Selected Readings:#1: The High Italian Renaissance

The High Renaissance in Italy is associated with three artistic giants, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Leonardo mastered the art of realistic painting and even dissected human bodies in order to better see how nature worked. However, Leonardo also stressed the need to advance beyond such realism. It was Leonardo who began the attempt during the High Renaissance to move beyond realism by painting ideal forms rather than realistic ones.

Raphael blossomed as a painter at an early age. At twenty-five, he was already regarded as one of Italy's best painters. Raphael was well known for his frescoes in the Vatican Palace and was especially admired for his numerous madonnas (paintings of the Virgin Mary). In these he tried to achieve an ideal of beauty far surpassing human standards. His Alba Madonna reveals a world of balance, harmony, and order--basically, the underlying principles of the art of the classical world of Greece and Rome.

Michelangelo, an accomplished painter, sculptor, and architect, was another artistic giant of the High Renaissance. Fiercely driven by his desire to create, he worked with great passion and energy on a remarkable number of projects. His figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome reveal an ideal type of human being with perfect proportions. The beauty of this idealized human being is meant to be a reflection of divine beauty. The more beautiful the body, the more Godlike the figure.

Another manifestation of Michelangelo's search for ideal beauty was his David, a colossal marble statue commissioned by the Florentine government. Michelangelo maintained taht the form of a statue already resided in the uncarved piece of stone" "I only take away the surplus, the statue is already there." Out of a piece of marble that had remained unused for fifty years, Michelangelo created a fourteen-foot-high figure, the largest piece of sculpture in Italy since ancient Roman times. Michelangelo's David proudly proclaims the

beauty of the human body and the glory of human beings.

Questions:

1. List the three artists associated with the High Renaissance in Italy.2. For what are each of the three artists known?3. What do you think Michelangelo meant when he said, "I only take away the surplus, the statue is already there"?

#2: The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword, But the Press is Mightier Than the Pen

The Renaissance saw the development of printing in Europe. The art of printing made an immediate impact on European intellectual life and thought. In the fifteenth century, Europeans found out how to print with movable metal type. The development of printing from movable type was a gradual process that occurred about 1450. Johannes Gutenberg, of Mainz, Germany, played a crucial role in completing the process. Gutenberg's Bible, printed about 1455, was the first European book produced from movable type.

By 1500, there were over a thousand printers in Europe who had published almost forty thousand titles (between eight million and ten million copies). More than half were religious books, including Bibles, prayer books, and sermons. Most other were the Latin and Greek classics, legal handbooks, works on philosophy, and an ever-growing number of popular romances.

The effects of printing were soon felt in many areas of European life. The printing of books encouraged scholarly research and the desire to gain knowledge. Printing also stimulated the growth of an ever-expanding lay reading public,

which would eventually have an enormous impact on European society. Indeed, the new religious ideas of the Reformation would never have spread as rapidly as they did in the sixteenth century without the printing press.

Printing--and the communication of knowledge that it made possible--allowed European civilization to achieve greater heights and compete for the first time with the civilization of China. The Chinese had invented printing much earlier, as well as printing with movable type. However, their highly structured society made less effort to use printing to increase knowledge of its citizens.

Questions:

1. What reason is given for the rapid spread of new religious ideas during the Reformation?2. Why do you think the printing of books encouraged people's desires to gain knowledge?

3. Unit IV begins in 1450. Gutenberg printed the first book in 1455. Coincidence?

#3: Michelangelo, Pope Julius II, and The Sistine Chapel

Vasari here describes how Pope Julius, the most fearsome and worldly of the Renaissance popes, forced Michelangelo to complete the Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo was ready to do so.

[The pope was very anxious to see the decoration of the Sistine Chapel completed and constantly inquired when it would be finished.] On one occasion, therefore, Michelangelo replied, "It will be finished when I shall have done all that I believe is required to satisfy Art." "And we command," rejoined the pontiff, "that you satisfy our wish to have it done quickly," adding that if it were not at once completed, he would have Michelangelo thrown headlong from the scaffolding. Hearing this, our artist, who feared the fury of the pope, and with good cause, without taking time to add what was wanting, took down the remainder of the scaffolding to the great satisfaction of the whole city on All Saints' day, when Pope Julius went into the chapel to sing mass. But Michelangelo had much desired to retouch some portions of the work a secco [that is, after the damp plaster upon which the paint had been originally laid al fresco had dried], as had been done by the older masters who had painted the stories on the walls. He would also have gladly added a little ultramarine to the draperies and gilded other parts, to the end that the whole might have a richer and more striking effect.

