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The Renaissance

Tenets of Humanism

Humanism never was defined formally by its adherents, and so it is possible to find it applied to quite a range of people. Humanism must be understood in two fundamental aspects: as a programme of study, and as a motivation.

For the former, humanism was an interest in and a study of rhetoric, literary criticism, grammar, philology, poetry, and history. This list is akin to what we call today the liberal arts. The parallel is instructive. Our term "liberal arts" does not have anything to do with a political position (liberal vs. conservative). Rather, "liberal" means "free." The liberal arts are what are studied by free people and in turn are those arts whose studies make one free.

For the humanists, the studia humanitatis was pre-eminently the course of study undertaken by free men. They came to this conclusion because this was the course of study followed by the ancient Romans, and the citizens of Republican Rome were the ideal of the free citizen. The humanists, following their hero Cicero, believed ardently that there was a close relationship between freedom and a citizenry educated in the liberal arts.

They also believed, again following Cicero and other classical writers, that public service was a right and duty of the educated citizen. In the days before mass communication, the ability to write well and to speak effectively in a public form were crucial to political success. Rhetoric and grammar were foundations of this. A good knowledge of the past was likewise important, for the humanists idolized the Romans and Greeks. They sought not only information about the past, but also they sought to know the past accurately--hence their interest in literary criticism, by which one can closely examine texts, both for forgeries and for inadvertent errors.

The admiration of the past was the motivation, emulation of the past was the ideal, and studia humanitatis was the means for achieving this. Within this narrow definition was room for a variety of personalities, beliefs and actions. Some humanists were courtiers and served princes. Others were ardent republicans and resisted the princes. Some were devoutly religious, others were openly pagan.