Abstract
Erasmus’ and Nicolas of Cusa’s attitudes toward Islam are compared here. Certain historians have pointed to Erasmus’ objection to crusades and to the term semichristiani, which Erasmus occasionally used in referring to Muslims, as a demonstration of Erasmus’ toleration. The term semichristiani supposedly echoes Cusanus’ optimistic view that the Turks were “half-Christians.” However, Cusanus never used this term, and in Erasmus’ writings the term is integrated aside harsh denigration of the Turks. Erasmus’ hostile attitude toward the Turks and Islam is far from the toleration that Cusanus demonstrates in his On the peace of the faith. Erasmus’ De bello Turcico should be compared to Cusanus A scrutiny of the Qur’an rather than to his On the peace of the faith.
This chapter is based on a paper presented at the Watanabe Lecture and Symposium “Cusanus, the Qur’an, and the Cribratio Alkorani,” held by the American Cusanus Society, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 29–30 September 2018. The paper is forthcoming in Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval (2019).
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Notes
- 1.
Hopkins, p. 635; De pace fidei, I, 7. 10–15: “[…] et cognoscent omnes quomodo non est nisi religio una in rituum varietate. Quod si forte haec differentia rituum tolli non poterit aut non expedit, ut diversitas sit devotionis adauctio quando quaelibet regio suis cerimoniis quasi tibi regi religio et unus latriae cultus.”
- 2.
Hopkins, p. 637; De pace fidei, III, 10. 16–21: “[…] misertus est igitur Dominus populo, et contentatur omnem religionum diversitatem communi omnium hominum consensu in unicam concorditer reduci amplius inviolabilem. Hoc onus ministerii vobis viris electis committit, dando vobis assistentes ex sua curia administratorios angelicos spiritus qui vos custodiant ac dirigant […].” See Joshua Hollmann, The Religious Concordance: Nicholas of Cusa and Christian-Muslim Dialogue (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017), 27–29 (Hollmann’s conception of religio una in rituum varietate).
- 3.
Hopkins, p. 670; De pace fidei, XIX, 62. 20–63. 5: “Et mandatum est per Regem regum ut sapientes redeant et ad unitatem veri cultus nationes inducant, et quod administratorii spiritus illos ducant et eis assistant et deinde cum plena omnium potestate in Iherusalem quasi ad centrum commune confluant et omnium nominibus unam fidem acceptent et super ipsa perpetuam pacem firment, ut in pace creator omnium laudetur in saecula benedictus. Amen.”
- 4.
Hollmann, The Religious Concordance, 177 (for the citation).
- 5.
See n. 5, Chapter 1.
- 6.
Hopkins, pp. 4–7; James E. Biechler, “Christian Humanism Confronts Islam: Sifting the Qur’an with Nicholas of Cusa,” Journal of Eastern Studies 13 (1976): 8; idem, “A New Face Toward Islam: Nicholas of Cusa and John of Segovia”; Thomas Izbicki, “The Possibility of Dialogue with Islam in the Fifteenth Century,” in Gerald Christianson and T. Izbicki (eds.), Nicholas of Cusa: In Search of God and Wisdom (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 187, 176 (respectively); and James E. Biechler, “Interreligious Dialogue” (ch. 9) in Christopher M. Bellitto, Thomas M. Izbicki, and Gerald Christianson (eds.), Introducing Nicholas of Cusa: A Guide to a Renaissance Man (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2004), 274.
- 7.
Francisco, Martin Luther and Islam, 17–18; Norman Daniel, “The Image of Islam in the Medieval and Early Modern Period,” in Azim Nanji (ed.), Mapping Islamic Studies: Genealogy, Continuity and Change (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1997), 139–140.
- 8.
James E. Biechler and H. Lawrence Bond, Nicholas of Cusa on Interreligious Harmony: Text, Concordance and Translation of De Pace Fidei (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1990), xxvi–xvii; Maurice de Gandillac, “Una religio in rituum varietate,” in R. Haubst (ed.), Nikolaus von Kues als Promotor der Oekumene, Mitteilungen und Foerschungbeitraege der Cusanus-Gesellschaft 9 (1971): 204; and Pim Valkenberg, “Una Religio in Rituum varietate: Religious Pluralism, the Qur’an, and Nicholas of Cusa,” in Ian Christopher Levy, Rita George-Tvrtković, and Donald Duclow (eds.), Nicholas of Cusa and Islam: Polemic and Dialogue in the Late Middle Age (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 32.
- 9.
