Week 7 Blog Post

Erasmus and the Age of Reformation Ch. 19-21

This week in my book it mainly chose to detail the closing of this man's gate to life. As his life slowly came to a close, he tried to finish most of his life's works, most likely just so that he would not have any regrets. I personally cannot blame the man for taking this route, not to mention that his works are still vital in modern day studies. He wrote many books against Luther and his methods during the Reformation because he personally was against the radical behavior. He remained faithful to the Catholic church throughout his entire life, although near the end he apparently did falter in his belief. It was said that even though he never truly rebelled against the Church, he did not receive proper burial rights, much less even a priest. He supposedly fell ill and passed away, although the book did not note what caused his death, I looked it up and supposedly it was the equivalent of diarrhea. I can't even imagine how frustrating it must have been for him to get so far and then be stopped by a disease. Unfortunately, he must have expected to live for longer in order to continue his work, but he did end up passing before he could. The book did not particularly detail what happened before he died, but I would assume that not a whole lot happened anyways. 

This book had many strengths, although some of its weaknesses held it back from telling what it needed to. Some of its flaws were that it did not actually discuss events that occurred in his life, but rather chose to analyze them. I don't think that analysis is wrong, just that it is difficult to understand the points they bring up when I am missing half or more of the context. This did not occur heavily, although it showed up enough to leave a sour image of the book for me. This book did present its information quite well though, it would space out what happened properly and chronologically for the most part, making it easy to follow. I would personally not recommend reading this book without having a basic understanding of the Reformation of the Catholic Church, because otherwise people may misinterpret what the book is saying. Quite a bit of Erasmus' texts and actions may seem to almost match a lunatic in the way he got to the choices, so people may get the wrong idea. The book also did not particularly go over how his work affected the people of that time, so the reader is left with figuring out how his work could have changed people's thinking. Since I have an above average understand of what happened during the Reformation due to multiple classes going over it, I knew how his work changed people, although readers with a basic comprehension almost draw the short end of the stick. Well, I suppose that is enough ranting for myself, overall I would rate this book highly on quality of information, sub par on presentation, and a low score on analysis. I would personally not recommend this to somebody who wants to learn, although it does have quite a bit of good information.

Week 6 Blog Post

Erasmus and the Age of Reformation Ch. 16-18

This week I read mostly about how Erasmus felt about the reformation and quite a bit about Luther as well. Erasmus did not exactly agree with Luther's points, he was actually quite against what Luther believed in, insulting him to a certain point. This felt strange because Erasmus did actually have quite a bit of the same views, so I would have expected them to have found some common ground. Had it not been for the way Luther spoke perhaps, maybe they could have been on better terms. The reformation brought quite a bit of obstacles as well that impeded on how Erasmus might have wanted to travel and study abroad. He was basically confined to certain towns at points because he feared for his life if he chose to travel, at the possibility of being attacked by members of the church or even people who were against the church. The way Erasmus felt towards the reformation as a whole just surprised me, because he always seemed like the person who would enjoy change, and the kind of person who would like to be able to write what he wanted without fearing for his life.

I personally found it strange how much Erasmus actually had to defend himself against the ties people would artificially form between him and Luther. He had no clear connections other than a strong dislike towards him, so when people began to lob insults and ridicule him for possibly having a connection to Luther, it makes perfect sense why he never actually wanted to work alongside him. If he had, it could have been extremely detrimental to everything that he had built up through his work. I personally felt quite bad for this man, it must have been terrible for him to have to deal with constant false public statements, not to mention the fact that people believed it all. This rings true even in modern day, the moment somebody hears something negative about a person, they immediately believe it. It was quite impressive how he managed to deflect all of the negativity even though they was barely a positive for him within the criticism. 

