Religion

Overview

eligion was one of the aspects of the Renaissance that changed drastically over a few centuries.

Before the Renaissance, during the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was dominant in most states of Europe. The Pope was the singular most influential and feared bodies in politics. At this time, the church would be the center of all community life, especially because the clergymen were often the only people in a town who were literate. Before the Renaissance, the church was the undisputed dominant force of order.

As the Renaissance started to blossom, the church was still the center of life and a refuge from the horrors of war and plague.

However, by this time various factors had begun to act against the church's influence. As the Renaissance was re-awakening, it was also a rebirth of thought. So various people began taking up their own views and opinions of the world and began questioning the church and the Pope. The major facts that were weakening the church's influence included the Rise of Humanism, the invention of the Printing Press, the awareness of corruption in the church, and the work of individual Reformers.

The rediscovery of Humanism in probably the most influential force that powered the Renaissance. The basic concept of Humanism is the belief that all human concept of Humanism is the belief that all human beings have a capacity to reason. Humanism shows a reverend respect for the beauty of the human body and power of an individual's mind. It saw the awesome potential in each person to achieve great things, and the potential to develop his mind and body. This belief originated in ancient Greek times, in the Golden Ages when personal development and broadening of the self was seen as imperative.

When, before the Renaissance, Archaeologists discovered manuscripts and relics of ancient classical times, these new ideas of personal self- worth sprang forth into various people's mind and started taking root there. The concept of Humanism and its influence started spilling into all aspects of the Renaissance.

In art, it is best epitomized in Michelangelo Buonarotti's "David", a sculpture that accurately portrays man learning his full potential.

We see humanism in Renaissance art, literature, exploration, mathematics, science and religion - people began to start thinking independently and finding new ideas and different paths to follow.

An illegitimate son of a priest, Erasmus was born between 1466 -1469 in Holland and attended the Brethren of the Common Life, after which he joined the Augustinian monastery of Steyn. He thereafter became the Latin Secretary to Henry of Bergen, Bishop of Cambrai, and later was enrolled at the College Montaigu in Paris, where his interest in classical literature germinated.

In 1499 he visited England, he befriended Colet and Sir Thomas More. In 1506 he wrote his first book, Adagiorum Chiliades, and in 1509 his Praise of Folly, a satirical yet religious work. He later revisited England in 1511, then went to Basel in 1514 where he remained for the rest of his life until his death. Erasmus strongly believed that the study of classical manuscripts allowed the reader to rediscover the true meaning of the Bible and turn to the true values of the original church, uncorrupted as the contemporary church was This way Erasmus was paving the way for the Reformation.

Erasmus believed in Christianity of the heart, a personally spiritual association, and not in staid ceremony. He believed the Bible offered ways to improve society.

More, another Humanist, was a good friend of Desiderus Erasmus.

His most famous work, Utopia (1516) (Utopia, in Greek means "no place", but is understood as an ideal place), was a model to illustrate society's flaws. It centers on a place where there is no greed, corruption, crime nor war, and no one is in need of money as wealth is shared.

In 1532, when, More showed his opposition and disapproval of royal policy by refusing to sign the

Succession Oath (declaring that the children of Henry's second would be his successors), he and John Fisher (Bishop of Rochester) were found guilty of high treason and beheaded in 1535 on Tower Green, London.

Rabelais, a Frenchman, was another Humanist. He studied at the College de Montaigu in France where Calvin and Erasmus also attended. Although not as well - known as the other humanists, he was the author of Gargantua and Pantagruel, a secular comic adventure. In this book he pokes fun at society with simple, robust humor, yet the work does put across very serious points regarding the state of humanity, education, society and government at the time.

Rabelais believed that all people were essentially good, and should live by their intrinsic knowledge and instinct and not religious dictatorship of rule.

Before the invention of moveable type and the printing press, books and literature had to be hand-copied.

This was the job of a scribe. This process was slow and often mistakes were made, allowing no standard version of texts available to scholar and humanists, so little discussion could take place.

