A COP~PARISON Oi' THE HISTORY OF I1j! .::..;PO;:;..-p ... E'S-.. BY LUDWIG VOl-I PAS TOR

AND

~ CIVILIZATI ON m:. !!.lli RENAISS ANCE .Y! .-.IT=A;.;;;L-.Y BY JACOB BURCKHARDT

ROM lJOO-l~OO III RESPECT TO AUTHORITIES CITED AND THEIR

APPRAISAl. OF TlmSE AU1'HOR ITIES

by

Sister Isabella Ferrell, B. A.

A Thesis submitted to t.he Faculty of the Gr aduate School, Marquette University

i n Partial Fulfill ment of the Re­quirements ,for tho Degree of

Master of Arts

l.filwa.ukee .• Wisconsin

June; 195it'

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I • • • ¥ • iI • • ~lhat Pastor and Bur ckhardt Think

of Writers They Both Use

Chapter II •••••••• The Criticism of the Sources

Mentioned in Chapter I by other

Modern Authorities

Chapter III ........ Renaissance Writers used by Either

Pastor or Burckhardt

Ch~pter IV

Chapter V

• • • • • • • An Examination of the Authorities

and Sources Criticized by both

Pastor and Burckhardt

• • • • • • • Conclusion

Appendix A ••• , , •• Biographical Sket ches of the Twelve

Renaissance Writers Used by Both

Pastor and Burckhardt

~, ' 1 • . ,

This t hesis finds its setting in full Renaissance times.

whicn were characterized o.n the one hand by a f alling away

from the spirit and pra. ctice of Chrlstionlty , and on the other

by an admiration and imitation of pa.gan culture . It must not

be t hought that the Renaia.sance man at the outset was to be

f ound 1n one fixed channel of t hought, a fallen- away Catholi c

or a neo- pagan all on f ire with a love of an'ci quity . Ita.lians

of i nfluence were in t he r ourteent b0'.and fifteenth centur i es J

in three very distinct 15r oups--the firs t group frankly pagan,

po s itively hostile t o Chr istiani t y; the second, largely made I

up of monks, t riars. and theological faculties of the uni-

versities , violently Catholic , and fanati cally opposed t o t he

r eyival of a ncient civil ization in any form; the third , com­

posed of laymen and ecclesiastics who blended Graseo- Roman

culture with Chr i stian belie fe and practi ces.

l·~ost of the t/ri t el'S ot the fC!)urteenth and fIfteenth

centurie.s r efl ected. one of these three lines of thought. Some

of' these men even sacr i f iced truth to bestow undeserved prais e

on those patrons who payed them well . It was 1n the Renaissance

period then, and with this group of 'kenaissance writers , often

pre judiced and unt.ruthtul , tha t Ludwig von Pes'or and. Jacob

Burckhardt. as historians , chose to lJork in order to separate

prejudice and calumny from the t ruth; and the r eby give a more

accurate account of t he Renaissance period . Tholl" works ,

which will be the beais of t h is thesis are Ludwig von Past or's

History 2! ~ Popes , Dnd Jacob Burokhardt ' s !h.! Civilization

511 .!:!:l! Renaissance !!1 Italy. Since this thesis deals with

the period f rom 1300-1500, only the first six volumes or von Pastor' 5 "Jork will be used , tlhile the two volumes of

Burckhardt will be cons idered .

It is on the basis of objectivity that the two his­

torians under discussion in t his thea-is will be a-valuatod .

Separated .500 years from the time about which they wrote ,

the value of the work of Pastor and "Burckhal'dt lies in

their judicious and prudent use and es timato of Italian

Renaissance writers. il ccording t o theacience of historio­

graphy, historians most fre quently fail in objectivity be­

cause of their aft:U1ation wl.th a certain rnce , politica l

P{tt" ty . religion,_ system of eduoation , environment , or e conomic

class . Burckhardt and P,aetor will be valid historians only

insofar as they sore able to det ect , and brine; to light the

prejudices of the sources and authorities which they use.

JI. short biographical sketch of these two historis ns will make

it easier to determine whether or not they have been influenced

by prejudice in -cheir analysis of the Renaissance writers ,

Jacob Gbrlstoph Burckhardt , author of The Civilization

of the Renaissance !.a Italy , was born in Basel in 1818 ,

of an old SWiss family. Influenced by his father who was a

Protestant minister , Bur ckha rdt studied theology . Later ,

he we,nt to Eerlin where he reed vod s: humanistic education

under the direction of Droyson , Grimm and Ra nke . In H34J • •

he took his degree under Ranke , a nd two years later became

2

professor of history and the history ofal't at t.he Uni­

versity of Basel . Ite held this position until 1893. 1

Burckhardt's education led him t o emphasize cultural

history , and to take a very hostile attitude toward democracy ,

r evolution , and materi t1 liam , which developed 50 rapidly be-2

tween 1930 and 1848 , but 1n spite of this , Lord Acton says

that Burckhardt ' s work , The- Cult.ure .2!. ~ Renaissance in Italy is the 'most penetrating and subtle treatise on the

history of civilization that exists in literature . ) Since

Burckhardt believed thSlt culture was the real value of

history , he minimized social and economic h1story . 4

Ludwig von Pastor . Author of History 2! ~ Popes ;

the. son of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother , was

born in Aachen in Hi54 . It was while he was studying at

'f<' rankf'ort on the !flain that he came under the influence ot' the

Catholic historian , Father Johanne·s Janssen, who suggested

that Pnstor attend the University of Louvain . 5

With the issue o f the papal brief "Sa,epenumero de­

s1derantes" . tn H~SJ . the Vatican archives were open to all

scholars . It WlIS in this papal brief that Pope Leo XIII

1Jaroos \'Iestfall Thompson , A History; of Historical ftlrltilW (Nfm York 1942) , II , i.,1. -

~EncrCloped!a of the Social SCiences , III , 69 . Thompson , It ,45T-t53.

4Ibid ., pp . 452 .. 453. 5Ibid ., pp . 546- 547.

3

declared that 'fThe firet law of history 1s , not to dare to

utter faleehood ; the sooond , not to fear to sp>eak the truth;

and , moreover , no room must be left for euspicionof partiali­

ty or prejudice." Encouraged by the availability of Vatican

a rChival aaterial and the challenging words of the papal

brief , Pafcltor began his History g! the Popes . Ris sources

of information include not only the papal archives , but also

the archives of famili es such as the Colonna, Ricci , and

Oa.e,tani . By using a grent variety of sources ; Pastor hoped

to arrive at gro nter truth and objecti.Vity . 6

Not all the s ources used by Burckhardt and Pastor will

be comoented upon 1n this thesis . f.tlention will be made only

of ,those sources vlh10h are criticized or evaluated by the two

historians. Both Pastor and .Burckhar dt have striven to attain

pure objectivity in their groat research by sifting and weigh -

1nl) carefully the testimony of all t he importnnt writers of

the fourteent h and fi f teenth centur ies in an endeavor to pre­

sent the truth . For as Oarraghan says :

eal for the truth is as ind1spensfible to the his­torian as a passion for beauty 1s to the artist . It postulates sincerity nnd frankness in stating the fa cts , however much the writer ' s foolinge Qr those of others Day be ruffled in the process . 1

6Thomp80n ; II , 547- 549 . 70ilber t J . S. Oarraghan , A Guide to Historical

ethod (New York . 1946) . p . 43 . - -

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Truth is the ultimate goal toward which every good his­

torian must strive . If a o chol~, l"is concerned ldth narrating

the ovents of his own day , historical truth om be attained

with relative ease , but , if , as is the case with Pastor and

Burckhardt, the author is s epar a ted f rom the period about

which he is writin~ by five hundred. years , then the attain-

ment of historical t ruth b ecomes more difficult .. It i s necessary

f or t he his 'torian to int erpr et and evaluate f.ource materi al ,

and in some instances , t o depend on the 'ltora of a non-con­

temporary authority for his i nfo rmation.

Pastor and Burckhardt , .. -tho 11 ved in the ninetee'nth

century, a.re Writing about ovents which occurred in th e four­

te~nth and fif teenth centuries. In the present chapter of

t his thesis, t,wel ve his torians and. writers used both by Pastor

and Burekhardt will be presented together with these two

historians ' evaluation of the Renaissance writers . The

estimate which PAstor and Bur.ckhardt mak e of these f ourteenth

and fifteenth oentury writers will l ead to a comparative study

of the relat.ive merits of these t t'lO men as historians .

Tho .first of the t 'welve writers to be considered in this

chapt~r, and one who is frequently mentioned by both Pastor

and BurCkhar dt is Leone Bat1~1 sta A lhert! , (1404-1472), a

t ypical Hena1ssance man with almost universal interests in

t he fields of philosophy , a rt, muuic and architectur e .

Al berti ' 5 wr1tinp.: s are of. t'AQ types: his treatises on archi -,

tecture, and his treQt~18es on f amily and socia l U fe or his day .

urckhardt , the cultural historian , itS interested only

in Albert.i ' s l.lrehit actural works . Of Alberti's Descrizione

!ll. t,utta. ]" Italia , Burckhar d t makes the comment Ita great

and r emarkable ,Jork . ttl n.ef err il'lg to Alberti t a flDe Re Aedi­

f i. cat oria , Tf Bur Ckhardt praises the I~eat arch! teet whose

" l i tor-sry wo r ks on a r t a r e l andmarks and ~luthoritie6 of t he

.firs t order for the Hena issa nce of form especially in a1"ch1-2

teeturc . tI

Plistor dif'f'~ring f rom Burckhardt , forms his appraisal

of Al berti's architectural treatise s from Christian as well

a s from purely a esthetic st.andt'Ar ds ., Pe.stcr rafers to Alberti ' s

" Temple of tt.alateet a tl a s profane , devoid of any Cbristian

oymbolisl.'ll , and abounding in heathen allu~ions . 3 But the

Cat holic Church historian, proceeding fut'ther than Burckhardt ,

comHonts on Alberti t s treatise on education . Tratta'to d.ella

ramirJia . Pastor \iCluld admit that he leal'no mueh about t.he

Renaiss~tnC6 f r om Alberti , but that t ho archit oct ' a t r ea tise

on domestic life like his vieij,s on art and sculpture , "bears

clea r tr~\ceG of the evil i nfl uence of the f a lse Renaissa.nce,. "

Albot:-ti , Pastor observes , gives some pr~lctlcnl sugge s tions

a,bcmt ~omeatlc li f e , but c1 tea as modelS of virtue chara cters

IJ, a cob Bur,Ckhardt , Toe Civiliza t ion of i~e Period of ~ Renaissance in ItalY'\London , 1878 , p . 2 •

, 2Ib' ! , ' 'IM''7 ' J,.C • • ; p • . lJI * Jr.Udtlig von Pastor , The Mistort ~ t he Po~es drawn

from th~~ se crE~t archives or-tha Va t can and ot,ler orIginal SOU'rcEi"iJ'(St . Louis , 1902)-;-\'-;199 . -

2

from the pag~n classics , rather t ha.n Christ and His saints . 4

So Burc~hardt and Pastor in describing Alberti have given the

picture of a. 1;rue Renalssance man .

Pioneering i n the fields of archaeology and topography ,

and carrying on orig;1nal research in history is Fl avi us

Bi ondus , ( l 3g8-1i~6 J), \'Jho i s judged very favora bly by both

Pastor and Burckhardt . Pastor prais'es Biondus t ~ Inataurata ,

first , because it was \.i'ritten by a virtuous , hard-'\"Iorkin

man who viaS a c·ell'eful \",i tnN.>S of Renaissance developments ,

and a true son of the Christian Renaissance ; and secondly ,

because the science o f' topogra.phy was founded with the

~(riting of this book . In Pastor ' s own words :

I n his (D iondus ' ) simplicity , modesty and purity of lire t his hard- working man who was a representa­·t1 ve of the Christian RenaiBsance forns a consoling cont rast tg the unprincipled Poggio and hi s followers . "

!~urckhllrdt commoudf3 Biondus for attempting in his work ,

not only a deBcriptioll of what existed , but also for recover­

ing ... hat was lost , 6 i.n his Fasciculus Ternporum in ~1hich he

"made the study of t he ~Jl.iddle Aees possible by first train­

ing the mi nd to habits of historical criticium. n7 The Decade s ,

according to Burckhard t , is another original contribution

of Biondus in .,.,hieh the events of (~ . .r; ch century of the pas t

4Panto r , V; 120 . 5Ibid ., I , ,304 • . BurCkhardt ! p . 180 . 7Ibtd •• p .. 246 . •

:3

are r ecor ded in the style 'of a universal history. 8

In complete contrast to the Christian-sp irited Biondus,

is the f1 am.boyant f i gure of the pagan Renaissance, Giovanni

Bocca ccio, (1313-1375). whose works .Pastor excori ates!O Even

t hough Boccaccio wrote no histories; his literary productions

are a ,valuable index to the trend in thought ,and morals of

the world of the pagan Renaissance. Pastor speaks at l ength

and \jith grea t s everity of Boccaccio's De cameron, a ,series

of t ales saturated with heathen prinCiples, unrestrained

gratification of the senses, and a thorough contempt for

monks a nd nuns, many of whom are represented as immoral.

Says Pastor:

In his stories Boccac cio takes especial delight in he. aping ridicule and contempt . on eccleSiastics, monk3 and nuns, and with polished irony, r epre­sents . them as 9he quintes sence of all i mmorality and hypocrisy .•

Burckhardt, on the other hand " is much more lenient

in his criticism of the Decameron which does give an accurate

description of . the plague, even though. as Burckhardt ad­

mits, "the t ales put into the mouths of the women serve a s

instances of inde11cacy"nlO

Critical remarks made by both Pastor and BurCkhar dt

classify Boccaccio as a proponent of the pa gan Renaissance.

For example, Pastor cites the Three Rings as an expres sion

g , Burokhardt, p .. 246. ,

9Pastor, I, 5. • lOBurckhardt, p. 77 and 399.

4:

of the t endency of moral corrupti on to l ead to r elie i ous

lndiff erence •

.I~1oral corruption 6uch as \'le have been describing , could not fail to lead to religious indifference . occacc1o's f amous poem t he "Three R1ngsi1is a

significant expression of this tendency .

"Burckhardt, on the otber hand complains of Boccaccio's

0Eere Vol~ari which Tl recognizes 8S poetry that which treated

of antiouity , and i gnores the Troubadours . ,,12

In open disagreement wi th nlany modern aut horiti es ,

Pastor and BurCkhardt classif y Dante 6.S a henaissance fi ­

gure . Bridging the ~led1eval and Renaissance periods ,

Alighieri Dante , (1265- 132l) , is considered by many his-

torians to be a medieval man. A Florontine . Dante, exerted

much i nfluence in both civil .and ecclesiastical affai.rs .

The church problem which interested Dante most was the re­

turn of the pope from AVignon , therefore .• in his letters ,

says Pastor , "Dante came f orward 8S the exponent of the

public feeling which demanded the ret urn of the papal ttlrone

to Rome . "l) Pas tor also discovers that Dante ' s t eaching

on " t he nothingness of human glory"14 is also contrary to

humanisti c philosophy.

Burckhardt , O1 h'101y9 interEHJted in forms of writing and

paean cul t ure , comments that Dante ' s letters make hi m "one

Ilpas t or , V, 134. 12Burckhard t , FP . 375 and 399 . I JPastor, I t 63. , l 4Ibid . t J .

5

of the earl i est publicists , and the first. layman to publish

tract s in t h i s form. ff·15 The par a llelism and synt hesis of

Dante ' s wor ks by wh i c:h he Hbri n~s to r;e t her a Christi an

"nd pa~ail'l illust r a tion of the same fact , ,,16 i s much appr e ciat-

ad by Burckhnrdt.

Conpar able to Bocca ccio in his unpr i nc l .pl ed life and

heathen writinf.'t,s is l\'r ancesco Fi lcl f o ., (139$ ... 14.$1) , ~{ho

.randered f rom court t o oourt l:ocking patr onage f r om t he

hi r,hest b i dder in r etur n for undes erved prai ses which he

promised. to ~; i ve his patr ons wh en \,l r i t i ng of them. }>\ ile 1r o t s

poli cy of 'lc-/ri t illg for money 1s summed up most tersely b

Pastor : "He is a perfect mas t er in t he art of s currilous

vi~uperation . ,,17 Pastor expla.i ns ftu' ther that. 'the fJ ;r,;preSsioD

of.' truth mea.nt nothj,ng t o '£o'ilelfo , for one CQul d be pr a i sed

by him if he had. enough money or pr es ents t o offer, but if

the girt s were not lavish or frequent enough, t h en ' il01f o

revenged hims elf by usine t hE coa rsest 1<tne;ua ge ,18 and even

r esorting to ca lumny , as he di d i n the case of' Pope Ca lixt.us

6

ITI whom he fal~ely accused of di s peraing the Vatican 1ibrary .19

FileH'o , addu Past or , fur ther manifests hi ms elf a member of

t he paean Renaissance by the exa ggeratod i dea he has of him­

self , and by the es t eem for its own sake i n which he hol ds

secular l ear n1ns , oven infor ring tha.t t hOD e who know Latin

l~BurckhnrdtJ p . 75 . lOIbid •• pp . 20l~-205 . 17Pas tor, II . 197. 18Ibid . J IV. 1.j.45 . 19Ibid ., II , 334 .

and Greek oueht to be deified. 20

l.1rckhard t likewise reco gnized the power that money

had wi th F.11elfo, which is borne out in the ca se of the

Sfor7>ss for whom F.i1elfo composed Oratio parentalts ~ di vi

t"ancesci Sphortiae felicitate , eulogizing the tyrant of

!':ilan, Francesco S±'orZ2i , and his exploits for a handsome 21 sum .

"'0 Burckhe,r dt ' s way of t hinki ng , 'Fi lelfo ' s writin rr.s

do no't even qualify in an artistic senae. In proof of this

oint Bur ckhardt says :

,ost of Filelf.o t s speeches are an atrocious patchwork of classical and biblical qllote.tions, tacked on t o a string of commonplaces , among \'Ihich the gr eat people he wishes to flatter are arranged under the head of the cardinal virtues . I t is onl y with the gr eatest trouble that we can extricate t hG few historical 22 notices of valu(~ which they r' Ernlly contain .

'I'he only near complimentt.hat Burckhardt payaFilelfo is

t he Swiss historian'S statemen t when he spl~.nks of Filelfo 's

Ep1stolae Venetie-e , that li'i l elfo is fltolerably free from

supersti tionY 23

Fr ancesco Guicciardini . (148)-1540) , Ronaissance

historian , statesman and diplomat whQ acquired a full back­

ground of (~xperience for h is historica l writings by holding

20Pastor, I . 29. 21Burckhardt , p. 39. 22Ibid . J p • .39. 23Ibid ., p . 536

both secular o.nd ' p/(lp~l posts, is used by both Pes tor and

Burokho.rdt. Prir.lEt coosit16!'ation will be given the .first

analytleul h istory ·to be written .. his lit,stoFl of Pi.oNneo .