Dan Carlin Prophets of Doom Podcast Blog Post

This podcast mentioned the Anabaptist revolt within Munster, Germany near the middle of the podcast. This event began with the Anabaptist rebelling from the formal government of the city of Munster and forming their own communal sectarian government, although Dan Carlin viewed it as a sort of communist state. It began with a group of fairly influential people who got the impoverished to vote for their group in order to form a theocracy. Although it began pretty well, it ended up turning into a sort of dictatorship, with people being executed for not following certain laws or for just not necessarily believing in everything they were told. This became semi-normal for a certain bit of time until somebody staged for a fairly influential member to rise to power through the word of God. This all happened whilst the bishop of the area, who had been exiled, attempted to siege the town and reinstate Catholic law. All of the attempts were less than successful, with the Anabaptist fending them off and forcing them to retreat. After a certain point, the bishop starved out the city, allowing for a siege and execution of the main political leaders and other prominent leaders, which brought by the Catholic central power to the city.
The Anabaptist movement held quite a bit of inspiration from Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and other major reformation leaders. While Luther was not about the aggressive form of the reformation, he did teach that instead of a Pope deciding who goes to heaven, the bible should teach one how to be faithful and have an altruistic view to God. Those ideas were some of the major beliefs that the Anabaptist held, the idea that God is the one who decides whether a person should go to Heaven, not a priest or Pope. Zwingli had similar beliefs to Luther in the sense that the Church should not hold as much power as it did, although he was much more about the aggressive viewpoint of standing up for a person's beliefs with arms. This tied right in with the Anabaptist's views, where they literally put up battles with the bishop's armies, unlike Luther who tried to reason with the Church and get them to believe in his views, or at least accept them. Calvin was sort of the oddball out in this situation, until he came to lead his own theocracy. He was extremely passive and never straight up fought for his ideals, although he did with words on paper. Once he came into power, he became much like the dictatorship that sort of formed within Munster, where he would basically separate people from God unless they followed the laws that were enacted.
People generally did not accept the Anabaptist views and practices, and were pretty brutal with their backlash. They believed that children should not be baptized until they have the mental capacity to decide for themselves, which makes perfect sense if one thinks about it. Of course, nobody really thinks if it conflicts with their ideals, so what they would do is drown the person and call it their, "third baptism." This was considered comical, which was beyond cruel because they were basically killing people and insulting all they stood for with one fell swoop. Personally, I would not blame the Anabaptist when they adopted their radical beliefs, because they never truly got the chance to express their opinions without the possibility of execution. This rung out all across history, almost every radical vision began because of a minority's beliefs being oppressed or just straight up denied. It is just stunning that people just refuse to accept another person's point of view, and even go so far as to kill another just so they can prove a point almost.
I personally quite enjoyed the podcast overall, the content was elaborate, interesting, and he shed light on interesting points. Dan Carlin kind of reminded me of Martin Luther, in a sense that he could see that these acts were horrible, and he was able to express why they were. He not only made me think about how the people were given a brutal impediment in terms of thought production and reasoning, and how blessed modern culture is to have such a free and lavish way of thinking. Modern standards make things that some people went through in those days seem horrendous and grotesque, but they were the standards on the time. It was not uncommon to not know how to read, express one's beliefs, and even reason. I personally quite enjoyed the content, and I plan to listen to more of these. Some things that I disliked about the podcast were generally just hat I do not enjoy podcasts normally. They feel too long and the person speaking seems to just always ramble on for too long, but Dan kept my interest peaked throughout most of it, and I hope to listen to more of his stuff in the future.

Week 5 Blog Post

Erasmus and the Age of Reformation Ch. 13-15

This week, the book took an interesting approach on Erasmus, which was nice because it normally just spoke of his travels. The chapters I read focused mainly on how he felt about the current state of religion, the world, and just people in general. He mentioned that he felt that people just blew religion out of proportion, when they should have just kept it simple. He believed that the way of Christ was to believe faithfully, but modestly. This actually rung out to how people probably should be when it comes to religion, because if they actually want their God to save them, then living to the best of their ability would be the reliable way. Who knows though, people generally jump to conclusions whenever somebody claims they can solve their immediate problem. It genuinely struck as a sort of rebellious undertone though, because this was aimed directly at the Church. The idea that the sort of worship that the establishment taught was overdone, or just simply out of proportion could easily have thrown the entirety of the Church into chaos.

