Let's Touch the Surface of European History

Renaissance..,..

One of the most important eras in the history of Europe called renaissance in Italy had two phases. First phase started from 1050 to 1300. The tradition of the Roman Empire did not fade away even in the Dark Age because of various factors. For example, Crusades culturally enabled people to interact with the Byzantine Empire in the east. When the Byzantine failed, many of the Greek scholars exiled to Italy, and the inspired Italians for the establishment of this movement.
The divine comedy Dante's Inferno in the early 1300s' became the beginning of the second phases, which was 1300 to 1600's. Although the story is based on the catholic view of afterlife world, Dante used his creativity to explain the world that people had never known. This focus on human beings was very new idea because the Catholic Church had enormous power to dominate peoples' intellectual and cultural activities. Church denied subjectivity of humans and relationship to the god was the major concern.

The renaissance is translated into English as "the rebirth." In order to regain the focus of life back to people from the church, Italian scholars collect manuscripts, statues, and monuments of ancient Rome and Greek started to copy the life style. The study of Latin classics to understand human nature through pagan and writers such as Herodotus and Thucydides helped comparison with Christian thought. As a result, people started the development of humanism. It means that humans are the most important subject of the world, and they have unlimited ability to decide what they want to do according to their individualistic will.

This also led people to the secular spirit, which emphasized more on the materialism rather than religious life, and pleasure and money became more important. For example, an Italian writer, Lorenzo Valla wrote on his book called "On Pleasure" that "Pleasure on the sense as the highest good." It was the separation of people from their passive relationship to Church, but in fact, many popes in Rome supported the renaissance rather than going into the conflict.

The art became very important in the renaissance period with the influence of ancient classics. Although art was merely the way to express the abstract religious ideas until this period, Italian artists invented new techniques, and they gained much higher status in the society because wealthy people started spend more on art than warfare. Fillippo Brunelleschi used perspective in his architecture and built Santa Maria Del fore in Florence. It has an octagonal dome, which leaves us impression of more three dimensional structure. Other artists in Italy also started to adopt this perspective method in their work, and art had more varieties in expression.

In addition, those Italian artists were greatly inspired by humanism, and the focus was sifted to humans from the religion itself. The portrait of people, which had more naturalistic and realistic description, was popular. Some remarkable artists such as Donatello created bronze sculpture of David with glorious expression of human body. Elaborated further, Michelangelo became one of the pioneers of mannerism. He ignored the renaissance style of naturalistic description, and he created unusual glorification of people with exaggerated posing and colors. His work of "the last judgment is the example of mannerism

In the society, there were many thinkers trying to address the change. They aimed especially to train rulers and morality. Vergerio wrote a treatise on education that stressed on history, ethics, and public speaking, and he established an image of an ideal human being in his book called "Courtier." He believed that the ideal man should be a gentleman with many talents including both intelligence and artistic skills. This universality of humans was very important in renaissance era.
However, Machiavelli argued that morality was still important, but the political actions could not be made by morality alone. He wrote his book called "The Prince," and he held the opinion that politics had to be separated from religion. The ruler had to be attractive to the people to get the supported, but he also must be relentless and feared to be respected as mighty king. In other words, Machiavelli thought the politicians should use any means necessary to gain power. This idea of Machiavellism greatly influenced the modern study of political science.

These new social beliefs spread by the technological development of printing by Gutenberg in 1455. It made possible to publish writings in the variety of text, and European people were subject to propaganda. This invention helped them to create common identity and literacy rates were improved.

If I were to answer the question that whether or not I am a child of renaissance, I would say"Yes." It is a hard decision because I grew up in Asian culture, but Japan has historically been influenced by western culture ever since 1868. Even before that period, a Jesuit priest, Xavier, arrived in Japan in 1549. Although Japanese were not main actors of renaissance, they had cultural influence from the west. In addition, renaissance was about question of human nature, which goes beyond cultural differences. The respect of individualism became a common belief in the international community today, so I think I am a son of renaissance.

