fandomhigh | History Classes (11-28-05)

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History Classes (11-28-05)

Dewey has stacks of tupperware, all containing various bits of Thanksgiving leftovers. One might suspect they come from multiple dinners. One might further suspect that Dewey had not been invited to all of those dinners. He is snacking on jellied cranberry sauce directly from the can.

Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

"Martin Luther, man. Nailed a sign to a door and now there's all this religious hoopla about who's got the biggest piece of the pecan piety. What's up with that?"

East Asian History

"Um, I think I've run out of badass Japanese warriors. Um..." He drums his fingers on the desk. "Korea, man. Um, are they like the little runty cousin of China that never got the cool toys or what?"

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Phoebe ponders this.

"I believe he was trying to make a statement about religion and materialism?"

Lisa joins in discussion, "Whatever, I think Protestants are pretty similar to Catholics by way of persecution, and therefore piety. Their churches are just more boring."

He thinks. "Maybe he's talkin' about how Luther was pissed about the lack of piety in Catholics? At the time, that is." He grins ironically. "Modern times, my modern times, anyhow, it doesn't much matter considerin' there's no 'state' religion, so everyone does get prosecuted equally."

Alanna blinked. "Well, can one person really change religion without an underlying cause? 'Cause relegion is old, it takes milenia to build up. Things don't just change in one day."

"But it didn't just change in one day. And Luther was a prolific writer, which worked in his favor. As was the printing press, which was able to to send copies of his materials all across Germany.

He would also train preachers and missionaries at the University of Wittenberg to go and spread the word, so although he was the one behind all the ideas, he wasn't the only one changing it."

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church was very unpopular, which was partly due to structural and spiritual problems.

At the beginning of the 16th Century, Germany was not a nation ruled by a single leader. Instead, it was spilt up, with each of the smaller parts being ruled by a separate leader. However, the Church also owned one fifth of German land, meaning that it was a secular power, as well as religious.

Other countries for example, England and France, were ruled by a monarch, which meant that in those countries, the power of the Church was somewhat diminished. Because Germany had no monarch, she was ruled by the Pope, as head of the Roman Catholic Church. Having a foreigner as the ruler of Germany was not very popular among the Germans, as it meant that the taxes they were paying were going out of Germany, to Italy. Most unpopular was the fact that the money was going to pay for St Paul’s, in the Vatican City. The Pope was also unpopular in Germany, as he was morally deficient. He did not follow the celibate life he was supposed to lead – he had mistresses and illegitimate children.

Another of the main structural problems was that the archbishops and bishops bought their jobs, which meant that they were unqualified to do the job. It also meant that they had to tax the German people to pay back the debts. They were able to charge ecclesiastical taxes, as well as the ‘regular’ taxes of a landlord, if the peasant lived on land owned by the Church. Another problem concerning the bishops and archbishops was the problem of pluralism, which contributed to absenteeism. The bishops would take on more than one bishopric – pluralism, but that meant that they were unable to control them all, which led to absenteeism.

The problems within the Church also continued down to the lower clergy – the priests. There was a problem with the priests concerning the fact that many of them were uneducated and illiterate. Like the Pope, they also had problems with morality, or lack thereof. Peasantry also had to pay 10% of their wealth to the Church – a tithe. With all the other taxes on the peasants, this added to the Church’s unpopularity.

More moral deficiencies in the structure of the Church added to the unpopularity. Monks and nuns were meant to live poor, chaste lives in their orders, although many of them didn’t. They also had great social and financial power as landowners, although that also made them unpopular among the peasants.

The Church was also unpopular because many people resented the legal privileges and rights that the members of the Church were entitled to. Clergy did not have to stand trial in a ‘normal’ court if they broke the law, and this caused much resentment.

Corruption and moral laxness in the Church were also attacked by the Humanists in “In Praise of Folly,’ showing that it was a major grievance against the Church.

