John Colet and Hubris

Just over five hundred years ago, in 1509, Henry VIII became King of England and it was because of him that Protestantism was introduced into England.  In that same year, John Colet, son of the Lord Mayor of London introduced stoicism into the St Paul’s school that he founded, which became a paradigm for the other elite Public schools and then the Grammar Schools. John Colet was introduced to stoicism whilst glorying in the triumph of the Renaissance in his grand tour in Italy.
While the Credo of the Catholic Church begins with “I believe in God,” the Credo of the Renaissance begins with “I believe in man.” The men he was going to form in his new school were going to be renaissance men who believed in themselves.  They were taught how to take control of themselves and make themselves into the modern equivalent of the ancient classical heroes whom they were inspired to emulate – namely, perfect English gentlemen. Instead of sandals and the toga, in came pinstripes and the bowler. Sadly they were set on the wrong path; they were set on the way to hubris, that is if they succeeded in doing what the greatest of the ancient Stoics, Seneca, said was impossible – making themselves perfect. Such supermen only appear in comics, never in real life. The right way is not to enter into ourselves to take control but to   read on....