725. The sex relation and position of women. In such a period the sex relation is sure to be degraded and the position of woman is sure to be compromised. They can only be defined by the restraints which are observed or enforced. When all restraints are set aside sensuality is set free. Women were not suppressed. They took their place by the men and only demanded for themselves a liberty equal to that assumed by the men. The opinion has been expressed that Isabella d'Este "may be regarded as the most splendid realization of the Renaissance ideal of woman."2268 Vittoria Colonna has been more generally accorded that position. She is doubly interesting for her Platonic relation to Michael Angelo, who was fifteen years her senior,2269 and for her personal character. The title "bastard" was often worn with pride. In royal houses it happened often that the illegitimate branch took the throne on the failure of the other, so that the existence of the former was a recognized and useful fact, not a shameful one.2270 Although it was true that woman "occupied a place by the side of man, contended with him for intellectual prizes, and took part in every spirited movement," although many of them became celebrated for humanistic attainments, and were intrusted with the government of states,2271 yet it was not possible that they could maintain womanly honor and dignity side by side with the concubines and bastards of their husbands. The love of men for men was a current vice which was hardly concealed and which degraded the sex relation.2272 The individualism of the period is interpreted as a motive for making love to the wife of another, that is, to another fully developed individual.2273 Adultery also appealed to the love of intrigue and the appreciation of the imaginative element. Lewd stories and dramas were produced in great numbers in which the cunning and deception of adultery were developed in all imaginable combinations of circumstances. In real life a woman's relatives showed great ferocity in enforcing against her all the current conventions about her conduct. That was because she might bring disgrace and ridicule on them by marrying beneath her, or by a liaison which was known and avenged by her husband. The assassination of the husband in such cases was only a trifling necessity which might be called for.2274 A physician having married a widowed duchess, born a princess of Aragon, her brothers murdered her and her children and caused the physician to be assassinated by hired bravos.2275 In the comedies marriage was derided and marital honor treated with contempt. Downright obscenity was not rare. Some of the comedies would not now be tolerated anywhere before an audience of men only.2276 It seems trifling that objection was made to the nakedness of some figures in Michael Angelo's "Last Judgment." "As society became more vicious, it grew nice."2277

726. The cult of success. This deep depravation of all social interests by the elevation of success to a motive which justified itself has the character of an experiment. Amongst ourselves now, in politics, finance, and industry, we see the man-who-can-do-things elevated to a social hero whose success overrides all other considerations. Where that code is adopted it calls for arbitrary definitions, false conventions, and untruthful character.

727. Literature. There were several books published in the Renaissance period which aimed to influence the mores. In the middle of the fifteenth century was written Pandolfini's Governo della Famiglia. An old man advises his two sons and three grandsons on the philosophy and policy of life. He urges thrift and advises to stay far removed from public life. It is, he says, a "life of insults, hatreds, misrepresentations, and suspicions." He advises not to come into the intimacy of great nobles and not to lend them money. He has a low opinion of all women and would not trust a wife with secrets. Della Casa, in the first half of the sixteenth century, wrote Il Galateo, a treatise on manners and etiquette. He lays great stress on cleanliness of person and house, and he forbids all impropriety, for which he has a very positive code. Castiglione's Courtier inculcates what the age considered sound ideas on all social relations, rights, and duties. In the dialogue different views are put forward and discussed, from which it results that the views to be regarded as correct often lack point and definiteness. Symonds thinks that the type presented with approval differs little from the modern gentleman.2278 Cornaro wrote at the age of eighty-three a book called Discorsi della Vita sobria, which is said to set forth especially the diet by which the writer overcame physical weakness and reached a hale old age. When ninety-five he wrote another book to boast of the success of the first. He died in 1565, over a hundred years old.2279

728. Moral anarchy. The antagonism between a virtue policy and a success policy is a constant ethical problem. The Renaissance in Italy shows that although moral traditions may be narrow and mistaken, any morality is better than moral anarchy. Moral traditions are guides which no one can afford to neglect. They are in the mores and they are lost in every great revolution of the mores. Then the men are morally lost. Their notions, desires, purposes, and means become false, and even the notion of crime is arbitrary and untrue. If all try the policy of dishonesty, the result will be the firmest conviction that honesty is the best policy. The mores aim always to arrive at correct notions of virtue. In so far as they reach correct results the virtue policy proves to be the only success policy.

