CROTUS RUBIANUS
(Johannes Jäger, 1480-ca. 1545). German humanist, one of the circle of Erfurt humanists who were close to Mutianus Rufus. Born to a peasant family in Thuringia, Crotus (a classicized name he adopted in 1509) studied at the University of Erfurt, where he was acquainted with young Martin Luther and became a close friend of Ulrich von Hutten. Sometime after he received his B.A. degree in 1502, he and Hutten moved to Cologne, where he matriculated in 1505 but stayed for only a year before returning to Erfurt and completing the M.A. degree in 1507. He became a priest and from 1510 was headmaster of a school attached to the abbey at Fulda.
Crotus was a skillful Latin poet, much admired for his poems in praise of Erfurt (1507) and his Bucolicon (1509). He became an outspoken supporter of the humanist Johann Reuchlin during the lat-ter’s conflict with the Dominican theologians of Cologne and was the principal author of the famous satirical attack on the Cologne theologians, Epistolae obscurorum virorum / Letters of Obscure Men (1515). His satire ridiculed the narrowness, pretentiousness, and self-serving conservatism of his antagonists but avoided the savage personal attacks typical of the second part of the satire, published in 1517 and written mainly by Hutten. In 1517 he went to Italy and obtained a doctorate of theology at Bologna.
Crotus returned to Germany in 1520 and became professor of theology at Erfurt. As the elected rector of the university for the winter term 1520-1521, Crotus enthusiastically welcomed Martin Luther when Luther passed through town on his way to his hearing at the Diet of Worms. Though initially sympathetic to Luther, Crotus was unwilling to support open defiance of church authority.
In 1524 he entered the service of Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, grand master of the Teutonic Knights. In this capacity, he played a role in carrying out Albert’s decision to turn Lutheran, secularize his ecclesiastical principality, and transform his state into the hereditary duchy of Prussia. But Crotus was personally reluctant to endorse the change of religion and left Albert’s service in 1530. A year later he entered the service of Albert’s kinsman, Albert of Brandenburg, archbishop-elector of Mainz. His subsequent activity as an anti-Lutheran pamphleteer cost him the friendship of a number of humanists, such as Eobanus Hessus and Justus Jonas, but he became close to other humanists who had supported Luther only briefly but then became defenders of the Catholic church.
DANTE
(Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321). Italy’s greatest poet, known principally for his epic poem depicting his own spiritual conversion, La divina commedia/The Divine Comedy (written 1304-1319). Although he ended by being a great literary figure, his intention was to be a leading citizen of Florence, his native city. He fought in the city’s armies, married and reared a family there, and held major public offices. In 1302, after a hostile political faction had seized control of the city, Dante was falsely accused of corruption and forced into exile.
Even as a young man, Dante had been interested in intellectual matters. He attended philosophical lectures in the Dominican friary and even before his exile gained a reputation as a vernacular poet. His lyrics perfected the new style of love poetry known as the dolce stil nuovo ("sweet new style"), a phrase coined by Dante himself. His early La vita nuova /New Life (ca. 1293) is a hallmark of this style. A collection of philosophical tracts, Il convivio / The Banquet (ca. 1304-1308), written afer his exile, shows the influence of Cicero and Boethius as well as the scholastic philosophy he had acquired from his studies with the Dominicans. Shortly after he left Florence, he wrote a Latin treatise, De vulgari eloquentia / On Vernacular Eloquence, that praised his native Tuscan dialect as the ideal language for literary works, and his own poems, more than any other single factor, contributed to the establishment of Tuscan as the Italian literary language.
Dante also wrote on politics. The chaotic political condition of Italy in his time convinced him that Christian society needed to be reorganized under the authority of a single ruler, a new Roman emperor. His Latin treatise De monarchia / On Monarchy presented philosophical arguments for the creation of one imperial government for the whole world that would restore peace, compel the corrupt and worldly popes to return from Avignon to Italy and reform the church, and defend Christian religion from unbelievers. This topic bluntly criticized the popes and was condemned by the papal curia; it was not printed until after the Protestant Reformation.