Centuries before the Renaissance even began, the Chinese had already started using carved wooden blocks for printing, as well as individual words and letters on blocks of wood or baked clay. Yet all this was unsuitable as the Chinese language consisted of literally hundreds of characters, making the collection of all words an unwieldy task.

Gutenberg

In the mid 15th century, Hans Gutenberg of Germany had invented a way of making suitable re-usable letters out of metal, and here printmaking started to take off. He also designed and made a printing press to print satisfactory using the design of a grape press used to make wine.

For paper, people discontinued the use of vellum and parchment, which was very expensive. Instead, a cheaper material made of old rags was used, and the new "paper" proved to be of good quality and hardiness. In 1456, Gutenberg completed one of his greatest works - his 42-line Bible (which had 42 lines of text on every page). Nine years thereafter in 1465 after Gutenberg died, printing reached Italy. Numerous books were printed following the publishing of a Latin grammar book and a book by Cicero (a Roman orator).

By 1474, printing had reached England by the help of William Caxton, who printed a history of Troy in English, and who later in 1478 printed one edition of Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.

From here on the effect of the printed word spread like wildfire all over the European Continent. Not only were there hundreds of printing presses all over Europe, buy editions of books often ran 1000 copies.

The phenomenal spread of literacy and learning was aided by editions not only being in Latin, but also in the vernacular (the language commonly spoken by the people of each country).

Thanks to the invention of the printing press, learning and humanism increased the pace of the Renaissance. New maps of the world were printed, as was music. Numerous inexpensive Bibles were printed, and in 1517 Martin Luther's Wittenberg thesis opposing indulgences was printed and had circulated Germany within 2 weeks. Luther was probably one of the best-selling writers of the Renaissance, selling thousands of copies of his books and pamphlets within weeks. Thanks to the press, Religious issues and disputes were available to all people. Now the clergy were not the only literate people in Europe, and people could afford books, and were now truly able to have opinions and beliefs of their own. The printed word help spread new ideas quicker, and helped catalyze the Reformation.

Because in previous decades the RCC (Roman Catholic Church) was the undisputed domineering political and religious power in society, no one dared object to or even consider opposing its ways. Most people were poorly educated and illiterate, giving the RCC an even greater advantage.

As they led a kind of dictatorship within an unquestioning society, the RCC'S leaders were involved with a lot of corruption. Many high priests had bought their way into a high position of leadership, and several were uneducated and illiterate.

Many priests broke their priestly vows by having illegitimate children, marrying or gambling. Pope Alexander the 6th admitted to having several children

Popes and Religious leaders had become very interested in material wealth, and were very rich and led opulent lifestyles. Many could even afford to be patrons of the arts, like Pope Julius the 2nd and Pope Leo the 10th who spent extravagant amounts of money on works of art. In actual fact, all this money was obtained in scandalous manners. One way the church made money was by selling relics (religious objects like pieces of saints' clothing or pieces of the cross on which Christ was crucified) to Pilgrims. Pilgrims journeyed very long distances to holy places and to buy these very expensive relics, which were often fake. The RCC also sold pardins or indulgences. These were in the form of slips of paper from the Pope that were a pardon for sins committed. The pardoner, or church agent, sold these highly expensive indulgences often only to raise money for the rebuilding of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, for example.

This corruption angered various people, particularly Martin Luther. By exposing the faults of what was once believed to be a blameless organization, people's faith and respect for the RCC was lessened.

By this stage, thanks to the previously mentioned factors, the RCC'S omnipotence was beginning to be doubted. People were beginning to believe in human dignity and potential, and were forming their own opinions of the church.

Also, because the Pope was based in Rome, he was having difficulty imposing control over all the countries he ruled over. The various countries' rulers were also beginning to resent the Pope who was exercising control over their countries. (Before the Reformation, all countries were Roman Catholic, therefore the Roman Catholic Pope was the central power).

Another factor that added to the RCC'S decline in influence was the fact that merchants were resenting to pay church taxes to Rome. Everyday people resented the RCC for abusing the funds brought in by the tithes they had to pay (a tithe was one tenth of a person's income, which was given to the church according to the Bible).