©dr. john maxfield - concordia lutheran seminary · dutch historian jan huizinga’s the waning of...

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