ITALLAN INFLUENCES ON ENGLISH HISTORY DURING THE PERIOD O F THE RENAISSANCE1

No aspect of English life and thought during the period of the Renaissance can be studied without reference to Italy. In the sphere of art and literature few scholars are prepared to deny the importance of Italian influences, although fewer still are agreed as to their nature and extent. In the sphere of history the problem is more intangible. Proofs of the intimate associ- ation between England and Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries require no searching out; but the effects of this association on the individual, on society and on the State show a tantalising elusiveness. Some examination of the ideas and achievements of those Englishmen who came most clearly under Italian influences may throw a gleam or two of light upon an obscure subject.

During the greater part of the fifteenth century the influence of Italy in England was still most powerful in the sphere of commerce. W. Einstein has introduced to English readers the youthful Florentine banker Gierozo dei Pigli, who on May 31, 1446, w&s given charge of a new business in London by Cosimo dei Medici and Giovanni Benci.2 By the terms of the contract the capital of the firm was fixed at 22800, Gierozo being assigned one-fifth of the profits, the senior partners two-fifths each. In case of loss, “which God forbid ! ” it would be borne in the same proportions. Gierozo was also told the firms which he could trust and those which he had better avoid, the amount of credit he might give and the company he should keep. His s t o r y affords an interesting example of Italian business methods and of the continued importance of the banking connection between England and Florence. Again, Miss Scofield’s 3 account of the transactions between Edward IV and Gerard Caniziani show that this “factor and attorney of the fellowship of the Medici of Florence ” wm almost as useful to Edward IV as were the Frescobaldi to Edward I and the Bardi and Peruzzi to Edward 111.

Part of a lecture delivered at King’s College, London, 16 November, 1922. Lewis Einstein, Italian Renaiaeance in England (1902). pp. 242-9. I

should like to acknowledge my debt to this valuable little book with its excellent bibliography.

a C. L. Scofield, The Life and Reign of Edward I V (1923). ii. 42&8.

JAN. 19261 rrmm INFLUENOES ON ENGLISH HISTORY 289

Meanwhile, under the sponsorship of commerce, diplomatic intercourse between England and Italy grew in organisation and importance. The first record of a Venetian consul in England is that of Andrea de Molino in 1410,l and throughout the century diplomatic agents of Venice found their way to the English Court with increasing frequency. In 1496, “considering that the road to England was very long and very dangerous,” two merchants who were in London on their own business were aaked to act as representatives of the Republic for the purpose of including Henry VII in the League of Venice.2 Next year, however, Andrea Trevisano waa accredited to Henry VII, and from that time forward the Venetian ambassador was an almost permanent figure at the English C0urt.3

In the wake of the diplomat and the merchant came the scholar. Poggio Bracciolini made the acquaintance of Cardinal Beaufort in the come of his secretarial duties at the Council of Constance, and accepted his invitation to England in hopes, which were to prove illusory, of finding there both manuscripts and a patron.‘ Piero del Monte, the literary friend of Humphrey of Gloucester, and Polydore Vergil, the historian, both came to this country as collectors of papal dues. Italian merchants whom he met in his native Bristol inspired John Free to set out for Italy with only €10 in his pocket in search of the learning for which he craved. Scholarship, however, is a plant of leas sturdy growth than either commerce or diplomacy. In order to flourish it needs enlightened and open-handed patronage. The beginnings of humanism in England are due largely to the initiative of one man, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, him whom Thomas Hearne describes as “ a truly great man, one that waa both a Scholar himself and the chiefest Promoter of Learning and Scholars a t that time.” Humphrey of Gloucester’s con- tribution to the cause of humanism in England is twofold. In the &st place the books which he collected brought serious study on modern lines within the reach of English students. Secondly, he was the first Englishman to express in his own personality the humanist ideal. The intermediary between Duke Humphrey and the Italian humanists was Zano Castiglione, Bishop of Bayeux, the French scion of a great Italian houee. In 1434 the Bishop set out for the Council of Base1 as the representative of Henry VI, having been commissioned by Duke Humphrey to

1 CaImdor OJ Stote Papera, Venetkn, Vol. I. p. ix. 2 Ibid., p. liv; cf. No. 676. 4 Poggio Bracciolini, Epietolce, i. 43, In, $4.

