Final Quotes Flashcards
On His Own Ignorance
Author: Petrarch
“They cannot even envy me learning and eloquence! Learning, they declare, I have absolutely none. Eloquence, if I had any, they despise according to the modern philosophic fashion. They reject it as unworthy of a man of letters.”
Writing: On His Own Ignorance
Author: Petrarch
Theme: Some had the notion that rhetoric might be used to dress up bad philosophy in good clothing. Petrarch’s friends did not think that rhetoric was worth their time and that it diminished philosophy. Petrarch believed that rhetoric adorned philosophy (rhetoric wis the means of arguing philosophy)
“What else do you want? Or what do you believe? I think you expect to hear the verdict of the judges. Well, they examined each point. Then, fixing their eyes on I know not what god - for there is no god who want iniquity no god of envy or ignorance, which I might call the twofold cloud-shrouding truth - they pronounced this short final sentence: I am a good man without learning.”
Writing: On His Own Ignorance
Author: Petrarch
Theme: Petrarch is persecuting a problem with the scholastic method: “If you have already decided the outcome of the argument, you will arrive there no matter what.”
“Let them keep their exorbitant opinion of everything that regards them, and the naked name Aristotle which delights many ignorant people by its four syllables.”
Writing: On His Own Ignorance
Author: Petrarch
Theme: This is a condemnation to naked appeal to authority. Just slapping a quote from Aristotle on an argument and having his opinion carry the argument. Aristotle could be wrong
“What shall we conclude from all this? Shall I count Cicero among Catholics? I wish I could . . . However, far be it from me to espouse the genius of a single man in its totality because of one or two well-formulated phrases. Philosophers must not be judged from isolated words but from their uninterrupted coherence and consistency.”
Writing: On His Own Ignorance
Author: Petrarch
Theme: You must look at a person totally, not at just their name or one or two of their words, but at the whole substance of their works - Cicero was a mixed bag
“They believe that a man has no great intellect and is hardly learned unless he dares to raise his voice against God and to dispute against the Catholic Faith, silent before Aristotle alone.”
Writing: On His Own Ignorance
Author: Petrarch
Theme: The scholastic method seems to be starting to strangle out revelation and putting Aristotle up as the one authority. Everything is being made to conform to this one authority
The New Education
Author: Petrus Paulus Vergerius
“We call those studies liberal which are worthy of a free man; those studies by which we attain and practice virtue and wisdom; that education which calls forth, trains, and develops those highest gifts of body and of mind which ennoble men, and which are rightly judged to rank next in dignity to virtue only.”
Writing: The New Education
Author: Petrus Paulus Vergerius
Theme: Two Senses of the liberal arts. 1) The studies that really can only be studied by a free man with free time and 2) there is a moral freeing. You will not be a slave to your passions if you are liberally educated
“Respecting the general place of liberal studies, we remember that Aristotle would not have them absorb the entire interests of life: for he kept steadily in view the nature of man as a citizen, an active member of the State. For the man who has surrendered himself absolutely to the attractions of Letters or of speculative thought follows, perhaps, a self-regarding end and is useless as a citizen or as prince.”
Writing: The New Education
Author: Petrus Paulus Vergerius
Theme: You also must be an active member of society on top of being liberally educated. Take your skills and use them in society; no well educated hermits
Oration on the Dignity of Man
Author: Giovanni Pico
“He therefore took man as a creature of indeterminate nature and, assigning him a place in the middle of the world, addressed him thus: “Neither a fixed abode nor a form that is yours alone nor any function peculiar to yourself have We given you, Adam, to the end that according to your longing and according to your judgment you may have and possess what abode, what form, and what functions you yourself shall desire . . . You, constrained by no limits, in accordance with your own free will, in whose hand We have placed you, shall ordain for yourself the limits of your nature. We have set you at the world’s center that you may from thence more easily observe whatever is in the world.”
Writing: Oration on the Dignity of Man
Author: Giovanni Pico
Theme: Humans can chose their destiny. They can be raised up and be closer to God or fall down and be more animal-like. We do not have a specific form
Political Theory
Author: Niccolò Machiavelli
“whether for the purpose of carrying out their plans they have to resort to entreaties, or whether they can accomplish it by force. In the first case they always succeed badly, and fail to conclude anything; but when they depend upon their own strength to carry their innovations through, then they rarely incur and danger. Thence it was that all prophets who came with arms in hand were successful, whilst those who were not armed were ruined.”
