Upper School thesis project

Brennan Torstrick: The Shift Towards Humanism: The Middle Ages to the Renaissance

Mrs. Clark
AP English Literature
22 April 2008

Introduction

    Myths and other literary works have been a great part of human civilization.  Every era has left its own mark on the world through the literature that it has produced.  It is through this literature that we can catch a glimpse of what life was like in the past and determine what influenced the works that were created. 

      The conditions that we live in greatly affect our daily lives.  They seep their way into every nook and cranny of our culture.  From the most primitive to the most civilized man, the conditions we face influence the way we live.  This applies not only to the common man, but also to writers, poets, and playwrights.  When an author is going through a difficult time in his life and decides to produce a work, he does not write about how beautiful the sunrise is and how joyful he is to be alive.  Instead, he writes about how dark the night is and how he wishes that he could just die.  The conditions of his life affect what he writes.

      Take the tale of Robin Hood for example.  The common belief today, due to Disney, is that he stole from the rich and gave to the poor in order to rout local authority.  However, different eras have shaped Robin Hood to mean what they want.  Robert Segal states that in the eighteenth century, Robin Hood’s “nemesis is now... tyranny: ‘the medieval church and oppressive kings’” (Segal ¶2-4).  This lines up perfectly with the age of imperialism where nations were seeking to expand under the so-called “oppressive kings”.

      In essence, there is a cause and effect relationship between life and literature.  Something happens which causes something else to happen which causes something else to happen.  This domino effect creates different points of view that can be observed in the literary works of each time period.

    So how does one analyze the way culture influences the literature being produced at any given time?  Two factors should be considered: the work itself and the context in which it was written.  Within the work, tone, symbolism, and the actual text need to be considered.  When a work is examined within the time in which it was written, there are other issues to be taken into account.  These include historical events, social class struggles, and cultural beliefs.  

    After the text itself has been analyzed and hypotheses have been formed regarding what the text means, the context in which it was written should be considered in order to back up these assumptions.  To find evidence that verifies a hypothesis, one must look for a historical conflict.  Conflict is everywhere and is present in every time period.  Therefore, this conflict, whether it be between classes or countries, will show up in works of literature.

    War is a major conflict that shows itself in literary works.  War can influence literature in different ways.  If an author's nation won a war, his piece would be very different from the author's whose nation had lost.  One can find evidence of this in Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One, where Peekay was harassed because his English ancestors had imprisoned the Afrikaners during the Boer War.  His schoolmates would call him a rooinek[1] among other names.  They also killed Grandpa Chook, Peekay’s pet chicken, simply to be cruel (Courtenay 46-50).  This shows that the effects of a war can influence how we live even after the war has been over for years.   

    The above example can also be seen as a struggle between two social classes: the Afrikaners and the English.  As mentioned before, the author’s tone usually tells the reader which classes are in conflict with each other and why.  Courtenay does an excellent job of this by allowing the reader to enter into Peekay’s mind.  By doing this, he is able to convey his own thoughts about the Afrikaners by using Peekay as an intermediate.  Writers often use this technique as well as others to point out a struggle between classes.

    Cultural beliefs are another way that the outside world can affect what is written.  Whatever an author believes will come through when he writes.  It could be his religion, or it could just be what he values most in life.  In any case, an author's beliefs usually parallel his respective culture’s beliefs. 

    No matter when or where a piece of literature was written, it will have some trace of where it came from.  Many people study history books looking for facts. But if they would just read and study literature, they would gain a better understanding of the time from which it came.  Whether it is explained explicitly or simply implied, literature gives us a chance to look into the past and see what life was like.

Heroic Shift Towards Humanism

Just as literature shifts from time to time, so do the characters within it.  Arguably the most important character in any work is the heroic figure.  Every culture has its own definition for a hero, and this definition has shifted several times over the course of history.  One major shift came during the transition between the Medieval Era and the Renaissance. 