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In addition to the peoples' self consciousness about human subjectivity, another driving force of renaissance period was growth of economy. Italy at that time did not have a powerful and centralized political institution, and that fragmentation of power led people to establish strong merchant middle class. They improved their ships and started to explore around in the distant regions in the world. The trade relationship with Middle East became the major dynamics of economy in northern Italy such city state as Venice, Genoa, and Milan. The commercial competition among them was enormous enough to prevent Italy from the establishment of centralized political entity.

However, the most powerful city state, which became a center of renaissance, was Florence. Although it is not on the costal side of the country, Florence became wealthy state because of finance and woolen textile industry. One common sense of those powerful merchants was the accumulation of wealth, and those who succeeded in their business started to spend their fortune on seeking more academic knowledge and comfortable life. For example, Medici of Florence greatly supported the renaissance men such as Michelangelo in art and Galileo Galilei in scientific study.

The strong back up of rich merchants helped renaissance to be very successful.
Politically, those northern Italian cities had association of free men seeking independence from the local lords, and nobility, who attracted by the renaissance tied up with the members of merchant class to form urban mobility. Merchant class was excluded from the political power structure. Their attempt to form republican parties was not effective because of the failure to establish oligarchy.

As we learned, this cultural movement of renaissance originated from powerful wealthy people and associated with intellectual class. They enjoyed the most from the increased access to ancient knowledge and excitement to recreate their culture. However ordinary people in this period had a difficult time in the society.

For instance, the status of upper class women declined or worse. There was an improvement of educational opportunity for women, and it was a very important element for them to separate the upper class the lower class women. However, they were expected to use their education to run household. The rape of women frequently happened, but it was not considered as serious crime.

It is very interesting to see that homosexuality was generally accepted in the society. It was very important for men to keep their masculine identity, and it could not be outlaw because there were many people, who favored homosexual activity. In addition, women were not available to many men, so homosexual activity was also for economic, social, and sexual needs.

Blacks in this era were brought into Europe in 15th century. They were forced to be slaves as well as free men, so they could have a variety of occupation in Europe such as laborers, actors, musicians, and dancers. European people had a contradiction when they defined Blackness in a symbolic meaning. The diversity brought by blacks in Europe was considered as humanity, but they also became the symbol of evil in the Christian society. In fact, for rich Europeans, black slaves were the sign of wealth.

If I look at these aspects of renaissance society, it is very hard for me to say that the new changes benefited to all people. Just because the reform happened ideologically by the people at higher class, it needed some time for changes to be spread to the bottom in the society. The tradition of hierarchical system in Europe and any old customs from the previous era were very hard to change. As a result, I think the life of majority of people did not change in many ways.

Reformation....

The basic background of reformation was peoples' dissatisfaction with the Church at all levels of European society. First, many devout Christians felt that the much emphasis by Church on rituals personal salvation. The tendency of religious life of Christians changed from salvation of whole groups of people, to something more personal and individual. The sacraments had become forms of ritualized behavior that no longer sacred to the people of Europe, so they had become useless. In addition, as more people moved to towns and cities, they had more chances to think about themselves. Some of the people stated to get together with many others to discuss the issues concerning on Church.

The papacy had also lost much of its spiritual influence over its people because of the increasing tendency toward secularization. Then, popes and bishops were acting more like kings and princes than they were the spiritual guides of European people at that time.

Because so many people were now crowding into cities, people started to see the gorgeous homes and palaces of the Church in their daily life. The poor people developed their resentment toward the wealth of the papacy and the very rich were jealous of that wealth. At the same time, the popes bought and sold high offices, and also sold indulgences. All of this led to the increasing wealth of the Church and this created new terminology for abuses of every sort. Finally, at the local level of the town and village, the abuses continued.

Some Church officials held several offices at once and they were very dependent their income on people. The clergy had become negligent, corrupt and immoral. Consequently, the people began to grow their feeling that the sacraments were changed its religious meaning to seek nothing but self-satisfaction and indifference. Religious authority had become completely corrupt political institution with no religious faith in the system. Even some catholic priests insisted the need for reform. For example, Thomas A'Kempis wrote on his book called "Imitation of Christ" that Christians should seek their perfection in the simple way of life. Finally, the pope, Julius II, summoned a council to reform the Church called the Latrine Council from 1512-27.

