Symonds, A Short History of the Renaissance in Italy, Ch. VII. (London 1893.) Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy; The Revival of Learning. Chs. IIII, Ch. IX, pp. 239-298. (New York, 1888.) The Educational Meaning of the Renaissance. Barnard, German Teachers and Educators, pp. 41-97. (Hartford, 1878.) Barnard, The Renaissance in Italy, in Barnard's Journal, Vol. VII, pp. 413-460. (Boston, 1886.) (London, 1881.) Compayré, History of Education, pp. 83-111. Janssen, History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages, Jebb, Humanism in Education (Romanes Lectures). (London, 1899.) (New York, 1887.) Painter, History of Education, pp. 119-133. Renaissance Educators. Barnard, German Teachers and Educators, pp. 41-84. On the Hierony mians, Reuchlin, Agricola, Erasmus, Platter, Melanchthon, etc. Drummond, Erasmus, Chs. VII and X, and passim. (London, 1873.) Laurie, Development of Educational Opinion since the Renaissance, pp. 1885. (Cambridge, 1903.) Owen, Skeptics of the Renaissance, Pt. II. Quick, Educational Reformers, pp. 22-32. Seebohm, Oxford Reformers, Chs. I, VI. (London, 1887.) Types of Humanistic Schools. Barnard, German Teachers and Educators, pp. 85-92, 185-229. Hamlyn, Universities of Europe at the Period of the Reformation. (Ox ford. 1876.) Laurie, The Renaissance and the School, in School Review, Vol. III pp. 140-148, 202-214. Laurie, Development of Educational Opinion since the Renaissance, pp. 1– 93. Russell, German Higher Schools, Ch. II. (New York, 1899.) Whitcomb, Source Book of the Renaissance, Vol. II, pp. 1-62. (Phila delphia, 1899.) Woodward, Vittorino da Feltre, pp. 1-93. Woodward, Vittorino da Feltre and Erasmus, as above. Robinson and Rolfe, Monroe, Drane, Russell, Painter, Compayré, Kemp, etc., as above. TOPICS FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION 1. What similarity exists between the educational situation and educational problem of the Renaissance and of the Sophist period of Greek education? 2. Describe the ideal of culture and of personal development as found in the writings of Petrarch, Boccaccio, etc. 3. Make a list of the subjects discussed as of interest in the writings of Petrarch or any Renaissance writer, and compare with a similar list from writings or chronicles or tales of the medieval period. 4. What contrasts can you discover between the worldliness of the Renaissance as shown in the literature of the period with the other worldliness of the mediæval period? 5. To what extent were the earlier scientific discoverers e.g. Laurentius Valla, Copernicus, Columbus-guided by knowledge gained direct from writings of the Greeks? 6. What similarity exists in conception of aim, organization, method, etc., of education of early Renaissance writers and those of Greek and Roman writers? (See translations in Woodward.) 7. What is a liberal education? 8. Can there be an absolute standard for a liberal education? 9. Can there be an absolute curriculum for a liberal education? 10. What is the meaning and content of humanism? 11. Make a study of Erasmus's dialogue on Ciceronianism. 12. Give an analysis of Erasmus's treatise on methods of teaching. 13. Give an analysis of Wimpfeling's treatise on Youth (Adolescentia) ot of his Guide to the German Youth. 14. Give an account of the educational activities and influences of the Brethren of the Common Life. 15. What are the merits and demerits of The Colloquies of Erasmus as a text-book when compared with material previously used? 16. What evidences do you find of the inclusion of new elements in education in the Renaissance period? 17. Trace the place held by the physical element in education from the ancient through the medieval and modern periods. The æsthetic element. 18. Describe in detail the work of Reuchlin or of any of the humanistic educators mentioned but briefly. 19. What similarity exists between the methods described in detail in Ascham's Schoolmaster and the best methods in use in the present in teaching languages? 20. Make a comparison between Lilly's Grammar and those now in use. 21. Give a description of the content and method of work of the English public school. 22. What material can you find relating to the method and subject. matter of work of the colonial grammar school? CHAPTER VII THE REFORMATION, COUNTER-REFORMATION, AND THE RELIGIOUS CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION WHAT THE REFORMATION WAS.- The most fundamental features of this period have already been mentioned in stating the changed character of the Renaissance in the North. For the Renaissance in Germany is not to be distinguished from the Reformation, save in its spirit and in its outcome. The interest of the Italian Renaissance was largely in classical and pagan literature; the Teutonic Renaissance in patristic and Christian literature. As has been previously stated, the one was concerned in personal culture, the other in social reform in morals and in religion. One was individualistic and self-centered, the other was social and reformatory. The explanation of the difference is found partially in the fact that the civilization of the Latin countries was based directly upon the classical institutions, the traditions and influences. of which were ever present, while the civilization of the Teutons had been a direct outgrowth of their Christianization; partially, in the fact that the Teutonic mind possessed a moral and religious bent, while the Latin mind was predominantly secular in its interests. The interests of the fifteenth century were literary and æsthetic, and involved the recovery and appreciation of the classical literatures. Those of the sixteenth century were ethical and theological, and involved criticism and reconstruction rather than appre ciation. This criticism and this reconstruction were directed toward two aspects of religion, one abstract and theological, the other practical and moral. In both the ethical and the theologicai aspects of the movement a division of the Church was involved; in the former necessarily, in the latter only temperamentally. The movement began with the former, that is, with the effort to reform the many abuses within the Church. The necessity for such a reform was admitted by the Church long before the actual break occurred, and was striven for by many sections of the Catholic Church both before and after the open break had taken place. This tendency toward moral reform within the Church culminated in the Council of Trent (1545-1562), and in itself could probably have caused no permanent division. But by that time the abstract and theological differences, due to fundamental disagreement, had become so prominent that harmonization was no longer possible. This fundamental and necessary divergence in the conception of religion is due to the nature of the human mind, and had appeared in the discussions of the later Middle Ages between nominalism and realism. But so long as men's minds remained essentially uncritical and without the basis for forming positive judgments, so long the inherent incompatibility of the views did not cause open rupture. With the Renaissance this basis was furnished in the knowledge of ancient and patristic literature and through the critical spirit thus developed. Hence it was inevitable that these two views of religion should come in conflict. The one view looks upon religion as a completed truth, revealed in its entirety by divine providence and given into the hands of an institution, whose origin, constitution, and authority are divine in the same sense and for the same reason that obtain in the case of the original revelation. To the other view, religion is a truth divine in its origin, but completed only with the growth and through the development of the spirit of man. It is not a completed truth, but one whose principles are perfected by progressive application through the lives of men. Its particular meaning |