     We start with the Medieval Era.  During this time period, it was stressed that the hero’s duty was not to look out for himself, but rather to dedicate his life to defending something greater than himself.  Whether it was his god, king, or family, the medieval hero was to give up his life in order to protect this greater good.  The medieval hero’s loyalty to his nation and his god is evident in The Song of Roland when Archbishop Turpin preaches to the French army:  “We know our duty: to die like good men for our King./Fight to defend the holy Christian faith”(Roland ln. 1128-9).  This piece also displays the hero’s devotion to his family name.  When the emperor is about to send Roland off to the rear guard, Roland states, “May God strike me/if I discredit the history of my line” (ln. 787-8).  Additionally, in the epic Beowulf, Wiglaf shows loyalty to his king by entreating his comrades to aid Beowulf saying, “I remember . . . /how we pledged loyalty to our lord in the hall” (Beowulf ln. 2633-4). 

     This loyalty to nation, church, and family eventually found itself becoming the backbone of medieval chivalry.  In Ramón Lull’s The Book of the Order of Chivalry written in 1276, he sets out the “rules” of chivalry by declaring that the chivalric knight has numerous offices to maintain.  He states, “the office of a knight is to maintain and defend the holy catholic faith” and “to maintain and defend his worldly or terrestrial lord” (4). 

These offices created a mold in which medieval society cast its heroic figures.  This mold suited society’s needs for a few centuries, but began to fade once Europe was “reborn” in the Renaissance.  In this new era, literature began to pull the heroic figure towards humanism (Sullivan 551).  Society began to put less emphasis on others and more emphasis on self.  In the introduction to Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Sylvan Barnet states that, “the Renaissance saw the emergence of the individual” (Barnet xiii).  Steven Kreis says that during the Renaissance, “Individualism and the instinct of curiosity were vigorously cultivated” (Kreis ¶16). 

This new curiosity and thirst for knowledge gave rise to the tragic hero.  Aristotle tells us that the tragic hero must go from “happiness to misery; and the cause of it must lie . . . in some great error on his part” (Aristotle 640).  This single requirement is seen in a multitude of pieces coming out of the Renaissance.  Faustus falls into misery by selling his soul to Lucifer (Marlowe 2.1.75).  King Lear does so by giving his power to Goneril and Regan instead of Cordelia (Lear 1.1.130-1).  Macbeth’s flaw is in his hunger for power.  First he kills King Duncan to become king himself, and then he orders the murder of Banquo so that the witches’ prophecy will not come true (Macbeth 2.2.14, 3.1.115-25).

Aristotle also states that the tragic hero “first and foremost . . . shall be good” and that he should be “consistent and the same throughout; even if . . . he [is] consistently inconsistent” (Aristotle 643). Faustus is a fine example of this.  Even though we cannot say that he is purely good, flashes of virtue do appear.  Faustus encounters numerous signs alerting him that he has made the wrong decision.  The instant he signs his contract with the devil, the words Homo fuge! appear on his arm (Marlowe 2.1.82).  He is also visited by the good angel who reminds him of God’s willingness to forgive (2.1.21-2). After each of these, Faustus pauses for a moment to reflect on his decision.  Although he continues in his pact with the devil, his hesitance at each foreboding sign shows his uncertainty about his decision and, therefore, his goodness.  By his continuous refusal to heed each warning, Faustus also fits Aristotle’s requirement of being consistent.

The examples above can be used to show the shift from Medieval Chivalry to Renaissance Humanism.  Faustus, Lear, and Macbeth all turn their backs on the Medieval “offices” of a knight.  Faustus does not “maintain and defend” his Catholic faith, and Macbeth does not “maintain and defend his . . . terrestrial lord” (Lull 4).  Lear is a little different.  Although he does end up denying his daughter, Cordelia; he is loyal to his other two daughters, Regan and Goneril.  Lear’s flaw is that he uses bad judgment.  

