Difference between revisions of "World History Lecture Seven"

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In this lecture we recount how the Middle Ages ended: with the Renaissance and the Reformation. The Renaissance lasted from the 1300s to the 1600s, and it brought the Middle Ages to a close.

“Renaissance” is a French word for “rebirth”, and the rebirth was in renewed respect for artistic and intellectual progress not seen since classical Greece and Rome. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary^[1] describes “Renaissance” as follows: “the transitional movement in Europe between medieval and modern times beginning in the 14th century in Italy, lasting into the 17th century,” which included “a flowering of the arts and literature” and “the beginnings of modern science.”

The “Middle Ages” represent the “middle” between the great achievements of the ancient world and the Renaissance. A poet named Petrach (1304-1374), discussed below, described the early Middle Ages as “Dark Ages” of social decay. The “rebirth” or “revival” in the Renaissance was the rediscovery of the Roman and Greek cultures, as enhanced by Christianity. The “new learning” was a new recognition of the ideas discovered and developed in the past in art, science and other fields of inquiry.

The earliest beginning of the Renaissance was the poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), discussed below, who is famous for writing “Dante’s Inferno” about Hell. Another beginning date for the Renaissance is the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, when gunpowder and the cannon became essential parts of warfare. This military defeat caused Greek (Byzantine) scholars to flee to Rome, bringing their scholarship with them. They also brought their hostility to the Roman Catholic Church, causing changes to the religious order in Europe. By the 1400s there were numerous great artists, and also advances in the existing Gothic Art. By the year 1500 the High Renaissance was in full bloom. But a schism in Christianity in Europe was just around the corner. In 1505, a law student named Martin Luther was caught outside in the middle of a thunderstorm. A bolt of lightning struck the ground near him. Terrified, he cried out for protection and promised to become a monk if he survived the storm. He did survive, and then left law school to join an Augustinian monastery.

Martin Luther founded Protestantism in Europe on October 31, 1517, when he nailed 95 “Theses” or issues to the door of his Wittenberg Church in what is now Germany. A decade later, in 1529, King Henry VIII founded a different Protestant religion for an entirely different reason: he wanted the pope to approve his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and when the pope refused, the king founded the Church of England and seized all property of the Catholic Church in England. Other Protestant faiths also began in the 1500s, and the Catholic Church responded with an internal reformation of its own. We end this lecture with a discussion of Asia in the Middle Ages, which was unaffected by both the Renaissance and the Reformation. Asia had issues of its own.

But before we discuss the Renaissance and the weighty issues of the Reformation, this is the perfect time to pause for a moment and review the origin and development of the English language. English is a relatively young language. It does not come from Sanskrit or Hebrew or Greek or Latin. Recall that the Roman empire could never conquer the region of present-day Germany, and English is a Germanic Language within the Indo-European category of languages. Let's learn about its history.

The History of the English Language

The development of the English language is divided into three periods: Old English (also called "Anglo-Saxon"), Middle English, and Modern English (which we speak today). Germanic tribes settled in England as long ago as about the time when the Roman empire fell, around A.D. 450. Old English^[2] developed and was used until shortly after the Norman conquest of 1066, when Latin began to cause improvements in Old English and it upgraded to medieval Middle English. Modern English is considered to have begun shortly after the end of the Middle Ages in 1500.

A good dictionary will provide a date of origin for a word, and old dates are "13c" or A.D. 1200. For example, the date of first use of the word "chase", meaning "the hunting of wild animals," is listed by Merriam-Webster dictionary as "13c". More modern words, such as "homeschool", have more recent dates of first use, such as 1980 in the case of "homeschool".

One can spend hours enjoyably learning about the history of human thought simply by looking at when words were first created for important concepts. For example, by looking up the word "tyranny" in the dictionary we see that it was developed in the 14th century (1300s), which was about the time that feudalism was being replaced by nation-states in England and France. One can piece together much of English history simply by reading a dictionary!

The date of origin of a word can even resolve historical debates. Some (including your instructor) feel that "genocide", which is the mass killing by government of a particularly ethnic group, arose only after the development of the evolutionary theory of "survival of the fittest," and the use of gun control first to remove the ability of citizens to defend themselves. Because the "survival of the fittest" theory was not taught until the late 1800s, genocide did not occur prior to the 20th century. Others, particularly promoters of the evolutionary theory, claim that genocide occurred earlier also. But look in the dictionary at the date of origin of the word "genocide": 1944. If it had occurred in prior centuries, then a word would have developed to describe it.

The number "six", for example, is listed as having an origin of "bef. 12c," which means before A.D. 1100. That places the date of first use of simple numbers as before Middle English. It is not surprising that numbers would originate earlier than most (but not all) other words, as numbers were essential in keeping track of people and things.

More generally, the study of the origin of a word is known as "etymology". Some even specialize in the field of "linguistics", which includes all aspects of languages. Beware, however, distortions in the field by those who insist that all languages are equal. They also claim that all religions are equal in truth or value, and that is no more true for religion than it is for languages. Every language has advantages or disadvantages, and the path of world history is in some ways the triumph of superior languages over inferior ones.

Old and Middle English

We cannot even understand Old English today, and it was somewhat primitive even when it was spoken. Here is an example that concerns an early attempt by Pope Gregory to convert the Norman-Saxons to Christianity:^[3]

Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon. Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt hi Angle genemnode wæron. Þa cwæð he, "Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene, for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað, and swilcum gedafenað þæt hi on heofonum engla geferan beon."

