Nicholas of Cusa or Cusanus was born to a family of comfortable but middling means at Kues (Cusa) on the Moselle River in 1401. A common German version of his name is Nikolaus Krebs. He already was a cleric of the archdiocese of Trier when he studied at the University of Heidelberg in 1416. In 1417 he moved to Italy and studied canon law at the University of Padua, receiving his doctorate in 1423. Cusanus pursued further studies at the University of Cologne, becoming acquainted with Heymeric of Camp and, through him, with the works of Ramon Llull. He also practiced law and searched for previously lost classical and patristic manuscripts. Cusanus attended the Council of Basel (1431-1449) beginning in 1432 as the representative of his patron, Ulrich von Manderscheid, one of the claimants to the vacant archbishopric of Trier. His case for Ulrich’s promotion was not successful, but he attracted attention for his writings on issues of theology and reform. Nicholas also became dean of St. Florin in Koblenz, where he preached his first recorded sermons.
While present at the Basel council, Nicholas took part in negotiations with the Hussites of Bohemia, arguing in published letters (1433) that they should follow established practice in administering communion, instead of demanding that wine, not just bread, be given to lay communicants. He also wrote a Libellus de maioritate auctoritatis concilii (A Little Book on the Preeminence of the Authority of a Council), which, with its treatment of the authority of church councils, reads like a draft of his larger and more famous work on church and Empire. This is his De concordantia catholica (On Catholic Concord), completed by 1434, a synthesis of ideas on institutional issues balancing hierarchy with representation and consent, papacy, and councils. This treatise remained useful to critics of the papacy long after Nicholas left Basel and became an agent of Pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447). Nicholas became close to Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini, the papal legate to the council, who tried to reconcile pope and council, especially in a dispute over the seating of presidents of the Basel assembly appointed by Eugenius. In 1434 Cusanus wrote a tract De auctoritate praesidendi (On the Authority of Presiding), trying to reconcile competing interests.
Nicholas involved himself in a dispute over the site of a council to meet with the Greeks, who, needing aid against the Ottoman Turks, were willing to discuss reunion with the Latins. He and the other members of the conciliar minority supported Pope Eugenius IV in his effort to bring the Greeks to Italy, a region more acceptable to them than Basel’s choice, Avignon. The council split over this issue, and the minority issued its own decree favoring a site in Italy. In 1437 Nicholas undertook a mission to Constantinople to persuade the Greeks to attend the council Eugenius decreed would be held at Ferrara. On his voyage back in the winter of 1437-1438, Cusanus had a shipboard experience that changed his point of view. Thereafter his writings tend to be on more philosophical topics, especially on the limits of human knowledge in the quest for God. The treatise De docta ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance), completed c. 1440, set forth the typically Cusan themes of “learned ignorance,’’ enfolding and unfolding, and “conjecture.” This last, possibly better understood as a learned surmise, was expounded at length in De coniecturis (On Conjectures), completed in 1443 or 1444, which discusses the mind’s ascent from sense to reason to the inspired intellect. Nicholas even tried to apply these concepts to the Basel schism by writing about the ‘‘conjectural church’’ (ecclesia coniecturalis).
After returning to Italy, Nicholas represented the pope in Germany, becoming known as ‘‘the Hercules of the Eugenian cause’’ for his work for Eugenius against the Council of Basel. He presented the case for papal primacy at several imperial diets, arguing that the church was monarchic. His polemics from the period also argued that the Council of Basel lacked the consent of the princes and of the church throughout the world. This bold presentation of the Eugenian case helped persuade the princes to reach agreement with Rome, which in turn conceded control of local patronage. Eventually, they abandoned the Council of Basel, which had to recognize Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455), who had succeeded Eugenius.
After playing this role at imperial diets, Nicholas was rewarded by Pope Nicholas V, who made him a cardinal in 1448 or 1449. He was made bishop of Brixen in the Tyrol in 1450. Nicholas also was named papal legate to the lands of the Empire. He embarked on extensive travels, holding local councils to enacted reforms. Many of these decrees were not enforced, since Pope Nicholas canceled them when pressed by lay authorities. His unsuccessful effort to discourage pilgrimage to view the supposed bleeding hosts of Wilsnack was typical of the failures of Cusanus’ legation. The greatest successes were achieved where the cardinal found allies in local groups of reformed religions.
Nicholas then retired to his diocese. There he tried to impose reforms on the diocesan clergy and the local monasteries. He also tried to reclaim diocesan revenues lost to other powers in the Tyrol. His efforts were backed with ecclesiastical censures, but they aroused local opposition. Most important of the opponents was Duke Sigismund of the Tyrol. The duke briefly imprisoned Nicholas in 1460, and the cardinal left for Rome after being released. Pope Pius II (1458-1464) excommunicated Duke Sigismund and imposed an interdict suspending church services throughout his domains. Nicholas never returned to his bishopric, and Sigismund only capitulated in 1464, a few days after Nicholas died.