Dante’s crowning achievement, however, was his epic The Divine Comedy. The poem, written in three parts, describes the spiritual journey of Dante himself, caught in a mid-life crisis of despair. In it he is rescued from an aimless and worldly existence and guided through Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise), the three states of soul defined by medieval theology. It is significant that in his pilgrimage he is led from worldly despair and through Hell and Purgatory by the Roman epic poet Vergil, who symbolizes both the strength and the limitations of human reason; also significant that Vergil (Reason) cannot take him to his ultimate goal but can lead him only through Purgatory, where the blessed Beatrice (the girl Dante had loved as a young boy), symbolizing divine grace and sent by the Virgin Mary, takes over the role of guide to Heaven. This epic of the human soul has a cosmic significance, yet it also has many other points to make along the way. For most readers, the journey through Hell has seemed the most interesting, probably because there Dante takes the opportunity to settle scores with the corrupt politicians who had sent him into exile, the corrupt businessmen who put material gain above the salvation of their souls, and the corrupt popes who had prostituted their high office in pursuit of worldly power.
In many respects, Dante’s works are typical products of medieval civilization at its peak. His dependence on the thought of Aristotle and the greatest medieval Aristotelian, Thomas Aquinas, is one example. Nevertheless, in other respects, Dante’s life and work point ahead to the conditions that would produce Renaissance civilization. He was not a member of the clergy but an educated layman, able to acquire an advanced philosophical education and to address major issues of both eternal and worldly life. From the perspective of later Renaissance humanists, his major defects were that he wrote in the vernacular rather than in Latin, that the style of his Latin works was not classical.
Nevertheless, among Florentines, there was never any question of his greatness. His books, and especially his Commedia, were widely circulated in manuscript, printed (1472) within a few years of the introduction of printing, and frequently reprinted. Both Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio praised him; Boccaccio lectured on his works at Florence and wrote the earliest biography; and the three of them, together, became the "Three Crowns" of Florentine literature. One of the leading figures among the Florentine Neoplatonists, Cristoforo Landino, developed his lectures on Dante into an extensive commentary (published in 1481) that interprets the Commedia in terms of Neoplatonism. Most humanists of the 15th and 16th centuries (especially non-Florentines) were less favorable. The first great figure of 16th-century Ciceronianism, the Venetian humanist and poet Pietro Bembo, was dismissive when comparing Dante to Petrarch, criticizing him for attempting to write a epic poem in the vernacular and for addressing philosophical and theological questions far beyond his competence and also beyond the proper scope of poetry.
DATINI, FRANCESCO
(ca. 1335-1410). Italian merchant born at Prato near Florence but for many years resident in the papal court at Avignon, where he began his career as an office boy for a Florentine merchant. He founded his own trading and banking company and accumulated great wealth. After his return to Prato in 1382, he had branches and commercial correspondents in several European cities and engaged in commerce that extended from England to the eastern Mediterranean. In these activities, he was typical of successful Italian merchants. What makes him historically unique is that he preserved his business and personal correspondence, account ledgers, and other business documents. These survive and provide unequalled insight into the activities, style of life, and mentality of the Italian merchants who dominated the economic life of early Renaissance Europe. The charitable foundation that he willed to his city for the support of poor children still survives.
DECEMBRIO, PIER CANDIDO
(1399-1477). Milanese humanist, most often remembered as a critic of the Florentine humanist and chancellor Leonardo Bruni. His Panegyric of Milan (ca. 1436) was a pro-Milanese and monarchist response to the republican and proFlorentine outlook represented in Bruni’s writings. It was written during Decembrio’s many years of service (1419-1447) as secretary to Filippo Maria Visconti, the last Visconti duke of Milan, a dangerous enemy of the Florentine republic. Decembrio also wrote a life of his patron and produced a great number of translations from Greek into Latin and from Latin into Italian. Decembrio also became known as the author of a large correspondence in Latin, much of it written in his role as chancellor. After his patron’s death in 1447, De-cembrio spent some time in papal service, then lived at the court of King Alfonso V of Naples, and finally at the court of the Este dukes of Ferrara.