The pope, too, hearing that these things were still wanting, and finding that all who beheld the chapel praised it highly, would now fain have had the additions made. But as Michelangelo thought reconstructing the scaffold too long an affair, the pictures remained as they were, although the pope, who often saw Michelangelo, would sometimes say, "Let the chapel be enriched with bright colors and gold, it looks poor." When Michelangelo would reply familiarly, "Holy Father, the men of those days did not adorn themselves with gold, those who are painted here less than any, for they were none too rich, besides which they were holy men, and must have despised riches and ornaments."

From James Harvey Robinson, ed., Readings in European History, Vol. 1 (Boston: Athenaeum, 1904), pp. 538-539.

Questions:

1. Did Michelangelo hold his own with the pope? Explain why or why not.2. What does this interchange suggest about the relationship of patrons and artists in the Renaissance?3. Were great artists like Michelangelo so revered that they could do virtually as they pleased? Provide an answer based on the reading excerpt.

#4: Francisco Petrarch's Letter to Posterity

In old age Petrarch wrote a highly personal letter to posterity in which he summarized the lessons he had learned during his lifetime. The letter also summarizes the original values of Renaissance humanists: their suspicion of purely materialistic pleasure, the importance they attached to friendship, and their utter devotion to and love of antiquity.

I have always possessed extreme contempt for wealth, not that riches are not desirable in themselves, but because I hate the anxiety and care which are invariably associated with them....I have, on the contrary, led a happier existence with plain living and ordinary fare....

The pleasure of dining with one's friends is so great that nothing has ever given me more delight than their unexpected arrival, nor have I ever willingly sat down to table without without a companion....

The greatest kings of this age have loved and courted me....I have fled, however, from many...to whom I was greatly attached, and such was my innate longing for liberty that I studiously avoided those whose very name seemed incompatible with the freedom I loved.

I possess a well-balanced rather than keen intellect--one prone to all kinds of good and wholesome study, but especially to moral philosophy and the art of poetry. The latter I neglected as time went on, and took delight in sacred literature....Among the many subjects that interested me, I dwelt especially upon antiquity, for our own age has always repelled me, so that, had it not been for the love of those dear to me, I should have preferred to have been born in any other period than our own. In order to forget my own time, I have constantly striven to place myself in spirit in other ages, and consequently I delighted in history....

If only I have lived well, it matter little to me how I have talked. Mere elegance of language can produce at best but an empty fame.

Frederick Austen Ogg, ed., A Source Book of Mediaeval History: Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance (New York: American Book Company, 1908), pp. 470-473.

Questions:

1. Does Petrarch's letter give equal weight to classical and Christian values? Explain.2. Why would he have preferred to live in another age?

#5: An Early Feminist?

Renowned Renaissance noblewoman Christine de Pisan has the modern reputation of being perhaps the first feminist, and her book, The Treasure of the City of Ladies (also known as The Book of Three Virtues), has been described as the Renaissance woman’s survival manual. Here she gives advice to the wives of artisans.

All wives of artisans should be very painstaking and diligent if they wish to have the necessities of life. They should encourage their husbands or their workmen to get to work early in the morning and work until late…. [And] the wife herself should [also] be involved in the work to the extent that she knows all about it, so that she may know how to oversee his workers if her husband is absent, and to reprove them if they do not do well….And when customers come to her husband and try to drive a hard bargain, she ought to warn him solicitously to take care that he does not make a bad deal. She should advise him to be chary of giving too much credit if he does not know precisely where and to whom it is going, for in this way many come to poverty….

