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The Humanist Idea of Christian Antiquity: Lefèvre d'Étaples and his Circle1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Eugene F. Rice Jr.
Eugene F. Rice Jr.*
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Extract

The major intellectual interests of Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples and his circle focused in the high ambition of ‘joining wisdom and piety with eloquence’. To this end the group worked to restore a ‘cleansed and purified Peripatetic philosophy’. They studied the Bible in a series of New Testament editions, commentaries, and translations. They printed the medieval mystics: the Victorines, Elizabeth of Schönau, Raymond Lull, Ruysbroeck. Finally, they devoted time, energy, and enthusiasm to the investigation of Christian antiquity and the editing of patristic texts. Lefèvre himself showed them how these separate enterprises meshed in a consistent program: ‘For knowledge of natural philosophy’, he wrote in 1506, ‘for knowledge of ethics, politics and economics, drink from the fountain of a purified Aristotle.

Type
Research Article
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Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 9 , 1962 , pp. 126 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1962

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Footnotes

1

This paper was read at Harvard University before the New England Conference of Renaissance Studies on 21 April 1961. Much of the research on which it is based was done during a year abroad generously made possible by a Fulbright research grant and a Guggenheim fellowship.

References

2 The formula is Beatus Rhenanus'. ‘Magno dei opt. max. munere fieri arbitror… , ut complusculi hac tempestate ubique fere nationum sapientiam ac pietatem cum eloquentia coniungant, quod … apud Gallos Iacobus Faber Stapulensis, praeceptor meus, Iodocus Clichtoveus, Bovillus et Fortunatus hoc aevi faciunt’ (A. Horowitz and K. Hartfelder, Briefwechsel des Beatus Rhenanus, Leipzig, 1886, p. 12). Beatus was Lefèvre's student from May 1503 until the autumn of 1507. The fundamental work on Lefèvre and his circle remains Augustin Renaudet, Préréforme et humanisme à Paris pendant les premières guerres d'ltalie (1494-1517) (2d ed., Paris, 1953).

3 Cono of Nürnberg to Beatus Rhenanus, Briefwechsel des B. R., p. 45

4 Politicorutn libri octo, ed. Lefèvre d'Étaples (Paris, H. Estienne, 1506), pp. 123v-124r.

5 See Appendix 1 for a list of the patristic publications of Lefèvre and his circle. The Roman numerals given below refer to the volumes listed there.

6 VII, aiiv. See below Appendix II (1), ll. 106-109.

7 X, aiir: Appendix II (2), ll. 25-28.

8 IX, preface; Briefwechsel des B. R., p. 43.

9 XV, aiv: Renouard, P., Bibliographic des impressions et des oeuvres dejosse Badius Ascensius (Paris, 1908), II, 146 Google Scholar: ‘Jacobus Faber Stapulensis, philosophus sane insignis et omni disciplina laudabili extra invidiae aleam ornatus… , ubi in adulescentia sua cum experiundi turn religionis ergo varias regiones peragrasset multasque bibliothecas invisisset, perinde ac apes daedalea solerti indagine tanquam e floribus fragrantissimis optima ac liquidissima mella praestantissima summi cujusque scriptoris opera delegit, eaque honustis alis ad nos usque transvexit. Inter quae superioribus annis divi Hilarii, Aegesippi, Nicolai Cusani et quasdam alias neutiquam poenitendas lucubrationes ipso auctore emisimus.’

10 VII, aiiv: Appendix II (1), ll. 109-114; x, aiiv: Appendix II (2), ll. 42-49; XIII, Iv (for text see below, Appendix 1, no. XIII).

