SOURCE: "Valentin Andreae: Christianopolis," in Journey Through Utopia, 1950. Reprint by The Beacon Press, 1951, pp. 103-26.

Andreae's Christianopolis was published in 1619, only seventeen years after Campanella wrote his City of the Sun, yet it bears a much closer resemblance to the reformist utopias of the 19th century than to that of the Calabrian monk. Johann Valentin Andreae, the German scholar and humanist, has much in common with the cotton manufacturer and great reformer, Robert Owen, and it is perhaps for this reason that his ideal city seems more familiar than the unreal dreams of More and Campanella. Andreae does not write with the imagination and originality of a visionary; he discusses questions which he must have known intimately and for which he offers immediate solutions. And like most reformers he is not exempt from proselytism. His book is written in the form of a letter addressed to those who would wish to take refuge in his ideal city, and reads more like a recruiting tract than a story meant purely for edification or amusement.

Andreae was born in 1586; an extensive education and wide travels made him thoroughly acquainted with the thought and writings of the Renaissance. The revolution in knowledge had been accomplished; the Aristotelian method was vanquished but the task of replacing it by a new method of education was still to be completed. Andreae devoted most of his life to this work, and already, when he was at the University, he planned a reform of the educational system, and later published several pedagogical works which were received with great interest. As a teacher he was able to put some of his ideas into practice and produced the first plan for a well-regulated gymnasium.

His interests, however, spread outside education, to more general schemes of social reform, which again he tried to put into practice. Professor [Felix Emil] Held, whose translation of Christianopolis is prefaced by a very interesting study of Andreae's work and influence, tells us how, when Andreae became Dekan and Spezialsuperintendent at Calw on the Nagold, he tried to establish a social system such as he had described in Christianopolis: "He made his own congregation the starting point of his activities, and the children his material. Thence his efforts spread to the working classes in the city, whether in his church or not. He founded a mutual protective association among the workmen in the cloth-factories and dye-works, and supported it from voluntary subscriptions of his parishioners and friends."

It is probably thanks to Andreae's direct experience in social reforms that his utopia has a concreteness that is absent from those which inspired him. His scheme of education, carefully described in Christianopolis, had a great influence on Comenius, who acknowledged himself a pupil of Andreae, and on English writers such as Hartlib, Drury, Milton and others, who were similarly interested in educational reform. He also influenced Samuel Gott, whose utopia, Nova Solyma, closely resembles Andreae's. The book did not, however, achieve the fame of More's or Campanella's works; a German translation did not appear until 1741 and it was not translated into English until 1916. Little did Robert Boyle who, in a letter to Samuel Hartlib written in 1647, expressed the wish that an English version might be made of Christianopolis, suspect that it would only appear three hundred years later, and in New York.

The neglect of this work might be attributed partly to the troubled times in which it appeared and partly to its style, but a further contributory cause may well have been the accusation of some writers that it was merely a copy of More's Utopia and Campanella's City of the Sun. Andreae was acquainted with both works, and his ideal city bears many resemblances to that of Campanella. But these are mostly superficial, and his scheme of education, which occupies the greater part of the book, is entirely original. Contrary to the previous utopias, the influence of Greek writers hardly makes itself felt in Andreae. On the other hand, the influence of the mediaeval city is very strong. The conception of brotherhood, the respect for Craftsmanship, the attitude towards work and trade, the importance given to the craft and the family, all remind us of the guilds which had been so flourishing in the German towns of the Middle Ages.

There is also a completely new influence in Andreae's ideal commonwealth, that of the city of Geneva, which he had visited during his youth and which had made a very strong impression on him. He had been filled with admiration by the high moral standard of the Genevan people and he says, in his autobiography: "If differences in religion had not restrained me, the harmonious unityof their customs and morals would have bound me to the place for ever."

Andreae did not subscribe to the teachings of Calvin but wholeheartedly supported the severity of morals he had introduced in Geneva, and he would have liked to see a new reformation in the Lutheran Church carried out in the spirit of Iron Calvin. Another passage from his Vita showed how much he owed to his visit to Geneva:

"When I was in Geneva, I made a notable discovery, the remembrance of which and longing for which will die only with my life. Not alone is there in existence an absolutely free commonwealth, but as an object of pride a censorship of morals in accordance with which investigations are made each week into the morals and even into the slightest transgressions of the citizens—first by the supervisors of the wards, then by the aldermen, and finally by the magistrate, according as the case demands. As a result, all cursing, gambling, luxury, quarrelling, hatred, conceit, deceit, extravagance, and the like, to say nothing of greater sins, are prevented. What a glorious adornment—such purity of morals, for the Christian religion! With our bitterest tears we must lament that this is lacking and almost entirely neglected with us; and all right-minded men must exert themselves to see that such is called back to life."

We shall see later how another Utopian, the unfrocked monk, Gabriel de Foigny, was to fare in the city which aroused such admiration in Andreae. This "free commonwealth," in which "investigations are made each week into the morals of the citizens," must have already been somewhat bleak at the time of Andreae's visit. The means by which "purity of morals" was achieved in Geneva give us an idea of what Andreae's utopia might have been like, had it not remained in the imagination of its author. In 1562, an historian tells us, twelve men were burnt alive for witchcraft, a woman was drowned in the Rhone for having committed adultery, and a bourgeois of Geneva was condemned to death for the same offence. A certain Jacques Chapellaz, who confessed that he had cursed God and said that he had eaten the devil but could not swallow his horns, and who had already been punished for a previous similar offence, was condemned to have his tongue cut out.