DEE, JOHN
(1527-1608). English natural philosopher, alchemist, astrologer, and mathematician, famous for his learning in scientific and occult subjects, but also suspected as a person whose occult interests might involve contact with evil spirits. These suspicions were deepened by his efforts, with the aid of his "scryer" or medium Edward Kelly, to establish communication with angels in order to learn about the world of nature. The son of a London merchant, Dee received an excellent humanistic education and took B.A. and M.A. degrees at Cambridge, but natural philosophy and the occult sciences became his principal interest. Although he won some patronage from
English politicians such as William Cecil and Robert Dudley, he never gained much financial support from his own sovereigns, and he died in relative poverty. Dee travelled widely in Europe seeking financial support. He spent several years at the court of the Emperor Rudolf II in Prague but eventually returned home when he realized that the emperor was interested only in his ability to transmute base metals into gold. He left behind a reputation for profound learning. His large library eventually was acquired by the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
DELLA CASA, GIOVANNI
(1503-1556). Italian author and churchman, most famous for his Galateo (1558), a book of manners that promotes a set of values for personal life emphasizing the importance of education, wealth, and social standing for those who have to cope with the unpredictability of human life. A native of Florence, Della Casa studied law at Bologna and in 1531 settled in Rome, where at first he led a dissolute life. He undertook a clerical career merely as a way to guarantee a comfortable life, but about 1537, the year when he published a book on whether a man should marry, he seems to have changed into a hard-working and earnest servant of the papal curia, where he gained high office. In 1544 Della Casa became archbishop of Benevento. Sent as papal nuncio to Venice that same year, he struggled to persuade the independent-minded Venetian government to be more active in enforcing Catholic orthodoxy and in censoring the press, and he succeeded in establishing a Venetian Inquisition in 1547 and in persuading the state to tighten control of the press. His collected vernacular poems were published posthumously in 1558, and he also wrote a number of treatises on moral and political questions.
DELLA PORTA, GIACOMO
(1541?-1604). Italian architect, a native of Rome and a pupil of Michelangelo. He completed several unfinished projects of Michelangelo, including the dome of St. Peter’s basilica. His outstanding original achievement was the design of the façade of the Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuit order, an influential example of baroque Counter-Reformation architecture. The floor plan and general design of the Gesù were the work of his older associate Giacomo Vignola.
DELLA QUERCIA, JACOPO
(ca. 1374-1438). The leading sculptor of Renaissance Siena. Although his early work was done in the late medieval style now known as International Gothic, he came under the influence of Donatello and produced sculptures in early Renaissance style that are notable examples of the treatment of the nude human figure. His work strongly influenced the sculpture of Michelangelo. Della Quercia’s most famous and best-preserved work is the series of reliefs on the portal of the church of San Patronio in Siena.
DELLA ROBBIA, LUCA
(1400-1482). Florentine sculptor. Though generally associated with the early Renaissance style, he still manifested the influence of the late Gothic sculptor Nanni di Banco (ca. 1381-1421), who may have been his teacher. His most famous work is the series of marble reliefs of singing angels produced in the 1430s for the Cantoria (singers’ pulpit) of the cathedral in Florence. Later, he turned to the production of less costly reliefs done in terra cotta, notable for their graceful design and their striking contrast of white and bright blue glazes. This technique and medium led easily to routine reproduction, and the terra cotta reliefs of his late years were virtually factory products, produced in great numbers for sale to private collectors and small-town churches. This business was continued by his nephew Andrea (1435-1525) and Andrea’s sons through the first quarter of the 16th century.
DEPRESSION, ECONOMIC
Since the 1940s many economic historians have contended that the older economic history of late medieval Europe, which explained the new culture of the Renaissance as a byproduct of a prospering urban capitalism centered in northern Italy, was fundamentally erroneous because it had missed the onset of a major economic crisis that marked the end of an age of rapid economic growth and caused widespread business failures and chronic unemployment in Italy and the southern Netherlands. Many of these revisionist historians also contended that the depressed economic conditions, clearly evident before the middle of the 14th century, were followed by a long period of economic stagnation rather than by the dynamic growth attributed by older historiography to Renaissance Europe. While the economic depression was uneven and some areas (Catalonia, Bohemia and neighboring parts of Hungary and Poland, the textile-producing regions of England, and the towns of southern Germany) continued to grow and prosper, these represented catching up by regions that were relatively undeveloped before 1300. Even these growing regions experienced slowing growth by the late 14th and early 15th centuries.
