At the Center

Outline:

A.   The Humanist movement:  humans are unique, wanting to learn

B.  Pius II is quintessential Renaissance man/ Renaissance pope

C.  How humanists see historical epochs:  antique, dark ages, New Birth or Renaissance

D.  Rice:  Making man the link between the sensible and intellectual worlds, God endowed him with magnificent gifts, attributing to him reason and free will, a most excellent gift and noble vestige of that supreme liberty which with God created all things.

E.  Nicholas V kicks off the Renaissance in Rome

F.  Controversial Renaissance Popes:  Sixtus IV, Alexander VI, Julius II

Questions to Consider:

1.  In what way is the humanist movement which runs over 230 years a new way of thinking and a new way of learning?

2.  How is Pius II a quintessential Renaissance man?

3.  Describe the reconstruction of the epochs of history according to the mindset of Renaissance thinkers.  How do the Renaissance popes reflect and build on this spirit?

4.  Justify the statement by Church historian Ludwig von Pastor:  The rehabilitation of Alexander VI is a hopeless task.