In the foreword of the book, William Manchester talks of how he began to put this work together. His initial impetus to write on European intellectual history, an oddchoice seeing how his previous books dealt strictly with American history, was simply to write a foreword for a friend's book on Magellan. This is an important point to note, as he has turned this foreword on Magellan into what he calls a portrait of the age surrounding him (xiv). As the title suggests then, Manchester, from the outset, is attempting to show the interplay and metamorphosis of the Medieval mindset into that of a Renaissance man, namely Magellan. It seems strange that a simple foreword on Magellan could become something so grand, especially by an American historian who, by his own admission, only consulted secondary sources, a Magellan biographer, and a colleague at Tulane. This strangeness not withstanding, Manchester creates a very readable, and at times mesmerizing portrait of the changes that occur in the 16th century European worldview through a look at religion, education/philosophy, and finally exploration.
He begins his portrait with an examination of the
conditions in Europe during the Medieval era, which he
titles "The Medieval Mind". This age is plagued by
illiteracy, plague, famine, and a taste for blood. He
gives examples of fratricide, the Black Death, and common
daily violence surrounding the courts of Europe at the
time, such as a tournament at Dusseldorf in 1240 ending in
the death of sixty knights, a not so uncommon occurrence
according to Manchester (8). His concept of the medieval
mind forged in the violence and death of the age was also
influenced by the dictates of the church, specifically
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, which declared the "pursuit of
knowledge, unless sanctified by a holy mission...a pagan
act, and therefore vile" (9). The medieval man, or woman,
then was left with nothing to contemplate but the adoration
of God which led to, as Manchester phrases it, "medieval
man's total lack of ego" (21). Man was further isolated
from contemplation of the natural world by sheer isolation
in the immense European forest, where whole villages were
subsumed and tucked out of sight for generations. Isolated
as he was, the concept of time was even lost as
"Generations succeeded one another in a meaningless
timeless blur" where "innovation was inconceivable" (23).
The only source of cohesion and order was the Church, which
tended to protect and demand the status quo through 1500.
Manchester throughout this section works more like a
novelist than a historian, overlooking anything that could
provide a ray of light for the pathetic medieval mind. His
purpose is to make the break described in the next section
seem all the more fantastic, yet he overlooks any influence
medieval society itself has on advancement. Manchester is
almost the direct opposite of Pierre Duhem, overlooking
entirely the work of Oresme, Buridan, and any other
intelligent medieval person.
With this bleak and somewhat generalized picture of
European society, Manchester next turns to how things
changed in his section called, appropriately "The
Shattering". He begins by listing the figures who in his
mind all contribute in their own way to the reshaping of
the world. The list reads as a who's who of European
history and contains a motley crew ranging from Johannes
Gutenberg, Cesare Borgia, Martin Luther, Jakob Fugger,
Nicolaus Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Niccolo Machievelli,
Erasmus, Catherine of Aragon, to Magellan, to mention just
ten of the total twenty-eight listed. Of all these,
Manchester labels Magellan as the "linchpin for the men of
the Renaissance" (33).
Rather than go into what he means by this just yet,
Manchester instead decides to begin with a general review
of an age of both high culture and treachery, abduction,
fratricide, depravity, barbarism, and sadism. He goes
through a smooth and entertaining description of examples
of the above, centering around the exploits of Popes.
These exploits begin with Sixtus IV's complicity in the
murder of Lorenzo de Medici and develops fully with the
full story of the Borgia Pope Alexander VI and his
incestuous love triangle with his daughter, Lucrezia, and
his son, Cesare.
Manchester's point here, is to show how, as he said
"the deplorable circumstances- the ferment, the vigor
generated by controversy, the lack of moral restraint or
inhibitions of any kind [of Popes and common people alike]
-- seemed to incite creativity" (86). Out of the placid
and depressing Middle Ages came an explosion of everything
in the Renaissance that culminated in creativity in every
form, from art to architecture to fornication. This is a
point I have never thought of before, yet to me, it seems
to have some basic validity. Did high culture's dalliances
with courtesans and emphasis on courtly love help push the
creative buttons of the Renaissance? Manchester seems to
think so, but more so, he believes that the deprave actions
of the Popes, and the clergy that followed their example,
led to a general revolt by the newly educated elite class
of clerics - the humanists.
As Manchester says, "Humanism...led to the greatest
threat the Church had ever faced" (112). Humanism, those
influenced by it, and its predecessors, like Da Vinci, with
their fresh interpretations of Greek learning, new
independent advances in art and astronomy (Copernicus)
began to question the "certitude that knowledge had been
forever fixed by God" and then by association the Church
(91). Manchester focuses on the advent of the printing
press and the works of Erasmus as helping to spread the
notion that nothing is certain, especially the workings and
actions of the Church. Manchester credits Erasmus and his
writings, which were second in sales to the Bible, as
sounding "the claxon of religious revolution" (127).
