Luther and Erasmus, Another Perspective

1970 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-469
Author(s):  
Robert G. Kleinhans
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
German Translation ◽  
Renaissance Humanism ◽  
Ecclesiastical Authority ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Greek New Testament ◽  
Intellectual Movements ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between the Renaissance and the Reformation is a major theme of sixteenth-century historical studies. Generally, the discussion of the influence of these two movements upon one another has centered on two facets of their relationship: first, the influence of the Renaissance in creating an intellectual atmosphere which fostered certain Reformation movements such as a revival of biblical studies, the rejection of scholasticism, and the undermining of the ecclesiastical authority of the Roman church; and secondly, the Reformation's rejection of Renaissance humanism because of its optimistic view of human nature. This latter relationship was exemplified in the debate between Martin Luther and Erasmus of Rotterdam, the undisputed leaders of the respective movements during the early decades of the sixteenth century. While the question of the Reformation's dependence upon Renaissance intellectual movements is usually conceded (after all Luther did use Erasmus' edition of the Greek New Testament as the basis for his German translation), there has been little evaluation of the corresponding influence of the Reformation on Renaissance humanism.

scholarly journals Military Service in Early Sixteenth-Century Lithuania: A New Interpretation and Its Implications

Slavic Review ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-256
Author(s):  
Karl von Loewe
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Compulsory Military Service ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
The Relationship

The existence of compulsory military service has become a major theme in recent attempts to explain the development of Lithuanian society and politics in the early sixteenth century. Much of the discussion has centered on the relationship between military service and feudalism. This article concentrates not on that question but on the nature of military service and the understanding it can provide of the structure and dynamics of the economy of Lithuania in the sixteenth century.

Select document: Catholic ownership of tithes: a County Wexford widow’s dispensation, 1595

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (162) ◽  
pp. 336-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Mac Cuarta
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Rural Population ◽  
Catholic Priests ◽  
Ecclesiastical Authority ◽  
Agricultural Produce ◽  
Church Of Ireland ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

AbstractDown to the mid-nineteenth century, the rural population in Ireland was obliged by law to contribute to the upkeep of the Church of Ireland clergy by means of tithes, a measure denoting a proportion of annual agricultural produce. The document illustrates what was happening in the late sixteenth century, as separate ecclesial structures were emerging, and Catholics were beginning to determine how to support their own clergy. Control of ecclesiastical resources was a major issue for the Catholic community in the century after the introduction of the Reformation. However, for want of documentation the use of tithes to support Catholic priests, much less the impact of this issue on relationships within that community, between ecclesiastics and propertied laity, has been little noted. This text – a dispensation to hold parish revenues, signed by a papally-appointed bishop ministering in the south-east – illustrates how the recusant community in an anglicised part of Ireland addressed some issues posed by Catholic ownership of tithes in the 1590s. It exemplifies the confusion, competing claims, and anxiety of conscience among some who benefited from the secularisation of the church’s medieval patrimony; it also preserves the official response of the relevant Catholic ecclesiastical authority to an individual situation.

Late Mediaeval Piety, Humanism and Luther’s Theology

1981 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 167-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Yule
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
New Churches ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Church

In his essay The origins of the French Reformation, Lucien Febvre exposes a number of weaknesses in common interpretations of the Reformation—that it had been brought about because of abuses in the church and especially because of Luther’s anger at these abuses. But what, asked Febvre, does one then make of those independently of Luther, who like Briconnet, bishop of Meaux, worked for reforms, often of a different kind to those advocated by Luther, or more especially of Lefèvre d’Étaples a mystical catholic whose biblical studies says Febvre ‘contained some very bold things’. So Febvre asked could this many sided movement ‘spring from nothing more than a revolt of healthy and honest minds and consciences against the nasty people and wicked spectacles around them?’ Why could not the ‘many pious Christians often supported by their princes and the officers of the princes put an end to the excesses which everyone deplored? No one noticed that if the Reformation in France had originated with Lefèvre and not with Luther the abuses theory would no longer be valid ... for Lefèvre had never campaigned against the morals of the clergy’. Febvre then went on to point out the evidence for the deep and increasing piety of the early sixteenth century in northern Europe—the many new churches and oratories, the deep sentiment attached to the Christ of the Passion and the Virgin of the Rosary.

scholarly journals “Sapere audite ...” Melanchthon – sestiende-eeuse humanis en belangrike reformator

