The complicated sixteenth century
The sixteenth (16th) century presents a complicated, at times unnerving, and at other times invigorating sense of Church history.
16th century Characters include:
- Ignatius Loyolla
- Charles V
- Erasmus
- St. Thomas More
- Martin Luther
Erasmus, 1465-1535
Considered a great figure in the northern Renaisance, humanism movement, as a Catholic leader, Erasmus is complicated. He promoted "humanism," or a human-centric view of the world that emphasizes the human condition (especially happiness, liberty, peace), learning through Classical education focused on Greek and Roman philosophy and rhetoric), he called for Church reform in matters of monasticism ("Monkishmness is not piety"[1]) and formulatistic sacerdotalism (that relgious ceremony had become habit and doctrinially overly complex, even going so far as to accuse certain types of priests as being pharisitical), as well as the need for focus on the Sacred texts, with focus on language.
, while holding to the necessity of Grace for salvation.
Above all else, he opposed "scholasticism," and thus St, Thomas Aquinas, although not by name, attacking, instead, Aquinas' heirs, known as the Scholastics. He wrote popular but scathing satires and critiques about the Scholastics and about priests, and wrote, with both brilliance and borderline irreverance, his own translations of Scripture, along with commentary. Erasmus's dual Greek-Latin translation of the New Testament first issued in 1516
Erasmus defended Luther from charges of heresy[2], but, while sharing their spirit of reform and humanistic views that had moved Luther and others into a break from the Church, Erasmus rejected the Lutherin and Calvinistic doctrines of sole fide ("belief only) and predestination, arguing that humans exercise free will (a view consistent with his upholding of the importance of the Sacrament of Reconcilation).
This article, Desiderius Erasmus | Catholic Answers Encyclopedia, offers a critical view of Erasmus and his humanism, which aligned him with Martin Luther in many respects. Erasmus never rejected the Church and, by the end of his life, he had distanced himself from Luther. Erasmus's close friend, (Saint) Thomas More shared 16th century humanistic views, but never strayed from Church orthodoxy. We may assume that Erasmus' friendship with More grounded him more firmly in the Catholic faith, as many of his contemporaries such as William Tyndale[3], Martin Luther, and others were not.
Erasmus' influence upon Loyolla
In 1501, Erasmus published, Enchiridion militis Christiani, or "Handbook[4] of the Christian Soldier." The work was at the quest of the wife of an errant soldier who begged a friend of Erasmus to help change her husband's behavior. The medieval notion of "chivalry[5]" arose in the 12th century as a code of conduct for knights and noblemen and inspired a literary genre (such as the legend of King Arthur) as well as formal codes of behavior for military orders and for court life, generally. Chivarly was deeply intwined with Christianity, perhaps best seen in the Teutonic Knights who venerated the Vigin Mary as patroness. By the time of Erasmus, and with the avent of gunpowder and large state armies, chivalry had morphed into ritualistic expressions of knighthood such as jousting, hunting, and heraldry, which consisted of displays of rank and pedigree through emblems, flags, and banners.
As a civilizing code, chivalry focused on duty to country, duty to God, and duty to protecting the weak, especially women. Its origins lay in the very real necessity for controlling behaviors in feudal society that lacked controlling centrol authority outside of the Church, especially in the political vacuum following the collapse of the Carolingian Empire. In 989, a Church assemby at Charroux, France, declared the Pax Dei, or "Peace of God" to protect unarmed clerics or innocent noncombattants, especially virgins and widows (i.e. who lacked the protection of a male partner) from both targeted and random violence. The Pax Dei declared churches, monestaries and cemeteries protected, consecrated places, as well as Sundays and feast days, and used excommunication for enforcement.
and the Treuga Dei
which gave him, according to scholar Terence O'Reilly, "enormously popularity in Spain durng the 1520 not, primarily, as a satirsist, nor as a scholar, but as the author of Enchiridion militis christiani."[6]
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- ERASMUS, IGNATIUS LOYOLA, AND ORTHODOXY on JSTOR
- Handbook of a Christian Knight | work by Erasmus | Britannica
Don Quixote by Cervantes
References
- ↑ Enchiridion
- ↑ His Inquisitio de fide argued that heretical beliefs were only those that violated essential doctrines such as the Creed.
- ↑ Tyndale was an English protestant reformer who translated the Bible into English based on the earlier work of John Wycliff, whose anti-Catholic followers were called "Lollards."
- ↑ The word "handbook" may be an incomplete translation of Enchiridion, which suggests a more complete "manual" or set of instructions rather than a "handbook".
- ↑ From French "chevalerie" for horseman and chevaler for knight; the English term, cavalier, is drawn from the same Latin root, caballarius for horseman. A warrior who owned a horse was of a higher social and economic class from regular soldiers, thus its conneciton with nobility.
- ↑ ERASMUS, IGNATIUS LOYOLA, AND ORTHODOXY, Terence O'Reilly, The Journal of Theological Studies, NEW SERIES, Vol. 30, No. 1 (APRIL 1979), pp. 115-127 (13 pages) Published By: Oxford University Press;