010104.0956

Europe around 1500

Church –
post schismatic – resolved 1415
post concilliarism – paplism – power of pope should be checked by concil
major heretic movements - Wycliffe – english – lollards, Huss – bohemia
upsearch in piety - relics discovery, new cults

Politics
post 100 yrs war 1337-1453
moving to nation/state from feudalism – germany(holy roman empire) and italy were still divided

Social
post black death
rural peasant protest
middle class

Cultural
universities
printing press
renaissance

010116.0931

how did the reformation spread?

How did Luther survive?
Support of princes, particularly his own prince of Saxony – frederick the wise
put in hiding to protect him/settle the country down

How did the reformation spread:

Printing Press:
approx 1415 – guttenberg invented printing press in mainz
95 thesis, translated into vernacular, very readable, ‘widely’ distributed
pamphlets were ‘broadsheets’ – one page publications
1521-1525 busiest pamphlet printing time, ‘political cartoons’ were useful as literacy rate was low

Criticising the clergy was not a new idea
corrupt clergy – drunk, promiscuous, gluttonous, un-pious
new idea – Luther leading people to the ‘right’ way

Catholic side was slow to learn printing press
even when catholic writers were creating they often had trouble being published as their old traditional ideology was too boring to publish

Pulpit was still very important communication – oral was far more widespread than literacy, by many, many times.

Monastic Networking

Humanistic Embrace – young generation of humanist reformers, who may have become religious reformers

Urban acceptance – emperor’s edict that Luther be outlawed, was not posted in most cities due to great support that Luther had in the german cities. Only a few staunch catholic cities posted the emperor’s edict. Consequently the edict was useless.

Catholic clergy were not citizens, they were above: they didn’t pay taxes, had lands that couldn’t be prosecuted, were generally above everyone else.

Consequently, german cities were anxious to eject these clergy and replace them with Luther’s clergy, who were on an equal plane with the ‘common man’

Luther says we are free – spiritually free to choose our way.
Peasants interpreted this as though they were free from their noble lords.
Obviously Luther did not support the peasand rebellion, and he encouraged them to do othrewise.
Peasants mainly wanted things as they were. They wanted more food, less work, rights to public land, hunting, firewood, etc.

300,000 peasants joined togethre, in the ‘peasant war’
thousands of peasants were killed, as the peasants were ill prepared for war.

Martin Luther lost favor with the common person after the peasant war. He did not support the peasants revolt, and so the reformation ceased to be a peoples reform and began to be a reform now of the magistrates
in the height of the peasant war, Luther married a former nun.
Catholics predicted their first child would be a 2headed monster
Luther’s followers also lost faith in his decision to marry. Followers want their leader to be ‘above’ the world, above the rest of the flock. A leader should be a great celibate leader, wise and transcending.

Free will – Luther says we do not have free will between us and god
humans will always make themselves a priority over god

Dissension Within Protestantism

Karlstadt – preaching in vernacular, wearing regular garments (not official preaching uniform)
giving the whole congregation bread and wine (communion)

Junker Joig – a knight, Luther disguised himself as to come to biddenburg to set karlstadt on the ‘right road’. He was moving too fast, and Luther told him he needed to slow down in order to gain follewers.

Soon afterward karlstadt was dismissed

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) – reformer of Zurich, Switzerland
Humanist vs, Luther, a monk – moderate, where as Luther can be abrassive
city vs Luther, raised in country – city reformers have different agenda – ‘utilized’ but didn’t
necessarily follow Luther.

moral city reformers – moved towards discipline, social reform, etc
wanted to make city life better supported the ‘city on high’ ideal
magistrates wanted far less, embraced the religious ideal, but not overzealously

Marburg colloquy (1529) – Eucharist as a commemorative event
arranged meeting between Zwingli and Luther, the two could not agree on the Eucharist.
based on the idea that to have a solid military front, there must be religious agreement
the two could agree on 14 items, but Zwingli thought the Eucharist was a symbolic
thus this event was a failure as the two could not agree

HUMANIST – like Zwingli – love means a lot, as much, if not more than faith

Zwingli dies on battlefield – Luther uses this as material - do not fight for faith with the sword

Emperor decrees everyone must return to Catholicism, but of course this impossible
Protestant Princes form defensive league – Schmachaldic League.
Turks on the advance, Emperor pleads Schmachaldic League to defend holy roman empire against the turks

after threat of Turks subsided, fighting resumed in Europe concerning reformation
all the while the reformation is being fought in most other countries

Interim -

010118.0930

John Calvin (1509-1564) – French reformer of Genova
very stern and austere no gambling, little joy in sexuality, few images, most important is the word of god;

second generation reformer, the ‘darker’ part of the reformations period
after Luther and Zwingli, vision for Europe not just genova.
reformer for refugees

1535 – Calvin fled Paris due to crack down on Protestants, and became reformer of refugees

1529 – Protestation was written in protest to the emperor against his edicts
from this point on Protestantism exists.

Calvinism - predestination belief
sprung from his refugee background, no matter what you are in God’s hands – someone knows where you should be, if only God

emphasis on spirit,

The Consistory – counsel for the calvinists

Anabaptism: always with reformation movements, the next generation critiques the previous
Protestants critique catholic, Anabaptist critique Protestant and catholic, etc.

Anabaptism = re-baptism, only recognise adult baptism as real, infant baptism was not legitimate

Swiss Brethren: were pacifists, followers of Zwingli, biblicists.

