historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

Chapter 2. Intellectual context
Vossius also believed that ‘moral principles’ could be deduced from matters
past. 6 Here we come across a view, widespread in early modern Europe, of
history as a teacher of moral philosophy or ethics, of what people should do
or not do in this or that situation according to the prevailing moral standards.
The use of history as a teacher of proper behaviour was strongly supported
by a static view on time and human nature; it was believed that there were
no real differences between the past and the present. Examples drawn from
ancient history could therefore be applied to early modern situations. This
static view is visible in the Discorsi of Machiavelli and in the Ricordi (Maxims
and Reflections, 1576) of his Florentine compatriot Francesco Guicciardini
(1483-1540). 7 However, in opposition to Machiavelli, that same Guicciardini
also held that ‘every historical event was unique, and that each maxim must be
modified by present circumstances before it was applied’. 8 Guicciardini was
apostelen, tenzij om nooit in der eeuwigheid in vergetelheid te laten raken wat wij van Christus moeten
geloven. Waarom was het daarna nodig dat door hen de geschiedenis van wat er na de hemelvaart was
gebeurd werd doorgegeven, tenzij om ons niet onkundig te laten van het begin van de christelijke kerk?’
Idem, De historiae vtilitate oratio, habita in Illustri Senatus Populiq; Amstelodamensis Gymnasio, cùm publicam
Historiarum & Politices professionem ordiretur, anno MDCXXXII. VI. Id. Ianuarii (Henricus Laurentius;
Amsterdam, 1632), pp. 14, 16. ‘At duo haec, fidei vitaequr normam, et in Ecclesiâ gesta vel gerenda,
referre ipsi in eo quoque conveniunt, quòd illis solis educetur, atque adolescat fides et pietas nostra.
Primò enim nisi ex historia verus de Deo sensus hauriretur; non Deus ipse per Mosem mundi natales,
et tot seculorum exponere historiam voluisset: sed, praeteritis his, legem Israëlitico populo proponere,
satis habuisset … Ingentem, auditores, historiae fructum vidimus in divina providentia. Sed non hic se
ejus utilitas ac nessitas sistit. Etenim quid de Christo, quid de Ecclesia ejus credere debeamus, pandit
nobis historia. Nam quid attinebat ab Euangelistis, et Apostolis, historiam de vita et morte Servatoris
nostri consignari, nisi ne ullis unquam seculis in oblivionem veniret, quid de Christo sentire debeamus?
Quid necesse postea erat, tradi ab illis historiam eorum, quae post adscensum in caelos evenissent:
quam ne Christianae incunabula Ecclesiae nesciremus?’
6 Nicholas Wickenden, G.J. Vossius and the Humanist Concept of History (Van Gorcum, Assen, 1993),
p. 77.
7 For Machiavelli, see the Discorsi, I.39.1-2. ‘Anyone who considers present and ancient matters
readily understands that the same desires and feelings exists in all cities and all peoples and they always
have. So it is easy for anyone who carefully examines past matters to foresee those in the future of any
republic and to apply to them the remedies that were used by the ancients or, if they are not to be found,
to devise new ones because the events are similar.’ Ibidem, III.43.1-2. ‘Wise men are wont to say, and
not by chance or without reason, that anyone who wants to see what is to be should consider what
has been: for every thing in the world at every time has its own analogue in ancient times. This happens
because, since these things are done by men, who have and always did have the same passions,
they must of necessity produce the same result.’ Both quotations quoted from The Sweetness of Power:
Machiavelli’s Discourses & Guicciardini’s Considerations. Translated by James B. Atkinson and David Sices
(Northern Illinois University Press; DeKalb, 2002), pp. 112, 370. For Guicciardini, see Francesco Guicciardini,
Maxims and Reflections (Ricordi). Translated by Mario Domandi. Introduction by Nicolai Rubinstein
(University of Pennsylvania Press; Philadelphia, 1 st ed. 1972, 1992), B.114, p. 123. ‘Past events shed
light on the future. For the world has always been the same, and everything that is and will be, once
was; and the same things recur, but with different names and colors. And for that reason, not everyone
recognizes them – only those who are wise, and observe and consider them diligently.’ For this particular
similarity between Machiavelli and Guicciardini, see Donald R. Kelley, “Humanism and History”,
in idem, The Writing of History and the Study of Law (Variorum; Aldershot, 1997), p. 252, who also quotes
Guicciardini’s Ricordi. In this thesis all references to, and quotations from, Machiavelli’s Discorsi refer to,
and are quoted from, The Sweetness of Power.
8 J.H.M. Salmon, “Stoicism and Roman Example: Seneca and Tacitus in Jacobean England”, in
Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 50, No. 2 (1989), p. 211. Machiavelli, for example, believed that ‘in order
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