§ 115b. National Literature and Ecclesiastical Art.
Toward the close of the 13th century, and throughout the 14th, a national literature, in prose and poetry, sprang up in Italy, which in several respects has close relations to the history of the church. The three Florentines, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, boldly burst through the barriers of traditional usage, which had made Latin the only vehicle for literature and science, and became the creators of a beautiful Italian style; while their example powerfully influenced their own countrymen, and those of other western nations, during the immediately succeeding ages. The exclusive use of the Latin language had produced a uniform hierarchical spirit, and was a restraint to the anti-hierarchical movements of the age after independent national development in church and State. The breaking down of this barrier to progress was an important step. But all the three great men of letters whom we have named were also highly distinguished for their classical culture. They introduced the study of the ancient classics, and were thus the precursors of the humanists. They also presented a united front against the corruptions of the church, against hierarchical pretensions, the greed and moral debasement of the papacy, as well as against the moral and intellectual degradation of the clergy and the monks. Petrarch and Boccaccio too warred against the depraved scholasticism. The Augustan age of German national poetry was contemporary with the age of the Hohenstaufens. It consisted in popular songs, these often of a sacred character. During the 14th century the sacred drama reached the highest point of its development, especially in Germany, England, France, and Spain. The spirit of the Renaissance, which during the 15th century dominated Italian art, made itself felt also in the domain of ecclesiastical architecture and painting.
§ 115.10. The Italian National Literature.[342]—Dante Alighieri, born at Florence in A.D. 1265, was in A.D. 1302 banished as a Ghibelline from his native city, and died an exile at Ravenna, in A.D. 1321. His boyish love for Beatrice, which after her early death continued to fill his soul to the end of his life, gave him an impulse to a “New Life,” and proved the unfailing source of his poetic inspiration. His studies at Bologna, Padua, and Paris made him an enthusiastic admirer of Thomas, but alongside of his scholastic culture there lay the quick perception of the beautiful, combined with a lively imagination. He was thus able to deal with the burning questions of his day in one of the greatest poetic masterpieces of any age, people, or tongue. His Divina Commedia describes a vision in which the poet is led, first by the hand of Virgil, as the representative of human wisdom, through Hell and Purgatory, then by Beatrice, whose place at times is taken by the German Matilda (§ [107, 2]), and finally by St. Bernard, as representatives of revealed religion, through Paradise and the several heavens up to the empyræum, the eternal residence of the triune God. The poet presents his readers with a description of what he saw, and reports his conversations with his guides and the souls of more important personages, most of them shortly before deceased, in which the problems of philosophy, theology, and politics are discussed. His political views, of which he treats ex professo in the three books of his De monarchia, are derived from Aquinas’ theory of the State, but breathe a strong Italian Ghibelline patriotism, so that he places not only Boniface VIII. but also Frederick II. in Hell. In the struggle between the empire and the papacy he stands decidedly on the side of the former.With profound sorrow he bewails the corruption of the church in its head and members, but holds firmly by its confession of faith. And while lashing vigorously the corruptions of monkery, he eulogizes the heavenliness of the lives of Francis and Dominic.[343] Petrarch, who died in A.D. 1374, broke away completely from scholasticism, and turned with enthusiasm to classical studies.He combated superstition, e.g. astrology, but also contends against the unbelief of his age, and in his letters and poems lashes with merciless severity the immorality of the papacy and the secularization of the church.[344] In Boccaccio again, who died in A.D. 1375, antipathy to scholasticism, monkery, and the hierarchy had reached its utmost stage. He has no anger and denunciation, but only contempt, reproach, and wit to shoot against them. He also makes light of the moral requirements of Christianity and the church, especially the seventh commandment. But in later years he manifested deep penitence for the lascivious writing of his youth, to which he had given reckless and shameless expression in his “Decameron.”
§ 115.11. The German National Literature.—The German prose style was greatly ennobled by the mystics (§ [114]), and the highest development of German satire against the hierarchy, clergy, and monks was reached by Sebastian Brant, of Strassburg, who wrote in A.D. 1494 his “Ship of Fools.”Among popular preachers John Tauler held the first rank (§ [114, 2]). In Strassburg, Geiler of Kaisersberg distinguished himself as an original preacher. His sermons were full of biting wit, keen sarcasm, and humorous expressions, but also of profound earnestness and withering exposures of the sins of the clergy and monks. His best known work is a series of sermons on Brant’s “Ship of Fools,” published in A.D. 1498.
