Nicholas of Cusa

(Redirected from Nikolaus Cusanus) German cardinal and philosopher (1401–1464) "Cusa" and "Cusanus" redirect here. For the lunar crater, see Cusanus (crater). For other uses, see CUSA (disambiguation).

His EminenceNicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa, by Master of the Life of the Virgin
Born	1401 Kues, Electorate of Trier, Holy Roman Empire
Died	11 August 1464 Todi, Umbria, Papal States
Other names	Doctor Christianus, Nikolaus Cryfftz, Nicholas of Kues, Nicolaus Cusanus
Alma mater	Heidelberg University University of Padua

Era	Medieval philosophy Renaissance philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Christian Neoplatonism Renaissance humanism Christian humanism
Main interests	Christian theology Christian mysticism Humanism Mathematics
Notable ideas	Learned ignorance, coincidence of opposites


Bishop of Brixen
Church	Catholic Church
In office	1450–1464
Other post(s)	Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli
Orders
Ordination	1436
Consecration	26 April 1450 by Pope Nicholas V
Created cardinal	20 December 1448 by Pope Nicholas V

Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (/kjuːˈseɪnəs/), was a German Catholic bishop and polymath active as a philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renaissance humanism, he made spiritual and political contributions to European culture. A notable example of this is his mystical or spiritual writings on "learned ignorance," as well as his participation in power struggles between Rome and the German states of the Holy Roman Empire.

As papal legate to Germany from 1446, he was appointed cardinal for his merits by Pope Nicholas V in 1448 and Prince-Bishop of Brixen two years later. In 1459, he became vicar general in the Papal States.

Nicholas has remained an influential figure. In 2001, the sixth centennial of his birth was celebrated on four continents and commemorated by publications on his life and work.

Life

Nicholas was born in Kues (Latinized as "Cusa") in southwestern Germany. He was the second of four children of Johan Krebs (or Cryfftz) and Katherina Roemer. His father was "a prosperous boat owner and ferryman." Nicholas entered the Faculty of Arts of the Heidelberg University in 1416 as "a cleric of the Diocese of Trier," studying the liberal arts. He seemed to have left Heidelberg soon afterwards, as he received his doctorate in canon law from the University of Padua in 1423. In Padua, he met the later cardinals Julian Cesarini and Domenico Capranica and became friends with the mathematician Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli. Afterwards, he entered the University of Cologne in 1425 as "a doctor of canon law," which he appears to have both taught and practiced there. In Cologne, he made friends with the scholastic theologian Heymeric de Campo.

Following a brief period in Cologne, Nicholas returned to his hometown and became secretary to Otto of Ziegenhain, the Prince-Archbishop of Trier. Otto appointed him canon and dean at the stift of Saint Florinus in Koblenz affiliated with numerous prebends. In 1427 he was sent to Rome as an episcopal delegate. The next year he travelled to Paris to study the writings of Ramon Llull. At the same time he rejected a calling by the newly established University of Leuven. He acquired great knowledge in the research of ancient and medieval manuscripts as well as in textual criticism and the examination of primary sources. In 1433 he identified the Donation of Constantine as a fake, confirmed by Lorenzo Valla a few years later, and revealed the forgery of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. He made friends with the Austrian astronomer Georg von Peuerbach and advocated a reform of the Julian calendar and the Easter computus, which, however, was not realized until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582.

After the Archbishop Otto of Trier had died in 1430, Pope Martin V appointed the Speyer bishop Raban of Helmstatt his successor. Nevertheless, the Electorate was contested by opposing parties, and in 1432 Nicholas attended the Council of Basel representing the Cologne dean Ulrich von Manderscheid, one of the claimants, who hoped to prevail against the new Pope Eugene IV. Nicholas stressed the determining influence of the cathedral chapter and its given right to participate in the succession policy, which even places the pope under an obligation to seek a consent. His efforts were to no avail in regard to Ulrich's ambitions; however, Nicholas's pleadings earned him a great reputation as an intermediary and diplomat. While present at the council, he wrote his first work, De concordantia catholica (The Catholic Concordance), a synthesis of ideas on church and empire balancing hierarchy with consent. This work remained useful to critics of the papacy long after Nicholas left Basel.