If the spirit of the Renaissance makes itself strongly felt in Andreae's views concerning education, it is the mentality of the religious reformers which guides his moral outlook. The freedom of the inhabitants of Christianopolis, like that of the inhabitants of Geneva, does not include the right to ignore God. Calvin's ordinances of the year 1609 and 1617 made it compulsory for all inhabitants of Geneva to attend sermons regularly and we find the same compulsion in Andreae's ideal city. The censorship of books is also there, as well as the house inspectors; adultery is severely punished; and though the German reformer has some very humane things to say about the death penalty and the wickedness of men who punish rather than reform, his statement that crimes against God are to be punished more severely than any other has an ominous sound.

One would feel more attracted to Christianopolis if Andreae's religious principles had allowed him more understanding for human feelings, and if man's nature were allowed to express itself without being suspected of falling, at every moment, into the snares of Satan. But we are reminded at every other line of the wickedness of man. "Everyone," Andreae warns us, "carries with him domestic, rustic, or even paternal and inborn evil and wickedness, and communicates these to his comrades, with so poisonous a contagion that it spares not even those who ought to be consecrated entirely to God, but winds its way with varying wickedness, deceit, and rudeness, and takes possession of them so entirely that they cannot throw it off throughout their whole lives, and among the most honourable offices…."

In order to keep Satan away Andreae accompanies his descriptions of the manners and customs of the inhabitants of Christianopolis with long sermons, of which one can truly say that "to have read one is to have read them all." There are few subjects which do not provide him with an opportunity to preach and in his godly city even dishes are seasoned with pious thoughts. These exhortations take so much space in the book that one may be forgiven for quoting one of them on Andreae's favourite theme of "light." Street lighting offers him an admirable excuse and, after stating very briefly that the inhabitants of Christianopolis "do not allow the night to be dark, but brighten it up with lighted lanterns, the object being to provide for the safety of the city and to put a stop to useless wandering about, but also to render the night watches less unpleasant," he continues with this long tirade on the symbolic significance of light:

They would strive in this way to resist the dark kingdom of Satan and his questionable pastimes; and they wish to remind themselves of the everlasting light. What Antichrist expects from the great number of wax candles, let him see for himself; but let us not shrink back from any system which lessens the fear of a man working at night in the darkness, and which removes the veil which our flesh is so anxious to draw over license and dissoluteness … Oh, if we would but turn more to light, there would not be such an opportunity for every sort of meanness, nor such great number of swindlers! Would that the light of our hearts were burning more frequently, and that we would not so often endeavour to deceive the all-seeing eye of God! Now that the darkness serves as excuse for the world and opens it for all sorts of baseness, while it spreads blindness over those things of which it is ashamed, what will be the situation when at the return of Christ, the Sun, every fog will be dispelled and the World's corruptness which it guards with so many covers, shall appear, when the wantonness of the heart, the hypocrisy of the lips, the deceitful deeds of the hands and its much other filth shall be a disgrace to itself and a mockery to the blessed?

The whole personality of Andreae seems to be expressed in this passage. His goodness and consideration for his fellow men, as well as his practical sense, asked that the city should be lighted to provide for safety and to render night watches less tiresome, but his moral and religious feelings made him go beyond these practical considerations. Throughout his utopia one feels that his love of men inclined him to trust them as sensible beings capable of going about their lives in a reliable and honest way, but his religion told him that man is wicked and has to be carefully guided, preached to and, if necessary, threatened, to be kept away from sin. That is why his ideal city is a curious combination of free guilds and religious tyranny, of personal responsibility and of complete submission to religion.

It would be perhaps more exact to describe Christianopolis as an ideal community than as an ideal commonwealth. Though the island on which it is situated is described as a world in miniature and the city contains all the elements of a state, Andreae did not conceive it as being inhabited by people who happened to be there but by those who have come together, through a community of ideals and principles. It appears, from Andreae's introduction to Christianopolis, that he had attempted to form a secret society for the purpose of carrying out the religious reform which stood so near to his heart. This Brüderschaft (generally described as a Rosicrucian brotherhood) was intended for a small élite and did not answer the desire of the people who wanted to find a haven of rest and safety in the midst of the horrors and confusion of the times. It was to fulfil their wish that the greater community of Christianopolis was described.

Whether this Rosicrucian brotherhood was purely a mythical organisation and whether we must believe Andreae's reasons for presenting the plan of an ideal city are matters for speculation. If we accept Andreae literally, Christianopolis was meant as a pattern for a community which could come into existence as soon as a sufficient number of people have gathered together for this purpose. This is how, two centuries later, Owen and Fourier were to conceive the formation of their ideal communities. Yet Andreae begins his narrative with a purely allegorical chapter which has led many to believe that his book was only a fable. Here is the passage, which does not lack poetical beauty:

While wandering as a stranger on the earth, suffering much in patience from tyranny, sophistry and hypocrisy, seeking a man, and not finding what I so anxiously sought, I decided to launch out once more upon the Academic Sea though the latter had very often been hurtful to me. And so ascending the good ship, Phantasy, I left the port together with many others and exposed my life and person to the thousand dangers that go with desire for knowledge. For a short space of time conditions favoured our voyage; then adverse storms of envy and calumny stirred up the Ethiopian Sea against us and removed all hope of calm weather. The efforts of the skipper and the oarsmen were exerted to the limit, our own stubborn love of life would not give up, and even the vessel resisted the rocks; but the force of the sea always proved stronger. Finally when all hope was lost and we, rather of necessity than on account of bravery of soul, had prepared to die, the ship collapsed and we sank. Some were swallowed up by the sea, some were scattered to great distances, while some who could swim or who found planks to float upon, were carried to different islands scattered throughout this sea. Very few escaped death, and I alone, without a single comrade, was at length driven to a very minute islet, a mere piece of turf, it seemed.

