Nicholas of Cusa

(1401–64)

   Cardinal and Philosopher.

   Nicholas was born in Kues, Germany and was educated in Heidelberg, Prague and Cologne. He attended the Council of Basle and was created a Cardinal in 1448. As Bishop of Brisen, he served as papal legate throughout Germany and he worked tirelessly for the reform of abuses. His efforts, however, were opposed by Duke Sigismund of Austria and he was forced to flee to Rome. He was supported throughout by the Pope and he died as Camerarius of the Sacred College in Rome. He is remembered for his De Docta Ignorantia, in which he argued that truth is unknowable. Only in God are all contradictions resolved and it is through intuition (docta ignorantia) that God can be found. Among his other works were De Concordantia Catholica (a defence of the authority of Church Councils), De Coniecturis, De Quaerendo Deum, De Non Aliud and a final summary of his position, De Apice Theoriae. His writings were influenced by those of augustine, bonaventura, Pseudo-dionysius and Meister eckhart and, within the Western Church, he is regarded as a significant thinker.

   H. Bett, Nicholas of Cusa (1932);

   E.F. Jacob, ‘Nicholas of Cusa’, in F.J.C. Hearnshaw (ed.), The Social and Political Ideas of Some Great Thinkers of the Renaissance and Reformation (1925);

   P.E. Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa and Mediaeval Political Thought (1963).