Within the next chapter, the book spoke of his personal character which was strangely different than I had anticipated. Due to his childhood, he seemed to be an outgoing person with a drive to get what he wanted when he wanted it. In complete contrast, he was actually a serene soul, one who would not go out of his own right to hurt another person or even attempt to impede on their desires. He was also susceptible to the winter's might, and that seemed contradictory because of his home life, where he did not have all that much in terms of comfort or general homeliness. It seemed as though he would be used to the elements and be able to handle whatever may come at him. Another strange trait that he had was his consistent need for justification. This seemed out of character because of his career as a theologian, where he would simply put out new interpretations of the scripture, and that could offend nearly anybody who read those sorts of documents. Overall, his character just seemed different than what the book made him seem to be, and that was kind of dissatisfying. 

Week 4 Blog Post

Erasmus and The Age of Reformation Ch. 10-12

This week, I read quite a bit about Erasmus' stay within Europe, although this time was short-lived. He originally planned to stay there for longer because of the research materials that he could have looked at, but he left early because he ran into some trouble with some people there. He found some of the professors quite arrogant and annoying, which was strange seeing as how he mostly worked by himself. One thing that stood out for me was that no matter who he met, he never actually liked the extravagant people or the unmannerly people. The book hinted that he had some higher social standards, but it was still strange that he was not as accepting. I would have thought that with what he came from as a child, he would have been more content with whoever, since he did not ever truly have a relationship that he enjoyed in his home life. When he decided to up and leave, it was right after the war between France and Europe ended, which was one of the major reasons he did not leave earlier. This action really made Erasmus out to be a person who only did something that would benefit him, although it is only natural for people to do that I suppose. It still seemed odd how much he disliked people who were extravagant, although I can relate. One thing that was really strange was that yet again, he left his entire leave from Europe undocumented. Of course, people do not have the most amount of time to write letters when they are travelling, it still seemed strange because of the person he was. That was until the book revealed how much of his personal writings were being published, which was ridiculous. People obviously drive themselves into other's business quite frequently, but this was just blatant trespassing. They were not just publishing letters that were more official, but some of his more personal letters were being published and sold on the street! It would have been terrible if he had lived in the modern era, I can only begin to imagine how much more of his private life would have been leaked. It was even said that if he did go out and find somebody selling copies of his letters, he would buy them all and burn them. Although there could have been better approaches, this one made sense after reading about him, since he never really just let stuff happen, he would take charge instead. Within chapter twelve, Erasmus' mental traits were examined, which was extremely intriguing. Although most of his traits were well defined, some of his negatives were not necessarily discussed greatly. One problem that the book discussed in great detail was his lack of empathy towards anything that went against reason. This included any sort of religious practice, because he believed that people were not preforming them with emotion or understanding, but just doing it because the Church said to. While this is not completely against reason, it does stand as a problem for him, because of what he does. He was a theologian, so it would bring to question how he would even work with anybody else, especially knowing how that field could be. The field of theology is completely based on belief, not fact, so anything that people said could easily be proven wrong the next day. This week's reading revealed a lot about Erasmus and how he handled things, and I expect that more is yet to come because of the next chapter's title.

Week 3 Blog Post

Erasmus and the Age of Reformation Ch. 7-9

This week in Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, it went over quite of bit of what happened during Erasmus'  travels. He appeared to travel primarily just for the experience, with a little bit of religious need. One strange occurrence that appeared throughout this book thus far has been that he never chose to do anything just because he wanted to, he did it with an actual reason. Although Erasmus always seemed decisive in everything he did thus far, he did seem to be shaken up during his visit to London. This was most likely due to the fact that one of his friends had just passed away, so he went for a funeral. It was unfortunate that he did not write any letters or anything of the sort about how the passing affected him, so their relationship appeared to be mostly in the dark. This seemed strange, simply because he actually did not have many letters at all for the entirety of that year, so maybe due to all his trips around the continent in earlier years to study theology did not allow him to write many. Thankfully when he went to visit Paris, he began to write letters again with a larger frequency. He primarily went there to study theology again, which he hoped would be the final place he would need to move to in order to study, although that appeared to not work out when he had to move yet again later that year. This time, he moved to Italy, where he received his degree in theology. He had planned to move forward in order to study in Bologna, but unfortunately due to the war that was in progress at the time, he had to retire back to Florence in order to stay out of harm's way. Something interesting occurred however when he arrived in Florence, which was that he began to take a major interest in the print of religious text. This was a major transition for him, which led me to question if he wanted to translate the Bible or something of the sort. This was confirmed later when he began to realize just how much deceit there was within the world. This massive change in opinion appeared to be caused by the death of King Henry VII, because he had held the King in such high regards, and the prince who would succeed him in almost higher. Overall, it appeared that many pieces were beginning to be set in place for something big to happen within Erasmus' life.