Nicholas became a resident member of the Roman curia. In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople, he had written an imaginative dialogue, De pace fidei (On the Peace of Faith), envisioning a celestial conference that reconciled the differences of all religions. Nevertheless, he became a partner in Pope Pius’ more mundane efforts to launch a crusade against the Ottomans. He governed Rome while the pope was absent at the Congress of Mantua, trying vainly to persuade Europe’s princes to take the cross. Cusanus also wrote a critical but not entirely hostile review of the Qur’an, the Cribratio Alchorani (Sifting of the Quran). Nicholas also represented the pope in local negotiations at Orvieto, and he continued writing works on metaphysical themes. Nicholas’ later works tried out new metaphors for God, particularly the idea that the divine was not-other (non aliud) than human beings and other creatures.
Cusanus became involved in Pius II’s efforts to lead a crusade himself, and he died at Todi in Umbria on August 11, 1464 on his way to join the pope in Ancona. (Pius, although mortally ill, had gone to that sea port, hoping to lead the crusade himself.) The cardinal’s body was interred in his titular church, San Pietro in Vincoli, in Rome. There is a sculpted image of the cardinal on his monument. In accordance with his last wishes, Nicholas’ heart was taken to the Cusanusstift in Kues, a charitable foundation for the housing ofthe aged that he established, for burial. He bequeathed his books, scientific instruments, and money to it.
De concordantia catholica
Nicholas’ De concordantia catholica is divided into three books. The first discusses the nature of the church and the role of the clergy, including the Roman pontiff. The second discusses church councils, from local synods to ecumenical councils. The third book opens into the larger context of Christendom, the political community of the peoples within the Latin Church. It discusses the nature of political communities and especially the role of the emperor. Nicholas included in this book his proposals for reform of the Empire, including possible revisions of the system of imperial elections. The entire work drew upon a rich heritage of pagan and Christian texts, especially the canon law collections he had studied in Padua. At the time of his education, these texts, especially those in Gratian’s Decretum, and previous discussions by learned doctors of the church as a corporation, were read by many as supporting the ability of the church, represented by a council, to limit papal power. This was tied directly to a desire for reform of the church ‘‘in head and members,’’ especially reform of the Roman curia.
Have been neglected but have the weight of authority behind them. Book I then discusses the nature of the church, the priesthood and hierarchic order in ecclesiastical affairs. His emphasis on faith and charity as uniting Christians with Christ was traditional, and he defended the institution against accusations that the church has lost validity through sin. Both good and bad persons belonged, although in different ways. Nor did bad priests lose sacramental power because of sin. This was one of the key lines of anti-Hussite argument, a posture shared with writers like John Torquemada. Nicholas linked sacramental validity not just to the church militant but to the church triumphant in heaven.
Book II turns to the question of the location of authority in the church. The focus of the book is on councils, from diocesan synods to a universal council. A presiding person, bishop, metropolitan or pope, ordinarily had the right to call a council. The universal council represented the church’s power to bind and loose. Its decisions were to be considered inspired by the Spirit. All of these councils, local up through universal, represented the church in a virtual manner. Its decisions were made not just by a binding decree of the presiding officer but with the consent of all present. Even after a decree had been issued, it was binding only after it had been accepted at the local level. Nicholas was able to demonstrate the correctness of his arguments by appealing to the examples of the great councils of the fourth and fifth centuries, which had defined the key dogmas of the church.
Nicholas applied the same principle of consent and reception to the papacy. Papal decrees gained force from ‘‘usage and reception’’ (Bk. II c. 11). This was, in Cusanus’ system, a form of consent. Papal power was administrative, requiring submission of subjects. Plenitude of power was not automatic. Its exercise required the consent of the College of Cardinals to be valid. Cusanus also recommended that the cardinals be chosen from all nations to make their consent more representative. Looking wider, Nicholas argued that all coercive power similarly depended on consent under natural law. This, in turn, opened the way for a defense of free elections to office.
The wide representation of the church also guaranteed that a universal council was superior to the pope, including being more likely to be divinely guided. This being the case, the council was over the pope and able to bind him to accept its decisions. The pope, using the power granted by Christ, could dispense from canons in case ofneed but not capriciously. Even the papal role in convoking councils did not grant a right to dictate their decisions or disobey them. Abuse of any ecclesiastical power was not tolerable and was subject to reform.
Book III is focused on the Empire. The emperor was head of the temporal hierarchy, and his power derived from consent under natural law. The papacy had not conferred this supreme authority. The translation of imperial power from the Greeks to the Latins occurred by the consent of the clergy and people of Rome in the reign of Otto the Great. The electors who chose the next emperor act by the common consent of their subjects. By their consent, he acted as Christ’s vicar in temporal affairs, although not the direct ruler of all lands. By consent of the orthodox faithful, the emperor was guardian of the church and the faith, as well as the protector of a sitting general council. A limited role for lay persons in church councils is included in Cusanus’ discussion of the Empire. The Empire was expected to be governed, like the church, with the consent of representatives of its provinces. Like the pope, the emperor was expected to judge justly and not to abuse his power. The book concludes with a detailed proposal for the reform of the Empire.
As a whole, the entirety of De concordantia catholica emphasizes unity and harmony. The hierarchy of councils, the expanded College of Cardinals, the superiority of a general council to a pope, and the role of the emperor in secular and ecclesiastical affairs were all intended to promote harmony and concord. The Council of Basel, however, could not achieve concord throughout Christendom. Its squabbles over reforms and the site of a council with the Greeks may explain why Cusanus was willing to abandon the council for the pope and his council of union in Italy.
World History
