15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
When Dante argued that church and state should be separate ensured that the humanists who succeeded him felt free to concentrate on the secular world. He also made it clear that involvement in the secular was not incompatible with their hopes of future salvation. The ideas of Dante not only influenced Renaissance thinkers but also some of the leaders of the Reformation. The exiled Florentine helped to change the discourse on the role of religion in Europe.<ref>Fortin, p 119</ref>
Dante was a forerunner of the humanist movement because he argued that this life had value and that the individual while a part of the community was significant and had a right to self-expression and even happiness. The poet was also an original political and religious thinker and he argued for the then dangerous idea of a separation of church and state. This persuaded many humanists to adopt a more secular approach that was such a feature of civic humanism. However, it should be noted that Dante still had a medieval outlook and he would have disapproved of some of the aspects of the Renaissance in the 15-16th century. Regardless, Dante can be considered because of his immense contributions to one of the founders of the Renaissance.
====Further Reading====