Nicholas of Cusa ??

Nikolaus von Kues (Nicolaus Cusanus/Nicolaus de Cusa) lived in the pre-Renaissance period.

Nearly all his texts are published in critical reviews with the originals. The sources were collected in the Acta Cusana (volume II is nearly finished).

He is known as a philosopher, as a theologian he really was just a semi-important prince of the church. What he did can be seen as a cross-section of the many-sided facets of the late medieval church.

Here in Germany, he is considered to be the first German humanist (or one of the first) and a modern thinkers of interreligious dialogue, who spoke out against the forcibly proselytizing of Jews and Muslims.

Thanks. Does anybody view him as having made any sort of a breakthrough or as having achieved any sort of a new insight as to the nature of God, the nature of the universe itself, or of man's relationship to either the universe or to God?

The one thing I notice, starting from a position of total ignorance on the topic, is that there were three things going on in this guy's lifetime which somebody aspiring to anything more than semi-major status within the Catholic church might have wanted to get involved with, which would be the trial of Joan of Arc, Martin Luther, and the fall of Constantinople.

Representation in the so-called Neubauer's Chronicle for 1451
The papal cardinal legate Nicholas of Cusa ordered the marking of Jewish through signs on their clothes. ('Yellow rings' for males, 'blue strips' for females' "that they will be recognised by it")



Anno 1451 Jar haben die Juden angefangen, die gelben Ringlein an den Kleidern zu tragen und die Weiber die blaben Stramen auf den Schlaren, das man sie darbey kendt.

Source: city archive Nuremberg, F 1 Nr. 42

Interesting, again thanks. Aside from any ethical problems that might entail, that sort of thing would take time and energy away from more major problems...

Jeanne d'Arc was alreafy years dead when he still tried to collect one parish after the other to enlarge his benefices.
Since he did such in pure Catholic regions, Luther wasn't any topic.
Constantinople ... "De pace Fidei", he wrote a lot that different religions shouldn't fight. Since, however, the church's opinion wasn't following his ideas (same as before with the Jews), he wrote harder about non-Catholic religions.