2 IbX, No. 741.

pro. 3 G V O L . IX. U

290 HISTORY [JAN.

buy as many books a-s he could find, mpecially such as had been written by Guarino da Verona and Leonard0 Bruni.1 From Basel he passed to Florence, whither Eugenius IV summoned the Council in 1439 and where the flower of Italian scholarship was gathered. The Council of Florence stands out as a landmark in the history of the Renaissance owing to the opportunities which it afforded for intercourse between learned Greeks, such as Bessarion and Gemisthus Pletho, and Italian scholm and patrons -Bruni, Poggio, Cesarini, Thomas of Smana (the future Pope Nicholas V), Cosimo dei Medici and their like. Such men were already awakened to the heritage of Greece, and they hailed the Council as a means of making its treasures their own. Among this brilliant company moved Zano Castiglione, singing the praises of the noble English Duke, his master, and winning for him lasting fame among Italian men of letters. After reading Leonard0 Bruni's Latin version of Aristotle's Ethies, which wm undoubtedly among the books purchased by Zano, Duke Hum- phrey suggested that Bruni should undertake a tramlation of the Politics. The work was oompleted and dedicated to Duke Humphrey, but apparently the reward which he offered was not commensurate with Bruni's own estimation of the value of his labours. Hardly had the Duke received the books and a laudatory epistle from the translator before the dedication was changed to Eugeniua IV. Nevertheless the manuscript, or a copy of it, remains in the Bodleian Library to thh day.a Mean- while the Milanese scholar, Pier Candido Decembrio, saw in the rupture with B d an opportunity for offering his own services to the Duke aa the translator of Plato's Republic. After various delays and much correspondence a complete Latin version of the Republic arrived to swell Duke Humphrey's rapidly growing library. Moreover, this generous son of Oxford, hearing that his University had fallen on evil days and that it lacked students, money, and above all books, proceeded to supply its most urgent need out of his own store. Between the years 1436 and 1444 he presented some three hundred volumes to the University. Through your magnificent donation, wrote the authorities, we who till lately were poor indeed in books are now richer than any other University in these treasures. Whatever has been written that is worth reading is now accessible to all comers. We wish you could see the students bending over your books in

1 Mario Borse, " Pier Candido Decembrio e l'umanwimo in Lombardia : "

* Bodley MS. 2143 (Auct. F. v. 27). Arch. S ~ W . L&., X. (1893), 1-75.

18251 ITALIAN INFLUENOES ON ENGLISH HISTORY 291

their greedinees and thirst for knowledge.1 The most important item in this splendid benefaction were the Latin works and the translations from Greek authors which had been procured from Italy. These and the Greek dictionary, also presented by Duke Humphrey, conatituted the first stage in the revival of classical learning in England.

In hir, preface to a treatise on a favourite topic of the human- kfs, the oomparative merits of arms and lettere, Lap0 da Castig- lionchio speaka of Duke Humphrey M one to whom such a work can fittingly be dedicated, seeing that his fame as a soldier has spread throughout Europe, while he surpasses all other princes of his day in “learning, eloquence and the humane studies.” “ You have no real plertsure apart from the reading of books,” Writes Piero del Monte in another dedicatory epistle, and he gaes on to show that the Duke’s interests lie “ not only in one art or science, which might be considered sufficient, but in nearly all of them. . . . This, which in a private person would call forth great praise, in a prince can never be sufficiently extolled and preached.” Like so many of his Italian friends, he w a ~ strongly attracted towards medical studies, still more towards the study of the ‘‘great broad mind of Plato, which indeed,’’ he wrote to Decembrio, “we find to be a heavenly constellation.”S To &eas Sylviua he is the prince patron who “ cultivates poets and veneratee orator^," to whom the introduction of humane learning into barbaric England is due.4 Side by side with his literary interests and his military career, Duke Humphrey aimed at playing a leadjng r 6 e in the politics of England and of Europe. If he lacked what Machiavelli has taught us to call virtiL, the driving force which enables a man not only to seize opportunities but to pursue them in the face of obstacles until the end is won, and if for that reaaon he remains only a gifted amateur in politics and no maker of history, he is nevertheless a true Renaissance prince, an abiding witness to the reality of Italian influence in fifteenth- century England.

