1.7 The Northern Renaissance: Prelude to the Reformation

Between 1470 and 1520 the humanism of the Italian Renaissance spread to northern Europe where it was to have a profound intellectual effect. Unlike the Italian Renaissance, which tended to reject or have little Christian spiritual emphasis, the Northern Renaissance sought to blend humanism with Christianity. Rather than stress man's individual human potential, the northern humanists hoped to deepen Christian understanding and the moral vitality of Christianity.

The spread of humanist thinking was the result of a number of factors, perhaps the greatest of which was the development of the printing press. The idea of using movable type set in a press to reproduce the written word was first given practical application by the German craftsman Johann Gutenberg in the mid-fifteenth century. The printing press enabled an intellectual revolution. Books, heretofore laboriously copied by hand, could now be reproduced simply and at relatively little cost. As books could be produced in greater quantities and at more affordable prices, more people could become literate. The spread of literacy facilitated the spread of ideas, thus, the spread of humanism. The printing press also gave literary respectability to vernacular languages (the common spoken languages of a country or region). Previously most writings were in Latin, the international language of the Church, hence of literate Christians. The ease of printing meant ease in using vernacular languages for literary purposes. More and more writers began to communicate using their native Italian, French, Spanish, German, or English. Soon there rose a demand by critics of the Church that the writings of the Church, namely the Bible, ought to be in vernacular languages so that people could read and understand scripture for themselves. The Church, seeing its Latin version of the Bible as the true text of God's revealed word, refused to authorize translation into the vernacular.

Humanism also spread because scholars from the north studied at Italian universities. There they were exposed to the greatness of classical Greco-Roman literature and thought as well as the secular and material emphasis of the Italian Renaissance.

The late Middle Ages saw the rise of new universities in northern Europe concurrent with the Early Renaissance. New schools were founded in France, the Netherlands, Germany, England, and Scotland. Very often the same scholars who had studied in Italy were among the faculty of the northern universities.

Because the authors of the northern Renaissance wrote in an engaging and popular style, their ideas and thoughts could be easily understood and appreciated by the reading public. Social and spiritual critics such as Desiderius Erasmus and Thomas More often wrote using satire. Their gentle humor and descriptions of the familiar communicated new thinking much more effectively than a more scholarly approach.

Originally a monk then a priest, Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466 - 1536) was a Dutch humanist and scholar who was perhaps the most widely-known and respected writer in Europe. Cosmopolitan and brilliant, Erasmus taught at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Bologna and Rome. Disturbed by the abuses he saw in the Catholic Church, his writings urged the Church to reform itself and fulfill its spiritual mission. His most famous work, In Praise of Folly (1509), attacks the Church for knowingly taking advantage of the gullible simplicity ("folly") of humanity to enrich itself. Erasmus saw himself as a tireless advocate of a humane "philosophy of Christ," the educated application of the doctrines of love and charity as taught by Christ.

Trained as a lawyer and historian, Thomas More (1478 - 1535) was an English humanist who served in the government of King Henry VIII. Deeply committed in his faith to the Church, More shared his friend Erasmus' discomfort with corruption in the Church. His most famous book, Utopia (1516), describing an imaginary perfect society, was intended to call attention to the abuses in his own society. Raised to the position of Chancellor, the highest ranking officer of the royal government, More became increasingly disturbed by Henry's efforts to separate England from the supremacy of the pope. Choosing loyalty to the Church over loyalty to the king, More was arrested for treason and executed. In 1935 the Catholic Church proclaimed him a saint.

The thinking of the Northern Renaissance had several characteristics that marked it as a transition between the secular humanism of Italian thought and the attack on the Catholic Church that became the Protestant Reformation. The Northern Renaissance was Christian in its intellectual emphasis. It was centered on the relationship between man and God and sought to use humanism as a means of renewing and strengthening that relationship.

The humanists of northern Europe emphasized Christian education. In their writings they stressed the ethical and moral example of Christ's life and teachings.

In order to understand better the basis for Christian belief, the northern humanists studied the ancient Hebrew, Greek, and early Latin texts from the Bible. In their study of these classical texts they applied the critical thinking that had become characteristic of the humanist mind. On finding errors in translation, they rejected the Church's position that the current Latin text of the Bible was God's revealed truth and called for the Church to make revisions. The Church was reluctant to do so claiming that such changes would show the Church to be fallible (capable of being wrong).

The northern humanists were critical of the institutionalization of the Church with all its pronouncements on Christian faith and practice. The Church, they thought, had become too worldly, too much a big business. With all of its land holdings and financial returns through taxes, fees, and fines, it was the wealthiest institution in Europe, far wealthier than the richest kingdom. With its extensive body of canon law, it had become overburdened with rules and regulations for the living of a properly spiritual life. The relationship between man and God, the northern humanists claimed, transcended a universal Church. One should be able to receive God's spiritual grace without being bound by countless rules or by having to pay a fee. On visiting the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury in England, Erasmus was horrified by the fact that in order to see and worship in the presence of the martyred saint's relics, one had to pay an admission fee and accept as real highly imaginative fabrications among the saint’s relics.

The northern humanists saw the Church as having lost its sense of spiritual responsibility. It was, they felt, out of touch with its purpose. They saw the Church as being primarily concerned with its wealth. They criticized the clergy for being corrupt, self-serving, poorly educated, and ignorant. The average European's contact with the Church was through the parish priest, a man who often had no more than a most rudimentary introduction to literacy and hardly any theological training. Yet such an individual was believed to have the power to intercede with God to pardon one's sins, administer the sacraments, and provide ethical and moral guidance. Bishops and cardinals often held their high ecclesiastical offices because of their family status as nobility or because their wealth enabled them to buy the position. Surely, humanists like Erasmus and More argued, such a clergy was no means to salvation for a sinful humanity. The Church, they claimed, promoted ignorance and superstition among Christians.

And why not make such a claim? Consider the leadership of the Church. The popes of the Renaissance were men of the Italian cities. They were from wealthy and powerful families who competed for the papacy as if it were the objective of war or business. The papacy enabled its holder to enjoy great prestige, command tremendous wealth, and wield great influence. Popes were interested in such worldly matters as expanding papal prestige through politics, finance, war, diplomacy, and the patronage of the arts. Spiritual leadership was not a prime concern of the Renaissance popes. In 1513 Erasmus wrote a short satirical piece (Julius Excluded) in which the soul of Pope Julius II demands entrance to heaven and threatens to excommunicate St. Peter when denied.

Men like Erasmus and More saw humanist education as necessary to revitalize Christianity. Only through a combined study of the Greco-Roman classics with the moral teachings of Christian belief could the critical thinking so needed to shake the Church out of its lethargy be developed. The northern humanists were devout Roman Catholics who firmly believed in the spiritual purpose of the Church. They did not seek to destroy the Church, rather they used the power of their writings and teaching to urge the Church to undertake its own reform. By calling attention to the Church's spiritual and temporal abuses, they hoped to encourage Christians to act on behalf of their faith and return themselves and their Church to God.

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Sources for the Northern Renaissance

Brinton, Crane et al. A History of Civilization. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1961.

Durant, Will. The Reformation. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957.

Knapton, Ernest. Europe 1450-1815. New York: Scribner's, 1958.

Langer, William et al. Western Civilization. New York: Harper and Row, 1968.

Merriman, John. A History of Modern Europe. New York: Norton, 1996.

Palmer, Robert R. et al. A History of the Modern World. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002.

Simon, Edith. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. New York: Time-Life Books, 1966.

Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. Minneapolis: West, 1997.

Tuchman, Barbara. The March of Folly. New York: Knopf, 1984.