Intellectual Networks of Humanists at the Councils of Constance and Basel
in the 15th Century
Takashi Jinno
Introduction
The vivid interests in the classical works of Greek and Latin authorities were revived
in the 15th century. In this period many intellectuals who were called humanists could
be seen in Italy. Such persons were mostly clergies who had a lot of opportunities for
learning classical languages and reading the classics. Consequently they were
impressed by elegant styles and secular world views which the classics involved. So,
they began to write their works imitating styles of the classics and they discussed
humanism of the classical authorities with those who had the same interests in the
classics. As a result they could acquire new and unprejudiced perspectives to men and
nature.
But, we don’t know precisely how the intellectuals in this period obtained the
manuscripts of the classics. It has not been answered by modern scholars accurately
how they acquired them. Of course, many famous works of the Greek classics were
already translated from Arabic language or Greek language to Latin language from the
12th century onward in Spain and Sicily. Furthermore, at the time of the collapse of
Byzantine Empire, numerous manuscripts of the Greek classics were brought from
there to western Europe.
However, it is not well known for us how the humanists in this period discovered
Latin manuscripts of the classics in Europe. It might be thought that almost all Latin
manuscripts of the classics had been discovered in libraries of Italian churches and
monasteries. But, in fact, only few manuscripts had been discovered in Italy. Rather,
the greater part of
important manuscripts were discovered in libraries of churches
and monasteries in the north regions of the Alps.
Especially, at the time of two councils which were held in the territory of Germany,
namely, the council of Constance(1414-1418) and the council of Basel(1431-1449),
Italian humanists who accompanied their ecclesiastical patrons to take part in the
councils gathered many manuscripts of the classics in libraries of churches and
monasteries in the north regions of the Alps. Further, many humanists who came from
Italy found not only manuscripts of the classics written by church fathers dealing with
dogmas and teachings of church, but also a lot of manuscripts of the pagan classics
treating with secular problems in the libraries of the monasteries of St.Gall, Reichenau,
and Cluny, etc. during these two councils. Normally they copied them, but sometimes
1
they took away them from churches and monasteries. What is more, the manuscripts
of the classics were sold at markets in both cities during the openings of the councils.
So, ecclesiastics and masters of universities who came from various regions of Europe
to participate in the councils competed with others in buying manuscripts of the
classics.
In this paper, we want to consider the discoveries of manuscripts of the classics and
the diffusion of the ideas of humanism in the15th century especially in Germany.
1. The Council of Constance and Humanists
The council of Constance, which was held in one of the most flourished cities of south
Germany in the Middle Ages for four years from 1414 to 1418, aimed at finding
solutions to serious contemporary problems of catholic church such as great schism,
church reform, and heresy. After the German king, Sigismund, had decided to call an
ecumenical council in order to solve these problems, he negotiated the opening of
council with pope Johannes XXIII. who belonged to the obedience of Pisa.
The council began December 1414 in the cathedral of Constance. And in the sessions
of the council the representatives of secular and ecclesiastical authorities discussed
the important problems relating to the present state of catholic church. Among those
problems, the most pressing one was the overcome of great schism. Ultimately, it came
to a settlement by the deposition of three popes and the election of a new pope called
Martinus V. Moreover, the important problem which was discussed in the council
was the treatment of heresy of Hussites. As measures to meet the problem, the dogmas
and the teachings of Jan Hus were condemned in the sessions and Hus was burned as
a heretic in the suburb of Constance July 1415.
But ,another serious problem was church reform. The participants in the council tried
to place restrictions on the strong authority of papacy, at the same time to support the
independencies of regional churches. Among the problems relating to church reforms,
the rights of papal reservations to offices of prelates and other ecclesiastics were most
criticized .In consequence the rights of papal reservations were substantially reduced.