§ 115.12. The Sacred Drama (§ [105, 5]).—The poetic merit of most of the German mysteries performed at high festivals is not great. The Laments of Mary however often rose to true poetic heights. Comedy and burlesque too found place especially in connection with Judas, or the exchangers, or the unconverted Magdalene. A priest, Theodoric Schernberg, wrote a play on the fall and repentance of the popess Johanna (§ 82, 6). On Shrove Tuesday plays were performed, in which the clergy and monks were held up to ridicule. Hans Roseuplüt of Nuremberg, about A.D. 1450, was the most famous writer of German Shrovetide plays. In France, about the end of the 14th century, a society of young people of the upper rank was formed, called Enfans sans souci, whose Sotties, buffooneries, in which the church was ridiculed, were in high repute in the cities and at the court. Their most distinguished poet was Pierre Gringoire, who, in the beginning of the 16th century, in the French Chasse du Cerf des Cerfs, parodied the Servus servorum (§ 46, 10), and the church is represented as the old befooled mother. The numerous Italian mysteries were produced mainly by the gifted and cultured sons of Tuscany, who had already developed their native tongue into a beautiful and flexible language. In Spain, during the 15th century, the Autos, partly as Christmas plays and partly as sacramental or passion plays, were based on the ancient mysteries, and in form inclined more to the allegorical moralities.
§ 115.13. Architecture and Painting (§ [104, 12], [14])—Gothic architecture was the prevailing style in the churches of Germany, France, and England. In Italy, the humanist movement (§ [120, 1]) led to the imitation of ancient classical models, and thus the Renaissance style was introduced, which flourished for 300 years. Its real creator was the Florentine Bruneleschi, who won imperishable renown by the grand cupola of the cathedral of Florence. Bramante, died A.D. 1514, marks the transition from the earlier Renaissance of the 15th century to the later of the 16th, at the summit of which stands Michael Angelo, A.D. 1474-1564. After a plan of Bramante Julius II., in A.D. 1506, began the magnificent reconstruction of St. Peter’s at Rome, the execution of which in its gigantic proportions occupied the reigns of twenty popes. It was completed under Urban VIII., in A.D. 1636. This great building, in consequence of the traffic in indulgences, entered on to defray its cost, became the occasion of the loss to the papacy of the half of western Christendom.—Sacred Statuary, in the hands of Ghiberti, died A.D. 1455, and Michael Angelo, reached the highest stage of excellence.—Of Painting, the Augustan age of which was the 15th century, there were properly four schools. Giotto, who died in A.D. 1336, was founder of the Florentine school, which was specially distinguished by its delineations of sacred history. To it belonged the Dominican Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, who painted only as he prayed, Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolomeo, and Michael Angelo. Then there was the Lombard or Venetian School, at the head of which stands Giovanni Bellini, died A.D. 1516, which turned away from the church and applied itself with its fresh living colouring to the depicting of earthly ideals. Its most eminent representatives were Correggio, died A.D. 1534, and Titian, died A.D. 1576. In the Umbrian school, again, the spirit of St. Francis continued still to breathe. Its greatest master was Raphael of Urbino, the noblest and most renowned of all Christian painters, distinguished also as an architect. The German school had its ablest representatives in the brothers Hubert and John van Eyk, Albert Dürer, and Hans Holbein the Elder.—Continuation § [149, 15].
§ 116. Popular Movements.
In consequence of the shameful debasement of the papacy and the deep corruption of the clergy and monks, the influence of the church on the moral and religious culture of the people, in spite of the ardent zeal of the homilists and catechists, was upon the whole much less than formerly. Reverence for the church as it stood was indeed tottering, but was not yet completely overthrown. The religious enthusiasm of earlier times was fading away, but occasional phenomena still continued to arise, like St. Bridget and St. Catharine of Siena (§ [112, 4], [8]), Claus of Flüe, and the Maid of Orleans. But in order to elevate a John of Nepomuk into a recognised national saint, it was necessary to produce forged legendary stories in post-Reformation times. The market-place tricks of John of Capistrano (§ [112, 3]) were of such a kind, that even the papal curia only after a century and a half had passed could venture to adorn him with the halo of saintship. The ever-increasing nuisance of the sale of indulgences smothered religious earnestness and crushed all religious spirit out of the people. But earnestness showed itself again in the reactions of the Beghards and Lollards, or in the explosions of the Flagellants, and spirituality often found rich nourishment in the preaching of the mystics. One current issuing from the widespread Friends of God passed deep into the heart of the German people; another, springing probably from the same source, but with a quite different tendency, appears in the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit. On the other hand, superstition also prevailed, and was all the more dangerous the more it parted with its poetic and naïve character (§ [117, 4]). Toward the end of that period however a new era dawned in social life, as well as in national literature. Knighthood paled before gunpowder. The establishment of civic corporations developed a sense of freedom, and introduced a healthy understanding and appreciation of civil liberty. The printing of books began the dissemination of knowledge, and the discovery of America opened to view a new world for trade, colonization, and the spread of Christianity. To the pious heart of the discoverer the extension of Christ’s kingdom proved the most powerful motive to his continued exertions, and from the treasures of the new world he hoped also to obtain the means for conquering again the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Land.
