<P> Italian humanism spread northward to France, Germany, the Low Countries, and England with the adoption of large - scale printing after the end of the era of incunabula (or books printed prior to 1501), and it became associated with the Protestant Reformation . In France, pre-eminent humanist Guillaume Budé (1467--1540) applied the philological methods of Italian humanism to the study of antique coinage and to legal history, composing a detailed commentary on Justinian's Code . Budé was a royal absolutist (and not a republican like the early Italian umanisti) who was active in civic life, serving as a diplomat for François I and helping to found the Collège des Lecteurs Royaux (later the Collège de France). Meanwhile, Marguerite de Navarre, the sister of François I, was a poet, novelist, and religious mystic who gathered around her and protected a circle of vernacular poets and writers, including Clément Marot, Pierre de Ronsard, and François Rabelais . </P> <P> Many humanists were churchmen, most notably Pope Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini), Sixtus IV, and Leo X, and there was often patronage of humanists by senior church figures . Much humanist effort went into improving the understanding and translations of Biblical and early Christian texts, both before and after the Protestant Reformation, which was greatly influenced by the work of non-Italian, Northern European figures such as Desiderius Erasmus, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, William Grocyn, and Swedish Catholic Archbishop in exile Olaus Magnus . </P> <P> The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy describes the rationalism of ancient writings as having tremendous impact on Renaissance scholars: </P> <P> Here, one felt no weight of the supernatural pressing on the human mind, demanding homage and allegiance . Humanity--with all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilities--was the center of interest . It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophised on their knees, but, bolstered by the new studies, they dared to stand up and to rise to full stature . </P>

Who were the humanists what were the classics