2018 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor D'Assonville
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The World ◽  
Philipp Melanchthon ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Reformation History ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Terwyl Philipp Melanchthon allerweë in wetenskaplike kringe in Wes-Europa sowel as die VSA erkenning geniet vir sy reuse bydrae tot die Reformasie en die Westerse universiteitswese, is hy in sommige dele van die wêreld, ongelukkig ook in Suid-Afrika, taamlik onbekend. Dikwels verdwyn hy in die skadu van Luther en Calvyn. In eie reg was sy bydrae tot die hervorming van die kerk, sowel as die ontwikkeling van geesteswetenskappe en feitlik die volledige spektrum van wetenskappe in sy tyd egter só geweldig groot dat dit moeilik is om nie slegs in die oortreffende trap daarvan te praat nie. In hierdie artikel word doelbewus aandag aan die verhouding tussen sy rol as humanistiese geleerde in die sestiende-eeuse konteks en sy bydrae as kerkhervormer gegee, om sodoende meer insig oor die agtergrond van die komplekse reformasiegeskiedenis te bied. Abstract While Philip Melanchthon enjoys wide acclaim in scientific circles in Western Europe as well as the USA for his tremendous contribution to the Reformation and establishment of Western universities, he is unfortunately relatively unknown in some parts of the world, including South Africa. Often he recedes into the shadow of Luther and Calvin. In his own right his contribution to the sixteenth-century reformation of the church and the development of the Humanities – and in fact close to the entire spectrum of the sciences of his time – was so profound that it is hard not to acclaim him to the superlative degree. In this article, attention is deliberately given to the relationship between his role as humanistic scholar in the sixteenth century context and his contribution as church reformer, in order to provide more clarity on the context of the complexity of church reformation history.

The New Learning

1993 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rex
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Frequent Occurrence ◽  
Tudor England ◽  
Renaissance Humanism ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
New Learning

‘New Learning’ is a phrase familiar to historians of Tudor England as an archaic and somewhat arch synonym for ‘Renaissance humanism’, that is, for the revival of classical languages and literature in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its speciously authentic flavour derives from its frequent occurrence in sixteenth-century sources. However, in its original context it had radically different connotations from those attached to it by recent generations of historians. For in the sixteenth century it was employed without exception as a description of religious error – predominantly as a pejorative term for what is now variously called ‘reformed’, ‘radical’, ‘evangelical’, or ‘Protestant’ religion. It is emphatically not the case, as is still often asserted or, more usually, assumed, that the phrase was originally coined to describe humanism and was only later extended to Protestantism.1 On the contrary the modern usage, given general currency by J. R. Green and Frederick Seebohm, arose from a mere misunderstanding of the original sources. This anachronistic and potentially misleading usage remains prevalent and has helped to sustain barely articulated but none the less powerful undercurrents beneath much recent work on early Tudor humanism, namely the notions that humanism was inherently a challenge to the doctrinal status quo, that it was inherently favourable to the cause of the Reformation, and that its progress was therefore resented or even resisted by the clerical establishment. Given the meaning now attached to ‘new learning’, such notions cannot but be buttressed by the myriad instances in which conservative clergy attacked it. The scope for confusion and the need for clarification can be illustrated by juxtaposing two statements, one from the sixteenth century and one from the twentieth, in which the term is used in apparently contradictory judgements of one and the same person. In a recent and perceptive article on Thomas Bilney, Cuthbert Tunstall was in passing described in the following terms, ‘A scholar and humanist, he favoured the New Learning and its advocates; and, although he was horrified by Luther, he was not closed to reforming ideas.’

The Importance of Jacques Saurin in the History of Casuistry and the Enlightenment

1956 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-209
Author(s):  
George L. Mosse
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Scientific Inspiration

The purpose of this paper is to examine several aspects of the relationship between Christianity and the rise of the new rationalistic spirit of the eighteenth century. It is in this connection that we intend to examine the thought of the French Huguenot preacher Jacques Saurin (1677–1730). Historians have held that the two leading ideas of that century, Nature and Reason, derive their meaning from the natural sciences. Such a point of view tends to ignore the greater realism towards nature and politics which developed within the Christian theological framework itself. From the sixteenth century on, we find orthodox theologians emphasizing the need for dealing with the world on its own terms. It was not so much the new sciences but rather the conflicts of the Reformation which brought out this increasingly rational attitude on the part of both Protestant and Catholic theologians. This development went on side by side with that secularized idea of reason which is of specific scientific inspiration. The means which theologians used to make room for a greater realism in their Christian framework of thought was casuistic divinity.