The traveller lands on the island, Caphar Salama, which was "rich in grain and pasture fields, watered with rivers and brooks, adorned with woods and vineyards, full of animals, just as if it were a whole world in miniature."

Before being admitted into the city the traveller is interrogated by three examiners. Andreae is the first to make the entrance to his utopia dependent on an examination, and we can be grateful that immigration officers nowadays are not as thorough as those of Christianopolis. The first examiner satisfies himself that the traveller is not a quack, or a beggar, or a stage player. The second investigates his moral character and temperament, and the third wants to know, amongst other things, what progress he has made "in the observation of the heavens and the earth, in the close examination of nature, in instruments of the arts, in the history and origin of languages, the harmony of all the world …" The traveller is not very well prepared for answering these questions, but as he brings "an unsullied slate, washed clean, as it were, by the sea itself," he is admitted into the city.

The city is small but compact, and built as a unit in which each section serves a specific function. It betrays that love of perfect symmetry which characterises the architecture of the Renaissance:

Its shape is a square, whose side is seven hundred feet, well fortified with four towers and a wall. It looks, therefore, toward the four quarters of the earth. … Of buildings there are two rows, or if you count the seat of government and the storestorehouses, four; there is only one public street, and only one market-place, but this one is of a very high order. If you measure the buildings, you will find from the innermost street, being twenty feet in width, the numbers increase by fives even up to one hundred. At this point there is a circular temple, a hundred feet in diameter…. All buildings are in three stories, and public balconies lead to these … All buildings are made of burnt stone and are separated by fireproof walls so that a fire could not do very severe damage … Things look much the same all around, not extravagant nor yet unclean; fresh air and ventilation are provided throughout. About four hundred citizens live here in religious faith and peace of the highest order. Outside the walls is a moat stocked with fish, that even in times of peace it may have its uses. The open and otherwise unused spaces contain wild animals, kept, however, not for purposes of entertainment but for practical use. The whole city is divided into three parts, one to supply food, one for drill and exercise, and one for books. The remainder of the island serves purposes of agriculture and for workshops.

The organisation of Christianopolis is not based on the patriarchal family as in Amaurot, or on the monastic community as in the City of the Sun. The city is divided into sections according to the work carried out in each of them. On the periphery we find those devoted to the production and storing of food, as well as that for heavy industry. The section of the corporation which faces east is the farm quarter; it is divided into two parts, agriculture proper on the one side, and animal husbandry on the other. The section which faces south is occupied by mills and bakeries, that which faces north by the meat shops and supply stores, and finally, the section on the west is given over to the forge.

Inside the city craftsmen are also divided into four sections: "For even as the city is four-cornered, so also the inhabitants deal with four materials: metals, stones, woods and the things that are needed for weaving; but with this difference, that the occupations which require more skill and innate ability are assigned to the inner square, while those which admit of more ease in working, to the outer or greater square."

This functional town-planning is being followed by our modern architects and has aroused the admiration of an authority on cities, Lewis Mumford: "… In planning the industrial quarters of Christianopolis, these seventeenth century utopians have anticipated the best practice that has been worked out to-day, after a century of disorderly building. The separation of the city into zones, the distinction between heavy industries and light industries, the grouping of similar industrial establishments, the provision of an agricultural zone adjacent to the city, in all this our garden cities are but belated reproductions of Christianopolis."

For all its modernism, however, Christianopolis is based, to a certain extent, on the mediaeval city which Kropotkin describes as being "usually divided into four quarters, or into five to seven sections radiating from the centre; each quarter corresponding to a certain trade or profession which prevailed in it, but nevertheless containing inhabitants of different social positions and occupations."

The local administration of the city is based on this division according to occupation. In the east section, that is the farm quarter, a tower dominates the buildings and under the dome of this tower "the citizens of that side of the town may come together, as often as the ordinances require, and act on sacred as well as on civil matters." Thus we see that the "guild" is based on the work performed and on the place where the worker lives.

The government is carried out by a triumvirate because, "though a monarchy has many advantages yet they prefer to preserve this dignity for Christ, and they distrust, not without cause, the self-control of human beings." The central part of the state is governed by eight men, each of whom lives in one of the larger towers and has under him eight other subordinates, distributed through the smaller towers. There are a further twenty-four councillors elected by the citizens. The members of the triumvirate, the officials and the councillors, owe their position not to their birth or wealth but to their higher virtues, their experience in public affairs, and the love and respect they inspire. The state is ruled by religion, and a double tablet, inscribed in letters of gold, sets down their confession of faith and the aims and rules of daily life, for these are "a people of Christ, whose religion agrees with that of the apostles and the state administration with the law of God."