BUrokhs.rdt disl1tleses Gu1cc l tiro1n1 with tho 1"el'll8.1'k t hat

t he Florentine h1otol'ian is usually boldly frank in his

lottors , 24 \maraao Pastor' s oO!l!m1ente :make Guicclard1n1 out

to 'be very b1e,sed and pa.rtla l. This p~U'·t1a11 ty is m!lni:.font­

ed whEm lIin his picture or I taly in 1490 Ou1ce1aPd1ni lets

no hint esoupe t ho l'6vo1'8081do of the meda l of political

degom,rntlon \" .. hieb ha.d alrE.HI.dy begun , and. whioh wa s dost111od

so soon to bl'ln.s about t he ruin of this beautifUl countr'lJ . "25

Pa s tor again notes bias, .in Guicoinroin1's aocu8atlol1 "that

J ulius 1I_)18d nothing of t he priest in him but the eussocktt

he wore . 26 Thls Qondeumat1on wa s evidently ohnrootarlstl0

of Gu1oo1ard1n:1 ' s a ttitude tOVla rd tb$ popes in generul, oines

Pastor ohtlrao t orizes him as having "80 little love for the

popes."2'1

N1coo l o Mach i avellI. (14.69. 152'7) , histor'l &.n and plHY­

wright of t he Ita lian Rena issanoe, who combines the gen1U8

of' e. Guioc1ardin1 in his polit10(ll trea tises Tl1th the 'base­

ness of a. Bo0080010 in :h18 playa, is another COllman source

for t ho two ninetoenth century historians. It 18 dJ.tf1oult

24BurckhtU"d t, PI> Ba 25Paato~, Vi ' 4 '. " OOIb1d . ; VI. 438. 2'1Ibid •• p . 452.

a

\ \

to make a comparison between Pastor ' s and Burckhardt's

evaluation of Hachiavol1i ; because P.!ultor bases hiB

criticism on f..1a chiavell i ' s plays , whereas , Burckhardt con­

centrates on his political lrJ'Orks . Bur ckhardt sees the value

of r lia ch1~velli ' s historical and political writ.ings $linee

" in his Florentine M.stor y he repr es enta th e city as a living

organ ism. He is t.he first of the moderns who has risen t o

such eoncePtion",,28 Although it ls ' a matter f or conjecture

among; hiBtorians , Burckhardt maintaaine. that ~'Iachiavel1i' s

political t reatises were written only f or pr i nces and ad ..

tninist rators . 29 For ~,ach18velli , observes Burckhardt , would

not have outlined a coraplete progr am for t he construction of

a new political s ystem at Florence in h1.s Discorsi if the

book were writt en f or the l aity .JO

According to Pastor , Ma chiavelli ' s character a nd writings

were eoually depraved . The author of "the Prince wus a t ypical

enaissance man , says Pastor , "who combined the highest polish

with the utmost depravity , cruelty B.nd cunning _ttJl Machia­

vel li ' s Handran;ola i6 rated by Pastor as "sur passing the

plays of J\ riooto and B1bhiena in absence of' decorum , " while

the Cl1zia is an imitation or one of' the Illest scandalous

plays of Pl autus . 32

2aBu:ckhardt1 p . 81. 29Ibl.d . , p . ts4 . JOrbid" p . 85 . . 31pastor . V, .98 . -32Ibid ., pp. 124- 125 .

G

ieo della j·~ :i. !'arl.dola l (146.3-1494) , \11<13 a conservat ive

a oconling to Pastor ' s and Bur ckhardt ' 6 opini on of him . '

Both of them Hf',ree that f.. i randol a '{(as one of the ~Hme8t men

of hi s period , bfdn~ able to re conoile some of the bot ter

elon; ents of p¢\g~m culture and thought with Christian id eals •

..fter much study . SB;rs Pastor , r\~ i !"andola wao able "'to demon-

st~rate t he fundamental agreement of a l l the heathen philo­

sopher~ '{lith each other , and with Chris t ian s chol a sticism

and mysticism . n3 3 As if in confirmation of Pastor ' s state-

ment , Burckhardt procla i ms that J~irandola "loudly and vi r,orous-

ly defended the t ruth and s c ience of all eq;es against the

one-sided 'lJo!"ahip of classi ca l a nt iquity . " 34

Clonel y rC 30nbling Dante und ~.arand()la in their stand

t1i'1Hurd humaniGtn is Frtlncasco Petrarch , (1304 ... 1374) , Italian

poet and humeniat from Are~zo . Petrflr ch , says Past,or , "co"'-

b i ned enthusiastic a dm j.ration for classi cal antiquity with

de vot.:.t r ever en ce f o r Chri stiani ty . ff 35 Pastor reflects that

nlthoubh Petra r ch in his i deas a.nd ideal s Generally r emained

faithful to the Church , somEl of his 't!r:l.tin gs do cont a in

p;'lgan philosophy . For exampl e , Pet rareh ' 8 trea tise Qn. 2.2!1-tempt of the i/orlc. is filled wi t h allusions to sensual

.' 36 passion \</hich Pasto r feels Pctr a rch abets . His sonnets ,

~?pa8 tor . V, p . 154. 35~ur:khardt , p . 202 . 6tas t or , I , 1 .

3 Ib5_d, p . 3.

lU

however , Pastor maintains . are f r e e f r om all tMt is It wanton.

~. 1 If 37 ~ur", sensua · •

oth Pastor and Burckhardt find Petrarch, the Italian

patriot, prejudiced. in fils attitude toward the Avignon popes .

tl lh, condemns evuryone '.10rthy or umrorthy wh o 1i ved a t

A vi p;non , ,,38 soys Pastor . and in speaking of Avigl1on . P(!trarch

does so as D rtomn n patrio \... with a judgment often intemperate

md unjUf;t . Petra rch 's Avignon bias , laments Pastor , led

to an unl'li tif~.f,lte d condemnation of t ho },vignon popes by later

11

historians , who b(lsed t heir viO\~s in g.rea tmeasure on Petrarch's

unjust representations to 'littich undue historica l importance

has been attach e d . 39

Burckharnt h eW diQc()vere d o ther et~dences of pr,ejudice 'i'_.

in Pet,rarch ' s ltrOt"ks . For instance . according to him, Petrarch

consistentl y "extol s t he superiori ty of the Italians over the

r eeks , ff !'laking unfavorable comparisons between ;'~ rance and 40 Italy to t he ax~vantage of Italy_

Even t ho ugh ,prejudice may be f ound Burckhardt maintains

that Petrarch "OWf.!S hi s .:'ame to t he f a ct that he was a kind

of living repres entative of antiquity , that he i mitated a ll

styles of T.,.atin poetr y , and wrote voluminous historical a nd

philosoph i cal t'lritings not Lo supplant , but to make known

t he works of the ancients . ,,41

~~pa ?> tor , I , "" . ,;OIb i d • • 64 39Ibid •• 6; . 66 . 40Burckhard t ! p . 339. 41Ibid., p. ,)9 .

Resembling not a little Francesoo Filelfo, Bartolomeo

Platina, (1~~2l-l4$1}, is another example. Burckhardt and

Pastor tell us, of a disloyal humanist whose fidelity to

the papacy depended on the amount of patronage he received,

and the position which he held . Platina's History g! ~

popes, points out Pastor , presents Pius II in so favorable a

light t.hat Aeneas Sylvlus ' exaggerated good qualities make 42 his successor (Paul II) "appear yet darker by contrast."

Because of his partial and untruthful account of Paul II,

Platina is considered the pope's worst enemy, but as Pastor

notes, "the silence of his bitterest enemy. Platina, (in

r egard to Paul II's moral cha racter) who if grounds of

accusation had real1,y existed, would certainly not have

passed them over. tt43 1s proof of the pontiff's moral inte­

grity, and Platina 's recognition of that fact.

But Paul II, Pastor adds , was not the only target of

Platina's pen. Platina deals with all the more recent

popes in the same untruthful and unjust fashion. In fact,

all ecclesias tical affairs receive harsh and intemperate

treat ment from him. It is a pity that Platina. ruined a work

which promised to be remarkable for its l~ ck of fable, by

l etting his personal feelings in regard to the popes destroy

historiCal truth. For, says Pastor:

42Pastor, III, 34. 43Ibld., IV, 140. '

12

It is 10. manyreapects a. remsX'kable wor}~ for the period in which it was written. Instea.d or the contused and often f abulous Chronicles of the Middle Ages ,; \f8 find here for the first time-i-;,- a clear ll:d servioeable handbook or real bistory.

It was no doubt Pl atina's papal prejudice which caused

Pastor to characterize him as a "'malcontent and heathen­

mi,nded: hunlanist. "45

Burckhardt. arriving at the same conclusion as Pastor ,

has added a new note that Platina. "18 an enemy of hypocrisy

and superatit1on,ft but that he also used his pen as a means

of getting vengeance on the popes whom he considered t o be

his enernies. 46

In the works of Braeeiolini Poggio, (1380- 1459) , Pastor

and Burckhardt find tbe archaeological interests of til. Slandus

in his De Varietate Fortunao; the obscenity of' a Bocca.ccio - .

1n his Facetiae: and the historical interests of a Guicciar-

din! in his Hb torla Florentina.

The character of Poggio , busy witness of Renaissance

ha,ppenings which are reflected in his writings has been des­

cribed in bitter sentences by Pastor. ftAlmost all the vices

of the profligate Renaissance are to be found combined. in

his pereon ell47 Obsceni ty and ooursenoss are characteristic

of his li'9cetiae, while his Qn Avarice !m! .2!! Human ~Usery.

t;paator . .IV , 447-449 . '6,Ibid •• 41-4· Burckhardt ; pp~ 231 and 303. 47Pas tor, I . 29.

13

14

Pfistor tel ls us, speaks of t he "hypocrisy, cupidity, i gnorance ,

arrogance , 2-md lmmorali ty of 'the clergy" wi th t he bitterest

Sal"CUsM. 48 Those historians remind us of another of Poggio ' 8

antt- clerical wor ks , his ..,I .... n ... v .... e ... c ... t .... iv .... · _~ . aga~ !~ ~lix , the !!!U?!­

Pope i n \'Thich Poggi o denounces Felix , since the pope, a

schismatic , throat-ened to r eform the Roman court at which

Por;gi o \'las making h1.8 living .. 49

But Pastor notes tha t Poe~io 's praise of men could be

as eloquEmt as his hoa.trod was bitter, as is ev'.denced by

his lettor t o Nicholas V, whom he congratulated on becoming

pope , and t o whom he expr essed the aspirations of his party.50

Summtns up Pastor 's estimate of Po ggio , "the mos t tha t can

be 'S El id of Pofta,io a s 1.1 \11"1 tel", and as a man is that he was

an unprincipled humanist and a cynical skeptic. t15l

Burckhardt ' s criticism of Po{U;io 1s as s evere as that

of Pastor . Burckhardt , too , gives opinions on the Facetin6

which he says i s "filled with pract.i cnl ,iokes t impert inences ,

r efined indencency , misunderstood by simple folk tt •52 In

additi.on , BurCkhardt remarks , "'The Sflme r edical t h inker who

denied the birth and i n- equality of men , not only bolieved

in all the med-ieval &host stories , And devils , but also in

48Pas tor , pp • . 30-31 . 49Ib i d •• p . 167 . SOPastor II , 193~ 5lIbid., pp. 196-197. 52Burckhardt . p. 156 •

•

prodigies a. fter the ancient pattern . ";3 Says Burokhardt:

Voggtat e Q.2 AVCl.ritii gives the t ypical pagan philosophy,

that true fame could be a t tained only by those who had

written l earned books 1n La.tin . or who bad translated Greek

into La.tin. 54

Burckhardt , in fa.irness t o Poggio, does observe tha t

Poggio's one redeeming f eature 15 his work on insoriptions ,

De Varietl'.lte Fortuna-e , whioh would bo of s till gr ea,t er value -if it had been more detailed and better illustra.ted . 55

BurCkhardt feels tha t the, decline of the humanists ca.n be

tr~.eed to the prejudioe of peopl e toward the whole class ,

due to the wrttinm3 of a fe\~ such a s Poggio . 56

The last in this series of Renaissance writers to oe

used both by Pas tor and Burckhardt, is Q, Pope , ,Pius II , who

is a good example of one who began his ca.reer as a member of

the schismatie party and l ea ned towar d the pagan Renaissance,

but who slowly came around to a truer , more Christian , and

pro-papal attt tude. Pastor thinks that Aeneas Syl,vius

Piccolomini , or Pius II , was one of the "most notable and

brilliant ,figures" of th e Renaissance a ge . 57 "In his 'ilritings" ,

s ays Pastor, "he s crupulously avoided everything which could

be looked upon as an approach to hea thenism," but his att itude

on some .problems such as the conciliar theory , resembl ed

5JBul"ckhardt', p . 520 5~Ibid. ., p . 203 . ' §6~bid ., p . 156.

_.bid ., p . 273 . 57Pas tor , I , 340.

15

tha.t of an adherent of the heathen Itenaissa nce . ,S Pastor

also notes that Pius II's Commentaries contain very

valuable histol~l cal in.formi\ t1on , but are prejudiced,

especinlly when he speaks of his rivals such as Capranica ,

,md the leader of the French pal' ty . d ' f.stoutevil1e . 59

The Commentaries of. Aeneas Sylviu8 also contain info rmation

on t he movement to rostore momlstic discipline in relaxed

convents in Italy, Germany ' and Spain . 60 'l'he fact 1s noted ,

too, by Pastor , that these censures ha.d very little efficacy .

It is .fJtran.~e tha t one who valued discipline so hi ghly , should

be so ind1.fferent to the conflict between the pope and the

councils whIch was bas ic to so many of the irregularit ies 62 existing in the Church.

Pius II' 5 Au"t.obiQgraphy, Pastor believes , · 1s of great

historical value because . "In the spirit of a genuine his­

t orian Piccolomini throughout the whole of his event ful

life , made notes of all that had befallen him" . 63 Accord­

ing to Pastor , closely related t o his Autobiographx are his

Memoirs which prove that Plccolomini WQS a careful observer

with sound judgmen't a.nd deep insight.

Burckhardt quest-ions the accuracy of all the inforroa-

~~?astor . II! , 39; and I . 342. 6oIbid ., II , 491 and III , 11 . 61Ibid •• III, 217 . 62Ib~d •• p. ~85 .

-!b~d ., I . 3J .. 2 . 63Ibid ., III , 42,

16

, "

t ion f ound in Pius IIts Commentaries . According to Burck ­

hardt, Pius II "did not always observe correctly , and

sometimes filled up the picture f rom his fancy , as is

oloa1"'ly ohovm in his doncription of Basel . Yet his merit

on the whole is nevertheless grea t.,,64 Burckhardt finds

that Pius II's writings are as versa.tile as his interests:

Aeneas 3ylvtua ' l':pistle 105 to Arohduke Si giamund , finds

Burckhardt , demonstrates "in what manner antiquity could

serve as a guide and teacher; n 65 ,Picoolomini t s Europae status

~ Frederico III describes the f iro·t K.noW'n attempt of a.

,enoase 't o find n sea ... passage t o the East rndios;66 while

his Hl1ftori cal Geography 2£ Antiquity imparts a s c i(mtific

des,cription of nature . 67 "Where in tho fifteenth century

could he found , anY"'lbere but in Italy J such an union of

geos raphical t sttltistical and historical knowledge as wa s 68

found in Aeneas Sylvius?" concludes Burckhardt.

Z~BUJ~Ckhllrdtt p . 287. 661?~d .t p . 175. ~.IOld ., p . 286. ~~Ib1d ., p . )0) .

Ibid, J J) . ail?

1'7

The evaluations given In this chaRter by Pastor and '!.i(-

Burclthardt of the Renaissance sources and authorities

used in their respective works are basic for .that ui11

follotl in this thesis . Since Pastor and Burckhardt do

not agree entirely on the value ando'bjcctivity of some

Renaissance writers , this problem arises : Why do they

differ, and does this difference of opinion refle ct any­

thing of Pastor ' o and Burckhardt 's rospective l'forth as

historians?

181

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Uow that P<'l.dtor 's and Burckhardt's judgments of twelve

Italia.n Renaissance writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries have been cons idered , this chapter will deal \'1ith

the evaluation of these same twal va w,;ri t tl'ra by other tllo(iern

authorities in an attempt to furnish evidence wi th \ihi ell to

me~l< e an €loti-mate of the validity of the critiCisms made of

'the ~iO same Honaissanco writet's by Pastor Emd Burckhardt .

In conformity with the order established in the prn ceding

chapter , Leone Battista, Alberti will be given fir8t considera­

tion . J . fl. . Symonds , (U!1l>O-1893), English PO&t , eS6~yi st ,

and literary histortan , in his Rena.issance in Italy , are ..

l nti vcly reliable !(mrk , thou!;h not an orig innl one , remarks

thu,t Alberti.' s s~ tIe is "over-charged with Latinisl'lls; his

pet"iods are cumbrous; llis matter is loaded ,'lith citations

and scholSlstic lns t!1n(!es dra!#m from the r epertories of 1 erudition. " One may co nclude t ha t Alberti fell into an

arror comV30n to sotne Renaissance writers of thinking that

the most important f actor in ~lri ting was to produce a COfJ:1-

plicated style , no t to convey truth .

E. Q. Gardner, (1869-1935 ), British professor of

Italian language and literature, and a contributor to the

Catholic encyclopedia thinks little of all J\ lberti' 8 literary

works llnd regrets that Leonello , Silberti's patron enc()uraged

him as a man of letters, since Leone Battista was so superior

lJ. A. Symonds , 'Renaissance in Italy (London. 1881-18S7), Ill, 190. -

1

2 6 an ar:ch i tect .2

Even Gi ovanni Pa pini (H!Sl---- ) , t he

origi nal and v i gorous Florent i ne wri ter of t he ninet eenth

century , i s most sever e i n hi s cr iticism of Al berti:

Al berti si f',..~ ifi es t he paSStilge f rom the he roic a ctive l i f e of the ~:r icidle Ages to the gr a ce ... ful , wordy epoch t hat ensued , and illustra t es even mor e clearly t han Petra rch that soften-i ng of the conceptions of lif e which was to lead at l as t to the spiritual degenera.tion o f t he s evEmt eent h century . He fo r mulat ed pre-oepts f or paint i ng and for sculpture, but he l e f t ne i ther paintings nor statues . He des i gn-ed many bui l dings . but h e brou!{ht onl y a feW' to compl e t i on . His writi ngs wer e numerous : his onl y practical a c t i viti ea a re hi s j ourne,ys and hi s service as ' s ecretary or t he Papal clvancery II 3

Father Fernaud Mour r et . (H~ 54 .. 193a ) , li' r ench Sulpi cian

and hi s torian , i n his ver y r eadable yet monumental work ,

!::. Hi story .2£ the Ca t holic Ghurch . notes that Al berti ma ni­

f ested a pagan spi rit in his archi t ectural 'Work by omitt i ng

a ll r oligl ous symbolis m f r om the buildings wh ich he de­

s i gned . ~rourret chara cter i zes Alberti "a canon by nepotism ,

an arti st by voca tion , and a dilettante and s k ept ic by

na ture . ,,4

H. B. Cott erill who has writt en a hi gh gr ado . t hough

not wel l annota t ed h i story of ItalY !!:.2!! Dante 12. Ta.5'50 ,

cla i ms without r e s er va t i on tha t :

2E• G. Gardner , Dukes !n& Poe t s in Ferrara (New York . 1903) p . 56 .