The numbers of participants and attendants in the council of Constance totally
amounted to about fifty thousand people for four years. Several hundreds of prelates
such as pope Johannes XXIII, cardinals, patriarches, archbishops, bishops, abbots
were assembled in the council from various regions of Europe. Besides, not only
ecclesiastics but also
lay persons of high rank such as German king Sigismund,
Bohemian king Wenzel, other princes and nobles came to join in the council. Moreover,
2
about two hundreds of representatives of cities and about thirty representatives of
universities also participated in the council. At the same time, a great number of
secretaries and servants who accompanied their patrons participating in the council
came to Constance. For example, pope Johannes XXIII was followed by about 300
attendants of the papal Curia. Besides, a lot of applicants who wanted to obtain
ecclesiastical benefices gathered in the council. Also in order to support daily life of
gathered people, many bankers and
merchants came to Constance to work.
Consequently the city of Constance was full of large number of visitors suddenly.
And we can find many humanists among the people who gathered in Constance,
especially among the prelates and the attendants of pope and other prelates. First,
some prominent humanists were found among the cardinals. Namely, those were
Pierre D’Ailly who debated in the sessions of the council from the standpoint of
conciliarism, Francesco Zabarella who was a famous canon lawyer, Guillaume Fillastre
who wrote a chronicle of the council. Also many humanists were found among the
persons who came to the council as attendants of pope and other prelates,such as
Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, Agapito Cenci, Bartolomeo da Montepulciano,
Antonio Loschi, Pietoro Paolo Vergerio, Bendetto da Pirio, Zenbino de Pistoia, Manuel
Crysoloras, who came from Italy, Jean de Montreuil and Nicolas de Clamanges who
came from France.
In this period, Latin classics were willingly read by ecclesiastics and intellectuals
especially in Italy. While they wrote their works imitating the styles and thought of
the Latin classics, they exchanged letters in Latin with each other to cultivate their art
of writing in excellent Latin. They also learned totally new perspectives of the nature
and men from the classics. Therefore they wanted to read the classics as many as
possible. But the number of the classics which they could read then were very limited.
In Italy, from the 14th century to the beginning of the council of Constance(1414), the
number of newly discovered manuscripts of Latin classics were less than twenty.
Though the gathering of manuscripts of the Latin classics were promoted by initiatives
of a famous Italian
humanist Niccolo Niccoli in this time, the activities of the
gathering in Italy did not work out successfully. But in this time, Italian humanists
had known that undiscovered manuscripts of Latin classics were preserved in
libraries of churches and monasteries in the north regions of the Alps and that such
kind of manuscripts were amply remained owing to the activities of copying by scribes
of churches and monasteries.
Therefore, the council of Constance was a favorable opportunity for humanists to
3
search for undiscovered manuscripts of
Latin classics. On this account, some
humanists who participated in the council traveled often to churches and
monasteries around Constance during the break of sessions in order to find famous
undiscovered manuscripts.
2. Poggio Bracciolini and his Travel to search for Manuscripts
Among a lot of humanists who participated in the council of Constance, the persons
who searched eagerly for manuscripts were Poggio Bracciolini, Bartolomeo da
Montepulciano, Agapito Cenci, Zenovino de Pistoia, Benedetto da Pilio, Antonio Roschi
,etc.. But among these manuscript hunters, the person who played a leading part was
Poggio Bracciolini. He learned Latin literatures in Florence under the tuition of
Sallutati, and Niccolo Niccoli. Then, he worked as a secretary of pope Johannes XXIII
and came to Constance with other members of the papal Curia.
Poggio traveled to Germany and France four times to seek Latin manuscripts during
the stay in Constance. First, he went to the monastery of Cluny in the Summer of 1415.
In this time,he joined in the delegation of the council for the duke of Burgogne. Poggio
could find five manuscripts of Cicero’s Orations , namely, “Pro murena,” “Pro cruentio”,
“Pro sexton loscio”, “Pro miro”, “Pro caelio”, in the library of Cluny. He knowed already
the existence of these manuscripts of Cicero’s works in Cluny by the suggestion of two
French humanists, Jean Montrueil, Nicolas de Clamanges. Among these manuscripts
of Cicero’s Orations, “Pro murena” and “ Pro sexto loscio” were not known in Italy in
those days. After Poggio found these manuscripts, he sent the copies of them to his
master Niccolo Niccoli who stayed in Florence.Then, these manuscripts were copied
immediately in large quantities in Italy.
