Theological Origins of Modernity

58 chapter two
Petrarch and Augustine. Th e fi rst dialogue begins with Augustine’s assertion
that Petrarch needs to remember above all else that he is a mortal being,
for “there can be no doubt that to recollect one’s misery and to practice
frequent meditation on death is the surest aid in scorning the seductions of
this world, and in ordering the soul amid its storms and tempests.” 87 Th is
is the triumph of death over the passions that we discussed above. He asserts,
however, that Petrarch like most men fails to confront death with the
needed seriousness and deceives himself continually about himself, clinging
willingly to his own miseries. 88 Th e rest of the fi rst dialogue lays great
stress on the self-redressing power of will. 89 Knowledge, Augustine repeatedly
asserts, is insuffi cient to bring about Petrarch’s moral reformation:
“Th ere must be will, and that will must be so strong and earnest that it can
deserve the name purpose.” 90 Th e good can only be truly loved if Petrarch
thrusts out every lower desire, and it is only the profound meditation on
death that makes such purgation possible. 91
In the second dialogue, Petrarch’s morals are evaluated in terms of the
traditional seven mortal sins. While he is acquitted of envy, anger, and
gluttony, he is charged to his surprise with pride and avarice and not to
his surprise with lust and melancholia (accidia). 92 In contrast to the fi rst
dialogue, however, the second focuses on failures of the mind rather than
the will. But in this dialogue Augustine relaxes his moral strictures and
says he never meant to urge Stoic abnegation on Petrarch but only a kind of
Peripatetic moderation. 93 Th at said, the dialogue closes with a characteristic
Stoic claim that a soul serene and tranquil in itself will not be aff ected
by cares of the world. 94
Th e third dialogue is a discussion of Petrarch’s two most profoundly
moving passions, love and fame. His love of Laura is characterized as a
form of idolatry that robs him of dignity and liberty, intensifi es his melancholia,
undermines his morals, and turns his desires from the creator
to the creature. 95 As we saw in our discussion of the Songbook, both the
human self and God are forgotten in such love. 96 Glory is also accounted
a false form of immortality, but Petrarch is unable or at least unwilling to
renounce it. 97 He does agree, however, to take Augustine’s advice to aim at
virtue and let glory take care of itself. 98
Th is pathway to virtue, however, lies not in a scholastic investigation
of man’s place in the natural order of things but in an introspective examination
of the individual self. Th is examination, at least in My Secret,
is achieved through an inner, imaginary dialogue with a spiritual mentor,
in this case a friend that Petrarch knew only from books but in Petrarch’s
mind a friend nonetheless. Th e self is thus understood not immediately but