~Oiovanni Papini , Four ~ Twen ty Minds ( r{ew York , 1922 ) , pp . 2g· 33.

"+-Rev . pe. r nand t-~ourret . ! Mis t 0r. £! the Catholic Church (St . Louis , 1930 ), V. 26():26 •

2

Alberti w.:w not only grt%lt i nt,ellectufl lly, he possessed the rare gift of making a true use of schol arship , so also he had t he equal l y rare power of realizing the te~·. chings of philOt)ophy in Ch~ r,H!t er and conduct .. not only do hi t~ writings abound in maxims of noble tenor , not only did he sum up his philosophi cal convictions in a fine t r c<.{ tise in which he asserts that t rue happi ness consi sts in jOYOU5 , free, and contented equanimity; he5i8 also 3cid to have conQuen.!!d his temper.

!la vlus BionduB r eceives just as gr ea t praise f r om

other modern authorities as he <lo eB from Pastor a nd

BurCkhardt . Sir A. W. '1i:.~rd . chi ef editor of !h!:. Cambridf:5e

tt.odern History , assir;ns Biondus a p1e-, ce among the founders

of Roman archaeolo~Y t and describes him as a "sifjnal example

of l aborious and comprehensive crudition. n6 The gregt

erman nistorian of medieval Home , Ferdinand Gr egoroviua ,

(1821 ... 1891) , beciiiuse of Biondus t antiquarian writings ,

cr edits him with opening up a ne'll field of l earning , and

em'Dhusizes t hat slnce Biondus had no previous compilations

on '(,hieh to base his wo rk. the material for his three

bulky vol umes , Roma Instaurata . ~ TriumEhans and Italia

Illustrata , was all derived f r om original sources . In

these volumes , says Symonds , Biondus gives a systematiz ed

and tabulated nccount of the ori gin and development of

Roman institutions such as the camp . the law court, private

life of the Romans , and religious ceremonials. 7

JH. B. Cotterj.ll, Italy ~ Dante 12. Tasso (New York 1919 )~ pp •. 381- 3$2.. •

Sir A. W. Ward (and other.s ) ads .1. !.l:!! Oambridge MOder~ History (New York. 1934), I, 54'1.

Perdinand Gregoroviua 1. MistOn of the C883 ~ Rome !!l the M1ddleAg~J (London, 1900). VI · TPt2T. ; ana-Symonds, II, 0-221.

:3

ccordlng t o Gregor-ovius and Symonds , B fondue' Three

Deci1des .£!:Qm t h<;l- !§1.l of the I\oman Empire iaof even gr i:1ater

importarlce than 11is topographi cal a.nd archaeological studies ,

be ep-u s e he considers the Mi ddle Ages as a separate epoch

i nstead of a continuat ion of the Roman Emph~e . During an

a ge in which e veryone Vias delving into the classics. Bi ondus

was l aboriousl}' extracting the hi stor y of the Middle Ages

from the chroniclers . In t his 'tmy he contributed more to

our knowl edge of t he !(i ddle /.ges .•. and t heir r elati o nship to

the Renaissance t han all the other humanists combined. B

This l ast observation \>la s made by Harry El mer Barnes , (ltlS9--.. ).

American educator .; h.iatorian and sociologist in his h. His tory

of ,Hist oricnl t:rriting . rather valuable . yet biased survey of

the works o.f the ma jor h i storians and scoools of historica.l

thought .

Adverse critiCism of Giova ntl i Boccaccio , fa ther of th e

pagan t~ena i S8ance , i s universal among modern authorities "

Symonds alone attempts to find a r eason for the type of

writing whlch Bocca ccl0 did . G:lovanni Boccaccio , he says ,

'ITaS born out of wedlock . and grew up in til bour geois atmos­

phere , therefore , the philosophy f ound in his works is that ,~

of a sensuous plebeian. For e)~ample . Symonds c1 tea 'i3oocaccio ,'"

pecameron as an cxampl(~ of moral indifference . and as a

SHarry l:l mcr Be rnes , ! Fl istol7 of H1otorical Wrltin~ . (Norman , 1937) , p ~ 105; q regorovius, "'"VII (part 2). 625 .. 6~6; and Symonds , I . 188- 189.

~

consequent rHvolt agairwt mediE:lval doctr'ine . 9 Symonds

adds further:

He W:£lS t he fi r st who f r an!:ly sought to justify the pl easures of the carnal 11 fe , whose mmpera­

ent , unburdened by as ceti cism . f ound a C~8genial element in amorous legends of anti.qui ty • .

Cotterill , ~.zorthy critic of Renaissance history. re­

cognizes the Vileness of Boccaccio's ·~r1tings. concluding

that the Deca.meron 's author is incapable of experiencing any

noble sentiment , an.d that Boccaccio is so i mmersed in the

moral corrupti on of his day that he overlooks the saintly

lives that are being lived at that t ime . Il

In A. 'M . Allen 's History 2! Verona, t oo , may be found

unfavorable critiCism of Boccaccio regarding his lack of

reliability for specific events, and hi s faulty chrol1ology .l2

Perhaps no writer has ever attracte'-as many admirers

as th~ i mmortal Dante who is so often repl"esente,d as the

Quthen'tic exponent and interpreter of the spirit of medieval

Catholicism. While furnishing us with a summary of Dante 's

~ Monarchia, Father Mourret, referred to a little earlier

in this chapter, lists Dante as tho eloquent spokesman of

the Gh1belline spirit and opponent of the temporal power

of the papacy. Not only 1n his Dlvina Commedia, but also

and especially in his ~ Monarchia, the Sulpician shows,

~Symond!) , III. 90- 115 . l Ulbid.} III , 9$- 115 . llCotterill, p . 176. 1211 . t! . lI llen, A HlatorI Q! Verona (New York . 1910 ),

p . 223 .

5

Dante d8~cribes his concepti on of a universal monarchy ruled

by the Roma.n Em.peror· , in 't/hich tho pope w~)llld be iSubordina te

tb theenlperor in temporal pmH~r . l'he pur pose of the monar ch

would be tC) s erve t hoBe under him , who I:lould b e free . l )

According t o Gr egoroviu6 . unlike the other plans for' poli­

t ical ol~ganizations of his day . Dante ' s dream- 01:lpire \Vould

rise above the pa r ty s pil~it , a.nd r os emb le the unity of th e

'rrinit1, . 11t In good ba lance , Gotterill adds " accor di ng to

Dante , that the rights of both Chur ch and State would b

equally r ecogni zed . 15 In thi s a nd many other ins'l/ances .

Co tter ill concludes , Dante ' s vo i ce i s an e cho o f medi eval

8chol as t.i cis,m. 16

Lest we get the i mpression t hat t here was anything

·mtl - p.a.pc'.l 0 1" ant i - Christian about. Dante , Father Parsons,

( U~41 :'1907 ), in h i s useful and ,dee Studiea !u Church H:t s tol"Y

portrays UantfIC' 3 true attitude t oward t he pa pa cy :

He '{:ho is f amiliar \,/1 th the \'il' i t1tlg~ of Dante cnn scarcely avoid an impress i on that his in­vect1 ves agai nst 'Certain Pontiff's are Pl'ompted by hi s intense devotion to, and his consummate respect. for , t.he chair' he occupie:.". 30metj.rPGs , indeed, it is avid,ent that he i8 actua ted by party spir i t ; but , as a rule ,. he attack s 0111y auch pontiffs as hedeern s guilty of acts bor-der­i ng , at l east, on simony; only such ae he re­gards as abusers of the excommunicating power. Thero is s carcoly a heretical doct.rine \'Ihich Dan t e docs not explicitly condemn; not one does he eV EJn implicitly favor . 17

... )}:ourret , V) 70 .

~. l~GregoroviuB , VI (part I ). pp . 18-20 . i~Co~tcrill l ~ . 139

' IbLd ., p . 1)1 . 17Rev it Reuben Parsons , Stud i !~§ in Church ,Iis t ory ( New

York , l S97 ). II . 512-513.

6

On the otrler hand , Giovanni Papini in stronG term.s .a ccuses

Dante of seeking t o oe vi car of God on eCirth \.qhen he wrote

the Divine Comody. 1S

Ano ther muni fastat l on of 9ante ' s ~hr:i.s t ian spi7'it ,

comment s Al l en , IIlay be found in ~lis love of t ru th . No one

can a. ccuse Dant.e of 'wr iting ob!..\equious renlarKs about his

benefac t or s unl es s they really deserved such praise . In praising

l ine with Allen ' s observat i ons , we see Dant.2lCangrande , who

was ve generous t o him, but he doe s not conceal t he fault. s

of the other members of hi s fa.mi ly . For example , Dante

makes a contemptuous reference to Al boino , Alberto and

Gu isoDpe . 19

Ceci l ia Ady , Cat holic histo rian , b i ographer of Pius II ,

and author of ~:; :nan under ~ Sforza is our first authori ty

for Francesco F1.1elfo who used his pen in a mercenary we

praislnt; h i ghe nt the person who pa yed him the most . After

at teI:ipting t o obt.ain the patronaf;e of many of t he courts

of Itnly , Cecilia Ady tells us , Fi lel fo final l y set tled in

I,alan . bec~:use he was offered a high s alary, B.nd \loul d have

no competi t ora . \/h(mevcr his pat ron , Yranc~s co Sforza , de­

fau.) ted in payi.ne; f ilel fo ' S 5a18.ry . Fr a Ilc€ls cO would t,hrea ten

not t o fi nish the SforzJed , a. highly f~l$ified eulogy , or

to hi r e himself out to someone e lse . 20Fl1elfo t s insi.ncer ity

8Papini J pp . 10-13 191111cn , Vero na , ' p . 147. 20Cecilia n. Any , 11.118n under ~ Sforza (London .

1907 ), pp . 290- 294 .

7

in pr~d6ingthe AmbroGian Republic , con1~inue5 t.!iss Ady , can

be proved by the fact that he would praise it in one wr iting ,

and prophecy i ts ruin in the ne)tt . 21 Supporti ng Mi a s Ady "

Ctregor ovius says tha t Fileli o vlaS a " genuine type of t he

sophist . egotist , a nd boester , a vulgar cour tior . a mal­

icious slanderer . an insatiable plea oure- seekar , but never­

tholE}!;!) an enthusiastic student and a n un t iringly Hotive

vi rtuoso in the yrof ossor t 5 chair . tt 22

Opinions regarding Fr ancesco e uiccia.rdini . t he Ita lian

historian are diVided . James lJestfall ',CholUpaon , C, . M. Dutcher ,

Cot~terill and. Parsons cornpare Guicciarciini favorably with

,,,,uclliavelli. I.ccord ing to these authorities , both Ouicciar-

din! anel ~,:a eblnvelli nr e cons idered t o be Flor'enee' n rec st

famous pol itical philosophers . (tui cciar'd ini . 33ya G. M.

Dut cher , editor of ! (,uide ~ Historical Literature , i s noted

tor h is cynicism, analytical power , ami absonce of national

an(i ethical i deals.23 As for Cotterill in I taly f'ror.a Dante

~ Tasso , he praises Guicci ardini in tha t his History.2! I taly

pr(~sents tho V~Jry tangled poli'tical history of Italy £I'l.G)st

admirably , ~/i t h an a bsence of i mpartiality .. 24

One of Gulcc1ard1.ni ' s pet grievances was t he Church ,

according to J . W. Allen , profess or o f his tory at th'c

21Ady , Milan , p. 51 22Gregoroviu3 , VIr (part 2). p. 567. 2JG. M. Dutcher and others, A Gui de t o Historical

Literniu re (New York , 1.936 ), p . babe -.4Cotterl 11 . p . ,a).

a

Un! v~r8i t y of l.oncion ., who tnakc s n clos e study of." conterrpora.ry

sour cos in his l' encl l"'kahl e work , 1.:. Historx: pf Poli tic~l

Thour;ht n the S5,xtetmth Cent:ury . --... ---- -~-~-, .~-.~-.-.- -Allen sta t e s that Gu1ccie.r-

dini regarded tho Church an orEanizntion of hypocrisy and su-

pcrsti t ion . 25 PD.I'sons noUH) that Guicci.a r d ini i s one of the

chief a ccusers or Popc t. l ex£lnder YI , c.nd t hat h~ not only

passes judgment on the popen , but t hat he al'lmys finds them

i n the ~Jrom.'> . uiccia r"dini , concludos Parsons slgnificantly ,

was conaistentl}r favorable to t.he Colonna Clod Or ,5:1.ui f amil ies ,

and 'tIas a parti s an of Savonarola . 26

Hnrry Elt!ot' BurneB , usually hyporcritic;sl or all ~lr1.ter8

nd h istorians, upcakl3 of GUicc.ia l'd ini' s History of Flor~l'lce

as '·one of tho t ruly original ~Torkfi i n historiography; be-

cnuse GUicciar dlni broke with patris ti'c and huma nist his­

t o r togr61phy , elimlna t ed t ho uso of <i:i.:rect di s course , l UCid

style ~ or:J.d r'\H~toric , and did not follow 8. strict, chrono-

l ogy . Barnes prai s(Js Gui cciardini ' s candld crH,icism of men

and poli t ics . noting t hnt h:l s rare ability in select ing

essentia l a cts is one of his outstanding qualit1es . 27

Al !30 pl'aisin r; Gulcciard in1 ' s Hi s tory 2! Flor ence is

t he reltable JamC 3 ~;es tfal1 Thoffipson . who 'i. nei ca t es t he

didactic value of t his ¥,r e a t v/o r lc: t o inatruct , to w'1i r n ,

&tld to gi ve a d vice . Sut Thompson also notes partiality and

2. 5~J. 'fl . All en , A Hi s t.ory of Political Thought in the s!xte~gth Cen~ury lNe\.J York . 1928 ), Pf 5tm. - -

-Par sons , 1IIJ 206 . 27Barnes , pp . 108-109.

9

a e imi!:ltic a ttituc1e tow~~ r-' po litiCS . 2S

GUi,ccia r d i n:i. , in Thorpson ' s opinion , n UGt yic;.ld tl1e

palm of f r ca t es t of all Floront!ne hl atorians t o Machi avelli , 29

whos e one a ccordi t o Thom::>son , was t o r~(lke t he Ital i an

frovernment so stable and strong thC't Ita ly ,(lOul ct be able to

rid herself of forei~n domi.n.'1t 10n . o inten t vIne '1adhiavelU.

on this aim th at~ he c ompletely scorned the ornament and cadence

of the t..;riting of the period , !Says tUlan .)O

In see~:1.ne; l~ cause f o r th e sorry eta t e of t he Ital i an

government , observes Symonds , J,1,? chiavel l ays the blatilt;: a t

the feet of the popes . 31 teher al so calls attention t

the f act thAt Mach i avel l i was ~iBhly prejudiced a gainst the

Church, but also ell-no eci e-es .... (...{ 1 (" an acqua intance with

It~achiavelli ' s w ings is dispensabl e t o c C1.'7l.Plete under -

standins of' both Flo r ence and It.al y during the s i xt eenth 32 century .,

What pr ovAd to be Mll chlnvel1i ' s mas t erpiece , The Prince ,

Thompson observes ; ,,,as not wr1 t ten to be a manual for adminis­

trators , but t o [;i ve an a ccurate picture of t he political

s ituation i n sixteenth century ItalY.)) Al1o:1 , in his Politi-

cal ~hOUf~ht, eontrE.di cts 'l'hor"p!3on b so:' nG that TIle Prince

was '!,>/ritten of a p·'!"ince and for B pr ince , and al so expl ains

28Jamea Westfall Thompson . ! History .2! Hi s t ori cal Writ i l1ij {~~ew York . 194~~ , ! . 1.9$-4rJ9.

2 lbl.d., I , M:l5- 49S. . 30Allen, Politicl.l.''1 Thought , p . 465 . 31Symcnd S f tv , 1 .. 31.-438.

2Dutcher , p . 686 . 3JTlwmpnon . i t pp " 496- 497.

10

the di s<1creemcnt of authc',l' i tic s i.n t'1Vulua.t in3 t h is boo, ... J

Ob~H3:!.~v inb that Lachi avelli vlttS not n clua r and tly s toruat i c

or f und51l1Cntal thinkor , but. confused in his prCthmtation . 34

y Cotterill , The Prince it! co nsidered t ry he t .. he ftr::;t serious

a tteI:1pt at \-rriting; Gcicntific hi story)5

ohn Jl. l zog , (180$-1878 ), Gerrnan Cat ho l ic Church h is-

toria n , criticizes !h.§, Pr1. nc e from a Chri sti(Au vte'lilpoi.nt .

He ~ay!) :

ItThe Prlnce lt advoca t ed a ra.dically Paean sys t€t::l , having nothing in common loti t h Christ ian! ty . and being only a fell. thful r'ep r'cducti on of the f a ithless policy of ancient Rome . 'rh e essentia l and mos t promjnent elc00nt of the sys t em con­~18ten~lY and logically devel~ped in ; 1he Prince" 18 an l n t,ense a nd craf ty sel fishn esn . 0

a rnce i n hit. r nclicn l via}' a~Hertg doCtii;:t icD.l~y tha t

the i~ ettinning of selontific h i iltory bee. wit h £·;achi.avell l' 5

,,1storJ' 2f. .F' lorence , another of h i~ famous works i n which

Machiavelli ~ xplain8 the interrelBti nnah!p be t woen forei~n

and domest ic problems on the one hfmdj and military and

political p robl ems on t he other . I ns tead of t he annalis ti c

~1.rrangement , Na chi a velli nubs tl ttl t.ed topical t r en t ment

of hi s subject . 3?

v/hile };D.ohiavelli ' 5 fl i stor,r of Fl or ence contains Much ~ _____ w __ __ ____ __

that 1s cornrnendable , Symonds is in a c cor d \tiith Burckhardt

34Allen t Polit ica l Thouv,ht . p . L~66 . ~5Cott.er:tIl , p . 505 . -

. .;6,John A1z0fi;1 Manua+. of Uni;rer s al ChUrch History ( C~ncinnatt , U376) ) rt , 1004-100, .

J7Barnes , pp . 107- 108.

11

in evaluat i ngli'lachiavelli's play, the Mandragola. Here,

more than in any other writ1ng , agrees Symonds, Machi avelli

£lv9s full vent to hi,s hatred of IftOnks to such an extent. that

vice is made amu81ng.)8

According to John Addington Symonds , the worth or Pico

della Mi randola, philosopher and theologian was to be found

in his ability to reconcile Christian and classical tradi­

tion. Pico, Whose procedure was misunderstood at first. and

condealned by Innocent VIII , was later approved by A.lexander

VI 39 .. Pastor and Burckhardt are not alone in praislngPetrarch.