Some simple pronouns like "he" are recognizable, as are the Old English equivalents of verbs like "were". Here is what that passage means, according to Merriam-Webster:^[3]

Again he [St. Gregory] asked what might be the name of the people from which they came. It was answered to him that they were named Angles. Then he said, "Rightly are they called Angles because they have the beauty of angels, and it is fitting that such as they should be angels' companions in heaven."

Middle English was an improvement due to the importation of Latin from Europe into England, at least among scholars. John Wycliffe used Middle English when he did the first new translation of the Bible in nearly 1000 years.

John Wycliffe was nearly 200 years ahead of "his time," meaning he was that far ahead of the Reformation that came later. For that reason he is called the "Morning star of the Reformation."^[4] A brilliant scholar, Wycliffe developed his own views of Christianity and attracted a following of itinerant preachers known as the "Lollards". Wycliffe simplified aspects of Christianity for peasants who otherwise had difficulties understanding it, such as developing a doctrine of the Lord's Supper in only twelve short sentences, and having his itinerant preachers teach that everywhere. The chancellor of the University of Oxford pronounced some of Wycliffe's theories as heretical. Wycliffe eventually criticized scholasticism, monasteries, and papacy, and became increasingly disliked by the English royal hierarchy.

At the time the Church prohibited new translations of the Bible, in order to maintain control and combat heresies. Wycliffe died peacefully in 1384, without having been excommunicated by the Church or executed by the King. He was blamed in England, however, for supposedly causing revolt by the peasants (such as the Peasants' Revolt of 1381). After his death a Council of the Church reviewed Wycliffe's theories and declared most of them to be false or heretical, and as a result ordered that his buried bones be dug up and burned, and they eventually were.

Here is the Parable of the Prodigal Son from Wycliffe's English translation of the Bible in 1389 (compare it to your own at Luke 15:11-21):^[5]

11 Forsothe he seith, Sum man hadde tweye sones;

12 And the 3ongere seide to the fadir, Fadir, 3yue to me the porcioun of substaunce, that byfallith to me. And the fadir departide to him the substaunce.

13 And not aftir manye dayes, alle thingis gederid to gidre, the 3ongere sone wente in pilgrymage in to a fer cuntree; and there he wastide his substaunce in lyuynge leccherously.

14 And aftir that he hadde endid alle thingis, a strong hungir was maad in that cuntree, and he bigan to haue nede.

15 And he wente, and cleuyde to oon of the citeseyns of that cuntree. And he sente him in to his toun, that he schulde feede hoggis.

16 And he coueitide to fille his wombe of the coddis whiche the hoggis eeten, and no man 3af to him.

17 Sothli he turned a3en in to him silf, seyde, Hou many hirid men in my fadir hous, han plente of looues; forsothe I perische here thur3 hungir.

18 I schal ryse, and I schal go to my fadir, and I schal seie to him, Fadir, I haue synned a3ens heuene, and bifore thee;

19 Now I am not worthi to be clepid thi sone, make me as oon of thi hyrid men.�

20 And he rysinge cam to his fadir. Sothli whanne he was 3it fer, his fadir sy3 him, and he was stirid by mercy. And he rennynge to, felde on his necke, and kiste him.

21 And the sone seyde to him, Fadir, I haue synned a3ens heuene, and bifore thee ; and now I am not worthi to be clepid thi sone.

Shakespeare, the greatest playwright in world history, wrote in English around 1600. He used modern English, but the language has changed much in 400 years since then. His language was easily understood then, but some parts are difficult to understand today. The term "copyright" did not exist yet, and Shakespeare never published any of his plays in writing because he had no legal protection against someone copying his work; all his works were written and preserved after he died. Here is the beginning of Mark Antony's famous speech in Shakespeare's famous play, Julius Caesar:^[6]

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--

For Brutus is an honourable man;

So are they all, all honourable men--

Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me:

But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause:

What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

By the end of this famous speech Marc Antony had turned the crowd in favor of Caesar and against his murderer, Brutus.

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural “rebirth” that began in Florence, Italy, but spread to all of Europe from about 1300 to 1600 (and including 1700 in northern Europe).

During this time period, Europeans experienced a renewed interest in classical Greek and Roman civilization and in learning science, mathematics, literature, the arts, and philosophy. The term “Renaissance man” has come to mean a man who is remarkably well-rounded and learned in every subject, as this is what was expected of men during the Renaissance.

The Renaissance sparked tremendous achievements in science by Copernicus, Kepler and, to a lesser extent, Galileo, all of whom we will discuss more in the next lecture. Exploration of the world also began in the Renaissance, including the voyages of Columbus (1492), Magellan and Da Gama, whom we will also address in the next class.

The northern city-states of Italy were a perfect location for the Renaissance to occur, as Italian culture was built off of classical Greek and Roman civilization. Recall that Italy and Germany did not form nation-states like France and England, and without a centralized government the Italian city-states were conducive to culture and intellectual renewal. The Italian cities had become important and wealthy locations by selling and trading during the Crusades, and Muslim and Byzantine learning had also been brought to Italy during the Crusades. The Italian city of Florence was home to wealthy families, such as the prominent Medici family, who were willing to finance artists. Friendly competition developed between the different city-states brought out the best in people and created an environment in which initiative and creativity flourished.

