OVERVIEW
As we begin Unit 2, we bring the concept of "Christian humanism" from the Northern Renaissance forward with us. Christian humanists wanted to discover original Christianity and often compared Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Arabic texts which often came to them from Byzantine and Islamic civilizations. Erasmus is the epitome of the most important of the Christian humanists: it is said that Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched. Erasmus worked with language, translation and serious scholarship; he also wrote popular satires to skewer the Roman Catholic Church for its abuses, such as Julius II Excluded, which you analyzed in class. While orthodoxy (accepted doctrine) was rigidly enforced by the Roman Catholic Church, we see heterodox or heretical arguments asserted against the church. Likewise, Erasmus virulently attacked the deep corruption of the Church, particularly the sins and worldiness and corrupt practices under Julius II. However, Erasmus never broke from the Roman Catholic Church.
Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic monk who ultimately broke from the Church over its use of indulgences, or paper pardons of sins obtained in exchange for money. He drew on the foundation of the challenges John Wyclif and Jan Hus made 100 years before. Martin Luther was incredibly troubled personally over the question of how are we saved? Ultimately, he determined that "faith alone" - not good works - was key to salvation. He also argued for "sola scriptura" and a "priesthood of all believers," that all one needed was to read the Bible on one's own and one did not need an intermediary like a priest, but could have a direct relationship with God. The Roman Catholic Church told Luther to recant (take back) his heretical stance, but Luther refused. He likely would have been burned at the stake like Hus, but Frederick the Wise sheltered him. During his hiding, Luther translated the Bible into the vernacular, German, for his followers to read. The invention and quick spread of the printing press across Europe propelled Luther's movement, or Protest(antism). This idea that people should read the Bible themselves caused literacy rates to rise across Europe.
While Christian humanism had devoted itself to Hebrew texts, and scholars like Pico della Mirandola extolled the virtues of Jewish interpretations, the Protestant Reformation ultimately failed to bring a more tolerant lens to viewing Jews in central Europe. Rather, medieval anti-Judaism, and its concomitant stereotypes and oppression, took on a new dimension during the Reformation. Both Luther’s anti-Judaism and Hitler’s use of Luther are well-documented. Centuries later, the Nazis used some of Luther’s writings to justify their anti-Semitic persecutions of German Jews. Professor Roper's work ponders several historical reasons for Luther's anti-Judaism, including the idea that Luther's interpretation had much in common with Judaism, and he may have targeted it in order to protect himself from claims that he was sympathic to it. Professor Roper points out that Luther was surprisingly curious about Islam, however, and worked against efforts to ban the Quran. It is critical to remember that Luther abhored the Pope and the Catholic Church more than anyone other group. The 500-year-old Lutheran church works to acknowledge Luther’s anti-Judaism today as well as seek reconciliation with the Catholic Church.
As the Reformation spread, it spread to Henry VIII’s England, whose rule has been traditionally remembered through the rhyme about his wives: “Divorced, Beheaded, Died: Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.” The musical Six, based in part on Antonia Fraser’s book, The Wives of Henry VIII, amplified their voices and their stories. Henry broke from the Roman Catholic Church in order to procure his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, but his move was aided from resistance to the Catholic Church in England, going back to Wyclif's foundation. Henry asked John Leland to use the monastic libraries to build his case for divorce from Catherine, and then Henry deliberated destroyed those libraries' Catholic and Hebrew texts after he broke from the Catholic Church. Henry kept all the church records related to property ownership, taxes, and census in order to centralize his rule and enrich the royal treasury. This paradoxically inspired some Englishmen to reestablish new library collections and pioneer antiquarian practices to preserve and protect religious records and secular ones as well, including the Magna Carta. While his daughter Mary brought Catholicism back to England during her reign, Queen Elizabeth ultimately took the realm back again to Protestantism. Both Henry and Elizabeth served as the head of the Anglican Church, thus merging political and religious control in one person.
Elizabeth’s historical reputation rests largely on her defeat of the Spanish Armada, but also extends to her religious "moderation", her refusal to marry, and her long successful reign. Elizabeth worked to forge bonds with the Islamic world, much like Renaissance Venice had. While her requests for a military alliance with the Ottomans proved unsuccessful, Tudor England benefited from its commercial and cross-cultural ties with the Ottomans. Professor Jerry Brotton has highlighted the diplomatic correspondence establishing the Anglo-Ottoman trade in his book, The Sultan and the Queen.
The Protestant Reformation "appeared simultaneously in different places" (Perry, 327), and other branches took root, such as Calvinism in Geneva, or the Calvinist minority in France known as the Huguenots, as well as Radical Reformation(s), such as that by the Anabaptists (who believed in adult, rather than infant, baptism). Several factors accounted for the splintering of Protestantism, including the varying interpretations that sprung from different leaders interpreting the Bible differently, regional hostility (or faithfulness) to the Roman Catholic Church, political and economic consideration, as well as class. Catholics and Protestants often ended at war over religion, literally for decades at time -- the Thirty Years War in Germany, for example - and sometimes political rivalries were really at play. These violent, bloody and merciless wars devastated much of 16th century Europe. Ultimately, treaties such as the Peace of Augsburg and the Westphalia Treaty had to be negotiated that gave the local prince the right to determine the religion of his people, i.e., Cuius regio, eius religio (“Whose realm, his religion”). Before and during religious warfare, print culture was weaponized, creating saints and sinners broadly in society based on their belief systems. In other words, the printing press was used as a weapon of religious polarization, to print religious propaganda, i.e., “fake news”. Even today, the divide between a Protestant north and a Catholic south is visible in Europe, and often within countries (e.g., Catholic southern Germany vs. Protestant northern Germany).
