Questions on Stephens’ Italian Renaissance[1]
Develop answers to these questions using Stephens’ book. That is, answer each one, “according to Stephens.”
1) What was Renaissance humanism and how did the humanists
distinguish themselves from the
scholastics.
2) Who were the Italian
Neo-Platonists, how did they differ from the earlier humanists, and most
important, how do they relate to the Reformation movements of the sixteenth
century?
3) According to Stephens, the humanists unleashed four dynamic ideas
on Western Europe. What were those
ideas, how did they involve the Classics, and how did they relate to the
Reformation movements?
4) How, according to Stephens, did the Italian humanists undermine
the Latin Church and prepare the way for Martin Luther (i.e., the rise of
Protestantism)?
5) How do the works and lives
of John Colet, Lefèvre d'Étaples, Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros, Desiderius
Erasmus, Rudolf Agricola, Conrad
Celtes, and Johannes Reuchlin exemplify Renaissance Humanism?
6) Define and characterize
Renaissance humanism, commenting on their assumptions, ambitions, and how they
sought to achieve their goals.