The Role Of Art In The Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance embodied ad fontes, studia humanitatis, and virtu. Ad Fontes, meaning “return to the sources,” which fostered a new approach to the past. Florentines looked back at the Greco-Romans seeking the knowledge they possessed. Studia Humanitatis incorporated new course material at universities. Previously, they had studied theology, medicine, and law; they now studied history, philosophy, rhetoric, and music. The study of philosophy opened debates over God, the Monarchy, and science. Competition for virtu led to Renaissance men cultivating talent after talent, as art was a way to make a name for yourself and establish self-worth. Those who were putting their money into art also added merit to their names and advanced themselves
socially. Though all of this positively effected Europe and certainly made a large impact, it was not quite the radical change sparked by the Reformation. The Reformation was a religious, political, intellectual, and cultural revolution. Roman Catholic dogma, which was once revered and followed religiously, was challenged for its’ practices of which had no mention in the scripture. The Reformation was more important than the Italian Renaissance because it radically altered how people viewed faith, fostered even encouraged criticism of the Church hierarchy, and changed the relationship between Church and state. Before the Protestant Reformation, the majority of the laity were unable to read the Bible, which meant they had no way to interpret it for themselves. This was due to the fact that the Bible had been written solely in latin, a language only clergymen and men of the cloth (Pope, Bishops, etc.) were able to read. The majority of people who could read the bible still agreed with the Roman Catholic Church's practices. John Wycliffe, however, is an early example of those who did not agree with common Roman Catholic Church’s methods. John Wycliffe, an early supporter of reform and a critic of the Roman Catholic Church and its’ practices, stated “I must request you, brother, to show still farther, from reason or scripture, that there is no identification of the bread with the body of Christ… For I am no means pleased with the spurious writings which the moderns use, to prove an accident without a subject because the church so teaches. Such evidence should satisfy no one… In the first place, you cannot escape from this expository syllogism: First, this bread becomes corrupt, or is eaten by a mouse. Second, the same bread is the body of Christ. Third, therefore the body of Christ does thus become corrupt, and is thus eaten; - and thus you are involved in inconsistency.” (The Line Between Reform and Heresy, PP) This is clearly opposing the Eucharist, which the Roman Catholic Church enforced as being existentially important to your savior. Though John Wycliffe was criticizing the church before Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, he still was a great example of people who were dissatisfied by the way the church was practicing its control, people who wanted to reform, waiting for the opportunity. Martin Luther, the catalyst of the reformation, believed everyone should have access to the scripture, as it was scripture alone that would save you and absolve the soul of sin.
Martin Luther referred to Romans 1:17 “Moreover, the righteous shall live through faith.” Martin Luther preached this, “Then I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous live by a gift of God, that is, by faith, and that the Gospel reveals that a merciful God justifies us by faith with a passive righteousness as it is written, “the righteous shall live through faith.”: This made me feel as if I had been born again and passed through open doors into paradise itself. All of scripture appeared different to me now… and I began to love that term I used to hate “the righteousness of God”, as the sweetest of all.” (Luther and the Magisterial Reformation.) This was especially targeted towards the selling of
indulgences. The selling of indulgences was alike to that of a current con-man as is represented in this quote from Johann Tetzel during his Sermon to Wittenberg 1517, a man trying to sell indulgences, “All of you, run for the salvation of your souls… Listen now, God and St.Peter call you!