In addition, she ought to keep her husband’s love as much as she can, to this end: that he will stay at home more willingly and that he may not have any reason to join the foolish crowds of other young men in taverns and indulge in unnecessary and extravagant expense, as many tradesmen do, especially in Paris. By treating him kindly she should protect him as well as she can form this. It is said that three things drive a man from his home: a quarrelsome wife, a smoking fireplace, and a leaking roof. She too ought to stay at home gladly and not go off every day traipsing hither and yon gossiping with the neighbors and visiting her chums to find out what everyone is doing. That is done by slovenly

housewives roaming about the town in groups. Nor should she go off on these pilgrimages got up for no good reason and involving a lot of needless expense.

Excerpt from The Treasure of the City of Ladies or The Book of the Three Virtues, by Christine de Pisan, trans. by Sarah Lawson (Penguin Classics, 1985).

Questions:

1. How would the Church take issue with Christine de Pisan's image of husband and wife and the advice she gave?2. As a noblewoman commenting on the married life of artisans, does her high social standing influence her advice? Explain.3. Would she give similar advice to women of her own social class? Why or why not?4. How is Christine de Pisa not fully feminist (in the modern sense)?

#6: Niccolo Machiavelli on How Princes Should Honor Their Word

Everyone realizes how praiseworthy it is for a prince to honor his word and to be straightforward rather than crafty in his dealings; nonetheless experience shows that princes who have achieved great things have been those who have known how to trick men with their cunning, and who in the end, have overcome those abiding by honest principles....

A prince, therefore, need not necessarily have all the good qualities I mentioned above, but he should certainly appear to have them. I would even go as far to say that if he has these qualities and always behaves accordingly he will find them harmful; if he only appears to have them they will render him service. He should appear to be compassionate, faithful to his word, kind, and devout. And indeed he should do so. But his disposition should be that, if he needs to be the opposite, he knows how. You must realize this: that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those things which give men a reputation for

virtue, because in order to maintain his state he is often forced to act in defiance of good faith, of charity, of kindness, of religion. And so he should have a flexible disposition, varying as fortune and circumstances dictate. As I said above, he should not deviate from what is good, if that is possible, but he should know how to do evil, if that is necessary.

Questions:

1. According to Machiavelli, how should princes honor their word?2. Is the picture Machiavelli paints of princes who have "achieved great things" positive or negative? Explain.

#7: German Peasants Protest Increased Feudal Obligations

In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, German feudal lords, both secular and ecclesiastical, tried to increase the earnings from their lands by raising demands on their peasant tenants. As the personal freedoms of peasants were restricted, their properties confiscated, and their traditional laws and customs overridden, massive revolts occurred in southern Germany in 1525. Some historians see this uprising and the social and economic conditions that gave rise to it as the major historical force in early modern history. The list that follows is the most representative and well-known statement of peasant grievances.

1. It is our humble petition and desire...that in the future...each community should choose and appoint a pastor, and that we should have the right to depose him should he conduct himself improperly....

2. We are ready and willing to pay the fair tithe of grain....The small tithes [of cattle], whether [to] ecclesiastical or lay lords, we will not pay at all, for the Lord God created cattle for the free use of man....

3. We...take it for granted that you will release us from serfdom as true Christians, unless it should be shown us from the Gospel that we are serfs.

4. It has been the custom heretofore that no poor man should be allowed to catch venison or wildfowl or fish in flowing water, which seems to us quite unseemly and unbrotherly as well as selfish and not agreeable to the Word of God....

5. We are aggrieved in the matter of woodcutting, for the noblemen have appropriated all the wood to themselves....

6. In regard to the excessive services demanded of us which are increased from day to day, we ask that this matter be properly looked into so that we shall not continue to be oppressed in this way....

7. We will not hereafter allow ourselves to be further oppressed by our lords, but will let them demand only what is just and proper according to the word of the agreement between the lord and the peasant. The lord should no longer try to force more services or other dues from the peasant without payment....

8. We are greatly burdened because our holdings cannot support the rent exacted from them....We ask that the lords may appoint persons of honor to inspect these holdings and fix a rent in accordance with justice....

9. We are burdened with a great evil in the constant making of new laws....In our opinion we should be judged according to the old written law....

10. We are aggrieved by the appropriation...of meadows and fields which at one time belonged to the community as a whole. These we will take again into our own hands....