In this Christian Republic there is no private property. Everyone receives whatever he needs from the community: "No one has any money, nor is there any use for any private money; yet the republic has its own treasury. And in this respect the inhabitants are especially blessed because no one can be superior to the other in the amount of riches owned, since the advantage is rather one of power and genius, and the highest respect, that of morals and piety."

Work occupies an honoured place in Christianopolis, and though Andreae echoes Campanella in abolishing slavery and condemning the injustice that working people should support idlers, he goes further by showing how even unpleasant work can cease to be a burden if it is carried out in an atmosphere of equality and freedom:

They have very few working hours, yet no less is accomplished than in other places as it is considered disgraceful by all that one should take more rest and leisure time than is allowed. Since in other places it is true that ten working men with difficulty support one idler, it will not be difficult to believe that with all these men working there is some time of leisure left for individuals. And yet they all together attend to their labours in such a way that they seem to benefit rather than harm their physical bodies. Where there is no slavery, there is nothing irksome in the human body which weighs down or weakens.

And elsewhere he attacks the prejudice attached to manual labour:

There are also public duties, to which all citizens have obligation, such as watching, guarding, harvesting of grain and wine, working roads, erecting buildings, draining ground, also certain duties of assisting in the factories, which are imposed on all in turn according to age and sex, but not very often nor for a long time. For even though certain experienced men are put in charge of all the duties, yet when men are asked for, no one refuses the state his services and strength. For what we are in our homes, they are in their city, which they not undeservedly think a home. And for this reason it is no disgrace to perform any public function, so long as it be not indecent. Hence all work, even that which seems rather irksome, is accomplished in good time and without much difficulty, since the promptness of the great number of workmen permits them easily to collect or distribute the greatest mass of things. Who does not believe, since we are willing, all of us, to rejoice in and enjoy privileges and conveniences of a community, that the care and the work are ordinarily imposed upon a few, while continual idleness and gluttony are made permissible to the many? On the contrary, who denies that every citizen, in his own place and order, owes his best efforts to the republic, not merely with his tongue but also with hands and shoulder? With an entirely mistaken sense of delicacy do the carnal-minded shrink from touching earth, water, stones, coal and things of that sort; but they think it grand to have in their possession to delight them, horses, dogs, harlots and similar creatures.

While More thought that some trades had a degrading effect on those who carried them out, Andreae says that in Christianopolis: "Men that have to do the heavy work do not become wild and rough, but remain kindly, the guards are not gluttons, but are temperate, not evil-smelling but cleanly washed … A district on the north is devoted to the slaughter houses … this part has no suggestion of the bestial about it. And yet in other places men become coarse from the daily custom of shedding blood, or the handling of meats, fats, hides, and the like."

He also shows that work is not a penance if it is accompanied by sufficient leisure: "While among us one is worn out by the fatigue of an effort, with them the powers are reinforced by a perfect balance of work and leisure so that they never approach a piece of work without alacrity."

Unlike Plato, he does not think that manual and intellectual work should be separated, but rather that each individual should engage in both:

… their artisans are almost entirely educated men. For that which other people think is the proper characteristic of a few (and yet, if you consider the stuffing of inexperience as learning, the characteristic of too many men already) this the inhabitants argue should be attained by all individuals. They say neither the subtleness of letters is such, nor yet the difficulty of work, that one man, if given enough, cannot master both.

His views on the application of science to industry are interesting. Science will not merely benefit production; it will also permit the workers to understand what they are doing and thereby increase their interest in their work:

In the section given over to the forge … on the one side are seven workshops fitted out for heating, hammering, welting, and moulding metals; while on the other side are seven others assigned to the buildings of those workmen who make salt, glass, brick, earthenware, and to all industries which require constant fire. Here in truth you see a testing of nature herself; everything that the earth contains in her bowels is subjected to the laws and instruments of science. The men are not driven to a work with which they are unfamiliar, like packanimals to their task, but they have been trained long before in an accurate knowledge of scientific matters, and find their delight in the inner parts of nature. If a person does not here listen to the reason and look into the most minute elements of the microcosm, they think that nothing has been proved. Unless you analyse matter by experiment, unless you improve the deficiencies of knowledge by more capable instruments, you are worthless…. Here one may welcome and listen to true and genuine chemistry, free and active; whereas in other places false chemistry steals upon and imposes on one behind one's back. For true chemistry is accustomed to examine the work, to assist with all sorts of tests, and to make use of experiments. Or, to be brief, here is practical science.

This is how, in Christianopolis, production is carried out for use instead of profit:

Their work, or as they prefer to hear it called, "the employment of their hands," is conducted in a certain prescribed way, and all the things made are brought into a public booth. From here every workman receives out of the store on hand, whatever is necessary for the work of the coming week. For the whole city is, as it were, one single workshop, but of all different sorts of crafts. The ones in charge of these duties are stationed in the smaller towers at the corners of the wall; they know ahead of time what is to be made, in what quantity, and of what form, and they inform the mechanics of these items. If the supply of material in the work booth is sufficient, the workmen are permitted to indulge and give play to their inventive genius.