Consider the salvation of your souls and those of your loved ones departed… Listen to the voices of your dead relatives and friends, beseeching you and saying “Pity us, Pity us”! Open your ears…Remember you are able to release them from purgatory for as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs! Will you not then for a quarter of a florin receive these letter of indulgence through which you are able to lead a divine and immortal soul into the fatherland of paradise!” (Luther and the Magisterial Reformation, PP) Johann Tetzel is a wondrous salesmen but clearly no man of God by Luther’s standards. Indulgences were collected frequently by the Roman Church and were the core of their soaring monetary value, “During the fourteenth century popes in need of ready cash had begun to sell indulgences.” (416 The West) The church was greedy and continued to manipulate the laity, and they would have gotten away with it too had it not been for that meddling Martin Luther. Martin Luther translated the Bible into german so that the laity could read it for themselves and interpret it on their own rather than rely on the corrupt members of the Church. Martin Luther's German translation of the
bible was able to be mass produced by use of the printing press, “300,000 copies were printed and distributed throughout Europe. No other author’s ideas had ever spread so fast to so many.” (412: The West) The invention of the printing press was essential to the reformation, previously books had been exceptionally expensive as they were all hand written. With the invention of the printing press, costs significantly reduced, making books more readily available to the public. The Bible, having now been clearly translated and spread out across Europe, said nothing of the Penitential Cycle, nothing of worshipping the Saints or needing religious artifacts to repent to, and had no mention of the selling of indulgences. It was apparent that the Roman Catholic Church had been making a profit out of the laity's ignorance, and was therefore keeping them ignorant for that very reason. Martin Luther’s theology also put more power into the individual as is stated here, “It proclaimed the revolutionary doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers,” which reasoned that all those of pure faith were themselves priests, a doctrine that undermined the authority of the Catholic Clergy over the laity.” (417: The West) No longer did you have to look toward a clergyman for guidance, through scripture alone you could guid yourself and be a priest. Criticism of the Church spread as people were now able to formulate their own ideas regarding faith. Many converted to Lutheranism but splintering of the reform occurred, and people began to take their own ideas and formulate religions based around those. Examples of this are the Anabaptist, Zwingli and Calvin’s theologies. All of these of course had major differences with the Roman Catholic church and challenging the Church’s practices become more and more prevalent, as was challenging the power and true authority of the Pope. Criticism of the Church hierarchy had once been something done to oneself or not at all unless you were in favor of getting excommunicated (Leo X) or burned alive. However, with the Reformation sweeping across Europe, people began to grow bolder. Beginning with Martin Luther’s 95 theses, in which among other criticisms of Pope Leo and the church he states, “The pope neither desires nor is able to remit any penalties except those imposed by his own authority or that of the canons - The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring and showing that it has been remitted by God; or, to be sure, by remitting guilt in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in these cases were disregarded, the guilt would certainly remain unforgiven.” (Martin Luther’s 95 Theses) This statement, numbers five and six in his 95 theses, was taking away the majority of the power it was thought that the Pope possessed. As is stated by the textbook The West, “Luther’s emphasis on justification by faith alone left no room for human free will in obtaining salvation, because Luther believed that faith could come only from God’s grace.” (415 The West) Sola scriptura, sola fide, you follow the scripture and the scripture alone will save you. Another insult to the papal authority was the iconoclasm, “Protestants sometimes initiated reform by vandalizing churches through acts of iconoclasm - the removing, breaking, or defacing of religious statues, paintings, and symbols such as crucifixes.” (435: The West) Protestant reformers destroyed these relics because they thought them to have too much power, they were incredibly expensive to make, and they distracted from scripture. Anti-Roman Catholic propaganda began to circulate, mocking the pope. In one woodcut titled “I am the Pope,” Pope Alexander VI is depicted “as a monster.” (436: The West) These woodcuts were an effective way to undermine support for the papacy. The Roman Catholic Church was essentially the state as well before the Reformation. It was this relationship between church and state that many people abhorred. The Roman Catholic Church cheated the poor out of money through the sale of indulgences, which Martin Luther was strongly opposed to as well as Jan Hus, though he does not explicitly say this it is easy to ascertain from this quote, “Every Christian is expected to believe explicitly and implicitly all the truth which the Holy Spirit has put in scripture, and in this way a man is not bound to believe the sayings of saints which are apart from Scripture, nor should he believe papal [decrees], except in so far as they speak out of Scripture, or so far as what they say is founded in Scripture simply.” (Class 9: Slide 50) Jan Hus, believed that the Roman Church should follow Scripture alone and that the corruption in the church was unacceptable. The Roman Church not only frequently sold indulgences to profit themselves, they also owned property, which gave them even more power and were both the moral and legal authority. After the Reformation, the power of the church was significantly diminished. Strong rulers such as Henry VIII, claimed divine right and state no longer relied so heavily on the authority of the Church. (Class 9: All slides + Notes) The relationship between church and state created as a result of the Reformation is still in practice today. The Protestant Reformation changed people’s ways of looking at faith and the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Many realized the selling of indulgences was corrupt, and gave the Church too much power. Sola Scripta, Sola fide was embodied meaning that scripture alone would save you. People criticized the papacy and stood up to the Pope. All of which resulted in the separation of Church and state. The Protestant Reformation effected what religion looks like today, and though the Renaissance was also vital to the arts, philosophy and even religion as well, it was not the leading force for change like the Reformation.