We don’t know well Poggio’s activity after his first travel from 1415 to 1416. But, he
decided to travel again to seek manuscripts for the second time with Agapito Cenci,
Bartolomeo da Montpulciano June or July 1416. The place where they visited was the
monastery of St.Gallen near to Constance. They found an excellent library in a tower of
the monastery. The abbot Henry of Gunderfingen and the monks were not educated
well and they could not understand sufficiently the values of manuscripts which the
library had. So, it was very easy for them to take out
as many manuscripts as
possible to Constance.
The most important manuscript which they found in this time was “Institutiones” of
Quintilianus. The work of Quintilianus was a broadly circulated manual book for
learning of Latin language in the ancient Rome. This work had been known only
4
fragmentally in the Middle Ages. Before the discovery of the complete manuscript by
Poggio, some parts of “Institutiones” were cited for teaching of liberal arts in a few
medieval works such as “ Metalogicon”of John of Salisbury and “Speculum Maius”of
Vincentius of Beauvais.
Humanists in the 15th century searched for the manuscript of Quintilianus in earnest.
Therefore the discovery of it by Poggio was regarded an epochmaking event in the
history of the revival of humanism. It was said that it took fifty-three days for Poggio
to finish to copy the complete manuscript of “Institutiones” of Quintilianus. He sent
the copy to Leonard Bruni and Niccolo Niccoli in Florence. This discovery of the
manuscripts of Quintilianus was received in Italy with great surprise and joy. At this
second travel, Poggio also discovered another important manuscripts such as
“Argonautica” of Valerius Flaccus, “De architectura” of Vitruvius,etc..
Poggio made his third trip to seek manuscripts in the beginning of 1417. At this time,
he was accompanied by Bartolmeo da Montepulciano. They went to the monastery of
St,Gallen at first. There they found two important manuscripts,namely, “De re militia”
of Vegetius and a summary of “De significatione verbi” of Velius Flaccus by Pompeius
Festus. After they visited several monasteries besides St.Gallen, they returned to
Constance.
Then, Poggio made his fourth travel for searching manuscripts in the summer of 1417.
At this time, Poggio traveled to France and Germany and two scribes were
accompanied by him for the copying of manuscripts on the spot. First, he visited Basel
and then he went from Basel to Langres in France. In a library of church in Langres,
he discovered a manuscript of one of Cicero’s Oratons,namely, “Pro caecilina,” which
was not known until then in Europe. And he went to Cologne where he discovered
seven manuscripts of Cicero’s Orations,namely, “Pro commodio Loscio,””Pro
Rabilio”,”Pro Rabilio Posthumo,” “Contra pisonem,”and three orations titled ”De lege
agri”. Because the orations of Cicero had been highly estimated as models of refined
Latin styles, humanists in those days eagerly wanted to find them. Therefore these
discoveries became the most splendid honor for Poggio.
3. The council of Basel and the Gathering of Manuscripts
In the council of Constance, it was determined to hold ecumenical councils regularly
by the decree “Frequens” and according to the decree, a new council was held again in
Basel. But, just after the decision of opening of a council in Basel, pope Martinus V had
died. So,the following pope Eugenius IV held the council of Basel in the year of 1431,
5
though the pope himself did not attend the council but gave the authority for acting in
behalf of the pope to the papal deputies.
Many privileges which the papacy accumulated until then were substantially limited
by the decrees of the council according to opinions of the leading faction.In the council
the independency of the regional churches from the papacy was advocated
more
intensely than in the council of Constance. But pope Eugenius IV could not accept the
decisions of church reforms, especially the decisions of reductions of papal privileges.So,
he proclaimed the move of the council to Ferrara on his own judgement. The leading
faction following the idea of conciliarism remained in Basel to continue the sessions for
church reforms and chose Amadeus VIII of Savoia as new pope Felix V. Both sides
opposed each other until 1449.But at last, anti-pope Felix V abdicated the papacy
voluntarily recognizing the legitimacy of pope Eugenius IV. and the council of Basel
was dissolved 1449.