If the inhabitants of Christianopolis are wise enough not to produce more than they can use they also guard themselves against unnecessary wants. The families, being small, do not need big houses, but live in small flats; they do not require servants except on rare occasions, and, being all equals, they do not wish to impress one another by unnecessary luxury:

Almost all the houses are built after one model; they are well kept and especially free from anything unclean. There are three rooms in the average house, a bathroom, a sleeping apartment, and a kitchen. And the latter two are generally separated by a board partition. The middle part within the towers has a little open space with a wide window, where wood and heavier things are raised aloft by pulleys … The houses are kept up at the expense of the state, and provision is made by the carefulness of inspectors that nothing is thoughtlessly destroyed or changed.

No one need be surprised at the rather cramped quarters; for their being only a very few persons, there is also need for only a very little furniture. Other people who house vanity, extravagance, and a family of that sort, and who keep up baggage of iniquity, can never live spaciously enough. They burden others and are burdened themselves, and no one measures their necessities, nay even their comforts, easily otherwise than by an unbearable and unmovable mass.

Now it will be easy to guess what the furnishings are. There are none except the most necessary, and even then scant…. There are the necessary dishes for the table and enough cooking utensils. For why should you want great numbers of things when all that you may reasonably desire can always be obtained at the public store-house?

They have only two suits of clothes, one for their work, one for the holidays, and for all classes they are made alike. Sex and age are shown by the form of the dress. The cloth is made of linen or wool respectively for summer or winter, and the colour for all is white or ashen grey, none have fancy, tailored goods.

Since grown children are brought up elsewhere, in most instances a family consists of four or five, less frequently six individuals, father, mother, and one or two children. Servingmen and servingwomen are a rare thing, nor very noticeable, except in the case of those attending the sick, those in confinement, or babies. The husband and wife perform together the ordinary duties of the home, and the rest is taken care of in the public workshop.

Contrary to most utopias, there are no common meals in Christianopolis, but this does not lead to inequalities, for a comprehensive rationing system is applied:

Their meals are private to all, but the food is obtained from the public storehouse. And because it is almost impossible to avoid unpleasantness and confusion when the number of those partaking of a meal is so great, they prefer that individuals shall eat together privately in their own homes. Even as the food is distributed according to the nature of the year, so also it is apportioned weekly according to the number of families. But provision of wine is made for a half year, or if conditions admit, of still longer period. They get their fresh meat from the meat shop, and they take away as much as is assigned to them. Fish, as also game, and all sorts of birds are distributed to them according to each one's proportion, the time and age being taken into consideration. There are ordinarily four dishes, and these after being carefully washed are prepared by the women, and are seasoned with wise and pious words. Whoever wishes to have a guest may do so, and the parties concerned, join their dishes accordingly, or if it be a foreigner, they ask from the public supplies that may be necessary.

In previous utopias one of the reasons for abolishing private meals was obviously to free the women for what were considered more worthy occupations such as, for example, military training. From Plato to Campanella, the utopian woman had been amazonian. Andreae gives her a purely feminine role, but he is not altogether Victorian. He would have women keep their place, and refuses them the "vote," but he provides girls with the same college education as boys:

The married women make use of the knowledge which they acquire while in college. For whatsoever human industry accomplishes by working with silk, wool, or flax, this is the material for woman's arts and is at her disposal. So they learn to sew, to spin, to embroider, to weave, and to decorate their work invarious ways. Tapestry is their handiwork, clothes their regular work, washing their duty. In addition to this they care for the house and the kitchen and have them clean. Whatever scholarship they have, being mentally gifted, they improve diligently, not only to know something themselves, but that they may sometimes also teach. In the church and in the council they have no voice, yet none the less do they mould the piety and morals, none the less do they shine with the gifts of heaven. God has denied this sex nothing, if it is pious, of which the eternally blessed Mary is a most glorious example. If we read the histories, we shall find that no virtue has been inaccessible to women, and there is none in which they have not excelled. However rarely do many of them comprehend the value of silence…. Women have no adornments except that mentioned by Peter; no dominion except over household matters; no permission to do servants' work (a thing that will surprise you), unless disease or some accident demands it. No woman is ashamed of her household duties, nor does she tire of attending to the wants of her husband. Likewise no husband of whatsoever employment thinks himself above honourable labours. For to be wise and to work are not incompatible if there is moderation.

His views on marriage are also much more conservative than those of earlier utopians. It is not carried out according to eugenic principles, but according to inclination, if this does not meet with the disapproval of the family and the state:

It is nowhere safer to get married than here. For as the unusualness of the dowry and the uncertainty of daily bread are lacking, it remains only that the value of virtues and sometimes of beauty be made. It is permitted a youth of twenty-four years to marry a girl not under eighteen, but not without the consent of the parents, consultation of the relatives, approbation of the laws, and benediction of God. There is with them the greatest reverence of relationship of blood. The factors considered in joining in marriage are for the most part conformity of natures and propriety; but also a thing that is elsewhere so rare, recommendation of piety. The greatest fault is considered to be impurity and the laws against such offenders are severe. But by removing opportunities they easily eliminate the sins. The marriages have almost no expense or noise; they do not at all expect worldly foolishness and senselessness … without any drunkenness, which usually initiates all sacred functions elsewhere, but not without a hymn and Christian congratulations, they are married. There is no dowry at all except the promises of Christ, the example of parents, the knowledge acquired by both, and the joy of peace. Furniture is provided together with the house out of the public store. In this summary fashion they render most safe and speedy, our cross, punishment, torment, purgatory, and however else we are accustomed to call inauspicious marriages.