The Medici family was the most prominent family in Italy, and all of Europe, in the 1400s. They acquired great wealth and prominence through banking, and used their wealth both to become powerful politicians and serve as patrons of great artists like Michelangelo, making him the first wealthy artist in history. Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464) became ruler of Florence, and Lorenzo de Medici (“Lorenzo the Magnificent”) (1449-92) and his brother later ruled Florence. Lorenzo’s second son became Pope Leo X, who was pope when the Reformation began.

Renaissance man Leon Battista Alberti declared, “Men can do all things if they will.” This "can-do" spirit was typical of the Renaissance, which was one of the most special times in world history. Alberti, himself a poet, scientist, painter, architect, and mathematician, was the one who first coined the idea of “rebirth” or “Renaissance”.

There were many fabulous artists, writers, sculptors and philosophers during the Renaissance. Let's begin reviewing their work.

Artists

The Pieta

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Renaissance was the outstanding artwork it produced. Especially in the Italian cities of Florence and Rome, master artists emerged who produced astonishing works of art in sculpture, painting and architecture. The devout Christian atmosphere in Italy combined with the competitive spirit of the Italian city-states created a perfect environment for the flourishing of art.

One of the first artists to incorporate new ideas into his artwork was Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), who brought unprecedented elements of realism in his paintings. Giotto, a typical Renaissance jack-of-all-trades, also designed the innovative campanile (bell tower) for the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence.

Flemish (Dutch) artists introduced oil paints, and the technique of perspective was introduced by artists like Tommaso Masaccio and Filippo Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi also designed the Duomo (dome) for the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, a breakthrough in engineering and architecture that revealed Brunelleschi’s deep understanding of mathematics.

Donatello (1386-1466) was an influential painter and sculpture of the early Renaissance from Florence. He sculpted a bronze “David,” the first free-standing nude statue since the days of the Greeks and Romans, and sculpted another famous statue of St. George. Titian (Tiziano Vicelli) (1477-1576) was a painter with an unprecedented use of color and loose brushwork, evident in his stunning masterpiece The Assumption of the Virgin. Raphael (1482-1520) also mastered the use of color and painted beautiful frescoes in churches and for private patrons, the most famous of which may be The School of Athens, an interesting painting depicting Plato and Aristotle surrounded by their pupils. He inspired the two greatest artists in the history of the Renaissance, and indeed of all of world history: Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo (1475-1564) is best known for his sculpture of a full-sized statue of David and for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, an astounding fresco that included over 300 Biblical figures (including the famous image of God creating Adam with an outstretched arm and hand that touches Adam's outstretched arm and hand). The Sistine Chapel that took more than four years to complete, and an impatient Church official who wanted it completed sooner ended up being featured in the depiction of Hell! Michelangelo also sculpted amazing renditions of Moses and “the Pieta,” a sculpture of Jesus in Mary’s arms after the Crucifixion (see above right). The Pieta has an overpowering sense of love and tragedy to it unmatched by any other work of art in history. Following Brunelleschi’s model Duomo in Florence, Michelangelo designed the dome for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) embodied the “Renaissance man.” He was an architect, anatomist, sculptor, scientist, mathematician, musician, and painter. He created masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, the famous portrait of a plain-looking woman with an enigmatic smile, and The Last Supper, a fabulous wall painting of Christ and the Twelve Apostles which has not been well preserved. He kept notebooks full of anatomical drawings such as the Vitruvian Man. It is said that Leonardo could draw with one hand while at the same time painting with the other, and he wrote backwards in his notebooks, so they would have to be held up to a mirror to be read. He was way ahead of his time and created conceptual designs for many devices such as a flying machine and an armored tank. He was the first to come up with the ideas of the calculator and the use of solar power for energy.

Characteristics of the Renaissance paintings include use of realism, perspective, individual persons (portraits) and frescoes. Nature was not the subject of many Renaissance paintings; most of the paintings were of humans, and hence the name "humanism" is used to describe this period. But do not be confused by that term, because the Renaissance artists were devout Christians, unlike the "humanists" of today. Paintings of nature rather than humans did not happen until later.

After the Reformation in Germany (discussed below), painters began to adopt the Baroque style as part of the Counter-Reformation by the Catholic Church to appeal spiritually to the audience, and to make inroads into Protestant regions. The primary Baroque artists were Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Peter Paul Rubens. This style used the “revolutionary technique of dramatic, selective illumination of figures out of deep shadow - a hallmark of Baroque painting. Contrary to the traditional idealized interpretation of religious subjects, Baroque realistically presents models from the streets.”^[7] An artist who specialized in the Baroque style was Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), from the northern Italian city of Bologna. Carracci used the technique of shadows and emotion to display the surprise reaction of the holy women who visited the empty tomb of Jesus on Resurrection Sunday, as reproduced here (see right).

