Aeneid

April 17, 2001

The Motivation for Humanism

It was a time of darkness. Wars plagued the countryside and new ones threatened to arise at any given moment. The Black Death swept over the continent, leaving in its wake a small remnant of people who escaped it. People found themselves isolated, alone, and vulnerable. It was in this setting that Petrarch was able to impart some hope to his fellow men by finding something joyful, something full of light and something worth writing about: Humanity. He believed that human beings are creations of God; therefore they are worthy of his attention, and receive His aid in attaining righteousness and returning to Him. But besides simply being religious and trying to draw close to God, Petrarch’s motivation for having this view could have had much to do with the scorn he received for studying the Classics.

In the religious tradition of the past hundreds of years, humans were viewed in a very negative light as fallen, carnal creatures. Knowledge was deemed evil or at least dangerous, especially knowledge received from the pagan Greek and Roman leaders. Having been raised in this time period, Petrarch believed what he heard around him, and yet he still found himself continually drawn to Classical literature. In some ways he fought against this desire, for he felt that it was a carnal desire to learn of the Classics. Indeed, he feared, probably correctly, that he worshiped the Classics more than he worshiped God. When he died, his head was not on a Bible but “on an open volume of his beloved Virgil” (NA 1665).

Petrarch naturally began to fear for his own salvation. This unquenchable thirst and yearning for something “carnal,” led Petrarch to begin to point out the folly of previous thinkers, asserting that human beings are not evil but simply prone to mistakes. He “wonders at the natural nobility of our soul” (NA 1672) as well as noting our inability to avoid sin, for we often “neglect what is noblest in ourselves” (NA 1672). But this explanation seems to be nothing more than a justification for Petrarch’s own weaknesses. This theory elevates him above a carnal man to a human being who knows he must rely on a Savior, for he certainly cannot save himself.

Petrarch then uses this theory in nearly everything he writes. He takes it to his heart, and he examines it, he explores it, he exemplifies it. With humanism, Petrarch recognizes the desire to be loved. In a way this excuses Petrarch’s undying devotion for Laura, but that is only a part of it. Even being a relative is not as important as being cherished, as Petrarch describes his brother’s gratification “by the thought of holding the place of friend as well as brother” (NA 1669). With this premise, though, Petrarch is able to assert his own helplessness “when Love came in as guest” (NA 1675) and Laura carried his soul away with “two pure eyes” (NA 1675). The choice was his and yet he really was helpless to choose. He had no strength and no will to choose otherwise.
Thus Petrarch accomplishes two things by preaching humanism: First, he makes it clear that he thinks man is noble, but “lack[ing] in good counsel” (NA 1672) because of being mortal. Second, because of being mortal, man’s biggest error comes in “divert[ing] from their path by the fear of difficulties or the love of ease” (NA 1673). The goal, then, is to overcome “those appetites that spring from earthly impulses” (NA 1673) – not something that man can do alone. Petrarch writes of his own earthly impulses and also his inability to end them. He asks God to “grant henceforth that I turn, within your light/ to another life and deeds more truly fair” (NA 1675) and then does nothing on his own to accomplish this desire. After all, Petrarch is only a mortal; if God wishes him to become more perfect, God will have to accomplish the act Himself. All of the blame just shifted from Petrarch’s shoulders, leaving him without the responsibility for his actions.

Whether Petrarch was aware of his justifications, or whether he was trying to convince his audience of his own piousness in spite of himself, is unclear. But Petrarch clearly believed in the human ability to recognize analogous situations in life and apply them to deeper, spiritual realms. He demonstrates his own ability to do so by describing his prideful incident of taking the “easier” path and “avoid the exertion of the ascent” (NA 1669). Petrarch compares this to life, when trying to live in a way that will return us to heaven can be very difficult and we try to go around it – but there is only one way to get there, and that is by forcing oneself upward. After several attempts to find an easy way, Petrarch gives up and then “overcame material obstacles by bodily exertions” (NA 1670). Petrarch does not say that in the end his soul will have no choice but to go up to heaven; in fact he implies the opposite, hoping that he “might traverse in spirit that other road” (NA 1670). But Petrarch also notes how his “progress today was necessarily slow” while his “swift immortal soul can reach its goal in the twinkling of an eye” (NA 1670). The idea is that Petrarch’s soul will have an even easier time reaching heaven than his body did reaching the summit. Petrarch has taken a very personal view of God and how he interacts with man, and he believes that God will help where men fail – a belief that corresponds very much with Christianity today.

Petrarch’s view on humans is much more friendly than the leading philosophers and religious leaders of the time. In his writing, thinking, and ideals, Petrarch comes to believe that humans are capable of anything, with the help of God. And God will supplicate man in his earnest endeavors. Petrarch seems to sincerely believe this, and he works hard to convince those he associates with and his readers. But this sympathetic view towards humans coincidentally worked to Petrarch’s own benefit; it excused his actions that were deemed “inappropriate” (for loving a woman and the “pagan” classical writers so much) and gave him as much of a chance at redemption as any other mortal alive.