Political journalism and English humanism

English Renaissance literature developed in germaneness with European humanistic literatures, being the last to catch the trend. English humanists were taught by their continental colleagues, especially Italian humanists (XIV-XV cc.) Italian lit-re from Petrarch to Ariosto and Tasso was an inexhaustible source of advanced political, philosophical and scientific ideas, rich treasury of artistic images, plots and forms for all English humanists from More to Bacon and Shakespeare. One of the great Italian humanists Giordano Bruno ’s stay in England (1583-1585) was an important event in its history. He was in favour of queen Elizabeth and her ministers and befriended Phillip Sidney, to whom he dedicated 2 of six English written poems. He well knew Spenser and doctor Harvey, the inventor of blood circulation. Even more important for English humanism were Erasmus of Rotterdam visits to England, his stay and work there. In 1497 infamous young Erasmus visited England at first. He was amazed by what he saw: “When I hear my Colet, I seem to be listening to Plato himself. In Grocyn, who does not marvel at such a perfect round of learning? What can be more acute, profound and delicate than the judgment of Linacre? What has nature ever created more gentle, more sweet, more happy than the genius of Thomas More? I need not go through the list. It is marvellous how general and abundant is the harvest of ancient learning in this country.” [ The Epistles of Erasmus, F. M. Nichols, 1901, vol. 1, p. 226, Ep. 110.]. The persons named by Erasmus were the I English humanists. Their activity took place in the end of the XV-beginning of the XVI c. The three older ones – Linacre, Grocynand Colet– were students of Italian humanism.

Thomas Linacre (1460-1524) was educated in Oxford, where he learned Greek. Though only his Italian trip converted him to humanism. He met Angelo Poliziaano and his lectures in Florence he gave for Lorenzo Medici sons. At the medici’s household he also listened to a famous Greek Demetrius Halkondil’s lectures. He befriended Ermolao Barbaro, who researched Plinius, Galen and other antique doctors in Rome. In Venetia Linacre helped famous editor of humanistic lit-re Ald Manutsius in his publication of Aristotle’s works. He won an academic debate in Padua and got a MD, so having returned home he began to lecture at Oxford. One of his students of Greek course was Thomas More. He taught Greek also at court and wrote a grammar book for princess Mary. A talented doctor, Linacre destroyed many misconceptions in medicine. He translated from Greek into Latin a few Galen’s works thus spreading them in Europe.

The oldest of Oxford humanists William Grocyn (1446-1519) was a talented educator. The most peculiar early humanist – John Colet (1467-1519), 1 of the greatest scholars of the time under the influence of Savonarola, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. He tried to used gained in Italy knowledge for religious and church reforms. He claimed that primary form of Christianity was perverted by Catholicism, which juxtaposes him with German humanists and Erasmus, whose friend and teacher he was. Colet taught Erasmus textological criticism and showed him that later perversion can be cured by turning to literary monuments of early Christianity and it was under Colet’s influence that Erasmus published his critical version of New Testament. Pedagogical work of Colet was of great cultural importance. In 1504 he founded in London St. Paul’s School – a sample of school of new humanistic type.

The activity of the first English humanists bore mainly scientific and theoretical character. They cultivated general questions of religion, philosophy, sociology and upbringing. Early English humanism was fully reflected in the beginning of the XVI c. in the work of Thomas More. Henry VIII favoured More and whished to approximate him, but More every time escaped king’s benevolence, trying to be free. After undertaking a diplomatic mission to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, accompanying Thomas Wolsey to Calais, Thomas More was knighted and made undertreasurer in 1521. In 1525 he became the Lancaster dukedom chancellor. Besides he was the House of Commons’ Speaker and after cardinal Wolsey’s fall in 1529, against More’s wish, Henry VIII appointed him his lord-chancellor. Being not able to agree with the means of Henry VIII in preparation of church Reformation, More resigned in 1532, devoting himself to family and science. But the king couldn’t forget him this. In 1534 More didn’t swear of approving of king’s reformative policy. He refused to sign the Act of Supremacy and was sent to Tower. The inspired by Henry VIII court acknowledged More’s guilty of treason and sentenced to death. More was accused of witchcraft by means of which he made the king to write the pamphlet. Henry VIII, however did him a favour and changed the violent punishment with head severance. More exclaimed when learnt this: “God, save my friends from such a favour”. The execution took place on the 6^th of July 1535.