Although the Renaissance is considered to be the rebirth of mankind and the foundation of modern society, some argue that its emphasis on self may not have been the best path.  Doubts about humanism can be traced backed to the Medieval Period.  In Beowulf, Wiglaf states, “Often when one man follows his own will/ many are hurt” (ln. 3077-8).  This negative attitude toward humanism also appears in the Renaissance itself.  Sylvan Barnet says that the Faustus legend was, “gathered together and unified by the idea that pride will have a fall” (Barnet xii).  Faustus’ pride came from his desire for knowledge, which is a core trait of humanism.  Even though some may say that humanism leads people to their destruction, there is no doubt that the shift towards humanism has been one of the most significant shifts in literature.

Humanism and the Protestant Reformation

Of the many causes for the shift to humanism, the Protestant Reformation is one of the most important.  Alister McGrath wrote, “Of the many tributaries which contributed to the flow of the reformation, by far the most important was Renaissance humanism” (39).  Although he is taking the approach that humanism spurred the reformation instead of the reformation spurring humanism, it still shows the close relationship between the two events.  So how did the reformation come about, and how did it encourage a more humanist outlook?  The answer can be found in boring textbooks and lecture halls throughout the world.  Yet, it can also be found in the slightly less boring field of literature.  By analyzing pieces from different eras, we are able to catch glimpses of how religion has affected society’s beliefs.

     In the early Medieval Period, Christianity was beginning to take hold in Europe.  In Beowulf, there are direct references Christianty.  At one point the narrator states that, “The truth is clear: Almighty God rules over mankind and always has” (Beowulf 47).  At another, “Past and present, God’s will prevails”(71).  Allusions to the Bible and Christ also appear.  A reference to the great flood is made when Hrothgar examines the hilt given to him by Beowulf, and “the shepherd of our land” is clearly Jesus (117,179).  However, one can also find countless places in Beowulf where the idea of fate is used; for example,  “fate goes ever as fate must”, “Fate sweeps them away into Grendel’s clutches”, and “His fate hovered near” (31,33,165).  These two ideas do not seem as if they would be in the same piece.  The reason is that Beowulf was an oral tale long before it was written down.  In its original state, fate and wyrd, were large parts of cultural belief.  By the time Beowulf was put to paper, between the seventh and tenth centuries, Christianity was becoming more and more popular.  The narrator added in his Christian beliefs with the original Anglo-Saxon beliefs when he wrote the legend down. 

With the spread of Christianity in full swing, it was not long before most of Europe was converted. By 1050 A.D., most of Western Europe was Christian (McManners 196).  As the religion eventually became highly structured with many rules and regulations, it also began to attack other religions because, in a sense, they weren’t Christian.  This idea drifted onto paper around 1100 A.D. with the Song of Roland.  Once again, this “song” is a written account of events that had occurred centuries before.  Yet, it still conveys the beliefs common during the Crusades, the time at which it was written.  Within the first ten lines of the piece, it seems that the only reason to go after King Marsilion is that “[he] does not love God” (Roland ln. 7).  Once the city of Cordres is taken, the goal for the Christians becomes clear.  “In the city not one pagan remained/who is not killed or turned into a Christian” (ln. 101-102).  At the end of the story, however, Roland is killed.  This event could symbolize society’s growing discontent with the church. 

By the late Medieval Period, many advances had come to Europe.  Cities became larger and more numerous.  This huge growth of cities gave way to a great deal of religious controversy (McManners 211).  Fuel was added to the fire with the invention of the Gutenberg’s printing press in 1450 (Dutch ¶10).  Now these different religious views could be mass-produced and read by the common man.  Also, since the Bible was also being mass-produced, people could start to have their own opinions.  Before printing, the church was the only place where the books of the Bible were read.  Therefore, the church could control what society knew about Christianity.  Now that society could form their own beliefs, the Church began to lose control.  More and more priests began to express their personal views.  However, these priests were often illiterate, poor, and untrained, which led to discontent among the masses.  Many church officials were also corrupt in their actions.