The work which had been begun by Duke Humphrey was carried on by a band of scholars who crossed the Alps in search of the learning which Italy alone could give. The connection

1 &bt. A d . Ozm. (d. H. Anstay, Oxf. Hist. Soc., 1898), i. 244 (1446);

1 Creighton, “ Some Literary correspondence of Duke Humphrey of Gloucea-

* Mario Borm, “Correspondence of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and

4 0- (ed. &eel), Ep. 04.

cf. the liste on pp. 179-83, 204, 232-7, and other lettera, paauirn.

ter:” Eng. Ha. Rev.. x. (1896), 99.

Pier Candido hembrio : ” ibid., xix. (1904) 609 seqp. ; cf. ibid. xx. (1906).

n 2

292 HISTORY [JAN.

between Gloucester and his spiritual children, William Grey, Bishop of Ely, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, Robert Flemrning, John Gunthorpe and John Free, is not easy to trace. Yet at least they were all Oxford men, a t a time when the Duke’s bene- faction had made it possible to study the rudiments of humanism in Oxford a,a nowhere else in England. Moreover, they all studied under Guarino, and Duke Humphrey’s desire to possess his books is the first indication that we have of the influence of this great humanist educator in England. A generation of scholars was succeeded by a generation of teachers. William Selling returned from Italy to make his monastery at Canterbury a centre of learning, where real facilities for the study of Greek were to be found for the first time in England. Selling first taught Thomas Linacre the cla~sics, and with the return to Oxford of Linacre and his two friends Grocyn and Latimer after their travels and studies in Italy, humanist teaching took root in the University. The foundation of Corpus Christi by Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, in 1517, as a college for the promotion of the new learning, gives proof of the extent to which English scholars wcre impregnated with the ideals of Italy. Greeks and Italians were mentioned in the statutes as especially eligible for the office of lecturer. Provision was made for the maintenance of a scholar in Italy for a three years’ course of study. The works of Poliziano and Lorcnzo Valla were recom- mended for vacation reading.l

With the era of the Tudors, Italian influences spread from the University to the Court and from the Court to English society in general. The Tudor monarchs surrounded themselves with Italian secretaries, musiciam, artists, physiciam, riding-masters, fencing-masters. Among the chief agents for the propagation of Italian ideals at the Court of Henry VIII was Thomas Crom- well, who had tasted life in Italy as a soldier of fortune and a trader, and had soaked himself in her literature and politics. “ As you wished to make me a good Italian some time since, by promising to lend me the Triumphs of Petrarch, I beg you to send it . . . and especially, if you have it, the Cortigiano in Italian.”2 So wrote Edmund Bonner to Cromwell in 1530. In 1549 a certain William Thomas, who had spent five years in Italy, forwarded from Padua to ‘‘ his verie good friende Maister Tamworth,” a work entitled Th,e Principal Rules of the Italian

Maxwell Lyte, Hiatory of the University of Oxford. 406 aeqq. * Letter6 a d Papera, Henry VIII, iv. 6346; cf. R. B. Merriman, E j e and

Letters of Thomaa Cromwell, i. 86.

