III THE TRACTATE AS A HUMANISTIC DOCUMENT In substance, Milton's Tractate generally agrees with the humanistic theory of education that grew up in Western Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, under the impulse of the Revival of Learning. This theory is marked by two or three outstanding characteristics, all of which are prominent in Milton's treatise. One of these is a clearer consciousness, among teachers and students, of education as a discipline for active life.1 A second is an insistence upon the more extensive reading of ancient writers, both classical and Christian, as the principal means of securing this discipline. A third characteristic is an attitude of severe and often hostile criticism toward medieval education and culture. Of these characteristics, the first two proceed from the whole nature of the movement that is called the Renaissance, and especially from the greater interest that people in general during the fifteenth century began to take in the present life; they also proceed from the activity of scholars and men of wealth in the discovery and study of the records of the past. The third feature, that of hostility toward the Middle Ages, probably grew out of the opposition that the new learning often encountered, especially in the universities) Of the humanistic theory in practice, the best illustration for the present purpose is offered by the school established at Mantua by Vittorino da Feltre. A disciple of the new learning, Vittorino came to Mantua in 1423, and there remained until his death in 1446.5 'During these two-and-twenty years,' says W. H. Wood ward, ‘he established and perfected the first great school of the Renaissance a school whose spirit, curriculum, and method justify us in regarding it as a landmark of critical importance in the history of classical education. It was indeed the great typical school of the Humanities.' The system of education conceived and carried out at Mantua by Vittorino was framed on the ideal of combining 'the spirit of the Christian life with the educational apparatus of classical literature, whilst uniting with both something of the Greek passion for bodily culture and for dignity of the outer life.' This ideal reminds one of the end of education proposed by Milton, and of the religious studies that he combines with a preparation for life, both active and contemplative. In Vittorino's school, moreover, one may observe a remarkable similarity to the ideal Academy later described by Milton. The 'spacious house and ground about it'3 are represented by the palace called 'La Gioiosa' (the Pleasure-house), which the Marquis Gonzaga devoted to the purpose of the school, and the name of which Vittorino modified to 'La Giocosa' (the Pleasant House). Its situation was healthful and attractive, and in this house and the adjoining buildings Vittorino and his pupils made their home. The intercourse between teacher and student was intimate and cordial, and the greatest precautions were used to protect the pupils, especially the younger ones, from influences that were vicious or distracting. The number of students, it is true, was only about one-half that mentioned by Milton. "Their studies, their exercise, and their diet' were supervised by Vittorino himself with the solicitude of a father. . The curriculum was, of course, humanistic. The outlines of the medieval Trivium and Quadrivium were to some extent observed, but the spirit and method of the study were such as to make it far different from the earlier instruction of the schools and universities. 1 Ibid., p. 24. For example, the figment of the four senses of a passage the literal, the metaphorical, the allegorical, the anagogical-which Grammar and Dialectic jointly endeavored to exhibit, gave way to a desire to find out what the author's words meant to a plain intelligence. To Vittorino, Grammar and Rhetoric, combined, implied the critical scholarship of Greek and Latin, a facility in composition in either language, and a power of entering into and absorbing the spirit of the literature, history, and thought of the ancient world. Dialectic, instead of dominating all other subjects, ... sank into a comparatively insignificant place. All was rational, objective, in method; the aim was erudition, and not speculation, as a means of adorning and moralizing life. The essential foundation of education was Letters.1 Daily physical exercise was required of all. In this, Vittorino 'aimed rather at strengthening the frame, inducing habits of hardiness, and power of bearing fatigue, than at any special athletic skill. Although he placed less emphasis upon martial exercises than did Milton, his ideal of bodily culture was in part derived from that of the Greeks and the Romans." As the whole aim of Vittorino's teaching was the complete and harmonious development of life, so with him as with Milton the secular part of education was throughout accompanied by the inculcation of Christian