Dante Alighieri conveys his views on Christianity and expresses his displeasure with the corrupt church in his Inferno.  In Canto XXVII, the pilgrim encounters the monk Guido da Montefeltro.  The monk “was untrue to his vows when . . . he counseled the use of fraud in the pope’s campaign against the Colonna family” (Musa 315).  Referring to Pope Boniface VII, he tells the pilgrim “his sacred vows were no concern to him”  (318).  Canto XIX is another instance where Dante rebukes the papal seat for being corrupt.  As the pilgrim approaches Pope Nicholas III, he finds the pope stuck in a fiery hole with only his feet above the ground.  He is in Hell for committing simony and rests on top of every pope that ruled before him.  Dante goes on to assert that every pope that comes after Nicholas will also burn in Hell (XIX ln. 73-78).  After speaking with the pope, the pilgrim becomes extremely angry with him and chides him saying, “So stay stuck there, for you are rightly punished . . . for your avarice brings grief upon the world, crushing the good, exalting the depraved” (ln. 97-99).  This lashing out at the pope by the pilgrim could be another symbol of society’s discontent with the church.  No longer will the people put up with the church’s corruptness.

In the sixteenth century, society finally took a stand against the church with the Protestant Reformation.  If the Protestant reformation had to have a father, Martin Luther would be the one.  His idea was to “[reduce] Christianity to its essence . . . which was the gospel” (McManners 257).  This way of thinking, going back to original sources, is called Ad fontes.  It was an idea that stimulated the reformation and was also a mainstay of humanist thought throughout the Renaissance.  The idea was to do away with the church and all of its rules and regulations and go back to the Bible, the foundation of Christianity.  Ad fontes was also applied to facets other than the church.  With the rediscovery of ancient texts, scholars began to “go back in time” and study the originals.

Erasmus was also another humanist that contributed to the Reformation.  He agreed with Luther in that he believed “the church of the day could be reformed by a collective return to the writings of the fathers and scripture” (McGrath 52).  He also believed “religion is a matter of the individual’s heart and mind” (53).  This taps into a main vein of humanist thought.  The idea that an individual could communicate directly with God without the church’s aid was revolutionary.  The ideas of Luther and Erasmus spread quickly.  Starting in Northern Europe, they moved across the continent by way of travelers, mail, and printed books (46,47). With the Reformation in full swing, Europe exited the medieval period and entered the Renaissance.

Written during this transition from medieval to renaissance, Marlowe’s hero, Doctor Faustus, is “a symbol of the Renaissance” (Barnet xvii).  He is a scholar and has the Ad fontes attitude common to many during this era.  He has studied Aristotle’s Analytics and Nichomachean Ethics as well as Galen, the Greek authority on medicine (1.1.6-15).  However, he grows tired of these subjects and turns to the darker art of necromancy.  After learning how, Faustus immediately summons Mephostophilis, who eventually purchases Faustus’ soul (1.3.16-24). This ability to communicate directly with spirits parallels Luther and Erasmus’ idea of communicating with God on the individual level.  The need to have a priest as a medium to Christ was no longer necessary.  Society could purchase a Bible and interpret it for themselves. 

Sylvan Barnet also notes that “the Renaissance . . . was not the Middle Ages plus man, but the Middle Ages minus God” (xvii).  This can be seen when Faustus is conjuring Mephostophilis for the first time.  In his spell, he utters “Valeat numen triplex Iehovae!” which translates into “Away with the trinity of Jehovah” (Marlowe 1.3.16-17).  Another example of the darker side of the Renaissance is present in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  The three witches in the first few scenes of the play do not seem as if they would be sitting in pews come Sunday.  They seem to have taken a liking to necromancy as well, for they are able to predict the future.  When Macbeth and Banquo confront them, the witches call Macbeth by his new title as well as his future title (1.3.58).