When the authority of Church was weakened, a German priest, Martin Luther, started to play a major part in Reformation. He was born as son of a miner, who studied philosophy and law before entering an Augustinian monastery in 1505. He became a priest two years later and continued his theological studies at the University of Wittenberg, where he became a professor of biblical theology. He traveled to Rome in 1510, and he was disappointed with those corrupted clergy. Luther gradually started to developed doubts centering on fear of divine retributive justice.
Luther acted very decisively to start the reform of the Roman Catholic Church in such activities as protesting the sale of indulgences and other abuses. In 1517, he posted his Ninety-five Thesis on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Luther advocated four basic theories of Protestantism.

First, he believed that salvation was derived through faith alone, not by faith and good works. Second, he stated religious authority had to be based on Bible rather than the hierarchical system controlled by powerful Pope. Third, the structure of the church consists of the entire community of Christian believer. Finally, Luther believed that all work is sacred and everyone should serve God in his or her individual vocation. Therefore, Protestantism was a recreation of both Christian beliefs and practices. Luther's ideas were popular among all social classes because of the wide spread resentment of clerical privileges and wealth. Then, people organize together in order to join the reformation.

In Germany, for example, many of peasants took his theology into their demands for the economic reforms, and revolts by peasants spread throughout the country. The biggest bloody revolt happened in 1527, but Luther himself did not support such revolts because it became disobedience against the civil authority.

German nationalistic idea also emerged from the reformation. German local prince supported Luther because they wanted more political independence from wealthy papacy. This "patriotic" feeling prevented the money flow to Rome. Following religious wars resulted in Lutheranism to be spread, but Germany also became more fragmented. In 1555, Charles V approved Lutheranism as a legal religion, and he gave much autonomy to the local princes.

In England, more political reasons pushed the reformation. The king of England, Henry the VIII, tried to divorce with his wife, Queen Katharine, who was a daughter of Ferdenand and Isabella of Spain. However the Pope, Clement VII, refused Henry's request in order to keep the original catholic lesson of prohibition of divorce. Then, Henry decided to separate England from Catholic influence by having religious authority over England, and he established the basis for England Church. Thomas More was executed for going against Henry's decision. The creation of Church of England came to stagnate according to the attitudes of rulers over time. Edward the VI was much closer to Protestantism, but Mary Tuter tried to bring Catholic back to England. She is also known as "Bloody Mary" because she killed many Protestants for her attempt. It was Mary I, who settled this reform by establishing Church of England.

In Scotland, Calvinism gained much support of people because they also had resentment against Catholic Church. John Knox, who brought Calvinism from Geneva, tried to make Calvinism as Church of Scotland. However, Queen of Scotland Mary Stewart denied it, and 7 years of religious war resulted in the victory of Calvinism.

Because of this reformation, people including commons and monarchs became self conscious of their problems caused by the Catholic Church. They used Luther's ideas as their ideology or just as a convenient reason to justify their actions. But Luther was a kind of unsupportive to these disobediences. I think he wanted purely religious reformation rather than comprehensive social movement. Therefore, limited number of people was only really in charge of the reformation, and ordinary people just died from the conflicts. Although Luther distinguished the role of men and women, he generally promoted educational opportunity for women. Therefore, the reformation brought another improvement to women.

Religious wars we saw in this era remind me of what is happening today. Christianity and Islam came to opposite because of their different lessons, and they both are engaged in conflicts such cases in Afghanistan and Iraq. I think religious wars are the most difficult kind of war to solve because they strongly believe in their beliefs enough to make them blind. The human nature to seek their salvation in religions is always unchangeable no matter what time we live in.

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Major political ideologies....

During the seventeenth century, two important political ideologies emerged, absolutism and constitutionalism. Absolutism was developed when the countries were in the chaos of wars and any kinds of structural changes took place. Then, people wanted to have stability in the country. For example, in Europe, the religious and political power structure was changing frequently, and many of them involved with terrible wars. People stated to hope the emergence of a strong leader, who could save them from the devastating life.