F. Funck-Brentano. (1862 ... --), French historian, states with

his usual vigor: ftFrancescoPetrarcb 1s the illustrious

precursor of the Renaissance. 8S Erasmus was to be its

Pontltex Maximus.,,40 In his political works, Symonds observes,

Petrercb attempts to draw a picture of a united Italy which

would be the glory of the human race. Just as Petrarch

rOS8 above a partisan spirit, so he rOS8 above all dialects,

and wrote 1n a pure style ot Italian.4.l H. E. Barnes 1e

a180 sympathetic toward Petrarch, observing that although

the philosophy beh1.nd Petrarch' 8 historical works is good,

)8Symond8! IV 169. 39Ib1d •• IV, i69. 40F. Funck-Brentano. lh.! Renaissance (London, 1936),

p. 66,. 4lSymonds, III, 84-98 •

•

12

he can be criticized f or not havi ng evaluated his sources

very eri~ically . 42

1. C. Hazlitt , (Hl34- 191) , son of an English essayist

and Unitarian rd.nister and author of Hist ory of the Verwtian

j1epubl ic feals that it was a. ftr ent mi stake for Petrarch to

have attempted writing political works , fo r all that he

accompll flhes in them is to cover up trite maxims concerning

01 viI ~overnment with a lucid stYle. 43 Gr e,;or,ovius , however ,

commends Petrarch for making an important historical COn­

tribution by the inter est he took in the J,vi t;non papacy .

Potrarch ' s writings on t hiasubject are t ruly pro~hotical . 44 One of the best known histories of the papacy written

during Renaissance times is credited t o Pl atina . The state

of the Homan curia , complains Gregorovius ''tho has suspic1oq~

about the pepa.l court ., 1s revealed by the f a.ct that Si xtus )1'

IV asked a man of Platina ' s profligate chara cter to write

an official hi~rtory of the popes . As would be expected , .

Platina treclted hi s subject from a purely humanist.ic point

of view with little hist orical basiS for whet he sa id. 45

Thot:lpson adds tha t the only aec'tion of Bartolo~oo ' 3 work ,¥/hich

has any reel value is the mi d- fiftoenth century period wh ich

4ZBarnea . p . 102 . 431[/ . Carew Haz11tt , Hi story of the Venetian Republic

her rise , her greatness , and her cIViffiation (London , m0J.1p .~1-12~ .

44 Gregorovius , VI (part 2) J p. 456 . 5Ibid . , VII lpa~t 2) pp. 032- 633 .

13

46 constitutes the only or1ginal part of his work .

Resemhl1ngFraneesco 1I' ilelfo and Giovanni Boccacc10

in their eJ,legiance to the pa gan Renaissance. Bracciolini

Po ggi o has rather uni versally a.nd deservedly obtained the

reputation of being one of the most repulsive figures of the

Renaissance per:tod . The vileness of Poggio ' s soul, states

~tourret, was completely revealed in his 'Facettae" a collection

ot the most obscene jokes_47 while ,his hatred of religion

and the glorification of matter above spirit 1s manif ested

~hroughout his works / .. 8 concludes IJe Salembier, (1849---).

Frenchman , B.nd professor of church history at the University

of Lille , in his critical and sincere study of the Schism

of ,. t'he West . Peggio's Chief aim even in his Dialogue BEr.,ainst

.!::h! Hypocrites , his Invective against Felix .!?l!!. Antipope ,

and his Facetiae, Symonds .8aY8, seems to be to expose the

vices of the clergy with bitter sarcaSM and gross exaggera-49 tion.

While Poggio was papal secretary, and a Florentine

official. he was 1n a position to gather material tor his

Eight Books g! Florentine ltist.o!]'. states Thompson , but

his primary a1m in wi1ting this history waS not. to preHcnt

46ThompSQn, I, p . 4$9. 47Mourret . V, 268. 4SL. Salembier . The Great Schism !!: the West (New

York , 10(7), p . 390i ~. . 49fhompson, I. 479-4t!O; and Barnes , pp .• 10)-104.

14

historical 'cruth, but to ga in fame for himself as a gr oat

master of class ioal Latin. As a model, therefore, he took

ivy, and succeeded very well in making historical errors 50 similar to those made by his model .

Producing works of much greater value tban Poggio,

Aeneas Sylvius Piccolom1.ni, later on Pope Pius II, writer.

humanist, and diplomat, is best known for his Commentaries.

Barn~s gives GI. very inolusive summa,ry and evaluation of all I!O:

'! ~j

the l'itcrary accomplishments of Pius II:

"Commentaries on the Counoil of Basel". "The Hlato,ry of Europe"', "Universal History" ,and Commentaries" were superficial . without deep philosophical grasp, fragmentary and rre~uentlY unfinished. The most valuable part of his his­torical works is hIs personal reminiscenses . Be .. cause of his experienco as a member of the im­perial chancery of Frederick III a.nd beca.use of his later ecclesiastical relations with the Em­pire, he had a gr eater interest in German htstory and culture than any of his Italian contemporaries. In his "Hlstory of Fr ederick III". be made large use of Otto of }'re1s1ng. His "History of Bohemia" was · the first attempt ot a humanist. historian to in­troduce ethnographic materiale into historical 11 tarature. In "History of Europe" and "Unl ven sel Historytt he brought out. the inter-relation between history and geography. He was responsible for later Cerman humanist historians to introduce in-to historical worka excursions into the origin and growth of law. and into the l."elations of geography to historical developm.ent, to assume a semi-critical attitude toward the legends of racial origins , and tod1aplay a boisterou8 chauviniOlP in matters touoh ... ing the question ot nationality. ,1

5~Thoopson I , PP. 479-/+£$0; and Sarnes, pp. l03-101h 5··Barnes. p . 106.

15

What these L'1odern au t hor.ities other than Pastor and

Burckhardt have said about the Renaissance writers . dis ..

cussed in Chapter I has been sat forth in t his present

chapter . Thei r opin1ons t.fi ll be of' value in drawing con­

elusions on the relative merits of Pastol" and Burckhardt

as objective historians. a. goal set for Chapter IV' of

t his thesis . It wa.s noted i n Chapt er I that Pastor and

Burckhardt are not ahlaye in agreement on t hese Henaiasance

writers, and it is likewise evident in t his chapter that

diff erences of opinion exist also amo ng other modern

authorities . Thi s wide range of opinion gl eaned from the

writings of Deveral hi ghly r egarded authoriti es will s treng­

then t he final conclusion about the objectivity of Pastor

and Dur cl-!hardt as serious histor i ans.

16

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In the preceding chapter, the sources and authorities

used by both Pastor and Burckhardt have been discussed .

In t hi s chapter ; the i ndependent sources used by either

Fastol~ or !i;urckhardt will be considered. Since Pastor wa s

i nterest ed primarily in the Papacy of this period , and

Bur ckhardt's interest l a y in cuI tUl'al history, it is easy

tosoe '~/hy at time s they consulted different S(lurces and

uthorities to build up t heir stories of the Henaissance .

The Renaissance 1Ilriters used. and criticized by Pas tor

wi l l be classified under two headings: those who were

hostile to the papacy . and t hose who were friendly. Among

the l a tter were, those def enders of the Church in the con­

ciliar s t ruggl e men like Roderic1l5 de Arevalo and Juan Tor­

quemada . Rodericus de Arevalo , (1404-1470), Bishop of

Ovi edo in Spain , is graded highly by Pastor as one of the

most disti nguished opponents of the conci l i ar theory . l Not

less important in this struggle over conclliaristn was another

Spaniard, Juan Torquemada , (lJgg.- 1468) , canonist and car dinal.

\.,rho wrote his Summa against the enemies 2! ~ Church, whioh

,;alned him Pestor thinka . the tt tle of le~:tder of the literary

reaction in f avor of the Papacy . 2 According to Pastor, this

work was not only used during the late medi eval period as an

Ipastor . ll f 54. 2Ibld., p . Y.

1

authority on the question of the extent of the Papal power ,

but up as far as the eighteent h century , it ranked h1p'~ as

a standard work for defenden 3 of' the Holy Soe . 3 While the

principl es of t his gr eat book at ill applied in the eighteenth

century, they were , of cou:rse,. a ime,d especially at the Synod

of Sasle . Becaus e of the superior Quality of t his work ,

Pastor gi vas '1'orqumna dlll. the ti tIe of f i rst theologian of

his t irue . 4

Also upholding the power of the Papacy was Rudolph of

Rudesheim , (---1464'. canonist , and det'ender of the Holy

See uR:ainst the attacks of Dia theI' , Archbishop of tf.ainz . who

was excommunicated by Pope Pius II for appealing to a council .

tl lB.,e (Rudolph of' Rudeshe1m 's) discourse , " seys Pastor . (twa

a master piece , uncolllpromis1ne and trenchant in deal ing 'iti th

the particular CaflElS which touched the authority and doctrines

of the Church.

Besides the pope ' s primacy of jurisdiction, his temporal

power was also being attaCked .. Pas tc)r' ,gives clue credit and

reao B,;'nition to those writers \",ho defended t he pope in his

tertiparal rule . Fiero de Codi , s ays Pastor, came to t he

defense of the papal temporal authority in his Dialogue ,

written to refute the t heories of Lorenzo Valle concerning

the pret,ensions of the pope's temporal powe.r.6

3Pas t or. II . ~1-52. 4Ibid •• pp. 51-5~. &Ibid., III, 201. Ibid., II, 2)4.

2 'ft,.

Another gr oup of hTi t el'S .. mom Pastor found valuabl e

took up the cause of :l nt ernal reform of the Church . Among

theSf) wns the bishop DomHni eh.i Domenico , (1416- 14713) . Pastor

as sures us tha t Domeniohf \ililS \<1el1- f'itteci t o tn-ite his t r eatise ,

Li bel" ~ Dtg!litate~ on e ccl esias t i cal reform becaus e he was

conversent wi t h t he evils exi sting in the Roman court \'1here

he had long been a resi dent . 7 IHided insir,ht on the noed tor

eccl esiast ice.l reform iA g i ven by Nicholas de Cl omangis .,

(1360- 1437) , Rect or of t he Uni veroity of Paris , 'lrho , in

his work .Qn the Ruin ,21 the Chul"cb rather oversimplified the

the situa tion bv stating t ha t the corruption of the cle rgy

\tas the c ause of all t he mi s ery of the Chur ch . g Suppor ting

t he eviden ce given by Nichol a.s de Clemm ngts on t he state of

the Church in Pr ance is another \"'iitnoe8 of Pastor ' s Alvaro

Pelayo , official i.n t he papel court at Avign.on. who des cribes

the dep~Ol"a.ble condit io.ns of thi s court in his On. 1ill£. Lamen­

tations Qf the Church . <) The mo s t r adica l , to be ,sure , of

(;111 refoX'll'l~rs was the Florentino Dominican , Gi rolamo Savona ..

rol a , (1452~1498 ) J wb os o t..'Orks Q.n Contempt 2.f. the World

and !h! De cay 2i ~ Church a r e f ound faul t with by Pastor

because t hey picture the ter r i bl e state of cont,empora ry

orals wit hout ~1ving any observations on the good which did

exis t . lO

- ,---7Pastor . Ill , 273 . SIb1d., I , 1~6. • 9Ib1d •• p . 72 .

l OPaator, V, 182.

.3

!tolated to and ass1st.ing this internal reform group

were men of gr eat lf~arning and scholarship who , Pastor

insists aided and advanced Christian lC.!lrning and culture

by their very presence , t heir lnflue.nce and t,heir writings

to a greater degree than members of the heathen Renaissanoe

promoted pa.i~an learning. One of these , the f amous John

Bessar ion , (1403-1472), called by Pastor "the last grea.t

reek,,,ll was led from the nreck Or t hodo2$. Church to the

Catholic Faith by his l earning , and dedioated his fine t alents

to the spread ot Christianity. Hore influential than Bessa.rion

was the Christian s cholar , Vespasiano da Dlstlcoi , (1421- 1498 )

best known for his Lives 2! I lluGt:.rious P.!fen , and for his work

as ? bOOKseller and collector of manuscripts . In addition,

da Sisticci, says Pastor, gave his time to the study of the

Church f!1 athers as well as t o the pagan c18soi08 . 12 Lionardo

Bruni , (1369-1444), no mere name in Henaissance h1storio£raphy ,

hut 8 Ca t holic 1edlder, attempted to establish a union between

the Stoic philosophy and Christian ethics in his Isagogicon

moralis philoaoph1ae.13 In this sumo camp of "reformersff we

tind Oianozzo Manetti who , in his Bior;r aphy of Nicholas!

more than counte,rbalanced the harm done by Plaine's Lives

of the Popes , observes Pastor , by describing Nicholas V

as a here . 14 Unnetti , (1396-l459). besides excelling as a

11Pastor, I , 319. 12Ibid., V, 19. t

l3Ibid., I, 14 and 170. 14Past.or., II , 169 and 195.

4

transbtor and biographer, he l d. seve,ral pos itions as arn -

bassador and ~o1Jernor, and spent much ttm61 lOflrnine, Hebrf;n-r

5

so t hQt he could the b~tter defend the Church age1.nst t he Jet'ls , 15

Pt~stor informs us . l.ast :tn the line of s cholars sy"' -

pa thetic to the Church, as Pas t or judges thti1'n. is 1'Or:un8 S0

?arentucelli, Pope Nioholas V J ( l39g-1l~55), first of the

"Renaissance popes ,." In Pastor' s est imate , TOtl1f1Qi)o rarentu-

oe11i'$ t heological. literature has made hiro one of the noblest

representa.tives of the Christian Renaissance.16 I

The anti- papal writers to whom Pastor refers aro numerous .

Past or judges them harshly, yet ~rl t hout bifi S and no t , it seems ,

unju6tly. For example , P:astor character1 ~e$ !'larctl5 Eugenicus ,

(14,37--... ', Bishop or Ephesus , as the chi ef polemical arsenal

of the Ori ental schismatics . This Schismatic bishop t ~ work ,

True Riston: of the False Union 1s the basis of observat:iont 7

Als€) in1mictl l to the papacy is Dregor f{eimourg . adviser to

the Holy Roman Emperor Sl gi .smund , who , in the f i f t eenth century

did much to br ing about fi),n attitude of defiance i n Germany

to Papal bul l s . According to Pastor, the A2pel a tio !l paEa

vari .ls modiS conciliur.n f31.t;;urum cla~si fie d Gr egor Heimburg

as an avowed enemy of the Holy See . Henceforth , he beceme

in the Gel"ttJaniel$ the l eader of the opposition to Rome . l S

15Pastor; I , 41. 16Ibid ., p. )18 . l7Ibld., II . 240-241. l Blbid., lIlt la~,

Paria , and co-author of the pefensor Pacis, one of the most

influential nnti.- papal wri.tings from the early period of

the flena.iasanco. Defensor Pacts, as Pa.stor views it ,the

joint work of Marsie;l1.o of Padua and Jean de Jandun , a t tri­

buted all the troubles of Italy to the popes, and oons equently J

did more to confuse theological thought and to arouse anta­

gonism to. the pap<1.oy t.han did any other one work. 23

The theory put forward in the De-fensot" Pacts regardlng the ocmipotence of the state and the consequent annihila.tion of all individual and ecclesiasl tical liberty far surpassed all pre­ceding attacks on the pOSition and constitution of the church in i t s audacity , novelty , and acr imony . Pra ct.ically , thi.s doctrine ",hich WS.S copied f rom the ancients meant t he overthrow of all exi,sting iosti tutiQns a nd the separation of Church and State. Hany paouae;os resembled sub­sequ ent uttert.mces of Wyc11f and HUBS or even those of Luther and Galvin wh~se forerunner Mars1glio may be cons i dered . " 4

Pastor refers puss lngly to I,uigi Pule! , (1431-1484), fore­

runner of the Proteotant philosophy and member of the

Ji1edicean circl.e who , like the modernist Prote.t..tant theologi ans

declar es his fa ith in the goodness of all reli zions in his

r'1orgt1nte 1-1a8jt;,10l"e.25

Last in the liat of anti - Christian and anti- papal

writers criticized by Pas't'or is Lorenso Valla t (11~05-14 57 ).

whom certiain h i. s torians re gard as a conspicuously eminent

fi~re and critic of the Renaissance.. The philosophy of

2.3Pastor, IV, 76 ... 79. 24Ib1d •• 1 , 80-8~ . 25Ibid •• \i , 135.

7

the radical humanists, Pastor maintains, was expressed very

aptly by LOl'enzo Val l a in h iB book Qu r'leasure in whi ch

Valla concludes that s ensual pl easuro is the suprelI:e good ,

and should, be r~dsed to tho rank of \'/orship as it \llUS oy

the na tions of &nti(~ui ty .. Hothing better expresses the

extent to \-{hieh Dens ual indulgence had go no among the

humani s ts than do Valla ' s writing;s , which in r ealitiY rem:.t rks

?a" tor , were a r enewal of the Ep icurean philo..sophy . 26 In

c onclUSion , Pastor notes thRt Valla t B l nt,cnsO hatred of the

temporal pot'Jer of the papacy lod htIil to ;'{rite Qu ,the fal s ely

cr(~dit ed and illlt~nted dona Uon of Constantine in whi eb he .--.............. ....-

attacks the very foundati on of the tempora l pOrler of the

papacy and fails to 61ve any credit to the Chur ch for having 2? preserved the anei ent cuI tUl~e for humanity . .

Now th~t th e sou:'ces used by Past-or alone have been

conaidered , tention wil l be given t o t hose sources used

only by Bur ckhardt . I t; woul d a. ppe~~r from t he great a.mount

of spa ce given t o Pastor in t his ohap t er . ~1ither tha't he is

being eiven preference t o BurCkhardt in this thesis , or that

there is a pau city of source material used in Burckha.rdt's

treatise . Neither alternative is the c~we . Burckhardt has

used a. "walth of ma terial in his \'Jork, but in many cases he

has fa. iled to gives. critical evaluntion of these authors ,

26pas t or . I . 1'; I t 16 ; and II , 197. 27!bid.; II , 197.; and It 20,.

I

8

~/h i ch estimate is needed f or the subj act matter of t his

t hesis .

First in this seri es is Bernardino Corio , (1459-l519) ~

the author of what elB ny Sf.l.Y was the best hist ory of Ki lan

to be ~1l'i tten during the Renaissance . Burckhardt has ob­

serve.d t hat in Bernardino Corio ' s S tori~ sU. MUnDO . way be

found excellent por tr'ait paintint!'6 of the historical fi gures

mentiolled . HOHever , says Burckhar dt , Corio fa i ls in his

history of the I talian City- state to giye a true picture of

the Viscont i . as do all other contemporary hlstor i ans . 2S

Another I t.a l ian bioe:raphE!r , Bartho1onleus {<'acius , \-Trote

one of the many ~ Virts I l lustrihus of this period , and

COUld have produced a monumental wor k of gr eat value to ·

Burckhardt , had he been objocti vely crt tical instc(;;d of

euloKi stic . 29 Also l a cking in s i ncerity , truth and objectiv! ..

ty , flffirms BUr'(~khardt , is t he Historlnr~ sui tel1\pori~ of

Paulus Jovius , (1453- 1552), Bishop of Nocera , whose history

i s a rm s t {:1rpiocc of biogr aphical s t yle , and whose Elogia

9

f we overlook i t s content, has been a model f or f uture writers

in all countri es . JO

A ccordin~ to Bur ckhardt, t he patronap;e of the c ity-state

of !<' l orence made i t pos5 ibl@ for Benedetto Varchi, (ll.93-1565).

to write his ma~terpiece . Stori a Florentia . in which Florence

a nd

28nurCl:hardt. , pp . 331 and 13. 29Ibid ., p . 148 . • 30}t'ol~aomrnent on H1storiarum sea Burckhar. dt! p.

f or criticism of EloYnl a , see Burckhardt, p. ;31. 246;

3l . is described so magnifice,otly . - Anot.her f amous Florentine

write r r eferred to by Burckhardt is Giovanni Villani ,

(1276-134$) , famous not f or his analysis of pol i tical 1115-

tor Y, but valued f or h i5 a ccura.te and pra ctical observations ,

which a r e substantiated by statistics and r eferences to

other states . 'h is accura cy makes him our princ ipa l authority

fo r t he building of Villas before the middle of 'the f ou r teenth 32 century . The only mention Bur ckhard t ;:nakes of Ha tteo

Villani , (1340- 1363) . the brothbr and continuator of Gi ovanni

Villa ni 1 s Florentine hi story . is ·Co r ema:-k at he is also

on the list of t hos e who misrepresented thE~ Vi s conti becaus e

of a perconal prejudice . J)

Uiccol o Val ori . (1343- 1405 ) , author of Vita 2i Lorenz

is dismi ssed bl" Durckhardt a(;l having written a f l att ering

pancQrric rather t han a faithful portrait of Loronzo .