Initially as conciliarist, Nicholas approached his university friend Cardinal Julian Cesarini, who had tried to reconcile pope and council, combining reform and hierarchic order. Nicholas supported transfer of the council to Italy to meet with the Greeks, who needed aid against the Ottoman Turks. He arbitrated in the conflict with the Hussites. Between the summer of 1437 and early 1438 he was a member of the delegation sent to Constantinople with the pope's approval to bring back the Byzantine emperor and his representatives to the papally summoned Council of Florence of 1439, which was attempting to bring the Eastern Orthodox Church into union with the Western Catholic Church. The reunion achieved at this conference turned out to be very brief. Nicholas would later claim (in the postfaced dedicatory letter of On Learned Ignorance, which Nicholas finished writing on 12 February 1440) that he had chosen to write on this metaphysical topic because of a shipboard experience of divine illumination while on the ship returning from this mission to Constantinople.

After a successful career as a papal envoy, he was made a cardinal by Pope Nicholas V in 1448 or 1449. In 1450 he was both named Bishop of Brixen, in Tyrol, and commissioned as a papal legate to the German lands to spread the message of reform. In 1444, the White Tower of Brixen caught fire and in 1459 he commissioned its reconstruction in a Gothic style. This latter role, his 'Great Legation' of 1450–1452, involved travel of almost 3000 miles, preaching, teaching and reforming. He became known as the "Hercules of the Eugenian cause." His local councils enacted reforms, many of which were not successful. Pope Nicholas canceled some of Nicholas's decrees, and the effort to discourage pilgrimages to venerate the bleeding hosts of Wilsnack (the so-called Holy Blood of Wilsnack) was unsuccessful. His work as bishop between 1452 and 1458 – trying to impose reforms and reclaim lost diocesan revenues – was opposed by Duke Sigismund of Austria. The duke imprisoned Nicholas in 1460, for which Pope Pius II excommunicated Sigismund and laid an interdict on his lands. Nicholas returned to Rome, but was never able to return to his bishopric.

He died at Todi in Umbria on 11 August 1464. Sigismund's capitulation came a few days after Nicholas's death.

Upon his death, Nicholas's body was interred in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, probably near the relic of Peter's chains; but it was later lost. His monument, with a sculpted image of the cardinal, remains. Two other tombstones, one medieval and one modern, also are found in the church. In accordance with his wishes, his heart rests within the chapel altar at the Cusanusstift in Kues. To this charitable institution that he had founded he bequeathed his entire inheritance; it still stands, and serves the purpose Nicholas intended for it, as a home for the aged. The Cusanusstift also houses many of his manuscripts.

Philosophy

Nicholas's De Docta Ignorantia ('Of Learned Ignorance') is an epistemological and metaphysical treatise. He maintains the finite human mind cannot fully know the divine, infinite mind ('the Maximum'). Nonetheless, he holds that the human intellect can become aware of its limitations in knowing God and thus attain "learned ignorance". His theory shows the influence of neoplatonism and negative theology, and he frequently cites Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.

Nicholas was noted for his deeply mystical writings about Christianity. He wrote of the enfolding of creation in God and their unfolding in creation. He was suspected by some of holding pantheistic beliefs, but his writings were never accused of being heretical. Nicholas also wrote in De coniecturis about using conjectures or surmises to rise to better understanding of the truth. The individual might rise above mere reason to the vision of the intellect, but the same person might fall back from such vision.

Theologically, Nicholas anticipated the implications of Reformed teaching on the harrowing of Hell (Sermon on Psalm 30:11), followed by Pico della Mirandola, who similarly explained the descensus in terms of Christ's agony.

Science and mathematics

Most of Nicholas's mathematical ideas can be found in his essays, De Docta Ignorantia (Of Learned Ignorance), De Visione Dei (On the Vision of God) and De coniecturis (On Conjectures). He also wrote on squaring the circle in his mathematical treatises.

Mathematics plays a key role for Cusanus in orienting the human mind towards God. Mathematical figures provide a means for the mind to consider how figures may be deformed and transformed, and thus prepares the mind to reach the "coincidence of opposites" in the "Absolutely maximal Being".