Writers

Dante (1265-1321) was an early Renaissance poet, born to a prominent family in Florence. (The Italian town of Florence was considered the cradle of the Renaissance by 1425, but Venice and Rome became just as successful by the early 1500s.) Dante wrote in the Italian language of the time (the local language, like Italian, is known as "the vernacular,") rather than in ancient Latin. Dante described the path of a soul to salvation in “The Divine Comedy,” in which Dante travels through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso). In this journey, Dante is first guided by the Roman epic poet Virgil, and then he is later guided by girl he loved as a youth, named Beatrice, who had tragically died in real life. The account of Hell is known as “Dante’s Inferno,” and it is frightful. Throughout history Hell was emphasized far more than it is today, when almost no one mentions Hell in Church.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote The Prince, which is an account of government by which the "end justifies the means" (in other words, a ruler can use any means to gain power and rule his state). Even today the term "Machiavellian" is used to criticize a politician who spends all his time and effort on getting ahead and manipulating other people for his own gain. A "Machiavellian" politician is a cunning person who will say or do anything if he thinks it brings him political benefit. For centuries the reputation of Machiavelli was that he had been inspired by the devil. Like other Renaissance artists and thinkers, Machiavelli lived in Florence.

Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) was another poet of Florence, who is described by historians as a humanist. In fact, he was a devout Christian who saw no conflict between religious faith and fully developing man’s potential. He wrote in Latin rather than the Italian vernacular and, being a colorful person, he even wrote a few letters to Virgil and Cicero of Ancient Rome (who of course did not respond!). Petrarch also wrote romantic poems about a woman named “Laura” based on merely seeing her once in church. Later, humanists cited Petrarch's works to try to find early support for humanism.

The Philosophy of the Renaissance

The Renaissance was led by devout Christians who looked to Jesus for inspiration. None of the leading Renaissance artists or writers were atheists or anti-Christians. Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were as Christian as anyone. Their Christian faith was the wellspring for their creativity and intellectual achievements.

But many historians are hostile to Christianity, and they do not want to credit Christianity for the stunning achievements of the Renaissance. Accordingly, they claim that the Renaissance embraced “humanism”, which favored the capacity of man to reason and think for himself without reliance on Christianity. There is no single definition for “humanism”, and the philosophical term was not used during the Renaissance. But any view that looks to “humans” as the sole source of value can be called “humanist”.

Under an anti-Christian view of history, emphasis in the Renaissance moved away from the focus on spiritual things that was characteristic of the Middle Ages, to a focus on material, earthly things. It is true that the Renaissance men wrote about and painted everyday things, such as the woman depicted in the Mona Lisa. It is also true that the study of nature and science began to become fields of endeavor of their own, and art and literature focused more on the present life than the afterlife. But the great artists and thinkers of the Renaissance were inspired by Christianity in performing their works, and the objects of their work were creations of God. There was nothing at all anti-religious or humanist about the Renaissance. Perhaps 90% of more of its achievements were inspired by Christian beliefs and faith.

Centuries after the Renaissance, secularism did creep in. Secularism is defined as preoccupation with the material world at the expense of disregarding the heavenly one. This caused people to become increasingly materialistic, a trend in which the church often participated, rather than trying to resist. The teachings of the Bible lost importance to some. Some people rejected religion altogether, becoming secular humanists. But even later, the greatest works were by devout Christians like Isaac Newton and Louis Pasteur.

It is true that materialism crept into the church when the extravagant Medici Pope Leo X spent more money than several previous popes combined. The selling of indulgences to fund church building projects, explained further below, spawned the Protestant Reformation. But materialism in building magnificent churches or funding artists like Michelangelo is not the same as the philosophy of humanism, and the claim that humanism was part of the Renaissance is anti-Christian historical revisionism (an alteration of history for improper purposes).

The Northern Renaissance

The heart of the Renaissance was in Italy, but there were also great artists and thinkers in northern Europe who built on the achievements of those in Italy. Their achievements are known as the “Northern Renaissance.”

The leading thinker of the Northern Renaissance was Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) in the Netherlands. He wanted more spirituality in the Catholic Church and urged a greater emphasis on the teachings of Jesus. He published a Greek edition of the New Testament, and was the first scholar to become famous through use of the printing press, developed in the Northern Renaissance. But while he wrote satires about the Church that led others to criticize it, Erasmus condemned Luther and strenuously opposed the Reformation.

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was the leading artist in Germany, copying the style of the High Renaissance that combined grace and extreme elegance, a style known as “Mannerism”. Durer created famous woodcuts and copper engravings.

The greatest painter in all of Northern Europe was the Dutch artist Rembrandt (1606-1669), who drew many great portraits known for their depiction of light and shadow. The increased number of portraits by Rembrandt and others demonstrated the new emphasis on individualism in the Renaissance. Other great painters included Jan Van Eyck (1400s) and Pieter Bruegel (mid-1500s), both of Flanders.

In England, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) became the greatest playwright in the history of the world, and Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a leading English statesman, writer and philosopher, who rose to become Lord Chancellor (1618) until he was impeached in 1621 for accepting bribes.

Francois Rabelais (early 1500s) was a leading French thinker and writer.

Reformation

Schisms in Christianity had occurred in the Middle Ages, most notably between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. But throughout the Middle Ages the Holy Roman Empire maintained one Christian church in western and northern Europe, based in Rome, under the leadership and authority of one pope.

It seems doubtful that the King of England and powerful German princes would accept the authority of any religious leader in Rome forever. Kings and princes do not usually like being told what to do, and a big disagreement is usually resolved in favor of the person with the biggest army. Even what appears to be a little disagreement, such as a dispute over the use of icons, can provide the spark for a separation that was already festering for decades or centuries. In addition, accusations of corruption within the Catholic Church and charges that high-ranking clergy participated in serious crimes and immoral conduct provided reasons to leave.