11. We will entirely abolish the due called Todfall [that is, heriot or death tax, by which the lord received the best horse, cow, or garment of a family upon the death of a serf] and will no longer endure it, nor allow widows and orphans to be thus shamefully robbed against God's will, and in violation of justice and right....

12. It is our conclusion and final resolution, that if any one or more of the articles here set forth should not be in agreement with the Word of God, as we think they are, such article we will willingly retract.

Questions:

1. Are the peasants' demands reasonable, given the circumstances of the sixteenth century? Explain.2. Are the peasants more interested in material than in spiritual freedoms? Why/Why not?3. In your opinion, which of the demands are the most revolutionary? Explain.

#8: Martin Luther Against the Peasant Rebellion

The Peasants' War of 1524-1525 encompassed a series of risings by German peasants who were suffering from economic changes they did not comprehend. In a sense, it was part of a century of peasant discontent. Led by radical religious leaders, the revolts quickly became entangled with the religious revolt set in motion by Luther's defiance of the church. But it was soon clear that Luther himself did not believe in any way in social revolution. This excerpt is taken from Luther's pamphlet written in May 1525 at the height of the peasants' power, but not published until after their defeat.

The peasants have taken on themselves the burden of three terrible sins against God and man, by which they have abundantly merited death in body and soul. In the first place they have sworn to be true and faithful, submissive and obedient, to their rulers, as Christ commands, when he says, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," and in Romans XIII, "Let everyone be subject unto the higher powers." Because they are breaking this obedience, and are setting themselves against the higher powers, willfully and with violence, they have forfeited body and soul, as faithless, perjured, lying, disobedient knaves and scoundrels are wont to do....

In the second place, they are starting a rebellion, and violently robbing and plundering monasteries and castles which are not theirs, by which they have a second time deserved death in body and soul, if only as highwaymen and murderers....For rebellion is not simpler murder, but is like a great fire, which attacks and lays waste a whole land....Therefore, let everyone who can, smile,

slay and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful or devilish than a rebel....

In the third place, they cloak this terrible and horrible sin with the Gospel, call themselves "Christian brothers," receive oaths and homage, and compel people to hold with them to these abominations. Thus they become the greatest of all blasphemers of God and slanderers of his holy Name, serving the devil, under the outward appearance of the Gospel, thus earning death in body and soul ten times over....It does not help the peasants, when they pretend that, according to Genesis I and II, all things were created free and common, and that all of us alike have been baptized....For baptism does not make men free in body and property, but in soul; and the Gospel does not make goods common. Since the peasants, then, have brought both God and man down upon them and are already so many times guilty of death in body and soul....I must instruct the worldly governors how they are to act in the matter with a clear conscience.

First, I will not oppose a ruler who, even though he does not tolerate the Gospel, will smite and punish these peasants without offering to submit the case to judgment. For he is within his rights, since the peasants are not contending any longer for the Gospel, but have become faithless, perjured, disobedient, rebellious murderers, robbers and blasphemers, whom even heathen rulers have the right and power to punish; nay, it is their duty to punish them, for it is just for this purpose that they bear the sword, and are "the ministers of God upon him that doeth evil."

Questions:

1. How did Luther justify his case against the peasants in the first paragraph?2. What was Luther's view on rebellion vs. murder?3. Why did Luther support "heathen rulers"?4. Why was the timing of this publication suspect? Explain.5. After reading both excerpts regarding the German peasant revolts, was Martin Luther correct in his assessment of the peasants? Explain.

#9: Jean Calvin's Rules Governing Genevan Moral Behavior

During Calvin's lifetime, Geneva gained the reputation of being a model evangelical city. Persecuted Protestants in the outside world considered it Europe's freest and most godly city. Strict moral enforcement made practice conform with faith. It also gave the city and the new church the order they needed to survive against their enemies. The following selections are from ordinances governing the village churches around Geneva.

Concerning the Time of Assembling at ChurchThat the temples be closed for the rest of the time [when religious services are not being held] in order that no one shall enter therein out of hours, impelled thereto by superstition, and if any one be found engaged in any special act of devotion therein or near by he shall be admonished for it: if it be found to be of a superstitious nature for which simple correction is inadequate, then he shall be chastised.

