Topic 2.5-2.7: The Catholic Reformation, Art and Society
Topic 2.5: The Catholic Reformation
Key Concepts
KC-1.2.I.D: The Catholic Reformation, exemplified by the Jesuit Order and the Council of Trent, revived the church but cemented division within Christianity.
The Counter-Reformation was one of the Catholic responses to the Protestant Reformation.
Pope Paul III (1534-1549) was arguably the most important pope in reforming the Church and challenging Protestantism.
Rather than instituting new doctrines, he sought to improve church discipline through existing doctrine.
The Catholic Reformation was both a response to the gains of Protestantism and the response to critics within the church that abuses needed to be reformed.
Pope Paul III called for the improved education of the Clergy, an end to simony and a stricter control over clerical life.
Papal Reform and the Council of Trent
Catholic Reform took place under the charge of Pope Paul III in the Council of Trent from 1534 to 1549.
It was a series of meetings from 1545 -1563 that established Catholic dogma for the next four centuries.
Pope Paul III held the meetings in the city of Trent meant to reform the Catholic Church and to secure a reconciliation with Protestants.
Council of Trent decrees lasted until the middle of the 20th Century.
The Holy Office was established in 1542. The Roman/Catholic Inquisition was meant to prevent the conversion to Protestantism. Included a committee of 6 cardinals that had power to arrest, imprison, and execute heretics.
A system of tribunals created by the Roman Catholic Church's Vatican in the second half of the 16th century to prosecute anyone accused of a variety of offenses connected to religious doctrine or alternative religious doctrine or alternative religious beliefs. It was one of three different manifestations of the larger Inquisition after the Medieval Inquisition, along with the Spanish Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition.
The Holy Office published the Index of Prohibited Books. Catholics were forbidden to read Humanist and Protestant books.
Books that supported Protestantism or that were overly critical of the Church (e.g., Erasmus’ Praise of Folly) were banned from Catholic countries. Anyone possessing books listed in the Index could be punished severely.
Tenants of the Council of Trent
Reaffirmed the seven sacraments
Reaffirmed transubstantiation
transubstantiation: The conversion of the substance of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ at the consecration, only the appearances of bread and wine still remain.
Gave equal value to scripture and tradition
Scripture is the source of religious truth and authority
Tackled pluralism, simony, and the sale of indulgences
Every diocese had to establish a seminary and train the clergy
Priest had to be taught how to preach and instruct the Laity, especially the uneducated
For marriages to be valid vows had to be made in public, before a priest and a witnesses.
Bishops were given greater control over clergy
New and Reformed Religious Orders
The Holy Office evaluated and condemned heretical books and writings, investigated cases of heresy or conversion, and oversaw the Roman Index of Forbidden Books as well as also religious orders and theologians.
Carmelite Order of Nuns
Jesuit Order of Priests
The Jesuit order, or society of Jesus, was founded in 1540 by Sir Ignatius Loyola.
Under the leadership of their founder Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) the Jesuits were organized as soldiers of Jesus. Loyola’s guidebook “Spiritual Exercises” was used to train the Jesuits.
Their main goals were to reform the church through education, spread the Gospel to pagan peoples and fight Protestantism.
Beginning in 1542, the Jesuits oversaw both the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions (Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office)
Spanish Inquisition: persecution of “Moriscos” (Christian Moors) and Christian Jews who were suspected of backsliding to their original faiths.
Roman Inquisition: Pope Paul IV issued a papal bull accusing Jews of killing Christ and ordering that Jews be placed in ghettos in the Papal States.
Both of these led to an increase in the persecution of Jews in Europe.
The Catholic Reformation thus succeeded in bringing southern Germany and eastern Europe back to Catholicism.
Heresy was effectively ended in the Papal States; the rest of Italy was not affected significantly.
Jesuit schools became among the finest schools in all of Europe.
Ursuline Order of Nuns
Italian Roman Catholic Ursuline Sisters St. Angela Merici founded the order in Brescia in 1535. The order was the first to educate just girls and young women.
Angela and her 28 companions took the vow of chastity on November 25, 1535, and dedicated their lives to God after a vivid vision of forming a community of virgins.
Women created the Company of St. Ursula by believing in the fictitious fourth-century martyr, whose devotion was popular in medieval Europe.
