humanism
OK so basically the year is bumblefuck middle age crusade shit and the catholic church has a cuckhold white knuckle grip on the nut sack of every living being bc of like Augustine’s philosophies from the 4th century. Tldr they’re the reason why catholicism is everywhere and the Bible is written in latin, aka the official language of roman antiquity (which was when catholicism rlly took off) and of the Catholic Church.
And from latin stems a lot of dialects: like the 18 in germany or 69 in Italy or the 42069 of spain etc etc. they all evolved from the tribes and army states that came from the fall of the roman empire. and so basically the common ground commonality of everyone in Europe couldn’t be their language or trade but actually was the spread of catholic religion, ofc thereafter interpreted and translated into their own dialects by the priests in church.
But one day the dumbasses in the church realize they’re fucking dumbzo bc the Catholic Church doesn’t want ppl to misinturpet holy shit thru word of mouth, so theyre like welll DURRR uhhhh i guess we gotta fucking edumacate ppl. At the time, only the people who were high ranks in the church were educated and could read the language that the Bible was in (latin). And so in order to create order they start to educate their sheeple followers in latin so they can read the Bible and follow God n shit.
And the peasant people r like oh dope, wait cool this is dope i’m getting smort now. And so like in the opinion of the sheep aka the cunty scums, they think the best way to advance in their life is to advance in the ranks of catholicism: church goer -> pawn -> church intern -> priest -> bishop -> (c)rook -? arcbishop -> arc cunt -> pope -> nicolas cage etc etc.
So for the typical person, the only way to learn to become the bessttt arouuundnddd is to learn latin bc thats the language of the Vulgate Bible. And it works. Partly bc the church would fucking karate chop execute anyone who was a heretic and didn’t follow their ideas….. but also bc they started to make cross culture trade, they can speak the roots of most dialects and con people into believing about their savior mexican jesus. Also bc they have a vice fucking grip on how life works. Everything goes thru the church, every transaction, every book, every 5th grade crayola doodle. All is good, life is good, everyone & their dog is learning latin just for the fuck of it.
Time passes and now they want to learn more latin so they can speak more proficiently aka bulshit as hard as work of the people who clean bull’s shits. So they’re like reading the only other latin works thast existed at the time: Pagan authors bc they’re like christian n shit and they also happened to exist at the peak of (the fall of) Roman Empire ~4th century in terms of intellect and fucking bonkos christian conspiracy theories.
Then they go a bit further back and discover actually smart romans and they’re like aghrhaahah thas hot, thas hot. Like damn this shit fucking fire they got fcuking architecture n guides to life n shit. Their latin is so fucking cool and like peak latin n shit (probably bc latin is like the spoken and formal language of the Roman Empire). They’re like flourishing in what was at the time the universal language (latin) and it also happens to be the language of the catholic church so the church allows it because they’re like yaaaa!! This’ll make people want to read the bible more now that they’re getting more and more proficient in latin!
So they’re like ok 4th century theology & religious texts r good n all but what were the 1st century romans massive big brain intellects writing about? Bc if I can understand big brain latin words then I can become the biggest brain church dude on the playground and everyone will want to trade me their yugioh cards. So they see Virgil, or Seneca, or the eloquent writing of Cicero, or like Ovid’s metamorphoses and they’re like oh yea thas hot, this shit giving me brain. And so its kind of funny because the education of the biggest brain christian scholars starts reading these roman mega minds, and they start seeing how great life when jesus was still alive, but not so well know… yet.
And as they’re reading they’re liek wait what who r these greek cunts they keep talking about? Why do ppl keep quoting all these greek texts and greek philosophers? How come Cicero is like “aw man I wish our society was as great as greeks? And y the fuck am I just a supporting character in Julius Caesar @shakespeare” - Cicero c. 69 BDE
O and the Old Testament was originally written in greek (I mean it was in archaic hebrew but like the only copies they have r in greek), so they’re like ya I guess if we wanna learn about the Bible n shit I guess we gotta go deeeepper. Lets check out what these “awesome” greeks r all about hurr durr.