Writing: Political Theory
Author: Niccolò Machiavelli
Theme: It is hard to tell if this is how he really feels or if this is satirical. If it is really how he thinks, he is seriously overlooking many example, especially Christ
“You must know, therefore, that there are two ways of carrying on a contest; the one by law, and the other by force. The first is practiced by men, and the other by animals; and as the first is often insufficient, it becomes necessary to resort to the second. A prince, then, should know how to employ the nature of man, and that of the beasts as well. This was figuratively taught by ancient writers, who relate how Achilles…”
Writing: Political Theory
Author: Niccolò Machiavelli
Theme: Achilles is not a good model for a king. He is saying that a king must use force and be animal-like
“Thus sagacious legislators, knowing the vices of each of these systems of government by themselves, have chosen one that should partake in all of them, judging that to be the most stable and solid. In fact, when there is combined under the same constitution a prince, nobility, and the power of the people, then these three powers will watch and keep each other reciprocally in check.”
Writing: Political Theory
Author: Niccolò Machiavelli
Theme: Combining monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy is the best form of government: a religious republic with a mixed constitution
“And as the observance of divine institutions is the cause of the greatness of republics, so the disregard of them produces their ruin; for where the fear of God is wanting, there the country will come to ruin, unless it be sustained by the fear of the prince, which may temporarily supply the want of religion.”
Writing: Political Theory
Author: Niccolò Machiavelli
Theme: In contrast to the Prince where he says cruelty is the best, here it is only temporarily the best when piety fails. A pious city is best
Address to the Christian Nobility
Author: Martin Luther
“The grace and might of God be with you, Most Serene Majesty! Most gracious well beloved gentlemen!”
Writing: Address to the Christian Nobility
Author: Martin Luther
Theme: Addressed to Charles (before the diet of Worms); He is appealing to local institutions to gain their support. He knows there is tension between the popes and emperors
“All Christians are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference among them, same of office alone.”
Writing: Address to the Christian Nobility
Author: Martin Luther
Theme: Luther is saying that the Clergy in the Christian world are not in another class above everyone else with their own rules
“In the same way as if ten brothers, co-heirs as king’s sons, were to choose one from among them to rule over their inheritance; they would, all of them, still remain kings and have equal power, although one is ordered to govern”
Writing: Address to the Christian Nobility
Author: Martin Luther
Theme: The priests are set up practically, but they are not special types of people
In this way the Christians used to choose their bishops and priests out of the community; thee being afterwards confirmed by other bishops, without the pomp that we have now. SO was it that Saints Augustine, Ambrose, Cyprian were bishops”
Writing: Address to the Christian Nobility
Author: Martin Luther
Theme: Luther is not rejecting all of the tradition formed between the NT and his day
On Christian Liberty
Author: Martin Luther
“But you will ask, ‘What is this word, and by what means is it to be used, since there are as many words of God?” I answer, the Apostle Paul explains what it is, namely the Gospel of God, concerning His son, incarnate, suffering, risen, and glorified through the Spirit, the sanctifier.”
Writing: On Christian Liberty
Author: Martin Luther
Theme: The Gospel and its preaching is what creates faith
“This also is an office of faith, that it honors with the utmost veneration and the highest reputation him in whom it believes, inasmuch as it holds him to be truthful and righteousness, with which we honor him in whom we believe. . . In doing this the soul shows itself prepared to do His whole will; in doing that it hallows His name, and gives itself up to be dealt with as it may please God. . .Is not such a soul, in this its faith, most obedient to God in all things? What commandment does there remain which has not been amply fulfilled by such an obedience? What fulfillment can be more full than universal obedience?”
