HUMANISTIC EDUCATORS
=Literature.=--_Spofford_, Library of Historical Characters; _Symonds_,
Renaissance in Italy; _Reeve_, Petrarch; _Macaulay_, Essays; _Warner_,
Library of the World's Best Literature (see articles on Dante, Petrarch,
and Boccaccio); _D'Aubigne_, History of the Reformation; _Morris_, Era
of the Protestant Revolution; _Leclerc_, Life of Erasmus; _Fisher_,
History of the Reformation; _Mrs. Oliphant_, Dante; _Azarias_,
Philosophy of Literature; _Schwickerath_, Jesuit Education.
The mission of the humanistic leaders was to "awake the dead," for Greek
had become in the fullest sense a dead language, and while classic Latin
was still read, its spirit was not comprehended and therefore it also
was practically dead. We have seen that the Italians were the first to
catch the inspiration of this revival, and Germany, France, Spain, and
England "were invited to her feast." The great leaders of Italy were
Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. It is not the purpose here to discuss
these men in all of their intellectual activities, but simply to
consider the part of their work that had a bearing on education.
THE ITALIAN HUMANISTS
DANTE (1265-1321)
Dante was born and educated in Florence. He was favored with a devoted
teacher, Brunetto Latini, who was said to be "a great philosopher and a
consummate master of rhetoric, not only knowing how to speak well, but
to write well." Under him Dante became familiar with all of the great
Latin poets, with philosophy, history, and theology. Dante always spoke
of his teacher with great affection. Those were times of revolution and
political disturbance, and Dante was readily drawn into politics. This
caused his banishment and even endangered his life.
Dante's greatest work is the "Divine Comedy," which has made his name
immortal. His was the first great name in literature after the long dark
period of the Middle Ages. It is said of him that "he was not the
restorer of classic antiquity, but one of the great prophets of that
restoration." He brought the Italian language into use in literature and
gave to it a dignity that it has never lost. Dante prepared the way for
the humanistic movement and was therefore an important factor in this
great revival.
PETRARCH (1304-1374)
The father of Petrarch was an eminent jurist, and he desired his son to
adopt his profession, but Petrarch had neither taste nor capacity for
Roman law. He was determined to be a man of letters. Like Dante, he too
mixed in politics, and several important diplomatic positions were given
to him. Though he succeeded in learning a little Greek late in life,
Petrarch was not a Greek scholar. This did not hinder him from being a
warm advocate of the claims of the Greek language as an important
element of a liberal education. Although he possessed a manuscript of
Homer, "Homer was dumb to him, or rather he was deaf to Homer."
Petrarch was the real founder of humanism. Being enthusiastic for the
works of antiquity himself, he inspired the Italians with a remarkable
zeal in the pursuit of classic lore; nor was his influence confined to
the limits of his native country. He was the first to make a collection
of classic works, and to bring to light the literary treasures which the
monasteries had so carefully preserved for centuries. He inaugurated
that great movement which "restored freedom, self-consciousness, and the
faculty of progress to human intellect." He recognized that the most
wonderful thing in the world is the human mind, the emancipation of
which can be brought about only through its own activity. He was the
first to appreciate the importance of Greek in human culture. Unlike
Tertullian, Jerome, and Augustine, he believed that classic authors,
together with the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Church
Fathers, produce the broadest intelligence. All of these have the same
purpose, and all are necessary to human enlightenment. Petrarch broke
down the unfruitful methods of the scholastics, and laid the foundations
upon which modern education is based; namely, intellectual freedom,
self-consciousness, and self-activity.
BOCCACCIO (1313-1375)
The third of the great Italian leaders in the humanistic movement was
Boccaccio. At the age of twenty-five, while standing at the grave of
Vergil, he decided to devote himself to a literary career. He admired
the great work of Petrarch, and was proud that, "at his own expense, he
was the first to have the works of Homer and other Greek authors brought
to his native land; that he was the first to call and support a teacher
of Greek; and that he was the first among all Italians who could read
Homer in the original."
