Sage and Saint: Christian tradition in the Żywotach filozofów by Marcin Bielski

Abstract

The article focuses upon the relation between the realities of faith and reason. The author presents the image of a Christian Stoic, which is typical of Renaissance literature, and goes on to analyze “Żywoty filozofów” [“Lives of the Philosophers”] by Marcin Bielski to describe the structure and specific features of this kind of book on the history of philosophy at the beginning of the 16th century. Referring to medieval tradition (John of Wales, Walter Burleigh), the article shows how the Polish author used it to create the model of a pious sage, distinguished by his love of intellectual, moral and evangelical virtues. The article also refers to two later works, “Wizerunek własny” [“The True Image of the Life of the Honest Man”] by Mikołaj Rej (1558) and “Dyjalog mięsopustny” [“The Dialogue for the Last Days before the Lent”] (c. 1622), which document the continuity of the medieval tradtion of depicting a Christian philosopher.