The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism

Although humanism took root in the learned culture of fifteenth-century England, it was not until the next century that it bore fruit in vernacular literature. In the period between the Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini's visit to England (c. 1418-22) and Bishop William Waynflete's founding of Magdalen College School at Oxford (1480), English book collectors, diplomats and grammarians increased their knowledge of Italian classical learning. These cultural links with Italy fostered the creation of the humanist libraries and grammar schools which would educate the Tudor elite - among them the first great English humanist writer, Sir Thomas More, who, unlike many of his contemporaries, had no direct contact with Italy. As in Italy, humanism took root in England at a time when the education it promoted was suited to the needs of the governing classes: the monarch, members of the council, church officials and civil servants. It became necessary to write Latin well, with the humanist's attention to grammar and the elegantly subordinated syntax of the Ciceronian style, in order to carry on diplomatic and domestic matters of state. Since, however, this humanist programme was also appropriated and deployed to produce great literary works, it can be said to have been much more than a mere pragmatic tool to attain influence and power. Indeed, humanist-inspired works of literature even allowed for scepticism about the principles underlying the primary realm of power - the economy, politics, institutional religion - as well as criticism of the aims of humanism itself.