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Fall Quest Course
October 2017
Dr. John A. Maxfield
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Concordia University of Edmonton
©Dr. John Maxfield
Summary Outline
1. The “Late Middle Ages” and the “Renaissance”
2. Humanism and the Reformation
3. Popular Piety in the Late Middle Ages
4. Printing and the Reformation
“Late Middle Ages” as a Time of Waning or Decline ◦ Dutch historian Jan Huizinga’s The Waning of the Middle Ages
(1920s)—critical of piety in this era as perfunctory, habitual, empty ◦ A better translation of his title: The Autumn of the Middle Ages Autumn as a time of harvest as well as falling leaves and withering vines
The Italian Renaissance
◦ Term invented by another Dutch historian, Jacob Burckhardt, in the 19th century. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860)
◦ Self-perception of Italian humanists in the 15th century (and later in the north) that their own age was following a period of terrible darkness and decay: The Black Death (1347-50, and sporadically through the 16th century) Very high infant mortality and short life-expectancy contributed to
preoccupation with and fear of death Moral and political corruption in the church (Great Schism, etc) Threat from and Expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe
Spread of the Black Death 1347-1351 Loss of between 30% and 60% of the European population by 1400 Sporadic outbreaks into the nineteenth century
Crisis and Recovery ◦ Rise of Conciliarism
in the 15th century as a movement for Church reform “in head and members”
◦ Resurgence of papal authority by the 16th century
The Papal Schism (1378-1417)
The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
Constantinople falls in 1453 (now called Istanbul, on the Bosphorus Strait)
Belgrade falls, 1521
Defeat of the Kingdom of Hungary at the Battle of Mohacs, 1526
Ottoman Empire existed reached
its greatest extent in the 17th
century, and existed until 1922
Suleiman I (“the Magnificent”) Ottoman Emperor, 1520-1566
Revival of Classical Styles of Architecture
Ognissanti Madonna by Giotto, c. 1310
The term “humanist” originally meant a teacher of Latin grammar and literature
Humanists and movements of educational reform ◦ Studia humanitatis: Expanding beyond the seven
liberal arts of the Middle Ages
◦ Grammar, rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry, and history as studied via Latin and Greek literary authors
The humanists’ slogan: Ad fontes—“to the sources”
Both were movements of reform Humanism reflects a commitment to
scholarship and even a broad circle of scholars but it does NOT denote a particular party or ideology ◦ Civic humanists, Christian humanists ◦ Platonists, but also Aristotelians ◦ Humanism vs. Scholasticism?
Christian humanists and the Reformation: A true generation gap
Erasmus of Rotterdam
(c.1466/69-1536) Novum Instrumentum omne, 1516,
the first published New Testament
in Greek; 2nd edition entitled
Novum Testamentum omne, 1519
Brethren of the Common Life and the Devotio Moderna ◦ A spiritual revival within the
Church, emphasizing lay devotion and education
◦ Thomas A’Kempis (1380-1471) and the Imitation of Christ
Devotion to the Saints Pilgrimages, Relics,
and Indulgences
The Isenheim Altarpiece by Northern Renaissance painter
Matthias Grünewald
“HE WHO follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord. By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.
“The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ.”
Corruption and immorality among the clergy—not necessarily widespread, but perceived as such
◦ Simony and multiple benefices
◦ Illegitimate births and concubinage among “celibate” priesthood
Resistance in the papal curia to widespread calls for reform
Popular anticlericalism
Gutenberg’s Invention: the first European to use movable type printing, c. 1450
Johannes Gutenberg (1394-1468) ◦ Books—Gutenberg Bible,
c. 1455
◦ Books and Pamphlets
◦ Indulgences
The Gutenberg Bible c. 1455
Last Page of Erasmus’s New Testament (1516)
Dedication page of Erasmus’s
Text of the New Testament (1516)
Two of Luther’s Reform Pamphlets from 1520
Luther’s German Bible
An Early Lutheran Hymnbook
Luther portrayed as the Reformer with the open Bible