Angela's 1536 rule required girls to receive Christian education to reestablish the family and Christian society
Legend
Legend has it that Saint Ursula arrived in Cologne with 11,000 virgins.
One of Attila the Hun’s chief was attacking the city and and fell in love with her. She turned down his approaches and he shot her with an arrow.
Topic 2.7: Art of the 16th Century: Mannerism and Baroque Art
Key Concepts
KC-1.1.III.C: Mannerist and Baroque artists employed distortion, drama, and illusion in their work. Monarchies, city-states, and the church commissioned these works as a means of promoting their own stature and power.
Mannerism developed in Spain as a reaction against the Renaissance ideals of balance, symmetry, simplicity, and realistic use of color. The High Renaissance had taken art to perfection; there was little that could be done to improve it; thus, mannerists rebelled against it. Works often used unnatural, acidic colors while shapes were elongated or otherwise exaggerated.
El Greco was a Greek artist who did most of his greatest work in Spain and of the greatest of the Mannerists.
Burial of Count Orgaz (1586-88) and Toledo (1597) are two important examples of his work.
Mannerism reflected and led to the Baroque ideals associated with the Catholic Reformation in the late 16th century.
Baroque Art began in the Catholic Reformation countries to teach in a tangible and emotional way the glory and power of the Catholic Church. It was encouraged by the Papacy and the Jesuits and became a prominent art style in France, Flanders, Austria, southern Germany and Poland.
It later went to Protestant countries such as the Netherlands and northern Germany and England.
It wanted to overwhelm the viewer with an emphasis on grandeur, emotion, movement, spaciousness and unity surrounding a certain theme.
Baroque architecture reflected the image and power of absolute monarchs and the Catholic Church.
Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) personified Baroque architecture and sculpture.
The Colonnade for Piazza in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome was Bernini’s greatest architectural achievement.
He also sculpted St. Peter’s Baldachin, the incredible canopy over the high altar of St. Peter’s Cathedral.
His altarpiece sculpture, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, evokes tremendous emotion.
His statue of David shows movement and emotion
He also constructed several fountains throughout Rome.
Baroque Painting
Characteristics include broad areas of light and shadow rather than on linear arrangements of the High Renaissance.
Color was an important element as it appealed to the senses and was truer to nature.
It was not concerned with clarity of detail as with overall dynamic effect.
It was designed to give a spontaneous personal experience.
Carvaggio (1571-1610)
Was Roman and is considered the first and most important painter of the Baroque era.
He depicted highly emotional scenes, used sharp contrasts of light and dark to create drama (tenebrism).
He drew criticism by some for using ordinary people as models for his depictions of Biblical scenes.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Flemish painter who worked much for the Habsburg court in Brussels (the capital of the Spanish Netherlands).
He emphasized color and sensuality; animated figures and melodramatic contrasts; monumental size.
Nearly half of his works dealt with Christian subjects.
Known for his sensual nudes as Roman goddesses, water nymphs, and saints and angels.
Diego Velázquez (1599-1660)
Perhaps the greatest court painter of the Baroque era.
He painted numerous portraits of the Spanish court and their surroundings.
ex) Las meninas
Artemesia Gentileschi (1593-1652)
She was perhaps the first female artist to gain recognition in the post-Renaissance era.
She was the first woman to paint historical and religious scenes: such as her series of “Judith” paintings.
Female artists at this time were largely consigned to portrait painting and imitative poses.
Results of the Reformation
Because of the Protestant Reformation, the unity of Western Christianity was shattered.
Northern Europe (Scandinavia, England, much of Germany, parts of France, Switzerland, and Scotland) adopted Protestantism.
Religious enthusiasm was rekindled – similar enthusiasm not seen since far back into the Middle Ages.
Many of the Roman Catholic Church’s abuses were remedied: simony, pluralism, immoral or badly educated clergy were considerably remedied by the 17th century.
Religious wars broke out in Europe for well over a century.
Topic 2.6: 16th-Century Society and Politics
Key Concepts
KC-1.4.IV.B: The Renaissance and Reformation raised debates about female education and women’s roles in the family, church, and society.
The Reformation and the Role of Women
Luther believed that a woman’s occupation was in the home taking care of the family.
