Reflection Upon The Midterm

Well I'm glad thats over. For one, pumping out these blog posts isn't nearly as annoying or difficult as I had imagined it to be. Mostly because its a train of thought sort of process that allows me to write down whatever comes to mind without fear of correction or correcting what I write. Obviously I'm going to make sure everything is grammatically sound, but there's no need to perfect the style in which it is written. Anyway, back to the point of this blog. I finished the midterm at around 1:26PM Pacific Time and walked away feeling somewhat accomplished. I had completed the first half of my first college humanities course and I felt that one, I had actually learned a lot, and two, that I might not have failed the midterm. While I had procrastinated studying until the two days before the midterm I had already felt somewhat knowledgable because the material that we were learning was interesting and therefore easier to retain. I only hoped that during the midterm I wasn't hit with a wave of stupidity as everything I had learned instantly vanished from my brain. Luckily, this was not the case. Instead I recognized five out of the six identifications (lucky me) and had been looking at the images that were on the test earlier that morning. In addition the essay question was comparing Erasmus and Hans Behem. I had completely read peasant fires and found it interesting and I had ready Erasmus' colloquy earlier that week and had also paid attention. Who knew that paying attention and finding the material interesting could help you on the test? The only slip-up I had was that halfway through my brain completely forgot about the word for those things that you pay for to get time off your time spent in purgatory (indulgences..duh) and I was super stressed that I wouldn't remember what they were called. I just left empty spaces in my writing and moved on then came back to them when I finally remembered the word.. Indulgences. I guess in the style of Kathy Stewart we can blame Satan for that one. Overall though I think I did pretty well. I'll definitely be disappointed if I see anything less than a B in my gradebook.

Post 6: Overview of the first half of the quarter (The Eighth?)

Coming in to the History 004B I was definitely excited to learn, yet I had my mind set on certain things. When I thought of the renaissance and the early modern era only specific examples came to mind: The Scientific Revolution, the heretical accusations thrown at these scientists, and the great art that the renaissance was famous for. Because of this, I was somewhat surprised when the class began with a look at the black plague and seemed to focus much on the the changes in religion that were happening during this period. While I had recognized that religion was no doubt an important aspect of the Renaissance I had greatly underestimated its influence over the people of the period. Religion wasn't something that people focused on once every Sunday. It was deeply ingrained in their daily lives and was the reason for all natural phenomenon and coincidences. As a result, the power of the church was immense and the pope was arguably the most powerful person on the entire planet. The scope of his rule had no geographical boundaries like the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, but applied to every human being who believed in God above and a Hell below. It was this power, but more specifically the grasp for this kind of power, that led to the Renaissance. Money that came from victims of the plague was funneled into universities where priests began to learn and those with money could send their children for education. While the Medici began to rise as a powerful family in Florence, they recognized that the power of the pope was inbounded, and sponsored a young priest who would later become a pope himself. Through the powerful relationships formed by the Medici and the vast amounts of wealth they acquired, the medici sponsored a multitude of famous artists throughout florence and become one of the most respected families in Italy. Their family was made the official bankers of the Papacy, and their wealth acted as a catalyst for artistic, scientific, and literary innovation and learning. A new obsession with the classics of greek and rome called humanism shaped these new artworks and ideas as people began to build upon the knowledge of the "old masters." The great sums accumulated by this papacy led to a life of luxury and ease for the clergy, but created a feeling of injustice among the peasantry. Those who belonged to the hard working underclass felt cheated as the clergy was exempt form taxation and lived a life of luxury from the taxes that were collected from laborers. A man named Martin Luther ended up putting and end to this through a new form of christianity called Lutheranism which built upon the objections made by Erasmus to schism the church. This is pretty much what the entire first eighth was about, though without any of the details. At this point I have a greater respect for the power of religion upon societies and the consequences that can come form social polarization to the extremes.

Erasmus and a Pilgrimage for Religion's Sake

The early modern christian humanist, Erasmus, was a famous theologian who questioned the traditions of the church and the rituals of christianity in many of his writings. His works were later looked up to for inspiration by Luther and his contemporaries. In his colloquy, Pilgrimage for Religion's Sake, Erasmus' views on the traditions of the catholic church can easily be discerned from his generous use of satire. In this colloquy, Erasmus uses a conversation between two christians to point out the practices that he believes are useless and wrong in order to promote reform in the church. The first practice that Erasmus attacks is pilgrimage. In the colloquy, Menedemus finds Ogygias who nobody has seen for years and asks him about where he was. Ogygias then recounts his pilgrimage to a specific statue of Mary all the way in England. Menedemus, representing the thoughts of Erasmus, asks Ogygias how that statue of Mary is different that any other statue of the Virgin Mary that one could find anywhere in Europe. By doing so, Erasmus is questioning the purpose of going on a pilgrimage. His argument is that going to far away locations in order to pray at a specific site is pointless because the divine are omnipotent and can listen to one pray from any location. In addition, Erasmus also criticizes the praying to saints for pointless or unlawful help. In a letter that was supposedly written by the Virgin Mary she says that so many people pray for pointless things that it is impossible to fulfill everyones needs and that those people who's needs she cannot fulfill end up believing less in the power of Mary. Erasmus' thoughts about Catholic traditions and theological ideas are firmly represented in this Colloquy.

Peasant Fires: Its the remix to ignition; hot and fresh from perdition

As we are transported into the world of Hans Behem, Wunderli reveals a society of much tension. The great gap between the peasantry and the high living of the lords as well as the clergy created much indignation in the peasantry which was primarily directed at the clergy: lords and nobles were expected to live luxuriously; however, the clergy was not. The preaching of Hans Behem, and the many pilgrims he gained shows the general agreement and agitation among the peasants that wished for the church to live a more minimalistic lifestyle, for this was the lifestyle that god favored. Any unnecessary wealth was potentially an example of avarice. To cure this behavior, Hans Behem called for a bonfire of the vanities in which people burned their unneccessary belongings to show their devotion. These bonfires were not unique to the ideas spread by Hans Behem, but have other occurrences throughout Europe. In 1497, Savonrola held a bonfire of the vanities in the city of florence where high tensions between the classes also occurred. He accused those who did not participate to be unchristian. These ideas can be traced back to St. Bernadino of Siena and St. John of Capistrano. Both of which advocated propertylessness. St. Bernadino is accredited with the first "real" bonfire of the vanities and preached many sermons about living as ascetics. While this movement became somewhat popular with St. Bernadino it gained momentum throughout the 15th century as the lower class become increasingly agitated and tensions increase.