Historians who accept the existence of this depression explain its origins largely in terms of structural limitations on growth imposed by the technological, social, and political realities of the late Middle Ages. They regard the major famine that struck northwestern Europe in the second decade of the 14th century as evidence that population had exceeded the capacity of a stagnating economy, and they dismiss the terrible mortality of the Black Death at mid-century as just an aggravating incident, not a fundamental cause, of the depression. They insist that unmistakable signs of the downturn were evident long before the plague. The stagnant economy, not the plague, explains the remarkable decrease in populations in Italy and throughout most of western Europe that is usually linked to the plague itself. Defenders of the theory note that the decrease in population was not followed by the population rebound that normally would be expected after the plague, and they point out that many of the leading Renaissance cities (Florence is a striking example) did not regain their pre-1300 population levels until the 19 th century. The onset of the crisis (but not the underlying cause) was the series of bankruptcies of Italian banking and commercial companies (such as the Bardi and Peruzzi firms of Florence).
In terms of cultural history, the revisionists suggest that students of the Renaissance should view its social foundations not as a dynamic, growing economy but as a reduced and rather stagnant, though still wealthy, mercantile capitalism that was dominated by a defensive mentality and sought to secure the position of its leaders by control of political authority and by investment of resources in such symbols of high status as patronage of art and literature.
This economic reinterpretation of the Renaissance is by no means universally accepted. Virtually no one now denies that there was a serious economic crisis in the mid-14th century and that it was not caused primarily by the Black Death. What remains debatable is the depth of the economic downturn and its persistence, particularly the timing of renewed growth. There seems to be agreement that by the later 15 th century, prosperity had returned to most regions. Europe as a whole seems to have had an expanding economy through most of the 16th century, though the period from about 1520 also suffered from a severe price inflation that fed social, political, and religious unrest. This general prosperity continued until the onset of a more universally recognized economic depression about 1618, which persisted until mid-century and formed the economic background of the wars and political upheavals of the early 17th century.
DES PÉRIERS, BONAVENTURE
(ca. 1510-ca. 1544). French author, notorious for his satirical dialogues Cymbalum Mundi / The Cymbal of the World (1537), a work influenced by the ancient satirist Lucian and apparently intended to demonstrate that disputes over intricate questions of Christian doctrine are a distraction from the true essence of religion. This topic impressed contemporaries as an open attack on Christianity and was banned soon after publication. Des Périers also wrote a collection of short narratives, Nouvelles récréations et joyeux devis, published posthumously in 1558, that is somewhat similar to the Heptaméron of Margaret of Navarre, whom he served as valet de chambre. It presents a lively and sometimes ribald picture of life in the courtly society of the time. In his younger years, Des Périers collaborated with the French Protestant Pierre Olivétan on his French translation of the Bible. Des Périers also was a poet and made translations of Plato and Terence. His premature death about 1544 was believed to be a suicide.
DES PREZ, JOSQUIN
(ca. 1440-1521). Franco-Flemish musician, generally regarded as the greatest composer of the early 16th century. Probably born along the northern border of France, he worked as a professional singer at Milan cathedral (1459-1472), as a musician at the ducal chapel there (1472-1476), and between 1486 and 1494 lived at Rome in the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza and then at the papal chapel. He returned to France, probably at the royal court, from 1501 to 1503, became director of the chapel of the dukes of Ferrara in 1503, but in the following year returned permanently to France, where he was provost of Notre Dame at Condé-sur-l’Escaut. Josquin’s music blends his original Franco-Flemish style with Italian influences. His surviving works, found both in manuscript and in contemporary printed music, include 18 masses, 100 motets, and 70 secular vocal works. He was by far the most famous composer of his age. Martin Luther, who was himself skilled at music, called him "the master of the notes," and a later 16th-century author compared his dominance of music to the mastery that Michelangelo exercised in the visual arts.