From the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913 edition):

The astronomical views of the cardinal are scattered through his philosophical treatises. They evince complete independence of traditional doctrines, though they are based on symbolism of numbers, on combinations of letters, and on abstract speculations rather than observation. The earth is a star like other stars, is not the centre of the universe, is not at rest, nor are its poles fixed. The celestial bodies are not strictly spherical, nor are their orbits circular. The difference between theory and appearance is explained by relative motion. Had Copernicus been aware of these assertions he would probably have been encouraged by them to publish his own monumental work.

Like Nicole Oresme, Nicholas also wrote about the possibility of the plurality of worlds.

Norman Moore tells us in The Fitz-Patrick Lectures of 1905:

In medicine he introduced an improvement which in an altered form has continued in use to this day. This improvement was the counting of the pulse which up to his time had been felt and discussed in many ways but never counted. ...Nicholas of Cusa proposed to compare the rate of pulses by weighing the quantity of water run out of a water clock while the pulse beat one hundred times. ...The manufacture of watches with second-hands has since given us a simpler method of counting, but the merit of introducing this useful kind of observation into clinical medicine belongs to Nicholas of Cusa.

Politics

In 1433, Nicholas proposed reform of the Holy Roman Empire and a method to elect Holy Roman Emperors. Although it was not adopted by the Church, his method was essentially the same one known today as the Borda count, which is used in many academic institutions, competitions, and even some political jurisdictions, in original form and a number of variations. His proposal preceded Borda's work by over three centuries.

Nicholas's opinions on the Empire, which he hoped to reform and strengthen, were cited against papal claims of temporal power in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Protestant writers were happy to cite a cardinal against Rome's assertions. Protestants, however, found his writings against the Hussites wrong. Nicholas seemed to Protestants to give the church too much power to interpret Scripture, instead of treating it as self-interpreting and self-sufficient for salvation, the principle of sola scriptura.

Nicholas's own thought on the church changed with his departure from Basel. He tried arguing that the Basel assembly lacked the consent of the church throughout the world, especially the princes. Then he tried arguing that the church was unfolded from Peter (explicatio Petri). This allowed him to support the pope without abandoning ideas of reform. Thus, he was able to propose to Pius II reform of the church, beginning with the pope himself. Then it was to spread through the Roman curia and outward throughout Christendom.

Nicholas noted that government was founded on the consent of the governed:

Accordingly, since by nature all men are free, any authority by which subjects are prevented from doing evil and their freedom is restrained to doing good through fear from penalties, comes solely from harmony and from the consent of the subjects, whether the authority reside in written law or in the living law which is in the ruler. For if by nature men are equally strong and equally free, the true and settled power of one over the others, the ruler having equal natural power, could be set up only by the choice and consent of the others, just as a law also is set up by consent.

Other religions

Shortly after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, Nicholas wrote De pace fidei, On the Peace of Faith. This visionary work imagined a summit meeting in Heaven of representatives of all nations and religions. Islam and the Hussite movement in Bohemia are represented. The conference agrees that there can be una religio in varietate rituum, a single faith manifested in different rites, as manifested in the eastern and western rites of the Catholic Church. The dialog presupposes the greater accuracy of Christianity but gives respect to other religions. Nicholas's position was for Europeans not to retake Constantinople but simply to trade with the Ottomans and allow them their conquests. Less irenic but not virulent, is his Cribratio Alchorani, Sifting the Koran, a detailed review of the Koran in Latin translation. While the arguments for the superiority of Christianity are still shown in this book, it also credits Judaism and Islam with sharing in the truth at least partially.