It mus t not , however ., be f orgotten '~hat t bis ear liest biogr aphy , written soon after the death of Lo:r'cnzo , . i s a. flattering rather than a f aith ... ful portrlllt , and that the words here attributed to Lorenzo aI'O no t Illenticned by t be r'rench r epor:t"l' aI' , and can , in fact , hardly have been uttered . J4

1IBUr Ckhardt; p .• 7') J2Hu::rckhar dt , pp .. 76 and 404. 33Ibid., p. 18 . 34I1'5id •• p . 90 . •

10

Although t his Chspter does not ge~m t o h'31p directly

t o deyclop the main th0sis , \9'hich is a cocr.parlaon of' Pastor

and Burc~:hsrdt i n respect to t he Renf.lissanee writers ';"/hieh

they both use . it has i mportance in that it does give us

a more compl ete pict ure of the aspec t of th (1 Renaissance

\'lfnich each author developed . and it suppo r t s the vi ews of

the Reni'J. i s5anCe ~lh1ch PastOr (.nd Burckhardt derived from

11

study of Horks t hey used in common .. The bulk of Pastor ' s

references are cO!l.cerned Itrith the Church , 'l:lhereas BUt'ckhardt' s

emphasbe some aspect of cultural development in the Renaissance .

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Throughout this thesis, Q'n obj Eil ctive evaluation of

certain Renaissance writers of the fifteenth and six-

teenth centuries has been given on the basis of criticisms

made of them by Pastor and Burckhardt, and by other modern

historians. In this chapter, conclusions will be drawn

regarding the relative merits of ,Pastor and Burckhardt as

historians on the basis of comparing their evaluation of the

Renaissance writers wi th my own estimate of these same

writers after h~'l: ving examined their works.

Beginning again with Leone Battista Alberti, who.

since the days of the Renaissance has enjoyed the reputa­

tion of' mast.er architect. I di ·seover th~it BurCkhardt t s un­

restrained praise of Alberti's treatises seems very just

and merited. My examination of Alberti's writings which

are illustrated with plates demonstrate a truly scientific

approach to both architeoture and sculpture. In hie treatise

"Or St atues," Alberti gives a general prinCiple to guide

all arti.sts and scientists:

That trom all Arts and SCiences whatsoever, there are drawn oertain principles, rules, or natural conclusions, which it we shall apply ourselves with all care and dl11genc.e to examine and make use of, we shall undoubtedly find the benefit of by the 'p!rf ect accompl.ishment of Whatever we t ake in ha.nd.

l~1ieur Roland Freart, ! Parallel of the Antient Architecture with the Modern (tr. by JOhn-SVelyn. London. 1664). p. 146:------

•

1

Pastor would agree with Burckhardt t s praise ot

Alberti a s an artist and ao a craf tsMan , but would add

that Burckhardt overlooks the f ac t that Alberti did bring

much pa.gan influence into his carvings a.nd architectural

monuments through his decorations and his statuary . Pastor

says he also found another pagan tendency , and tha,t in

Alber ti's t r eatise on the family. Having examined Tr at tato

.!l2! Governo dclla f atn1,>l1a . it is obvious to me that

Aloe'r ti always upholds the natural virtues . but Pastor

maintains that Alberti does not rise to the Christian con­

cept of fa,n,lily life and virtuo. In the following conversa­

tion between Agnolo and the cbildren, two of t he characters,

while much that is valuable is stressed in the way of natural

vir tue, t he Renaissance attitude toward fortune and sump­

tuous living is e~ldent.

Ohildren. What t hings do you find necessary to a family?

Agnolo. Many t hings . Good fortune , Whi ch is not wholly within the power of men .

Children. But t hose which are wi t hin the power of men , what are they?

A~nolo. They are: to possess a home , wher e the family may be gathered together; to have wherewith to fe ed t he children; to be able to clothe them , and to give t hem learning and good manners .---

Children . Vie pray God to give us grace to do so. Nephews . And how wl11 you observe good husbandry

in t his? We are a l arge f8DIily, we have great expenses , and ~le all desire to be like you, good managers , moderate, honest, con­tinent . to live :SUttl.ptuously a t home and de­cently abroad. How ought we then to do?

2

Agnolo. Fl ee i dl eness, wantonness'2t r eaChel"Y. indolence and unbridled greed.

Likewise in another dialo&ttle of this Same treatise, truth

and the natural virtues are lauded, but fame, honor and

riches are prominently stressed.'

In summary. it can be observed that Burckhardt praised

Albertits architectural trea.t1ses, whereas Pastor criti­

cized the pagan strain in Alberti's literary works. To­

gether. Pastor and BurCkhardt give a fairly complete evalua­

tion of Alberti, an evaluation seemingly contradictory, but

fundamentally in agreement, because Pastor Cites for the

most part Alberti's religious works, and Burckhardt his

architectural treatises.

Pastor and Burckhardt are both extremely critical of

Ciovanni Boccacoio, but no criticism of Boccaccio could be

severe enough to describe the contempt for all that is

good and holy which is found in the works of this rather

o! the pagan Henaissance. No truer indictment of Boccaccio's

work could be given t ha.n Pastor's. Accord.ing to him,

Boccaocio'a Decameron 1$ heathen, derogatory to monks and.

nuns. and s a turated with r eligious indiff erence., My read­

ing of the Decameron proves all this to be true and in

utter conflict w'ith Burckhardt's verdict, a verdict much

2rii . Wbitcomb , a 11 tera~ Source-book of !U'!:! Itaeian RenaiSSance {no place of pU?1cation. 1898T; pp. 47- 9.

'Leon Battista Alber ti, ItTrattato del Governo della Fam!glla." in Opere Vo1sari (Firenze. 1849). p. 110.

3

too mild, for Burckhardt merely obser ves that some of

Boccacciot s tales are indelicate and l ack Christian cul­

ture. This criticism does not even touch the essential

el ements of i mmorality found in Boccacciots Decamoron which

will be sumnwrized in the fol lowing paragraph.

The first t hree stories of' the Decameron , in the

aeries of tales told by a group of people tAho were living

in isolation during the plague . are an example of the un­

chrietian character of Boccacciots wrlt1n~ . The first

story of the first day Circles about the last sacramental

confes510n of a dying man , Ciappelletto . who had led a very

sinful 11 fe, but who confessed only his alight faults. He

duped the priest into think ing that hews a very innocent

person, and at his funeral Ma$s , the priest gave such glowing

account s of the man's sanctity that the oongr egation clamored

for relics. The story not onl y makes lig:ltt of the Sacrament of

Penance, but infers priests and the Catholic laity are

i gnorant people , EH)s11y taKen in by false tales. The con­

ve rsation of Abraham, another of these narratives, has as its

central t hought the favorite topiC of most of Boccaccio's

works , the degeneracy and immorality of the clergy. The

three rings, theme of the t hird t e le,. is symbolic of the

religious indiffer ence pervad.ing large sections of society,

while the fourth story of the monk and abbot who lived in

4.

lust, depicts the type of vi ce practiced by some f'o·urteenth

century refig1ous . 4 Thus , Boecaccio gives one the im­

pressi on that many priests and monks lived iml':loral lives .

It is unfortunate that in the light of such lewd. writings

as these 1118ny people today ba.se t heir opinion of' the entir e

humanistic movement.

Dant e will al ways be remoll1bered as one who kept an even

balance botween the elass ical and Christian culture of the

Renaissa.nce per iod , and so it is that Pastor and Burckhardt

describe hi m, and so would I. In the Divine ComedY, as

,Bur ckhardtobservea , Dante so often brings together a pagan

and Christian ill ustration of wha .. tever poin'll. he is making.

Dant e , I find , sometimes accomplishes this by mentioning

side by Side , the name of a pagan and Christian whose 11"e8

were in some way similar . In the following quotation , Dante

has one of the i nhabitants of Hell refer to his enemy as a

Daedalus and Minos:

"Arezzo ".1as my dwelling . " answer ' d one, "And me Al bero of Siena brou~ht To die by fi r e : but that . for which I died Leads me not here . True i s, in spor t I t oid him , That I had 1earn 'd t o wing my flight in air; And he , admiring much , as he was void Of wiodom , \,1111 ' d me to declare to him The seCret of mine art: and only hence, Ds cause I made him not a Daedalus, Preva11'd on one supposed his sire to burn me . But PUnos to his chasm . last of the ten, 'r'or that I practised alchemy on earth. Haa domm' d me. Him no subterfUge eludes _'"

4ciovanni 13oooaooio, The Decaeergll (tr. by John Payne, London 1903).

51l1gh1eri Dante. Tbe Divine Comedy (New York, 1909 ). Hell, Canto XXX.

5

Dante also tnnerest'.ngl y compar es his meeting in

paradise wl. tn Beatrice to the old legend of Pyramus and

Thisbe who met secretly at the wall and conversed through

a tiny aperture made by removinR a loose stono .

"Mark now, my son , From He&t.rice thou art by this wall D1vlcied,rtAs at Th16be ' s name the eye of pyramus was open ' d" (when lifo ebb ' d~ • ,Past from his veins,' a.nd took one parting, gl.EtnCe. He hath in SOGth good cause f o r . endless grief , Who, fo r the love of thing tha t lasto'tg not , Despoils himself forever of that love.

After my s tudy of Dan1,e , I find it 'tlOuld be easy

t o set forth example after example like the following power­

fulselo ction whiCh brings out Pastor ' s contention that the

nothingness of human glory r uns t hrough Dante ' s entire

work:

O.powere of ment how vain your glor y , nipt E' en in its height of verdure , 1t an a ge Less bright succeed not . C1mabue thought To lord it over painting' s field; and now The cry is Oiotto 's , and his name eclipsed. Thus hath one. Guido f r om the ~ther snatch' d The lettertd prize: and. he , per haps , 1s born , Who shall drive eithar f r om thei r ,nest . The nois6 of wor~dly fame is but a blast of .w1nd . That blows from di'verse poin1!.8 , and shifts its name , Sh i f ting t he pOint it. blows from . Shalt thou more Live 1n the mouthe of mankind, if thy flesh Part~ ahri vel t d from thee;. than if' thou hadst died Befo·re the cor al and the pap were left . 7

6nante . Divine Comedy , Paradise , Canto XV . 7Ibid., Purgatory , Canto XII .

t

6 ·" '

. ';,)',

As would be expected. Pastor is also interested 1n .

Dantets attitude toward the papacy. Dante does not. t.hink

that Av:lgnon 1s any place for the successor of' St •. Peter .

theretore his "Letter to the Italian Cardinals," I f ind ,

r esembles Jere·miah ts L'amentations 1n its sorrowful plead­

ings tor the return of' the pope to Rome:

we-.. -81"e now compelled to lament over Rom,e as wi dowed and deserted-~-; we are grieved , alasl leas 1n beholding her thus than in be­holding the deplorable wound of' heresy it­self~---That this resolution may be cherhhed and prot ected by a noble per severance, may ya all fix Rome , that city now deprived of both 1 ts luminaries , now des,erving the pi t y of Hannibal no less than that of ot.hers. sitting solitary and \ddowed , as .1 s proclaimed above-­may ya all fix her actually before t he eyes of mortals, s uch au she is according t o t he model of your. ideal .-~·Yet the wound will be heal ed (though i t cannot be othe,n;ise t han tha.t the brand and scar of infamy will have been burned with fi r e upon the Apostolic See , and will disfigure her for whom heaven and earth had been reserved) f if Y6,. who were the authon~ of t his transgreetu.on, will all with one aocord fi{~t manfully for the Bride of Chrest, for the Throne of the Bride which is Rome .

As in the case of BOCCQCCio and illberti, so in Pastor's

and Burckhardt' 5 cri t,icism of Dante , Burckhardt t $ apprecia­

tion rests more on thestrlc of writing , while Pastor goes

much deeper and evaluates the philos6phy, Christian prin­

ciples , and timely advice found in the masterpieces Qf

Dante .

8Allghier1 Dante , "Letter to the Italian Ca rdinals , " in Charles St erret t Latham, II 't r anslation .2! Dante ts Bleven Letters (Bos t on , 1891T, pp . 165;"173.

7-c ..

Pastor and Burckhardt are in perf ect. agreement in the

adverae cri ticiSM ~;hich they mete · out to f ilelfo . 'they

f ind scar cely anything to pra1ee in his personal life ,

t he otyle of his \,lr1t1ngs , or the truthfulness of '.that he

eays . !' round many examples of Filelfot s lllck of style .

and hypf~rbolic prais e in a portion of t he 0r ci t io . a.

colloction of. Filelfo' 5 d i s cour ses to, \'(h ich Pastor r efers

and in \,1hich Filelfo addre$~es Francesco Sfor~a as the most

blessed of fat hers 8.nd the mo s t human of princes , "rho in

his gr ea.t sanctity speaks of mos t fcunous deeds.. He i s so

boly , so acceptal:)le to God and men.9 EVen had !3forza been

t he ar eat est of aaints , that Milanese l etider would have

found it dif ficult to measure up to all the superlatives

which Pi l elfo showered upon him. Burckhardt. indeed. had

r eason to say that t he Or-etto was written for a handsome

sum.

However much I agre·e with Pa.stor t $ and Burckhardt t s

views of Filelfo. it. is difficult to subscribe wholeheartedly

to Pastor ' s judgment of the historian, Franoesco Ouicciardini.

Fr om Paator ' s remarks ahout Guicciardini's att itude toward

the pa,pa::y . esp€i cia lly t.ow~l rd Julius II , one would co nclude

t hat Gu1cciard1ni was very bi ased agains t the Church in

genertll , and against the pa.pa cy i n particular.

9Francesco F11elf'o, "Oratto ad Piu Seoundu pontifice maximue habits Mantuad in publica universalique Christi­a.noru contione pro duce Francisco Sportiae , " in Or ationes Fr ancisco Phil olfi, (Dasel, 14981). Incunabula, no page numbers.

s

Justly to be sure does Gutcciardini criticize the

s candalous and avaricious actions ot t he Borgia pope ,

Al exander VI , but so have many good Cat holic writer s .

It sometimes happened in the days of the Renaissance popes

that much a t tention was given to i ncreasing t he material

prosperity of the papacy _ Such was the case with Alexander

VI:

In the mean time Alexander , that all his actions of life might correspond, t his year, made a most scandalous Promotion of Twelve Cardinals . not of such as had the most Meri t" but of' those that offered the mOlllt ~oney . And that he might omit no opportunity of serv­ing hie a,varioious purposes . he publish&d throughout Italy and foreign countries the (Jubilee . which bad been celebrated at Rome by a vast concours e of People especially of the Ultramontanes " with Indulgence to all those who had not choson to visit Rome on this OccaSion , to partake of the Benefit of thel6ubilee , on paying a certain Sum of Money.

It is diffioult to understand that Pastor , while

quoting Guicciardin1 as hS'lTing said that Julius had noth­

ing of the priest about him but the cassock , did not re­

cognize that Guicoiardini Ulade some praiseworthy remarks ;

about Julius II . While the following translation of

Cuiccia.rdini t s H1sto,ry of Je'lorence is turned into an

English a trifle quaint and involved , it does bring out

some virtues of the ,,{srrior pope as seen by Guicciardini:

lOQulociardini , V, 26. t

9

tTulius hi<therto had e;ovQrned 'tfi th BO nluch tranquillity and moderation . that the minds of the people were ~ull of admiration f, t his beh,flviourj and could not comprehend that a Pope , who when Cardinal was fu'.l of nothin but vast projects and deep designs. and who in the times of his predecessors Sixtus. Innocent , and Alexander . was reckoned 1;.0 have a chief Hand in fomenting all disturbances in Italy , should now" since his Ex.'lltation to the Popedom , a Station too often attended wi,th ambitious and restless Desires ; app('a r to have qufre di vest,cd hl~self of thaat Ardour of spirit .

After studying Ouicciardini's history carefully , I

am unable to agree with Pas t or that the {<'lorentine h istorian

was unfair in his treatment of the popes ,

My study of th.e political writings of liiccolo P<lachia­

velli corroborates the opinion given by Burckhardt of his !

most important work • .Ib.£ l>rince, composed i.n 1497 \thich

was undoubtedly written about and for a prince , who 18

addressed as such in almost every paragraph . Whi le I admit

that this prince is given some very sound and pr.;;ctical

advice, !I~achiavel1i's ideals for him are very materialis tic.

For example , tlachiavell i advises him t,c ha VEil

no other object and no ether thouijht than war and its lnflthods and conduct, and .must not take anything else as his specialty , for this is the 0111y branch of kno\iledge that is required of him who v,overns. 12

In ~mot,her of these poli tical treatises , D1sco,ul"ses

£!l Reforming Florence , MaChiavelli as Burckh <.l rdt affirms .

IlGuieciardlni . tv , '-1. 12tUccolo Machiavelli , 'the Princ~ and other works

(Chicago , 19l~1) , p . 139.

10

,shows careful and clear insight into po11 tic,al situations

in the clty, and a keen understanding of human nature.

All t his, I find , 1s true. Machiavelli perceives that if

the city 1$ not r eformed t

one of two t hings will happen , or both of tbem at once; ei thar some unforeseen leader will appear in the tnidstor contusion anci attempt to defend his government with arms and violence, or one party will run to open the hall of the CounCil and mako booty of the other.---There is no other way to esea,pe these ills .except to act in such a way that the government of the city rr.ay in i tsolf stand firra; and i t\'1:i.l1 stand firm ttlwa.y~ whenever, man has s. share in it, or when every man knows what he has to do and 1n whom he can trust , and no citizen of any class will be led to desire r evo lution either through f ear for himself or throufth Clmbi tion.,,13

BurCkhardt t S praise of t-1a chlavelli' 3 History .2!

Florence which represents the city 8. living organism seems

to be valid too, in the light of the following examples .

