Civilisation and the Renaissance

New Zealand Tablet, 24 November 1921, Page 9

Civilisation and the Renaissance

:l.; ; :.-.'■..'■'.:."■■:•'(By John C. Reville, S.J., in America.) ■'. . - The Renaissance is one of the most striking phenomena /in the history of civilisation. It is in one sense a great L step forward, while in another it marks a decided movement r.. towards, a lower ideal than that of the Middle Ages. Its ■ ' very name is something of a usurpation. It seems to imply that the literature and the arts to which it pretends to have given a new birth had entirely disappeared from the y world and that under the wand of its wizards,- they had sprung to life again. Nothing could be more untrue. The first stirrings of that revival had long ago been felt. To go no further than Dante, the great Florentine had sounded ■; an unmistakable note, but with no base harmonies mingling in its echoes, of a genuine humanism, yet with St. Thomas, he is essentially the interpreter of the Middle ', Ages. Even in the Gothic cathedrals, at which the lie-. ; naissance was to direct its gibes and sneers as if they were ;> the relics of a barbarous age, the true humanistic note is found, though for the most part subdued and in a minor '■''- key, in some of the appealing figures that beam down from the portals and the stained glass of those marvellous monu-."'.-■'ments of faith and genius. ;•:.; : > The Renaissance was bound to come. Every law of civilisation and progress called for'it. It is to be regretted •that when it came it passed, not entirely but in many of its most striking manifestations, under the hands of men /who debased its ideals and turned its waters into channels ,7 overgrown with weeds of corruption and death. The move--7 ; ment of the Renaissance, says Godefroid Kurth, in The 7 Church at the Turning Points of History, was in keeping W, ;•-with ; the laws of accelerated motion: it- was but the fj■; "natural, progressive and uninterrupted development of J. 7v the society of the Middle Ages unfolding from, century to V • century down ,to the opening of the present age." ; The 7" seed was cast in the Middle Ages. The Renaissance ,■ gave ; 7 V the perfect -flower. The centuries that preceded it had 7;: been slowly accumulating intellectual and artistic capital.' : J That capital : had come from the Fathers! of the early Church, -from. the cloisters in which solitaries in > their astern! lauras, j Benedictines and Dominicans' in their cells Wm on'Alpine ; heights and in southern vales, had gathered the S,>'treasures of v. the past; from the , chairs in which Abelard " ' and Thomas had taught; from. schools yin-which-Bede, . 'AJcium, and Rhabanus Maurus had labored with cpwled monks or purple-clad courtiers.:•,'; Emperors: like Charle-