The First Western European Schism: in Germany

The disagreement that ignited the Reformation did not seem large at the time. Pope Leo X was an ambitious and extravagant man from the prominent Italian Medici family, and he became pope at the vigorous young age of 37. He wanted to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican in a lavish style that he thought was appropriate for such a special church. To do so, he needed to raise a great deal of money. He invited donations in the names of the deceased, usually a relative of the donor.

Under Catholic doctrine the souls of the deceased enter “purgatory” for a process of purification before reaching heaven. Prayers are typically offered for the benefit of the souls of the deceased, typically relatives. “Indulgences” are the lessening of the punishment (purification) of someone after they die. A person typically seeks an indulgence for a dear relative or friend who has passed away.

In fundraising to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica, church officials offered indulgences in exchange for donations. No one in Rome seemed to mind, but Martin Luther objected. He nailed 95 objections or “Theses” to a church door in the German part of Europe in 1517, inviting debate on how the pope was offering indulgences:

Thesis 82: “Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial.”

Thesis 86: “Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers?”

Pope Leo X spent his time on the beauty flourishing during the Renaissance, and was a patron (a supporter) of the great artist Raphael. Pope Leo X probably never recognized the significance of Martin Luther and his followers. Some historians feel that if the pope had responded more seriously, then the subsequent schism in Germany would not have occurred.

But German nobles did not like the flow of money to Rome, and they backed Martin Luther in order to cut off the donations by Germans to support Rome.

In 1520, Pope Leo X announced the papal bull Exsurge Domine, which required Luther to withdraw 41 of his 95 Theses or be excommunicated. Luther refused and was then excommunicated (kicked out) by the Catholic Church.

It was then up to German authorities to take any legal action against Luther. The 21-year-old Holy Roman Emperor Charles V ordered him to stand trial before an assembly (a “Diet”) of estates of the Holy Roman Empire that met in Worms, a small town in what is now Germany. This famous assembly is therefore known as the “Diet of Worms.” The verdict (the “Edict of Worms”) was “guilty”. Luther was declared an outlaw who should be arrested.

But Luther had already left the trial before the verdict was rendered. He hid at Wartburg Castle at Eisenach, where Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, protected him. Luther took the pseudonym Junker Jorg (Nobleman George), grew a wide beard and dressed like a knight. While in hiding he translated the New Testament from Greek into German in 1522. (By 1534, Luther had translated all of the Old Testament from Hebrew to German also.)

Luther translated Romans 3:28 by adding an extra German word for “alone” (alleine or alleyn) after the phrase: “justified by faith”: “So halten wir nun dafür, daß der Mensch gerecht werde ohne des Gesetzes Werke, alleyn durch den Glauben.” Luther believed that man is justified (saved) by faith alone, and that salvation comes only from faith. The Catholic Church (and Eastern Orthodox Church) taught that man is justified (saved) by faith and good works.

A remarkable invention awaited Luther’s German translation of the Bible: in 1447 the German Johannes Gutenberg had already invented the printing press (with movable type). This enabled Luther’s translation to be printed for the public in September 1522. The Christian world would never be the same again. (The Gutenberg Bible (in Latin, not German), had been printed in 1455 and it is the oldest existing (extant) book in the West.)

Charles V did all he could to stop this knew Christian religion we now call Lutheranism. In 1544, Charles V even sent armies against the German princes. But the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 gave each German ruler the right to choose the religion for his state. The princes in southern Germany selected Roman Catholicism, but the princes in northern Germany chose Lutheranism. After World War II, when Germany split into West and East Germany, the West German part contained the predominantly Roman Catholic regions and the East German part consisted of the mostly Lutheran regions.

Martin Luther continued to write, and taught at a German university for his financial support. He wrote extremely harsh things about the pope and about Jewish people, even urging the destruction of their homes and the burning of synagogues and schools. Historians debate today whether Luther’s anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) writings were responsible, directly or indirectly, for the Holocaust by the Germans in World War II. Luther harshly criticized many peoples in addition to Jews; a pamphlet of his in 1545 was entitled “Against the Roman Papacy an Institution of the Devil,” and he urged burning witches to death. Some of Luther’s writings seem quite vulgar by today’s standards. Luther was in poor health for several years before he died, in 1546. Lutheranism has only 70 million adherents today, which is only about 7% of the Catholic population. But nearly all Christians, including Catholics, have sung a famous hymn written by Luther: “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” Moreover, hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide agree with Luther that justification or salvation is by faith alone.

The Second Western European Schism: in England

As early as 1361 there were criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church from England. John Wyclif (or Wycliffe) (1330-1384) was a lecturer at Oxford University, a leading world university founded in the late 1100s. Wyclif was very critical of the perceived wealth and power of the Catholic Church and questioned the scriptural basis for the pope. Wyclif declared the Bible as the sole guide for Christians, and Wyclif translated the Bible into English. But Wyclif was forced out of Oxford when he rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation and when the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381 was blamed on Wyclif’s teachings.

The King of England split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1529 for reasons completely independent of Martin Luther and the German schism. In fact, the King of England defended the pope against Martin Luther’s complaints. But a different issue arose in England that had nothing to do with theology. The King of England did not think that he should be told whom he could or could not marry by a pope in Rome. This schism was purely over power.