·first . 8S in his Dlsco!lr!2.s on 1.1 vy t Machiavelli here

a gain refers to the importance of .religion, and recognizes

that once the knowledge of religion and the: fear of God

are extinct , the very foundations at civil society have

been undermined. 14 In this seme Florentine history,

Machiavelli stresses the need of stable government, there­

fore, he, usually the enemy of the pope's temporal power,

saw the danger of the prince of the apostle's residing at

- 3Machiavelli ,. ~ Prince an4 other works, p. 92. l4Ibid ., p. 114. •

11

Avignon. and permitting Italy to be governed by legates.

Suoh a condition could easi ly lead to a state of anarchy

in central Italy . Likewise . Machiavelli's recognition of the

common good, also praised by Burckhardt, is emphasized in

his description of the Gonfa1onier who never allowed a con­

sideration to enter his mind which was not for the common

good. IS

From the preceding reflections on the History 2! Florence,

Burckhardt's evaluation of Ma chiavelli's political treatiees

as scientific and free from legend is fairly substantiated ,

but this does not mean that Machiavelli's writings are fully

approved since they lack a Christian concept of history, and

fail to regard the pope as anything higher than a te-mporal

ruler.

Some of Machiavellits essays judged as valuable by

Burckhardt contain the Florentine humanist's account of the

political state of affairs in Germany and Fr ElnCe during his

own lifetime. Having set forth the economic situation in

the Empire i n one of these easays, I found that Machiavelli

testifies: "No one can doubt the power of Germany, for she

abounds in populatioh, wealth and t roopse.,16 But there was

this well known weakness , says Machiavelli, that. political

unity had not been accomplishe'~

15Mach1avell1, The Prince and other works , p . 118 16Christian E. "Tre'tmoid, . The1I'istorical, Po1itica1,and

Diplomatic Writings of Nicco1'O'lrachiav"elll, V .. 4, -

12

The want of union between the free cities and the princes arises from the many contrary dispositions and interests that exist in that oountry . But reducing these to two prinCipal divisions, it may be said that t he Swiss are hostile to all Germany , and the pl'inces to the Emperor . 7 .

The situation in France , however . was happier in the

opinion of Machiavelli . That country enjoyed prosperity

and unit y .

The crown and king of !'~ranoe ar e at this time more flourishing , rich , a.nd power ful than they 'ever have been; and fol' the following r easons . First . the Crown being hertgitary in the same family . has become r ich.

The 'Frenchcro\rn , ~1a.ch1ave111 concludes , had become

more power ful than the barons . and t he most influential of

the'. bar ons were of royal lineage , and loyal to the king.

Such insight into the internal affairs of a foreign country

manifests high political intelligence.

Conclusive evidence , therefore , bas been given to prove

that Burckhardt ' S evaluation of Machiavelli was searching and

fundamental . Pastor , omitting any mention of ~~chiavelli ' s

political and historical treatises t ur ns his attention to

those shameful works of Machiavelli , his pl ays . One agrees

imMediately and fully with Pat:lt or that Machiavelli t splays

are "depraved, " "imNoral , " "base , " and tfscandalous . " My

reading of them fur nishes plenty evidence for concluding

l7Chrlstian E. Det mold , The Historical , Political . and Diplomatic Nr itinf8 ~tUccolo Nachi avel11 . v. 385 .

18.Ibid. J p . 04.

13

that t heir moral i mpli cations are most repuhdve .

The plot of the t'p,fandragola tf , one of his dramas. cen­

ters around a lover , Callimaco , who has an impure desire

for the wife of tHcia , Donna Lucrezia . He gains his desire

by deceiving Nieia into t hinking that his wife will bear

a child if she is given a magiC potion called the mandra­

gola, and sins a gainst purity with him,. To make the story

even more disgusting. a Franciscan friar is one of the chief

instruments 1n i nducing Donna Lucrezia to sin.

r.eaving ~~achiavelli who did 80 much to bring dis grace

and opprobrium on the Renaissance , let us turn to 'f rancesco

Petrarch. the incarnation of' Christian humanism at 'its best .

'fhi~ gr eat personage ref lec t s -so many angles of the spirit

of his times. that it will be necessary to take them up one

by one. Pastor. comparing Petra.rch to Dante . points out

that the Florentine humanist r everences Christianity and

admires paga.n antiquity. This twofold spirit of pagan

antiqul ty may be .found in a lette,r to Giovanni Colonna in

which Petraroh tells about his visit to Fr a nce, and makes

oomparisons between France and Rome . Attlong many examples

of t his spirit I found in Petrarch . let this extract suffice:

I enjoyed t heso rambles not so much for what I actually saw as on account of the reminiscences of our ancestor's , . who have left such extraordinary monuments to the Roman power in this tar-distant country. Marcus Agr1p.pa was the founder of this colony. fte was a grea t builder as well as a distinguiahedwarrior. I beheld the bodies of the thousands of holy virgins who had suffered

14

to ,gether.---There it 1;V'a.S the w8rrior \tho made his triUt:llphal entry; here it is the Prince of Peace . 'j

Another instnnce of Petrarchts refer ence to pagan

culture is at hand in his poetry. No one but one who had

deep insight into both pagan culture and Christian tradi­

tion could address this sonnet to Apollo which climaxes

with a tribute to Our Lady:

Apollo , if still burns that bright desire Which kindled thee by the 'fhessalian wave : And if the golden t resses which once gnve Such .10y have not with nime quite lost their firtH From the long frosts, from seasons harsh and dire , Which linger while thou art not here to save , Defend these honoured. branches , brief and brave , Whi ch did so dearly with us both conspire ; And by virtue of thllt amorous hope , Which !~ave thee courage in a f~rievous hour , Pu~ge and disperse the mists that leer and grope: So shall we both sce , as a marvelous flower , Our lady in her loveliness arrayed 20 And lNi th her arms "leaving herself aahade.

Pastor alao represents Petrarch as deplor1.ng the ab­

sence of the popes from their natural home at Rome , a

l ament that 1s found in this sonnet:

The proud ,~mcceS50r of Charleroa{cne, whose hair The crown of his grea t ancestor adorns , Already takes up arms to break the horns or Babylon and her children everywhere; And Christ's pure vicar, with his load to bear or keys and cloak , returning home (if thorns Of some ill s top him not till he returns)

19Prancesco Petrarch ; "J~etter to Giovann1 Colonna,1t in James Henry Robinson , Petrarch (New York , 1848) , pp. 303-304.

20Francis Petrar'ch , Sonnets (New York , 1931) . XXVII .

15

Shall see Bolozna and to Rome repair . Best to your meek Florentlan lamb belongs The noble conquest of the V]olf ; and so Shallsufi'er all who apeak wi.th traitorous tongues . Console her then who still to .join you lone s- -And lingers ; console Rome whose groom is slowtl A' d life for Christ the s:~lOrd to end our woe l ~·

Durckhardt makes no comment about Petrarch's Sighs

caused by Rome's being deprived of the popes , but he is

cons cious of Petrarch's awareness of the fienaissance 1"0-

vival ·of pa,gan stanclarde of worldly glory. Burckhardt must

have sensed this apprehension in Petra.rch's letters addressed

in imagination to classical authors. Writing t o I.ucius

AnnaeUB Seneca , Petraroh chides him, t hus: nThough weiGhed

down wi t h years , thou didst pu~sue the elusive pha.ntom of

glory too joyously , I might almost say childishly . tt22

Another lette,I" which bears out Burckha.rdt' s criticism

1s Petrarch ' s letter to Marcus Tullius Cicero , who had

written on the nothingness of this ~iOrld t but did not live

up to these cOlwictions in his own llfe.. So Petrarch laments :

Ah , how much better had it heen for a man of declining ye,ar.e. and especially for one devoted to studies , even as thou , to have lived his last daye in the cuiet of the country , meditating (as thou thyself hast said somewhere) on tha t everl~atlng life . and not on this fleeting one . J

21r r anc1a Petrarch , Sonnets (New York , 1931) t XXIII .• 22J.~rl0 Emilio Cosenza , Petrareh ' s Letter9 ~ Classical

Aut.hors (Chloago,1910) , p . 49 . 2'Ibid •• p . 4.

16

Pastor and Burckhardt , in critlc13in,~ Petrarch. seem

to complement rather than to contradict one another .

Petrarch dedicated his ponto the promot l on of Chr i stian

humanlaM. therefore Pas t or treats of Petrarch the Christian ,

while Durolthardt describes Petrarch the humanist . Both

Pastor and BurCkhardt studied side by side give a true and

fairly complete picture of Petrarch and his relation to the

relleious and secular world in which he lived .

I~!ke Petrarch , Pico della rUrandola. in his 1r/ritings

attempted to establish a blendi.ng of Christian clOd .pagan

thought . Burckhardt and Pastor both understood ,this . Pico

applies the prinCi ples of Christianity by givin~ these very

definite rules for th e follotfers of Christ . I fO\l,nd quaintly

translated by St . Thomas More Pico ts "III Rules partly

exeyting partely directing a man 1n Spyrytuall Battle . " The

first four rules indicate the spirit of all twelve .

1.---let hym remombre that shese what way he shall Even after- tho worlde, yet must he nade Gustayn Sorow, advers1te . labour, greyfe and pa.yne .

2. And when the worlde hath left us after this Veyde of all virtue : the rewarde when ~(e die Ie nought but fire and payne perpetually.

). Ceneydre \\'011 that foly it 1.5 and vayne To 10ke for haven with pleasure and delyght .

4. Thynke how that \fe not onely aholde not ~\ldge But eke be glad and joyfull in this fy ght. · 4

Pico t s twelve rules are followed by 'Qt.l! wepens"

that can be uned 1n fighting the spiritual combat succeS.9-

2401ovann1 Pieo della Mirandols, His Life ~. His t~ephew Giova nni Francosco ll£! (tr. by SIr 1fliO'mas nore . tondon , 1890, p . ~7.

17

fully. It is interesting to discover Petrarch's thesis

of the f1othin~nesa of the joys and 310 1"i 05 of t his world

again proclaimed by M1randola:

1 . The plesu r e lytle and short 2. The ro1o~/er8 gryef a 'nd heavyness ) . The 108se of a bettyr thyng 4. This lyre a dreame and a shadowe 5. The doth at our hand 1s unware 6. Ie fear of impenitent departyng 7. ,Eternal joy eternal payne 8. Ye nature and dygnyte of man 9. Ye peace of a good myode

10. The grete benfytee of God 11 . The pernful cros of Chryst. 12 . The wytnes ~f martyrs and examples

of sayntss . 5 ,

Mi randol n 's ideals of' Christi an perfection were more

than abstract pr inCiples, they were given as spiritual

dlr,ectives to his correspondents . He t hus pleads with hie

nephew JohaJl Pr aunecse to rejoice , as the scriptures bid us ,

in temptations:

Be glad. garth he my brethren whan ye fall :i.n dyvers temptacions, and not causeles : f or what hope is there of florye yf there be none hope of victorys: or what pla.ee 1s there for vic t ory. where there is no batayl:26

For rUrandola, philosophy was n.ot merely a speculative

science to be pondered by those with superior intellects ,

rather .•. philosophy was to form the very basis of Christian

conduct:

2.5Ml randola, His Life, p . 100 . 26Ibid ., p. Jr:-----

IS

This is a very deedly ·and monstr ous persua­cyan wh ich hath cntred the myndes of men: beleoyn~e that the studyes of phylosophye are of estates and prynces: tyther utterly not to b e touched: or at lest '(lise \d t h ex .. treme lyppes to be aypped and r ather to the pompe and oatcntaci.c n of t heyr with then to the culture and profyte of ~heyr reyndes t o be l)'tel and eas ely tastod . ",7

These quotations from Pico's works prove conclusively ,

I think . the contention made by Pastor and Burckhardt

that rico t ook t he better elements of pagan culture which

fit in with his i deas of Christian scholasticism and mystioism,

to formulate rules of' porfection for Christians of his day.

A t the same time to be sure, Pico (ltd not comprontise any

Christian princi ples . While Pastor's evaluation of Pico

della Mirandola can be accepted without reserve, BUrckhardt's

universal statement that M1randola was the only man who spoke

out against the one-sided worship of classical antiquity cannot

stand. Frequent ment ion has already been made in this thesis

of many writers of the Renaissance period (Dante, Petrarch ,

Pius II) who, unqu estionable experts that they are in Re­

naissance writing, defended the cause of Christianity un­

compromisingly and foar106811 .

This tim e it 1s Pastor who causes controversy by his

evaluation of Ba.rto1omeo Platina's HistorY .2! the POeeJJ .

In appraising thb account of the Roman pontiffs, PaStior

27Mi randola. H!t 'fife , pp . 38-39 ..

19

states that of all the popes \1hone biographies a.re written

up in this book ; Pius II is the only one who appear s in a

favorable light . 2g It is impossible t o accept this state­

ment as 1 t stands after reading Platlina' s vlork carefully .

It is true thtlt Platina makes u.ncomplimentar y statements

about some popes , and the moral condition of the Ch.rch

duri ng their reigns , but Platina does omit many of t he

derogatory and unfounded statements which other historians

have made about those same popes . It is t.rue that not all

the popee are highly commended by Plat ina , but Pastor himself

does not spare from condemnation thQse popes who did wrong.

For example , Platina describes t he roign of St . :Mar­

cellinuo , (296- 304) , a.s a period in which the clergy were

covetous , lustful , ambi t ious , proud . idle and. i gnor ant of

Chri.stian doctrine . At the time of Benedict IV , (900- 90) ).

the "Church of God was grown wanton wi t h 1. ts riches and the

cler gy quitted. sever ity of manners for lasciviousness , so

that there being no prince to punish their excesses , such

a licentiousness of Sinning obtained in the world. as brought

forth these monsters . these prodigies of wickedness , b.y whom

the chair of St. Peter \'/as rather seized than ri ghtfully

possessed. " John XII , (955- 964 ). had lived ,in wickedness

from his youth . and. preferred t o spend hi s time in hunting

28past or, III , 34.

20

r a ther than in prayer . Likewise Bonlt.'ace VII, the anti­

pope , Sylvester II; (900 .. 1003), and Benedict IX , (1003 ..

1044) . a r e spoken as of :men who received theil- power un-29

,justly . and ruled wickedly .

As an example of i mpartia lity or even commendation .

we note contrary to Pastol" s opinion these vie¥ilS of l>latina

r egarding other popes . 'there io the case 0.£ St . Cletus . '

(79- $9 ) '. an a ccount Iflhich , by the 'day J is of doubtful ol"i gin .

Pla tina SHYS !

St. Cletus was looked upon as 'too much i nClined to avarice" and yet he used no oppression for the getting of money , and "'1h~t he had he employed in boanty and roagnificence . J . .

\l'lhile Platina mi ght have ma de quite an issue of the

episode in the rei gn of Honorius I , (625 .. 638). re.gard1ng

M,.8 attitude toward the M'onothel.ite heresy ( t h is was not.

it must be remembered an ex cathedra pronouncement) , Pla.ti:-na

relates the incident with one Innocou8 sentence: "But

these seducers a.t the insistance of' Honorius , who was verY '

diligent to reclaim Heraeliua , were afterwa.rdsbanlshed . "31

Since many hls tori.ms have used t h is incident to argue a gainst

the papal claims, it ha.s t o be a dmitted tha t Platina. handled

the problem prudently and wi t hout exaggeration .

29Seo the following re.ferences in Platina : ~farcellinus . I , 63; Benedict IV , I , 241-; John XII , I , 252; :a·ontface VII . I , 257· Sylvester II I. 20/4- ; and Benedict IX , I . 270 .

~Ot~artolomeo piatina , !ill! tivo5 of the Popes (tr. and ad. by Rev. W. Benham •• I.ondon . n.d.), r. De

3lIbid., I , 148 .

'''1 t;,

Another instance of fair treatment of the popes may

be found in the pontificate of Pope Stephen II , (752-757) .

Platina omits from his text a part of an inoident which

relates one of the wars tought during the pontifioate of

St ephen II . Pla.tina says ,

"A1stulphu8 hearkened not to this good counael, where­

upon Pipin . t he spring now approaohing . advances with an

army against the Lombards ; " The editor of the English

translation adds , probably in an exaggerated lI,mnner:

"Platina omits to record that the Pope, rendered desperate

by the advance, of A1stulphus, f orged n letter f rom St . Pet er

to Pipi n , promUling paradise or threatening hell . aocording J'>

8S i,he hastened or retarded his movements . tf J _

Nogr€'Bt er praise could be given to any man than that

which Platina showers upon St. Gregory VII , (1073-1085) .

He is a man , no question , that loved God ; pru­dent , just; merCiful , a pa tron of the poor , the widows , and the, fatherless , and the only cham­pion of the Church against heretics, and wicked princes! 'who 8,tr:i.ve to mako themselves')~sters of t he church ' s patr imony by violenoe."')

Another pope who receives falr tre::l tment from Platina.

is Clement IV . (1265- 1268 ) . "rho is pr ai sed for having in­

oisteci thmt hie nephew who held thr ee oanonries , take his

cliloice of one , and release the other two . Blessed Urban V,

J2Pl atina , r. 190. 33Ib1d .. , II , 12.

~~

(1362-1370). is de~cribed 8S a man of singular virtue and

courage, who preBerved the honor of the church most won­

derfully . Bonif.ace IX, (13$9-1404,) , is commended .for hav­

ing l ived so strictly at a time during which lust and

inordinate pleasure were the order of the day. J4

It is not surpr ising that Platina should laud Pius II ,

(1459-1464) , patron of humanist scholars , as a "per sonage

of such true coura /.l:e and singular prudence as he 8~}emed to

be born not to ease 01" plea sure , but to UtEU1.8. g e the most

important af fairs. He always endeavored to augment the

majesty and gr andeur of the pontif1calchairj nor did. he

ever leave chastising of kings , dukes, states, usurpers , tha.t

wro~ged either himself or a.ny other chur chman , till he made

them acknowledge their orror . n35

Even Paul II. (U.64-1471). the arch- enemy of Platina ,

r oceives a word of praise from the Bartolomeo who relates

of Paul II: "He was reputed a just and yet a merciful man ;

endeavoring to amend even t h.ievea. murderers. traitors . and

perjured villains , by tedious imprisonment. " It is to be

expect~d , hOllfever , that Paul II who arrested Platina for

conspiracy against the papacy would be branded as tta great

enemy and despiser of human learning. branding those for

341"01' Cleraent IV see Platina II , 101; for Urban V, Plat1nl,i II , 161; and for Boniface IX,Platina , 11 , "176.

J5P1atina , II, 268.

25

heretics t hat gave t heir minds t o it; lilnd dissuading t he

peopl e of Horne from putt i nt; their childron to be brought

up to it , t el ling t hem that i t was enough if they l earned

t o re .'~. d and wr ite . " But, in spite of his anti- humanis t ic

tendencies Pl a t ina admits , Paul II does have to be commrmaed

, 36 for having kept no evi l men about hi m.

I t is clear that Pl ati na was not a cr1 t i cfj,l his to:-ian.

He d5. d not cr i t icize or eval uate hi s s ources , but presents

more of a running chroni cle . Pas tor is correct in saying

tha t 'l'ius I I does appear in a very f avor able light , but

he is not ,th e only pope who appears thus. as has been proved

by my chapter .