By the way, the council of Basel was the council whose location became again an
imperial city in Germany. As the council of Constance, the Italian humanists who
came to the council searched for manuscripts of Latin classics in churches and
monasteries in the north regions of the Alps. Because the council continued for long
years, it was said that several hundreds of humanists gathered in Basel. They not only
collected manuscripts of Latin classics, but also transmitted the ideas of humanism
to German intellectuals.
As the most eminent person who gathered many manuscripts during the stay in the
council of Basel, we can cite Anbrogio Traversari, the leader of the order of Kamaldoli
in that time. He learned Greek and Latin in Florence under the guidance of Manuel
Crysorolas who came from Byzantine Empire to Italy. Ambrogio went to Basel in
order to participate in the council of Basel. Then, he was sent as a mission of the
council to the court of German king. During the trip to Germany, he gathered many
manuscripts of Latin classics in the church of Regensburg. Besides him, as another
famous person who gathered manuscripts during the council of Basel, we can cite
Giovanni Aurispa. He was born in Sicily and he traveled to the Asia in his youth. Then,
he studied law in the university of Bologna and he joined in the papal Curia of
Martinus V. From 1421, he again traveled to Constantinople. During his stay he
worked as a secretary under the Byzantine Emperor. Then, he returned to Italy. He
became a teacher of Greek in Florence in 1425. And then he participated in the council
of Basel in 1433. During his stay in Basel he traveled various regions of Germany to
seek manuscripts. He found the manuscripts of “commentary on Terentius” of Donatus,
6
“Panegyricus” of Plinius the younger in a church of Mainz. He was also famous as a
collector of manuscripts of the classics. During his stay in Constantinople,he gathered
many Greek manuscripts such as the works of Sophocules, Euripides,Tyucidides,
Aristoteles, Theofrastos,etc. And they brought them to Italy.
Moreover, another important person as a collector of manuscripts in this period was
Tommaso Parentucelli who became later pope Nicolaus V. He worked under cardinal
Niccolo Arbergati and joined in the council of Basel 1433. During his stay in Basel, he
found two manuscripts of Tertullianus somewhere around Basel. After he was
enrhroned as pope, he tried to revive the authority of papacy which suffered bitterly in
the time of Eugenius IV. While he acted as a important patron of arts and sciences, he
invited many humanists such as Poggio Bracciolini, Lorenzo Valla, Vespasiano da
Bisticci etc.. to the papal Curia. He also planned the foundation of the Vatican library.
Besides Italian humanists, we can cite other humanists who joined in the council of
Basel and at the same time gathered manuscripts of the classics. The most famous
humanist was Nicolaus Cusanus. He joined in the council as a legate of archbishop of
Trier and he supported movements of church reforms in the council as an advocate of
conciliarism. At the time of the council, he gathered manuscripts in some churches and
monasteries around Basel. Later, he was converted from the faction of conciliarism to
the side of pope Eugenius IV. He went to Constantinople as a legate of Eugenius IV
1437.There he worked as diplomat of the pope, and on the same time he gathered a lot
of manuscripts of Greek classics.
Thus the humanists who participated in the council of Basel eagerly gathered many
manuscripts. And sometimes the humanists were too enthusiastically engaged in
gathering of manuscripts to plunder manuscripts from libraries of churches and
monasteries near Basel. Especially, the monastery of St.Gallen was tremendously
damaged by the robbery of manuscripts. So, the abbot Caspar von Breitenberg closed
the doors of library with three keys. He hold one of three keys. Other two keys were
held by monks. Consequently,it became necessary to obtain approvals of three persons
in order to enter in the library.
Moreover, in the time of the council of Basel,markets for selling manuscripts were
held in the city. Manuscripts of the classics were sold there. Mainly the persons who
came from universities in Germany and East Europe bought them. Thus,
the
manuscripts of the classics and the ideas of humanism were diffused in the north
regions of the Alps.