And so now the like top of the top educated mega dickshoe mcgees r all reading greek, on top of latin on top of whatever shit they’re doing in their day to day. It gets to a point where (and this is an actual quote from Erasmus [who basically translated all of the ancient texts equally into Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin]) “I have turned my entire attention to greek [philosophy], the first thing I shall do as soon as the money arrives is to buy some greek authors, after that I shall buy clothes”. This is how infatuated the people of the day were with these ancient texts.
The best part of all of this, you gotta rmbr, is that it all happened by coincidence. Theyre like, “if i want to get smart i guueeessss i gotta read pagans…. and if i want to understand pagans i gueessssss i gotta understand the romans… and if i want to understand the romans i guueessssss i gotta understand the greeks”… like how fucking bonkos is that? We would’ve lost A LOTTTT of the greek texts if they just decided to stay in the dark ages forever. Thats ufcking nuts considering how much of an impact aristotle, plato, the stoics, etc have had on philosophical thought (and in turn society).. likee ??? how the fuck would we have math or computers or pornhub without the fAcTs and LoGic that Aristotle gave us? We’d just be doing crusade #420 at this point, living the knight life, living the game of thrones instead of watching.
Also around this time they got like a massive influx of Greek Orthodox refugees to Italy bc they forgot to build a wall around Constantinople before the Byzantine Empire fell in 1453. So all these filthy immigrant cunts r bringing their ancient greek texts of like plato and aristotle n shit which were originally unavailable to the west. Also they were stealing our jobs fking dirtbags.
In 1440 the German dude Johannes Gutenberg (more like gutentag HAA) invents the printing press. This is a BIG fucking deal bc now they can mass produce translations and copies of these books and ship them all around the holy roman empire. Also fun fact: not surprisingly, the first book published was the ‘Gutenberg Bible’.
Within a couple years more than 2 million copies of all types of books were distributed. So like ya now even the average person could get access to books and all the knowledge that came with it. Like this some oprah shit where its like “you get a bible, and you get a Republic, and you get a car”. People actually start thinking for themselves and become specialists in all sorts of things, not just theology or religion, but also started doing niche stuff like blacksmithing, fishing, all types of arts, and joining the milwaukee bucks babeeEEE.
So they’re like learning all about greek philosophy –– WHICH, keep in mind –– is before christians and jesus and hitler n shit so they’re like oh fuck ya this is dope, look at all this history and introspection and orgies that happened. They’re even talking about metaphysics and the identity of self and consciousness and knack 2 and stuff. #backToTheBasics #ad fontes
So now u get to a huuuuuge divide of the megaminds: humanists (Martin Luther, Henry VIII, protestants, the average fucking person, etc) vs the Catholic Church and the holy Roman Empire. Its like battle of the century –– almost as big as mayweather vs pacquio or Logan Paul vs KSI n shit.
And this is where the renaissance begins the catholic church is like ok fuck shit we gotta figure shit out. We got mulllaaaaahhhh so lets hire the best of the best in every field to make catholicism more widespread, ya? This was a totally new concept bc literally ‘fields’ used to be farms, now it was the field of astronomy or the field of engineering, or music, etc etc. So the church is like yooooo thatll totally work, right? … in the words of michael jackson: “Hee hee”
So theyre like ok how about art huh? If we find the perfect way to draw these pictures maybe the dumbass PEASANTS can finally fucking understand shit bc they r bitch ass “visual learners” pussies. So theyre like asking Leanardo da Vinci to paint catholic paintings bc he figured out the mathematical technique of linear perspective in art, which was the ultimate pictorial depictions of space until like… the late 19th century. Fucking peasant lol.
Being a bit of a humanist himself he draws a picture of a man within a circle and a square, the two perfect/ideal shapes of the universe, and therefore assumes humans to be the perfect creation of divinity. My dude basically ‘proves’ the essential symmetry of the human body, and by extension, the symmetry of the universe as a whole. This really gives ppl an ego boost.. Oh and he got this idea of the Vitruvian Man (the dude with 4 hands and legs n shit) from the book Vitruvius (a roman author) wrote in De Architectura which was basically just architecture 101 for dummies.
Speaking of, they start looking for architects to create massive churches bc more ppl that can attend = more people that practice catholicism. But they’re too fucking dumb to figure shit out so they ask engineers like Brunelleschi to create a massive dome (which was the biggest dome since the pantheon and until like the 1900s, an amazing fucking feat bc thats even before all the cranes n shit). Burnelleschi basically just made two domes, one within the other, aka the same fucking thing they copied for Les Invalides in Paris and the United States Capitol in Washington.