24

Perhaps BU1'ckhardt t s evaluation of Plati na is more correct .

he has noted t hat Pl atina 's wo rk is f r ee from hypocrisy and

superstition , and from my study of the Historx 9I: ~ P012es I

hRve reached tho s ame conclUs ion . Time and time again Pl atina

passes over a f abled , exaggerated remark with a suggestion

tha t it is not to be believed as faotual . How6ver, the

truthfulnoss of Bur ckhardt ' s remark that Platina's pen was

~"1. means of vengeance on certa in popes 15 evident .

"'riting in a lir.ll ter vein t han Pl atina, yet expr ess­

ing paitan Renaissance phil osophy in his anecdotes and in­

vectives is Bracciolln1 Poggio.

J6Pl a tina , I I , 296 • •

The Facetiae of Poggio consists of a number of short

anecdotes almost all of which tl1ake the clergy appear like

fools or vicious chnracters . Bracelolin!. Poggio' s Fc.lcetiae

1s denounced by both Pastor end Burckhardt . Pastor makes

such scathing remarks as "offensively obscene,n and "course."

Burckhardt tempers hin remarks to read: "practical jokes ,

impertinences and refined indecency" of which the following

tale is an example :

A bishop of Are~zo, Aneelo by name, an acquain­tance of ours, convoked one day his clergy for a synod . and ordered all who were Clothed with any dignity whatsoever to set out upon the journey with the priestly habits, or as they say in Itali8,n , with cappe e cotte. A eertain priest who did not possess these vestments, reflected sadly to himself, not knowing how me might procure them. His houso­keeper, seein& him thoughtful wi th dO\'lncQst head, asked the reaGon of his e;rief. He re­plied that, according to the orders of the bishop , it was necessary to go to the aynod with cappe e cotte. "But, my good man ," re­plied the housekeeper , "you have not grasped the meaning of this orderJ MonSignor doos not demand cappo e cotto, bu.t rather capponi cotti; that is what you must take him." The priest followed the women ' s advice. He carried along cooked capons . 8ndwas exoeedingly well received. '.rho bishop went so far as to say, \lith a smile, that he alono. among all his brethren , had comprehended the truo sense of the command.. 37

EVen when Poggie speaks in 8 friendly manner of the

papa cy, and of the Church , it is, Pastor says, for a self1~h

37Bracci.olin1 Pog~tO t Oratoris at Philosoph! o,era , Collat10ne E!)endatorum {Basileao; 153lrT, Pacetlae yjCt •

•

·:25

moti vee Accordingly , POf~glo' s "Invective" certainly con­

demned Pelix , but for a ulterior reason . Poggio , indicates

Pastor , among othera had been living off the money which was

obtained from the corrupt papal court. Po {~g10 , this invective

shows , says with seeming sorrow that so grea t is the anguish of

his soul caused by the harm which f elix is d01n6 to the Church

t hat he 1s not etble to express it . J8 Then }>o gg10 launches into

a conden1l1atory attack against Felix, .addressing him as the

anti- Christ, who , says Poggie , will corrupt men with gold

and silver . and will pervert the mind s of men wit h money and

promises, and will turn them a,way f rom the true fa i th . J9

Ii. fur t her proof thnt Poggio was interested in the papacy

only insofar ao it could ben efit him materially is found in

a letter to N'icholHs V a t the time of his accession to the

papacy ., in which congr atulatory messa ges are closely followed

with a pet ition to r emember Poggio who , he ro'mindsthe new

pope, had given so many ytHil.rS and 5 0 much time in the ser­

vice of the papacy.40 Even in looking back over the history

of Rome, the fact that soems to be uppermost in the mind of

Poggio when he wrote "De Fortunae Varietate, " was the mater ial

prosperi ty of the Bternal City whi ch Poggio described as

)8poJ~iO t "Invectiroarurn liner et prima in Feli cem Anti­papam" in Or a toria ~ Philosehi Ope16, p. 1 55 .

)'JPoggl0. "!nvectimarum. fl p . ,0. 40Poggio, "Oratio V ad Summum Pontificam rn colaum V"

i n Or atoria .!! Philosophi Opera (9aa11eao . 1538) , p. 292 .

26

f ormerly being a city of go l d. , but now one of sQu6:ilor . 41

Most of Pastor fs references to Poggio have aptly charact eriz­

ed that <luthor us a partisan of the pagan Rena ifH3ance . a

man ,..,ho lived an unprincipled life , and loved the Church

only insofar as it. CQuld servo h i m financially.

BurCkhardt gives added insight into the character of

Por,gio and his >'l ritinc;s ,;,hen he staten that the aim of

Bracci olini ' .s "de l:;iseria Condi tionis HUl'\1anae" \"I'a5 to de-

s cribe t his 1trorld a s a vale of t eers in vThich all class es .

infa nts , children and adolescents are full of misery .42

I was able t o find examples of t his in Liber I of the "}:ise ria"

··-bieh deals lfwl th individual unhappiness of all kinds . and in

Liber II vlh ich concentrates on national calamt ties such as

the burni ng of Pentapol is , the devestation of Gr e ece . the

destruction of Carth age , the burning of Rome , famines and

pestilence .

n addi tion , Burckhardt '\'/ould :remind us ths t Pog.gio did

ris e s tlove the obscone and vul ga.r to take part in the li terary

controversi e s of the c ay.. Pog;gi o 'Ita/;) in fa.vor of disca rding

the various dialocts f or t he one classi cal language , La t i n .

I found Poggio ' 5 stat.eme nt of t h i s in his Histor1a Comri valis

41pOggio , "De Fortunae Varletate Urbis Romee , et de ruina ... euisdem de s criptio , " in Oratorle II Ph:U.osoEhi Opera , p . 13.:. .

42Poggio, t'Or atori.s Cl a rissiml Illustrissirnum pr incipem Slgislilundu Pandul phum ~laletestam, de ~;1se:ria. conditionis humanae , " i n OratoJ;'ia . p . 104 .

27

in which Braceiolini advises that men should read only one

languafle spoken by Latins, and that they use no other. 4J

In this same connection , Poggio's writings also bear another

humanistic characteristic which is noted by Burckhardt that

this qua t trocento man thought very highly of those s cholars

who possessed a knowledge of Greek and Latin.44

The same observation may be made of Burckhardt ' s and

Past or ' s evaluation of Pogeio as was made of their evalu­

ation of Mirandola , that their accounts complement one

another . Pastor emphasizes Poggio ' s relationship with the

Church ; Burckhardt , his humanist ic tendenc:i.€s . Of the two ,

however , Pastor ' s analysis is more complete because he goes

beyond the externals o.f' st yle and discus ses the basic

philosophy of Po·ggio ' s work wh ich Burckhardt barely touches .

Burckhardt and Pastor both value highly the historical

informati on found in Pius II's'mmentaries , but while Pastor

notes prejudice ; Burckhardt , charges inaccuracies . The

value of' the Commentaries do es not lie chiefly in the his ­

torical data presented . This work of Aenoa~ Sylv1us is

encyclopedic in nature . There is a mis cel l any of informa­

tion about current happenings, personal ex.periG nco , and

geography. Even Burckhardt appreCiates Pius I I ' s union of

43poggio , "H1storia ConvivBlis Di s cept ative Convivalis III "tt 1.n Oratoria . p . 55 .

44Poggio, "be Avaritta," i n Oratoris , p. 3. t

28

geographical , statistical and historical knowledge . PO'or

example , Aeneas Sylvlu6 tells us that he went to Scotland.

hen he interrupts the story of his mission with t his

di gression:

The following facts about Scotland seem worth r ecording. It 1s an island two hundred mi l es long and fifty \',ide , connected with Britain and extending to'.1a rd the north. It 1s a cold count ry \'there few things l#111 grow and for the most part has no trees . Below the ~round is found a sulphurous rock which they di g for f uel . ---the common people , who are poor and rude , s tuff themselves wi t h meat and fish , but eat bread asa luxury . - .. - The oysters are l arger than those in EnBland and many pearls are found in thom.---There are no wolves in Scot land . Crows are rare and therefore the trees in which thet5nest are the proper ty of the royal treasury .

Looking to Church fH.storY primarily, Pastor remarks

tha t Aeneas Syl vius viewed the Conciliar I<!ovement with the

i nd ifference of an adherent of t he heathen Renaissance .

It is hard to justify this statement at least f rom reading

the COrn.r:J.enteries. Aeneas Sylvius expl.icitly states:

Later " who,n the F..mperor and the El ectoral princes were endeavoring at Nuremberg to end the bitter schism between ICugenius IV and Felix V; they decided tha t the Emperor should choose four men. each lnector two , and the other princes one each , to hear the spokesmen of Eugenlu8 and Felix and see that the Christian state should suffer no harm . The Emperor fi' rederlck named the fol l owing : Sylvester, Bishop of Chlorosee» t he theologian Thomas Hase1bach , the Jurisconsult Ulr ich Sonnen .. berg , and Aeneas, the poet , though the last named

45Florence Alden Gra gg (tr. ) , ft 'i'he COl{1!Ywntari os of Pi us II , n Smith Colleg~ Studies in History , XI II , Nos . 1-2 (Oct , 1936-Jan. 1937) , 1$ .

29

::Itill f a vor-e,d the cause of Sasle .1lnd Frederick more than he did Bu!;enius . For the enthusiasm he had felt at Bas l e had not died dOlrln nor had he yet grasped the principles on ~fhich }\;ueenius ' s coso rested . and 8Gsociating o s ha6did with one side only , he despised the other .

Further on he tells ho'd he came o ver to the sidG of the

Eugene I V when he saw t.he issue clearly*

According to Burckhardt . Pius II was able to see

good in pa gan antiquity . and use the exampl es of ne.tura1

vi r tue fotmd then: as a stepping stone to Christian living.

These views of Burckhardt are portrnyed .

In Fius!!' s Epistle 105 to the Archduke Sigismund . Pius

I r recommends the pag,ans . Socrates , Demosthenes , and Cicero

as great men , but also to be irnitatud are the holy men

Jerom.e J AUEustine J Ambrose and Gregory . 47

Doth Burckhardt ' s and Pastor' s evaluati on of Pius II

is very full . and complete.. Pi us II's versatility led

him into almost every field of writing . Besides being

readable and enjoyable , his writings cont.ain very valuable

information .

4,6F1OJ~~mce Gragg , p. 31. 47Pius II , " Ipint . 10 5 , IlluBtrissimo principi ex

smnguine Caesarum fate Domino Sigismundo Aust.riae . duel Tirolis comiti . domino suo secl.lndal"io, Aeneas Sylvius poeta !'e~al1s secretarlus . S. P.D., ft in Senensis TSl Pist adeitum ?ontificatum ~ ~ nominis Sf.3cundus .. asi. eae , 155 ), p. 606. -

30

The purpose of this thesis as stated in the introduc­

tion 1s to determine the relative objectivity and hence

the merit of Pastor and Burckhardt as his torians. Basic

for this conclusion will be the evaluations which these

two historians make of t welve major Renaissance writers.

Pastor and BurCkhardt both agree that niovanni Boccaccio·s

writings are pagan and indecent. They find in Dante both a

Christian and a humanist, while Francesco Filelfo i8 described

by each historian as an i nsincere a.uthor whose writings l ack

both truthfulness and beauty of style. .Both Francesoo Pe­

trarch and Pico della J1irandola are valued by Pastor and

Burckhardt for being able to reconcile the, best elements of

ancient classicism with Christian idea.ls, while they find

Bracciolini Poggio's works descending to the obscene, coarse,

and indecent. Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini's versatility is

appreciated by these German historians.

In the preceding chapter, after conSiderable research

I gave numerous quotations from the works of these twelve

Renaissance writers to prove that the evaluation placed upon

them by Pastor and BurCkhardt is valid. The remaining pro­

blem is, it seems, to determine why Pastor and Burckhardt

give a dIfferent evaluation of Leone Battista Alberti, Fran­

cesco Guicciardini, Niceolo Machiavelli and Bartolomeo

Platina.

As was stated in Chapter II, almost every modern authority •

1

ori tioize8 the ~yle of tbe 11 terary works of Alberti ad­

versely: J. A. Symonds , E. G. Gardner, Giovanni Papini,

and Father Fernand !~ourret. Their evaluation is certainly

in flat contradiction to Burckhar dt t s praise, and in keep­

ing with Pastor's evaluation. While Pastor is alone in '

mentioning the heathen influence in the \iONS of Al berti,

be does esteem the principles of architecture d.evelQped by

Alber ti.

Francesco Guicciardlni, too, is a subject of disagree­

ment between Pastor and Burckhardt. Pastor, as well as most

modern authorities, agrees that Guicciardini was prejudiced

against the Ohurch because he speaks har8hly of some popes

who ! did wrong. In spite of the fact that Burckhardt stands

almost alone in describing Quicciardinis' historical works ~. as "frank", that statement to me seems more correct e~ecially

aft.er examining his HistorY. 2! Florence.

Pastor's and Burokhardt'u seem.ingly divergent views

regarding Machiavelli are more a.pparent than r eal. Nowhere

can I find in Pastort a HistoTY su: !h! Popesmantion of

Machiavelli's historical works. It 1s these historioal works

whioh are praised 80 highly by BurCkhardt and otbereminent

historians. Pastor's appraisal or MaChiavelli would have

been a great deal more complete had he mentioned these

greatest or Machiavellits worka. The Prince and History !!

2

Florence. instead of giving the i mpression that %4aehia. ...

velll l eft us nothing but his coarse plays,

Pastor 's love of the ,Church and the papacy caused him

to be a bit hyper-sensitive to the 'attacks of' Bartolomeo

Plat ina on the papacy. Sufficient evidence was given in

Chapter IV to indicate the fair way in which Platina treats

most of t he different. popes.

On the whole , Pastor and Burckhardt are to be commended

for the almost universal objectivity manifested by their

works since they have achieved a high degree of hi.storical

truth in their writings. However, as has been pOinted out,

their education has caused them to emphasize certain aspect.s

of ~he works to which they refer without being partial.

Burckhar dt 's love for Renaissance culture can be traced to

his humanistic educatioI. under Droysen, Grimm and Ranke,

whereas Pastor's staunch loyalty to the ChUrch was, no

doubt , developed by Father Johannes Janssen. t.he illustrious

Ger man historian under whom he s tudied.

As a result of having compared Pastor's and Burckhardt'.

a coount of the Renaissance period with studies made by other

modern authorities, it becomes evident that the preference

has been given to Pastor most of the time. This conclusion

was substantiated r ecently by Professor HenryS . Lucas in

his article "The Renaissance: A Review of Some Views . "

Lucas recognizes that Burckhardt. 's views needed. r evision

)

becaus.e of the extensive researches made by more reoent

historians . l According; to Lucas, Burckhardt in his own

lifetime recogni3inS the superiority of Pastor's works

to his. ~frote to Pastor , congra.tulating him a.nd even support­

ing· the views which differed from his own. 2 It must be ad­

mitted, though , that BurCkhardt did an exceptional piece of

work in. view of' the source rna t.erial which WRS not available

to him.

lHeory S. Lucas , "the Renaissanoe: A Review or Some Views!" Oatholic H§stortoal Review , :n::xv (1950) , p. 387 .

IbId., p . 38 • .

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Leone BElt tis ta Alberti , (1404-1472) ., was an Italian

humanist born in Venice . Aft er embracing the ecclesiastical

state , he became a canon of the Metropolitan Church of

Flor ence , and Abbot of San Sovino .

A typical Renaissance mao; Al berti was an aut hor ,

sCi entist, moralist, economist , aest hetic philosopher , artist ,

musi cian, and architoot , best known , hO\icver fo.r his archi-

tectura l works . Among these are tho Pitt1 Palace at F'lorenoe.

the chapel of the Itucellai . the facade of the church of Santa

Haria Novella, the choir of the church orr~unziata . and the

churches of St. Sebastian and St. Andrew at r..'iantua. His best

work of a rchitecture is the church of St. FranCis at Rim1ni ,

while his best wr1 ting is his "De Ro Aedificator1a".

According to Al berti , the edua&ted man is skilled not

only in letters , but also 1n the crafts , and .his education

culminates in self ... control .

Flavius Biondus, (1338-1463) , was an eminent Italian

rchaeologist and historian born at Forli, who founded

t he 8c.ience of archaeology and topography. ~ost of his

studios were carried on under Ballistario of Cremona.

In 1432 he became secretary to Pope EUGeniu8 IV', whom

he a.ccompanied even in his exile. He served in the same

cupacity to Popes Nicholas V, Calixtus III and Pius II.

1

Hfi~ spent a. gr eat dea l of time and ener gy oollecttng

material for his historical , archaeological and topographi­

cal works f rom original source6 ~ Biondo' 5 chief works E!re:

Romac In~ta.uratae . which conta ins information on monuments .

topography, churches and chapels; Historiarum !.h Inclina-

tions RomanorUIft Imperii i from the fa.ll of Rome to hi s ti.me;

~ Triumphans, .~ l talia Illustrata , enoyclopedias of i n­

formation concerning ancient manners. laws, sites . monuments ,

a nd races vmich formed the basis of all subsequent dictionaries

of Romnn antiquities.

Giovanni Boccaccio , (1313-1375), an Italian novelist

"'la s ' born in 'Paris,. When he was still young , h is mother and

father separated, and Giovanni was sent to echool in Florence.

In 1327 ~e ~s sent to 1aples to study law, but he became

much more interested 1n literature . It trus here that he met

Maria d t Aquino, who became the Fiammetta of hisworlts •

.A fter th e death of his f'a t h er in l34fJ . he returned to

Florence where he was instrusted with diploma tic missions

to many cities .

Boaca ccio and his friend. Potrarch. are known as the

earliest humanists . Since Boccaccio was a typical Italian

bourge,ois , h e ha s the honor or being the first to substi tute

a literature of t he people for the literature of the lea rned

2

class es and the aristocracy.

His best knmm Ii ternry work is the DecamerQn, a very

indecent novel , which is characteristic of the t emperament

of the author and t he circle in wh ich he wrote .

nLIGHIERI DANTE , (1265-1321) , was born at Florence of

an anCi ent Guel ph fam i ly . In 1289 , the Guelphs defeated

the Ohibellines , and Florence became a democra.cy. Dant e

became a member of t he guild of physiCians a nd apothecaries

in order to t ako part in the politioal life of the city.

In 1294 , Dante completed his "Vita Nuova ff telling of

his love for Beatrice; in 1300 he was elected to the 31gnor1a

of the Republic and two years later he and his fac t ion were

driven from Florence for baving support ed ant1" papal measur-es .

ll'or a time ; he and his collengues , f r om their retr ea t in t he

Apennines attempted a pl an which would overthr ow the existing

govemunent in r'lorence . Dant e . howe ver , 500n wi t hdrew f rom

all political a.ctiviti es , and gave hi mself to writ ing.

In 1309 . in anticipation of the emperor ' s eoming to

Ital y , Pante wrote his ~ Ronarchla which proves that a.

supreme temporal monarchy is necessary for the wel l-being

of' the world .

In 1317 J Dante s ett l ed a..t Ravenna , where be completed

his Di~ CQmmedl a , the most important of his works which

3

popularized Catholic philosophy and made it intelligibl e

to the non- Catholic .

l"RMlCESCO f'ILELFO , (l398-11~8l) , waH born at Tolentino .