2216 Globus, LXXXIII, 374.

2217 Holtzmann, Indische Sagen, I, 170.

2218 Holtzmann, Indische Sagen, I, 105.

2219 Ibid., 23, 37, 119.

2220 Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, 216.

2221 Hartmann, Ztsft. d. V. f. Volkskunde, XI, 247.

2222 Od., XIX, 394.

2223 Lichtenberger, Nibelungen, 334, 354.

2224 Uhland, Dichtung und Sage, 232.

2225 Kugler, Kreuzzüge, 52.

2226 Eicken, Mittelalterl. Weltanschauung, 656.

2227 Symonds, Renaissance, III, 320.

2228 Ibid., I, 390-405.

2229 Burckhardt, Renaissance, 458.

2230 Burckhardt, Renaissance, 465.

2231 Ibid., 490.

2232 Lea, Sacerd. Celibacy, 364.

2233 Symonds, Catholic Reaction, II, 137.

2234 Burckhardt, 184.

2235 Ibid., 267.

2236 Burckhardt, Renaissance, 268-271.

2237 Symonds, Renaissance, I, 423.

2238 Gauthiez, Lorenzaccio, 71.

2239 Creighton, Hist. Essays and Reviews, 336.

2240 La Renaissance, 377.

2241 Hist. Essays and Reviews, 138.

2242 Symonds, Renaissance, I, 52.

2243 Ibid., 53.

2244 Gauthiez, Lorenzaccio, 92.

2245 Symonds, Catholic Reaction, II, 392.

2246 Symonds, Renaissance, I, 416.

2247 Symonds, Autobiog., I, 74.

2248 Symonds, Renaissance, I, 416.

2249 Ibid., 420.

2250 Ibid., 420.

2251 Gregorovius, Lucretia Borgia, 28.

2252 Gauthiez, Lorenzaccio, 230.

2253 Symonds, Renaissance, III, 467.

2254 Symonds, Autobiog. of Cellini, I, XI, 196.

2255 Ibid., XIV.

2256 Ibid., 227.

2257 Gauthiez, Lorenzaccio, 104.

2258 Ibid., 79.

2259 Symonds, Renaissance, I, 413.

2260 Ibid., 410.

2261 Burckhardt, 175, 432, 445.

2262 Symonds, Renaissance, I, 101.

2263 Creighton, Essays, 344.

2264 Symonds, Renaissance, III, 453-455.

2265 Müntz, Leonardo da Vinci, I, 12.

2266 Cartwright, Isabella d'Este, I, 145.

2267 Geiger, Renaissance, 318.

2268 Opdyke, trans. of Castiglione, Courtier, 398.

2269 Lannau-Rolland, Michel Ange et Vittoria Colonna, Chap. VI.

2270 Heyck, Die Mediceer, 70; Symonds, Renaissance, I, 37.

2271 Gregorovious, Lucretia Borgia, 27.

2272 Gauthiez, Lorenzaccio, 65.

2273 Burckhardt, Renaissance, 455.

2274 Ibid., 441.

2275 Ibid., 442.

2276 Gregorovius, Lucretia Borgia, 96.

2277 Symonds, Renaissance, III, 425.

2278 Renaissance, I, 118.

2279 Burckhardt, 335, 338.

LIST OF BOOKS CITED

Full titles of all books cited are given below in the alphabetical order of the authors' names or of the leading word of the title. Numbers after the title are the pages in the present volume on which the book is cited or used as an authority.