Hello History Friends,
Let's talk about the Protestant Reformation
Reformation & Renaissance
- First, the Renaissance and Reformation were occurring at the same time. The two events were like "two peas in a pod" (Mr. Yarnall), the pod was individuality:
- Reformation=re-form just as renaissance=re-birth
- The early Christian church represented a golden age spiritually, while the Classical Greco/Roman era represented a golden age culturally...Renaissance people wanted to go back to the good old days before the mess of the Middle Ages.
- The reformation and Renaissance were similar in the sense that they both embraced liberalism, rationalism, and independent thought. Both movements shifted away from corrupt authority and embraced the fact that man is fabulous (he can reach salvation on his own if he geeks out with the Bible-sola scriptura), his thoughts should be heard and greatness immortalized (wall of any Renaissance Pope/patron's house).
Reformers like Luther=socially awkward geeks who reject norms (authority/church)
...but then become very popular
- Pope/Patron...this doesn't make sense, weren't the Popes supposed to be poor like Christ's disciples?
- This is where Luther comes in. He didn't think artists should be making money off of the church and was disgusted at the upper class's portrayal of themselves as holier than thou in paintings, when really the higher ups in the church, including the pope, were quite the opposite.
This is where the two peas in the pod (Renaissance/Reformation) weren't such best friends...
Onto the Church and its issues...
- 3 reasons why Francis is cooler than Renaissance Popes, religious officials, and priests:
- He isn't:
- ignorant/uneducated
- likely the local priest was a local Joe who mispronounced the Latin mass
- holding multiple offices at once and never fulfilling his duties
- (Pluralism) Italian officials held benefices in other countries. They still collected revenues from their positions, which they filled with unqualified poor priests.
- immoral and violating his vows of celibacy
- also wearing Versace on the weekends and indulging in drink/gambling and maybe has a portrait by the petulant Michelangelo in the living room.
they had two faces...
- Machiavelli said the rulers were the worst because they set a bad example by participating in all of the above.
- These conflicts between religious faith and religious authority were present across the board, in parishes both wealthy and poor.
- In most countries nobility occupied the highest church positions (power was based on blood)
- Thus, Martin Luther comes along to save the day. After giving up on becoming a lawyer and moving to an Augustinian monastery because he was frightened during a thunderstorm, he began to question if monastic life was a sure way to salvation.
- Like Jan Hus, he agreed with the faith, but not the way it was being delivered to people on earth (or if it needed an earthly middle man at all)
- Luther's ideas spread quickly via the printing press and he quickly accumulated many followers.
Luther's Faith=Justin Bieber's Hair Flip. It became very popular and he had many copycats (Zwingli=all teenage boys)
- Tetzel's indulgences (authorized by Pope Leo X) offered temporal salvation, guaranteeing a smooth ride to heaven...but undermined the sacrament of penance, competed with Gospel preaching, and downplayed the act of charity.
Luther when he heard of the indulgences...he also wrote the 95 theses and sent them to archbishop Albert who hired Tetzel to sell them
Popes you should know:
Julius II-tried to throw Michelangelo off scaffolding (but also greatest art patron of papal line and commissioner of Michelangelo's paintings on the Sistine chapel)
Leo X (he was a Medici)-excommunicated Martin Luther also made peace with French in Concordat of Bologna
so the reformation was Luther's attempt to bring about a rebirth in the church...he wanted everyone to become enthusiastic about their faith just as the Renaissance dudes wanted people to embrace their humanity and culture
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