Reformation and Counter-Reformation

1
Reformation and Counter-Reformation

• Northern European Renaissance and England

2
Northern Humanists

• More interested in the ancient texts of Christian
  religion than Greco-Roman period
• Applied themselves to editing the Bible, and the
  writings of the Latin and Greek church fathers

3
Erasmus (1469-1536)

• Leading northern humanist
• Lived in France, England and Switzerland
• Felt ethics more important than elaborate systems
  of theology and philosophy
• Church overemphasized ritual and outward shows of
  piety

4
What is a Christian?

• Too much distinction between clerics and laymen
• Thought that doing Gods work in the world more
  important than being a monk
• Prepared a new edition of the Greek New Testament
  in Latin showed key passages had been
  mistranslated
• Used the printing press, distributing manuscripts
  throughout Europe
• Goal was to reform Christians and the Church
• Christian belief had to be reflected in ones life

5
Renaissance Life

• Education primarily for upper classes or
  aristocracy, primarily men, few women
• Clergymen see books as dangerousPeople who could
  read could form their own opinions
• Women, weak-minded should be kept away from
  books
• By 1500, spirit of reform prevails in northern
  Europe

6
Martin Luther

• Thought that the church was distorting the Bible
• Church councils, popes, and learned men
  considered equal to the scriptures
• Felt each man should be able to read the
  scripture and decide for himself
• Demanded to renounce his ideas, his refusal led
  to creation of his own religion

7
Areas of Concern

• Felt that could not earn salvation
• Some were predestined for salvation
• Church hierarchy is a man-made system, not
  ordained by God, and filled with corruption
• No need for pilgrimages, penance, masses for the
  dead, or other church rituals

8
How Luther Passed His Ideas

• Also used the printing press extensively
• Translated the Old and New Testaments into German
• Translation then became basis for modern German
  language
• Composed hundreds of hymns and established the
  Protestant tradition of hymn singing in the
  church

9
Renaissance Drama

• Companies of professional actors begin staging
  plays
• Licensed theater companies were formed protected
  by a noble patron
• Grow in popularity, despite Protestant
  disapproval
• Theaters placed outside city limits to avoid
  limits placed by the city leaders
• All classes of people go see the plays

10
John Calvin (1509-1564)

• Another Protestant reformer
• Frenchman who worked in Switzerland
• Made Geneva the center of Calvinism
• Major difference felt responsible for reforming
  society to make it acceptable for God
• Against taverns, whorehouses, elaborate clothing

11
Counter-Reformation

• By 1550, Protestantism had taken over England,
  over half of the German states, Scandinavia, the
  Low Countries, France and Poland
• Only Catholic countries were Italy and Spain
• Charles V ruled Spain, colonies in the New World,
  and as the Holy Roman Emperor Germany, the Low
  Countries, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, parts of
  France and most of Italy

12
Council of Trent

• Not only through the strength of the Spanish and
  Italians, Catholicism was aided by the church
  council held in Trent at various times in 1545 to
  1563
• This laid the groundwork for major reform
• Defined clearly what Catholics should believe
• Made administrative reforms
• Raised the educational level of the clergy

13
New Agencies of the Church

• Jesuit Order founded in 1540
• Founded by Ignatius Loyola
• Took vows of chastity, poverty and obedience to
  the pope
• Elite group of men intelligent, athletic,
  well-spoken, and deeply committed
• Given superb education became diplomats for the
  church and the pope
• Also became known as the educators for the middle
  and upper classes of Catholic Europe
• Established schools and universities

14
Inquisition

• Spanish Inquisition set up by Ferdinand and
  Isabella in 1478 to check on Moors and Jews who
  had converted but were still practicing their
  original religions
• Holy Office of the Roman Inquisition (1542)
  investigated charges of heresy throughout the
  Catholic world in Rome
• Suspected heretics, even princes and cardinals,
  would be forced to renounce under threat of death
  or imprisonment

15
Rebirth of the Church

• Through efforts of the Inquisition, the Jesuits,
  and changes made at the Council of Trent, backed
  by the power of Charles V, Catholic church
  rebounds
• By 1600, Poland, France, Austria, Bavaria, and
  many German States are all Catholic

16
Role of Music

• Palestrina composer credited with saving music
  in the Catholic church
• Council of Trent also established musical reforms
• Music had become so elaborate that the words were
  lost
• Missa Papae Marcelli or Pope Marcellus Mass music
  could be beautiful, but understandable
• Music became clearer so the words could be
  understood

17
Changes in Society

• Great economic expansion due to the increase of
  bullion, especially gold, from Africa
• Exploration of the New World also fueled economy,
  agricultural and industrial production

18
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

• French thinker
• Wrote essays on philosophical, personal, or
  social subjects
• Of Cannibals a social criticism, comments on the
  false sense of moral superiority of Europeans
  over the peoples of the New World
• Addresses the issue of what is savage?

