Humanities & Classics 1002
|
|
Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
    |
|
In Reply to: PLEASE POST YOU FIRST REQUIRED POSTING AS A REPLY TO THIS posted by TOM BACIG on December 13, 1998 at 19:30:06:
POSTING 1 - MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE VIEWS OF HUMANITY
Rylan Bachman
The Medieval and Renaissance views of mankind and its relationship to the divine differed greatly. The Medieval view was centered on God, the Renaissance view was centered on man.
The Medieval View
The Medieval Universe
"Learn to despise outward things and to turn thee to inward things and thou shalt see the kingdom come into thee; for the kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Ghost the which is not given to wicked men."
"Great trust is not to be put in a mortal and frail man...
Put all thy trust in God; let Him be thy dread; let Him be thy love;"
Thomas á Kempis - Imitation of Christ
The Medieval held the Bible as the ultimate authority in all matters. Man's relationship to the divine was of the utmost importance. The world was a wicked place at worst and at best life's purpose was to prepare for the afterlife by concentrating on Christ. Man, while one of God's creations, is a terrible sinner a base and wicked creature desperately in need of Christ's salvation.
Earthly pleasures were to be held in contempt, for they contributed nothing to one's salvation. Following Christ (to imitate him) was the ultimate activity meant for man. Due to man's wicked nature he can not be trusted to make good decisions and therefore must yield to the Church acting as the voice of God.
It is from the argument on how best to imitate of Christ in The Name of the Rose that the contrast between the Medieval view and Renaissance view collide.
from internet movie database:
Jorge de Burgos: Laughter is a devilish whim which deforms, uh, the lineaments of the face and makes men look like monkeys.
William of Baskerville: Monkeys do not laugh. Laughter is particular to men.
Jorge de Burgos: As is sin. Christ never laughed.
William of Baskerville: Can we be so sure?
Jorge de Burgos: There is nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did.
William of Baskerville: And there's nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did not. Why, even the saints have been known to employ comedy, to ridicule the enemies of the Faith. For example, when the pagans plunged St. Maurice into the boiling water, he complained that his bath was too cold. The Sultan put his hand in... scalded himself.
William's assertion (representative of the Renaissance view) that Christ laughed is an attempt to inject humanity into the Medieval's (represented by Jorge) view of Christ.
(On this subject there exists a book titled "The Humor of Christ" which attempts to show that Christ used comedy in a similar manner to St. Maurice. An example used in this book was "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God what is God's" to express how Christ's kingdom is not of this world.
On the other hand the book "Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches - The Riddles of Culture" explains that the motive behind this statement was far more political,
and in this sense "Render unto Caesar..." would mean "Don't pay." because the Holy Land belonged to God not Caesar.)
The Medieval view was replaced by the Renaissance view, which was based on the classical Greek view of mankind.
The Renaissance View
What a piece of work is man!
How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties,
in form and moving how express and admirable,
in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!
SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, II 2 304-8
"...Man is the most fortunate of beings, and consequently worthy of all admiration, and what precisely is that rank which is his lot in the universal chain of Being, and which is to be envied not only by brutes but even by the stars, by minds more than earthly."
"Whatever seeds each man cultivates, those seeds will grow to maturity and bear in him their own fruit... If rational, he will issue as a heavenly being. If intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God."
Pico della Mirandola - Of the Dignity of Man
The Renaissance view was secularism (but not atheism) and humanism over the divine, science over supernatural, knowledge over dictation, and humanity as something noble rather than wicked. A rational mind was valued, and great men dominated the period.
All of these traits exist in William of Baskerville from The Name of the Rose.
William searched for a more mundane (and more rational from a modern perspective)
explanation of the deaths in the movie, rather than attribute them to the Devil.
He valued books and learning the defining characteristic of a true "Renaissance man". Perhaps as a subtle display of the Renaissance's view that man is noble, he is nearly the only character that did not have any of the flesh's flaws that those who were still medieval had, such as lust or being malformed.
Most importantly the dignity of man became established. Rather than viewing man as a lowly wicked creature man became second only to angels in the hierarchy of God's creatures. As a result mankind was able to create works of art, speculate on the nature of God, and free to discover truth's not included in the Bible.
Thus forever changing the course of history.