King Henry VIII sought a (male) heir, but did not have any sons from his marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragon. King Henry VIII demanded a divorce from her so that he could take a younger wife (Anne Boleyn) who might give birth to a baby boy. King Henry VIII sought approval by the pope to divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope refused. The king next did what he wanted and founded the Church of England (the Anglican Church) in 1529. The pope excommunicated the king in about 1535. The king then beheaded any member of the Catholic clergy (including Thomas More) who refused to bow down to this new Church of England, and seized lands belonging to the Catholic Church for the benefit of the new Church of England. Religious conflict in England followed for several hundred years.

King Henry VIII quickly tired of his new wife Anne Boleyn, and arranged for a divorce from her in order to marry Jane Seymour. He forced Anne Boleyn to be beheaded, along with others falsely accused of wrongdoing. Jane Seymour did give birth to a son (Edward) who became Henry VIII’s heir to the thrown. But Henry VIII divorced and married, and divorced and married, and divorced and married, over and over. He had a total of six wives in his life. The fate of each wife can be remembered by this mnemonic: “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.”

There were subsequently “protestant” separations from the Church of England. For example, the Pilgrims who left England on the Mayflower and landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, sought to break away from the Church of England. The larger and more successful Puritans who settled in Boston sought to “purify” the Church of England while remaining in it.

Other Protestant Movements

There was a Reformation in Switzerland started by Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) and continued by John Calvin (1509-1564), who emphasized justification by faith alone and also predestination, whereby the decision about who goes to heaven and who to hell was made before the creation of the world. Calvin established a theocracy in Geneva, Switzerland.

New Protestant churches arose everywhere. French Protestants or French Calvinists were called Huguenots, and many settled later in New Jersey where they assisted Americans during the Revolution. In 1572, French Catholics massacred many Huguenots, leaving much bitterness. The Edict of Nantes granted the French Huguenots religious freedom.

Another denomination called “Anabaptists” developed based on adult baptism and a strict separation of church and state. The Quakers, Baptists, Amish and Mennonites, including many in this country, are from the Anabaptists. The Quakers are essentially “protestant” of any Christian denomination that has a paid clergy, because the Quakers reject the concept of a paid clergy. A Presbyterian Church arose in Scotland, founded by John Knox.

John Huss (or Jan Hus) (1372-1415) was a preacher in Prague who picked up on Wyclif’s views and spread them in northern and eastern Europe. Born in southern Bohemia, Huss harshly criticized immorality in the clergy and preached a doctrine concerning the Eucharist that was considered to be heretical. He was excommunicated in 1411. A Council of Constance was convened under an “antipope” (not the official pope), and this Council tried Huss in 1414 and burned him at the stake, making him a martyr. His followers, known as Hussites, fought battles against the Holy Roman Empire with surprising success.

Though the following was not a true Protestant movement, there was a Dominican friar in Florence named Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) who challenged the authority of the pope with fiery sermons and, after his excommunication, saying Mass without authority to do so. His outspokenness against immorality in the Catholic Church and in the powerful Medici family won Savonarola many supporters at first, but eventually the people of Florence turned against him, stormed his monastery, took him prisoner, and then tried, convicted and hanged him.

Today, there are over 33,000 Protestant denominations in 238 countries, increasing at a rate of about 270 to 300 denominations each year, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) by David B. Barrett, et al. Protestants total 590 million today, about 27% of the worldwide Christian population, though it is not always clear whether a Christian denomination should be labeled as “Protestant”. Is the Anglican Church, which has 73 million adherents, properly called “Protestant”?

A majority of the United States has always been Protestant, as has every single president except John F. Kennedy (who was Catholic). Nearly every Founder of the United States was Protestant.

Catholic Church’s Internal Reformation

In 1545, the Catholic Church convened the Council of Trent to address Protestantism, and the Council deliberated until 1563. It banned the sale of any indulgences in the future. The Council also affirmed the Church’s view that the Bible and Church were of equal authority, and the Church’s interpretation of the Bible was the final authority. Both faith and good works were necessary for salvation under Church doctrine. The Council also created an Index of Forbidden Books, which listed books that Catholics were not to read. This Index remained in effect until 1966, when the Second Vatican Council abolished it. In sum, the Catholic Church reaffirmed its basic doctrines in its response to the Reformation.

Meanwhile, Ignatius of Loyola had founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in 1534. This group ambitiously embarked on the Counter-Reformation to invigorate the Catholic Church against the threat of the Reformation. The Jesuits founded numerous schools and colleges throughout Europe (and later in the United States), established many missions to faraway lands, and worked to stop the spread of Protestantism. The Jesuits only accepted the smartest and hardest working priests into their order, and to this day it is considered a special honor in the Catholic Church to become a Jesuit. The Jesuit schools brought many families to the Catholic Church for hundreds of years, though in recent times many of these schools (like Georgetown in Washington, D.C.) have been criticized for losing much of their religious flavor.

Recall that Christianity had reconverted Spain after a period of Muslim rule, and in 1478 Pope Sixtus IV authorized a council in Spain under the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I to fight heresy. Contrary to popular belief today, the initial focus was on what converted Muslims and Jews were saying about Christianity. Torquemada was the first Grand Inquisitor. Critics today make a big deal about how torture was used by the Grand Inquisitor, but torture was used by virtually all civil authorities in that time, particularly as a threat to discourage lying by witnesses (perjury). Torture could be applied only once and could not endanger life or limb. Pope Sixtus IV complained that torture was being used too often, but the Spanish King and Queen ignored his complaints.

