Nicholas of Cusa

German cardinal, philosopher, and administrator, b. at Cues on the Moselle, in

the Archdiocese of Trier, 1400 or 1401; d. at Todi, in Umbria, 11 August, 1464.

His father, Johann Cryfts (Krebs), a wealthy boatman (nauta, not a "poor

fisherman"), died in 1450 or 1451, and his mother, Catharina Roemers, in 1427.

The legend that Nicholas fled from the ill-treatment of his father to Count Ulrich of

Mandersheid is doubtfully reported by Hartzheim (Vita N. de Cusa, Trier, 1730),

and has never been proved. Of his early education in a school of Deventer nothing

is known; but in 1416 he was matriculated in the University of Heidelberg, by

Rector Nicholas of Bettenberg, as "Nicholaus Cancer de Coesze, cler[icus]

Trever[ensis] dioc[esis]". A year later, 1417, he left for Padua, where he

graduated, in 1423, as doctor in canon law (decretorum doctor) under the

celebrated Giuliano Cesarini. It is said that in later years, he was honoured with

the doctorate in civil law by the University of Bologna. At Padua he became the

friend of Paolo Toscanelli, afterwards a celebrated physician and scientist. He

studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and, in later years, Arabic, though, as his friend

Johannes Andreæ, Bishop of Aleria, testifies, and as appears from the style of

his writings, he was not a lover of rhetoric and poetry. That the loss of a lawsuit

at Mainz should have decided his choice of the clerical state, is not supported by

his previous career. Aided by the Archbishop of Trier, he matriculated in the

University of Cologne, for divinity, under the rectorship of Petrus von Weiler, in

1425. His identity with the "Nicolaus Trevirensis", who is mentioned as secretary

to Cardinal Orsini, and papal legate for Germany in 1426, is not certain. After

1428, benefices at Coblenz, Oberwesel, Münstermaifeld, Dypurgh, St. Wendel,

and Liège fell to his lot, successively or simultaneously.

His public career began in 1421, at the Council of Basle, which opened under the

presidency of his former teacher, Giuliano Cesarini. The cause of Count Ulrich of

Manderscheid, which he defended, was lost and the transactions with the

Bohemians, in which the represented the German nation, proved fruitless. His

main efforts at the council were for the reform of the calendar and for the unity,

political and religious, of all Christendom. In 1437 the orthodox minority sent him

to Eugene IV, whom he strongly supported. The pope entrusted him with a

mission to Constantinople, where, in the course of two months, besides

discovering Greek manuscripts of St. Basil and St. John Damascene, he gained

over for the Council of Florence, the emperor, the patriarch, and twenty-eight

archbishops. After reporting the result of his missions to the pope at Ferrara, in

1438, he was created papal legate to support the cause of Eugene IV. He did so

before the Diets of Mainz (1441), Frankfort (1442), Nuremberg (1444), again of

Frankfort (1446), and even at the court of Charles VII of France, with such force

that Æneas Sylvius called him the Hercules of the Eugenians. As a reward

Eugene IV nominated him cardinal; but Nicholas declined the dignity. It needed a

command of the next pope, Nicholas V, to bring him to Rome for the acceptance

of this honour. In 1449 he was proclaimed cardinal-priest of the title of St. Peter

ad Vincula.

His new dignity was fraught with labours and crosses. The Diocese of Brixen, the

see of which was vacant, needed a reformer. The Cardinal of Cusa was appointed

(1450), but, owing to the opposition of the chapter and of Sigmund, Duke of

Austria and Count of the Tyrol, could not take possession of the see until two

years later. In the meantime the cardinal was sent by Nicholas V, as papal

legate, to Northern Germany and the Netherlands. He was to preach the Jubilee

indulgence and to promote the crusade against the Turks; to visit, reform, and

correct parishes, monasteries, hospitals; to endeavour to reunite the Hussites

with the Church; to end the dissnesions between the Duke of Cleve and the

Archbishop of Cologne; and to treat with the Duke of Burgundy with a view to

peace between England and France. He crossed the Brenner in January, 1451,

held a provincial synod at Salzburg, visited Vienna, Munich, Ratisbon, and

Nuremberg, held a diocesan synod at Bamberg, presided over the provincial

chapter of the Benedictines at Würzburg, and reformed the monasteries in the

Dioceses of Erfurt, Thuringia, Magdeburg, Hildesheim, and Minden. Through the

Netherlands he was accompanied by his friend Denys the Carthusian. In 1452 he

concluded his visitations by holding a provincial synod at Cologne. Everywhere,

according to Abbot Trithemius, he had appeared as an angel of light and peace,

but it was not to be so in his own diocese. The troubles began with the Poor

Clares of Brixen and the Benedictine nuns of Sonnenburg, who needed

reformation, but were shielded by Duke Sigmund. The cardinal had to take refuge

in the stronghold of Andraz, at Buchenstein, and finally, by special authority

received from Pius II, pronounced an interdict upon the Countship of the Tyrol. In

1460 the duke made him prisoner at Burneck and extorted from him a treaty

unfavourable to the bishopric. Nicholas fled to Pope Pius II, who

excommunicated the duke and laid an interdict upon the diocese, to be enforced

by the Archbishop of Salzburg. But the duke, himself an immoral man, and,

further, instigated by the antipapal humanist Heimburg, defied the pope and

appealed to a general council. It needed the strong influence of the emperor,

Frederick III, to make him finally (1464) submit to the Church. This took place

some days after the cardinal's death. The account of the twelve years' struggle

given by Jäger and, after him, by Prantl, is unfair to the "foreign reformer" (see

Pastor, op. cit. infra, II). The cardinal, who had accompanied Pius II to the

Venetian fleet at Ancona, was sent by the pope to Leghorn to hasten the

Genoese crusaders, but on the way succumbed to an illness, the result of his

ill-treatment at the hands of Sigmund, from which he had never fully recovered.

