Backman Clifford R. The Worlds of Medieval Europe
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434 TWO EPILOGUES
these, most famously a copy of Cicero’s Letters to Atticus in a monastic library in
Verona. Scribes and scholars diligently circulated these new and improved works.
Apart from the texts’ intrinsic value as literature or philosophy, the people of
the early Renaissance valued them as practical guides to living. After all, if some-
thing is true it is worthy not only of study but of practical application. This atti-
tude, too, was not entirely new. When medieval scholars rediscovered the Corpus
juris civilis, they were not slow in recognizing that it could be put to actual use
in administering twelfth-century life. Similarly with the new texts rediscovered in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Since the bulk of them had been written in
and for small urban republics, and since they were found by figures in and of the
same sort of societies, why not encourage their direct application? Hence Cicero’s
notions of the role of the citizen in the republican state, of the power and limits
of the law, and of the sense of civic responsibility all struck a chord that people
increasingly strove to follow. Poems like Virgil’s Eclogues, with their rhapsodic
praises of the glories of rural landscapes and rustic pleasures, helped to encourage
artists to paint stirring images, increasingly realistic or representational, of the
beauties of nature. Roman interest in biography, in the portrayal of the life histories
of individuals, inspired a revival of that genre.
4
Petrarca famously described the
difference between medieval scholasticism and Renaissance humanism precisely
in terms of potency. Scholastic philosophy, he argued, could define a virtue like
goodness but was incapable of inspiring anyone to become good, whereas the
very greatness of humanistic study was in its capacity to inflame the heart, to
make us crave virtue. It is more important to want to pursue truth than it is to
define truth—in other words, to be an impassioned traveler than to be a sedentary
possessor of a brilliant map.
By the end of the sixteenth century, the west had recovered virtually the entire
classical literary canon as we know it. It was a remarkable achievement. Armed
with critical skills to match their convictions, Renaissance scholars had scoured
Europe’s libraries, sifted through thousands of manuscripts, rescued scores of un-
known works from oblivion, and produced dramatically improved texts of the
ancient world’s greatest authors. (One fellow, Giovanni Aurispa [d. 1459], traveled
east to Constantinople in the years prior to the Turkish siege and came back with
nearly 250 manuscripts that might otherwise have gone up in flames.) Moreover,
scholars made these works available to other scholars on an unprecedented scale:
Hundreds of copyists were employed to get the texts in circulation; the city of
Florence in the early fifteenth century established the first lending library; and of
course the invention of the printing press allowed books to pour over Europe like
a tide. The most celebrated of humanist publishers was Aldus Manutius (d. 1515),
who set up his printing shop in Venice in 1493 and managed to produce editions
of well over a hundred separate classical texts before his death.
Renaissance classicism is perhaps the least innovative aspect of humanist life,
the aspect most directly linkable to its medieval past. But its accomplishments
were considerable, not only in expanding the literary canon but in expanding the
western heart and urging it on to new challenges. The passion with which scholars
pursued their classical quest had its negative consequences, most notably in the
artificial manipulations of a still-living Latinity, but on the whole the extraordinary
expansion of classical learning was one of the Renaissance world’s (and the me-
dieval world’s) greatest legacies.
4. Not to mention that of autobiography: The autobiography of a Renaissance adventurer like Benven-
uto Cellini is not to be missed.
THE RENAISSANCE IN MEDIEVAL CONTEXT 435
T
HE
R
EJECTION OF THE
M
IDDLE
A
GES
While the early Renaissance had much in common with the medieval period, it
also loudly rejected it. Perhaps the very loudness of that rejection should make us
wary of its genuineness, for people are seldom so absolutely insistent that they
have nothing at all to do with a given thing as when they in fact do. Nevertheless,
as early as Petrarca, the leading figures in the new humanist movement were
openly declaring their total opposition to all things medieval. The medieval
Church was, it went almost without saying, a horror show of corrupt politics and
dry-as-dust scholastic hairsplitting. Medieval Latin was a brutish, adulterated lan-
guage twisted and mangled beyond recognition from the pure elegance of writers
like Cicero and Tacitus; medieval architecture (by which the humanists meant
chiefly Gothic architecture) was a nightmare of spires, pointy arches, sculptural
excess, and tacky coloration; medieval philosophy was a charade of mind-
numbing abstraction and foolhardy systematization; medieval politics (by which
they meant feudal monarchy, for the most part) was mere barbarism by another
name, savage tribalism dressed up in robes and crowns. The grand role assumed
by the humanists was to configure a new path. The fifteenth-century philosopher
Marsilio Ficino (d. 1499) expressed admiration for his aggressively non-medieval
age: “This century has been a Golden Age, one that has restored to light all the
liberal arts—grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, and mu-
sic—arts that were virtually extinct.”