11 XIII, Iv.

12 I, Aiiir: Dom Chevalier and the Benedictines of Solesmes, Dionysiaca. Recueil donnant l'ensemble des traductions latines des ouvrages attribués au Denys de l'Aréopage (Bruges, 1937), 1, p. CXI: ‘Inter quae sunt divini Dionysii Areopagitae sacratissima opera, tanta excellentiae dignitate eminentia, ut commendationis eorum nullus unquam verbis valeat assequi summam. Ut enim dilectissimus Deo discipulus Ioannes ob evangelii sui sublimitatem inter evangelistas aquila nominatur, ita et sanctus Ioannes Chrysostomus hunc beatissimum patrem, suorum scriptorum altitudinem demiratus, totus paene effectus attonitus, volucrem caeli exclamat.’ Lefevre's source is Sermo de pseudo prophetis etfahis doctoribus (Migne, P.G. LIX, 560). The sermon is apocryphal and may be very roughly dated between the middle of the sixth century and 876, when Anastasius Bibliothecarius mentioned it in a letter to Charles the Bald: ‘Sane quia nonnulli beatum Dionysium “pterygion tu uranu” a Graecis appellari commemorant, notandum quod hunc beatus Iohannes Chrysostomus “petinon tu uranu”, id est volucrem caeli, in ultimo sermonum suorum describat’ (Epistolae Karolini aevi, v, ed. E. Perels and G. Laehr, Berlin, 1928, Monumenta Germaniae historica, pp. 440-441).

13 I, 102v. Cf. note 35 below.

14 II, aiv: ‘Heraclidis Alexandrini et Recognitionum Petri apostoli libros, eos arbitror qui legerint duplicem suae lectionis reportaturos mercedem, pietatis videlicet atque doctrinae, quae duo praecipua videntur quae hominum mentes ad Deum elevent, sine etiam quibus ianua vitae semper clausa videtur. Quare operae pretium me facturum duxi et praesentibus et futuris, si libros illos vetustate et situ in antiquis bibliothecis marcentes recognoscerem, recognitos autem quasi de carceris squaloribus exemptos plurimorum (et praesertim eorum qui religiosa mente sunt) virorum oculis legendos ingererem.’

15 XIII, Iv (for text see below, Appendix I, no. XIII).

16 IX, preface: Briefwechsel des B. R., p. 43.

17 Jacques Merlin, a pupil of Girolami Balbi and professor of theology at the collège de Navarre, edited the works of Origen in 1512. Prefacing vol. III is a fulsome Apologia pro Origene maintaining that Origen's doctrine is ‘probatissima, absolutissima et ab heretica pravitate prorsus aliena’. At the end of vol. IV is a Commendatio Origenis by Badius Ascensius dedicated to Guillaume Parvy (Renouard, Badius Ascensius, III, 94-97). On this edition see the interesting article by D. P. Walker, ‘Origène en France’, in Courants religieux et humanisme à la Jin du XVe et au début du XVIe siècle. Colloque de Strasbourg 9-11 max 1957 (Paris, 1959), pp. 107 ff. Lefèvre had no part in this edition, but his favorable opinion of Origen is suggested by the passage from his Commentary on the Politics quoted above, p. 126. Cf. Rudolf Pfeiffer, ‘Erasmus und die Einheit der klassischen und der christlichen Renaissance’, Historisches Jahrbuch LXXTV (1955), 186 ff.

18 XV, aiv; Renouard, Badius Ascensius, II, 146.

19 Lefèvre praised the Lausiac History of Palladius because it was written ‘humili Christianoque stilo’ (II, aiv). Cf. Lull, Liber de laudibus beatissime virginis marie …, ed. Lefèvre d'Étaples (Paris, Guy Marchand for Jean Petit, 1499), aiv: ‘Neque item sermonis eius simplicitas vos avertat; qui enim nimium delicatas aures habent, praesertim in iis quae pertinent ad vitae instituta, timeant ne sint de numero de quibus beatissimus Paulus vaticinatus ait, Erit enim tempus quo sanam doctrinam non sustinebunt, sed ad sua desideria coacervabunt sibi magistros prurientes auribus: et a veritate quidem auditum avertent, ad fabulas autem convertentur [2 Tim. iv. 3-4]'; Ruysbroeck, De Ornatu spiritualium nuptiarum, ed. Lefèvre d'Étaples (Paris, H. Estienne, 1512), Aiir: ‘At vero quod hie liber primum patrio sermone et vernacula lingua aeditus sit, id argumento sumcienti non est auctorem paucarum fuisse litterarum. Nam et litteratissimus quisque vernaculos aedere potest libros longe forsan melius quam illitteratus. Et grammatici qui nunc legunt iudicabunt auctorem pro ilia tempestate apprime elegantem, rhetores copiosum'; and Appendix I, no. XIV, below.