BlasphemyWhoever shall have blasphemed, swearing by the body or by the blood of our Lord, or in similar manner, he shall be made to kiss the earth for the first offence, for the second to pay 5 sous, and for the third 6 sous, and for the last offence be put in the pillory for one hour.

Drunkenness1. That no one shall invite another to drink under penalty of 3 sous.

2. That taverns shall be closed during the sermon, under penalty that the tavern-

keeper shall pay 3 sous, and whoever may be found therein shall pay the same amount.

3. If any one be found intoxicated he shall pay for the first offence 3 sous and shall be remanded to the consistory; for the second offence he shall be held to pay the sum of 6 sous, and for the third 10 sous and be put in prison.

4. That no one shall make roiaumes [great feasts] under the penalty of 10 sous.

Songs and DancesIf any one sing immoral, dissolute or outrageous songs, or dance the virollet or other dance, he shall be put in prison for three days and then sent to the consistory.

UsuryThat no one shall take upon interest or profit more than five per cent upon penalty of confiscation of the principal and of being condemned to make restitution as the case may demand.

GamesThat no one shall play at any dissolute game or at any game whatsoever it may be, neither for gold nor silver nor for any excessive stake, upon penalty of 5 sous and forfeiture of stake played for.

Questions:

1. Are Calvin's rules designed to protect the Reformation? Explain.2. What do these rules suggest that he fears most?3. Are the penalties heavy or slaps on the wrist? Provide examples.4. Is it a sign of failure of his reform that the Genevan people never stopped doing these things? Why or why not?

#10: The Most Catholic King of Spain

After the abdication of Charles V in 1556, his son Philip II became king of Spain at the age of twenty-nine. Modern historical opinions of Philip II have varied widely. Some Protestant historians have viewed him as a moral monster, but Catholic apologists have commended him for his sincerity and sense of responsibility. These selections include an assessment of Philip II by a contemporary, the Venetian ambassador to Spain, and a section from a letter by Philip II to his daughters, revealing the more loving side of the king.

Suriano, An Estimate of Philip II

The Catholic king was born in Spain, in the month of May, 1527, and spent a great part of his youth in that kingdom. Here, in accordance with the customs of the country and the wishes of his father and mother, ...he was treated with all the deference and respect which seemed due to the son of the greatest emperor whom Christendom had ever had, and to the heir to such a number of realms and to such grandeur. As a result of this education, when the king left Spain for the first time and visited Flanders, passing on his way through Italy and Germany, he everywhere made an impression of haughtiness and severity, so that the Italians liked him but little, the Flemings were quite disgusted with him,

and the Germans hated him heartily. But when he had been warned by the cardinal of Trent and his aunt, and above all by his father, that his haughtiness was not in place in a prince destined to rule over a number of nations so different in manners and sentiment, he altered his manner so completely that on his second journey, when we went to England, he everywhere exhibited such distinguished mildness and affability that no prince has ever surpassed him in these traits....

In the king's eyes no nation is superior to the Spaniards. It is among them that he lives, it is they that he consults, and it is they that direct his policy; in all this he is acting quite contrary to the habit of his father. He thinks little of the Italians and Flemish and still less of the Germans. Although he may employ the chief men of all the countries over which he rules, he admits none of them to his secret counsels, but utilizes their services only in military affairs, and then perhaps not so much because he really esteems them, as in the hope that he will in this way prevent his enemies from making use of them.

A Letter of Philip II to His Daughters

It is good news for me to learn that you are so well. It seems to me that your little sister is getting her eye teeth pretty early. Perhaps they are in place of the two which I am on the point of losing and which I shall probably no longer have when I get back. But if I had nothing worse to trouble me, that might pass....

I am sending you also some roses and an orange flower, just to let you see that we have them here [Lisbon]. Calabres brings me bunches of both of these flowers every day, and we have had violets for a long time....After this rainy time I imagine that you will be having flowers, too, by the time my sister arrives, or soon after. God keep you as I would have him!

Questions:

1. Why did so many European subjects dislike Philip II so much?2. How did this reaction change his behavior?3. How did Philip II use his non-Spanish European leaders to his own benefit?4. How does Philip II's letter paint a different picture of his personality?