While the church may have lost much of its power and the Renaissance did bring about a shying away from God, the church did not go away.  Luther and other humanists did not want to extinguish the church; they wanted to renew it (McGrath 39).  And they were successful.  Society’s ideas about religion were changed because of the many reforms that occurred.  These ideas were then put to paper so that they could take their place in literature.

Social Impact On The Humanist Shift

As its name suggests, our social structure dominates our society.  It is also known that literature is a major component of our society.  So, using basic logic, it follows that our social structure controls the literature being produced; or, at least, the literature produced shows signs of social structure.  This is seen quite clearly in Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”.  Although it is written well past the Renaissance, its obvious social ties will serve as an example of social life being seen in literature.  Swift wrote the essay in response to the English Protestants abuse of the Irish Catholics (Cummings ¶2).  Many Irish were in debt and near starvation because of high prices and low wages.  Swift’s proposal is that the Irish “render [their children] plump and fat” so that they can be sold in order to make money (Swift ¶10).   Swift’s out-rightness is fortunate.  Every author is not so blatant.  There is no doubt that he is speaking of the horrible social conditions of the Irish.  The great thing about literature is that Swift is not the only person to have imbedded social references in his works.  Among the pages of almost any text are clues to the social conditions at that time.

     During the early Medieval Period, feudalism dominated the European countryside.  Under this type of rule, there was no single king to reign over the nation.  Instead, there existed several feudal lords who possessed control over “their own estates, dispensed their own justice, minted their own money, levied taxes and tolls, and demanded military service from vassals” (Ross ¶1).  This type of government is evident in Beowulf.  In the introduction to his translation of Beowulf, Seamus Heaney states that, during this time, “little nations [were] grouped around their lord” (xiv).  Gerald Seaman also states that feudal lords used their genealogy and family history to justify their right to rule (Seaman ¶7).  This importance of a having a respectable name is also seen in Beowulf where the “attainment of a name . . . among the living overwhelms any concern about the . . . afterlife” (Heaney xi). 

Feudalism prevailed until the twelfth century; then it began to decline.  The largest cause that brought about the end of feudalism was the increase in agriculture.  Vast amounts of land were opened for farmland and settlements.  “Marc Block has called [it] ‘the age of the great clearances’” (McManners 199).  One result of this was a new dependence on currency rather than the barter system.  As merchants traveled to new regions to sell crops, they depended more and more on currency because it was a more stable medium of exchange (Reynolds).  This growing away from feudalism can be seen in literature as well. 

The ending of Beowulf can be seen as a prediction that feudalism will fall.  At Beowulf’s funeral, a Geat woman “unburden[s] herself of her worst fears, a wild litany of nightmare and lament: her nation invaded, enemies on the rampage, bodies in piles, slavery and abasement” (Beowulf ln. 3151-5).  This and the fact that the “Geat people [are] to be left lordless in the end” contribute to the feeling that maybe feudalism is not the best way of government (Heaney xv).  The Song of Roland also hints at the decline of feudalism.  “The treason of Ganelon shows how the nobles begin to challenge the king. Thus, a central theme in the Song of Roland is the changing world of feudalism, represented by the changes in Charlemagne” (Winters ¶5).  The decline of feudalism led directly to Renaissance Humanism.  No longer under the oppression of any feudal lords, citizens were able to become individuals and express themselves in life as well as in literature.

During the late Medieval Era and the Renaissance, the feudal concept of one’s lineage determining social rank was abolished.  This is seen clearly by the fact that two of the most respected literary figures during this time, Dante Alighieri and William Shakespeare, came from humble backgrounds.  Dante came first in the late thirteenth century.  Although he may be considered “noble by reason of the titles and dignities bestowed upon [him]”, he came from “modest economic and social circumstances” (Musa 15).  Even though this is true, “the writings of Dante . . . emphasized the virtues of intellectual freedom and individual expression” (Kreis ¶15).  Shakespeare came much later, in 1564.  Although little is known about his early life, it is know that his father was a wool and leather merchant, not royal blood by any means (Hamlet 8). 

