The Regnum Humanitatis Trilogy: A Humanist Manifesto

The Regnum Humanitatis Trilogy: A Humanist Manifesto Eugene J. Devlin When Jacob Gretser wrote his first drama, Timon (1584), he had begun perhaps unconsciously a dialogue with classical antiquity which was to expand and mature through many years. What his earlier work so obviously lacked in polish and literary elegance was to be achieved in his last major humanist drama, the Regnum Humanitatis trilogy. With the completion of this work, he could safely put aside any doubts he might have had about the quality of the inspiration he received from his classical muse. Like his better known humanist contemporary Nicodemus Frischlin, the Jesuit writer appeals to the glory of the Renaissance tradition and warns his audience against the inroads which the "vernacular," with its perceived threat of lower standards of elegance, was making in humanist schools.1 Literary dramas of this type were no innovation to the century. At first sight, the Regnum Humanitatis appears to be no more than a sturdy defense of late Renaissance humanism in Germany. What makes this drama different from the rest, however, is its treatment of an issue which had long bedeviled the best efforts of contemporary humanists. The Regnum Humanitatis manages to strike a reasonable compromise between the heightened religious sensitivity of the sixteenth century and the allegedly amoral tendencies of late Renaissance humanism. Understanding the sharpness of contemporary religious conflict and its effect on the humanist college stage will necessitate some attention to the prior historical period, the Reformation, which had released a wave of criticism in religious and educational circles that for a time threatened to destroy the sixteenthcentury humanist tradition altogether. The initially negative EUGENE J. DEVLIN, Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at Saint Peter's College, is the author of Jacob Gretser and the German Jesuit Drama. 58 Eugene J. Devlin59 impact of the religious reform with its anti-medieval bias and attraction to more primitive religious forms created a ferment which for a time posed a threat to the goals of all contemporary humanist education. With the collapse almost overnight of a well-ordered medieval system of education, responsibility now fell into the hands of local authorities who were often totally unprepared to grapple with the problem. In some areas humanist schools ceased almost completely. A general revulsion against humanist ideals swept through the Protestant areas of Germany. Martin Luther had to encourage local princes as well as pastors to assume the educational responsibilities of the medieval Church along with its appropriated incomes. Fortunately for the humanist position, the saner counsels of Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) eventually prevailed, but for a long time the battle was far from over. The situation for humanism in those parts of Germany and Switzerland which remained loyal to the earlier faith was even more precarious. In such areas, too, a series of local reforms was inaugurated, but these lacked the unchallenged authority of the medieval Church to put into practice. Preoccupation with religious polemic had drained off much of the talent formerly devoted to education, while local wars and religious defections produced a significant decline in school attendance. This helps to explain the preoccupation of the recently established Jesuit Order with an effort to evolve a unified educational code which would accept the urgent need for reform but also would preserve much that was worthwhile in the older tradition. Jesuit schoolmen never lost sight of the fact that it was the medieval schools which had produced the Renaissance as well as the Reformation.2 With the advent of the Catholic Reform the humanist position came under fire once more. Serious questions were raised, even by schoolmen devoted to the Renaissance tradition who attacked secular humanism for what they considered its overglorification of natural man and its alleged disregard of Christian virtues. For many years in the Jesuit Order there remained no unanimity on the goals and values of its own professedly humanist curriculum. This disagreement was eradicated only with the promulgation of the definitive version of the Plan of Studies in 1599.3 In the Regnum Humanitatis trilogy, Jacob Gretser (1562- 60Comparative Drama 1625) attempts a solution which he hopes will successfully preserve the values of Renaissance humanism but also will...