7
4. Enea Silvio Piccolomini and the Transmission of Humanism to Germany
The council of Basel contributed to the discovery of unknown manuscripts of the
classics greatly. At the same time, it helped to implant the ideas of humanism in the
north of the Alps. Now we want to consider the activity of Enea Silvio
Piccolomini(later,Pope Pius II), who worked for the transmission of the ideas of
humanism in Germany as a humanist in the time of the council of Basel.
Enea was born in the family of nobility called “Piccolomini” near Siena. After he
studied liberal arts and law in Siena, Pavia, and Florence, he worked under various
prelates, and he gradually made his career. Then, he participated in the council of
Basel as a secretary of cardinal Domenico Capuranica.During the council, he traveled
to Scotland and Germany as a member of legates of the council. 1436 he was appointed
chancellor of the council and he played important role in the sessions. He visited the
Diet in Frankfurt 1442 as a deputy of the council of Basel. There he met the German
king Frederick III. The king was impressed by Enea’s learning of humanism.The king
invited Enea to the court of Wien to make Enea a member of the king’s court. While he
stayed more than 10 years in the court, he played an important role in the politics of
Frederick III. For the German side, Enea was a very important person who could not
only negociate with the papacy but also transmit the ideas of humanism in Germany.
While Enea had acquaintance with many German intellectuals in Wien, he
transmitted the educational methods of humanism to masters and students in the
university of Wien. Also at the same time, clerks in the chancellery of the king, began
to imitate the Latin style which Enea instruct them for writing Latin documents. In
the circle of the court, he educated humanism to nobles and prelates who gathered in
the court. They made a circle of exchanging Latin letters with each other around Enea
and they discussed refined Latin styles and humanism of the classics.
While Enea educated the personel of the royal court to write official documents in
excellent Latin during his stay, he diffused the ideas of humanism also by his own
writings. For example, he wrote “De meseris curialis” which treated the misery of
courtiers and described the necessities of education of humanism for the soundness of
the court. He also wrote “Pentalogus” in which he expressed his ideas of political
organizations taking the form of the discussions by five politically important
persons,namely, emperor,chancellor, bishop of Freising, bishop of Chiemsee. In this
work, he especially described the ideal state of the Christendom.It was said in the
work that the catholic church should be firmly united and the power of emperor should
be strenghthed much more in order to realize the ideal political state. And also he said
8
there that the emperor must preside over the council of magnates as the supreme
govornor of the world because the papacy did not function as universal authority well.
And more in this writing, he said that the education of humanism was needed urgently
in Germany. Moreover, Enea described the history of Germany in his another work
titled “Germania”. This work treated the history of Germany as a coherent history of
one nation. As this work was the excellent description in Latin, many contemporary
German writers imitated this as a model for describing the historiography of Germany.
Anyway, Enea’s activities as a humanist in Germany contributed to the implantation
of humanisim and the education of the classics. After Enea left the court of the German
king, he was elected pope Pius II 1458 and he spread the ideas of humanism now in the
papal Curia.
Conclusion
The reassessment of the classics and the revival of humanism had begun first in Italy
and then in the regions of the north Alps in the 15th century. In this process, the most
important events for humanists were discoveries of many lost classics. As we said here,
the councils of Constance and Basel were the best opportunities to find manuscripts of
the classics in libraries of church and monasteries which were located in the regions of
the north of the Alps.
While humanists searched for manuscripts during these two councils, many
manuscripts were brought out to sell in markets in both cities. Therefore manuscripts
of the classics were spread rapidly in this time to various parts of Europe.
Consequently the ideas and the education of humanism were penetrated into almost
every corner of Europe in the 15th century.
Also, as an important background of discoveries of manuscripts in libraries of
churches and monasteries, we must value the medieval tradition of copying manuscrits
of the classics. In the Middle Ages scribes copied a lot of classical manuscripts in
scriptoriums of churches and monasteries, because they thought that copying
manuscripts was an important sacred work to praise God. The bloom of humanism in
the Renaissance would not come about without the work of copying manuscripts by
medieval scribes.
Anyway, the councils of Constance and Basel were not only political assemblies to
solve pressing problems relating to the papacy and the Western Church, but also
favorable opportunities to spread the ideas and education of humanism into various
parts of Europe.
9
10