But like, scoob, where does all the money to fund this stuff come from? 1) Trade. Trade is really beginning to expand. And 2) all sorts of bizarre banking. So the Medici family, and later, the Fuggers, if we just look at these at two families.. like gdamn… basically to give u an idea, daddy Fugger is still to this day the richest person to have ever lived.
People always say banking is so hard there are all these options and derivatives and dah dah.. these guys u could bring em to the modern day and it would take em one minute to figure stuff out and come up to speed. “Like computers? Ok they do that ok great, cool whatever.” These guys pretty much did everything, they did every possible kind of option, loan, shares, reverse mortgages, whatever. So increased urbanization meets new financial systems (not just basic trade exchanges from the silk road, but like advanced loans, marginal reserves, bookkeeping, etc). And this gave them incredible financial leverage. Mostly bc they were the early pioneers of this whole corporate banking thing, and at this time not everyone knew how to do this, especially not to the degree of big brain that the Fuggers did.
Like one example was there was this time where they were deciding who to become the head of the Holy Roman Empire. lmfao and for this whole process there were only certain cities that can vote, and there’s only a certain number of electors that can vote. And so ofc being an elector is a very good job bc it allows u to get bribes, so if u got money u can choose the next holy roman emperor. Basically one of the german principalities that was running to have one of their people head, the loan that the Fuggers gave to buy 1 members vote was TEN FUCKING TIMES the entire income of the entire fucking German state. And people were like ??? how ?¿? Wtf? Like how tf is that even fucking possible. We were gonna spend like maaaxx 1,000 gulden on our campaign and u just dump 1,000,000 on this random dude just so that the protestant mongoloid Henry VIII or Martin Luther or the inbred Hasburgs & their goofy jawline can actually just fuck off from pursuing the throne. Fun fact the dumbass ended up marrying Henry VIII’s 11yr old sister.
Anyway so these guys are like giving out money to everyone who wanted it and funding massive projects like the church’s cathedrals and holding competitions for like door designs or some dumb shit just to see who the most talented artist or crafts person is. These artist/ engineer/gamer guys get a reputation over time and eventually climb the ranks to being sought after for royal portraits or massive architectural structures or machines or whatever. These dudes become as valued as urban legends can become.
Ok another story time but this time ill be short. Im sorry i just couldnt skip this story its too fucking funny. Basically the church is like yo Veronese (who is like the successor to Titian and Tintoretto) can u paint us a fucking masssiive Last Supper to put on our fridge wall bc the last one by Titian got pwned in a fire? And hes like lol ya sure. And the dude fucking puts memes all over it. Like the medieval version of just the most fucking meme-y shit in this traditionally holy moment. This fkin savage put baffoons, monkeys, dwarves, drunken a jester with a parrot on his wrist just for the fucking meme of it. The dude, of course, gets the classic inquisition thrown at him and called to court for interrogation. Therein hes asked a lot of questions by The Holy Office but hes still a fucking memeing cunt in front of all of them like look at this series of Q&A:
Q. In this Supper which you painted for San Giovanni e Paolo, what signifies the figure of him whose nose is bleeding?
A. He is a servant who has a nose-bleed from some accident.
Q. Tell us what the third [St. Peter] is doing.
A. He is picking his teeth with a fork.
Q. Do you not know that in Germany and other countries infested by heresy, it is habitual, by means of pictures full of absurdities, to vilify and turn to ridicule the things of the Holy Catholic Church, in order to teach false doctrine to ignorant people who have no common sense?
A. I paint my pictures with all the considerations which are natural to my intelligence, and according as my intelligence understands them.
Anyway tldr the way the Catholic Church would normally deal with kind of shit by just burning them at the stake immediately with no second thought. But because these people were so important to the fabric of society and stuff they literally couldn’t bring themselves to do it or even challenge these artists. These dudes were arguing privately and publicly with the Popes of their time and never got shit for it. In the case of this example, the catholic church decided to change the name of the 40ft painting to The Feast in the House of Levi, so as to not tarnish The Last Supper. Fucking solid meme 5/7.