Writing: On Christian Liberty
Author: Martin Luther
Theme: We are justified by faith alone, but if you truly believe, your behavior will change. Works are a fruit of faith
The Institutes
Author: John Calvin
“For where the glory of God is not made the end of the government it is not a legitimate sovereignty, but a usurpation. And he is deceived who expects lasting prosperity in that kingdom which is not ruled by the scepter of God, that is, His holy word; for that heavenly oracle cannot fail which declares that “where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Writing: The Institutes
Author: John Calvin
Theme: The purpose of Government is to glorify God
“For some men, when they hear that the gospel promises a liberty which acknowledges no king or magistrate among men, but submits to Christ alone, think they can enjoy no advantage of their liberty while they see any power exalted above them. They imagine, therefore, that nothing will prosper unless the whole world be modeled in a new form, without any tribunals, or laws, or magistrates, or anything of a similar kind, which they consider injurious to their liberty. But he who knows how to distinguish between the body and the soul, between this present transitory life and the future. eternal one, will find no difficulty in understanding, that the spiritual kingdom of Christ and civil government are things very different and remote from each other.”
Writing: The Institutes
Author: John Calvin
Theme: He is almost walking back his earlier statement when he said that government was to glorify God. Now he is saying that they are completely separate
“I shall by no means deny that either aristocracy, or a mixture of aristocracy and democracy, far excels all others; and that indeed not of itself, but because it very rarely happens that kings regulate themselves so that their will is never at variance with justice and rectitude; or, in the next place, that they are endued with such penetrations and prudence as in all cases to discover what is best. The vice or imperfection of men therefore renders it safer and more tolerable for the government to be in the hands of many, that they may afford each other mutual assistance and admonition, and that if any one arrogate to himself more than is right, the many may act as censors and masters to restrain his ambition.”
Writing: The Institutes
Author: John Calvin
Theme: This is a shift from many past writers (monarchy is best). Calvin says that aristocracy or a mixture of aristocracy and democracy is best
Ecclesiastical Ordinances
Author: John Calvin
The Thirty-Nine Articles
Author: King Edward VI (Edited by Elizabeth)
“And this infection of nature does remain, yea, in them that are regenerated”
Writing: The Thirty-Nine Articles
Author: Author: King Edward VI (Edited by Elizabeth)
Theme: The regenerated are those who are baptized. The Council of Trent said that once baptized, Original sin is gone. Here, they set up a more Protestant position, saying original sin does remain
“As the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ.”
Writing: The Thirty-Nine Articles
Author: Author: King Edward VI (Edited by Elizabeth)
Theme: They affirm predestination and election, but not necessarily a Calvinist stance. Calvin said God did not look at anything before election. The Anglican Church seems to be trying to find a middle ground
“The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached and the sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred: so also the Church of Rome has erred, not only in their living and manner or ceremonies, but also in matters of faith.”
Writing: The Thirty-Nine Articles
Author: Author: King Edward VI (Edited by Elizabeth)
Theme: They seem to be asserting that there is no infallible church, not even themselves
Canons and Decrees
Author: Council of Trent
Act of Supremacy
Author: Henry VIII
The Schleitheim Confession
Theme: Anabaptist Confession of Faith
“We have been united concerning the separation that shall take place from the evil and the wickedness which the devil has planted in the world, simply in this: that we have no fellowship with them, and do not run with them in the confusion of their abomination.”
Writing: The Schleitheim Confession
Theme: Not talking about pagans, but other Christians because they were baptized as infants
The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
Author: Nicolaus Copernicus
“For it is the job of the astronomer to use painstaking and skilled observation in gathering together the history of the celestial movements, and then–since he cannot by any line of reasoning reach the true causes of these movements, and then–to think up or construct whatever causes or hypotheses he pleases such that, by the assumption of these causes, those same movements can be calculated form the principles of geometry for the past and for the future too. . .for it is not necessary that these hypotheses should be true, or even probable.”
Writing: The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
Author: Nicolaus Copernicus
Theme: He is hedging this in order to introduce these things so that he may mathematically explain these things but saying they don’t have to be true so people don’t become hostile to him
“Therefore, when I weighed these things in my mind, the scorn which I had to fear on account of the newness and absurdity of my opinion almost drove me to abandon a work already undertaken. But my friends made me change my course in spite of my long-continued hesitation and even resistance. First among them was Nicholas Schonberg, Cardinal of Cape, a man distinguished in all branches of learning; next to him was my devoted friend Tiedeman Giese, Bishop of Culm, a man filled with the greatest zeal for the divine and liberal arts.”