THE GERMAN HUMANISTS
The German mind is more earnest, disputative, and practical than the
Italian, therefore the trend of German humanism was at first chiefly
theological, and the study of the classic languages, especially Hebrew
and Greek, was undertaken for the purpose of better understanding the
Holy Scriptures. Only a few scholars, however, were interested, and not
until a violent attack was made upon Reuchlin, was general attention
attracted.
AGRICOLA (1443-1485)
Rudolphus Agricola was the first to prepare the northern countries for
the reception of the classic revival. After studying for some time under
the great Italian masters, he returned to Germany and accepted a
professorship at Heidelberg, where he delivered courses of lectures on
the literature of Greece and Rome. He lectured also at Worms at the
request of the bishop, and drew around him a large number of students in
both places. Hallam says of him, "No German wrote so pure a style, or
possessed so large a portion of classic learning." He prepared the way
for the introduction of humanistic teachings and some of his pupils
became the great leaders of that movement among the Teutonic peoples.
The testimony of Erasmus concerning Agricola is as follows: "There was
no branch of knowledge in which he could not measure himself with the
greatest masters. Among the Greeks, he was a pure Greek, among the
Latins a pure Roman.... Even when he spoke _ex tempore_, his speech was
so perfect and so pure that one could easily believe that one heard a
Roman rather than a German. United with his powerful eloquence was the
broadest erudition. He had investigated all the mysteries of philosophy,
and thoroughly mastered every branch of music. In his later years he
devoted his whole soul to the mastery of Hebrew and to the study of the
Holy Scriptures. He cared but little for glory."
REUCHLIN (1455-1522)
Reuchlin may properly be called the first great German humanist. He was
educated at Freiburg, Paris, and Basel, and gave especial attention to
the classic studies, which had almost disappeared from the university
courses in Germany. He took his master's degree at Basel, and then began
to lecture on classical Latin and Greek. Being a born teacher, he drew
about him a great number of students, who became interested in classic
studies. He made several visits to Italy, where he imbibed the
humanistic theories of the Italians, though he was already far advanced
in those theories before he went to Italy. In 1481 he was appointed
professor at Tuebingen, which thus became the first German university to
teach humanistic doctrines.
At Linz, where he had been sent on an embassy, he made the acquaintance
of the emperor's Jewish physician, with whom he began the study of
Hebrew. This marks an important epoch in his history, as he is best
known for his Hebrew Grammar and Lexicon, published in 1506, and for his
championship of the Hebrew literature. Owing to the scarcity of classic
text-books, Reuchlin was obliged to mark out courses for his students,
and, in a measure, to supply text-books for them. Much of his work in
the university had to be dictated, and students were obliged to copy
their work from manuscripts. He published a Latin lexicon and prepared
the manuscript of a Greek grammar which he never published, but from
which doubtless he drew in his work with students.
In 1496 his friend Count Eberhard died, and Reuchlin's enemies succeeded
in alienating the new prince, so he was glad to avail himself of the
opportunity to go to the university of Heidelberg. Here he gave chief
attention to Hebrew.
While in Heidelberg he became involved in an unfortunate controversy
regarding Hebrew literature, a controversy which was forced upon him.
John Pfefferkorn, a converted Jew, zealous for the conversion of his
race, obtained an order from the emperor to confiscate and destroy all
Hebrew works which opposed the Christian faith. Reuchlin was appealed to
as the highest authority on Hebrew, and he urged that, instead of
destroying the literature, two professors should be appointed in each
university to teach Hebrew and thereby refute the Jewish doctors by
making the students acquainted with the Bible. The struggle continued
for years, and although the Church and even the universities were
against him, Reuchlin was finally victorious, thereby saving a noble
literature to the world. This was a great victory for humanism. A short
time before his death Reuchlin returned to Tuebingen, where he closed his
illustrious career in 1522.
Reuchlin was the first to introduce Greek into Germany, and the first to
recognize the necessity of a knowledge of Hebrew in interpreting the
Holy Scriptures. He began a reform in the schools which prepared the way
for a like movement in the Church, and in Luther he saw the man who was
destined to carry both of these reforms to fulfillment. "God be
praised," said he, "in Luther they have found a man who will give them
work enough to do, so that they can let me, an old man, go to my rest in
peace."