20 VII, aiv: Appendix II (i), ll. 11-14.

21 In his preface to a translation of two letters of Gregory Nazianzen to Themistius, Beatus Rhenanus praised the ‘Attica venustas’ and ‘Laconica brevitas’ of Gregory's style (Briefwechsel des B. R., pp. 52-53).

22 VII, aiir: Appendix II (1), l. 68. Cf. Badius Ascensius on Hegesippus, VI, Iv; Renouard, Badius Ascensius, II, 487: ‘Ut enim silentio pertranseamus admirabilem eius in narrando gratiam, quippe qui sub miro compendio sit maxime dilucidus et sub maxima luce mire compendiosus, tanta rerum gestarum varietate scatet tantoque sententiarum pondere, ut (quod de Sallustio dici solet) res verbis aequasse videatur.’

23 VII, aiir: Appendix II (1), ll. 57-60.

24 Ibid. Cf. Kristeller, P. O., ‘Augustine and the Early Renaissance’, in Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters (Rome, 1956), pp. 361–367 Google Scholar. Badius Ascensius published Brum's translation of Basil's enormously popular De legendis antiquorum libris in 1509 (Renouard, II, 145). On the poetry of the fathers in France, see below, Appendix 1, no. XI.

25 X, aiiv: Appendix II (2), ll. 31-38.

26 IX, preface: Briefwechsel des B. R., p. 44.

27 VII, aiir: Appendix II (1), ll. 75-78.

28 Cf. Chenu, M.-D., La Théologie comtne science au XIIIe siecle (2d ed., Paris, 1943), PP. 38–53.Google Scholar

29 VII, aiv: Appendix II (1), ll. 14-15.

30 II, aiv (for text see below, Appendix I, no. IIa).

31 IV, 2r : ‘Non mediocre praestat hominibus beneficium … qui solem illis conspicuum reddit qui ob oculorum imbecillitatem validioremque radiorum iactum in suo orbe contueri firma acie haudquaquam possent, in subiectis autem corporibus diffusum et multiformem facile conspiciantur, maxime ubi quippiam accesserit adiumenti quod nebulas caliginesque interceptas dispulerit. Quod ideo dictum velim, quia sacra inter eloquia et potissimum evangelia Ioannes, Deo imprimis dilectus discipulus solari splendore radians, de summa Christi divinitate ceteris tanto sublimius locutus est, quanto ceteris sideribus sol rutilantius emicat. Quo factum est, ut non ab re Dei loquentissimus Dionysius ilium evangelii solem nuncupaverit; et Ezechiel in sacra mysteriorum visione eundem aquilae persimilem describit, quod reliquis altiore volatu sese ad caelestia sustulerit irreverberatoque et minime trepidante mentis obtutu illustre caeli hauserit iubar. Verum cum non posset hie eximius divinitatis fulgor a Ioanne depromptus plane comprehendi ob insignem suae claritatis eminentiam, beatissimus pater Cyrillus urbis Alexandrinae patriarcha, divinae sapientiae dux et moderator egregius, nostrae fragilitati consulens, radios illius multiplices lucida suorum commentariorum explicatione nudavit effusosque latius et expansos nobis spectabiles effecit. Quantum vero sincerae divinorum cognitionis lucem omnibus offerat, quotve impietatis hac sua elucidatione tenebras eliminet, cuivis legenti in promptu obviumque protinus erit; ut strennuus enim Christi veritatisque miles in Ebionitas, Sabellianos, Arrianos, Eunomianos, Macedonianos et reliquam patris mendacii catervam classica concinit, arma movet, spicula librat et instructissimam ducit aciem, sacrarum litterarum testimoniis rationibusque acerrimis lucifugos ipsos et errorum magistros omnis invadens, profligans et in fugam agens.’ Writing to Guillaume Briconnet in 1514, Clichtove emphasized again the fathers’ orthodoxy and ceaseless struggle against heresy (XII, a2r). ‘Non parva illis debetur gratia, sacratissime praesul, qui sua industria contra hostiles incursus munimenta parant, quibus adversariorum tela retundantur, irriti fiant eorum conatus et insultus inanes. Unde Archimedes Syracusanus magnopere celebratur auctore Plutarcho, quod cum Marcellus dux Romanorum Syracusas obsidione premeret, ipse varia excogitarit machinamenta, ratione geometrica fabricata, quibus hostium navigia tormenta et machinas magno impetu elisit urbemque diutius incolumem ne caperetur servavit. At vero longe maiore gratia et laude cumulandi sunt ii qui suo studio in certamine litterario veritatem licet invincibilem opprimere contendentium spicula contundunt, arma reddunt imbecilla et collatis signis eos in fugam vertunt, ut non prevaleat contra sincerae fidei pietatem demonica cohors et insana impiorum caterva, sed obstruatur os loquentium iniqua et victrix tantem Veritas profugatis hostibus gloriosa triumphet. In quorum numero merito inter ceteros habendus est Cyrillus Alexandrinus, inclytus veritatis catholicae satelles, propugnator ac signifer et orthodoxae fidei contra hereticorum rabiem defensator acerrimus.’ These texts, and others like them, are best understood as humanistic efforts to underline the purity of patristic doctrine. Having cast the fathers in so important a rôle, having forged them into rods with which to birch the scholastic doctors, humanists spared no effort to defend their orthodoxy. The humanist rehabilitation of Origen fits into this same pattern.

33 XIII, Iv: ‘Continet enim volumen illud [Cyrilli (Origenis) Commnentarium in Leviticum] mysticam explanationem sacrorum veteris legis, allegoricas caerimoniarum rationes et multiformium hostiarum symbolicas significativasque notiones, ut quicquid corporaliter et ad litteram in Levitico observandum statuitur, id omne ad spiritualem vivificantemque transferens intelligentiam aut fidei sacrae mysteriis aut humanae vitae directions moribusque formandis concinne et decenter adaptet.’

33 VII, aiv: Appendix II (I), ll. 23-28.

34 Quincuplex Psalterium (Paris, H. Estienne, 1509), air. Cf. below, Appendix, 1, no. v.

35 I, Aiiir: Dionysiaca, pp. CX-CXI. For Hegesippus and the pseudo-Clementine literature see Appendix I, nos. II and VI. Lefevre's image of Ignatius as an apostolic mystic emerges clearly from the Argumentum with which he prefaced the epistles (1, 102v): ‘Ignatius… scripsit epistolas undecim, sua vincula pro Christo continentes, plenas sancti spiritus fervore sacrum eius pectus suaviter agitantis. Quapropter pie legendae et pronuntiandae sunt, non laxe, non remisse, enervo emollitoque animo, sed cum fervore; sic enim et eas scripsit totus ardens, totus gestiens, totus flammatus, cupiens dissolvi et esse cum Christo sacratissimus martyr, divino iam amore inebriatus. Delicias etenim paradisi in extasi et amatoriae mentis excessu aliquando ipsum expertum posteris reliquit antiquitas.’

36 XV, aiv: Renouard, Badius Ascensius, II, 146.

37 VII, aiv: Appendix II (1), ll. 4-6. Not all the moderns, however; only the scholastics. Lefevre prized Cusanus and several medieval mystics so highly that he sometimes ranked them even above the fathers.