Of course, the arts were hardly extinct in the Middle Ages, but they were
certainly devoted to somewhat different aims. Consider architecture, for example.
Ever since the rise of the great castles and cathedrals of the late twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, architecture had been one of the dominant arts in Europe. In the
Middle Ages it was also an overwhelmingly public art form: A cathedral repre-
sented far more than a single building or plan designed by a single architect; it
was a public statement of faith, a commitment of hundreds of thousands of labor
hours and the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars over several genera-
tions (and sometimes over as many as two centuries) in pursuit of a spiritual
vision. It was an exaltation in stone. The first direct and overt challenge to Gothic
architectural style came with Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446), who completed the
cathedral of Florence around 1420. He did away with Gothic towers and pointed
arches, stripped away unnecessary statuary, and based his overall design on sim-
ple geometrical shapes (circular windows set within square panels that are them-
selves part of a clearly delineated rectangular wall plane, for example). The overall
effect is of a simpler and more harmonious gracefulness than a Gothic cathedral,
and its use of domes and columns consciously evokes the architectural styles of
the Roman world. From Brunelleschi’s revolt on, Renaissance architect never
looked back. Anything that was not, for a time, in conscious revolt against the
High Gothic style and the world that had created it was deemed artistically and
intellectually backward. Medieval had become a dirty word.
For all its positive qualities, early humanism had its problems. One was its
obvious elitism. The humanists did not want to speak like common people, think
like common people, or believe what common people believed. Petrarca went so
far as to criticize his beloved Cicero for having ventured into the messy world of
politics instead of staying at home to breathe the cleaner air of philosophy in his
private study, far from the sullying crowd; he also heaped scorn on the intrigues
in the papal court at Avignon, but the mess never bothered him enough to make
him leave or renounce his annuities. Giovanni Boccaccio magnificently sang the
436 TWO EPILOGUES
praises of the everyday in his Decameron, but he wrote his stories while living in
the comfortable quarters of the Neapolitan royal palace surrounded by aristocratic
admirers and aesthetic neophytes. Not until the end of the fourteenth century,
with figures like Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406) in Florence, did leading humanists
become directly involved in administering the day-to-day life of their communi-
ties.
5
The humanists, in other words, were guilty of celebrating humanism more
than humans.
By 1400, then, Europe was still recognizably medieval in its main outlines, even
though there was a powerful and fascinating new set of ideas and values in the
air. The Church, bedraggled though it was, was still the dominant institution in
European life. The political makeup of the continent was still mostly what it had
been in the thirteenth century. Philosophical and scientific thinking were still
shaped by the knowledge of the ancients. But important, even transformative,
shifts were also underway. A profound sense of skepticism and of the world’s
jumbled nature was widespread; the economic center of European life had begun
to shift to the Atlantic seaboard, although it would take another hundred years
for that shift to become fully tangible; an acceptance of the idea that one could
approach God and know Him other than through the Church and its sacraments
was rapidly gaining ground. The Renaissance that began in the midst of the dra-
mas of the fourteenth century was an inspired and inspiring response to great
troubles and doubts, one that quickly developed into something quite different
and wonderful. For all its glory, though, the Renaissance owed much to the me-
dieval world from which it sprang.
S
UGGESTED
R
EADING
Texts
Cellini, Benvenuto. Autobiography.
Petrarca, Francesco. Lyrics.