Influence

Nicholas was widely read, and his works were published in the sixteenth century in both Paris and Basel. Sixteenth-century French scholars, including Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples and Charles de Bovelles, cited him. Lefèvre even edited the Paris 1514 Opera. Nonetheless, there was no Cusan school, and his works were largely unknown until the nineteenth century, though Giordano Bruno quoted him, while some thinkers, like Gottfried Leibniz, were thought to have been influenced by him. Neo-Kantian scholars began studying Nicholas in the nineteenth century, and new editions were begun by the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften in the 1930s and published by Felix Meiner Verlag. In the early twentieth century, he was hailed by Ernst Cassirer as the "first modern thinker," and much debate since then has centered around the question whether he should be seen as essentially a medieval or Renaissance figure. What is more, Cassirer presented Cusanus as the main focal point (einfachen Brennpunkt) of Italian Renaissance philosophy. Eminent scholars like Eugenio Garin and Paul Oskar Kristeller challenged Cassirer’s thesis, and went so far as to practically deny any considerable link between Nicholas of Cusa and Marsilio Ficino or Giovanni Pico. In the following decades, new hypotheses on the relationship between Cusanus and Italian humanists appeared, more balanced and focused on the sources.

Societies and centers dedicated to Nicholas can be found in Argentina, Japan, Germany, Italy and the United States. His well-known quote about the infinity of the universe is found paraphrased in the Central Holy Book of the Thelemites, The Book of the Law, which was "received" from the Angel Aiwass by Aleister Crowley in Cairo in April 1904: "In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found."

Works

Nicholas wrote a large number of works, which include:

De auctoritate praesidendi in concilio generali (1434), a proposal for resolving the question of presidency over the deliberations of the Council of Basil.
De concordantia catholica (The Catholic Concordance) (1434), a synthesis of ideas on church and empire balancing hierarchy with consent.
Reparatio kalendarii (1434/5), a plan for reforming the church's calendar.
De Docta ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance) (1440).
De coniecturis (On Conjectures) (1441-2)
Dialogus concludens Amedistarum errorem (1441), an ecclesiological explanation of his papal advocacy.
De Deo abscondito (On the Hidden God) (1444/5)
De quaerendo Deum (On Seeking God) (1445)
De date patris luminum (On the Gift of the Father of Lights (1445/6)
De transmutationibus geometricis
De arithmetricis complementis (1445)
De filiatione Dei (On Divine Sonship)
De genesi (On Genesis)
Apologia doctae ignorantiae (The Defense of Learned Ignorance) (1449), a response to charges of heresy and pantheism by the Heidelberg scholastic theologian John Wenck in a work entitled De ignota litteratura (On Unknown Learning).
Idiota de mente (The Layman on Mind) (1450). This is formed of four dialogues: De Sapientia I-II, De Mente III, and De staticis experimentis IV.
De visione Dei (On the Vision of God) (1453), completed at the request of the monks of the Benedictine abbey at Tegernsee.
De pace fidei (1453), written in response to the news of the fall of Constantinople to the Turks.
De theologicis complementis, in which he pursued his continuing fascination with theological applications of mathematical models.
De mathematicis complementis (1453)
Caesarea circuli quadratura (1457)
Excitationum ex sermonibus (1457)
De beryllo (On the Beryl) (1458), a brief epistemological treatise using a beryl or transparent stone as the crucial analogy.
De aequalitate (1459)
De principio (1459)
Reformatio generalis, (1459) a treatise on the general reform of the church, written at the request of Pope Pius II, but generally ignored by the Pope and cardinals.
De possest (1460)
Cribratio Alkorani, a Christocentric evaluation of the Koran written at the request of Pope Pius II, based on the twelfth-century translation of Robert of Ketton.
De non aliud (On the Not-Other) (1462)
De venatione sapientiae (1462)
De ludo globi (1463)
Compendium (1463)
De apice theoriae (On the Summit of Contemplation) (1464), his last work.