Basically it gets to the point where people are like… wow each of these things are so impressive … it is not necessarily the church or theology, but the mathematics, the artist, the engineer. So like all of these revelations are taking place, and they all come together to produce this seething mass that’s not rlly any one thing. There’s no like “oh what is the renaissance” there’s art, there’s architecture, there’s new literature, there’s incredible engineering, there’s a discovery of the past. The only thing that is actually “reborn” is the Vetruvian Man. It’s the notion that man is central. It’s the human that is the most important. Man is the measure of all things.
So basically as a recap of the renaissance, look to the thing that basically capped and started the end of the renaissance; the protestant reformation. Martin Luther is like “look, man does not need an intermediary between themselves and God. You can figure it for yourself. Even women can figure it out for themselves (think about that for a sec)”. This means you become vastly vastly more important. You’re in a 1 to 1 relationship with God. Heyyyy thats pretty good. Like solid faculty to student ratio.
And people are like ya ya i get this. And so when people what’s right what’s wrong, they don’t appeal to the church fathers or latin scholars or even the ancient greek philosophers, they appeal to their own reason. And this new mix of logic (leading to the Enlightenment) and growth of the importance of individual observation experience that you can apply to really conceptualize the world is truly the core of the renaissance. It’s what’s reborn. Lots of other things are not new, they’re cultivated they’re developed, but that does seem to be the core that’s new. No more Plato & theory of ideal forms or divine revelation (which is, at the end of the day is sooo subjective, and typically really only enforceable by force).
And then u get this guy Columbus who sails off to discover india. He goes the wrong way and finds a literal whole new world. He comes back and announces “hey theres a new world out there. There’s a fucking new world”. This like totally just blew everyone’s mind. Like again this is so hard for us to conceptualize. Can u imagine what living in this period is like? Gdamnnn. In one way they discover all these ancient texts that are blowing their mind. Like for instance if you want to build something you go to Vitruvious’s texts on architecture. That was the best book they had for building.. Literally written 1400 years earlier. That’s the guide book for architecture. Or all the old philosophical ideas of greek, romans, and islamic mega big brains. And then the world is fucking remade too?!!?! Just revelation after revelation. You get technology linked to philosophy linked to this concept of the human as central. And centrally important. And not just one human: the king or jesus, or two humans, Plato & Aristotle, but theoretically every human. Its humanism. What was the model of perfection? Humans are the model of perfection. It’s the Vitruvian man.
Famously, Aristotle said “well just some men are born slaves, that’s clear, that’s why there’s slavery”. Ben Shapiro would be proud #factsandlogic. But once you get the humanist movement see this people are like “hey maybe we should rethink this whole slavery thing. Cuz humans all of a sudden have value. FULL STOP.” This new vision of the centrality of the human linked to the financial and cultural capacities to express themselves to remake themselves. To reimagine themselves and reimagine the world (in America/Africa) in a way that never had existed before. And basically everything that has become in the western world since then has its roots right there. It’s about to create the reformation, it’s about to create a scientific world, it’s about to make a whole new world. But most importantly this is where we get our idea that we matter as individuals. That being human is significant and should be treated as such. That’s what’s born in the Renaissance. The centrality of the human and the human capacity to express all of its powers and to be respected for that.
to who started The human… and the human is divine… “I respect the artistry and intelligence to read ancient texts and interpret them into the most perfect creations human can create” says pope daddy.
By constantly testing the limits of human capability and making
Da vinci: “many will think they may reasonably blame me by alleging that my proofs are opposed by the authority of ‘certain men’ (aristotle, plate, and the church fathers, and the people quoting them) held in the highest reverence by our inexperienced judgements. Not considering that my words are the issue of pure and simple experience who is the one true mistress. These rules are sufficient to enable you to know the true from the false. And this aids men to look only for things that are possible and with due moderation. And not to wrap yourself in ignorance, a thing that can have no good results so that despair you will give yourself up to melancholy.”
How do you judge true and false? Personal experience. This is the new mentality. Plato didn’t think this and aristotle was pretty vague on this. Da Vinci doesn’t say its true if “I get divine revelation” (plato) or its true because its logical (aristotle) or its true “because god says its true”. Its true if my experience demonstrates its true. If Brunelleschi’s dome doesn’t fall he’s right, if his dome falls he’s wrong. It’s almost a precursor to the scientific method.