38 Annotationes Natalis Bedae Doctoris Theohgii Parisiensis injacobum Fabrum Stapulensem libri duo: et in Desiderium Erasmum Roterodamum liber unus (Paris, Badius Ascensius, 1526), preface. My attention was called to this passage by D. P. Walker, ‘Origène en France’, pp. 110-111.

39 Alanus Varenius was a pupil of Lefévre and Clichtove and a friend and correspondent of Bovillus. He is a minor figure of some interest. I have seen the following works: (1) Alani Varenii Montalbani Tholosatis De Luce Intelligibili Dialogus Vnus (Bologna, Giovanni Benedetti called Platonides, 8 Feb. 1503). [B.M.] Dedicated to Jean de Pins. The interlocutors are Iacobus [Stapulensis] and Carolus [Bovillus]. (2) Alani Varenii Montalbani Tholosatis De Amore Dialogus vnus (Bologna, Gio. Ant. Benedetti called Platonides, 13 April 1503). [B.N.] (3) In hoc opere contenta. De amore dialogus I. De luce dialogi II. De harmonia dialogus I. De harmonie elementis liber I. De rerum precipue diuinarum vnitate dialogus I. De diuina magnitudine dialogus I. De pulchritudine dialogus I. De septem virtutibus liber I. De oppositis monstris liber I. De amicitia precipue diuina liber I. De rerum trinitate liber I. Oratio habita infrequenti ecclesiasticorum virorum consessu. Epistolae cotnplures (Paris, Henri Estienne, [1512]). [B.N.] (4) In hoc opere contenta. In Canticum canticorum Homiliae quindecim. In aliquot Psalmos Dauidicos oratiunculae siue breues Homiliae octo et quadraginta. In supersanctam dei genitricem Mariam panegyrici siue laudatiui sermones quinque (Paris, Henri Estienne, 21 May 1515). [B.M.; Seville, Colombina.]

40 Text in Briefwechsel des B. R., pp. 41-45. Cf. Appendix 1, no. IX.

41 Briefwechsel des B. R., pp. 43-44: ‘Is itaque divinissimus pater omnium primum de homine philosophatur deque creationis turn ordine turn ratione. Ubi ostendit, quanto ingenio supramundanus opifex hominem praesertim et reliqua produxerit, quae legentem eo perfectionis ducunt, ut miram illam decentissimamque sensilium conditionem suspiciens in conditoris admirationem subvehatur. Nam q uemadmodum in excellenti opere industriam suam exprimit artifex, ita et deus sapientiam suam maxime in hominis effictione non obscure declaravit, ut Nicolaus Cusanus, omnium pie philosophantium princeps, multis in lucis commonstrat. Hunc etenim utriusque mundi copulam constituens praeclarissimis dotibus insignivit, intellectum enim ei tribuit et liberum arbitrium, excellentissimum munus et summae libertatis, qua deus cuncta creavit, nobile vestigium. Deinde de anima contra Aristotelem et alios philosophos acriter disputat, ut pulchriora hiis nusquam me legisse crediderim. Postquam elementorum naturam ac animae vires virtutesque sensuum et organa recenset, subiungens mox de electione voluntarioque et involuntario dissertationem, quam liber de fato excipit, dignissimo sermone de providentia finem operi imponente. Quae omnia mini ad hoc conferre videntur, ut homo dignitatem suam agnoscens bene vivere discat. Quam si diligenter consideraret, facile induceretur, ut cuncta vitia veluti teterrimam pestem defugeret. Et certe cur homines plerumque peccent, in causa est propriae dignitatis oblivio. Solus enim homo inter res creatas saepiuscule a suo fine aberrat, reliquis omnibus in suis ofEciis continenter perstantibus, ad quae natura producta sunt. Idcirco quis non philosophiam vel maxime laudarit, cum haec hominem in sui ipsius cognitionem adducat. Laudabiliorem tamen censeo, quae a christianis profluens eorum, quae ad hominis salutem attinent, simul admonet, velut haec subtilissima divini Gregorii Nysseni doctrina, quae cum multorum errores coarguat, solidae veritati innititur.’ For further details on Nemesius in the Renaissance see E. Garin, ‘La “dignitashominis” e la letteratura patristica’, La Rinascita I (1938), 102-146, esp. pp. 112 ff.