Less emphasis on family lineage was also placed on characters in literature as well.  Take Shakespeare’s character Othello for example.  Othello is a self made man.  Almost all of the odds are against him.  For one thing, he is a black moor serving among whites.  The feelings that society has for him come out in the opening scene of the play.  Iago refers to Othello as a “black ram” and states, “the devil will make a grandsire out of [Brabantio]” (Othello 1.1.90-93).  Othello himself declares that he has not come from the best of origins when he says:

Rude am I in my speech,/ . . . For since these arms of mine had seven years’ pith . . . they have used/Their dearest action in the tented field,/And little of this great world can I speak,/More than pertains to feats of broils and battle,/And therefore little shall I grace my cause/In speaking for myself. (Othello 1.3.84-92)

Shakespeare continues to show Othello’s humble origins when Othello tells about the stories he told Desdemona and Brabantio.  He tells of his time being a traveler, a wanderer, and a slave (Othello 1.3.130-172).  However, despite all of these qualities working against him, Othello has become a “highly respected general of the armies of Venice” (Othello).  This ability to actually make something out of one’s self is purely humanistic.  It is caring completely for the individual.  With feudalism out and humanism in, there was more freedom to do what one wanted to do with one’s life.  It is the “American Dream”, only in Europe and a few centuries in the past. 

Political Influence During the Shift Towards Renaissance Humanism

In literature, many writers deem it necessary to voice their opinions about the political issues occurring during their time.  Different methods are used in order to convey these views.  Some explicitly state their views, and others simply imply it.  Take Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto or Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.  Both pieces state precisely what should be changed within.  However, this is not always the case.  Most of the political views will be implied so as not to interfere with the literature itself.  In Animal Farm, George Orwell does not stop to explain that Napoleon’s secret training of the puppies (41) parallels “Lenin’s establishment of the secret police” (Fergensen ¶4).  The reader must infer what Orwell means because it is implied within the metaphor of the novel.  The above examples are relatively modern, yet the same principles can be applied to works of other eras as well.  Given these opinions, one can piece together a stream of events that shows the political movement towards humanistic thought during the shift between the medieval era and the Renaissance. 

     As always, we will start at the beginning: Beowulf.  Political structure during this era was rather simple.  The Scandinavians were “governed by a heroic code of honour” (Heaney xi).  This people had an extremely gruesome and savage set of ideals.  Heaney captures this feeling in the introduction of his translation of Beowulf:

[It is] a society that is . . . honour-bound and blood-stained, presided over by the laws of the blood-feud, where the kin of a person slain are bound to exact a price for the death, either by slaying the killer or by receiving satisfaction in the form of wergild (the “man-price”), a legally fixed compensation . . . All conceive of themselves as hoped within the great wheel of necessity, . . . The little nations are grouped around their lord, the greater nations spoil for war and menace the little ones, a lord dies, defencelessness ensues, the enemy strikes, vengeance for the dead becomes an ethic for the living, bloodshed begets further bloodshed, the wheel turns, the generations tread and tread and tread. (Heaney xiii-xiv)

     This idea of the wheel is an excellent illustration of how this type of society gets nowhere.  Simply choosing the strongest, most honorable man to be their leader ensured that there would be no change.  Like Beowulf, one man would become king after completing an awesome feat (Beowulf ln. 1849-1853). Then, as the years passed, he would continue to fight in more battles, like Beowulf, and eventually be slain (ln. 2819-2820).  Then it would start all over again.  There was no change to push their society forward.  In order to see a more recognizable civilization, one must shift one’s focus a few thousand kilometers south and a few hundred years forward to the city of Florence in Italy.