principle. Reverence, piety, and religious observance formed the dominant note of Vittorino's personal life. The dignity of human life was with him based upon its relation to the Divine. Hence the transparent sincerity of his religious teaching; the insistence upon attendance at the ordinances of the Church; the inculcation of forgiveness and humility. . Part of the religious instruction he himself took every day. Apart from the light that is thus thrown upon his personality, what is of chief interest in this aspect of Vittorino is its relation to his Humanism. This was with him no nominal reconciliation between the new and the old. Christianity and Humanism were the two co-ordinate factors necessary to the development of complete manhood. There is no 1 Woodward, Vittorino da Feltre, p. 38. Ibid., p. 66. • Ibid., p. 65. reason to suppose that Vittorino was embarrassed by a sense of contradiction between the classical and the Christian ideals of life. To him, and to men of his temper since, the thought and morals of the ancient world were identified with the ethical precepts of the Stoics and the idealism of Plato; and it was easy for them to point to the consistency of this teaching with the broader aspects of the Christian life.1 On the whole, Vittorino's school, as 'the great typical school of the humanities,' was the first modern prototype of Milton's Academy. The likeness, to be sure, consists more in organization, general aim, and underlying spirit than in the details of curriculum and method. Of early humanistic treatises on education, the De Tradendis Disciplinis, by the Spanish courtier and scholar, Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540), is undoubtedly for us the most important. In this work, Vives, more fully perhaps than any previous writer, interprets and adapts for the Renaissance the doctrines of Quintilian—the main classical authority on humanistic education— and with them combines the principles of Christianity. He also assumes a critical attitude toward medieval education, and especially toward the scholastic philosophy-the attitude that is so prominent in Milton's Tractate, of which, indeed, Vives' work has been plausibly suggested as the immediate source.2 As a representative of humanism Vives is the more convincing because he occupies the position of a convert. His utterances may be taken as evincing serious and reasoned judgments rather than opinions merely acquired from other persons. His earlier education, obtained at the Academy or University in his native city of Valencia, was not such as to dispose him favorably toward the new learning, which at this time (1507-8) had but recently found an advocate in that part of Spain, and met with much opposition from several scholars, among them Vives' own teachers. In 1509, at the age of seventeen, Vives entered the University of Paris. 1 Ibid., Here in the course of his studies took place his conversion to humanism. The controversy between its advocates and those of dialectic-a dispute that was especially vigorous at Paristurned upon the value of reading the classics, as opposed to the settling of all questions by the method of debate. The warmth of Vives' championship of reading, and his relentless exposure of the obscurities and barbarisms of the dialecticians, seem wellnigh prophetic of Milton in the Tractate.1 Probably in 1514 Vives settled at Bruges, where he became the pupil of Erasmus. The cordial friendship which sprang up between them lasted with but one interruption until Erasmus' death. It was at Erasmus' suggestion that Vives undertook his most important piece of editorial work (on St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei). Vives differed from Erasmus, however, in his attitude toward scholarship. Erasmus' outlook was cosmopolitan, and his devotion to learning never was threatened by the promptings of immediate and local civic duty. Vives, on the other hand, from a period rather early in his residence at Bruges, was more clearly conscious of the important part that the new learning had to play in social and civic reform. He wrote a treatise on the question of poor-relief in his adopted city, and in other ways manifested the conviction that scholarship should immediately lead to practical results. That this phase of devotion to learning is also to be found in Milton the Tractate itself offers evidence enough. In 1522 Vives made his first visit to England. He found a hearty welcome at the Court of Henry the Eighth, and on a second visit became the tutor of the Princess Mary, for whose benefit he composed a plan of studies. Thus he shared with Ascham, among others, the work of teaching in the royal household. During his residence in England Vives was a frequent and intimate guest at the house of Sir Thomas More, where he met a number of distinguished scholars. He also visited Oxford, where rooms were set apart for him, and where for a time he held a lectureship. 1 Watson, Vives on Education, p. lvii. |