Austrian Anabaptists: much more militant, supported peasant wars, emphasised spirit even over bible
much less structured and chaotic than Swiss Brethren.

Dutch/North German Anabaptists: melchiorites (followed melchior hoffman)
1534 – several Anabaptists moved and took over the government (not by force, of course, as Anabaptists were mainly passivists, but by election).

Munsterites – city of Munster was taken over as described above.
King Jan van Leiden

catholics and protestants united to surround Munster and beseige the city
after 16 months the city fell due to treason – not starvation as planned.

King Leiden practised polygyny, and near end of siege moral was low and he was executing anyone who was not a supporter

True Christianity meant endurance, enormous strength in these people
saw martyrs and Christ as a grand tradition

Annaken Janse - 1535 joined Netherlands – executed by drowning.
‘today I drink the cup Jesus Christ drank.’
’It is better to let go of your life than to deviate from the truth’
Desired authenticity and simplicity.
Faith was not centred, so they desired a return to an earlier Christianity.

first few centuries of Christianity were those of persecution, during roman rule,
until 4^th century when Christianity became official religion of Rome, and beginning of major enforcement and structure in church (ostentatious churches and such).

Anabaptists desired to return to the simpler time of Christianity, prior to acceptance.

Political reaction to anabaptists

Luther – chaos is not good, when people leave their posts in life, they are wrong

Menno Simmon – mennonite founder

Lollardy – following of John Wycliffe
pre-Lutheran movement again eccentricities of clergy

1527 – sack of rome – rome and pope held captive
thus pope could not annul marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon

English Reformation – 1534: "Act of Supremacy"
king of england is leader of state AND CHURCH

Henry VIII

Why Catholic Church underestimated Luther -
fear of reform
politics
he was just a monk in an obscure German townnn

Jesuit Order – 1540
Ignatius of Loyola
soldier who fought for Jesus, founded Jesuit order

Council of Trent 1545-1563

1555 – religious Peace of Augsburg
cuius regio, eius religio
whoever rules the region, decides the religion

effects of peace of augsburg
legalized religious split
gave fuel to religious wars
reduced the power of the pope

Anabaptist and Calvinists were not included in peace of Augsburg – calvinism is spreading. . .

1546-1547 Schmalkaldic War

010208.0930

Absolutism – politics of the 1600s

3 views
Biblical – power is drawn from the bible – king is almighty, unquestionable, answers to no one

rational/secular – Machiavellian approach

historical – overlaps rational, looks to the past to draw conclusions

Unlike men of the 1600s these men of the 1500s were not true absolutists,
they gave few restrictions to rulers, but still there were restrictions – which is not true absolutism
both men (machiavelli and bodin) lived through wars and were disillusioned with republicanism, though they were not true absolutists

Machiavelli – ‘father of absolutism’
prince (1513) – satire? Or true absolutist?
Machiavelli suggests weighing options of situation, which is not true absolutism

Jean Bodin (d 1596)
wrote of The Six Books of the Republics (1576)
advocated religious toleration, which again doesn’t fall under absolutism
tyranny is against god, and should not be
ruler and nation is a type of father/patriarchal relationship

Divine Right Theorists – ruler is supreme, power is god given, divine right

Bishop jacques benigne bossuet (d 1704)
wrote Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture (1678)
court preacher to Louis 14 and his son’s tutor
’Tyranny is better than anarchy’

monarchy is sacred, paternal and absolute – rule is by rational and reasonable

James I of England (ruled 1603 – 1625)
wrote A True Law of Free Monarchies (1598)
lived theory proposed in his work and was hated for it

Secular Theorists:

Thomas Hobbes (d 1679) – absolutist
Calvinist views: low view of humans (we are rotten)
Renaissance man: scientifically versed as well as educated in the humanities
writings emerge from life experiences.

Leviathan – written just after first battle of english civil war
consequences of human passions
state of nature is chaos – if left to ourselves, we would be at war all the time.

’war of all against all’
competition of bad, man would be solitary, corrupt, counter productive

Thus Hobbes says a covenant is needed – a social contract
without the imposed rule of a monarch, all would be bad and anarchy

Anti Absolutist

John Locke – (d 1704) – gave fuel for american revolution
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
Two Treatises of Government (1690)

agreed with Hobbes on many points, but arrives at different conclusions
advocates that people are not bad in natural state.
as humans are made by god in the image of god, they should be basically good.

doesn’t subscribe to absolutism, but agrees with Hobbes idea of a covenant
subjects entrust ruler with representing their rights in exchange for obedience and civility.

Man is not a maniac driven by passion, warlike in natural state
covenant is conditional unlike with hobbes, the ruler can not break the contract
Locke says if the ruler breaks the covenant, it is the duty of the citizen to depose the ruler

Expansion and unification
warfare, like 100yrs war, to gain more territory
or marriage of someone with good prospects to enhance/expand country

Concentration of Power
moves from feudal system – without standing army, men fought for honour
unified system now in place – men fight for money – standing army at king’s disposal

Alliance with Church

Alliance with the Middle Class

Mercantilism – government controlled economy
export as much as possible
import as little as possible
in effort to make as much money as possible

Legal and intellectual Justification
need reasons for the subjects to surrender absolutely to your monarchy
Church needs to be allied with government for the same reason

1688 Glorious Revolution