     Here, civilization had been established for quite some time.  Cities flourished and there was more structure to the government.  Yet, the Church controlled this government.  “During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the single most powerful institution in all of Europe was the Roman Catholic Church” (D.P. ¶1).  It controlled every aspect of life at the time, including politics.  It was in this society that Dante Alighieri lived.  Like any other citizen, he was affected by and took part in political affairs.  However, Dante separated himself from the average thirteenth century Florentine by incorporating his political opinions into his works.

     Dante’s Inferno is laden with political references to medieval Florence.  At the time, Florence was split into two “hostile factions”: the White Guelfs and the Black Guelfs.  The Blacks favored Pope Boniface VIII, while the Whites opposed him.  Dante associated himself with the Whites and climbed quite high on the political ladder.  He was later exiled from Florence after the Blacks took power during his absence (Musa 30-31).

     One instance in which Dante mixes politics and literature is when the pilgrim and Virgil run into Filippo Argenti in Canto VIII.  The pilgrim lashes out at Argenti saying, “May you weep and wail,/stuck here in this place forever, you damned soul,/ for, filthy as you are, I recognize you”(Alighieri VIII ln. 37-39).  This is the first sinner that the Pilgrim has openly condemned, which has led “many commentators [to] believe his attitude can be explained as a personal reaction to a political adversary whom he hated” (Musa 144).  As the two travelers venture deeper into Hell, they encounter Guido da Montefeltro.  Although not explicitly stated, it can be inferred that Montefeltro was a member of the Black Guelfs who supported the Pope.  He tells the pilgrim that while living, he “counseled the use of fraud in the pope’s campaign against the Colonna family” (Musa 315).  Dante, being a member of the Whites, opposed the pope and used this passage as a sort of “slap in the face” towards the papal seat.

     Walter Ullman, a medieval scholar, has put forth two dominant trends in medieval politics.  In one, “power . . . rises upward from the people, in whom authority resides”.  This is clear in Beowulf when he rides his popularity to the throne.  Whereas this trend takes an ascending path, going from the people up, Ullman found that there was also a descending path where “power is distributed downward from a sovereign ordained of God”.  This second view is seen during Dante’s time when the pope and the church ruled supreme (Setton ¶2).

     Ullman has also stated that Renaissance Humanism has its roots in the Medieval Era (Kristellar ¶2).  The two trends stated above support this idea.  In the case of the “ascending” trend, the people determine who will lead.  Although it is not a pure democracy, the fact that the people decide is evidence of humanism far before the Renaissance.  In the “descending” trend, we see no signs of humanism.  That is, until we analyze Dante.  Here we have this society dominated by the church.  However, opposing factions, namely the White Guelfs, are beginning to appear.  These factions support a more humanistic society in which more emphasis is placed on the individual.

     Another thought that can be pulled from Ullman’s great body of medieval theories is the idea that humanist politics during the Renaissance were greatly influenced by Aristotle (Kristellar ¶2).  This is a double-edged blade that further reinforces the shift towards humanism during the Renaissance.  The first blade of this sword is the simple fact that humanists during this time period went back to the ancients.  This Ad fontes mind set is a key trait during this shift.  The other and more deadly blade is the actual text of Aristotle to which humanists went back.  In book one of his Politics, Aristotle writes, “the state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part”(Aristotle 556).  His idea that the state’s only purpose is to satisfy the needs of the individual is pure humanistic politics  (Aristotle 556).  This idea became popular as the Renaissance progressed, and literature is available to prove this.