The Humanists also attacked the spiritual decay of the Church. They felt that confessing and repenting sins had taken precedent over Jesus Christ. As they were all university scholars, having declared that “The Vulgate” was incorrect, they went back and translated the Bible again from its original languages of Greek and Hebrew. They believed that the physical actions of repenting were not necessary as long as you were truly sorry in your heart.
However, because the Humanists were all university scholars, at a time when not many people go to university, it means that their ideas and opinions were not a reflection of what the German people thought and believed.

Most German people still supported the Church. Indulgences, pilgrimages and other forms of repentance were all still popular in the beginning of the 16th Century, which showed that they did not have a problem with the spiritual side of the Church. Only small groups had a problem with that side. Humanists have already been mentioned, but another group which had a problem with the spiritually of the Church were called the Mystics. Those who followed Mysticism believed in approaching God directly, through meditation and isolation, without needing to go through the Church.

Following the nailing of his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517, there was a great variety of reactions from the Catholics. A lot of Catholic Germans understood and agreed with what Luther was saying. They agreed with the complaints about financial abuses and foreign interference in Germany.

However, although they understood what Luther was saying, those high up in the Church did not agree with what Luther was saying. Such as Albert of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz. It was under his authority which Johann Tetzel was selling the indulgences which had prompted the writing of the Ninety-five Theses. Albert feared that it would affect the money he gained from the indulgences, as he was using the money to pay off the debts he had incurred by buying his latest archbishopric. Therefore, Albert immediately sent to the Pope for support.

Leo X, the Pope, decided that Luther should be dealt with through the structure of the Augustinian order of monks to which he belonged. He attempted to justify his actions in the triennial convention of his order in April 1518. Because he was generally supported, Pope Leo ordered Luther to come to Rome so that Leo could deal with him directly. Luther refused. So Cardinal Cajetan was sent to Germany to meet with Luther.

Cajetan’s response to Luther was to threaten him with papal authority in an attempt to make him retract what he had written in the Ninety-five Theses. He met with Luther in Ausburg in October 1518, and tried to convince him to retract his paper, first by reasoning with him, and then by threatening Luther. However, Luther still refused, saying that he would only retract his theses if he was shown in the Bible that he was in error.

However, four main groups in Germany respsonded to his ideas: the knights, the peasants, the towns and the princes. Because of the popularity and widespread appeal of Luther's beliefs, this made him more of a threat to the Catholic church, as evidenced by the 1621 Diet of Worms. Luther also had a positive reaction from "Frederick the Wise," the elector of Saxony; even though he himself was not a convert to Luther's beliefs. Frederick's support, and the continued support of the towns and princes especially; along with the use of printing and the prolific outpourings of Luther and his followers, helped to ensure that the Geramn reformation would take place and continue.

[[*cough* Hmmm... spot who studied Luther for AS history... *g*]]

Dewey snorts to wakefulness. "Um. Yes. That is correct. Right?"

"That was partially it. The materialism rampant in the the clergy was directly opposed to what they were supposed to believe in... monks and nuns were supposed to live poor, secluded lives, which the majority of them didn't. It was one of the underlying structural problems that the Catholic church had at this time."

"Korea is the small island that has things the bigger warriors want. They fight to holdonto it with everything they have."

_{[ooc: If you're teaching next semester, I *have* to get Parker signed up for your class. heh.]}

[OOC: My hope is that I never have to use Dewey. I love him, but he's a strictly functional.]

"I think he just wanted the freedom to marry whoever he wanted and to restore the abilities to leave an inheritance to his children even though he was a priest which the Catholic Church did away with because they wanted the land to stay in the hands of the church and not to go to the Priests offspring."

"But Luther himself wasn't interested that in marriage. I mean, he did eventually marry a former nun. But the historical indications show that he was more interested in restoring the structure of the clergy, and making it so the priests weren't simply second sons, who's fathers bought them their jobs... jobs that they were not at all trained for. How are you supposed to appreciate your religion if the person you look to for guidance is either absent, due to pluralism, or when he is there, doesn't have a clue what he's doing?"

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History Classes (11-28-05)

Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

Re: Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

Re: Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

Re: Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

Re: Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

Re: Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

Re: Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

Re: Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

Re: Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

East Asian History

no subject

no subject

Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)

Re: Introduction to World History to 1600 (Terran)