R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962), 86; Nancy Bisaha, Creating East and West, 145; and Norman Housley, “Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Nicholas of Cusa, and the Crusade: Conciliar, Imperial, and Papal Authority,” Church History 86 (2017): 665.
- 10.
Valkenberg, “Una Religio in Rituum varietate,” 32.
- 11.
This is the conclusion of Cusanus’ scrutiny, Cribratio Alkorani, XIX, p. 71. 13–14: “[…] ut sic de Alkorano recedant ad evangelium Christi totum intellectuale et divinum.” Hopkins, 1005: “[the less well educated among the Arabs] may pass from the Koran to the whole Gospel-of-Christ which is intelligible and divine.”
- 12.
Hopkins, 965; Andrea Moudarres, “Crusade and Conversion: Islam as Schism in Pius II and Nicholas of Cusa,” MLN 128 (2013): 45; Cribratio Alkorani, p. 3. 1–10: “Sume, sanctissime papa, libellum hunc per humilem servulum tuum fidei zelo collectum, ut, dum more ter sancti Leonis papae praedecessoris tui Nestorianam haeresim apostolico spiritu, angelico ingenio divinoqu eloquio damnantis tu Mahumetanam sectam de illa exortam eodem spriritu, pari ingenio facundiauqe aequali erroneam eliminandamque ostendes, cito quaedam rudimenta scitu necessaria ad manum habeas.”
- 13.
Walter Andreas Euler, “An Italian Painting from the Late Fifteenth Century and the Cribratio Alkorani of Nicholas of Cusa,” in Peter J. Casarella (ed.), Cusanus: The Legacy of Learned Ignorance (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2006), 127–142 (especially, 131).
- 14.
See n. 7, Chapter 3 and the following discussion.
- 15.
Walter Andreas Euler, “An Italian Painting from the Late Fifteenth Century and the Cribratio Alkorani of Nicholas of Cusa,” in Peter J. Casarella (ed.), Cusanus: The Legacy of Learned Ignorance (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2006), 127–142 (especially, 131). Housley, “Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Nicholas of Cusa, and the Crusade,” 662, underestimates Cribratio Alkorani too, referring to it as no more than “a sustained critique of the Qur’an.”
- 16.
See Hollmann, The Religious Concordance, 179–180, 190 (the citations are on pp. 179, 190, respectively). Just one such polemical issue is cited (p. 190, n. 82), but not discussed.
- 17.
Hopkins, pp. 968–969; Cribratio Alkorani, prologus, pp. 11. 11–12. 7: “Tenendum credimus ignorantiam erroris et malivolentiae causam esse.” “[…] Christo non suam gloriam sed dei patris et hominum salutem, Mahumeto vero non dei gloriam et hominum salutem sed gloriam propriam quaerente.”
- 18.
Hopkins, pp. 971–973; Cribratio Alkorani, alius prologus, pp. 18–19. 5: “IV. Quod Alkoranus fide careat, ubi sacris scripturis contradicit. V. Quod evangelium sit Alkorano praeferendum […] XI. Necesse est Arabes fateri trinitatem […] II. Quod Mahumetus ignoravit, quid agendum et sentiendum et nihil firmi reliquit.”
- 19.
Hopkins, p. 973; Cribratio Alkorani, alius prologus, p. 19. 6: “[…] et quod gladius est magister.”
- 20.
Hopkins, p. 979; Cribratio Alkorani, III, p. 29. 15–17: “Multi etiam Christiani sub principibus sectae Arabum Christo devotius serviunt et infiniti Christiani renegati et Arabes et eiusdem legis cum ipsis timore gladii […].”
- 21.
Hopkins, p. 1061; Cribratio Alkorani, p. 137. 1–2: “Est igitur ultima resolutio probationis omnium, quae in Alkoran leguntur, gladius […] Respondit: Destruximus – inquit deus – civitates ante eos, qui non crediderunt; nec etiam vos miraculis crederetis nisi per gladium etc.”
- 22.
Hopkins, p. 1068; Cribratio Alkorani, VIII, p. 148. 1–9: “Sed visus es mihi, o Mahumete, praetextu religionis dominandi potentatum quaesivisse; omnia enim in gladium resolvis et gladio saltem ad tributum pervenire contendis. Persuasisti quemlibet in sua lege salvari posse ac quod deus fidelium constantiam diligat, variantes vero nequaquam. Deinde accipis gladium quasi illos velis ad varietatem compellere, quos animasti constantes manere, sed das optionem ipsis, ut vel varient vel tributum solvant. Quis non intelligit finem tuae religionis zelum et ritum tuae legis tantum ad hoc tendere, ut domineris.” See Aikin and Aleksander, “Nicholas of Cusa’s De pace fidei and the Meta-Exclusivism of Religious Pluralism,” 223.