19251 ITALJAN INFLUENCES ON ENULISH HISTORY 293

Grammar with a Dictiimurie for better understandynge of Boccace Petrarciaa and Dante, which he had written at his friend‘s request. This waa published in 1550, and subsequent editions in 1560, 1562 and 1567 testified to its popularity. Meanwhile Thomas returned to England and was made a Clerk of the Privy Council. He published The Histom’e of Itulie, a boke exceclyng pro$ta6le to be redde, dedicated to the Earl of Warwick (1549), and a trans- lation of Barbaro’s Travels dedicated to Edward VI as “ a poore newe yeres gift ” (1550). Thomas’s writings are the forerunners of the translations of Italian works on every variety of subject with which Elizabethan England waa flooded, and which represent the high-water mark of Italian influences. In the sphere of history we find Geoffrey Fenton’s translation of Guicciardini’s Storia d’ltalia (1579), Bedingfield’s translation of Machiavelli’s Storia Flurentina (1595), and Lewkenor’s of Contarini’s Repdlica e Nqistrati d i Venezia (1599). There are translations of courtesy books without number, among them Sir Thomas Hoby’s rendering of Castiglione’s Corlegiuno (1561) ; Peterson’s trana- lation of dalla Caaa’s Galateo, dedicated to the Earl of Leicester (1576) ; and a version (1586) made partly from the French, partly from the original Italian, of Stefan0 Guazzi’s La Civil Conver- satione. In 1573 one Peter Whitehouse produced an English version of Machiavelli‘s Arte della Cruerra, dedicating it to Queen Elizabeth aa “ the h t - f ru i t s of a poor soldier’s study.” Trans- lations of books on moral and political philosophy, on travel, on painting, on riding, and of works by Boccaccio, Bandello, Leon Battista Alberti, Ariosto, followed one another in quick succession. Italian books were printed in London in the original, and, on the other hand, Italians settled in England published books in the language of their adopted country, Among the earliest of these is the work of Vincenzo Saviolio, the fencing-master, entitled Vincentio Saviolio, his Practise, and dedicated to ‘‘ the English Achilles," Robert, Earl of Essex (1594). Well might Roger Ascham exclaim: “More Papistea be made by your merry books of Italy than by your earnest books of Louvain.” 1 Yet side by side with the merry books, sermons and devotional treatises by Italian reformers such as Ochino and Paleario also found their English translators and readers.

Throughout the Tudor period England was steadily becoming impregnated with the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. Turning from fact to theory we aak ourselves: What exactly does thj, mean? A movement which can be summed up as “ the redis-

The Scholcmaster (ed. Mayor), p. 80.

294 HISTORY [JAN.

covey of the world and the rediscovery of man ” could hardly fail to endow England with a new conception of the individual. Develop human personality and you will conquer the world. Such is the creed of the humanists ; and the practical application of it can be seen in the great Italians-hrenzo dei Medici, Leonard0 da Vinci and their fellows, men who bear witness to the fact that all life is one, and that a statesman is a better statesman if he is also a poet and a cultivator of the arts, that the more intimate and varied his knowledge of life the greater the artist. It needed a generation or more to free a conservative nation from the toils of medieval departmentalism and medieval asceticism ; but in the course of the sixteenth century the educational precepts of Vittorino da Feltre and Guarino gradually impressed themselves on English minds. The value of learning aa a training for states- manship ; the interaction of body and mind which demands that the training of both mind and body should be blended in one system ; the futility of educational methods which inspire no sense of joy in work and make learning a matter of pain rather than of pleasure--these discoveries of the humanist educators h d ex- pression in the works of Sir Thomas Elyot and Roger Ascham as well aa in later Elizabethan writem. Elyot waa distinguished both aa a scholar and as a public servant, and he carried on his literary work in the midst of an active political career. His most famous book, The U m m r , written in 1530 and dedicated to Henry VIII, deals with “ the education of them that hereafter may be demed worthy to be governours of the publike weale under your hyghnesse.” Its subject matter, says the author, “ I have gathered aa well of the sayenges of most noble autours (grekes and latynes) as by myne owne experience, I beinge continually trayned in some dayly affaires of the publike weale of this your moste noble realme all mooste from my chylhode.” 1 His other publicatiom include a medical treatise entitled The Castel of Helth, a translation of T h rules of a Christian Zyfe mude by Picus erle of Mirand&, and various translations from Greek authors. He sets himself to combat “ tha t pestiferous opinion that gret learned men be unapt to the ministration of thinges of waighty importaunce,” a and bewails the negligence of English parents in educational matters. “ If they hiare a Schole maister to teche in their houses they chiefly enquire with howe small a salary he wil l be contented and never do inserche howe muche good lernynge he hath.” He recommends that painting or carving should be

