The Reformation began in 1453, the year that the Turks captured Constantinople. It was a time of discovery and discontent-- new ideas and worlds-- persecution and oppression.
After Constantinople fell, Christian scholars from the East came to the West bringing with them biblical manuscripts, which revealed variations in the ancient texts. A new biblical scholarship emerged as academics returned to the original sources. Western scholars, like Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), began to compare the Latin Vulgate version of Bible with the original Greek texts. Erasmus published a complete Greek New Testament in 1516 at a time when most scholars had access to only portions of the Greek scriptures.
In 1456, Gutenberg published the first book with a printing press -- the Latin Vulgate. The invention of the printing press that used movable type created a revolution in communications, Books now could be published more quickly and cheaply than hand-made books created in monastic scriptoria and therefore become accessible to the public.
By the end of the 15th century, Columbus discovered the Americas while sailing on behalf of Spain and Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, for Portugal. Of course, these lands had been there since the beginning of the world; it was just that they were new to Europeans. Colonialism began.
In 1494, Pope Alexander VI divided up the New World between Spain and Portugal, both of which were claiming it for themselves, despite the presence of other peoples who already inhabited these areas. The pope gave Spain all of the Americas, except Brazil, and gave Portugal all of the Far East, except the Philippines and Japan. Spain and Portugal established new churches at the same time as they conquered by the sword. A few persons, such as the Dominican priests, Antonio de Montesinos and Bartolomé de Las Casas, spoke out against the European church's and government's racist policies and practices.
The Protestant Reformation emerged out of conflicts within Roman Catholicism. One factor was a growing anti-papal feeling in reaction to the abuse of power by some of the popes, including Rome's penchant for spending more money than it had, which resulted in its creating more taxes, fees, and fines. The morality of religious leadership in general was being questioned, including parish priests.
Some of the key theological figures in the Protestant and Roman Catholic Reformations were Erasmus, Martin Luther, Thomas Münzer, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Menno Simons, Ignatius Loyola, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Thomas Cramner, and John and Charles Wesley.
The persecution of people for being witches, which began in the Medieval period, increased during this time. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull declaring that Germany was full of witches. Two German inquisitors, Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Krämer, published the now infamous Malleus maleficarum (The Hammer of the Evildoers) in 1489. It became the authoritative guidebook for three centuries, followed by judges and church authorities alike.
Anti-witch endeavors continued into the 1600s and 1700s, and were carried out by the Protestant authorities as vigorously as Catholic ones, in both the Old World and the New World. In New England in 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft by the Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts, were hanged. One man, who was more eighty years old, was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to be tried for witchcraft. Hundreds were accused of witchcraft; dozens jailed for months without trials, including children.
Bartolomé de Las CasasBartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1566) was a Spanish priest and historian who sought to abolish the oppression of the native peoples in the Americas. "The discovery and conquest of America inspired efforts to develop an ideology that could justify conquest and enslavement of the Indians. This ideology drew on such ancient or medieval doctrines as the Aristotelian doctrine that some men were slaves by nature and made to serve others and the teaching of the thirteenth-centuryBishop Henry of Susa (Ostiensis), who justified war against infidels who refused to receive the Faith." 1 In 1502, Las Casas sailed to Hispañola in the Caribbean. At first, he acted like most of the other Spaniards living there. Even after becoming a priest, he joined in an bloody invasion of Cuba (1513) earning an encomienda. Encomiendas were allotments of land upon which native people supposed were to perform non-hazardous work, be paid appropriately, and receive Christian instruction. Seldom did this system work justly; rather the Indians were usually serfs or slaves. Las Casas became the first priest ordained in the New World (1512), but initially he did not change his attitudes and actions in regard to the Tainos and other native peoples. About the same time, a Dominican priest Antonio de Montesinos ministering on the island began to protest the servitude of the natives (1511). He preached that those participating in the encomienda system were guilty of mortal sin. After hearing Montesinos preach, Las Casas had a conversion experience. In 1514, he became a Dominican, gave up his Indian slaves, and began a quest to ban slavery and bring justice to the Americas. He condemned the use of coercion in evangelization of native peoples. Las Casas helped to draft "New Laws of the Indies" (1542) which banned slavery and abolished the encomienda system on paper but not in reality. After this, he offered the prestigious see of Cuzco, Peru, but he chose to become Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, one of the poorest sees. He wrote a number of books, including Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies (read an excerpt), which was not published until 1875. Las Casas continued to speak out but he had few supporters. Eventually, because of threats to his life, he gave up his position of bishop returned to Europe in 1547. He continued to stand for Christian values. In 1850, at the Council of Valladolid, he debated Juan Gines de Sepúlveda, who supported the Aristolean view of slavery and the system of encomienda. Las Casas argued that no nation or race were slaves by nature. 1 Benjamin Keen, "The Legacy of Bartolomé de las Casas," lbero-Americana Pragensia, (Prague), vol 11 (1977) 57-67. |
Authority and the Bible. A religious awakening began in fifteenth century. Many people who wanted a religion that depended more on the authority of the Bible. Meet Erasmus, the man who "laid the egg that Luther hatched."
1 .Reformations: From the Fall of Constantinople to the End of the Seventeenth Century by Maxine Clarke Beach
2. Visit other web sites that have information about this time period. Here are some additional links about Bartolomé de las Casas:
Next Page: Authority and the Bible: 476-1453
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