The purpose of marriage is that of reproduction, and Andreae, unlike Campanella, does not admit of sexual relationships for pleasure alone:

They have the greatest desire for conjugal chastity, and they set a premium upon it, that they may not injure or weaken themselves by too frequent intercourse. To beget children is quite proper; but passion of licence is a disgrace. Others live together like beasts; yet even the cattle have characteristics which put such persons to shame, who might better with mutual love and mutual aid first care for heaven and later for things of the earth. So the citizens of Christianopolis believe that there may be to a certain extent fornication and pollution even in marriage. Oh, the carnal-minded who are not ashamed to make sin out of lawful as well as unlawful practices!

Religion is the keynote of education, as it is of marriage. Children are not brought up to become the soldiers of the state, but good Christians. As the family and the state are one with religion there is no need for segregating the children from their parents; as all citizens are equal, the system of education is the same for all children, boys and girls.

Ideas on education had made enormous progress during the Renaissance, and there had been, particularly in Italy, many academies and colleges where the sons and daughters of the aristocracy and of the wealthy received a thorough and liberal education. Andreae did not concern himself, however, with the education of a small, privileged minority, the sons of princes and rich merchants who could afford tutors or private schools. For this reason his education has none of the glamour of that received by the fortunate Thelemites, but it has the advantage of being accessible to all.

The great majority of the schools of his time had not been influenced to any great extent by the ideas of the Renaissance, and radical changes were needed not only in the methods of education, but also in the schools themselves and the teaching profession. Conditions at the time of Andreae were still the same as those Erasmus denounced with such vehemence in his Praise of Folly:

The Grammarians … being ever hunger-starv'd, and slovens in their Schools—Schools, did I say? Nay, rather Cloisters, Bridwells or Slaughterhouses—grown old among a company of boyes, deaf with their noise, and pin'd away with stench and nastiness. And yet by my courtesie it is that they think themselves the most excellent of all men; so greatly do they please themselves in frighting a company of fearful boyes, with a thundering voice and big looks, tormenting them with Ferules, Rods, and Whips; and, laying about 'em without fear or wit, imitate the Ass in the Lion's skin.

In Christianopolis the school is roomy and beautiful, "all is open, sunny, and happy, so that with the sight of pictures, even, they attract the children, fashion the minds of the boys and girls, and advise the youths. They are not baked in summer nor frozen in winter; they are not disturbed by noise nor frightened because of loneliness. Whatever is elsewhere given over to luxury and leisure of palaces, is here devoted to honourable recreation and pursuits, an investment that is nowhere more satisfactory or better paying."

Next to the appearance of the school, the greatest care must be given to the choice of masters:

Their instructors are not men from the dregs of human society nor such as are useless for other occupations, but the choice of all the citizens, persons whose standing in the republic is known and who very often have access to the highest positions in the state. The teachers who are well advanced in years and are specially remarkable for their pursuit of four virtues: dignity, integrity, activity and generosity, must spur their charges on as free agents with kindness, courteous treatment, and a liberal discipline rather than with threats, blows and like sternness.

All the children of both sexes are taken into training. When they have completed their sixth year, their parents give them over to the state. They eat and sleep at the school but parents "can visit their children, even unseen by them, as often as they have leisure." The living quarters are arranged with the same attention as the school itself to create "hygienic" conditions. "They see to it carefully that the food is appetising and wholesome, that the couches and beds are clean and comfortable, and that the clothes and attire of the whole body are clean. The pupils wash often and use linen towels for drying. The hair is also combed to prevent anything unclean from collecting. If diseases of the skin or body are contracted, the individuals in question are cared for in goodtime; and to avoid the spreading of infection, they are quarantined."

Education in Christianopolis is directed towards three aims and the first is, naturally, "to worship God with a pure and faithful soul"; the second, to strive toward the best and most chaste morals; the third, to cultivate the mental powers. It is clear that Andreae does not conceive of education as the acquisition of knowledge in the narrow sense we give it to-day. He is more concerned with forming the mind and personality of the child and with developing his faculties than with increasing the volume of his learning.

Boys and girls follow the same courses, though not simultaneously; the boys have their study periods in the morning, the girls in the afternoon. The rest of their time is devoted to manual training, domestic art and science. Matrons as well as learned men act as instructors.

The school is divided into eight halls, which correspond to the eight departments of education. The first is the school of arts, divided into three sections according to the age of the pupils. The youngest students begin with grammar and languages, and learn to name "all sorts of things and actions in three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin," but Andreae reassures us by saying that they are careful not to overload delicate and fragile creatures, and that liberal recreation is allowed.

The more mature students are taught oratory, that is, to refute all sorts of arguments in accordance with the rules of the art. Though they learn how to adorn their speeches "with little flowers of elegance," more stress is laid upon natural force than artificial form. Those who are old enough also learn modern languages "not merely for the sake of knowing more, but that they may be able to communicate with many peoples of the earth—the dead as well as the living, and that they may not be compelled to put faith in every supposed scholar." But the study of languages should not be valued beyond its uses; the important thing is what one has to say and that can be expressed just as well in one's native tongue: "If righteousness and honesty are at hand, it matters little in what tongue they are spoken, if they are absent, it is of no advantage whether one goes astray speaking Greek or Latin."