1 The Gmenuncr (d. H. H. 8. Croft, 1880) : The Proheme, pp. 1-6. a Ibid., p. clxiii : Preface to Image 01 Gwemcrm.

19251 ITALIAN INFLUENCES ON ENGLISH HISTORY 295

taught to any child who shows aptitude for it, defending himself against the charge of making “ of a noble man a mason or peynter ” by showing how a prince may uee his talent in designing “ engynes for the warre ” or in making sketch-maps of an enemy’s country. He ie at one with the educationists of our own day when he writes : ‘ I dare a&me a man shal more profite in one wike by figures and chartis, well and perfectly made, than he shall by the only reding or heryng . . . by the space of haffe a yere a t the lest.” 1 A considerable portion of his treatise is taken up with discussing the advantages of various forms of physical exercise. Wrestling, running, swimming, ridmg, dancing and shooting with the long- bow are all commended. On the other hand, the Rsnaissance distaste for everything which detracts from personal dignity, which .makes Castiglione speak of tumbling as “ill-suited to a gentleman,” 2 breathes in Elyot’s censure of football aa a pastime “ to be utterly abjected of all noble men . . . wherein is nothingc but beastlie furie and extreme It is nearly four hundred years since the Qouernour was written, yet the educational system which it advocates has in the main survived. Mr. Glad- stone, studying the classics and felling trees at Hawarden in the intervals of political life, is a man after Elyot’s own heart. That Elyot is a product of Italian influence is proved by the use which he makes of the works of Brancesco Patrizi and other Italian writers, by the friends with whom he associated and by the whole spirit of his writings. IEis interest in medicine is the fruit of his intimacy with Linacre, who graduated in medicine at Padua, and who, like Marsilio Ficino, looked to “ Galen, prince of phisitions,” 4

as his master in the art of healing. The enthusiasms and the prejudices of the humanista are all his. Thomas Cromwell was his patron, Sir Thomas More, the h e flower of English humanism, w a his friend.

As an example of Elizabethan educational theories Thomas Blunderville may be cited. In a compilation derived from Italian writers and dedicated to the Earl of hicester, he thus defines the object of historical study: “To gather thereof such judgement and knowledge aa you may thereby be the more able as well to direct your private actions aa to give Counsell lyke a most prudent Counsellor in publyke caums.” Wisdom and experience, EW all humanists agreed, are the fruits of the study of history, and Blunderville cannot tell whether he “ may deryde or rather pitie

1 The GOU~~IUUY (ed. H. H. 8. Croft, 1880) : The Proheme, pp. 113, 43, 45. * IZ Cmtegiano, Book I : “ poco aono e gentil homo conveniente.” a Thu Qmnnour. p. 296. Ibid.. p. 169.

296 HISTORY [JAN.

the great follie of those which having consumed all theyr Iyfe tyme in hystories, doe know nothing in the ende but the &cents, genea- loges and petygrees of noble men, and when such a King or Emperour raigned and such lyke stuffe.”

No less important than its effect upon the individual was the influence of Italy in fostering the Englishman’s all too little developed social s e w . The Italian of the Renaissance was a citizen of the world. He was inter- ested in everything and everybody, and to make h h e l f acceptable to all comers was part of his stock-in-trade. Above all he was possessed by a passion for conversation, which he looked upon as “ the full perfection of learning,” “ the beginning and end of knowledge.” William Thomas, in a curious little treatise entitled The Pilgrim, written apparently while he was still in Italy, but not published in his lifetime, affords an interesting example of the influence of Italy in weaning England from her inborn hostility towards strangers, and in developing in her midst the symposium habit.3 The subject of the treatise is a defence of Henry VIII, couched in the form of a dialogue, of which the scene is laid in Bologna “ after supper on an evenyng sittyng by the fyre in the company of seven or eight gentylmen, in a riche marchaunt man’s house.” The conversation turned on England, the Italians being eager for information on its size, fertility, government and customs. “ What meaneth it,” they asked presently, “ that your nation supporteth no straunger, as by dayly profe it is right well sene, when an outlandish man passeth by you call hym dogg, knave and other lyke names ? ” * Thomas replied that the discourtesy had been due in times past to England’s isolation, and to her suspicion that those strangers who visited her shores came to rob her of her wealth. “ But a t this day it is all otherwise, for lyke aa your marchauntes do practise in England, so oure marohaunts do now traficque abrode and by traveyle have attayned such knowledge of civilitie, that I warrant you those straungem that now repayre into England, are as well receyved or sene and as muche made of, it8 of any other region of all Europe, especially in the Prince his courte.” Finding that Thomas was “ earnest in his Kynges favour,” one of the Italians asked how

