Quarter Essay

Explain the ways in which Italian

Renaissance humanism transformed
ideas about the individual’s role in
society.
Sam Hairston

Pd.4, Mrs. McDonald

 The Italian Renaissance was a major movement towards a modern Europe in which

society flourish. The largest and possibly most important movement of the Renaissance was

humanism. Humanism is considered the move towards cultural and educational reform. This

movement was accepted and adopted by scholars, writers and civic leaders. Humanism served to

shift society's view of individuals from just members of a population to important and

worthwhile beings while implementing secular viewpoints. There was even a branch of

humanism that accounted for religious beliefs called Christian Humanism. As society became

aware of humanism, the role of an individual changed drastically.

The first change humanism evoked was the pressure on the individual to become more

secular. Secularism is the idea that an individual should not strive to succeed in the afterlife but

to enjoy life now and to take pleasure in more material objects. “This changed happened because

of the decrease in feelings of medieval supernaturalism and as human interests became more

prominent”[ CITATION Kre88 \l 1033 ] .Secularism affected everything from literature to faith and

reliance on the church. This change likely occurred because of the study of the pagan classics

which helped to stimulate the movement towards a secular society. When humanists read the

works of the Greeks and Romans who supported the idea of secularism they were taken by what

Augustine branded the City of Man (also known as the material world). “Pagan literature, with

its emotional and intellectual affinity to the new world view, accelerated the existing drift toward

secularism”[ CITATION Kre88 \l 1033 ]. These feeling of secularism also led artists and writers to

become less interested with religious icons and more interested with everyday things.

Humanistic secularism reached the peak of its influence with Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527),

Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540) and Rudolphus Agricola (1443-1485). Desiderius Erasmus

(1466-1536), who was one of the greatest humanists of his time, occupied a position midway
between extreme piety and frank secularism[ CITATION Kre88 \l 1033 ]. Secularism also led these

people as well as many other writers to begin writing in the vernacular so that the common

person would be able to understand it and to begin writing about things not concerning the

church.

Another result of the spread of Renaissance humanism was the emphasis put on the

capabilities of an individual and how one could better oneself. “Humanism placed importance in

the individual’s responsibilities of citizenship and leadership, including the participation in the

political process in the community. The general humanistic belief was that the scholastic type of

education did not instill a respect for public duty”[ CITATION Smi04 \l 1033 ]. The first step

towards adopting the humanist’s ways was to discard the Christian ways of thinking. Then, as a

result of this idea of dropping the ways of Christian thinking, many people in the upper class of

society came to dislike the humanism movement because they got most of their political and

social status thru the church, often by simony. Others however embraced this idea, “These

people tended to object to the traditional education system that was monopolized by the clergy

and effectively excluded them. They could see that the new humanism could include

them”[ CITATION Smi04 \l 1033 ] and this gave them an opportunity to move up in society. In

some ways, the humanism movement differed from the Renaissance as a whole. People who

adopted humanism “ relied on flexible thinking” and “being open to all of the possibilities of life

and less concerned with the thinking of the past (antiquity)”[ CITATION Smi04 \l 1033 ]. This also

meant that unlike many other Renaissance thinkers and artists, some groups of humanists did not

go back and study ancient Greek and Roman works. This is not to say that the great Greek and

Roman philosophers like Plato and Aristotle were not well respected and admired by other

groups of humanists. In fact, “the Florentine Academy, during the late 15th century took a more
serious study of Plato’s works. They hoped that Plato would be the guide for new Western

humanists thought like Plato’s student Aristotle had been for the traditional scholastic

thinkers”[ CITATION Smi04 \l 1033 ]. “Humanist educators trained their pupils not for the church or

the scholar’s study, or the university lecture hall but for active participation in the life of the city

or court”[ CITATION Mar \l 1033 ]. As a result of these teaching arose a new form of humanism

called Social or civic humanism. “Social or civic humanism rose out of the republican ideology

of Florence at the beginning of the fifteenth century. It sought to create citizens capable of

participating in the civic life of their community by placing central emphasis on human

autonomy”[ CITATION Def04 \l 1033 ]. This caused people to be more dependent on themselves as

well as free thinking and educated in their decision making instead of following the church. One

example of these teachings and works influencing people is Castiglione’s book called The

Courtier. This book outline how a perfect courtier (and in the last portion, a lady) should act and

at what lengths a person should be educated. This book is so influential it was read even a

century after it was written.

One of the most foreseeable problems with the rise of humanism is the response of the

Catholic Church. One would think that with all the liberal ideas floating around, the people who

rely on the church to gain power and status would feel threatened. Then, in turn they would use

their power in order to prosecute the humanists. This sort of thing never really occurred because

the humanists knew that they would likely be prosecuted for their ideals and as a result formed or

created a new branch of humanism called Christian humanism. This form of humanism

combined the study of the great Greek and Roman works with Christian values. One such

occurrence of this blending was seen in the work The Epicurean, by Erasmus. This was

manageable because “Ethics was taught independently of theology, and the authority of the
Church was tacitly transferred to the reasoning logic of the educated individual”[ CITATION

Def04 \l 1033 ]. This affected the role of an individual in society because these people saw that

they had the freedom to do what they wanted and that they could move up and down the moral

scale. Christian Humanists also acknowledged that God and the angels were at the top, and Satan

was at the bottom. So in other words, they basically remained loyal to their Christian beliefs

while having no restrictions on exploring human capabilities and acquiring knowledge.

By the end of the Renaissance, humanism had greatly impacted many aspects of society.

Humanism gained large acceptance during the Renaissance from many groups of people.

Humanism helped to change the role of an individual in society. Humanism emphasized the

importance of never underestimating the potential of an individual and emphasized secular

thinking. Humanism had many branches where almost anyone could fit in including members of

the church in the area of Christian Humanism. Humanism was one of the most powerful and

influential movements that arose during the Renaissance.

Works Cited
Aston, Margaret. The Panorama of the Renaissance. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1996.

Definition of Humanism. 2004. 16 10 2010

<http://www.arielspeaks.com/Philosophy/Definition_of_Humanism.html>.

Kreis, Steven. The History Guide. 7 November 2008. 4 10 2010

<http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/humanism.html>.

Schomp, Virginia. The Italian Renaissance. New York: Benchmark Books, 2003.
Smith, Ray. The Humanism of the Renaissance. 15 December 2004. 15 October 2010 <http://www.all-
about-renaissance-faires.com/renaissance_info/renaissance_and_humanism.htm>.