Absolutism is associated with absolutist state, sovereignty, or power resided in the king, neither in nobility nor parliament. Kings are conscious of their responsibility alone to God. This divine right theory was very useful for them to glorify their prestige as a sole leader. Kings also have standing army to protect their kingship. By creating bureaucracy, kings control all the instructions in the government and secure the occupation of mobility. Absolutism became the basis for totalitarian state and had the direct control over the citizens' lives.

A good example is France. When Louis XIV came into power, Mazarin became a cardinal of France. He took over the Richelieu type of power politics, but it led people to the civil war, which damaged French economy. Then, Louis XIV, who was a catholic, favored absolutism more to overcome the dispute. The "sun king," who strongly believed in the divine right theory feared monarchs to be powerful but was very good at collaboration with them. As a result, Louis could strengthen the relationship with monarchs and his royal power. He created the Court of Versailles to be fixed institution that he could control all the policies, and it was a symbol of mighty French absolutism.

Economically, financial minister, Colbert applied mercantilism to regulate economic activity by the state. He assumed that well-balanced trade would enable France to be sufficient, and flow of gold to foreign countries would be stopped. Colbert also promoted industry rather than agriculture to create strong merchant marine. Consequently, agricultural sector of the economy declined, and people suffered from heavy tax as well as poor harvest.

The aim of constitutionalism was to limit the state power by the law, and the state is governed by rule of law, not by royal decree. It balances between the power of state and rights of individuals. The constitution is written or unwritten but government is led either by republics or monarchies. Although constitutionalism is more familiar to us, it was not fully democracy because participation was not given to all people.

England experienced the transformation from absolutism to constitutionalism. The Stuart kings of England followed the style of Elizabeth I, who had a great success with absolutism. James 1 believed in the rule of divine right, and he carried out repressive politics. For example, he persecuted catholic and puritans, which caused them to migrate to New World as Pilgrim Fathers.

The son, Charles I, was a supporter of catholic, so people feared him. Although he accepted "Petition of Right" submitted by parliament, Charles ruled the country without parliament for the next 11 years. The revolts in Scotland and Ireland deteriorated the relationship with the parliament, and they eventually went to armed conflicts in 1642. Civil war was ended with the victory of parliament, and England abolished kingship with the proclamation of common wealth. Then, the parliament had all the power and Oliver Cromwell became the leader of parliament.

However, Cromwell dictated the government just as the Charles I did. He persecuted Catholic and Jews, and censorship of press was frequent. Mercantilist navigation act brought England much economical prosperity, but it ultimately led to the commercial war with Dutch.

Parliament again decided to restore the kingship back to England. Charles II passed test act in 1673 in order to exclude catholic from the parliament. He also invited five advisors known as cabal for establishing implicit decision making system and a good relationship with parliament. James II brought Catholics back to governmental position, and this led to exclusion of him from the politics. However, people succeeded to do so without any armed conflicts. "Glorious revolution" ended the idea of divine right.

There were two thinkers associated with that different idealism. Thomas Hobbs had a totalitarian point of view from his belief that any problems in the society occur because it lacked stable government. He thought that reformation did not occur if there was a strong leader to solve with his mighty power. In addition, people will choose to give up the individuality to ensure the stability of society as a whole. Constitutionalism was greatly influenced by British philosopher, John Locke. He believed that sovereignty belongs to citizen, not to the state. He also believed that humans are fundamentally rational, and they have a right to choose their actions. The role of government is only to protect individual natural rights of life and property. Locke said people have to limit the government so that it cannot threat those rights of individuals.

It is true that the establishment of absolutism resulted from peoples' hope to escape from devastating time of war, and it brought them stable society. But excessive power given to the king led to another time of wars. For example, Louis XIV was an expansionist, who was engaged in many wars for 33 years of his 54 years of kingship. With no access to politics, people had no choice but to obey the order.

Constitutionalism in England provided people with much opportunity to their politics. But even when they abolished kingship, Cromwell exercised his power to dictate the government, and parliament finally decided to restore the kingship later. My opinion is that powerful leaders always wanted use their power to achieve their goals regardless of political beliefs, which they believe in. That was why political turmoil always existed.