The students who have already made some progress enter the second department, where they attend lectures on logic, metaphysics and theosophy. Logic must be used as a means and not as an end in itself: "No skilled workman boasts of his sun-dial pin or his plumbline alone, unless there is something of his own work on hand to exhibit."

In their study of metaphysics and theosophy all concern for concrete things, for investigation and invention, is left behind and knowledge is acquired by "consulting the divine sun and ascending to the known God."

In the third hall we come back to the less esoteric sciences of arithmetic, geometry and algebra, which develop mental faculties and help to solve practical matters with remarkable diligence. Here is also taught the science of mystic numbers which played such an important role in the philosophy of the Renaissance. To the planners of the Renaissance it seemed impossible that God, the arch-planner, should not have organised the world according to harmonious rules and measurements. "Surely," says Andreae, "that supreme Architect did not make this mighty mechanism haphazard, but He completed it most wisely by measures, numbers, and proportions, and He added to it the elements of time, distinguished by a wonderful harmony." This admirable plan cannot be discovered with "compasses from human philosophy" but only through God's revelation, which is not always easy to detect. The same caution must be used in the divination of the future; Andreae does not deny the value of prophecies, but warns that "God has reserved the future for Himself, revealing it to a very limited number of individuals and then only at the greatest intervals."

To enter the fourth department, that of music, one must have a knowledge of arithmetic and geometry. Music in Christianopolis, he says, aspires to that of heaven and does not encourage "the madness of dancing, the frivolity of vulgar songs, the wickedness of roisters. All of these things have been long ago driven out of this republic and are now unheard." Their instruments, of which they have a great number and variety and which are skilfully used by practically everyone, are attuned to the instruments of God, and their chorus, which is also devoted only to solemn music, passes through the city once every week, in addition to the holidays.

The fifth department is devoted to astronomy and astrology, which are "deserving of humankind as any other art." It is unworthy of man "to look at the sky no more observantly than any beast," and those who do not know the value of astrology in human affairs, or foolishly deny it, should be condemned to dig in the earth, cultivate and work the fields, for as long a time as possible, in unfavourable weather! But astrology is far from playing here the capital role it plays in The City of the Sun. The inhabitants of Christianopolis say that it is an uncertain thing to make everything dependent on the stars "on the first moment of existence and birth, and from this moment to accept judgement of life or death. And so they emphasise rather this as to how they may rule the stars, and by faith shake off the yoke if any exists."

In the sixth hall are taught natural philosophy, secular and church history. The knowledge of the worlds and their creatures must be accompanied by that of the events of human tragedy. Andreae stresses the need for historical truth, but also warns against those who merely look on the wickedness of mankind, on the monstrous deeds, the hideousness of wars, the horrors of massacres, and ignore the germs of virtue, the dignity of the human soul, the abundance of peace and restful quiet. "There are scholars who are bold enough to be unacquainted with such facts and who rank them with fables; they are very worthy themselves to be told of in fable."

We have seen that the whole of Andreae's scheme of education is as much concerned with giving a moral education as with dispensing knowledge. In spite of this the seventh department is reserved to ethics, which includes the study of all human virtues not only in theory, but also in practice, as well as the art of government and Christian charity. The three qualities of man most valued are: equality, the desire for peace, and the contempt for riches.

The last school is devoted to theology, which teaches the "strength, elegance, efficacity, and depth" of the Holy Scriptures, and practical theology, which instructs them on how to pray and meditate. They have also a school of prophecy, not to give instruction in soothsaying, but to test those who have been favoured with the gift of prophesying, and to observe the harmony and truth of the prophetic spirit.

Besides the eight halls already described there are two rooms assigned to the study of medicine and two to jurisprudence. The study of the latter is purely academic, as there is no need for lawyers in Christianopolis. For some reason, however, lawyers and notaries have not disappeared, and Andreae informs us that, so that they may not be idle, if anything has to be copied it is entrusted to these men.

There is nothing surprising in the importance attached by Andreae to chemistry, natural sciences, anatomy, mathematics and astronomy; they were sciences that a man of the Renaissance would not dream of neglecting any more than a Greek would have left music or gymnastics out of a system of education. What is surprising, however, is the modern and rational attitude displayed in the method of teaching. His laboratories were not reserved for great savants like Bacon's House of Salomon; they were available to students, and if they were made as attractive as possible it was not for "show" but because "instruction enters altogether more easily through the eyes than through the ears, and much more pleasantly in the presence of refinement than among the base. They are deceived who think that it is impossible to teach except in dark caves and with gloomy brow."

Andreae is also the first to include the teaching of pictorial arts in his utopian scheme of education. The city has its studio, "a very roomy shop for pictorial art," and not merely are painting, drawing and sculpture used to decorate the city with beautiful and useful paintings and statues, but the teaching of art is encouraged, for, those who "practice with the brush, wherever they enter, bring along their experienced eyes, their hands adapted to imitation, and what is of greater importance, a judgement equal to and already trained for things, not unfruitful or mean." However, even when using a brush one may be caught in Satan's snares and the artists of Christianopolis "are seriously commanded to observe purity," so that they will not poison the eyes of the innocent with impure pictures.