ERASMUS (1467-1536)
Erasmus was born at Rotterdam. Though not a German, he belonged to the
Teutonic race. He has well been called a "citizen of the world," as he
lived in so many countries, and came to be the most learned man of his
time. He was left an orphan at an early age, and his guardians placed
him in a convent. They wished to make a monk of him so that they could
inherit his patrimony, but this plan was resisted by the boy for a long
time. The life of the convent was very distasteful to him, and though he
afterward took vows, he never was in sympathy with asceticism. Possibly
the condition of the monasteries at that time may have had something to
do with the repugnance of Erasmus to the monastic life. He was certainly
greatly relieved when the Pope absolved him from his vows.
Erasmus was precocious as a child, and it was early predicted of him
that he would be a great man, a prediction which he fully verified.
Through the influence and help of the Bishop of Cambray, he was enabled
to go to Paris for study, though the means furnished were not sufficient
for his support. He took pupils and gave lectures, thereby supplying the
deficiency in his funds. It is recorded that, in his eagerness for
books, he said, "When I get money, I will first buy Greek books, and
then clothing." He also studied at Oxford, and afterward at Turin, where
he took the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Though many high offices in
the Church, and many positions in universities, were offered to him, he
refused them all, preferring to be an independent man of letters.
Erasmus was recognized as the supreme literary authority of the world,
and this lofty position was the summit of his ambition. Nothing could
turn him aside from the path that led to that eminence, and, once
attained, nothing could attract him away from it.
Basel had become the center of the new printing industry. This led
Erasmus to choose that city as his home for the latter part of his life,
and here he furthered the cause of humanism as no other man had done, by
editing and giving to the world many of the classic treasures of the
monasteries. He translated Greek works into Latin, thereby making them
available to the world, as Latin was better understood than Greek. His
edition of the Greek Testament was his most eminent service, though his
"Colloquies" are better known. His "Praise of Folly" is a satirical
work, in which he holds up to ridicule the ignorance and vice of the
monks.
Though he never broke away from the Church, without doubt his sympathies
were with the reformers. But neither the persuasions nor the
denunciations of Luther could bring him to take a decided stand on
either side. He thought that the reform could be wrought within the
Church. He accepted the dogmas of the Church, and remained within it as
long as he lived.
Erasmus was the exact counterpart of Luther. He appealed to the limited
few, Luther to the masses; he to the educated and higher classes, Luther
to the ignorant and lowly; he was a man of reflection, Luther a man of
action. The apparent vacillation of Erasmus may have been due to ill
health, to the influence of the Pope, to the ties of the Church in which
he had been reared, to the satisfaction he found in his eminent literary
position, and to his dislike for controversy.
Erasmus gives us some very valuable pedagogical teachings, which may be
summed up as follows:--
=Pedagogy of Erasmus.=--1. The mother is the natural educator of the
child in its early years. The mother who does not care for the education
of her children is only half a mother.
2. Until the seventh year the child should have little to do but play,
in order to develop the body. It must have no earnest work, but must be
taught politeness.
3. After the seventh year earnest work must begin. Latin and Greek
(which should be studied together) must be taught early so that right
pronunciation and a good vocabulary may be attained.
4. The first subject to be learned is grammar. Language is necessary
before a knowledge of other things can be gained.
5. Teachers should be better trained and better paid, and suitable
places must be furnished for the schools.
6. The religious side of education must not be neglected.
7. Great attention must be paid to the cultivation of the memory: (_a_)
by a proper understanding of the subject; (_b_) by logical order in
thinking; (_c_) by comparison.
8. As the bee collects honey from many flowers, so knowledge is gathered
from many sources.
9. The foundation of all training of children must be laid in the home.
Parents should know what their children ought to be taught. Above all
things children must be taught to _obey_.
10. The first care with girls is to inculcate in them religious
feelings; the second to protect them from contamination; the third, to
guard them from idleness.