42 Migne, P.G., XL, 532C-533B. Text and German translation in Gilson-Böhner, , Christliche Philosophic (2d ed., Paderborn, 1954), pp. 129–130 Google Scholar. See also Jaeger, Werner, Nemesios von Emesa (Berlin, 1914), pp. 133–136 Google Scholar; E. Skard, Nemesiosstudien (1936, Symbolae Osloenses 15-16), pp. 35-40; and Amand, David, Fatalisme et libertö dans l'antiquitö grecque (Louvain, 1945), pp. 549–569 Google Scholar.

43 Cono of Nürnberg to Beatus Rhenanus, Briefwechsel des B. R., pp. 49-50: ‘Veniam deinde ad nostros Latinos, sanctum ilium doctorem inprimis Thomam Aquinatem, clarum ecclesiae catholicae lumen … , cui tanta Nysseni Gregorii [i.e. Nemesii] visa est authoritas, ut in multis etiam difBcillimis hunc in robur suarum probationum adducat…. Albertus quoque Magnus turn libro secundo de mirabili scientia dei turn in libro de homine, huius venerandi patris ex hoc opere plurima loca in probationis testimonium allegat.’ See also Emil Dobler, Nemesius von Emesa und die Psychologic des menschlichen Aktes bei Thomas von Aquin (Werthenstein, Luz., 1950). This valuable study lists in detail the passages from Nemesius referred to by Aquinas (pp. 15-17). Further evidence of probable knowledge of the De natura hominis in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has been collected by Father Ignatius Brady, ‘Remigius-Nemesius’, Franciscan Studies, N.S. VIII (1948), 275-284.

44 Dobler, op. cit., pp. 135-137.

45 Briefwechsel des B. R., pp. 52-53. Cf. Appendix I, no. IX.

46 No work by a Greek father was published in France in this period in the original Greek. Direct translations from the Greek were limited to Lefèvre's of the De fide orthodoxa of John of Damascus (Paris, 1507) and Budé's of a letter of Basil the Great (Appendix 1, no. III). The Greek fathers were normally published sometimes in ancient Latin translations, sometimes in medieval translations, and sometimes in the recent translations of Quattrocento Italian scholars. Thus Clichtove published Origen's Commentary on Leviticus in the translation of Rufinus (Appendix 1, no. XIII); Lefèvre published Ignatius in a translation which dates from the sixth century (Appendix 1, no. lb), Hegesippus in a translation he attributed to St. Ambrose (Appendix I, no. VI), and the Historia Lausiaca of Palladius in the revised text of the Roman deacon Paschasius (Appendix 1, no. IIa). The text of Nemesius’ De natura hominis was a humanist recension of the most common medieval translation, that of Burgundio of Pisa (Appendix 1, no. IX). More important were the patristic translations of the Italian Renaissance. Lefevre used the translation of Ambrogio Traversari for his edition of the Dionysian writings and Clichtove published Cyril of Alexandria in the translations of George of Trebizond (Appendix 1, nos. la, IV, XII, and XIV). Badius’ large edition of the works of Basil the Great is typical: the Regula translated by Rufinus, the Hexameron by Argyropulos, the sermons and letters by R. Volaterranus, and the Adversus Eunomium by George of Trebizond (Appendix 1, no. XVI).

47 Appendix I, nos. IX and XIII.

48 Commentarii in epistolas Catholicas (Basil, 1527), fol. *3r.

49 Apologia quod vetus interpretatio epistolarum beatissimi Pauli quae passim legitur non sit tralatio Hieronymi, in Epistole divi Pauli apostoli (Paris, 1512), aiiv-aiiiv.