magne, kings like Alfred and Alphonso the Wise,. Popes!, like Sylvester 11., Gregory VII., and linnocent 111. ' hid :f added to.the noble deposit their princely gifts; poets like :-• Dante/and the troubadours of ] Provence and the minresingers. Germany had. given of their golden mintage. Every : artist, every doctor and ; singer in the long file' of the great men of ; the past had contributed a mite to the' growing pile. : At the close of the Middle . Ages, about the time of the Fall of Constantinople 1453, or the found i lg of the Vatican Library by Pope Nicholas V., the world became fully aware of the immense store of resources at its command.' It felt its power. It naturally wished to use it. "Unfortunately it did not always use it well. While the more prudent -, members of that admirably equipped civilisation invested wisely, others squandered their resources. in the pursuit of false gods, and were lured into dangerous paths ; of adventure. In the civilisation of the Middle Ages'at its height, the point of view was. correct. The angle from which artist and, doctor,.poor and rich, king and peasant, surveyed the world, led their, gaze up the mount of vision to God. A civilisation that bounds its vision with any other concept is doomed to failure. It is not true, as John Addington Symonds, would have us believe, that in the Middle Ages man had lived "enveloped in a cowl." It is not true that he had not seen the beauty of the world, as that neo-pagan states '. in the same place, Renaissance in Italy, or had seen, it only to cross himself, turn aside and pray. If St. Bernard may not have been thrilled by all the beauties of a Swiss landscape in the easy fashion in which a modern humanist looking for artistic sensation might be, it was because he was intent on great' problems too deep for the esthetic distractions of a mere tourist. But the eyes of Francis of Assisi were not closed to the beauty of his lord the Sun and his sister the Moon, to tho loveliness of the flowers and the murmurings of the streams in the Umbrian hills. The sermon of the • Pov'erello to the birds and that of his disciple Antony of Padua to the fishes, tell us of the most intimate and tender communings with nature. But fair as was the earth, the virile race of. the Middle Ages would not let their gaze be riveted on its beauties to such an extent as to close out the sight of nobler things. The Middle Ages were not flawless. Dark pages are to be found in their annals! Depths of depravity and savagery are occasionally revealed which frighten us. But the compass which guided them was'set towards those polar truths without which no civilisation can live. For them the soul was more than the meat, God more than man, eternity was more than time. Hence they ever looked upwards to the mountains from which cometh help, not downwards into the lowlands where shadows flit and pass away. Theirs, was a noble view of civilisation. The con-, tributions which . they made to it form one of the heirlooms of the race. ; ;.'". .; 7 : 7 ....... The centre of the civilisation. during the period of the Middle Ages was God, that of the Renaissance was man. Hence the name frequently applied to the movement which .it embodies"humanism." It pretended to have discovered man, and the world in which he lived. Has not John Addington Symonds said: "The, Renaissance was the liberation of the reason from a dungeon, the double discovery of the outer and the inner world " ? The dungeon irradiated with the serene light ■Of the Angelic Dector, in whose darkness Dante glimpsed such i splendors, cannot have been so narrow or noisome. As to the discoveries of the outer and the inner world, especially of the latter:- those ages which humanists like John Addington Symonds so ridicule, had, in. most instances, in some shape or other, found the key to them.. 7 But, in spite of its follies and though it does not by any means measure up to all the claims made for it, the age of the Renaissance is one of the great epochs of history. What is best.in it, it owes to the Christian civilisation that preceded it and to 'the fostering care of the Church. It is impossible riot to be thrilled by its accomplishments, though the admiration its triumphs cause is rather dulled, when we remember the sorry use to. which some of its most accomplish- ' ed scholars 'gifts. In spite of the disgust with which (•' much of the work of Btacciolini J fills ? us, we. follow' his journeyings through the libraries of Europe, for the 7 rescue of old manuscripts with something of the* romantic t interest with which we follow the wake of the Santa Mar;' :7of ! Coloitnlras' to the Wesf, or that of Magellan's Victoria in

her journey round the world..- For Poggio was discovering .< untravelled highlands of the ancient world. # ,We j greet the r rescued treasures of the past, statue and manuscript, with something of the - enthusiasm with ' which- Sadolet hailed • the finding of the marble masterpieces of ancient [Greece and Rome. We know that Leonardo da Vinci, Pinturicchio, Raphael, [Michael Angelo added a.new lustre to the artistic crown of Italy and that they were greatest when they carved or painted not the gods of Olympus but the Pieta, the Mother of Sorrows and the Babe of Bethlehem, not the; nymphs and the goddesses of Pindus but the Lily of Israel, the Virgin-Mother of the World's Redeemer. The age of Bembo and Vida of the classic verse and the Ciceronian phrase, might have been in every sense of the word noble and great. It had great Catholic scholars like Hegius, Wimpheling, More*, Rudolph Agricola, Vittorino da Feltre; Popes for leaders like Leo X., Nicholas V., Pius II.; Saints for painters like Fra Angelico, for doctors like Antoninus -of Florence, for preachers like Bernardino of Siena. But it had on its muster rolls men of evil influence and evil 'life such as Valla and Beccadelli, the very titles of whose [works brings a blush of shame to the reader; Machiavelli and Aretino, high-priests of the art of deceit and mockery; Filelfo, sneering apostle of infidelity. We need not prolong the roll-call of misguided genius. •; /' /• ; : ./•

If there is an element of beauty and worth in the Renaissance, it is found in its highest expression where the culture, art and literature which it fostered and which it might have lifted to the loftiest heights, are under the control of a genuine Catholic spirit. The Church was not afraid of the movement. She fostered all that was good and uplifting in this efflorescence of genius and talent. But it soon broke from the restraining bonds of religion and morality .and, by one of those sudden returns which the history of civilisation presents; veered around to that paganism over which the Middle Ages had so splendidly triumphed. t

