Petrarch
These are only few
of the many examples from man's past which show that worship of the
unknown can reduce his capability to survive below the critical
value. Devotion to ritual and dogma lead to loss of flexibility and
the power to adapt to a hostile environment. Only once in man's
history has he effectively thrown off the shackles of the fear of
the infinite and attempted to face himself and the world and get
closer to the true nature of things. It was a poet, the
Italian Petrarch, who can be credited with this important advance.
Through his poetry and writings, especially about the ancient Greek
thinkers, he sowed the seeds which flowered into the Renaissance in
Europe. Before then the life of medieval man had been ruled and
shaped by the social and intellectual traditions of his family, his
guild, his feudal class and his church. Renaissance man rejected
such restrictions on his acts and thoughts. He was free to do what
he wanted and to think as he pleased. He could also look at his
surroundings in a new light and more fully savour the beauty of
nature as it related directly to himself. This breakdown of the
reliance on dogma in Europe ushered in the scientific revolution,
and allowed Western man within the last three centuries to gain the
power over nature which has led us to where we are today, in the
technological society.
Dante
The greatest poet of
the Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri, was a master of classical
literature and medieval theology, a great admirer of Francis of
Assisi, dedicated as he had been to courtly love, and a devout
Christian. His trilogy The Divine Comedy describes his pilgrimage
from the depths of Hell to the Heaven of Heavens, displaying vast
knowledge, imagination and command of metaphor. At its culmination
Dante attempts to express his spiritual response to the presence of
God.
Guided by Vergil,
the voice of philosophical wisdom, Dante first visits the damned,
suffering their agonies in the fires of the Inferno. In the second
book they climb through the souls struggling to make amends for
their sins on the slopes of Purgatory. But in the third, when they
reach Paradise, Beatrice his inamorata and the inspiration of his
pilgrimage takes over; she personifies divine illumination. On the
way upward she shows Dante the souls gathered on each of the
planets. At the Sun a congregation of the church's greatest
philosophers and theologians listen to St Thomas Aquinas, a
Dominican, extolling the virtues of St Francis and telling the
story of his love affair with Lady Poverty.
Once they have risen
above the constellations and the empty primum mobile - the first of
all the moving elements – Beatrice asks St Bernard, embodying
contemplative vision and the love of Mary, to lead Dante to the
climax of his quest. Dante then sees the saints, Francis among
them, gathering in the formation of a white rose and presided over
by the Virgin, glowing more brightly than the dawn. Bernard advises
him to ask her for the grace to gaze directly into the intense,
living and eternal light which is emerging from the three-fold
godhead. In the last lines of his epic Dante seeks words for the
ensuing apocalypse.
Like a geometer who
sets himself
To square the
circle, and is unable to think
Of the formula he
needs to solve the problem
So was I, faced with
this new vision. . .
But that was not a
flight for my wings:
Except that my mind
was struck by a flash
In which what it
most desired came to it.
At this point high
imagination failed;
But already my
desire and my will
Were being turned
like a wheel, all at one speed,
By the love which
moves the sun and the other stars.