More’s literary heritage was collected after his death and published in 1557 by his nephew. It includes Latin epigrams, early works; “Life of Pico della Mirandola”, translated from Latin and published in 1510; “Life of Edward V”, I published in 1516; church reform pamphlets; dialogues and essays of his Tower imprisonment period. His teachers and Erasmus inspired More with an idea of church purification by means of primary Christianity revival. He was much influenced also by the works of Italian humanist-Platonist Pico della Mirandola, however, later More became an enemy of reformation. He was not as his teachers a study scholar but actively participated in social life trying to find a solution to a sad situation the folk was in. Plato’s ideal of an ideal country mixed with his own in his masterpiece “A fruitful and pleasant work of the best state of public weal, and of the new isle called Utopia” – originally published in Latin in 1516, I English transl. by Ralph Robinson in 1551. It was translated into most European languages; new editions appear continually; and it has become one of the world’s classics. It may have been suggested by Plato’s “Republic” — but the books have little in common. It borrows something from Augustine’s “De Civitate Dei”. Yet the book is thoroughly original.

It consists of two parts. At first More wrote a description of a fantastic country Utopia, which made up the II part of the book, and then he added a conversation on economical and political situation of modern European countries, which made up its first part. "Utopia" is derived from the Greek words (οὐ) "not" and τόπος "place" with the suffix -ία that is typical of toponyms; hence Outopía "no-place-land". Thus the book opposes an ideal social system of Utopia to horrible disasters of modern humankind. The work begins with written correspondence between Thomas More and several people he had met on the continent The letters explain the lack of widespread travel to Utopia; during the first mention of the land, someone had coughed during announcement of the exact longitude and latitude. The first book tells of the traveler Raphael Hythloday (in Greek, his name and surname allude to archangel Raphael, purveyor of truth, and mean "speaker of nonsense"), to whom More is introduced in Antwerp. The sailor, who was one of the companions of Amerigo Vespucci, clearly reflects in his monologues and conversations the ideas of the author while his journeys. It’s he who can judge the social system of England while More is just a humble listener who later rendered the thoughts of Hythloday. The first discussions with Raphael allow him to discuss some of the modern ills affecting Europe such as the tendency of kings to start wars and the subsequent bleeding away of money on fruitless endeavours. He also criticises the use of execution to punish theft saying that thieves might as well murder whom they rob, to remove witnesses, if the punishment is going to be the same. He lays most of the problems of theft at the cause of enclosure—the enclosing of common land—and the subsequent poverty and starvation of people who are denied access to land because of sheep farming. More tries to convince Raphael that he could find a good job in a royal court, advising monarchs, but Raphael says that his views are too radical and would not be listened to. Hythloday doesn’t believe in the educated monarchy and the kings-philosophers.

In the second book sailor describes the political arrangements of the imaginary island country of Utopia. Utopia is placed in the New World and Raphael is one of the 24 men Vespucci who then travels further and finds the island of Utopia, where he spends five years observing the customs of the natives. The island was originally a peninsula but a 15-mile wide channel was dug by the community's founder King Utopos to separate it from the mainland. The island contains 54 towns, each with about 6000 households. The capital city, Amaurot, is located directly in the middle of the crescent island. Each town has a mayor elected from among the ranks of the Bencheaters. Every household has between 10 and 16 adults and people are re-distributed around the households and towns to keep numbers even. If the island suffers from overpopulation, colonies are set up on the mainland. Alternatively, the natives of the mainland are invited to be part of these Utopian colonies, but if they dislike it and no longer wish to stay they may return. In the case of underpopulation the colonists are re-called.