DES ROCHES, MADELEINE
(1520-1587), and CATHERINE (1542-1587). French poets, mother and daughter. Madeleine from her youth showed an interest in literature, and she transmitted it to her daughter. From about 1570 they became active as writers. Their careers developed together, and the closeness is symbolized by their death on the same day during an epidemic. Madeleine Neveu was born near Châtellerault into a family of judicial officials (gens de robe) and married twice, first to a legal procurator named André Fradonnet about 1539 at Poitiers and, after his death in 1547, to another French legal official, François Eboissard, seigneur de la Villée et des Roches. Catherine was a child of the first marriage but took her stepfather’s surname.
From about 1570 mother and daughter held a literary salon at Poitiers and developed reputations as poets. Their friends included a prominent kinsman, Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, the great French humanist Josephus Justus Scaliger, and the poet Pierre de Ronsard. The residence of the royal court in Poitiers in 1577 and the national assembly of legal officers (Grands Jours) there in 1579 spread their literary reputation to other parts of France. Their first collection of poetry, Les oeuvres de Mesdames des Roche, mère et fille, was published in 1578, shortly after the death of Madeleine’s second husband; a second edition appeared in 1579. Another collection, Secondes oeuvres, appeared in 1585, followed the next year by Missives de Mesdames Desroches, in which they published not only poems but also literary letters. Madeleine’s poems are full of sadness and demonstrate that she sought consolation in religion and Platonic philosophy. Catherine’s poems are more moralizing and didactic. Catherine never married but devoted her life to her literary work and her close companionship with her mother.
DEVOTIO MODERNA
(Modern Devotion). A late medieval movement of personal spiritual regeneration and concern for preaching and social ministry to the poor in northwestern Europe. Its followers also favored reform of the institutional church, but in a way that emphasized the need to avoid heresy and to obey superiors. The movement was founded by Geert Groote (1340-1384), the son of a prominent family of Deventer in the Netherlands. He had an excellent scholastic education, primarily at the University of Paris (M.A., 1358). After graduation, he studied canon law, natural philosophy, and theology at Paris, and perhaps also at Cologne and Prague. Though not ordained as a priest, in 1368 he obtained a valuable canonry at Aachen and settled down to the conventional career of a wealthy cleric. In 1372, after a nearly fatal illness, he renounced his study of magic and vowed to spend the rest of his life in the service of God. He resigned his lucrative benefices and adopted a self-denying way of life.
In 1374 Groote turned his family home in Deventer into a shelter for poor women and lived for several years as a guest of a Carthusian monastery. Eventually, he concluded that God was calling him to be a preacher to the general populace. He secured ordination as a deacon in order to qualify for permission to preach but never became a priest. Between 1379 and 1383 he worked as an itinerant preacher. His sermons were so critical of the morals and privileges of the clergy, openly denouncing those who lived with women in violation of their vows, that the bishop of Utrecht revoked his license to preach. Though he appealed to the pope, he obeyed the bishop’s order and withdrew first to a monastery and then to a small community of his disciples at Kampen.
In the meantime, a priest at Deventer who had become his disciple, Florens Radewijns (1350-1400), resigned his own benefices and formed in his own house a community (a commune) of Groote’s followers. They led a life in common, working in the secular world (often as professional copyists) and pooling their earnings. They elected a rector but did not organize as a formal monastic community, preferring an informal association, inspired by the example of the early Christian church at Jerusalem. There were no binding vows, and decisions to enter or to leave the community were a matter of personal calling. Because of their commitment to share a common life, they came to be known as Brethren of the Common Life.