In a rather long and detailed narrative, Manchester
tackles the Reformation, its origins and its ultimate
fruition. He blames, or rather credits, Erasmus with
preparing the water for further criticism of Roman
Catholicism by Luther. He next explains how the politics
of the time led to the failure of the Pope and the Holy
Roman Emperor to stop the movement in its infancy due to
concerns centering around the Empire's elector system,
specifically Frederick III's relationship with Luther.
Without going into the complete details of the entire story
of the Reformation as told by Manchester, it is suffice to
say that Manchester sees the Reformation as an easily
preventable occurrence. As it was not prevented, he
credits it with the causing a definite splintering of
consensus that allowed the new learning of Copernicus,
Galileo, and others to alter the Medieval mindset.
This brings us to his last section titled "One Man
Alone" which is fittingly about Magellan, the man who
originally stirred the concept of the book as a whole to
life. This section is much more thorough than the previous
two and spends seventy-three pages discussing his career,
his impact, and further advances in science that Manchester
believes Magellan helps to cement into the consciousness of
Europe. As he states at the end, Magellan and his
circumnavigation of the globe was the "crowning triumph of
the age, the final decisive blow to the past" (294). He
connects this section to the rest of the book by listing
Magellan's accomplishment as one of a series that led to
the modern world. The others were the religious revolution
which led to a "gulf between reason and faith", the "growth
of commerce" which led to a further increase in secular
power, and the "menace of Copernicus" which ushered in a
new world view with the help of the voyages of discovery
(229).
The majority of the section on Magellan details his
exploits. Manchester praises his handling of mutiny,
distance miscalculation, and his heroic persistence. The
narrative is engrossing and epic, yet his almost hero
worship - he labels him the "era's greatest hero" - does
not mesh with his depiction of the later day Magellan as a
religious fanatic who died fighting on the beaches of the
Philippines in a fruitless frontal charge (287). I think
Manchester accurately depicts the importance of his
circumnavigation, but overstates Magellan's overall
importance to the change in the Medieval mindset.
To me, Manchester reverts back to writing a foreword
for his friend's biography on Magellan, losing sight of his
stated goal. As he began to write on European history in
such a haphazard way, he ultimately reverts back to his
preconceptions at the end. At the beginning, and judging
by the title, I believe his goal was to show the change in
the European mind, yet he, in his last section engages in
hero worship that dulls the other influences previously
mentioned. In a way, Manchester seems to sympathizes with
Magellan's virtual lack of recognition in his own time and,
in typical American fashion, seeks to right the wrongs of
the past and give Magellan his just due in the present.
The third section then, in my opinion, perverts the
insight and smooth narrative of the first two sections.
Instead of creating a portrait of the age and showing its
influence on Magellan, he reverts to hyping Magellan as the
greatest of his age without really showing how the age
influenced the man directly.
He begins his portrait with an examination of the
conditions in Europe during the Medieval era, which he
titles "The Medieval Mind". This age is plagued by
illiteracy, plague, famine, and a taste for blood. He
gives examples of fratricide, the Black Death, and common
daily violence surrounding the courts of Europe at the
time, such as a tournament at Dusseldorf in 1240 ending in
the death of sixty knights, a not so uncommon occurrence
according to Manchester (8). His concept of the medieval
mind forged in the violence and death of the age was also
influenced by the dictates of the church, specifically
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, which declared the "pursuit of
knowledge, unless sanctified by a holy mission...a pagan
act, and therefore vile" (9). The medieval man, or woman,
then was left with nothing to contemplate but the adoration
of God which led to, as Manchester phrases it, "medieval
man's total lack of ego" (21). Man was further isolated
from contemplation of the natural world by sheer isolation
in the immense European forest, where whole villages were
subsumed and tucked out of sight for generations. Isolated
as he was, the concept of time was even lost as
"Generations succeeded one another in a meaningless
timeless blur" where "innovation was inconceivable" (23).
The only source of cohesion and order was the Church, which
tended to protect and demand the status quo through 1500.
Manchester throughout this section works more like a
novelist than a historian, overlooking anything that could
provide a ray of light for the pathetic medieval mind. His
purpose is to make the break described in the next section
seem all the more fantastic, yet he overlooks any influence
medieval society itself has on advancement. Manchester is
almost the direct opposite of Pierre Duhem, overlooking
entirely the work of Oresme, Buridan, and any other
intelligent medieval person.
With this bleak and somewhat generalized picture of
European society, Manchester next turns to how things
changed in his section called, appropriately "The
Shattering". He begins by listing the figures who in his
mind all contribute in their own way to the reshaping of
the world. The list reads as a who's who of European
history and contains a motley crew ranging from Johannes
Gutenberg, Cesare Borgia, Martin Luther, Jakob Fugger,
Nicolaus Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Niccolo Machievelli,
Erasmus, Catherine of Aragon, to Magellan, to mention just
ten of the total twenty-eight listed. Of all these,
Manchester labels Magellan as the "linchpin for the men of
the Renaissance" (33).