Salutati, Coluccio. Autobiography.
Source Anthologies
Cohen, Timothy V., and Elizabeth S. Cohen. Words and Deeds in Renaissance Rome: Trials before the
Papal Magistrates (1993).
The Portable Renaissance Reader.
Studies
Bolzoni, Lina. The Gallery of Memory: Literary and Iconographic Models in the Age of the Printing Press
(2001).
Grendler, Paul F. Schooling in Renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning, 1300–1600 (1991).
5. Salutati wrote, “The people of Florence are the defenders of the liberty of all people everywhere,”
but he never blinked an eye when Florence seized an advantage and subjugated any of her neighbors.
By Salutati’s death, Florence had even brought Pisa to heel and had become the third major power in
northern Italy.
THE RENAISSANCE IN MEDIEVAL CONTEXT 437
Haas, Louis. The Renaissance Man and His Children: Childbirth and Early Childhood in Florence, 1300–
1600 (1998).
Hamilton, Alastair. Heresy and Mysticism in Sixteenth-Century Spain: The Alumbrados (1992).
Hollingsworth, Mary. Patronage in Renaissance Italy: From 1400 to the Sixteenth Century (1996).
King, Margaret L. Women of the Renaissance (1991).
———. Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance (1986).
Martines, Lauro. Strong Words: Writing and Social Strain in the Italian Renaissance (2001).
Mazzotta, Giuseppe. Cosmopoeiesis: The Renaissance Experiment (2001).
Ozment, Steven. The Age of Reform, 1250–1550 (1980).
Rabil, Albert. Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy (1988).
Shuger, Deborah Kuller. Habits of Thought in the English Renaissance: Religion, Politics, and the Dom-
inant Culture (1997).
Stinger, Charles. The Renaissance in Rome (1998).
Wilkins, Ernest Hatch. Life of Petrarch (1961).
438
A
PPENDIXES
8
A
PPENDIX
A. The Medieval Popes
The table below lists the popes in chronological order, gives the dates of their
pontificates, indicates their vernacular names and ethnicity, and records the eccle-
siastical position held by each individual prior to assuming the Holy See. The
dates of pontificates are subject to much scholarly revision; I have adhered to the
dates published by the Vatican’s own Anuario pontificio.
Pope Papacy Birth Name Nationality Previous Ecclesiastical Rank
St. Peter d. 64 Simon Galilean fisherman
St. Linus 67–76
St. Anacletus 76–88 Greek
St. Clement I 88–97
St. Evaristus 97–105 Greek
St. Alexander I 105–115 Roman
St. Sixtus 115–125
St. Telesphorus 125–136 Greek
St. Hyginus 136–140 Greek
St. Pius I 140–155
St. Anicetus 155–166 Syrian
St. Soter 166–175
St. Eleutherius 175–189 Greek deacon
St. Victor I 189–198 African
St. Zephrynus 199–217
St. Calixtus I 217–222 archdeacon
St. Urban I 222–230
St. Pontian 230–235
St. Anterus 235–236 Greek
St. Fabian 236–250
St. Cornelius 251–253
St. Lucius I 253–254
St. Stephen I 254–257
St. Sixtus II 257–258 Greek
St. Dionysius 260–268 Roman priest
St. Felix I 269–274
St. Eutychian 275–283
St. Gaius 283–296
St. Marcellinus 296–304
St. Marcellus I 308–309
St. Eusebius 309–310 Greek
St. Melchiades 311–314 African?