Calvin believed in the subjugation of women to preserve moral order.
Protestant churches had greater official control over marriage than did the Catholic Church.
They suppressed common law marriages (which had been very common in Catholic countries).
Catholic governments followed the Protestant example.
Marriage patterns in the Protestant countries became more companionate, emphasizing the love relationship between a man and woman.
The Protestant Reformation resulted in an increase in women’s literacy.
Mothers were often expected to teach their children. Schools for girls were developed throughout Germany. Increased literacy led to the rise of a print culture.
Protestant women, however, lost opportunities in church service that many Catholic women pursued (e.g., becoming nuns).
Women gradually lost rights to manage their own property or to make legal transactions in their own name.
Women in Religious Orders
Angela Merici (1474-1540) founded the Ursuline Order of Nuns in the 1530s to provide education and religious training. It was approved as a religious community by Pope Paul III in 1544 and established a foundation for the future of young girls within the church. Through a Christian education it combatted heresy.
The Ursulines spread throughout France and the New World. Teresa de Avila (1515-1582) was a major Spanish leader of the reform movement for monasteries and convents. She preached that individuals could have a direct relationship with God through prayer and contemplation.
More Key Concepts
KC-1.4.IV: The family remained the primary social and economic institution of early modern Europe and took several forms, including the nuclear family.
KC-1.4.IV.A: Rural and urban households worked as units, with men and women engaged in separate but complementary tasks.
KC-1.4.IV.C: From the late 16th century on, Europeans responded to economic and environmental challenges, such as the Little Ice Age, by delaying marriage and childbearing. This European marriage pattern restrained population growth and ultimately improved the economic condition of families.
Marriage and Family
The status and lifestyle of peasant and working-class women changed little compared to the Middle Ages.
Rural and urban households worked as units, with men and women engaged in complementary tasks.
The family remained the primary and social and economic institution of early modern Europe.
The European family pattern consisted of a nuclear family especially with poor people that were unable to support extended families.
Wealthier people (and some landowning peasants) tended to have extended families living together.
Marriage was based on economic considerations; not love.
Parents played a large role when property was involved.
Dowries were extremely important in wealthy families but also important in common families. Dowry property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage. Women tended to play a more significant role in the economy in northern Europe.
Marriage Patterns
The average age of marriage for both men women in western Europe was between 25 and 27 years of age (this is surprisingly late); in Eastern Europe, the average age was about 20.
Class issues: the rich tend to marry earlier than middle classes, and poor tend to marry earlier too, or not to marry at all (10 to 20%).
In Italy, the age gap between husbands and wives in the middle class was larger than in northern Europe.
Increased infanticide and abandonment (among the poor) occurred.
An increase of foundling hospitals (2/3 of abandoned babies were girls) resulted. Foundlings were abandoned children. Not a hospital per se but more of home offering shelter, education, and care.
Divorce was available in Reformation countries, though limited, compared to the Middle Ages where divorce was non-existent.
Rape was not considered a serious crime.
There was more prostitution than in the Middle Ages.
Even More Key Concepts
KC-1.4.V.C: Reflecting folk ideas and social and economic upheaval, accusations of witchcraft peaked between 1580 and 1650.
Women and Witch Hunts
For generations, supposed witches helped European villages cope with plagues, famines, physical infirmities, and sterility. Usually, the old, poor women claimed witchcraft power.
The Catholic Church utilized witch hunts to dominate rural life by claiming abilities originated from the devil.
Witch hunts targeted 80% of women, considered “weaker vessels” and prone to temptation.
Most women aged 45–60 were single.
Europe's patriarchal society may have contributed to rampant misogyny.
Midwives were common and could easily be blamed for birthing deaths.
Religious battles and divisions caused panic and "witches" were blamed.
70.000–100,000 deaths of witches
Popular culture, leisure activities, and rituals reflecting the persistence of folk ideas reinforced and sometimes challenged communal ties and norms.
Women often gathered in cottages to socialize. Men went to the local tavern to drink and socialize. Blood sports such as bullbaiting and cockfighting were popular pastimes.
Carnival was popular in the Catholic countries. Excessive partying preceded Lent. Lent is a 40-day period of fasting and penance before the Easter celebration. Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.