- 23.
Hopkins, Introduction, 24. See also Hopkins, “The Role of Pia Interpretatio […],” in Piaia (ed.), Concordia Discors, 251–273.
- 24.
Hopkins, Introduction, 24.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Norman Daniel, Islam and the West: The Making of an Image, rev. ed. (Oxford: Oneworld, 1993), chapter 3; Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran Cruz, “Popular Attitudes Toward Islam in Medieval Europe,” in David R. Blanks and Michael Frassetto (eds.), Western Views of Islam in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), 55–82 (p. 66).
- 27.
James E. Biechler, “Three Manuscripts on Islam from the Library of Nicholas of Cusa,” Manuscripta 27 (1983): 91–100; Walter Andreas Euler, “An Italian Painting from the Late Fifteenth Century and the Cribratio Alkorani of Nicholas of Cusa,” 142; Morimichi Watanabe, “An Appreciation,” in Christopher M. Bellitto, Thomas M. Izbicki, and Gerald Christianson (eds.), Introducing Nicholas of Cusa: A Guide to a Renaissance Man (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2004), 8.
- 28.
Bisaha, Creating East and West, 150–151.
- 29.
This is emphasized by Housley “Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Nicholas of Cusa, and the Crusade,” 657–660, who attributes to Cusanus a crusading desire before 1453 and later (pp. 664–665). Crusades were largely financed by papal indulgences. Thomas M. Izbicki, “The Legate Grants Indulgences: Cusanus in Germany in 1450–1453,” in Thomas M. Izbicki, Jason Aleksander, and Donald F. Duclow (eds.), Nicholas of Cusa and Times of Transition Essays in Honor of Gerald Christianson (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 81–95, studied Cusanus’ active role in the distribution of papal indulgences in Germany during the early 1450 s, based on Acta Cusana (edited at present by Johannes Helmrath and Thomas Woelki, formerly by Erich Meuthen and Hermann Hallauer). Izbicki concludes (p. 95): “There was no evidence that Cusanus ever questioned the actual value of indulgences. Instead, his proclamation of spiritual favors contributed to negative comment on these concessions and their financial aspects. In the long run, the German sense of grievance over indulgences as sources of papal revenue, and the poor reputation of the Roman curia north of the Alps provided fertile ground for Martin Luther at the outbreak of the Reformation.” So far we have no evidence pointing to the involvement of Cusanus in the distribution of indulgences for financing Pius II’s crusade (bearing in mind that Acta Cusana has not yet reached documentation of the years 1458 et seqq).
- 30.
Comment. III, 45, 3: “Huic Mantuam venienti cardinalis Sancti Petri extra ordinem occurit […] laudavitque magnificis verbis, qui sua opera contra Turchos alacri et magno animo promisisset.” The gifts are mentioned here too.
- 31.
Thomas M. Izbicki, Gerald Christianson, and Philip Krey (introd. and trans.), Reject Aeneas, Accept Pius: Selected Letters of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), 53.
- 32.
Hankins, “Renaissance Crusaders,” 128; Bisaha, Creating East and West, 144–147.
- 33.
Sermo CCXL Laudans invocabo Dominum at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 1245 (the translation to English is mine): “Passus est Christus multas persecutiones in corpore suo mystico, maxime autem per saevissimum istud, Mahometh Turkum contemptorem crucis Christi nostri. Multi quidem Saraceni a fide Christi abierunt, quia animalis homo quae sunt spiritus Dei percipere nequit I Cor 2,14. […] Et quia homo animalis non concipit vitam laetam nisi animaliter et sensibiliter, diabolus subtiliter inficere volens evangelium introduxit pseudoprophetam Mahometh quasi sciolum evangelii et scripturae, ut daret intellectum animalem, qui gratus est homini animali. Sic laudavit Christum et evangelium, sed apposuit falsum intellectum promittens paradisum voluptatis secundum carnem et delicias corporales. Et quoniam crux Christi est ultimum testimonium spiritualis intelligentiae evangelii […] ideo doctrinam Mahometh diabolus | videtur hominibus persuasisse, ut ex ipsa veniret caput malitiae filius perditionis, qui se inimicum crucis Christi constitueret. Permisit autem Deus regnare persecutorem crucis quousque illam magnam novam Romam civitatem Constantinopolitanam plenam templis sanctissimis occuparet. Nam illi inhabitatores ab unitate fidei catholicae quoad processionem Spiritus Sancti scismatice recesserunt et demum fidem subdole promissam in synodo Florentina ad finem habendi contra Turkum adiutorium non servaverunt. Non enim nisi delusorie accesserunt ad finem, ut temporale commodum assequerentur.” See also Hankins, “Renaissance Crusaders,” 128 (n. 49); John W. O’Malley, Praise and Blame in Renaissance Rome: Rhetoric, Doctrine, and Reform in the Sacred Orators of the Papal Court, c. 1450–1521 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1979), 234 notes 156–157; Walter Andreas Euler, “A Critical Survey of Cusanus’ Writings on Islam,” in Levy, George-Tvrtković, and Duclow (eds.), Nicholas of Cusa and Islam, 27.