The Muslim empire continued to threaten Spain and repeatedly attempted to reconquer it from Muslim strongholds in northern Africa. It was not until 1492 that the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella were able to defeat the last Muslim fighters in Spain. But they feared the continuing threat and told the Muslim Moors to convert to Christianity or leave. There was a small but influential Jewish community that thrived within the Moslem society at the time, and the order to convert or leave applied to them also.

After the Reformation, the Spanish Inquisition was used with less violence to combat Protestantism. It was disbanded in the 1800s. Today Spain is virtually 100% Catholic in name only, and is one of the few countries that has legalized gay marriage. Its economy is socialistic, a mere shell of the mighty empire that it was in the 1500s.

Effects of the Reformation

The immediate effect of the Reformation was to strengthen the nation-state. Rome was no longer the center of power, as England and Germany had their own churches now. Education improved, as Catholics and Protestants tried to increase their numbers by building better schools. Also, the translation of the Bible into local languages increased the used of vernacular and decreased reliance on old Latin.

But for more than a hundred years, and even longer in England, religious wars occurred between Catholics and Protestants. Tragically, Christians killed other Christians in furtherance or defense of the new religious denominations. To this day the division between Catholics and Protestants weakens Christianity in several respects and makes it easier for enemies of Christianity to prevail.

The competition between Catholics and Protestants may have some benefits. In modern times the Catholic Church was the original leader against abortion, with the Protestants eventually agreeing. Protestant evangelicals have been the leaders against teaching evolution (e.g, the American William Jennings Bryan in the 1920s). In the papal encyclical “Humani Generis” (1950), the Catholic Church prohibited teaching evolution contrary to the biblical Adam, but Catholic schools routinely teach evolution anyway. However, recent signs suggest a Catholic shift against evolution. Most Christians oppose same-sex marriage and agree on most social issues. Protestants are on average wealthier than Catholics and tend to support free enterprise more, and evangelical Protestants are often more vocal on social issues. Catholics generally prohibit divorce, while Protestants allow it. American Protestants tend to oppose immigration more than Catholics do, while Catholics tend to oppose the death penalty more than Protestants do. Perhaps the competition makes everyone try harder.

Asia in the Middle Ages

The massive continent of Asia is divided into “South Asia,” which is India, “East Asia,” which is China, Japan and Korea, and “Southeast Asia,” which is Vietnam and Cambodia, and “Southwest Asia” which is the Middle East. In this section we deal with East and Southeast Asia, discussing in particular what happened in China in the Middle Ages (other than the Mongols, who we discussed in the prior lecture).

Recall that in the ancient world China first had the Zhou dynasty (1122-221 B.C.) north of the Yangtze River. Next China had its first imperial or national Chinese dynasty: the Qin or Ch’in dynasty (221-206 B.C.), which was founded by the ruler of the Zhou vassal state Qin, Prince Zheng. The Qin dynasty began to construct the Great Wall to defend against foreign invaders, which stretches today for 1,400 miles. The Han empire or dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D 220, with only a brief interruption from A.D. 6-23) built on the foundation of the Qin dynasty, extending the walls and roads. The Han dynasty expanded the territory of China into Southeastern Asia regions of Vietnam and Korea, and administered the country from a centralized and organized civil service. This Han dynasty was comparable to the Roman empire, and lasted the longest of any dynasty in China. Its state philosophy was Confucianism. But the Han dynasty fell just like as the Roman empire did. Afterwards, China was ruled by regional governments known as the Three Kingdoms (A.D. 220-280). In A.D. 589, the Sui dynasty arose to reestablish centralized government. Subsequently the longer Tang and Song Dynasties ruled China.

Sui Dynasty

The Sui dynasty established central rule in China in A.D. 589 for the first time since the Han dynasty in A.D. 220. But the Sui dynasty ruled for only a very brief period of 29 years, until A.D. 618. However, it accomplished something magnificent: it built the Grand Canal to connect northern and southern China. This tremendous engineering achievement consisted of a canal nearly 1240 miles long, with a road running alongside it on each side. It enabled the transportation of agricultural products such as rice from the fertile Yangtze River valley to northern China. Other construction also occurred, such as repairing walls that defend China. (The current “Great Wall of China” was based on walls built as early as 210 B.C., but its present form was not completed until the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1544)). The Sui dynasty ended in a revolution against high taxes in northern China and the assassination in 618 of the emperor Sui Yangdi.

Tang Dynasty

The Tang dynasty ruled for nearly 300 years, from A.D. 618 to 907. This is known as the golden age of art and poetry in China. New territories were acquired, including Manchuria, Tibet, Korea and northern Vietnam. This territory became known as the “Middle Kingdom,” whereby it drew wealth from surrounding states through a ritualistic “kowtow”, such that diplomats from surrounding states were expected to pay homage to the emperor by touching their forehead repeatedly to the ground beneath the emperor. The Tang dynasty accumulated vast wealth for China during this period.

Many roads were built at that time, along with inns, post offices and stables for the horses of travelers. The roads were used for trade and communication in a manner similar to the Persian Royal Road and the roads of the Roman empire.