§ 116.1. Two National Saints.—John of Nepomuk, of Pomuk in Bohemia, was from A.D. 1380 pastor, then canon, archiepiscopal secretary, and vicar-general of Prague. King Wenzel had him seized, cruelly tortured, and flung over the bridge into the Moldau, because, so runs the legend, he as confessor of the queen sturdily refused to betray the secrets of the confessional, but really because he had roused the king’s anger to the uttermost in a violent controversy between the king’s archbishop, John of Jenzenstein, and the chapter over their election and consecration of an abbot. The confession legend appears first in an Austrian writer of A.D. 1451, who gives it distinctly as a tradition. It is evidently connected with the Taborite rejection of the Catholic doctrine of auricular confession (§ [119, 7]). If it be accepted as true, then, seeing that all the older chroniclers ascribe the cruel treatment of this prelate to the share he took in the abbot’s election, it will be necessary to assume two victims of the king’s wrath instead of one. The John Nepomuk of the legend, and the confessor of the queen, was tortured by the king’s command in A.D. 1383; the other, who figures in the old chronicles as archiepiscopal vicar-general, and is simply called John, was tortured in A.D. 1393, and then thrown over the bridge into the Moldau. This latter story appears first in a Bohemian chronicle of A.D. 1541. In the 17th century the Jesuits, in order to deprive the heretical national saint and martyr John Huss of his supremacy by bringing forward another genuine Bohemian, but also a thoroughly Catholic saint, gave currency to the legend, adorned with many additional stories of miracles. Benedict XIII. (§ 164, 1) was just the pope to aid such a device by sanctioning, as he did in A.D. 1729, the canonization of a purely fictitious saint-confessor John Nepomuk. He is patron saint of bridges, whose image in Bohemia, and other strictly Catholic lands, is met with at almost every bridge, and is reverenced as the protector from unjust accusations, as well as the dispenser of rain in seasons of great drought.Although no mention is made of the story about the confessional in the letter of complaint to Rome by Archbishop Jenzenstein, Catholic historians still insist that the confessor’s steadfastness was the real cause, the election of the abbot the ostensible cause, of the martyrdom of A.D. 1393.[345] The need of strengthening the position of the Romish church, in face of the progress of the Swiss Reformation of the 16th century, led also to the elevation of the recluse, Nicolaus [Nicolas] of Flüe upon the pedestal of a Swiss national saint. Esteemed even before his birth a saint by reason of signs and wonders, “Brother Claus,” after a long, active life in the world, in his 50th year, the father of ten children, forsook house and home, with the approval of his wife, abstained from all nourishment save that of the sacrament, and died, after spending nineteen years in the wilderness, in A.D. 1487. During this period he was the trusted adviser of all classes upon public and private affairs. He is specially famous as having saved Switzerland, by appearing personally at the Diet of Stanz, in A.D. 1481, stopping the conflict between cities and provinces, which threatened to break up the confederation and bring about civil war, and suggesting the peaceable compromise of the “Agreement of Stanz.” That Brother Claus did assist in securing harmony is a well established fact, but it is also demonstrable that he was not personally present at Stanz. He was beatified by Clement X. in A.D. 1671, but notwithstanding repeated endeavours by his admirers, he has not yet been canonized.
§ 116.2. The Maid of Orleans, A.D. 1428-1431.—Joan of Arc was the daughter of a peasant in the village of Domremy, in Champagne. Even in her thirteenth year she thought she saw a peculiar brightness and heard a heavenly voice exhorting her to chastity and piety. She now bound herself by a vow to perpetual virginity. Afterwards the heavenly voices became more frequent, and the brightness took the shape of the archangel Michael, St. Catharine, and other saints, who saluted her as saviour of her fatherland. France was, under the imbecile king Charles VI., and still more after his death, rent by the rival parties of the Armagnacs and Burgundians. The former fought for the rights of the dauphin Charles VII.; the latter supported his mother Isabella and the English king Henry V., who was succeeded in A.D. 1422 by his son Henry VI., then only nine months old. Joan was the enthusiastic supporter of the dauphin. He found himself in A.D. 1428 in the greatest straits. The last bulwark of his might, the city of Orleans, was besieged by the English, and seemed near its fall. Then her voices commanded Joan to relieve Orleans, and to accompany the dauphin to his coronation at Rheims. She now published her call, which had been hitherto kept secret, overcame all difficulties, was recognised as a messenger of heaven, assumed the male attire of a soldier, and placed herself at the head of an enthusiastic crowd. Great success attended the movements of this girl of seventeen years. In the latter campaigns of the war she became the prisoner of Burgundy, who delivered her over to the English. At Rouen she was subjected to an ecclesiastical tribunal, which after four months’ investigation condemned her to the stake as a heretic and sorceress. In view of the fire, her courage failed. Yielding to the persuasion of her confessor, she acknowledged her guilt, and had her sentence commuted to that of imprisonment for life. But eight days later she was led forth to the stake. Her rude keepers had taken away her female attire, and forced her to wear again male garments, and this act to which she was compelled was made a charge against her. She died courageously and piously in A.D. 1431. At the demand of her family, which had been ennobled, a revision of the process against her was made in A.D. 1450, when she was pronounced innocent, and the charges against her false. The endeavour of Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, in A.D. 1876, in the name of Catholic France, to have her canonized, was not responded to by the papal curia. The infallible church, that had burnt her as a witch in A.D. 1431, could scarcely give her a place among its saints, even after 450 years had gone.