He s tudied graLwar , rhetoric and Latin litorature at Padua

where he was appointed professor a t the early age of ei g;hteen ,

and soon married the daughter of Chryso1oras, his tutor .

Aft er ~landering t'rom one cour·t to the other . he finally

settled 1n Milan. Many honors were conferred on Y11e1fo:

he was entert.ained by Uicholas V; dubbed a knight by Alfonso;

entertained a t Ferrara by Duke Bor so , and at ~1antua by the

!<Iarcheue Lodov1co Conzaga .

4

F1101fo l(rote a e r ell t doal . He has left us many speeches

and satires , but the work by which he is best known i s hi s

Sforz1ud , a poem of 16 books in 1tlhich he tells the history

of Sforzats life .

FRANCESCO GUICCIAIWIN!, (14g3- l540) , a historian and

statesman was born at Florence of parents who were members

of the MediCi raoily . He studied law at the University of

Padua . and became profes sor of law at Florence , but his

diplomatic caroer began in 1~; 13 \1hen he was sent as a.n envoy

to t.he court of the Em.peror Ferdinand. In l511~ he l eft the

ser vice of the ~edici t o enter that of Pope Leo X. Guicciar­

din! held the position of ftovernor 1n a number of the papal

s tates l Modena ,. Heggio , L.ombardy and Romagns . I n 1527,

after t.he ~ack of Roroe , he was d i smissed i n disgrace by

Cl ement VII .

Af t er l osing hi s political positio n , Guicc i e rdini

reti r ed t o his vil la and b egan t o write hi story . With

h is Hiator'J of EIor ence b egi ns modern ana lyt ical history .

Ris Hi story £! I taly VTh ich i s div i ded into twenty books

begi ns with the ent r ance of Cha rles ltIl into I taly in 1494

and ends wit h t.he dea t h of Cl ement VII in l531+e

tHeCOLO MACHIAVELl.I vias born in Flor ence in 1469 . His

f amily ,was. exiled f rom Flor ence after the rout of the Cuelfs.

Hi s ' educaJ: ion included Latin but not Greek . In 1498 he \'/RS

cbosen by the Council of the Ei ghty for th e pos ition of

s e cret&r y to the Sl !1;,rnor i a . This pos i tion made him an agent

f or the Republic,. and took him on journeys to France and

Geroany during whi ch he \"la,s a bl e to obse r ve C'osare Borgia

i n a ction i n his various mi l i tary ca.mpaigns . During thos e

fourteen years of s erv i ce, he wrot e h is fi rst Decenna l c .

When the M,ed ioi returned t o Florence., Ma chiavelli r etir ed

t o his farm nenr Sun Casciano and wrote .!h.! Prince . and the

Viscora!. -- -

In 1520 he ~/as gi ven a c{)lIunission to wr ite the Hi story

2i F'lorence which h e present ed to the Pope in 1525. I n

this same ye.a r Clement VII sent him to the Romagna to d iscuss

5

with OUicciurd1ni the sub:;otitution of the armed p0pulace

for mercenarysold1era . In 1526 Nachiavelli was ma.de secre­

tary and purchasing agent to the five Superintendents of the

Wa.ll . Then came the revolution . This time , Machiavelli

l ost his pos t becaune of his Hedicean s)/".npathi es . He died

about a mont.h after t he r evol ution.

,~!OVAran PICO DELLA M! HJl.NDOI..A , (146) - 1494) t was an

Italian philosopher and s cholar , who belonged to an ancient

l and- holding fat"lily of Modena . He gave up h is share of the

estate , and '"ent to !3010gna to study canon l aw b\lt soon

found that he wa s much more interested in philosophy and

theology whose prinCiples he tried to r eco ncile . He believed

in studying Hebr ew and Talmudic sour ces , and l ed the re­

act i onary group · a gainst a r adieal humanism.

His book on 900 theses ~fhich he used as a baSis f or

6

hi s disputations was interdicted by Pope I nnocent VIII .

Mira ndols spent th~~ laet years of his life def enti.ing Christian­

ity ar,a1nBt Jews ~ !{ohammedans and astrologer s .

BlntTOLO"~O PLA'I'I NA; (1421-14 ~n) . was born i n a l ittle

villa{;e between Cremona and f.1antua called Pi a.dena . He

changed his name from Sacchi to Platina cd;"ter his birth­

place . In his early youth he trAined as a soldier , but

l ater on lJecarue i:nter~8t0d in 5c:i t1nce .

Lhrough the influence of Cardinal Bessarion he ob­

tained the post of Abbreviator . lJhen Pius II d ied , Paul

I.I di smissed many of these officials on the grounds t hat

they promoted much corruption . Pl atina '"U1:3 chosen by those

dismi s£lee. to plead their' cause with the Pope . 'i'hey even

threatened t o submit t he quest.ion to the declsionof t he

Ro te i f t lla Pope gave t hem no considerat ion. The only

reward Platina r e ceived for his sorvices was to bethro'Wn

into pr ison f or four months .

As a further act of vengeanc e , Pomponius Laetus founded

the ACfldell1Y primarily t o ridicule the, priesthood. Pl atina

received another prison sentence for his associ a tion vTl th

t his group .

Sixtus IV ; the successor of Paul , appointed Plat ina

Vatican lihrarian , and requested that he write a ~1stor¥

of ~ ~opos .

FH.ANCESCO I)ETHARCH , (1304 .. 1374 ). an Italian, pa tH; cmd

humanist born at Arezzo . His f amHy moved from here to Pisa ,

and later to Avignon . Hi -s father was inee'l'ls ed when he sent

Petrarch to Montpellier and Bol ogna t o study l aw, - and his

son devote.d hims elf to th e belles- l et t res i nstead . In

1 32) Fr an cesco took minor orders i n Avi gnon . I t we s h are

t hat he met Laura.

7

In 1341 on Eas te!' Sunday he \rIElS cro\,rned as poot nnd

historian . Dur ing those years Petra.r ch wandered from

pla ce to pl ace seeking ancient codices and manuscripts .

lis FistOIY 2! Rome [::101"0 than any of his other \iritings ,

£~i ves his philosophy of poli1~ics , 'dllich expresses the

desire of having a united Italy , but his fame rests on his

verse .

AENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI , (1405-1464) , was born at

Corsignano near ,giena . \llhi1e a,t tend ing t he University of

Siena , he studi ed di l i &;ently , but gave himself up to scnsue.l

pl easures . From here he Nent to Florence where he spent

two : years studying the classics .

tis public car ocr began as secrot ary of the council of

Sasel "'There he opposed Pupe Eugenius IV. He s erved various

ecclesias tics , bu t refr a ined from taking major ox'dars be­

cause of the obli gations ~fh lch \llould be impos ed upon hi.H.

In 1439 he became secretary to t he newly- ele ct ed anti­

pope , Felix V. By 1445 he had l eft t he sch i smatic part

and became a pa.rtisan of Eugene IV" In 1446 he began to

l ead a more regul ar life , and was ordai.ned sub- deacon . He

\'las crea ted a car'dinal in 1/ .. 56.

During his pontificate ; hi s pri mary pu:rpo!3e was to

liberate Europe f rom Turki sh domination , and ma intain the

8

supremacy of the papacy over oecumenica l cO\l.ncil s .

Incl uded in his long liot of w·r iting.$ are : COm!l'letl­

.taries . .2.!! the Council of .Base1 , Hi$'tor y .£! p'~l~oBe . Unl ..

ve rBal Il i s tory . CO!Il!nentari'3S , His ton gJ: Freder!ck III • .

HistOI"Y £!. Bohe,mi a ~ De Vid.s Illustribus . . . - -

JH1"CCI OLINI 1>00010 , (l j80-H.59) . was born in Ter r a ...

nova . a. villa f;a o f the t lorent i necontado . fIt) received

hi s educa tion in F'lor .ance ., \;rhi ch h e financed by copyin~ manu­

s cripts for th~ Floront in@ marke t .. ?oggi o was 'an attache

of the papal court for fifty Y0/3.r5 , from 1402 until his

death . Jt ,.,as dud.ng t his time that be att ended the Council

of' Oonstance f rom 1.414 to 1415 ..

His greates t his torical wo r k is fHstoria Fj,orent1.na

!£origi ue urb1.s , usgue~d annum lA.22., libr1;. V!IX , "hi ch is

written in i mitation of' l. ivy . An a rchaeological survey

Of Rome is f ound i.n !!! Variet at s Fgrtunae . H:!.s Fa.ce~iae ;

a. boolt o f obs cene jokes is the biggest blot on his character .

1\:'10 trans l a.tions are t o his credlt~ Xenophon t s Cy:rq:paedia

and Dtodorus ; and Hi s t ory 2f Siie1,lx.

ti . B. The informati on fo t' these biogr aphi ca l sketches was

f ound in the nEncycloped1~L of the SocJ.al Sd. ~nce!'l " and

the "Catholic Encyclopedia . ~

9

BIBLI OORAPHY

Pri mary Sour ces

It was very fortunate for me t.o find many of the primary

sources needed fo r thi s thesis in the rare book collection

of the University of Minnesota library . Many of these books

are so valuabl e that permi ss ion is given to use the,m only

when the borrower produces a writt,en slip from the hoad of

t he history department . HO~/ever , when 1 told the librarian

the topic of my t heSis , and the gr eat need! had of us i ng

these volumes , permission was given me to use them.

Leone Battista Al berti 's Opere VolFaarl was very interest­

ing because of the accompanying plates and diagrams . One

of the mos t valua.ble books which I handled was the incunabula

edition of ' rances co Filolfo's Orationts Francisci Philelfi

~ Q.uibusda~ .AJJJ.J! r~i~u~~Jl1 QpJtrJJ?U9 wr 1 tten in fiftoenth

century r,atin . Two s i xteenth century manuscri pt editions

were also u f!ed : Aeneas Syl vius Piccolomini t s Senensis . qui

post adeptum Pont1.fi catum .f!!!! ~ nominis Seoundus and

Braccio1ini Po g~~io' s Ora. tor is . EVen thoueh I had only one

week to spend at this library , I was able to read these

ancient manusor ipts quite thorou £!)lly .

Alberti, Leon Battista. Opere Volgari. Firenze, lS49.

Boccacio, Giovanni. ~ Decameron . 1r. by John Payne. London, 1903. 2 vols.

Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of t he Period of the Renaissance 1!! 'Italy. London, llf7S:-- - -

Cosenza, Mario Emilio. Petrarch's Letters ~ Classical Authors. Chicago , l~lO. .

Detmold, Christian E. ~ Historical, Political, and . Diplomatic Writings ~ »1ccolo Machiavelli. nols.

Boston, 1882.

Filelfo I Francesco., Or-atiants Franchc! Philelfi cum · ~uibuSdam Alii$ Eulsdem Operibus. Basel, 149Sr­

ncunabula.

Freart, Roland, Sieur de Chambray. ! Parallel of the AnCient Architecture with the Modern in a Collection of Ten Prtncipal Authors who have written upon the fi,ve orders. With Leon Baptista Alberti t 5 Treatise of Statues. Tr. by John Evelyn, Esq. London" 1664.

Gragg, Alden. "The Commentaries of Pius II," Smith Coll ege Studies in History, XXII, Nos. 1-2 (Oct, 19~6 ... Jan. 19311.-

Gulcciardini, Francesoo.The History of Italy: written in Italian by Francesco GuieciardIni a nobleman of Florence in Twenty Books. Tr. by Chevalier Austin Parke Goddard. g vols. (vols. 1 and 2 missing) London, 1753-1756.

G'l1icciardini, Francesco. Storie Fiorentine dal 1378 a1 1509 fa cura di Roberto Pa!marocchi. Bari, 1931"

Latham, Charles Sterrett. A Translation of Dante's Eleven Letters with explanatory notes and hiStorical commnts. Boston, 1891.

Machiavel11lf Niccolo. Mandragola. 1r. by Stark Young. New York, 1927.

Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. - """"""""-- Chicago, 1941.

1

Von Pastor, Ludwig. The H18torf of the ropes: drawn from the secret archiv-es 0 theTat can and other original sources. St. Louis. 1902. 34 vols.

Petrarch t Francesco. Sonnets'. New York. 1931.

Piccolominei, Aeneae Sylvit e , Senensis QUJ post adeptum Pont1ficatum Pius eiU8 nominis Secyn us appelatus est, opera quaeexta:rit omnia, nunc demum post corruptissi­mas editiones summa, q.iligentia castigata et in unum corpus redacta, quorum elenchum versa pagella indicabir. Basileas . 1551.

Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni. Of 1eing and Unity. by Victor Hamm. Milwaukee .!<J4.

Tr .

Pico della Mirandola. Giovanni . His Life by His Nephew Giovanni Francesco Picoe also thre-e of hlos letters: his interpretation of psalm XVI; his twelve rules of a Christian life ; his t\'felve pol.nts of a perfect lover, and his deprecatory Hymn to God. Tr. by Sir Thomas More; Ed .• by J. M. Rigg. London, 1$90 ..

---. The Life of · John · P1cl,ls. , gi~en~3r. -

Place of publication not

Platina, Bartolomeo . ?he Lives of t~e Papes . Tr.and 00 . by the Rev. \1. Benham . LonTon, no . ate . , 2 vols.

Poggi o, Bracciolini Giovanni Francisco. The Facetiae of PQ~liO and other medieval story-tell'ers,. New York; 19 ·' •

---. POf&ii Florentini .Oratori$ et Philosoph.! Opera, Col atlone Emendatorum Exemplar1um Recognlta. Quorum El enchumVersa HaecPagina Enumerablt. Bas1leae. 1538.

Robinsoh, James Harvey. and Man of Letters. ---..-... - . "

Petrarch The First Modern Scholar New York, 1848.

Whitcomb, M. ! Literary Source-book 2! the Italian Renaissance . no place or publication., 1898.

2

"¥~:r;,,;

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Secondary Souroes

Ady. Cecilia 1,1. Milan under the Sforza. Ed. ' by Edward Armstrong . London. 190';- this historian gives useful information on Corio.

Allen , ;A. M. !i Historl:; 2!. Verona.. Ed. by Edward Armstrong. New York . 1910. This historian fails to give a critical evaluation of authorities cited. '

Allen , J. T,v . Ii lUstor~ 2! P olitica1 Thought 1!! ~ Six­teenth Century. 'ew York, 1928. l11en makes a worthwhile comparison between Machia­velli and Guicciardini.

Alzog , John Rev. Dr. ItJnual i! Universal Church Histon. Translated "V'/ith a ditions from tneninth and last German edition by F . J. Pablsch, and the Rev. T. S., Byrne. Cincinnati, 1876. 3 vols. In this book one finds occasional reference to Renaissance

: historians.,

Anderson , v'li lliam James . The Architecture of the , Renaissance in Italy. A general view for the use or students and others. London; lS96. ' The author devotes 4 pages to a disoussion of Alberti .

Barnes. Harry Elmer. New York, 1926,.

His!2!:l !l!& Social Intellisence •

The section on "Truth and History" is more biased than the bias he is criticizing.

Barnes, Harry Elmer . ! History 2! tlistorieal VlI'iting.

The -

Norman , 1937. Barnes g ives a good criticism on the historians.

worth of Renaissance

Cambridge )~odern History. Planned by Lord Acton~ Ed. by Sir". \il .. Ward , sIr G. ,¥. Prothero. and Sir Stanley Leathes. New York. 1934. Short re,ferences to Pastor and Burckhardt.

3

The - Catholic Encyc1oBedia . An I nternational Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine. Discipline, and His tory of the Catholic Church. Ed . by Charles

, D. Herbermann. 15 vols. and index. New York, 1913. There is valuable biographical material on the, Renaissance historians, Pastor and BurCkhardt.

Cotterill , H •. B. Italy f ro,m Dante to Tasso (13'0'0-16'00) its polit i cal history as vleweTfrom the standpoints of the chief cities with descriptions of important episodes and personalities and of the art and litera­ture of the three cetlturies. New York, 1919. Has a list of the chief Rena issance writers On p . 608 . Seems to make biased statements.

The Encfclo'pedia of the Sodal Sc i ences. Ed. by Edwin - Se i groan and'1v!n Johnso,n. New York, 1930-1935.

Good biographical ac counts of Renaissance historians , Pastor; and Burckhardt.

Everett, William. ~ Italian Poets since Dante. York, 1904. Material on Pulei.

New

Engel-mann, Geza . Political Philosophy from Plato 1Q,Jeremx Bentham. 'fr. by Karl Geise r. New York, 1927. . hives insight into the philosophy behind Renaissance historiography.

Fling , Fred Morrow. Outline of Historical Method. Lincoln, 1899 . Ccmtains good criticism of Renaissance historians.

Fling , 'Fred "lol'l"'ow. The Wri tlng. cf History. Ne~1 Haven, 1923. - . Good crlteria for evaluat ion of source material ,.

Funck-Srentano, F. The Rena issance. London, 1936.

Gardner, Edmund G. l)ukea !Ill! 'Poets in Ferrara. A study in the poetry; relIgion and po11t1Cs of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuri es . New York, 1903.

Gardner, Edmund O. The . Str~l.2! Stanaand .... S..,an ... · ____ _ Gimignano. tondon,. : 6. An interesting narrative. but scarcely any critioal material.

4

Garraghan , Gihlbert J., ·S. J . ,A Guide !£ Historical ~lethod . New York J 1946 . An excellent book on historiography, and on stating criteria for hi storical truth .

Gooch, George," Histor~ and Hi :;ltorians iB. lli Ninet eenth Century. New Yor ,~28. Cri t i cal comments on Pastor and Bur ckhardt.

Guilday , Peter . Church " iaterians . New York , 1926. Guilday gives an excellent appreCiation of Pas t or.

Hazlitt , \'1. Carelf. Hi sto):"X of ~ Venetian Republic her rise;. h e r ~reatness J anTher civilizat ion . ' London~S o. 4 vols. Gives an excellent pieture of the relationshi p between the his tor ian and the republic for which he 'I,"lrote.

Johnson . All.en . The Historian and Historical Evidence. New York , 1926 . Clear explanation of th e technique of historical cri tici sm.

Ker. lfLUliam Paton . EssaYS o,n r.ledieval I.iterature. New :York , 1905. Refer ences to early Renaissa.nce \a'iters .

r.~ourret . Rev. Fernand, ·S. S . A HistoHi of the. Catholic Church. Tr. by the Rev. llewton . ompson; s.T.b. St. Louis , 1930. _ 6 volt s .

Parsons , Rev. Reuben D. D. Studi es 1.!! Church History. ~le"T York . 1897. 3 vola. -A good critical historian.

Pa ter . Wal ter. The Renaissance. New York . 1919. Good account of Pica della IUrandola.

Symonds , J . A. Renaissance !!l Italy. London , l881-iSS7 . 4 vols. -Excellent biographical and critical material • . Sources given in appendix.

Thompson , James t[estfal l . Ii History 2! Hi storical Writing. New York , 1942. 2 vols. Volume I contains a chapter _on Historians of the Italian Henaissance; Volume 2 contains material on Pastor and Bur ckhardt .

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