The most powerful ruler during the Tang dynasty was Tang Taizong (A.D. 627-649). He gained power by killing his opponents, but then ruled in a benevolent or fair manner, keeping taxes low.

Government offices were filled with the Confucian civil service system that valued education. The three requirements were to learn the writings of Confucius, study the Chinese classics, and pass the civil service exam. Land was distributed based on fertility of the soil and the needs of the farmers, but eventually powerful families and Buddhist monasteries gained control of much of the land.

Ultimately the peasants rebelled over the misuse of funds by the government. In A.D. 907 the last Tang emperor gave up. Regional rule by warlords then prevailed over China.

Song Dynasty

About 50 years after the fall of the Tang dynasty, the Song dynasty united China again under centralized rule. This dynasty governed for about 300 years, from A.D. 960 to 1279. It emphasized education even more than the Tang dynasty did. Art and literature thrived. Paper money was invented during the Song dynasty.

The Song dynasty ultimately collapsed from too much bureaucracy and its weak military. It was unable to fight off invading tribes like the Khitan and the Jurchen, which invaded north China and forced the Song dynasty to the south. The Mongols then took over southern China in 1279, causing the complete end of the Song dynasty.

Culture, Trade and Religion under the Tang and Song Dynasties

Buddhism spread in China in initial form of Mahayana Buddhism, which treated Buddha like a god. The Chinese version of Buddhism was different from the Indian form and was called “Chan Buddhism”; the Japanese version was named “Zen Buddhism.” Chan and Zen Buddhism focused more on enlightenment and meditation than Indian Buddhism. The Chinese dynasties then introduced Buddhism to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Confucianism changed to “neo-Confucianism” to adapt to these Buddhist changes.

Historians criticize a practice of the wealthy Chinese in “foot-binding” young girls’ feet with strips of cloth in order to make it more difficult for them to walk and work when they became adults. Historians view this as a way that men made women dependent on them, but the practice was also considered to make women more attractive and to be a sign that they were wealthy enough not to work.

Population grew during the Tan and Song Dynasties, and there was one tremendous invention (by accident) that would change the world: gunpowder. Other inventions included good porcelain (“chinaware”), moveable type for printing (which distributed Buddhist texts) and the magnetic compass for facilitating travel to Africa and the Persian Gulf. Iron production aided farmers and soldiers.

The civil servants (government workers) were the upper class, while merchants and shopkeepers formed the middle class. Trade by the Malay sailors brought goods from faraway. Tea and a fast-growing rice came from Vietnam, and the Chinese learned to plant and harvest two crops each year rather than just one on the same soil. The Chinese then exported a food surplus.

The adjacent countries of Japan, Korea and Vietnam all adopted modifications of the Chinese writing system, religion and type of government. Each of these regions, as well as present-day Cambodia, had empires of its own.

Vietnam

Vietnam, which has a large population of 84 million today, won its independence in A.D. 939, soon after the fall of the Tang dynasty. Historians describe the treatment of women in Vietnam as having been better than in China. The Lu dynasty of Vietnam ruled from 1009 to 1225 and established a capital at Hanoi, which remains the capital to this day. The Vietnamese have always been fierce fighters. They defeated three attempts by the mighty Mongols to conquer Hanoi in the late 1200s.

Korea

The Silla dynasty in Korea formed an alliance with the Chinese Tang dynasty and then unified the three kingdoms of the Korean peninsula for the first time in A.D. 668. The Silla dynasty expelled the Tang a decade later, establishing self-rule for the Koreans that continues today. Korea was thus one of the first nation-states to emerge in the entire world, and it assumed many of the linguistic and cultural features that it has to this day.

While Korea adopted the Chinese bureaucratic model, the old aristocracy remained in control in Korea. Its art consisted of lotus blossoms, flowing lines, complex floral patterns and soft edges. Under the Silla dynasty poetry also became popular, and artists developed a famous green celadon pottery.

In 935 a Koryo dynasty emerged after it overthrew the Silla dynasty. “Korea” today takes its name from the “Koryo dynasty.” Scholars and soldiers took control of Korea in 1392, after the Mongols invaded Korea from 1231 to 1350, and the scholars established the Choson or Yi dynasty.

Khmer Empire

This empire peaked in A.D. 1200 in modern Cambodia, thriving on rice production and trade with China and India. The Khmer empire built the Angkor Wat, a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu with mixed Southeast Asian and Indian art.

The Siamese, the residents of the modern Thailand (called “Siam” until 1939), destroyed the Khmer empire with conquests up until the 14th century. But “Khmer Republic” came back as the official name for Cambodia in 1970-75, and the “Khmer Rouge” was a Cambodian communist movement that savagely killed about 2 million Cambodians in the 1970s and destroyed much of the nation after the United States left nearby Vietnam. Later Vietnam communists invaded and overthrew the Cambodian communists.

References

1. ↑ http://www.m-w.com
2. ↑ An attempt to translate some Modern English words into Old English exists at http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/new_to_old_english_t.htm .
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} http://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq/history.htm
4. ↑ http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-wycliffe.html
5. ↑ http://pages.towson.edu/duncan/LukeMEPDE.htm
6. ↑ http://www.william-shakespeare.info/act3-script-text-julius-caesar.htm
7. ↑ http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c17th-mid19th/baroque.htm