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THE CHURCH IN THE 15TH CENTURY: HUMANISM, CHRISTIANITY AND CHRISTIAN HUMANISM

THE CHURCH IN THE 15TH CENTURY: HUMANISM, CHRISTIANITY AND CHRISTIAN HUMANISM. From last time…. 1296-1303: Boniface VIII against Philip the Fair (IN the mid.) 1309-1378: Pope in France Avignonese Captivity, NOT in the mid.) 1378-1414: multi-Pope period! (NOT in the mid.)

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THE CHURCH IN THE 15TH CENTURY: HUMANISM, CHRISTIANITY AND CHRISTIAN HUMANISM

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  1. THE CHURCH IN THE 15TH CENTURY: HUMANISM, CHRISTIANITY AND CHRISTIAN HUMANISM

  2. From last time… • 1296-1303: Boniface VIII against Philip the Fair (IN the mid.) • 1309-1378: Pope in France Avignonese Captivity, NOT in the mid.) • 1378-1414: multi-Pope period! (NOT in the mid.) • 1414-1417: Constance, the end of the multi-Pope, the Pope’s setback, new heresies (NOT in the mid.)

  3. Jesus chose Peter and his successors as rulers of the Church Peter was Bishop of Rome Every Pope, elected with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, is Bishop of Rome Every Pope is successor of Peter and as such ruler of the Church! Jesus chose ALL the Apostles, not just Peter Peter was NOT in Rome most of his life Popes are elected ‘wrongly’ We cannot say that 1) Peter is in charge, and even if that were the case, 2) the Pope is Peter’s successor Pro-Pope, Anti-Pope

  4. After Constance: new things happen…

  5. Two technological inventions: instead of parchment…

  6. …now paper from rags! (actually invented in China, it became popular in Europe by the end of 14th c.)

  7. ..and in the 18th century in America the paper-making became automatic!

  8. Gutemberg invents the Printing Press: 1453

  9. Consequences of the technological innovations: • Books are cheaper, and therefore more widely available • Less time to copy, more time to think!

  10. Humanism: what is it? Look at the source…. • Refocusing on learning: ‘studies…promise you enormous prizes both in the conduct of your life and for the fame and glory of your name’ • Refocusing of ‘old learning’: the ‘knowledge of letters…the more searching and profound kind’: Cicero & c. The motto of the Humanists was ‘Ad fontes’, which means ‘to the sources’ • Attention to ‘poets, orators and historians’ • No law, as in ‘no practical studies’!

  11. Are Humanism and Christianity necessarily antagonist?

  12. NO: Here are some issues we will take into consideration: • Biblical philology • ‘Ad Fontes’ applied to Christianity • ‘Devotio Moderna’ and Northern European Humanism • Erasmus from Rotterdam

  13. Lorenzo Valla, ‘De emendata Donatione Constantini’ (1440)

  14. The Bible: Old Testament • Hebrew Text (difficult to date, some books from the 6th century BC but older versions have been found in the fragments contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls) • Greek Text (I-II century BC, called ‘Septuagint’, partially different than the Hebrew • Latin Text, IV century A.D., translated from the Greek and from the Hebrew by Jerome (“Vulgata”)

  15. The Bible: New Testament • Original Greek text, I century AD • ‘Vetus Latina’, I century AD • St.Jerome’s ‘Vulgata’, IV century AD

  16. The main source was Jerome’s ‘Vulgata’, which contained some mistakes: • Exodus 34: in the Hebrew Moses is described as descending from Mount Sinai in a path of light: Jerome misunderstood and wrote that Moses came down with a pair of horns in his head!

  17. …Moses with horns: Michelangelo, Moses, 1513-6, St.Peter in Chains, Rome

  18. Jerome’s mistakes in New Testament: • Matthew 3:22: the passage on John the Baptist crying to the people to ‘repent’. • Jerome translated it as ‘do penance’, or ‘perform confession’, thus legitimating the sacrament of confession • The exact translation was ‘repent’, or ‘come to your senses’: no mention of confession!

  19. Another of Jerome’s mistakes: • The greeting of the Angel Gabriel to Mary was translated by Jerome as ‘gratia plena’, or ‘full of grace’ • The exact translation was: ‘gracious’ • Important implications there: was Mary invested with the ‘grace of God’, which would make her a ‘saint-like’ figure, or was she just ‘gracious’?

  20. Fra Angelico, ‘Annunciation’, late 1430s

  21. All these mistakes fixed by Erasmus: • In 1516 he published a critical edition of the New Testament: what is a critical edition? • What did Erasmus’ text look like?

  22. Erasmus’ ‘New Testament’, 1516

  23. Partial conclusions: • The relation between Humanism and Christianity: you can apply the same care for learning to religion • Biblical philology means that you can actually read the pure and original message of Christ • Erasmus important in that!

  24. Example: Dutch History Bible, 1430s

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