Luther and Politics

While Luther had originally criticized the Catholic Church (and especially the Pope) for religious reasons, both German princes and peasants decided to interpret his ideas politically.

For those that forget the problems Luther had with the Church here is a quick refresher:

Many German princes decided to use Luther's complaints to justify their hate of the papacy and their attempts to take power away from the clergy.

<http://www.b3ta.com/board/10149830>

Ironically, the German peasantry also used Luther's words (to Luther's chagrin!) to justify rioting against the same German princes supporting Luther. Interestingly Luther eventually chose the side of the princes and firmly admonished the peasants for their murderous revolts (which were brutally crushed.)

Luther's words would continue to have a much greater impact both religiously and politically, than he could have ever dreamed of.

The "Disorderly" Parish Priest

During the pre-Reformation era of the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church was showing significant signs of disorder among its clergy. Critics of the church commonly centered their attacks on 3 specific issues: clerical immorality, clerical ignorance, and clerical pluralism. While priests are usually regarded as chaste, intelligent, and holy individuals, the clergy we see at this time certainly failed to fit that profile.
The nature and the actions of the religious during the 16th century substantially damaged the authority and the prestige of the Catholic Church. One could say that the educated laity did not enjoy listening to empty sermons and Latin phrases that the priest himself did not understand. Rather than sprucing up their knowledge of the Gospels in their spare time, clergymen neglected the rules of celibacy, gambled, drank, and indulged in fancy dress. Priests would abandon their "multiple" responsibilities in the "multiple" offices they held, and would even hire a poor replacement priest to accept their responsibilities at an embarrassingly low cost. The Reformation came to be once courageous people like Martin Luther realized that the affluent lives of Catholic clergymen starkly contrasted the modest lives of Christ's disciples.
One could argue that the changes in the church were as a result of the Renaissance occurring at the time. A main hallmark of the Renaissance was secularism, a basic concern with the material world instead of with the eternal world of spirit. The disorderly conduct of the clergymen only confirms the secularist approach the Church was taking. This newfound materialism, as a direct result of the Renaissance, was a major factor for the decline of church prestige and the need for reform.

Renaissance Review

Along with reviewing our discussions (and the posts here on this site) you might enjoy the following:

Machiavelli and the World

Power trumps all. Today I am not going to tell you for the upteenth time that Machiavelli believed that the ends justified the means. We know that he professed that in politics, if one can't have both, Machiavelli professed that it is better to be feared then loved.

Rather than rehash all of Machiavellian thought in this post, I thought perhaps we could focus on just how much Machiavelli's political theory still seems to resonate in the modern world [and in far more eclectic ways than the evil 'Machiavellian' mentioned in the textbook].  Consider:

This post that culls business / management lessons from the pages of The Prince.  The author makes an apt connection between individual success in the business world and Machiavelli's political advice from the Renaissance era.

Here a British journalist compares Vladmir Putin and his plans for Syria to our Florentine thinker.

Machiavelli has found his way into the comics:

http://lifeexaminations.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/calvin_and_hobbes_ethics.jpg

This philosophy professor sees a link between Machiavelli and Tupac here.

And of course, Michael Scott shared his take on Machiavelli here:

So perhaps it is given that we need to pull the question of morality away from Machiavelli's advice. Yet questions do remain.  Does his advice easily dovetail with all of the other self-centered aspects of the Italian Renaissance?

Dancing Down the Intellectual Hallmarks of the Italian Renaissance

The world is full of -isms.  There are: Liberalism, Conservatism, Nationalism, Realism, Pragmatism, Environmentalism, Botulism [...they don't have to all be good things].

In our examination of the Renaissance we see three -isms that seem to walk hand in hand: Humanism, Individualism and Secularism.

We can not define the intellectual development of the Renaissance without these three things.  Humanism seems to lead the way.  Would the Italian Renaissance have occurred without the reemergence of the classical humanities?  Perhaps, perhaps not till much later on. Perhaps a question to think about for your next AP Euro test.

Nevertheless, it is not difficult to see the seeds of individualism and secularism in the fertilizer that was classical thought.   Is there a direct line from the exceptionalism felt by the Ancient Greeks thinkers to the individualism that fed the ego of a Raphael or a Pope Julius II?  In what ways was the individualism of the Renaissance both a constructive and destructive societal force?

Medieval to Renaissance: Sometimes it's Hard to be a Woman

Hard to be a woman? Christine de Pizan might have said that it is hard to be a good woman. As we have discussed, whether it was in the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, there were few options for women. [This Prezi from another AP student provides a good review of the issues women faced during this period].

That there were few pathways open to women during this period seemed to be of less concern to her than the manner in which women travelled those paths. To be faithful, to be chaste, to be honorable were all important virtues to Christine de Pizan; and she saw women as deserving vessels for these virtues.

While de Pizan may have worked within the accepted system of her period, she was still a trailblazer.  In a time when women were treated like property, her assertion that women could and did exhibit qualities that should be seen in all of humankind blazed the way for later feminist writers.

{For another brief discussion of women in the Renaissance, visit the UK's great Victoria & Albert Museum site here}.

The Waning of the Medieval: The Decline of the Papacy

The decline of the Papacy and the rise of national monarchies were inversely proportional.  The rise of the monarch will be the topic of a later discussion. Today we focus on how the Roman Catholic Church went from an all encompassing force in the Middle Ages [the Pope was King of Kings] to simply a gigantic force in the early Renaissance [the Pope was perceived as a threat to the power of the emerging Nation-state]. Rather than a separation, the continued importance of religion is something that binds the Renaissance to the Medieval.

Even though their relationship to God was paramount, there were three areas where Europeans were getting their feathers ruffled when it came to the church:

• The Babylonian Captivity (The Avignon Popes)
• The Great Schism
• The Plague

There is a pretty clear summation of these issues at this Christian blog. More than their individual names, it is the tenor of rule, the perceived decadence of the Avignon Popes that we should focus on.

Unlike 2013, the advent of two Popes at the same time caused great concern during the Great Schism. If that wasn't enough, the Papacy's secular dalliances only aggravated people's loss of confidence in the Church.

As the subject of your much maligned summer reading book, we are all aware of the link between the plague and the decline of the Church. I played this video clip for you as freshmen: 

[The UKhistory channel setting their history lessons within the confines of a pub is just one example of the British humour you are going to have to get accustom to during this course].  I think the key line in this little clip is when he is discussion that not only were the clergy powerless in the face of the disease, but those that the people would have considered 'the very best' of the clergy mostly died because they were actually out among the people tending to the ill.

The vision of an impotent pope and a detached clergy would only feed the flames of the upcoming Protestant Reformation.

The Waning of the Medieval: the 100 years war...

It is a common perception to view the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as two completely different eras.  The Middle Ages were religious, the Renaissance was secular. The Middle Ages were dark, the Renaissance was enlightened.

While there are clear contrasts between the periods, things are never quite that simple.  There exists no one day that someone rose from their bed and proclaimed, "Hark, I now live in the Renaissance."  The two periods share many characteristics (Including unpleasant daily work for many of the common folk).


The point being that the daily life of many folks did not change the day Michelangelo finished the Sistine Chapel.

But life was changing.  Because of events like the 100 Years Wars, a handful of new opportunities for social mobility opened up. The longbow allowed less wealthy men entry into the military where in feudal times it had only been an arena for the wealthy [that armor cost serious change]. Battles like Crecy and Agincourt illustrated the new importance of archers.



If the common people were starting to feel their oats, so too were the royalty. That story will be posted later tonight...