Writing: The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
Author: Nicolaus Copernicus
Theme: He is pointing out well educated Church leaders to help say that he is not being a heretic
Letter to the Grand Duchess
Author: Galileo Galilei
“To this end they hurled various charges and published numerous writings filled with vain arguments, and they made the grave mistake of sprinkling these with passes taken from places in the Bible which they had failed to understand properly, and which were ill suited to their purposes.”
Writing: Letter to the Grand Duchess
Author: Galileo Galilei
Theme: He is talking about a conflict in interpreting Scripture
Aphorisms
Author: Francis Bacon
“Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known, the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.”
Writing: Aphorisms
Author: Francis Bacon
Theme: Knowledge is power. If you don’t know how things work, you won’t get the effect you want
“The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search after truth.”
Writing: Aphorisms
Author: Francis Bacon
Theme: New foundations; Empiricism - Building up from smaller points to know the world
“Again there is another great and powerful cause why the sciences have made but little progress, which is this. It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed. Now the true and lawful goal of the sciences is none other than this, that human life be endowed with new discoveries and powers.”
Writing: Aphorisms
Author: Francis Bacon
Theme: Science is for power over nature
“There is therefore much ground for hoping that there are still laid up in the womb of nature many secrets of excellent use, having no affinity or parallelism with anything that is now known, but lying entirely out of the beat of imagination, which have not yet been found out.”
Writing: Aphorisms
Author: Francis Bacon
Theme: There are things to be discovered that are completely out of our imagination
Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants
Author: anonymous
The True Law of Free Monarchies
Author: James VI
“First then, I will set down the true grounds whereupon I am to build, out of the Scriptures, since monarchy is the true pattern of Divinity, as I have already said. Next, from the fundamental laws of our own kingdom, which nearest must concern us. Thirdly, from the laws of nature, by diverse similitudes drawn out of the same.”
Writing: The True Law of Free Monarchies
Author: James VI
Theme: These are the foundations of his argument. God acts as a monarch (heaven is not a democracy) and thus, men should follow this “pattern”.
“Christian monarchy, they give their oath, first to maintain the religion presently professed within their country, according to their laws, whereby it is established, and to punish all those that should press to alter or disturb the profession thereof. And next to maintain all the lovable and good laws made by their predecessors.”
Writing: The True Law of Free Monarchies
Author: James VI
Theme: The King’s Oath is to 1) maintain the religion and 2) uphold the existing laws. He is not claiming some absolute power. He has limitations. It is in the King’s favor to have these limits to prevent chaos
“knowing himself to be ordained for them, and they not for him and therefore accountable to that great God, who placed him as his lieutenant over them, upon the peril of his soul to procure the wealth of both souls and bodies, as far as in him lies, of all them that are committed to his charge. And this oath in the coronation is the clearest, civil, and fundamental law whereby the king’s office is properly defined.”
Writing: The True Law of Free Monarchies
Author: James VI
Theme: The people do not exist for the king, but the king for the people and if he does a bad job, he is only accountable to God (God could damn him)
“And according to these fundamental laws already alleged, we daily see that in the Parliament (which is nothing else but the head court of the king and his vassals) the laws are but craved by his subjects, and only made by him at their rogation and with their advice.”
Writing: True Law of Free Monarchies
Author: James VI
Theme: Parliament only gets its power from the King. People ask for legislative change, the king will make new laws, with help form parliament (he doesn’t need them) only when asked for by the people
“yet a good king will not only delight to rule his subjects by the law, but even will conform himself in his own actions thereunto, always keeping that ground, that the health of the common-wealth be his chief law.”
Writing: The True Law of Free Monarchies
Author: James VI
Theme: The king is not always bound by the law, but he should try to live by them as much as possible
The Petition of Right
Author: English Parliament
“That no tillage or aid shall be laid or levied by the King or his heirs in this realm without the goodwill and assent of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other the freemen of the commonalty of this realm; and by authority of Parliament holden in the five and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the Third it is declared and enacted that from thenceforth no person shall be compelled to make any loans to the King against his will , because such loans were against reason and the franchise of the land.”
