 1456. He read on [[Virgil]], [[Jerome]], [[Ovid]] and other Latin writers. There [[Johannes Agricola|Agricola]] studied and there Greek was taught by [[Nicolas Marschalck]], under whose supervision the first Greek book printed in Germany issued from the press, 1501. There John of Wesel taught. It was Luther’s alma mater and, among his professors, he singled out Trutvetter for special mention as the one who directed him to the study of the Scriptures.
Heidelberg, chartered by the elector [[Rupert I, Elector Palatine of the Rhine|Ruprecht I]] and [[Pope Urban VI]], showed scant sympathy with the new movement. However, the elector-palatine, [[Philip, Count Palatine of the Rhine|Philip]], 1476–1508, gathered at his court some of its representatives, among them [[Reuchlin]]. Ingolstadt for a time had Reuchlin as professor and, in [[1492]], [[Conrad Celtes]] was appointed professor of poetry and [[eloquence]].
In [[1474]], a chair of poetry was established at Basel. Founded by Pius II, it had among its early teachers two Italians, Finariensis and Publicius. [[Sebastian Brant]] taught there at the close of the century and among its notable students were Reuchlin and the Reformers, [[Leo Jud]] and [[Zwingli]]. In [[1481]], Tubingen had a stipend of oratoria. Here [[Gabriel Biel]] taught till very near the close of the century. The year after Biel’s death, [[Heinrich Bebel]] was called to lecture on poetry. One of Bebel’s distinguished pupils was Philip Melanchthon, who studied and taught in the university, 1512–1518. Reuchlin was called from Ingolstadt to Tübingen, 1521, to teach Hebrew and Greek, but died a few months later.
Leipzig and Cologne remained inaccessible strongholds of scholasticism, till Luther appeared, when Leipzig changed front. The last German university of the [[Middle Ages]], Wittenberg, founded by [[Frederick the Wise]] and placed under the patronage of the Virgin Mary and [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]], acquired a world-wide influence through its professors, Luther and Melanchthon. Not till 1518, did it have instruction in Greek, when Melanchthon, soon to be the chief Greek scholar in Germany, was called to one of its chairs at the age of 21. According to Luther, his lecture-room was at once filled brimful, theologians high and low resorting to it.
As seats of the new culture, Nurnberg and Strassburg occupied, perhaps, even a more prominent place than any of the university towns. These two cities, with Basel and Augsburg, had the most prosperous German printing establishments. At the close of the 15th century, Nuremberg, the fountain of inventions, had four Latin schools and was the home of Albrecht Dürer the painter and [[Willibald Pirkheimer]], a patron of learning.
Popular education, during the century before the Reformation, was far more advanced in Germany than in other nations. The chief schools, conducted by the Brothers of the Common Life, were located at [[Zwolle]], [[Deventer]], [['s-Hertogenbosch]] and [[Liège (city)|Liège]]. All the leading towns had schools, provided Melanchthon would have ready some verses in Latin on his return. It is needless to say that the boy was ready and received the book. The town of [[Schlettstadt]] in [[Alsace]] was noted as a classical centre. Here [[Platter]] found [[Sapidus]] teaching, and he regarded it as the best school he had found. In 1494, there were five pedagogues in Wesel, teaching reading, writing, arithmetic and singing. One Christmas the clergy of the place entertained the pupils, giving them each cloth for a new coat and a piece of money as begun with the 4th class.
Among the noted schoolmasters was [[Alexander Hegius]], who taught at Deventer for nearly a quarter of a century, till his death in [[1498]]. At the age of 40 he was not ashamed to sit at the feet of Agricola. He made the classics central in education and banished the old text-books. Trebonius, who taught Luther at [[Eisenach]], belonged to a class of worthy men. The penitential books of the day called upon parents to be diligent in keeping their children off the streets and sending them to school.
=== See also ===
*[[Humanist Library of Sélestat]]
==Leaders of humanism==
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The chief Humanists of Germany were [[Rudolph Agricola]], Reuchlin and Erasmus. To the last two a separate treatment is given as the pathfinders of biblical learning, the venerabiles inceptores of modern biblical research.
[[Image:Agricola, Rudolf, Nordisk familjebok.png|thumb|left|Rudolph Agricola]]
Agricola, whose original name was Roelef Huisman, was born near [[Groningen (city)|Groningen]], [[1443]], and died 1485. He enjoyed the highest reputation in his day as a scholar and received unstinted praise from Erasmus and Melanchthon. He has been regarded as doing for Humanism in Germany what was done for Italy by [[Petrarca]], the first life of whom, in German, Agricola prepared. He was far in advance of the Italian poet in the purity of his life. After studying in [[Erfurt]], [[Leuven|Louvain]] and [[Cologne]], Agricola went to Italy, spending some time at the universities in Pavia and Ferrara. He declined a professor’s chair in favor of an appointment at the court of Philip of the Palatinate in Heidelberg. He made [[Cicero]] and [[Quintilian]] his models. In his last years, he turned his attention to theology and studied Hebrew. Like [[Pico della Mirandola]], he was buried in the cowl of a monastic order. The inscription on his tomb in Heidelberg stated that he had studied what is taught about God and the true faith of the Saviour in the books of Scripture.
Another Humanist was [[Jacob Wimpheling]], 1450–1528, of Schlettstadt, who taught in Heidelberg. He was inclined to be severe on clerical abuses but, at the close of his career, wanted to substitute for the study of Virgil and [[Horace]], [[Coelius Sedulius|Sedulius]] and [[Prudentius]]. The poetic [[Sebastian Brant]], 1457–1521, the author of the ''[[Ship of Fools (satire)|Ship of Fools]]'', began his career as a teacher of law in Basel. [[Mutianus Rufus]], in his correspondence, went so far as to declare that Christianity is as old as the world and that Jupiter, Apollo, Ceres and Christ are only different names of the one hidden God.
A name which deserves a high place in the German literature of the last years of the Middle Ages is [[John Trithemius]], 1462–1505, abbot of a [[Benedictine]] convent at [[Sponheim]], which, under his guidance, gained the reputation of a learned academy. He gathered a library of 2,000 volumes and wrote a patrology, or encyclopaedia of the Fathers, and a catalogue of the renowned men of Germany. Increasing differences with the [[convent]] led to his [[resignation]] in [[1506]], when he decided to take up the offer of the [[Lord]] [[Bishop]] of [[Würzburg]], [[Lorenz von Bibra]] (bishop from [[1495]] to [[1519]]), to become abbot of the ''[[Hiberno-Scottish mission|Schottenkloster]]'' in Würzburg. He remained there until the end of his life. Prelates and nobles visited him to consult and read the Latin and Greek authors he had collected. These men and others contributed their part to that movement of which Reuchlin and Erasmus were the chief lights and which led on easily to the Protestant Reformation.
==Source==
This article is copied from
* [[Philip Schaff]] ''History of the Christian Church'', Volume VI, '''1882'''
[[Category:Humanism]]
[[Category:German culture]]
[[Category:History of Germany]]
[[Category:German Renaissance]]