Humanists Confront the Turk: Conversation and Crusade in the writing of Nicholas of Cusa and Pius II (2008)

Undergraduate: Clayton Thomas

Faculty Advisor: Melissa Bullard
Department: History

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Perhaps no contemporary issue so dominated the intellectual life of fifteenth-century Europeans as the prospect of further encroachment into Europe by the Ottoman Turks. European views of ‘the Turk’ were formed in the context of the Renaissance, challenging and modifying medieval views of Muslims by introducing elements of humanist thought. Two figures in particular, by virtue of their elevated positions in Renaissance intellectual and political life, their erudition, and their differing worldviews are particularly useful in delineating the varying views of the Turks. Pope Pius II and Nicholas of Cusa embody the varying responses to the Turkish threat by combining elements of earlier medieval thought with the new, classically influenced strains of the Renaissance. Studying their voluminous writings gives a clear indication of their differing positions. Pius II, with his rich humanist education and position as a temporal leader, saw the Turks as a cultural and political threat, and consequently was fundamentally a warrior; Nicholas of Cusa on the other hand saw dialogue and conversion as the best response, because of his neo-Platonic background and philosophical approach to Christianity. Both approaches ultimately failed, for the reason that both men failed to successfully synthesize the medieval traditions of the Church which they helped lead with the ideals of the Renaissance they, to varying degrees, embraced.