Modern editions

Opera omnia, ed. E Hoffmann et al., (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1932–2006)
Acta Cusana, ed Erich Muethen and Hermann Hallauer, (1976–)
On Learned Ignorance, tr. J Hopkins, (Minneapolis, MN: Banning, 1985)
Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa's Dialectical Mysticism: Text, Translation, and Interpretive Study of De Visione Dei , (Minneapolis, MN: Banning, 1985)
Dialectical Mysticism, tr. J Hopkins, (Minneapolis, MN: Banning, 1988)
De auctoritate praesidendi in concilio generali, tr. HL Bond et al., Church History 59, (1990), 19-34
De concordantia catholica (The Catholic Concordance), tr. P Sigmund, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, (Cambridge: CUP, 1991)
A Miscellany on Nicholas of Cusa, tr. J Hopkins, (Minneapolis, MN: Banning, 1994)
On Wisdom and Knowledge, tr. J Hopkins, (Minneapolis, MN: Banning, 1996)
Metaphysical Speculations, tr. J Hopkins, 2 vols, (Minneapolis, MN: Banning, 1997–2000)
Bond, H. Lawrence (ed.), Nicholas of Cusa: Selected Spiritual Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, (New York: Paulist Press, 1997). ISBN 0-8091-3698-8
Hopkins, Jasper (ed.), Complete philosophical and theological treatises of Nicholas of Cusa, 2 vols., (Minneapolis: AJ Banning Press, 2001)
Izbicki, Thomas M., ed., Nicholas of Cusa, Writings on Church and Reform, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).

