Curated playlist
Christian humanists
- John MiltonJohn Milton sold Paradise Lost for five pounds. The blind poet handed it to a publisher in April 1667.
- Pope FrancisPope Francis stepped onto the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica in March 2013 and greeted the crowd with one plain Italian word, "Buonasera", which means good evening. Moments later he described himself as a pope who had come almost from…
- John WesleyJohn Wesley thought saving souls outside a church was almost a sin. In 1739 he preached in a brickyard anyway.
- Thomas MoreThomas More taught his daughters Greek when almost no one did. He also approved burning heretics.
- John WycliffeIn 1428, church officials dug up John Wycliffe's remains and burned them. They threw the ashes into the River Swift.
- Aleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr Solzhenitsyn watched Moscow's victory fireworks from a prison cell. He was a decorated Red Army captain.
- ErasmusErasmus, born to a priest and orphaned by plague, became the most read author of his age.
- Leon Battista AlbertiAt twenty, Leon Battista Alberti wrote a comedy that fooled a famous printer.
- PetrarchPetrarch climbed Mont Ventoux in 1336, then closed his book angry at himself for admiring the view.
- Huldrych ZwingliTwo smoked sausages shared in a Zurich printer's workshop in 1522 started the Swiss Reformation.
- Michel de MontaigneMichel de Montaigne was raised speaking Latin before French. His father made every servant address him only in Latin.
- William TyndaleWilliam Tyndale's last words asked God to open the King of England's eyes.
- Blaise PascalBlaise Pascal rediscovered geometry on a tile floor as a boy. His father had tried to keep math from him.
- Søren KierkegaardSøren Kierkegaard invited a satirical newspaper to attack him, and it did.
- Lorenzo VallaLorenzo Valla, a priest, proved a famous papal land grant was a fraud. He used grammar and history.
- Giovanni Pico della MirandolaAt 23, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola offered to pay any scholar's way to Rome to debate his 900 theses.