Hey there, AP Euro!
First of all, join me in welcoming Denis Diderot to the set.
WOO!
Enlightenment.
That's not what we're talking about today, but... still glad to have him here.
You're going to see him in a textbook and you're gonna wonder where you saw him...
Tom Richey AP Euro show.
That's where you saw him.
What we are talking about today is the Northern Renaissance.
By the way, this lecture is dedicated to my boy Pete in the Great White North...
Canada!
Tim Horton's...
Where the magic happens.
Moving on...
This is a continuation of our series on the Renaissance.
Thanks to those of you who made my video on the Italian Renaissance one of the first to
come up when you search for Italian Renaissance.
If you haven't done that, go watch it.
I'll wait.
But if you have watched it, let's go on.
You're used to hearing about all these Italians and sculptures and paintings of naked people
and all of that kind of stuff.
Well, what makes the Northern Renaissance different than the Italian Renaissance and
what do they have in common?
Thanks, Ajey, for your question.
Hopefully, you're watching.
And so first of all, let's go ahead and contrast.
Now, the Northern Renaissance is more Christian than the Italian Renaissance.
Keep in mind that the Italian Renaissance championed secularism and so you see a lot
more of a sort of pagan flavor to it amidst the Christianity.
The Northern Renaissance is going to focus much more on the Christian aspect.
And then, while the Italian Renaissance was about individualism, you see that the Northern
Renaissance humanists are more concerned about broad social reforms that can happen.
How can we use humanism not only to better the self but also to enact positive change
in society?
Now, as far as what they have in common, we still have the emphasis on the classics: works
of Greek, Roman, and Biblical literature.
That's going to be something that ALL humanists have in common, no matter what their philosophy.
And speaking of the humanists, for your AP Euro exam or your Western Civ test, you're
most likely to encounter these two humanists - these two BFFs, here - Thomas More...
Sir/St Thomas More (he had both of them - pick one) and Erasmus.
Thomas More from England, Erasmus from the Netherlands.
First of all, let's look at Thomas More, who was the chancellor to Henry VIII.
He was a classical scholar, also was martyred during the Reformation.
He opposed Henry's church reforms and Henry had him executed for that.
You don't mess with Henry - not only if you're one of his wives but also if you're one of
his friends.
Doesn't matter who you are.
Thomas More is most famous to us for purposes of AP Euro as the author of Utopia.
Utopia is really part of this revival of Plato.
Remember, Aristotle's kind of the philosopher of the Middle Ages.
The humanists are very attached to Plato's works, the foremost among Plato's works being
the Republic.
The Republic is about the construction of an ideal state.
If we could come up with the perfect state, what would it be like?
Plato gets rid of the family, he gets rid of sexual distinctions and that sort of thing.
Now, Thomas More's not going to go that far but Thomas More is still going to be contemplating
this idea of the ideal state.
If we could put together the perfect society, what would it look like?
And so, this book, Utopia, which is "no place," is kind of an imitation of Plato.
Of course, you see a lot of Catholic principles, here.
Thomas More's not going to break up the family because that's a Catholic unit.
There will be no distinctions in clothing except for distinctions between men and women.
So keep in mind that More is not quite as radical, but he's setting up a very socialist
system by comparison.
Utopia has a lot of social criticism, as far as the law and order aspect of the time, where
if somebody's stealing bread, hang 'em.
Well, Thomas More's asking: These people are hungry.
What are you doing to solve these social problems?
Just hanging someone for stealing bread doesn't get rid of poverty.
So, how do we get rid of poverty?
The idea is that if we all work together, and you didn't have these big distinctions
between rich and poor, then maybe there would be a lot more to go around.
Let's move on to Erasmus, his BFF, a Dutch humanist most famous for writing The Praise
of Folly, which is imitating classical writers because in The Praise of Folly, "Folly" is
actually a person - just like Love, the Greeks and the Romans had Cupid.
They had love personified.
They had the muses.
If you were writing, you'd pray to the muses so you'd get inspired.
Folly is actually a person, here, and is going places - at one point to a religious dispute.
Erasmus says that - speaking through Folly - says that, "I went to a religious dispute.
I'm often there."
Haha You get it?
When people are arguing about religion, Folly's often there.
So, a lot of it is kind of tongue in cheek.
He's thinking about questions like, "Should the Church burn heretics?
And is there any..."
Well, you're thinking, "Well, YEAH!