References

^ Fiamma, Andrea (June 2017). "Nicholas of Cusa and the So-called Cologne School of the 13th and 14th Centuries". Archives d'Histoire littéraire et doctrinale du Moyen Âge, LXXXIV. 84 (1). Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin: 91–128. doi:10.3917/ahdlm.084.0091. ISBN 978-2-7116-2815-5. ISSN 2109-9529.
^ Nikolaus Cardinal von Cusa
Izbicki, Thomas M. (Spring 2007). "Cusanus: The Legacy of Learned Ignorance". Renaissance Quarterly.
Donald F. Duclow, "Life and Works", in Christopher M. Bellitto, Thomas M. Izbicki, Gerald Christianson (Eds.), Introducing Nicholas of Cusa, A Guide to a Renaissance Man, Paulist Press, 2004, p25
Donald F. Duclow, "Life and Works", in Christopher M. Bellitto, Thomas M. Izbicki, Gerald Christianson (Eds.), Introducing Nicholas of Cusa, A Guide to a Renaissance Man, Paulist Press, 2004, pp. 25-56 at pp. 26-29.
Paul E. Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa and Medieval Political Thought, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
Duclow, "Life and Works," pp. 29-38.
Duclow, "Life and Works," pp. 38-48.
Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa's Debate with John Wenck: A Translation and an Appraisal of De Ignota Litteratura and Apologia Doctae Ignorantiae , 3rd ed., (Minneapolis, MN: Banning, 1988).
Hagen, J. (1911). "Nicholas of Cusa". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
Dick, Steven J. Plurality of Worlds: The Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant. Cambridge University Press (June 29, 1984). pgs 35-42.
"Medieval & Renaissance Astronomy", Australia Telescope National Facility. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. Retrieved from http://www.atnf.csiro.au/outreach/education/senior/cosmicengine/renaissanceastro.html on March 14, 2014.
Moore, Norman, M.D. (1905). "The Fitz-Patrick Lectures for 1905". The Lancet, Vol.2, Part 2, p.1525 (Oct-Dec, 1905). J. Onwhyn. Retrieved 3 May 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Gunter Hagele and Friedrich Pukelsheim, "The electoral systems of Nicholas of Cusa in the Catholic Concordance and beyond," in The Church, the Councils, & Reform: The Legacy of the Fifteenth Century, ed. Gerald Christianson, Thomas M. Izbicki and Christopher M. Bellitto, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2008, pp. 229-249.
Thomas M. Izbicki, "'Their Cardinal Cusanus': Nicholas of Cusa in Tudor and Stuart polemics," in Izbicki, Reform, Ecclesiology, and the Christian Life in the Late Middle Ages, Aldershott: Variorum, 2008, IX, pp. 1-30.
Izbicki, "The Church," in Introducing Nicholas of Cusa, pp. 113-140.
Morimichi Watanabe and Thomas M. Izbicki, “Nicholas of Cusa: A General Reform of the Church,” in Nicholas of Cusa on Christ and the Church: Essays in Memory of Chandler McCuskey Brooks for the American Cusanus Society, ed. Gerald Christianson and Thomas M. Izbicki (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996), pp. 175-202.
De concordantia catholica II xiv
George Holland Sabine (1937) A History of Political Theory, p 319, Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Thomas P. McTighe, "Nicholas of Cusa's Unity-Metaphysics and the Formula Religio una in rituum varietate", in Gerald Christianson and Thomas M. Izbicki (edd.), Nicholas of Cusa in Search of God and Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Morimichi Watanabe by the American Cusanus Society, ed. Gerald Christianson and Thomas M. Izbicki (Leiden: Brill, 1991), pp. 161-172.
Jasper Hopkins, “The Role of Pia Interpretatio in Nicholas of Cusa’s Hermeneutical Approach to the Koran,” in Gregorio Piaia ed., Concordia discors: Studi su Niccolò Cusano e l’umanesimo europeo offerti a Giovanni Santinello Padua: Antenore, 1993, pp. 251-273.
The Prefatory Epistles of Jacques Lefévre D'Etaples and Related Texts, ed. Eugene F. Rice, New York: Columbia University Press, 1972; P. M. Sanders, "Charles de Bovelle's Treatise on Regular Polyhedra," Annals of Science 41 (1984): 513-566.
Leo Catana, "The Meaning of contractio in Giordano Bruno's Sigillus sigillorum." In Giordano Bruno: Philosopher of the Renaissance, ed. Hilary Gatti, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2002, pp. 327-341; Thomas P. McTighe, "Nicholas of Cusa and Leibniz's Principle of Indiscernibility," The Modern Schoolman 42 (1964): 33-46.
Morimichi Watanabe, "The origins of modern Cusanus research in Germany and the establishment of the Heidelberg Opera Omnia," in Nicholas of Cusa: In Search of God and Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Morimichi Watanabe by the American Cusanus Society, ed. Gerald Christianson and Thomas M. Izbicki (Leiden: Brill, 1991), pp. 17-42.
Ernst Cassirer, Individuum und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance, (1927).
Eugenio Garin, "Cusano e i platonici italiani del Quattrocento." In Niccolò da Cusa: Atti del Convegno Interuniversitario di Bressanone nel 1960, ed. G. Flores D’Arcais, Florence: Sansoni, 1962, pp. 75-96; Paul Oskar Kristller, "Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and his sources." In L’opera e il pensiero di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola nella storia dell’ umanesimo. Convegno internazionale Mirandola 15-18 settembre 1963. Vol. I, Florence, Sansoni, 1965, p. 66.
Kurt Flasch, "Nikolaus von Kues und Pico della Mirandola," Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Gesellschaft 14 (1980): 113-120; Bastitta Harriet, Francisco (2021). "Coincidentia philosophorum. La unidad de la verdad y la pluralidad de las filosofías en Nicolás de Cusa y Giovanni Pico". In Nicolás de Cusa: Unidad en la Pluralidad. Homenaje a Jorge Mario Machetta, vol. I, ed. Claudia D’Amico, Gianluca Cuozzo and Nadia Russano. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UBA. pp. 147–187. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
English translation in De concordantia catholica (The Catholic Concordance), tr. P Sigmund, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, (Cambridge: CUP, 1991).
^ English translation in Bond, H. Lawrence (ed.), Nicholas of Cusa: Selected Spiritual Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, (New York: Paulist Press, 1997).
^ Bernard McGinn, The Harvest of Mysticism, (2005), p435.

External links

Works by or about Nicholas of Cusa at the Internet Archive
Works by or about Nicolaus Cusanus at the Internet Archive
Works by Nicholas of Cusa at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
The Vision of God Free audio in English
Cusanus University
Bernkastel-Kues tribute to Nikolaus von Kues
MacTutor biography, focusing on mathematical achievements
A biography of Nicholas of Cusa
Chronological list of the works of Nicholas of Cusa
History of Modern Philosophy: From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time Richard Falckenberg 1893
Catholic Encyclopedia article on Nicholas of Cusa
Website of the Cusanusstift (in German)
American Cusanus Society
Cusanus-Portal (DFG-Project by the Institut für Cusanus-Forschung and the Center for Digital Humanities at the university of Trier with a digitized version of the Opera Omnia, the critical edition of the Latin texts from Nicholas of Cusa, published by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, with the English translations of Jasper Hopkins, several German translations, a German encyclopedia and an international bibliography)
Jasper Hopkins, Ph.D. has produced English translations with some commentary of much of Nicholas's work. PDF versions are available at this site.
Cusa's Peace of Faith
Literature by and about Nicholas of Cusa in the German National Library catalogue
Works by and about Nicholas of Cusa in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library)
"Nicholas of Cusa". Repertorium "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages" (Geschichtsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters).
Rolf Schönberger (ed.): Nicolaus Cusanus. In: Alcuin. Infothek der Scholastik (Regensburg).