19
England

• Under the rule of Elizabeth I, England became a
  world power
• Defeated the Spanish Armada
• Became unsurpassed in theater
• Public theaters were disapproved of by the
  Puritans and so had to be placed outside the
  London city limits

20
Revival of Drama

• Plays representing stories of the Bible become
  more elaborate mystery plays
• Morality plays replace them with stories of
  allegorical characters
• Humanists bring back interest in the ancient
  Greek plays
• Plays written in English combined the classical
  elements and medieval, Roman and English elements

21
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

• His plays have never been equaled in their
  dramatic power, philosophical depth, and
  characterization
• His poetry has enriched and amplified the English
  language
• A writer for all time

22
Influences and Types

• Humanism confidence in human powers as reflected
  in classical texts
• Reformation doubt that human endeavors amount to
  very much at all
• Shakespeares plays fit four categories
  tragedies, comedies, histories, and romances

23
The Sonnets

• Wrote 142 Sonnets
• Changed and adapted the original format created
  by Petrarch
• Ridiculed the traditional version of beauty, in
  favor of a more earthier version
• Also used the sonnet for meditations about the
  passage of time

24
Renaissance Theater

• The Globe built in 1599, many of Shakespeares
  plays performed there
• No artificial lightingplays had to be performed
  during the afternoon
• Semicircular in shape with a platform stage that
  juts out into the courtyard
• Lower-class people stand in the pit
• Upper classes sit in the galleries above

25
More About the Theater

• Orchestra was generally on stage
• Designed not just for the elite but for all
  classes of society
• Few props, no backgrounds
• Wore clothing of the time, usually donated
  clothes from the royal patron
• No females, all female roles acted by males
• Less formal, more like a nightclub than now

26
Othello

• First produced in 1604
• Created a hero who falls without any hope of
  redemption a tragic hero
• Sets the play in Venice a place of luxury and
  corruption, but full of people from faraway lands
• Iago the villain, is a Venetian
• Othello the hero, is black

27
Setting

• As a center of trade, Venice was full of people
  from faraway places
• Othello was a black Moorsomeone from sub-Saharan
  Africa
• Not uncommon in Renaissance England
• Common biases were that they were uncivilized,
  highly sexed, without religion
• Term black unclean, ugly, evil white
  beautiful, ideal, pure

28
Black and White Symbolism

• Symbolism plays on the audiences misconceptions
• Presents a black man who is inwardly pure, and a
  white man who is evil
• Difficulty of distinguishing being from seeming
  is a major theme for the play
• The alleged super-sexuality of Africans is also a
  misconception as Othello is faithful to
  Desdemona, but Iago is unfaithful to his wife

29
Tragic Hero

• Othello is a typical tragic hero because he moves
  from a state of power and good to one of
  degradation where he can no longer endure his
  life
• Like Oedipus he experiences a revelation of
  self-knowledge, and turns his hand on himself
• Combination of fate and character is seen in the
  combination of Othellos character and the
  plotted malice of Iago

30
Poetic Verse

• Play is written in blank verse or iambic
  pentameter
• Consists of unrhymed lines of ten syllables a
  weak stress is followed by a strong stress
• Shakespeare also uses prose and rhyming lines in
  the play
• Blank verse is usually reserved for the main
  characters, while prose is often used for the
  servants and lesser characters

31
Music in Othello

• Shakespeare used music to establish the scene and
  help set the mood
• Instrumental music associated with the world of
  action
• Vocal music used for the inner world of the
  character
• Music could show more effectively how the
  character was feeling than just the lines alone
  could

32
Madrigals

• Originally Italian
• Compositions of part music, with words that spoke
  of love, war, birth, and death
• Combined poetry with street songs
• Accompanied by the lute
• Used to entertain at court, streets, during
  carnivals and festivals, and at homes of middle
  class
• Madrigalisms musical sounds that correspond to
  the words sungword higher would be sung higher

33
Music

• Printing press made music available to the middle
  class at home and abroad
• No longer need a court composer to create music
  just for you
• Famous English madrigal composers were John
  Dowland, William Byrd, and Orlando Gibbons
• Favorite works of all time was Thomas Morleys
  Now is the Month of Maying