St. Sylvester I 314–335
APPENDIXES 439
Pope Papacy Birth Name Nationality Previous Ecclesiastical Rank
St. Mark 336
St. Julius I 337–352
Liberius 352–366
St. Damasus 366–384 Roman deacon
St. Siricus 384–399
St. Anastasius 399–401 Roman
St. Innocent I 401–417 Roman
St. Zosimus 417–418 Greek priest
St. Boniface I 418–422 Roman priest
St. Celestine I 422–432 Roman archdeacon
St. Sixtus III 432–440
St. Leo I the Great 440–461 deacon
St. Hilarus 461–468 archdeacon
St. Simplicius 468–483
St. Felix III (II) 483–492 Roman
St. Gelasian 492–496 African
Anastasius II 496–498 Roman
St. Symmachus 498–514 Roman deacon
St. Hormisdas 514–523
St. John I 523–526
St. Felix IV (III) 526–530 Roman card.-priest
Boniface II 530–532 German archdeacon
John II
a
533–535 Mercurius priest
St. Agapitus I 535–536 deacon
St. Silverius 536–537 subdeacon
Vigilius 537–555 Roman deacon
Pelagius I 556–561 deacon
John III 561–574 Catalinus deacon
Benedict I 575–579 Roman deacon
Pelagius II 579–590 German deacon
St. Gregory I “the
Great”
b
590–604 Roman monk
Sabinian 604–606 deacon
Boniface III 607 Roman deacon
St. Boniface IV 608–615 Roman monk
St. Adeodatus I 615–618 priest
Boniface V 619–625 Neapolitan priest
Honorius I 625–638
Severinus 640
John IV 640–642 Croatian
Theodore I 642–649 Greek
St. Martin I 649–655
St. Eugenius I 654–657 Roman priest
St. Vitalian 657–672
Adeodatus II 672–676 monk
Donus 676–678 Roman
St. Agatho 678–681 Greek-
Sicilian
monk
St. Leo II 682–683 Sicilian
St. Benedict II 684–685 Roman
John V 685–686 Syrian archdeacon
Conon 686–687 Thracian priest
St. Sergius I 687–701 Syrian
John VI 701–705 Greek
440 APPENDIXES
Pope Papacy Birth Name Nationality Previous Ecclesiastical Rank
John VII 705–707 Greek
Sisinnius 708 Syrian
Constantine 708–715 Syrian
St. Gregory II 715–731 Roman deacon
St. Gregory III 731–741 Syrian
St. Zacharias 741–752 Greek
Stephen II (III) 752–757 Roman priest
St. Paul I 757–767 Roman deacon
Stephen III (IV) 768–772 Sicilian
Hadrian I 772–795 Roman deacon
St. Leo III 795–816
Stephen IV (V) 816–817
St. Paschal 817–824 abbot of St. Stephen’s
Eugenius II 824–827 Roman archpriest
Valentine 827
Gregory IV 827–844 Roman card.-priest
Sergius II 844–847 Roman card.-priest
St. Leo IV 847–855 Roman card.-priest
Benedict III 855–858 Roman card.-priest
St. Nicholas I 858–867
Hadrian II 867–872 Roman card.-priest
John VIII 872–882 Roman archdeacon
Marinus I
c
882–884 Roman card.-bishop of Cerveteri
St. Hadrian III 884–885 Roman
Stephen V (VI) 885–891 Roman card.-priest
Formosus 891–896 Roman card.-bishop of Porto
Boniface VI 896 Roman priest
Stephen VI (VII) 896–897 Roman card.-bishop of Anagni
Romanus 897 Roman
Theodore II 897 Roman
John IX 898–900 Roman abbot
Benedict IV 900–903 Roman
Leo V 903 priest
Sergius III 904–911 Roman deacon
Anastasius III 911–913 Roman
Landus 913–914
John X 914–928 archbishop of Ravenna
Leo VI 928 priest
Stephen VII (VIII) 928–931
John XI 931–935 Roman
Leo VII 936–939 monk
Stephen VIII (IX) 939–942
Marinus II 942–946
Agapitus II 946–955 Roman
John XII
d
955–964 Octavianus Roman layman
Leo VIII 963–965 Roman layman
Benedict V 964 Roman card.-deacon
John XIII 965–972 Umbrian bishop of Narnia
Benedict VI 973–974 Roman card.-priest
Benedict VII 974–983 Roman bishop of Sutri