His hall-mark wm civiltd.

1 The t r u e OT& and methode of wing and reading Hyatw&ea, according to (Pages not the precept8 of Francbw Patricw and Accontw Tridentino. 1674.

numbered.) f Guazzo, La c i d wnversatim (Venetia, 1681), pp. 18, 21. 8 W. Thomas. Works (ed. Aubant, 1774), pp. 1 seqq.; cf. elso The Pdgrim

An Italian version of Th (ed. J. A. Froude. 1861). a modernieed vernion. P w m wao published in 1552. 4 Ibid., p. 10.

19251 ITALIAN INFLUENCES ON ENGLISH HISTORY 297

this could be, “ synce he hath bene knowen and noted over all, to be the greatest tyraunt that ever waa in England.” Thoma, fearing to provoke a quarrel by his reply, sought leave to depart, but the others besought him to stay in order that they might “ hear the matter reasonably disputed.” So a lively debate on Henry VIII’s character began, and, although feeling ran high at moments, Thomas was encouraged “ to defende the cause which I had taken in hand without respect or feare.”2 The episode reflects the customs of an age and nation which regarded dis- cussions upon literary, philosophical, social and political problem &B the most humane of pastimes, and which found in the friendly atmosphere created by a common meal the most congenial setting for debate. Our thoughts turn t o Marsilio Ficino’s villa a t Careggi in the shade of the pine-woods of Montevecchio, where members of the Platonic Academy met to feast and to philosophise together, or to the PaIace of Urbino, where the Duchess and her guests discussed the character of the perfect courtier until “ a rosy dawn ” broke over Monte Catria.3 It is no mere coincidence that Roger Ascham, ardent admirer of I1 Cortegiano, should preface his work on Th Schlemaster by an account of a dinner given by Sir William Cecil, “ hir Highneese Principall Secretarie,” to various of the Queen’s councillors, at which the conversation turned on education and so inspired Ascham to formulate his ideas. Italian influence, again, can be traced in the graceful pavilions which adorn the gardens of Hampton Court and other Renaissance mansions. There the cultivated Englishmen of the day met to banquet in the Italian fashion and to enjoy good food and good talk amid beautiful surroundings.

The political thought of Tudor England reflects the teneta of humanism with remarkable fidelity. The State w an extension of the individual, at once the embodiment of the national genius and the medium through which the personality of the prince can express itself; absolute monarchy aa “ the beat and most sure governaunce; ” 4 the preservation and increase of the State as the supreme end of political lif-uch are the common themes of the political writers of the day. Elyot bases his championship of monarchy on the principle that “they which excelle other in undershndynge ” should rule. “ Such,” he says, “ oughte to

1 W. Thomas, Wmb (ed. Aubant, 1774), p. 14.

* Cdegiano, Book IV. a Ibid., p. 43.

“homes conaiders that “ The Duke’s palaice ia a varie faire how, but not 80 excellent a8 Conte Baldasar in his Courtiscme doeth commende it ” (Hisforic of Itazic, p. 214).