During the Catholic (or Counter) Reformation, the Church recommitted to the teachings of early Church fathers, not just the Bible, and while they restricted the sale of indulgences, they rejected most other Protestant critiques and worked to reconvert souls in Europe. Like Tudor England, they engaged in censorship and book burning, institutionalizing the Index of Prohibited Books. They often used glorious art, termed the Baroque style, to appeal to the sentiments, emotional, and dramatic and use painting to tell the stories the Church wished to emphasize. New religious orders, like the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), were founded, and many of these worked to enhance the spiritual teaching of priests and ordinary people through schools. They were sincere in their devotion to the Church and Catholic teachings, using Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises to discipline their religious practice. As John Green pointed out, the Jesuits engaged in a worldwide missionary movement that could be seen as a form of Eurocentric globalization. They also brought other regions' ideas back to Europe (e.g., China's porcelain-making secrets).
FORMAT
You will be asked to use historical thinking skills (context, catena, sourcing for kaleidoscope, periodization, competing narratives, and corroboration) to analyze sources that are NEW to you. This is called an SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT requiring CRITICAL THINKING. New sources could include:
* excerpts or pieces of new primary and secondary sources
* paintings (early modern) or photographs (late modern)
* material culture
* Youtube videos
* excerpts from newspaper articles
To ease your mind, six examples of kinds of questions are included. The more familiar you are with the historical concepts and themes we pinpointed in class, the more likely you will be able to show your thinking about the new sources.
CONTEXT
You might be asked to analyze how the geographical, cultural, social, economic or political setting of a particular historical era influenced the creation of an excerpt or artifact.
CATENA
Your focus is on identifying the chain of circumstance, the web of action, or the series of unrelated events constructed into an argument within the work. For example, you might be asked to identify what historical themes or concepts you think are illustrated within the excerpt or painting and how it drove the author's catena.
KALEIDOSCOPE
You might be given two new facts regarding an author’s background and be asked how it affects your analysis of the excerpt.
CORROBORATION
You will be given a new source and asked to provide corroboration for the claims made within the source using some combination of sources read and discussed in class.
COMPETING NARRATIVES
You might be given two conflicting excerpts with source information and be asked to explain which is more reliable and what were the factors you relied upon to decide.
PERIODIZATION
You might be asked to explain the extent to which a specific document derives from a particular time period or identifiable era.
REVIEW: HUMANISM, EARLY CHALLENGERS, and ERASMUS
- Manchester, page 112-131 (at the break). Using the skills of KALEIDOSCOPE AND CORROBORATION, why were the humanists so dangerous to the Church and how far does Erasmus go in challenging the church?
- Erasmus' Julius II Excluded. Why doesn’t Saint Peter allow Pope Julius II into heaven? Given the context, why would this have been scandalous at the time? Perry previously argued that Erasmus’s “weapon was satire” and it “won him a reputation for acid wit.” (308) How does he deploy satire here?
Khan Academy: An Introduction to the Protestant Reformation
REVIEW: MARTIN LUTHER
- Perry textbook, Chapter 14, pages 316-326. How is Luther portrayed in Perry? What are the critical variables that allowed Luther to succeed where Wycliffe and Hus failed?
Crash Course: Protestant Reformation
Khan Accademy: Martin Luther
REVIEW: VIEWS OF JEWS AND OTTOMAN TURKS DURING THE REFORMATION
- Roper on Hatreds (Chapter 18, pages 371-385) of the Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet. How does Luther's certainty of his interpretation lead to hatred of Catholics and Jews? Why did Luther’s view of Jews change over time? How and why does Luther's view of the Ottoman Empire change over time? Why did Luther’s hatred of Catholics remain unchanged?
REVIEW: HENRY VIII's ANGLICANISM AND JOHN CALVIN'S CALVINIST GENEVA
- Perry textbook on the Spread of the Reformation (pages 327-334) including how the different branches of Protestantism develop such as Henry VIII’s Anglican England and John Calvin’s Calvinist Geneva. Why was each so popular with the people? How do they develop differently? By 1560, what beliefs do Protestants everywhere share in common?
Crash Course: Reformation Consequences
Khan Academy: Varieties of the Reformation
REVIEW: BURNING THE BOOKS
Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge, Ch 3, When Books Were Dog Cheap [AUDIO LINK]. How did Henry VIII use libraries and archives to try to: get a divorce, legitimize his rule, centralize his power, collect taxes and undermine/destroy the Catholic Church in England? How should we view Tudor England's "deliberate destruction of knowledge?" How important were acts of "resisters," known as the "antiquarians?" Zero in on figures like John Leland and Thomas Bodley.
REVIEW: OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND ELIZABETHEAN ENGLAND
- Mikhail's When England Admired Islam article. Source the articles, opine on perspective, and be ready to discuss this question, "How can this narrative regarding the Ottoman Empire challenge or disrupt claims to European heritage and identity?"
Jerry Brotton, Islam & Shakespeare
REVIEW: CATHOLIC REFORMATION
- Perry textbook, pages 335-338 on the Catholic Response and the impact of the Reformation on modernity. How does the Catholic Church respond to growing Protestantism? To what extent does the Church fix itself?
Counter Reformation
- The Newberry Library Religious Change and Print Culture document packet. How did religious leaders use technology and print media to gain followers and attack other sects of Christianity? To what extent did the ideas, or needs, of the Reformation drive technological change or the manipulation of technology? Lessons for us today?
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