Writing: The Petition of Rights
Author: English Parliament
Theme: There are rules that are to be followed, even by the king
Denial of Parliamentary Jurisdiction
Author: Charles I
“But also that no earthly power can justly call me, who am you King, in question as a delinquent”
Writing: Denial of Parliamentary Jurisdiction
Author: Charles I
Theme: Parliament cannot accuse him because the laws flow from him
“And for the question now in hand, there it is said that ‘where the word of a King is, there is power; and who may say unto him, what dost thou?’ Then for the law of this land, I am no less confident that no learned lawyer will affirm that an impeachment an lie against the King, they all going in his name; and one of their maxims is that the King can do no wrong. Besides, that law upon which you ground your proceedings must either be old or new–if old, show it; if new, tell what authority, warranted by the fundamental laws of the land, has made it, and when.”
Writing: Denial of Parliamentary Jurisdiction
Author: Charles I
Theme: The king can do no legal wrong, but if he could, there must be a law to break; It must either be an old law (so show the law) or a new law (so what authority created it)
Leviathan
Author: Thomas Hobbes
Second Treatise of Civil Government
Author: John Locke
“We must consider what state all men are naturally in, and that is a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man.”
Writing: Second Treatise of Civil Government
Author: John Locke
Theme: Everyone is born with an equal state of nature but this goes away in exchange for security in a society
“Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature has provided and left it in, he has mixed his labor with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common state nature has placed it in. . .As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property. He by his labor does, as it were, enclosed it from the common.”
Writing: Second Treatise of Civil Government
Author: John Locke
Theme: Property becomes important for Locke. We gain property by putting our labor into it, taking it out of its state of nature and making it our own
“There being always annexed to the enjoyment of land a submission to the government of the country of which that land is a part, it has been commonly supposed that a father could oblige his posterity to that government of which he himself was a subject, and that his compact held them.”
Writing: Second Treatise of Civil Government
Author: John Locke
Theme: If you inherited something from your father, you are obliged to follow the laws of that land
“Whereas, it being only a necessary condition annexed to the land and the inheritance of an estate which is under that government, reaches only those who will take it on that condition, and so is no natural tie or engagement, but a voluntary submission. For every man’s children being by nature as free as himself, or any of his ancestors ever were, may, whilst they are in that freedom, choose what society they will join themselves to, what commonwealth they will put themselves under.”
Writing: Second Treatise of Civil Government
Author: John Locke
Theme: You can consent or not to following these laws through the mechanism of land ownership; once you connect, however, you must follow these laws
For when any number of men have, by the consent of every individual, made a community, they have thereby made that community one body, with a power to act as one body, which is only by the will and determination of the majority. . . And thus every man, by consenting with others to make one body politic under one government, puts himself under an obligation to every one of that society to submit to the determination of the majority, and to be concluded by it. . .For where the majority cannon conclude the rest, there they cannot act as one body, and consequently will be immediately dissolved again.”
Writing: Second Treatise of Civil Government
Author: John Locke
Theme: The majority has the power to rule - It’s very important. The legitimacy flows from the people consenting and the majority
“And ‘tis not without reason that he seeks out and is willing to join in society with others who are already united, or have a mind to unite, for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties, and estates, which I call by the general name, property. The great and chief end therefore, of men’s uniting into commonwealths and putting themselves under government is the preservation of property.”
Writing: Second Treatise of Civil Government
Author: John Locke
Theme: People form societies in order to preserve their property
“The common question will be made, Who shall be judge whether the prince or legislative act contrary to their trust? This, perhaps, ill-affected and factious men may spread among the people when the prince only makes use of his due prerogative. To this I reply the people shall be judge; for who shall be judge whether his trustee or deputy acts well and according to the trust reposed in him but he who deputes him, and must, by having deputed him, have still a power to discard him when he fails in his trust?”
Writing: Second Treatise of Civil Government
Author: John Locke
Theme: The power is in the hands of the people
Absolutism
Author: Jacques-Benigne Bossuet
English Bill of Rights
Author: English Parliament