Week 2 Blog Post

Erasmus and The Age of Reformation Ch. 4-6

This week, I read quite a bit about Erasmus's beginning within the Church, and it seemed pretty standard to start off. It all kind of began with his first stay within Europe, which lasted for a single year. He showed up there primarily as a poet, which was interesting because he later became a humanist of sorts, which made me question if the poetry roots had anything to do with his path. The reasoning for this was that quite a bit of poets tend to lean more towards the humanist side anyways, regardless of what they write about. He supposedly showed early that he leaned towards faith though within his poetry. Although he seemed to be more of a scholar than a devout religious believer, his poems spoke for himself. He praised priests and saints within his works, and did so continuously as far as I can tell. My only question was what sort of topics he actually wrote poetry on before he took to a theological life. Only one incident really occurred during his stay within Europe, and it was right as he was about to leave as well. Basically, the king at the time prohibited the export of silver or gold, so when Erasmus attempted to leave with twenty pounds, they were confiscated and he was throw in jail. Surprisingly, he did not even retaliate, he simply wrote a booklet that was directed at students within England who might not know about the law. This really showed that Erasmus was able to keep a cool head even in a tight situation such as that one, where he was basically robbed. 

Within chapter five were details of Erasmus's change into a humanist, which was basically the equivalent of somebody who put humanity before all else. This was interesting, especially due to how he began as somebody who really only cared about just making it through his childhood. I never particularly understood what drives humanists, but it seemed as though he had some backing to his beliefs. It was actually funny how the book mentioned how his name itself became a household name just because of his works that he published, mainly because I'm sure that was not what he intended at all. It seemed like his work was primarily aimed at praising priests and saints, although he also made sure to have humanistic values within them as well. Later on, actually only about two to three years later, he headed out to Greece in order to study abroad and to gain more authority before returning home. There, he attempted to learn their language, but he could not afford to get any text or a master of sorts. He did end up studying the language, but nobody has ever been certain on if he had a master or not. Later on, when he returned to the monastery, he took on teaching the masses to just read the scripture, not rely on the Church for all of their beliefs. Although he did not go to the extent some other writers of that time did, he did have firm beliefs that the scripture held the answer, and for that he has my respect. 

Week 1 Blog Post

Erasmus and the Age of Reformation

This week I read through chapters one to three, which all examined Erasmus's early life. He actually lived through a pretty horrible childhood, mainly due to a lack of parental figures. His mother died at a rather early age, and his father was basically not in the picture for the most part. He supposedly tried his hardest to hide his family life for the most part, which seemed strange looking at it from modern day's standards. Although people are generally looked down upon based on what their parental figures are like, they are normally given a chance to rise up out of their situation and live how they want to. One question that seemed to be evident throughout his life was what actually happened to his father, because it appeared Erasmus did not know what had happened himself. His guardians seemed to not care much for him and his brother, although they did want them to go to a university and study. One of their guardians did actually care a lot for the two, although for the most part, they weren't in the picture as well. Although the book did go over monastery life for him, most of it was straight forward, and pretty normal for most people who lived in that time period. The only major question that floated through the chapter while I read it, was if he actually wanted to join the monastery, or if he was forced into it.

Erasmus's university life seemed to be the more interesting part of his early life. He seemed to dislike the scholarship lifestyle, but he did get an education out of it, so he most likely just dealt with it. The book talked continuously about how the scholar life was by no means lavish, and was actually quite expensive. One issue that seemed to be common in that time period was that even though scholars had the intelligence to make money off of their texts, people couldn't afford to have them published or even read them. Just because the lifestyle seems extravagant from an outside perspective does not mean that people are living that way.