Terence OReilly - Humanism and Religion in Early Modern Spain: John of the Cross, Francisco de Aldana, Luis de Leon

Humanism and Religion in Early Modern Spain brings together twenty-five essays by renowned historian Terence OReilly.

The essays examine the interplay of religion and humanism in a series of writings composed in sixteenth-century Spain. It begins by presenting essential background: the coming together during the reign of the Emperor Charles V of Erasmian humanism and various movements of religious reform, some of them heterodox. It then moves on to the reign of Philip II, focusing on the mystical poetry and prose of St John of the Cross. It explores the influence on his writings of his humanist learning classical, biblical and patristic. The third part of the book concerns a verse-epistle by Johns contemporary, Francisco de Aldana. One chapter presents the text with a parallel version in English, whilst two others trace its debt to Florentine Neoplatonism, particularly the thought of Marsilio Ficino. The final part is devoted to the humanism of the poet and Scripture scholar Luis de Len, and specifically to the confluence in his work of biblical and classical motifs.

This book is essential reading for scholars and students of early modern Spanish history, as well as those interested in literary studies and the history of religion.

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https://www.routledge.com/Variorum-Collected-Studies/book-series/VARIORUM

Terence OReilly

Edited by Stephen Boyd

VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES

First published 2022

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: OReilly, Terence (Terence William), author. | Boyd, Stephen, 1957- editor. Title: Humanism and religion in early modern Spain : John of the Cross, Francisco de Aldana, Luis de Len / Terence OReilly ; edited by Stephen Boyd. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Series: Variorum collected studies series | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021020132 (print) | LCCN 2021020133 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032008905 (hbk) | ISBN 9781032008912 (pbk) | ISBN 9781003176268 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Spain--Church history--16th century. | John of the Cross, Saint, 1542-1591. | Aldana, Francisco de, 1537-1578. | Len, Luis de, 1527-1591. | Erasmus, Desiderius, -1536. | Humanism--Spain--History--16th century. Classification: LCC BR1025 .O74 2022 (print) | LCC BR1025 (ebook) | DDC 282.092/246--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020132 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020133

ISBN: 978-1-032-00890-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-00891-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-17626-8 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003176268

Typeset in Times New Roman

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VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES SERIES CS1102

Terence OReilly is Professor Emeritus of Spanish at University College Cork, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. His principal field of research is the literature and history of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain. His publications include From Ignatius Loyola to John of the Cross: Spirituality and Literature in Sixteenth-Century Spain (1995); The Bible in the Literary Imagination of Golden Age Spain (2010); and The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Contexts, Sources and Reception (2020).

FOR COLIN THOMPSON AND NICHOLAS MADDEN

amigos a quien amo|sobre todo tesoro

By Early Modern Spain in the title of this book I mean primarily the Kingdom of Castile during the sixteenth century. By Humanism I mean the tradition of Christian humanism associated in its beginnings with Petrarch (130474), and later developed and disseminated in the age of printing by Erasmus (c.14691536) and his contemporaries. The term covers also the currents of thought and endeavour to which humanism gave rise. These include the importance accorded in the curriculum to rhetoric and study of the Latin authors of Antiquity, notably Virgil (7019 BC); a keen interest in the original texts of the Bible in Hebrew and Greek and in the accuracy of the Latin (Vulgate) translation of St Jerome (c.342420); a concern to recover the writings of the Church Fathers, both Eastern and Western, and to renew the spiritual interpretation of Scripture developed by them, especially Origen (c.185c.255); and an interest in the philosophy of Plato (c.427c.347 BC) and his Neoplatonic interpreters to counter the Aristotelianism of the Scholastics. By Religion I mean the movements of religious renewal and reform that flourished in sixteenth-century Spain, among them the reform of the religious orders that began during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (14741516), and the founding of new orders, notably the Jesuits and the Discalced Carmelites; popular demand for writings in the vernacular about prayer, and specifically meditation and contemplation; the illuminists or