[ In the Middle Ages the world had witnessed the triumph ,of the supernatural. The Renaissance in its worst features, and.unfortunately in some of its most influential'' teachers and leaders, was a return to naturalism and paganism. To many it meant free thought and freer lives, . that is, looser living. For the most advanced of its exponents like Marsuppini, Filelfo, revealed religion had seen ■its day. Man, so taught these ultra-humanists, had no , need .of a Redeemer and a Saviour, for nature was all- , sufficient to itself. Hence it was all good, and it was proper to follow its dictates and its passions. There could be- no harm in these, for they were part and parcel of man's .being and he fulfilled himself and his destiny when he yielded to them. Convenient and flattening theory' Life was before, them. Antiquity, the men of. Greece and Rome /had taught them how to live. They had recounted' their 4 experiences in the wonderful literature which .then was t everywhere -coming to life. Why not follow them? In , ; the hands, therefore, of. these noo-pagans, paganrt, pagan ■ -.letters taught the secret of enjoyment. Humanism, not /Christianity, was to be their religion. They did not alwavs |. speak so-' openly and unreservedly.!: Rut that was their v theory, of life, and the virus with which much of- the move-; , ment was tainted: If nature was .all self-sufficient, autlP ; -ority wasteless and a tyranny mortification of the senses % self-control chastity, vows, the sacredness of the marriage tie folly and madness. Thus the door was open for the worst excesses of the Reformation. Thus the Renaissance in its most reckless exponents became a Crusade for the 'restoration of , the flesh and paganism. » Even : in those who did not go the full length of the revolt against Christianity, there was a diminution of faith and reverence. The mind was divided into two compartments; one reserved to art, science, literature, culture, the other to religion. . The latter, however /was poorly stocked and seldom used. V ' - ' ?''?*» an historical fact that through her Popes, her artists, her priests and bishops and cardinals, through everV ■ agency at her disposal, the Catholic Church took an active i part in the Renaissance. Men who, like'Manetti, Am- | brogio Traversari, Vittorino da'Feltre, Lionardo Brum; . Maffeo Vegip; were in life and ideals worthy 'representatives of the old Faith, were also in the front of the / humanistic movement. The. reproach has been made against / t the Church that she favored the movement too much, and /ft a **°; some extent she allowed paganism to /invade 1 the i

sanctuary. It cannot. i be denied ; that there were scandals in the sanctuary and in the cloister. But they never went by uhchidderi or uiicondemned. . Savonarola was not the i only, one who- protested "against them. The protest came from Pope and Council : and Saint and holy personage in the most authoritative and solemn warnings. But the Church was far too wise to scorn the movement of the Renaissance, for in. its substance, though not in the methods or in the persons of many of its protagonists, it was worthy, of the support of every lover, of civilisation and culture. Had she not supported it, she would have allowed civilisation to leave her behind. She kept abreast of the times. She led the age in what was best and noblest in its endeavors. / Some of her rulers and her priests and bishops were led astray by the false light that glimmered before them.- But in approving the movement she never by .any authoritative enactment of- her legislation countenanced its follies.. Still less, in upholding humanists and humanism, did she.ever betray the faith entrusted to her keeping. In the age that 1 immediately followed she even used the weapons furnished her by the Renaissance to defend her dogmas, and the arts and letters of pagan Greece and Rome proved to be, in the hands of a race of genuinely .Catholic humanists, powerful, means to bring back other generations to the .principles of the Gospel. Petrarch, one of the first in time and in achievement of the great .humanists, beguiled for: a while -by the false glitter of learning, found out at last the truth and echoed in one,of his letters the' sentiment and the teaching of the Catholic Church when he wrote: "We must first be Christians, then we may. be what we will." Too many of the leaders of ' the .Great Revival were humanists, Platonists, or Ciceronians first, and' anything but Christians after. Petrarch added that philosophical, poetical, and historical works should •be read in such manner that the Gospel should always find an echo in the heart. Poggio, Valla, Aretino, and their followers read such works with pagan hearts dulled to the lessons of the Gospel. Petrarch wrote: "On the Gospel alone as upon the one immovable foundation can human diligence build all true learning." The history of the Renaissance, in the 'errors and the follies of- its protagonists who tried to paganize, the movement, shows that Petrarch was not mistaken. In the Middle Ages a favorite text-book in the schools had been the work of Martianus Capella in which were celebrated the nuptials of ; Mercury with Philology,- not an insignificant index' that that [age held as sacred, the bridals of literature and religion. The Renaissance, in [its [more worldly tendencies, tried to. divorce the wedded pair. From- that dastardly attempt the world is [suffering' still.

Musid: Examinations

At the recent ■■>. musical-examinations'held..by Mr. Myerscough at Christehurch in. connection with Trinity College, London,', the following results are Recorded in connection with "Villa Maria" Convent (Sisters, of Mercy), Ricparton : —Licentiate piano, , ; ;1 ; higher local, 1; senior (honors), 2; intermediate, /!•/junior/[ 1-;| preparatory (honors) -2,. pass 1. / TheoreticalJ results—lntermediate (honors) 2, pass 1;. junior (honors) %, pass 2; preparatory (honors) 3, pass. 1.