     The poet Sir Thomas Wyatt lived during the Tudor dynasty.  Throughout many of his poems, references can be found towards political issues of the time.  Jason Gleckman states, “works such as his 1527 rendition of Plutarch's the Quyete of Mynde and his 1541 Defence on charges of treason . . . convey a humanist confidence”.  In lines 1-12 of his satire addressed to Sir Francis Brian, Wyatt writes:

A spending hand that alway poureth out/Had need to have a bringer in as fast,/And, on the stone that/still doth turn about/There groweth no moss./These proverbs yet do last./Reason hath set them in/so sure a place,/The length of years their force can never waste./When I remember this, and eke the case/Where in thou stands, I thought forthwith to write/Brian, to thee, who knows how great a grace/In writing is to counsel man the right./To thee therefore, that trots still up and down/And never rests, but running day and night (Wyatt)

     Gleckman writes that lines 1-6 display a humanist point of view.  “It presents the wise man who has managed, after a lifelong search for meaning, to accumulate a few lasting, undeniable, and simple truths” (Gleckman ¶25).  Wyatt also includes Tudor politics in this poem by writing it to a Sir Francis Brian, who was a member of Henry VIII’s royal court (Gleckman ¶26-27). 

     Shakespeare also allowed political matters to seep into his plays.  Many critics state that his play Macbeth was written for King James  (Williams ¶1).  James was known to fall asleep during plays, so Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in order to keep him entertained and awake (Royal ¶1).  There is an abundance of similarities between the play Macbeth and the man King James.  For one, King James was “one of Banquo's foretold descendants to sit on the throne of Scotland” (¶1).  Another commonality between the two is the fact that King James was held hostage by the Thane of Glamis, which just so happens to be Macbeth’s title at the beginning of the play (¶2).  The most striking similarity is the allusion to the Gunpowder Plot.  When James assumed the throne, many thought that he would be tolerant of Catholics because his own mother was Catholic.  However, James showed no tolerance toward them which sparked civil unrest.  On what is now known as Guy Fawkes day, a group of conspirators plotted to assassinate King James and other members of the government by placing barrels of gunpowder underneath Parliament.  The barrels were found because one of the conspirators betrayed the others and tipped off the government (¶10).  This is connected with Macbeth in that Macbeth murders King Duncan (Macbeth 2.2.14).  Although not seen in Macbeth, it is worthy to note King James’s intolerance towards Catholics.  It appears to be a common trait that humanistic thought goes against the church.  So it holds true that the government drifts towards humanistic politics.

     From Beowulf to Macbeth, there have been political events that influence the literature being produced.  Although many of these references must be looked for, they are still there, and will always be there.  History books will give facts of a certain time, but only literature will put forth the opinions that support these facts. 

Conclusion

What has been shown throughout the previous pages is the simple fact that life affects literature.  No matter what, no matter where, no matter when, clues can be found in stories and poems that explain what life was like in the past.  This theory (dare I say fact) applies to all areas of society.  It may be a prominent political figure smarting off to his government or a priest preparing for a revolution.  It does not matter who the author is, literature will always reflect the attitudes and beliefs of our society. 

     This does not just occur during the shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.  It took place hundreds of years before and continues to happen today.  Cultural issues appear everywhere in modern literature:  the meat market in Sinclair’s The Jungle, the Great Depression in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the Nazi force in Courtenay’s The Power of One.  One cannot escape the numerous allusions to society that are apparent within literature.  Just to reinforce this idea, consider someone from the future who has never experienced our society; one who has no idea what we are all about.  Take him and allow him to read Shakespeare, Dante, or Marlowe, and he will learn so much more about Medieval or Renaissance culture than if he read a textbook on either subject.  Similarly, if I were to be sent to the future, the first thing I would do is pick up a book and start reading to find out about this new culture. 

        Although the fact that life affects literature has been thoroughly ingrained in the reader’s mind by now, it is merely a method of analyzing a bigger idea.  That idea is that during the shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, society became humanistic in its thinking.  No longer were citizens under the rule of someone else.  Rather, they were under their own rule, free to make their own choices about religion, politics, and social issues.  This new freedom also brought about a new role model for society.  This new humanist hero was what people aspired to be.  It was society’s dream that each individual think for himself and be whatever he wanted to be.  Society’s wishes eventually came true during the shift to the Renaissance.  So who knows?  If this pattern holds, our thinking may lead us to greater feats than we can imagine, or it could utterly destroy us.

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