- 34.
For restoration of events and dates of Mehemed’s military steps after he conquered Constantinople, see Halil Inalcik, “Mehmed the Conqueror (1432–1481) and His Time,” Speculum 35 (1960): 408–427; Halil Inalcik, Essays in Ottoman History (Istanbul: EREN, 1998), 87–110.
- 35.
Epistula ad Ioannem de Segobia in Nicolai de Cusa De pace fidei. Cum epistula and Ioannem de Segobia. Ediderunt commentariisque illustraverunt Raymundus Klibanky et Hildebrandus Bascour, O.S.B. lviii, 135 paginae. Hamburgi: in aedibus Felicis Meiner, 1959 (Nicolai de Cusa opera omnia iussu et auctoritate academiae litterarum Heidelbergensis ad codicum fidem edita; Volumen VII), 99. 22–25: “Unde videtur quod semper ad hoc conandum sit quod liber iste, qui apud eos est in auctoritate, pro nobis allegetur. Nam reperimus in eo talia quae serviunt nobis; et alia quae contrariantur, glosabimus per illa.” Euler, “A critical survey of Cusanus’ Writings on Islam,” in Levy, George-Tvrtković, and Duclow (eds.), Nicholas of Cusa and Islam, 26–27.
- 36.
Housley, “Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Nicholas of Cusa, and the Crusade,” 665, does not observe a change of Cusanus’ mind over the years, but: “Cusa the intellectual was attracted by the Segovian stance that crusade was unnecessary and counterproductive; and Cusa the diplomat was well aware that a passagium was probably a forlorn hope in any case. But duty called and isolation was pointless.” Housley’s observation is linked to his disregard of Cribratio Alkorani as a harsh antithesis of the utopian De pace fidei, as I pointed out on pp. 69–70.
- 37.
Bisaha, Creating East and West, 174–175. On Erasmus’ Muslims as “half-Christians,” see Timothy Hampton, “Turkish Dogs: Rabelais, Erasmus, and the Rhetoric of Alterity,” Representations 41 (1993): 62–63.
- 38.
See the discussion on p. 65 sqq.
- 39.
George Huntston Williams, “Erasmus and the Reformers on Non-Christian Religions and ‘Salus Extra Ecclesiam,’” in Theodore K. Rabb and Jerrold E. Seigel (eds.), Action and Conviction in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Memory of H. Harbison (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), 332.
- 40.
CWE 64, 259; ASD V-3 76: “Agnoscunt Christum ut unum quempiam ex prophetis.”
- 41.
CWE 64, 258–259; ASD V-3 76: “Sectam habent ex Iudaismo, Christianismo, Paganismo et Arianorum haeresis commixtam.”
- 42.
Comment. II, I, 5 (p. 211): “[…] Mahumetem […] qui fuit Arabs gentili errore et Iudaica imbutus perfidia audivitque Christianos, qui Nestoriana et Ariana labe infecti errant.” See Moudarres, “Crusade and Conversion,” 43.
- 43.
On the moral meaning of the war against the Turks: A. G. Weiller, “The Turkish Argument and Christian Piety in Desiderius Erasmus’ ‘Consultatio de Bello Turcis inferendo’ (1530),” in Weiland J. Sperna and W. T. M. Frijhoff (eds.), Erasmus of Rotterdam the Man and the Scholar (Leiden: Brill, 1988), 30–39.
- 44.
Erasmus’ suggestions for converting the Turks: CWE 64, 265, ASD V-3 81; CWE 66, 10–11; Ep 858: 103–107.
- 45.
See notes 4–5, Chapter 2.
- 46.
- 47.
See n. 41, Chapter 1.
- 48.
See n. 42, Chapter 1.
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Ron, N. (2019). Erasmus and Nicholas of Cusa on Islam. In: Erasmus and the “Other”. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24929-8_5
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