Other communities were soon organized in imitation of the De-venter group, and the rules established by Radewijns at Deventer were adopted by the others. Occasionally such a local group decided to take formal monastic vows; one such community was the Augus-tinian monastery at St. Agnietenberg, where Thomas a Kempis, the probable author of The Imitation of Christ, was master of novices. Groote and Radewijns were also interested in the spiritual and material needs of poor women converted by their preaching, and a number of communities of Sisters of the Common Life were the result. The communities, both male and female, sought no endowed income or charity but supported themselves by their own labor. These semi-monastic communities of men and women arose spontaneously, without formal canonical status, and were a matter of great concern to the ecclesiastical authorities, who worried that heretical doctrines and immoral styles of living might prevail within communities (especially the communities of women) that were not subject to a monastic rule. The communities did seek approval from diocesan bishops, but suspicions of them remained strong among the higher clergy and the monks. There was pressure on them to reorganize as monastic communities.
In the face of this pressure, since he was by no means hostile to monasticism, Groote shortly before his death advised some of his followers to organize a monastery under the established rule for Augustin-ian canons. In 1387 these followers formed an Augustinian monastery at Windesheim, committed to strict observance of the Augustinian rule, and this monastery became the center for a group of Augustinian houses known as the Windesheim Congregation. It received papal approval in 1395. By the end of the 14th century, the Devotio Moderna consisted of three distinct but closely linked organizations: 1) the Brethren of the Common Life; 2) the Sisters of the Common Life; and 3) a group of reformed Augustinian monasteries belonging to the Windesheim Congregation. All three movements spread from their original center in the northern Netherlands into the southern Netherlands, northern France, and northwestern Germany. Many of these communities were disbanded during the Reformation, and in 1568 Pope Pius V ordered all remaining communities of Brethren and Sisters either to adopt a formal monastic rule or to disband.
Historians of the late medieval church have often associated the rise of the Devotio Moderna with a growing hunger for personal spirituality among the people of northwestern Europe, chiefly in the socially troubled urban centers. Desire for an effective response to spiritual needs and to the problems of urban poverty inspired idealistic young men like Groote and caused such communities to spread. It also led many of them to draw a sharp contrast between their life and the worldly lives of many wealthy clergy. Hence their preaching often took on an anticlerical tinge. Yet some historians have overemphasized and misinterpreted this critical side of the movement. The Brethren were determined to be humble and obedient as well as devout. Their close links to the Augustinian order show that they had no revolutionary agenda and in no way were precursors of the Protestant Reformation.
Another common misunderstanding has to do with their attitude toward intellectual life and their activity in education. Although Groote himself repudiated the scholastic learning he had acquired at Paris, he and his movement had no intention of challenging the traditional formulations of orthodox doctrine. They were cool to higher education because they thought that it implied a kind of intellectual arrogance that was incompatible with the simplicity and humility of the early New Testament Christians. Being largely an urban movement, they realized the value of literacy and did not extend their coolness toward university learning into hostility to education in general. The copying of books—mainly books of prayer and meditation— was regarded as a pious act and became a source of income for many of the communities.
A second misunderstanding is the idea that because they encouraged literacy and the production of books, the Brethren became a major force in education, even a center for the diffusion of Renaissance interests in classical learning. The "schools of the Brethren of the Common Life," of which some historians have made much, represent exaggeration and even distortion of the record. Some communities of Brethren did organize schools to meet the needs of boys from their towns, and as time passed, the number of such schools increased. But the Brethren were not precursors of the teaching orders of Counter-Reformation Catholicism. Instead of opening schools, many communities provided hostels in which boys from out of town could live in a pious and moral environment while attending schools operated by town governments or by wealthy cathedral topics and collegiate churches. The prime example of this misunderstanding concerns the relation of the Brethren at Deventer to the famous school of St. Leb-win’s church, the school attended by the young Erasmus, Rudolf Agricola, and other prominent Renaissance humanists. St. Lebwin’s was an excellent school for its time. Its largely medieval curriculum was enriched by attention to humanistic studies, especially during the long tenure of Alexander Hegius as its headmaster. But the school was never under the control of the Brethren. Since the Brethren discouraged their members from attending universities, the only qualified teachers they had were men (Groote himself would be an example) who had been converted to the common life after their formal education.