4 Elyot. Uowrnour, p. 11.

298 HISTORY [JAY.

be set in a more highe place than the residue where they may se and also be mne; that by the beames of theyr excellent witte, shewed throughe the glasse of auctoritie, others of inferior under- standynge may be directed to the way of vertue and commodious livynge.” Because “ vertue is not so constant in a multitude,” the rule of an aristocracy tends towards envy and contention and is less satisfactory than that of “ one soveraigne governour.” To William Thomas ambition and tyranny are ‘‘ two notable evilles that growe of ordinrarie in the nobilitie,” and although they are more tolerable than “ the isolence, inconstancie, perill and ignor- aunm of the multitude,” the rule of a prince “ though he were a Tyraune ” is preferable to both.2 He looks upon Henry VIII as a type of the perfect prince, “ whose wisdom, vertue and bountye, my wittes su&th not to declare ”; “ of personage he waa one of the godlyest men that Iyved in his tyme, verye highe of stature and proportioned in all his members unto that height, of counte- nance he waa moat amiable, curteous and beninge in gesture unto all persons and specially unto straungers. . . . Prudent he was in counsell and farre castyng, most liberall in rewardyng his faithfull servauntes. He waa learned in all sciences and had the gyft of many tongues. He was a perfect theologien, a good philosopher, and a strong man of arms . . . a perfect buylder, as well of for- tresses as of pleasaunt palayces . . . there was no kynde of necessary knowledge from a Kynges degree to a Carters but that he had an honest sight in it.” Thomas’s portrait of Henry VIII may err in the direction of flattery, but it is a faithful picture of what Italy had taught England to look for in her prince, and of the pattern upon which Henry strove to model himself. With regard to the iduence of the most famous of all Italian political philoso- phers in England, it is evident that political theorieta and practical politiciana alike had drunk deep at the Machiavellian fount. There waa just su&cient resemblance between the needs of Tudor England and the problew of Italy as seen by MachiavelIi to attract English statesmen to his teaching. Unity and independ- ence, freedom from internal faction and from foreign intervention, these boons were what both Machiavelli and English patriots of the sixteenth century craved for their country. So much of what waa said and done in the political world breathed Machia- velli’s spirit and even reproduced his language. Thomas, in discussing the queation, “ What Prince’s amitie is best? ” lays it down as an axiom that the object of all foreign alliances is “ to mainteigne one’s owne,” and comes to the conclusion that the

1 Elyot. Coverrccnct. p. 6. Wmh, pp. 159-69. 8 ZM., p. 122.

19251 ITALIAN INFLUENCES ON ENGLISH EISTORY 299

‘( amitie ” of the power “ that may most annoye ’’ is more worth having than “ his that may most assist.” He sees the world as a medley of conflicting principles-light and darkness, white and black, hot and cold-in which man strives against odds to “ gather any profitt,” and he quotes Machiavelli’s authority for his con- viction that “ he is to be esteemed the wisest and happiest man that in proceading maketh least discords with tyme.” Cardinal Pole tells us that Thomas Cromwell offered to Iend him a book by “ a modern writer, most grfted and discerning,” which he after- wards discovered to be Machiavelli’s Prince. It was not based on empty speculation like Plato’s Republic, which had been written many centuries ago, and yet its theories had never been put into practice. “ In these matters,” Cromwell urged, “ a brief treatise by a man of experience is worth many volumes of the philosophers.” Cromwell is perhaps the most whole-hearted disciple of Machia- velli among English statesmen, but Burleigh also studied his works, and it would be difficult to say whether Queen Elizabeth or her father approached more nearly to Machiavelli’s conception of an ideal ruler. “Whoever desires to introduce reforms into a state and to see them accepted and maintained to everyone’s satisfaction, must retain at least the shadow of old institutions, so that it may appear to the people that nothing has been altered, while in fact the new order is entirely different from the old.” The most brilliant application of Machiavellian doctrine is to be found not in any one individual, but in the Tudor State and in the Tudor Church.

