Scholars shifted scholastic studies to the "humanities," believing them essential for educating good citizens

The argument

Petrarch, a Tuscan poet, is considered to be the “Father of Humanism.” Humanism came from an inspired shift from the scholastic curriculum of the medieval era to the curriculum of, what the Romans called the “humanities.” Petrarch was fascinated with classical texts and traveled the world looking for them. As John Merriman states, Petrarch “uncovered the Roman orator and moralist Marcus Tulles Cicero” and used his work “to see in classical philosophy a guide to life based on experience.” Humanists believed classical writers deserved celebration and imitation. They believed their works could civilize humanity and heavily influenced the politics of the Italian city-states. Humanists insisted that an active life in public affairs and politics were necessary for a prosperous and virtuous civilization. Petrarch's successors continued to uncover and reprint more and more classical texts. And with the printing of books made easier by the invention of the printing press, ancient Greek texts were being reprinted in Latin, as well as vernacular languages like Italian and German. People had far better access to the works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle as these works were printed in a more accessible language, available in more libraries, and expanded upon by Renaissance writers.

Premises

Counter-arguments

While pagan, Classical texts continued to be "rediscovered" in Europe, these texts or beliefs did not alter the Christian belief or structure. Humanists would take these texts and ascribe Christian meanings from them and appropriate the stories, histories, and poems. Humanists challenged medieval scholasticism, which was heavily influenced by the church, but they did not challenge the power of the Church and its place in the lives of Europeans.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The account of Petrarch is accurate and does less than the conclusion needs. Recovering Cicero and reading classical philosophy as a guide to life is a change of curriculum and method, and Petrarch was himself a devout Christian whose Secretum stages a dialogue with Augustine — so the shift described was pursued from inside Christian thought rather than against it. [Rejecting P2] "Civilizing humanity" and the value of an active public life are humanist commitments, and neither is secular in the sense the conclusion requires; both were argued for by clerics and under papal patronage. The printing-press claim also proves too much, since the largest output of the early press was religious — Bibles, devotional works, and shortly after, the Reformation's polemics — so wider circulation of texts does not by itself indicate a movement away from religion. [Rejecting C] The conclusion joins two claims and defends only one. That humanist education spread across Europe is well supported; that it spread secularism is the further step, and the counter names the difficulty — humanists read classical texts in Christian terms and did not, as a movement, contest the Church's place in European life.