There is no private ownership on Utopia, with goods being stored in warehouses and people requesting what they need. More used the novel describing an imaginary nation as a means of freely discussing contemporary controversial matters; speculatively, More based Utopia on monastic communalism. There are also no locks on the doors of the houses, which are rotated between the citizens every ten years. Agriculture is the most important job on the island. Every person is taught it and must live in the countryside, farming, for two years at a time, with women doing the same work as men. Parallel to this, every citizen must learn at least one of the other essential trades: weaving (mainly done by the women), carpentry, metalsmithing and masonry. There is deliberate simplicity about these trades; for instance, all people wear the same types of simple clothes and there are no dressmakers making fine apparel. All able-bodied citizens must work; thus unemployment is eradicated, and the length of the working day can be minimised: the people only have to work six hours a day (although many willingly work for longer). More does allow scholars in his society to become the ruling officials or priests, people picked during their primary education for their ability to learn. All other citizens are however encouraged to apply themselves to learning in their leisure time. Utopians live in large families of about 40 people each headed by father and mother, and each 30 families are headed by a philarch, etc. The council of philarchs chooses a prince for all his life. All other social positions are elective once per year. All important cases, concerning the nation’s destiny, are solved by folk’s gathering. Other significant innovations of Utopia include: a welfare state with free hospitals, euthanasia permissible by the state, priests being allowed to marry, divorce permitted, premarital sex punished by a lifetime of enforced celibacy and adultery being punished by enslavement. Meals are taken in community dining halls and the job of feeding the population is given to a different household in turn. Although all are fed the same, Raphael explains that the old and the administrators are given the best of the food. Travel on the island is only permitted with an internal passport and anyone found without a passport they are, on a first occasion, returned in disgrace, but after a second offence they are placed into slavery. In addition, there are no lawyers and the law is made deliberately simple, as all should understand it and not leave people in any doubt of what is right and wrong.

There are several religions on the island: moon-worshipers, sun-worshipers, planet-worshipers, ancestor-worshipers and monotheists, but each is tolerant of the others. Only atheists are despised (but allowed) in Utopia, as they are seen as representing a danger to the state: since they do not believe in any punishment or reward after this life, they have no reason to share the communistic life of Utopia, and will break the laws for their own gain. They are not banished but encouraged to talk out their erroneous beliefs with the priests until they are convinced of their wrong. Raphael says that through his teachings Christianity was beginning to take hold in Utopia. The toleration of all other religious ideas is enshrined in a universal prayer all the Utopians recite. Wives are subject to their husbands and are restricted to conducting household tasks. Only few widowed women become priests. While all are trained in military arts, women are still subordinate to men, with women confessing their sins to their husbands once a month. Gambling, hunting, makeup and astrology are all discouraged in Utopia.

The Utopians knew money and gold, but used them only in internal affairs treating them with defiance inland. Like other humanists Thomas More disliked pervasive role of money in society: “...Gold, useless by its nature, now is valued everywhere to the extent that a human being, by means of whose and for whose merit it is valued is valued less than gold itself...”. On the contrary, the Utopians, free from the power of gold, make pots and other utensils from it. The Utopians eat in wonderful common palaces-canteens, which serve themselves. However, everyone can eat separately if s/he likes. They all wear clothes in the same style and of same fabric. Thomas More paid attention to the differentiation between the city and the village. The Utopians bound cities’ growth and don’t let them grasp fields or forests. Every family has to live and work in the village not less than 2 years. There’s not difference between physical and intellectual work in Utopia. However, some Utopians have right of only intellectual work. These are officials and scientists, but there’re almost no one who would refuse physical work.

More gave the best characteristic of social controversies of the time and found brilliant solution for them, but he didn’t show the means of reaching this solution in his novel. This conditioned literary form of the work. “Utopia” is a fantastic novel. On the narrative level it’s a dialogue in the I part and a descriptive narrative in the II in the manner of travelers of the time. Literary form of “Utopia” became classical. Thus the title became a philosophical and social-political term. More’s ideas bred socialistic ideas and “Utopia” bred many imitations: “City of sun” Tomaso Campanella, “New Atlantis” by Bacon, “Oceana” by Harrington, etc.

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