Theological Origins of Modernity

petrarch and the invention of individuality 55
motivated by a desire for fame and wished that only the virtuous would attain
glory, but he knew this is not the case. Scipio’s virtue inspires virtue in
his fellow Romans and they conquer the vicious Hannibal and his moneyloving
Carthaginians, but they were also fortunate, for except for a moment
of overconfi dence aft er the battle of Cannae, Hannibal would have
sacked Rome itself. Scipio’s victory and fame thus seem to owe as much to
fortune as they do to virtue. Th is point is evident at the beginning of the
work, when the ghost of Scipio’s father tells him that while his victory will
win great fame for him and great longevity for Rome, both will fade. Over
time he and Hannibal will even win equal praise because “the vulgar multitude
cannot discern the gap that yawns between magnifi cence and deeds
of foul enormity.” 64 Moreover, even Rome shall fade and become merely a
corrupt and pale image of its former self: “All that is born must die and aft er
ripeness comes decay; no thing of earth endures.” 65 Time thus triumphs
over fame. Th us it is not glory that one should pursue but virtue, for “virtue
alone, that heeds not death, endures. Virtue alone prepares the way to
Heaven.” 66 Fame is a reward that others give to greatness whether for good
or ill; virtue is oft en unrecognized by others but is good in itself because it
secures a victory over the passions and thus guarantees self-mastery.
In the public sphere, virtue is thus inevitably entangled with the desire
for glory. Th e desire for glory, however, does not necessarily produce
virtue and may produce the most monstrous vices. Th e ground for true
virtue thus cannot lie in the love of fame. Hence Petrarch recognized that
the magnifi cent examples of greatness from the ancient world that he had
sought to portray in his Illustrative Lives and Africa were inadequate as
grounds for the inculcation of moral virtue. As a result, he discontinued
work on these texts and on a third book, Memorable Th ings (Rerum memorandum),
in which he planned a systematic indoctrination through examples
in the four cardinal virtues as defi ned by Cicero, drawing on secular
rather than sacred sources. Instead, he turned in a new direction that was
to have immense importance for modern thought, to an introspective examination
and critique of himself. 67
petrarch’s christianity
In order to understand this inward turn, we need to examine briefl y the
impact of Christianity on Petrarch’s thought. As we saw above, human
beings for Petrarch live in a chaotic world and are constantly pulled by
their passions or loves in multiple directions. Such loves, however, fade
in the face of death. Death itself, in turn, can be overcome by fame. And