scholarly journals Escaping the Reformation in the Republic of Letters: Confessional Silence in Latin Emblem Books

2008 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnoud Visser
Keyword(s):  
Religious Language ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Renaissance Humanism ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Emblem Books ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Religious Ideals ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Communicative Strategy ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractRecent scholarship has advanced paradoxical conclusions about the relationship between Renaissance humanism and the Reformation. While humanist techniques are considered to have played an instrumental role in the development, spread, and implementation of the Reformation, the humanist community is generally regarded as a supra-confessional “Republic of Letters.” This article addresses this paradox by looking at the religious language in Latin emblem books. These highly popular works emphasized a personal, intellectual spirituality, and expressed reservations against institutionalised religion. They have often been interpreted ideologically, as a humanistic, irenical response to the religious turmoil. When read in the context of the authors' and readers' practical interests, however, they reveal a more pragmatic strategy. Rather than promoting religious ideals, they used an a-confessional language to accommodate religious pluriformity. Examples of the reception by individual readers, e.g., in alba amicorum, further exemplify how confessional silence served as a communicative strategy in the Republic of Letters.

Common: The Development of Literary Culture in Sixteenth-Century England

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
English Renaissance ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Literary Renaissance

This book attempts to see the development of literary culture in sixteenth-century England as a whole and to explain the relationship between the Reformation and the literary renaissance of the Elizabethan period. Its central theme is ‘the common’ in its double sense of something shared and something base, and it argues that making common the work of God is at the heart of the English Reformation, just as making common the literature of antiquity and of early modern Europe is at the heart of the English Renaissance. The book addresses the central question of why the Renaissance in England arrived so late in terms of the relationship between humanism and Protestantism and the tensions between democracy and the imagination which persist throughout the century. The first part of the book establishes a social dimension for literary culture in the period by exploring the associations of ‘commonwealth’ and related terms. It then addresses the role of Greek in the period before and during the Reformation in disturbing the old binary of elite Latin and common English. It argues that the Reformation principle of making common is coupled with a hostility towards fiction, which has the effect of closing down the humanist renaissance of the earlier decades. The final part of the book discusses the Elizabethan literary renaissance and deals in turn with poetry, short prose fiction, and the drama written for the common stage. In between, the middle part of the book presents translation as the link between Reformation and Renaissance.

The London Lobbies in the Later Sixteenth Century

1988 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Archer
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Privy Council ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
English Society ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

Historians of Tudor government have tended to write about the relationship between rulers and ruled in terms of the ability of central government to impose on the localities things which they did not want, in particular the Reformation and taxes to fight wars. Students of the localities have written in terms of the local obstructions in the way of the enforcement of central directives. Students of parliament have examined that institution in terms of its power to block government initiatives. Students of the institutions of central government have explored their subject in terms of the degree of ‘bureaucratic’ development exhibited by these institutions, in other words, how well suited they were to the task of efficient government. But there is another aspect to the functioning of Tudor government, and that is the ways in which subjects could secure their own objectives by use of its machinery. Recent research has begun to provide some insight into this neglected topic. It is axiomatic to revisionist writing on parliament that parliament was, primarily concerned with legislation, and that legislation was as much a matter for localities and interest groups as it was for the crown. Diarmaid MacCulloch and Stephen Kershaw have pointed to the ways in which local communities turned to the central courts, and even the privy council, for support against aggressive landlordism. The accessibility of parliament, the council and the law courts, it may be argued, was a major factor behind the stability of English society in this period, offering a variety of fora within which redress of grievances might be pursued.

The Reformation Legacy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Heal
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Willingness To Use ◽  
The Relationship

Chapter 1 focuses on the first half of the sixteenth century. It analyzes Martin Luther’s teachings on images: the link he drew between iconoclasm and radicalism; his emphasis on Christian freedom; the relationship he described between inner (spiritual) and outer (physical) images; and his willingness to use the latter for instruction and commemoration. It then investigates images’ role in proclaiming the Gospel during this period, focusing on the illustrated Bibles and catechisms produced in Wittenberg and beyond. The Lutheran layperson’s encounter with the Word of God was, it shows, frequently mediated by images. The Reformation’s legacy compromised, therefore, not only a series of pastoral and doctrinal justifications for the use of images but also an experience of religious education and worship that was defined by the visual as well as the verbal.

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