Catholic Church titles
Preceded byJohann Röttel	Bishop of Brixen 1450–1464	Succeeded byGeorg Golser

v t e History of Catholic theology
Key figures
General	History of the Catholic Church Timeline History of the papacy Papal primacy Ecumenical councils Catholic Bible Vulgate Biblical canon History of Christian theology
Early Church	Paul Clement of Rome First Epistle of Clement Didache Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp Epistle of Barnabas The Shepherd of Hermas Aristides of Athens Justin Martyr Epistle to Diognetus Irenaeus Montanism Tertullian Origen Antipope Novatian Cyprian
Constantine to Pope Gregory I	Eusebius Athanasius of Alexandria Arianism Pelagianism Nestorianism Monophysitism Ephrem the Syrian Hilary of Poitiers Cyril of Jerusalem Basil of Caesarea Gregory of Nazianzus Gregory of Nyssa Ambrose John Chrysostom Jerome Augustine of Hippo John Cassian Orosius Cyril of Alexandria Peter Chrysologus Pope Leo I Boethius Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Pope Gregory I
Early Middle Ages	Isidore of Seville John Climacus Maximus the Confessor Monothelitism Ecthesis Bede John of Damascus Iconoclasm Transubstantiation dispute Predestination disputes Paulinus II of Aquileia Alcuin Benedict of Aniane Rabanus Maurus Paschasius Radbertus John Scotus Eriugena
High Middle Ages	Roscellinus Gregory of Narek Berengar of Tours Peter Damian Anselm of Canterbury Joachim of Fiore Peter Abelard Decretum Gratiani Bernard of Clairvaux Peter Lombard Anselm of Laon Hildegard of Bingen Hugh of Saint Victor Dominic de Guzmán Robert Grosseteste Francis of Assisi Anthony of Padua Beatrice of Nazareth Bonaventure Albertus Magnus Boetius of Dacia Henry of Ghent Thomas Aquinas Siger of Brabant Thomism Roger Bacon
Mysticism and reforms	Ramon Llull Duns Scotus Dante Alighieri William of Ockham Richard Rolle John of Ruusbroec Catherine of Siena Bridget of Sweden Meister Eckhart Johannes Tauler Walter Hilton The Cloud of Unknowing Heinrich Seuse Geert Groote Devotio Moderna Julian of Norwich Thomas à Kempis Nicholas of Cusa Marsilio Ficino Girolamo Savonarola Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Reformation Counter-Reformation	Erasmus Thomas Cajetan Thomas More John Fisher Johann Eck Francisco de Vitoria Thomas of Villanova Ignatius of Loyola Francisco de Osuna John of Ávila Francis Xavier Teresa of Ávila Luis de León John of the Cross Peter Canisius Luis de Molina (Molinism) Robert Bellarmine Francisco Suárez Lawrence of Brindisi Francis de Sales
Baroque period to French Revolution	Tommaso Campanella Pierre de Bérulle Pierre Gassendi René Descartes Mary of Jesus of Ágreda António Vieira Jean-Jacques Olier Louis Thomassin Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet François Fénelon Cornelius Jansen (Jansenism) Blaise Pascal Nicolas Malebranche Giambattista Vico Alphonsus Liguori Louis de Montfort Maria Gaetana Agnesi Alfonso Muzzarelli Johann Michael Sailer Clement Mary Hofbauer Bruno Lanteri
19th century	Joseph Görres Félicité de La Mennais Luigi Taparelli Antonio Rosmini Ignaz von Döllinger John Henry Newman Henri Lacordaire Jaime Balmes Gaetano Sanseverino Giovanni Maria Cornoldi Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler Giuseppe Pecci Joseph Hergenröther Tommaso Maria Zigliara Matthias Joseph Scheeben Émile Boutroux Modernism Neo-scholasticism Léon Bloy Désiré-Joseph Mercier Friedrich von Hügel Vladimir Solovyov Marie-Joseph Lagrange George Tyrrell Maurice Blondel Thérèse of Lisieux
20th century	G. K. Chesterton Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange Joseph Maréchal Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Jacques Maritain Étienne Gilson Ronald Knox Georges Bernanos Dietrich von Hildebrand Gabriel Marcel Marie-Dominique Chenu Romano Guardini Edith Stein Fulton Sheen Henri de Lubac Dorothy Day Henri Daniel-Rops Jean Guitton Josemaría Escrivá Nouvelle théologie Karl Rahner Yves Congar Bernard Lonergan Emmanuel Mounier Jean Daniélou Hans Urs von Balthasar Marcel Lefebvre Frederick Copleston Alfred Delp Edward Schillebeeckx Thomas Merton René Girard Hans Küng Johann Baptist Metz Jean Vanier Henri Nouwen
21st century	Pope John Paul II Alice von Hildebrand Carlo Maria Martini Pope Benedict XVI Gustavo Gutiérrez Alasdair MacIntyre Walter Kasper Raniero Cantalamessa Michał Heller Peter Kreeft Jean-Luc Marion Tomáš Halík Aidan Nichols Scott Hahn
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Catholic philosophy