At a time when Italian influences were apparently a t their height a note of superiority, even of antagonism, creeps into the English attitude towards them. “ There is an ancient complaint made by many that our countrymen usually bring three thinges with them out of Italy: a naughty conscience, an empty purse and a weake stomache.” So writes Jerome Turler in 1575.5 The very Alps appeared to one miter as an object lesson set up by the Almighty between English and Italians to “teach us that we should shut up from them all access or entrance into our country.” This is the anonymous author of a tract published in 1591,

* Pole, ApaZog$a ad Carolurn V (Brescia, 1744). cc. xxix, xxx. The Prince was not in print at the date (1528 or 1529) of the conversation between Pole and CkomweII; but the latter might well have possessed a MS. of a work already famous, and written in 1513. Re cites the book in support of theories as to the bebviour of P counsellor towards his prince, which are quite in Machiavelli’s vein.

Cf. also W. Alison Phillips, “ Infiuence of Machiaveili on the Reformation in England: ” Nineteenth CeWry. Dec. 1896.

Worka, pp. I47 aeqq. Ibid., pp. 131 8qq.

Mechiavelli, Diecorsi, I. c. 25.

The Traveiler, p. 65.

300 HISTORY [JAN.

entitled Discourse of the great subtilitie and wonderful wisedome of the Italians whreby they beure sway over the most part of Christendome and cunninglie behave themselves to fetch the Quinteacence out of the people’s purses. Here speab the spirit of an age in which re- ligious strife and political conspiracy had engendered a distrust of Italy and the Italians, no less fervent than the admiration which still accompanied it. Roger &cham, while acknowledging that the Italian tongue is after Greek and Latin that which he likes and loves above all other, enlarges on the dangers of Italian travel and deplores bringing home to England “ the religion, the learning, the policie, the experience, the manners of Italie.” 1 What, he mks, do our young men bring back in the way of religion ‘I “ Papistrie or worse.” Of learning ? ” Lease commonly than they carried out with them.” “ A factious heart, a discoursing head, a mynde to meddle in all men’s matters.” Of experience ? “ Plenty of new mischieves never knowne in England before.” Of manners ? “ Varietie of vanities and chaunge of filthy lyving.”

In the reaction against Italian influences it waa made plain that England after all waa not the home of the Renaissance. For a time she fell captive to the spell which bewitched Europe and held out eager hands towards all that Italy had to give. Yet what she graaped were aspects of the great awakening rather than the spirit of the Renaissance as a whole. England imbibed from Italy a new conception of the dignity and powers of man, she learned the value of education, and she also learned how to appreciate and foster the amenities of life. In more practical spheres she received training in commerce and diplomacy and in various branches of technical science. Yet it is doubtful whether Englishmen shared in the passionate worship of beauty which was of the very essence of tho Italian R,enaissance, nor does it seem that they made the Platonism of the Renaissance their own. To many an Italian, intent on self-culture and mastery of the world, Platonism supplied an ideal element, a touch of other-worldliness, without which humanism would have been bankrupt. It afforded a way of escape from the blatant selfishness and materialism which were the logical outcome of the humanist creed. England saw the evils of the Renaissance without the veil in which Platonism hid them, and criticised from the standpoint of morality and of the common weal. There were greedy and unscritpulous men without number in Tudor England, but the thought of the age refused to regard religion solely aa the handmaid of politics, or

rschokmiaater. pp. 69, 79.

Of policy?

19261 ITALIAN INFLUENCES ON ENGLISH HISTOBY 301

to admit that the ordinary standards of morality could be set aside in the cause of individual or national advancement. The Puritan in William Thomas prevented him from being an out-and- out Machiavellian, Henry VIII never quite buried the theologian in the statesman. English statesmen dallied with the theory of absolutism in the sixteenth century only to reject it in the seven- teenth. The conception of the prince as the embodiment of the nation, to whose complete development every individual interest must be sacrificed, yields before the idea of justice, which ‘‘ is to gyve to every manne his owne.”l So, even in the age of the Renaissance, Italian influences on English history are impatient of definition. Like other foreign influences they stirred England profoundly without materially affecting the course of her develop- ment. Their most permanent effects are social rather than polit.ica1. Italian influences permeated the fabric of English life, but the fabric itself remained unmoved.

CECILIA M. ADY.

1 Elyot, U o v e w u r , ii. 190.