While war, plague, famine, and death ravaged Europe, a new culture was developing in Italy. The fourteenth century brought many changes in Italian thought and society. In the fifteenth century, these changes spread out of Italy and influenced Northern European society. Humanism, which is the emphasis on human beings, their achievements, interests, and capabilities, is the outcome of the renaissance attitude of individualism and secularism.
Northern Europeans interpreted these Italian ideas in terms of their own traditions, which were somewhat more Christian that those of Italy. The fundamental difference between Christian and Italian humanists is that the northerners looked at humanity as a whole, and tried to reform their society, while the Italians focused more on the present and the glory of the individual. Northern and Italian humanists believed that a well-educated person must know the classic literature of the Greeks and Romans. They combine a strong Christian belief with their love of classical literature. Petrarch, in a 1358 letter to Meri Moran do, justifies this union by saying that certain truths are universal, and if Cicero writes these truths, then they must be acceptable to the Church. Sir Thomas More denounced clergymen who opposed the study of the classics at Oxford, by asking how they could know the only important subject was theology, if they were ignorant of classic language and literature.
The Essay on Literature Ans Society
The literature of an age, and its social set up keeping and reacting one over the other. Literature influences the society; society is reflected in Literature and in this way, in all languages and at all times there has been a close interaction between the two. Literature of any age cannot escape the influence of the social scene and therefore is found reflecting the society of the age when it is ...
Both Northern and Italian humanists placed a strong emphasis on broad based learning, and a sense of civic responsibility and individual freedom. Northern humanism was stimulated by the spread of the Italian renaissance. However, the northern humanists developed their own culture due to their greater diversity and dedication to religious reform than the Italians. Northern humanists also wrote more to lay audiences. For example, Erasmus advocated translating the Bible into all the vernacular languages, so that the masses may read and understand, instead of being forced to rely on the Church. North of the Alps, the renaissance had a more biblical theme, in contrast to the secular and pagan themes in Italy.
For example, Petrarch wrote passionate sonnets to Laura, a woman who, in his poem, came thorough as a model for heaven and not the other way around. This would be considered borderline blasphemy in the stricter, more Christian North. Italian humanism can be characterized by the belief that the new age was a period of enlightenment following the dark ignorance of the Middle Ages. The writers, sculptors, and painters celebrated not God, but humanity.
Northern humanists, such as Sir Thomas More, also saw beauty in mankind, but directed his thoughts toward bettering society in order to better the individual. The fundamental difference between Christian and Italian humanists is that the northerners looked at humanity as a whole, and tried to reform their society, while the Italians focused more on the present and the glory of the individual.