Next to the work of educational reform, Andreae was interested in the formation of a "college" or society which would unite all men of learning and provide them with the necessary means to carry out their researches. Already in the Fama, published in 1614, and circularised in manuscript form as early as 1610, he outlined a plan for scientific investigation and had given the model for a college or society of fellows which would institute a "general reformation" of the whole civilised world. Professor Held in his introduction to Christianopolis has shown how Andreae's ideas influenced those writers and philosophers who laid the foundations of the Royal Society in London. It is probable also that Bacon was acquainted with Andreae's works and that they influenced his invention of the House of Salomon.

In Christianopolis the College is described rather briefly, and it is not clear whether it is composed of all those who wish to carry out studies or researches, or whether it is limited to a chosen few:

Now is the time when we approach the innermost shrine of the city which you would rightly call the centre of activity of the state … Here religion, justice, and learning have their abode, and theirs is the control of the city, and eloquence has been given them as an interpreter. Never have I seen so great an amount of human perfection collected into one place….

If we are left rather vague as to the exact attributes of the college, we are given on the other hand a detailed and concrete description of the library, armoury, laboratories and botanic gardens, which belong to it.

In the laboratory dedicated to chemical science "the properties of metals, minerals, and vegetables, and even the life of animals are examined, purified, increased, and united, for the use of the human race and in the interests of health … here men learn to regulate fire, make use of the air, value the water, and test the earth."

There is a pharmacy where one can find a carefully selected collection of all that can be found in nature "not only for the cause of health, but also with a view toward the advancement of education in general." They have also a place given over to anatomy, where animals are dissected, for: "The inhabitants of Christianopolis teach their youth the operations of life and the various organs, from the parts of the physical body. They show them the wonderful structure of the bones, for which purpose they have not a few skeletons and of the required variety. Meantime they also show the anatomy of the human body, but more rarely because the rather sensitive human mind recoils from a contemplation of our own suffering."

The greatest care is devoted to the Natural Science laboratory. Here we find, as in The City of the Sun, that natural history is painted on the walls in detail and with the greatest skill. "The phenomena in the sky, views of the earth in different regions, the different races of men, representations of animals, forms of growing things, classes of stones and gems are not only on hand and named, but they even teach and make known their nature and qualities." But the laboratory does not merely contain pictorial representations; it is also a well-ordered museum where all the specimens of nature that can be beneficial or injurious to man's body are kept, and a competent demonstrator explains their uses and properties. The citizens of Christianopolis condemn those who acquire their knowledge merely from books and "hesitate when placed face to face with some little herb."

Mathematics of course play an important part, and there is an "excavated" workshop for astronomical instruments and a hall of mathematics, "remarkable for its diagrams of the heavens, as the hall of physics is for its diagrams of the earth."

While war or the preparations for war play such an important part in the utopias considered previously, they are mentioned extremely briefly in Christianopolis:

Of the Armoury … they have a still more critical opinion. For while the world especially glories in war—engines, catapults and other machines and weapons of war, these people look with horror upon all kinds of deadly and death-dealing instruments, collected in such numbers; and they show them to visitors not without disapproval of human cruelty … However, they do bear arms, though unwillingly, for keeping off some greater evil, and they distribute them privately among the individual citizens, that they may serve in the homes in the case of sudden emergency.

Before we leave Christianopolis we shall quote these passages which express well the idealist character of Andreae's community:

You will want to know of what advantage it is for one of regular morals and excelling talent to live in this city when you hear nothing of rewards. Well, he of the Christian city solves this difficulty very easily; for it is glory and gain enough for him to please God…. The pleasure of the consciousness of having done right, the dignity of a nature that has overcome darkness, the greatness of domination over the passions, and above all, the unspeakable joy of the companionship of the saints, take possession of a refined soul far too deeply than that the renouncing of worldly pleasures should be feared.

In the same way we may say of penalties, there is no use of these in a place that contains the very sanctuary of God and a chosen state, in which Christian liberty can bear not even commands, much less threats, but is borne voluntarily toward Christ. Yet it must be confessed that human flesh cannot be completely conquered anywhere. And so if it does not profit by repeated warnings (and in case of need, serious corrections) severer scourges must be used to subdue it. For this purpose fit remedies are on hand, not of one sort only, but chosen to suit different individuals. For truly, if one withdraws the sustenance from one's carnal appetites, or substitutes the cudgel for the tickle of lust, much may be remedied. It is the art of arts to guard against permitting sin to become easy for anyone. On the other hand, how wicked it is to vent one's wrath against those towards whose ruin you hurl stones. At any rate, the judges of the Christian City observe this question especially, that they punish most severely those misdeeds which are directed straight against God, less severely those which injure men, and lightest of all those which harm only property. How differently the world does, punishing a petty thief much more harshly than a blasphemer or an adulterer. As the Christian citizens are always chary of spilling blood, they do not willingly agree upon the death sentence as a form of punishment; whereas the world, ever prodigal even of a brother's blood, pronounces wantonly the first sentence which occurs to it, feeling safe in this subterfuge that it has not personally employed sword, rope, wheel and fire, but only through a servant of the law. Christ be my witness, it is certainly handsome logic on the part of a government to make thieves of dissolute characters, adulterers of the intemperate, homicides of loafers, witches of courtesans, in order that it may have someone with whose blood to make expiation to God! It is far more humane to tear out the first elements and roots of vice than to lop off the mature stalks. For anyone can destroy a man, but only the best one can reform.