Rather than go into what he means by this just yet,
Manchester instead decides to begin with a general review
of an age of both high culture and treachery, abduction,
fratricide, depravity, barbarism, and sadism. He goes
through a smooth and entertaining description of examples
of the above, centering around the exploits of Popes.
These exploits begin with Sixtus IV's complicity in the
murder of Lorenzo de Medici and develops fully with the
full story of the Borgia Pope Alexander VI and his
incestuous love triangle with his daughter, Lucrezia, and
his son, Cesare.
Manchester's point here, is to show how, as he said
"the deplorable circumstances- the ferment, the vigor
generated by controversy, the lack of moral restraint or
inhibitions of any kind [of Popes and common people alike]
-- seemed to incite creativity" (86). Out of the placid
and depressing Middle Ages came an explosion of everything
in the Renaissance that culminated in creativity in every
form, from art to architecture to fornication. This is a
point I have never thought of before, yet to me, it seems
to have some basic validity. Did high culture's dalliances
with courtesans and emphasis on courtly love help push the
creative buttons of the Renaissance? Manchester seems to
think so, but more so, he believes that the deprave actions
of the Popes, and the clergy that followed their example,
led to a general revolt by the newly educated elite class
of clerics - the humanists.
As Manchester says, "Humanism...led to the greatest
threat the Church had ever faced" (112). Humanism, those
influenced by it, and its predecessors, like Da Vinci, with
their fresh interpretations of Greek learning, new
independent advances in art and astronomy (Copernicus)
began to question the "certitude that knowledge had been
forever fixed by God" and then by association the Church
(91). Manchester focuses on the advent of the printing
press and the works of Erasmus as helping to spread the
notion that nothing is certain, especially the workings and
actions of the Church. Manchester credits Erasmus and his
writings, which were second in sales to the Bible, as
sounding "the claxon of religious revolution" (127).
In a rather long and detailed narrative, Manchester
tackles the Reformation, its origins and its ultimate
fruition. He blames, or rather credits, Erasmus with
preparing the water for further criticism of Roman
Catholicism by Luther. He next explains how the politics
of the time led to the failure of the Pope and the Holy
Roman Emperor to stop the movement in its infancy due to
concerns centering around the Empire's elector system,
specifically Frederick III's relationship with Luther.
Without going into the complete details of the entire story
of the Reformation as told by Manchester, it is suffice to
say that Manchester sees the Reformation as an easily
preventable occurrence. As it was not prevented, he
credits it with the causing a definite splintering of
consensus that allowed the new learning of Copernicus,
Galileo, and others to alter the Medieval mindset.
This brings us to his last section titled "One Man
Alone" which is fittingly about Magellan, the man who
originally stirred the concept of the book as a whole to
life. This section is much more thorough than the previous
two and spends seventy-three pages discussing his career,
his impact, and further advances in science that Manchester
believes Magellan helps to cement into the consciousness of
Europe. As he states at the end, Magellan and his
circumnavigation of the globe was the "crowning triumph of
the age, the final decisive blow to the past" (294). He
connects this section to the rest of the book by listing
Magellan's accomplishment as one of a series that led to
the modern world. The others were the religious revolution
which led to a "gulf between reason and faith", the "growth
of commerce" which led to a further increase in secular
power, and the "menace of Copernicus" which ushered in a
new world view with the help of the voyages of discovery
(229).
The majority of the section on Magellan details his
exploits. Manchester praises his handling of mutiny,
distance miscalculation, and his heroic persistence. The
narrative is engrossing and epic, yet his almost hero
worship - he labels him the "era's greatest hero" - does
not mesh with his depiction of the later day Magellan as a
religious fanatic who died fighting on the beaches of the
Philippines in a fruitless frontal charge (287). I think
Manchester accurately depicts the importance of his
circumnavigation, but overstates Magellan's overall
importance to the change in the Medieval mindset.
To me, Manchester reverts back to writing a foreword
for his friend's biography on Magellan, losing sight of his
stated goal. As he began to write on European history in
such a haphazard way, he ultimately reverts back to his
preconceptions at the end. At the beginning, and judging
by the title, I believe his goal was to show the change in
the European mind, yet he, in his last section engages in
hero worship that dulls the other influences previously
mentioned. In a way, Manchester seems to sympathizes with
Magellan's virtual lack of recognition in his own time and,
in typical American fashion, seeks to right the wrongs of
the past and give Magellan his just due in the present.
The third section then, in my opinion, perverts the
insight and smooth narrative of the first two sections.
Instead of creating a portrait of the age and showing its
influence on Magellan, he reverts to hyping Magellan as the
greatest of his age without really showing how the age
influenced the man directly.
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