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CUSANUS, NICOLAUS (NICHOLAS OF CUSA) ...
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See also:CUSANUS, NICOLAUS (See also:NICHOLAS OF CUSA) (1401–1464) , See also:cardinal, theologian and See also:scholar, was the son of a poor fisherman named Krypffs or Krebs, and derived the name by which he is known from the See also:place of his See also:birth, Kues or Cusa, on the Moselle, in the archbishopric of See also:Trier (Treves). In his youth he was employed in the service of See also:Count See also:Ulrich of Manderscheid, who, seeing in him See also:evidence of exceptional ability, sent him to study at the school of the See also:Brothers of the See also:Common See also:Life at See also:Deventer, and afterwards at the university of See also:Padua, where he took his See also:doctor's degree in See also:law in his twenty-third See also:year. Failing in his first See also:case he abandoned the legal profession, and resolved to take See also:holy orders. After filling several subordinate offices he became See also:archdeacon of See also:Liege. He was a member of the See also:council of See also:Basel, and dedicated to the assembled fathers a See also:work entitled De concordantia Catholica, in which he maintained the superiority of See also:councils over popes, and assailed the genuineness of the False See also:Decretals and the Donation of See also:Constantine. A few years later, however, he had reversed his position, and zealously defended the supremacy of the See also:pope. He was entrusted with various See also:missions in the interests of See also:Catholic unity, the most important being to See also:Constantinople, to endeavour to bring about a See also:union of the Eastern and Western churches. From 1440 to 1447 he was in See also:Germany, acting as papal See also:legate at the diets of 1441, 1442, 1445 and 1446. In 1448, in recognition of his services, Nicholas V. raised him to the cardinalate; and in 1450 he was appointed See also:bishop of See also:Brixen against the wish of See also:Sigismund, See also:archduke of See also:Austria, who opposed the reforms the new bishop sought to introduce into the See also:diocese. In 1451 he was sent to Germany and the See also:Netherlands to check ecclesiastical abuses and bring back the monastic life to the See also:original See also:rule of poverty, chastity and obedience—a See also:mission which he discharged with well-tempered firmness. Soon afterwards his dispute with the See also:arch-See also:duke Sigismund in his own diocese was brought to a point by his claiming certain dues of the bishopric, which the temporal See also:prince had appropriated. Upon this the bishop was imprisoned by the archduke, who, in his turn, was excommunicated by the pope, These extreme See also:measures were not persisted in; but the dispute remained unsettled at the See also:time of the bishop's See also:death, which occurred at See also:Lodi in See also:Umbria on the th of See also:August 1464. In 1459 he had acted as See also:governor of'See also:Rome during the See also:absence of his friend Pope See also:Pius II. at the See also:assembly of princes at See also:Milan; and he wrote his Crebratio Alcorani, a See also:treatise against Mahommedanism, in support of the expedition against the See also:Turks proposed at that assembly. Some time before his death he had founded a See also:hospital in his native place for See also:thirty-three poor persons, the number being that of the years of the earthly life of See also:Christ. To this institution he See also:left his valuable library. Although one of the See also:great leaders in the reform See also:movement of the 15th See also:century, Nicholas of Cusa's See also:interest for later times lies in his philosophical much more than in his See also:political or ecclesiastical activity. As in See also:religion he is entitled to be called one of the " Reformers before the See also:Reformation," so in See also:philosophy he was one of those who See also:broke with See also:scholasticism while it was still the orthodox See also:system. In his See also:principal work, De docta ignorantia (1440), supplemented by De conjecturis libri duo published in the same year, he maintains that all human knowledge is See also:mere conjecture, and that See also:man's See also:wisdom is to recognize his See also:ignorance. From See also:scepticism he escapes by accepting the See also:doctrine of the mystics that See also:God can be apprehended by See also:intuition (intuitio, speculatio), an exalted See also:state of the See also:intellect in which all limitations disappear. God is the See also:absolute maximum and also the absolute minimum, who can be neither greater nor less than He is, and who comprehends all that is or that can be (" deum esse omnia, ut non possit esse aliud quam est "). Cusanus thus laid himself open to the See also:charge of See also:pantheism, which did not fail to be brought against him in his own See also:day. His See also:chief philosophical doctrine was taken up and See also:developed more than a See also:hundred years later by See also:Giordano See also:Bruno, who calls him the divine Cusanus. In mathematical and See also:physical See also:science Cusanus was much in advance of his See also:age. In a See also:tract, Reparatio Calendarii, presented to the council of Basel, he proposed the reform of the See also:calendar after a method resembling that adopted by See also:Gregory. In his De Quadratura Circuli he professed to have solved the problem; and in his Conjectura de novissimis diebus he prophesied that the See also:world would come to an end in 1734. Most noteworthy, however, in this connexion is the fact that he anticipated See also:Copernicus by maintaining the theory of the rotation of the See also:earth. The See also:works of Cusanus were published in a See also:complete See also:form by See also:Henri See also:Petrie (1 vol. fol., Basel, 1565). See F. A. Scharpff's Der Kardinal and Bischof Nikolaus von Cusa als Ref ormator in Kirche, Reich, and Philos. See also:des 15. Jahrhund. (See also:Tubingen, 1871); J. M. See also:Dux, Der deutsche Kard. Nicolaus von Cusa and See also:die Kirche seiner Zeit (See also:Regensburg, 1848) ; R. Falckenberg, Grundziige d. Philos. d. Nikolaus Cusanus (See also:Breslau, 188o) and Aufgabe and Wesen d. Erkenntniss bei Nikolaus von Kues (Breslau, 1880) ; T. See also:Stumpf, Die politischen Ideen des Nikolaus von Cues (See also:Cologne, 1865) ; M. Glossner, Nikolaus von Cusa and See also:Marius Nizolius als Vorldufer der neueren Philosophie (See also:Munster, 1891); F. Fiorentino, Il Risorgimento filosofico nel quattro See also:cento (See also:Naples, 1885) ; Axel Herrlin, Studier i Nicolaus of Cues' Filosofi (See also:Lund, 1892) ; H. See also:Hoffding, Hist. of Mod. Phil. (Eng. trans., 1900), bk. i. See also:chap. x.; F. J. Clemens, Giordano Bruno and Nikolaus Cusanus (See also:Bonn, 1847) ; R. See also:Zimmermann, Der Card. Nikolaus Cusanus als Vorlaufer Leibnitzens (See also:Vienna, 1852) ; J. Ubinger, Philosophie des Nikolaus Cusanus (See also:Wurzburg, 1881); See also:art. by R. Schmid in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk. s.v. " Cusanus "; see also See also:MYSTICISM. 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