John XIV 983–984 Pietro Canepanova bishop of Pavia
John XV 985–996 Roman card.-priest
Gregory V 996–999 Saxon
APPENDIXES 441
Pope Papacy Birth Name Nationality Previous Ecclesiastical Rank
Sylvester II 999–1003 Gerbert d’Aurillac French archbishop of Ravenna
John XVII 1003 Giovanni Sicco Roman layman
John XVIII 1004–1009 card.-priest
Sergius IV 1009–1012 Pietro Roman bishop of Albano
Benedict VIII 1012–1024 Theophylact Roman layman
John XIX 1024–1032 Romanus Roman layman
Benedict IX 1032–1048 Theophylact Roman layman
Sylvester III 1045 Giovanni Roman bishop of Sabina
Gregory VI 1045–1046 Giovanni
Graziano
Roman archpriest
Clement II 1046–1047 Suitger Saxon bishop of Bamberg
Damasus II 1048 Poppo Bavarian bishop of Brixen
St. Leo IX 1049–1054 Bruno von
Egisheim
Alsatian bishop of Toul
Victor II 1055–1057 Gebhart Swabian bishop of Eichsta¨tt
Stephen IX (X) 1057–1058 Fre´de´ric de
Lorraine
French abbot of Monte Cassino
Nicholas II 1059–1061 Gerard French bishop of Florence
Alexander II 1061–1073 Anselmo di Lucca Milanese bishop of Lucca
St. Gregory VII 1073–1085 Hildebrand card.-archdeacon
Bl. Victor III 1086–1087 Dauferio
[Desiderius]
Beneventan abbot of Monte Cassino
Bl. Urban II 1088–1099 Eude de Chaˆtillon French card.-bishop of Ostia
Paschal II 1099–1118 Rainerius abbot of S. Paolo
Gelasius II 1118–1119 Giovanni [] Amalfitan archdeacon
Calixtus III 1119–1124 Guy de
Bourgogne
French archbishop of Vienne
Honorius II 1124–1130 Lamberto card.-bishop of Ostia
Innocent II 1130–1143 Gregorio
Papareschi
card.-deacon
Celestine II 1143–1144 Guido del Castello Tuscan card.-priest
Lucius II 1144–1145 Gerardo
Caccianemici
Roman card.-priest
Bl. Eugenius III 1145–1153 Bernardo Paganelli Pisan abbot
Anastasius IV 1153–1154 Corrado Suburra card.-bishop of S. Sabina
Hadrian IV 1154–1159 Nicholas
Breakspear
English card.-bishop of Albano
Alexander III 1159–1181 Orlando
Bandinelli
Sienese card.-priest
Lucius III 1181–1185 Umbaldo
Allucingoli
card.-bishop of Ostia
Urban III 1185–1187 Umberto Crivelli Milanese archbishop of Milan
Gregory VIII 1187 Alberto Morra card.-deacon
Clement III 1187–1191 Paolo Scolari Roman card.-bishop of Palestrina
Celestine III 1191–1198 Giacinto Bobone Roman card.-deacon
Innocent III 1198–1216 Lothario dei Segni Roman card.-deacon
Honorius III 1216–1227 Cencio Savelli Roman card.-priest
Gregory IX 1227–1241 Ugolino dei Segni Roman card.-bishop of Ostia
Celestine IV 1241 Goffredo
Castiglione
Milanese card.-bishop of Sabina
Innocent IV 1243–1254 Sinibaldo Fieschi Genoese card.-priest
Alexander IV 1254–1261 Rinaldo Conti card.-bishop of Ostia
Urban IV 1261–1264 Jacques Pantale´on French patriarch of Jerusalem
442 APPENDIXES
Pope Papacy Birth Name Nationality Previous Ecclesiastical Rank
Bl. Gregory X 1272–1276 Teobaldo Visconti Milanese card.-archdeacon
Bl. Innocent V 1276 Pierre Tarantaise French card.-bishop of Ostia (O.P.)
Hadrian V 1276 Ottobuono Fieschi Genoese card.-deacon
John XXI 1276–1277 Pedro Julia˜o Portuguese card.-bishop of Tusculum
Nicholas III 1277–1280 Giovanni Orsini Roman archpriest
Martin IV 1281–1285 Simon de Brie French card.-priest
Honorius IV 1285–1287 Giacomo Savelli Roman card.-deacon
Nicholas IV 1288–1292 Girolamo Maschi Abruzzese card.-bishop of Palestrina
(O.F.M.)