He died at Todi, in the presence of his friends, the physician Toscanelli and

Bishop Johannes Andreæ.

The body of Nicholas of Cusa rests in his own titular church in Rome, beneath an

effigy of him sculptured in relief, but his heart is deposited before the altar in the

hospital of Cues. This hospital was the cardinal's own foundation. By mutual

agreement with his sister Clare and his brother John, his entire inheritance was

made the basis of the foundation, and by the cardinal's last will his altar service,

manuscript library, and scientific instruments were bequeathed to it. The

extensive buildings with chapel, cloister, and refectory, which were erected in

1451-56, stand to this day, and serve their original purpose of a home for

thirty-three old men, in honour of the thirty-three years of Christ's earthly life.

Another foundation of the cardinal was a residence at Deventer, called the Bursa

Cusana, where twenty poor clerical students were to be supported. Among

bequests, a sum of 260 ducats was left to S. Maria dell' Anima in Rome, for an

infirmary. In the archives of this institution is found the original document of the

cardinal's last will.

The writings of Cardinal Nicholas may be classified under four heads: (1) juridical

writings: "De concordantia catholica" and "De auctoritate præsidendi in concilio

generali" (1432-35), both written on occasion of the Council of Basle. The

superiority of the general councils over the pope is maintained; though, when the

majority of the assembly drew from these writings startling conclusions

unfavourable to Pope Eugene, the author seems to have changed his views, as

appears from his action after 1437. The political reforms proposed were skilfully

utilized by Görres in 1814. (2) In his philosophical writings, composed after 1439,

he set aside the definition and methods of the "Aristotelean Sect" and replaced

them by deep speculations and mystical forms of his own. The best known is his

first treatise, "De docta ignorantia" (1439- 40), on the finite and the infinite. The

Theory of Knowledge is critically examined in the treatise "De conjecturis"

(1440-44) and especially in the "Compendium" (1464). In his Cosmology he calls

the Creator the Possest (posse-est, the possible- actual), alluding to the

argument: God is possible, therefore actual. His microcosmos in created things

has some similarity with the "monads" and the "emanation" of Leibniz. (3) The

theological treatises are dogmatic, ascetic, and mystic. "De cribratione

alchorani" (1460) was occasioned by his visit to Constantinople, and was written

for the conversion of the Mohammedans. For the faithful were written: "De

quærendo Deum" (1445), "De filiatione Dei" (1445), "De visione Dei" (1453),

"Excitationum libri X" (1431-64), and others. The favourite subject of his mystical

speculations was the Trinity. His concept of God has been much disputed, and

has even been called pantheistic. The context of his writings proves, however,

that they are all strictly Christian. Scharpff calls his theology a Thomas à Kempis

in philosophical language. (4) The scientific writings consist of a dozen treatises,

mostly short, of which the "Reparatio Calendarii" (1436), with a correctgion of the

Alphonsine Tables, is the most important. (For an account of its contents and its

results, see LILIUS, ALOISIUS.) The shorter mathematical treatises are examined

in Kästner's "History of Mathematics", II. Among them is a claim for the exact

quadrature of the circle, which was refuted by Regiomontanus [see MÜLLER

(REGIOMONTANUS), JOHANN ]. 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.

The collected editions of Nicholas of Cusa's works are: Incunabula (before 1476)

in 2 vols., incomplete; Paris (1514) in 3 vols.; Basle (1565), in 3 vols.

DÜX, Der deutsche Kardinal Nikolaus von Cusa und die Kirche seiner Zeit (Ratisbon, 1847);

CLEMENS, Giordano Bruno u. Nikolaus von Cusa (Bonn, 1847); ZIMMERMANN, Der Kardinal N. C.

als Vorläufer Leibnizens in Sitzungsber. Phil. Kl., VIII (Vienna, 1852); JÄGER, Der Streit des

Kardinals N. v. C. (Innsbruck, 1861); HEFELE, Conciliengeschichte, VII (Freiburg, 1869);

SCHARPFF, Der Kardinal u. Bischof N. v. C. (Tübingen, 1871); GRUBE in Hist. Jahrb. d.

Görres-Gesellschaft, I (1880), Die Legationsreise ; UEBINGER, Philosophie d. N. C. (Würzburg,

1880), dissert.; IDEM, in Hist. Jahrb. d. Görres-Ges., VIII (1887), Kardinallegat N. v. C.; IDEM, ibid.,

XIV (1893), Zur Lebensgesch. des N. C.; IDEM, Die Gotteslehre des N. C. (Münster and Paderborn,

1888); BIRK in Theol. Quartalschr., LXXIV (Tübingen, 1892); JANSSEN, Geschichte des deutschen

Volkes, I (Freiburg, 1897), 3-6, tr. CHRISTIE (London and St. Louis, 1908); PASTOR, Geschichte

der Päpste, II (Freiburg, 1904), tr. ANTROBUS (St. Louis, 1902); MARX, Verzeichniss der Handschr.

des Hospitals zu Cues (Trier, 1905); IDEM, Geschichte des Armen-Hospitale … zu Cues (Trier,

1907); VALOIS, Le Crise religieuse du XVe siècle (Paris, 1909).

J.G. Hagen

Transcribed by W.G. Kofron

With thanks to Fr. John Hilkert and St. Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XI

Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org