Of course the Church should burn heretics!
That's the conventional thinking of the time.
I'm not advocating the burning of heretics, no matter how interesting it may be.
But Erasmus is thinking, "Where is the Scriptural basis for this?
He's looked in the Bible, which is a classical text - which is a work of Greco-Roman literature
- and he's looking through Paul's letters where it says if somebody's wayward, talk
to them a couple of times and if he doesn't come around, let him go!
He doesn't say burn them at the stake.
This is something that the Church kind of adapted over time.
And so, Erasmus is acting as a humanist by going back to these original texts and saying,
like, "Wait.
The Church isn't really following this text.
And, of course, Erasmus is sort of sowing the seeds for the Protestant Reformation by
looking at the Bible and using this as a measuring stick for figuring out, "Is the Church doing
what it's supposed to do?"
And... one thing he notes - and I'm going to show you a few pictures, here - he notes
"Peter's Patrimony."
We've talked about before how, in another video, how Peter is the first bishop of Rome
and by tradition, all of the popes have this authority passed down.
Of course, the current Pope says, "I sit on the Chair of St. Peter and I get my authority
from St. Peter."
And so, the popes kind of see themselves as looking something like this.
Here is a painting by Vasco Fernandes, from Portugal, and as you can see, here is St.
Peter, who looks like a pope, really, who looks like he's got a lot of riches... he's
got this nice throne with little carvings on it and he's got a nice robe...
He's got his nice printed Bible - keep in mind the printing press had kind of just come
out at this time.
So, there's St. Peter with his printing press Bible and he looks very wealthy.
Now, of course, alright, we look at the background and there is a fisherman so, okay, let's note
that but kind of gloss over it.
Now, Erasmus looks back at the Bible and he sees the apostles [were] simple fishermen.
They weren't rich; in fact, a lot of these people were persecuted, so if the bishops
of the Church seek to imitate the apostles, why not something more like this.
Here is an icon of St. Peter from St. Catherine's Monastery in the 6th century.
Notice that this Peter is dressed much more simply.
This Peter is holding a cross and nails to symbolize a suffering death.
This Peter is not wealthy.
This is a Peter who is much more biblical - the Peter who appears in the New Testament,
the classical text.
And so, Erasmus looks at the classics and says, "Wait...
When I read the classics, I see this guy.
Not this guy.
This one.
Not this one.
When I look at the Church, I see this guy."
If the bishops want to imitate the [apostles] then maybe they should give up some of their
wealth.
Maybe they should suffer a little bit more.
So although The Praise of Folly imitates these ancient writers by personifying Folly, its
value for European history students is mostly in its social criticism of the Catholic Church.
Erasmus is taking shots - as a loyal Catholic, he never joins the Reformation - in fact,
he has disagreements with Luther about free will.
This is something that as a humanist and a Catholic, Erasmus finds critical - the belief
in the human will, which Martin Luther and some of the reformers aren't so big on.
And so, although he's criticizing the Church from the inside, we do see some of this social
criticism - some of this humanism - that is going to lead toward the Reformation.
And speaking of humanism, another one of Erasmus' projects was to create a Greek New Testament.
Now, keep in mind that Greek was the original language, but the official Bible of the Catholic
Church was a Latin Bible - the Latin Vulgate, of course, written in the vulgar tongue - Vulgar
Latin, whereas Erasmus as a humanist was a little more elitist.
He likes Cicero Latin.
He doesn't like reading this Bible of common people Latin.
He wants to see some REAL Latin.
Erasmus wrote when he was working on this, "It is only fair that Paul should address
the Romans in somewhat better Latin."
So, once he put this Greek of the New Testament together and he consulted these Greek texts
- these ORIGINAL texts - okay, that is important: ORIGINAL TEXTS to the humanists - very, very
important.
So, once he consults the original text, he decides, "I'm going to polish up the Latin
in this official Catholic Bible, because Paul's an apostle.
'It is only fair that Paul should address the Romans in somewhat better Latin.'"
Denis, did I leave anything out?
Okay, well, that about wraps us up.
So, if you found this helpful - if you think I'm helping you prepare for your exam - please
subscribe.
There's going to be plenty more where this came from.
I'm going to try to upload a video or two a week.
Also, feel free to check out my website, lots of PowerPoints, other instructional materials.
Follow me on Twitter: @TomRichey.
Until next time, Euro...