Ethics

Schools

Medieval	Augustinianism Scholasticism Thomism Scotism Occamism
Modern	Salamanca Christian humanism Cartesianism Molinism Neo-scholasticism Analytical Thomism
Universals	Augustinian realism Nominalism Conceptualism Moderate realism Scotistic realism
Other	Theological intellectualism Theological voluntarism Foundationalism

Philosophers

Concepts

Medieval philosophers

Christian

Early	"Church Fathers" Augustine of Hippo Boethius Cassiodorus Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Isidore of Seville John Scotus Eriugena Alcuin
11–12th century	"Scholasticism" Anselm of Canterbury Peter Abelard Anselm of Laon Hugh of Saint Victor Richard of Saint Victor Roscelin Peter Lombard Alexander of Hales Bernard of Chartres Dominicus Gundissalinus Gilbert de la Porrée Alain de Lille
13–14th century	Robert Grosseteste Michael Scot Albertus Magnus Henry of Ghent Roger Bacon Bonaventure Thomas Aquinas Vitello John Peckham Ramon Llull Siger of Brabant Boetius of Dacia Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt Meister Eckhart Giles of Rome Godfrey of Fontaines Duns Scotus Durandus Petrus Aureolus William of Ockham
Late	Jean Buridan Marsilius of Inghen Nicole Oresme Albert of Saxony Francesc Eiximenis Nicholas of Cusa Vincent Ferrer Paul of Venice Lambertus de Monte John Hennon

Jewish

Medieval	Isaac Israeli ben Solomon Saadia Gaon Solomon ibn Gabirol Judah Halevi Abraham ibn Daud Maimonides Nachmanides Gersonides Hasdai Crescas Joseph Albo

Islamic

Early	Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) al-Nazzam Al-Kindi (Alkindus) Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes) Ikhwan al-Safa' (Brethren of Purity) Matta ibn Yunus Al-Farabi (Alpharabius) Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani Ibn Masarra Abd al-Jabbar Al-Amiri Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani Miskawayh Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) al-Biruni al-Kirmani
High	Ibn Sina (Avicenna) Ibn Hazm Al-Ghazali (Algazel) Abu l-Barakat al-Baghdadi Ibn Bajjah (Avempace) Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani Ibn Tufayl Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
Late	Ibn Sab'in Shahab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi Fakhr al-Din al-Razi Rashid al-Din Ibn Arabi al-Qazwini Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi Athir al-Din al-Abhari Nasir al-Din al-Tusi Ibn al-Nafis Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi Ibn Taymiyya Ibn Khaldun

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