Northern Renaissance:
Humanism, Christian Humanism & Skepticism
Christian HumanismCharacteristics:• Part of the Northern Renaissance• Emphasis on early Church writings
rather than on Greek or Roman texts• Emphasis on education and human
intellect to bring about change• Writings led to criticism of Church and
eventually to Reformation movement
Desiderius Erasmus• Dutch scholar (1466-
1536)• Most famous of all
northern humanists• Earned living by writing• Devout Catholic,
despite his criticism of the Church
Erasmus – In Praise of Folly (1513)• Written in Latin, bestseller second only to
Bible by 1550• Satirized European society & superstition• Criticized the immorality and hypocrisy of
Church leaders• Inspired calls for reform within Church,
including Martin Luther - “Erasmus lay the egg that Luther hatched”
Sir Thomas More• English lawyer and
government official (1478-1535)
• Example of ‘civic humanist’
• Served as Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII
• “the most saintly of humanists, the most human of saints”
More – Utopia (1516)• Humanistic masterpiece, radical for its
time• Mixed civic humanism with religious
ideals to create a perfect (utopian) society on an imaginary island
• People should live by reason, giving up material goods for the common good
• On Utopia, war, poverty, religious intolerance and other problems of society did not exist
Michel de Montaigne• French noble, politician,
scholar (1533-1592)• Skepticism – questioning
what can truly be known – “What do I know?”
• Created essay form of writing about subject
• Essays (1580s) – very influential on European thought – urged toleration for all ideas since nothing could be known for certain
William Shakespeare• English playwright, poet
(1564-1616)• Works reflected
Renaissance idea of humanism – focus on individual, both good and bad
• Skepticism present in some later works like “Hamlet”