St. Celestine V 1294 Pietro Murrone Neapolitan hermit monk
Boniface VIII 1295–1303 Benedetto Gaetano Tusculan card.-priest
Bl. Benedict XI 1303–1304 Niccolo` Boccasini card.-bishop of Ostia (Dominican
Minister General)
Clement V 1305–1314 Bertrand de Got Gascon archbishop of Bordeaux
John XXII 1316–1334 Jacques Due`se de
Cahors
French card.-bishop of Porto
Benedict XII 1335–1342 Jacques Fournier French card.-bishop of Mirepoix
Clement VI 1342–1352 Pierre Roger French archbishop of Rouen
Innocent VI 1352–1362 Etienne Aubert French card.-bishop of Ostia
Bl. Urban V 1362–1370 Guillaume
Grimard
French abbot of S. Victoire (Marseilles)
Gregory XI 1370–1378 Pierre Roger de
Beaufort
French card.-deacon
Urban VI 1378–1389 Bartolomeo
Prignano
Apulian archbishop of Bari
Boniface IX 1389–1404 Pietro Tornacelli Neapolitan card.-priest
Innocent VII 1404–1406 Cosimo dei
Migliorati
archbishop of Bologna
Gregory XII 1406–1415 Angelo Correro Roman card.-priest
Martin V 1417–1431 Odo Colonna Roman card.-deacon
Eugenius IV 1431–1447 Gabriele
Condulmaro
Venetian card.-priest
Nicholas V 1447–1455 Tommaso
Parentucelli
Bolognese archbishop of Bologna
a
John II (533–535) was the first pope to take a new name upon election to the Holy See. He did
so presumably because of the pagan connotations of his birth name. The taking of a new pontifical
name did not become the norm until the turn of the first millennium a.d. Prior to the year 1000,
only four popes (John II, John III, John XII, and John XIV) did so.
b
Gregory I (590–604) was the first monk to become pope. Innocent V (1276) was the first Do-
minican pope, and Nicholas IV (1288–1292) was the first Franciscan.
c
Marinus I (882–884) was the first bishop to become pope. Canon XV of the Council of Nicaea
(325) forbade the translation of bishops from one see to another, and since the office of the papacy
was inextricably linked with the episcopacy of Rome, no bishop of another city could be consid-
ered a candidate. A handful of exceptions were made in the difficult post-Carolingian period (of
which Marinus was the first); but the Nicaean ban was gradually set aside during the Gregorian
Reform, paving the way for the virtual monopoly on the papacy held by bishops since the elev-
enth century.
d
John XII (955–964) was the first layman elected to the papacy.
APPENDIXES 443
A
PPENDIX
B. The Carolingians
Pepin of Heristal
d. 714
Charles Martel
d. 741
Louis the Pious
Emp. 814–840
Louis the German
K. of East Franks, 840–876
Louis the Child
K. of East Franks
899–911
Charles the Bald
K. of West Franks, 840–877
Emp. 875–877
Lothar
Emp. 840–855
Carloman
d. 771
Charlemagne
K. of the Franks, 768–814
Emp. 800–814
Ermengarde = Boso
K. of
Provence
879–887
Arnulf
K. of
East Franks
Louis the Blind
K. of Provence
Louis the Stammerer
K. of West Franks
877–879
Louis II
Emp.
855–875
Charles
K. of
Provence
855–863
Louis V
K. of West Franks
986–987
Lothar
K. of West Franks
954–986
Louis IV
K. of West Franks
936–954
Lothar II
K. of
Lotharingia
855–869
Pepin the Short
K. of the Franks, 751–768
Carloman
K. of
Bavaria
876–880
Louis
K. of
Saxony
876–882
Charles the Fat
K. of Swabia
876–884
Emp. 884–887
Louis III
K. of West
Franks,
879–882
Carloman
K. of West
Franks,
879–884
Charles the Simple
K. of West
Franks
898–922