Transformation of the Western Civilization

“Transformation of the Western Civilization”

“Examination Final”

By
Reinaldo Gutierrez
Early Western History

HIST 1090 – EV1

Professor Vincent L. Toscano

December 6th, 2011

In a period about 250 years, the western civilization experiment a series of changes that will shift the medieval world of the 1400 to a brand new modern era by the mid-1600, all aspect of the medieval civilization suffer a notorious changes and transformation that will lead to this transformation and will shape the era where we live today. Politic systems, economical models, educational practices, technology and one of the most affected factors of these times, the religion where one of the many aspect to suffer from this changing factors. All these alterations turn the westerns world from a medieval era passing thru the Renaissance and begin to shape the modern world with a lot of similitude with today society. One of the most important transformations took place in the heart of the religion structure. By 1450 only one religion rules this world, with one head of the church, the Pope was the highest representative of the Catholic Church with almost the same power of kings and lords of Europe. Catholic Church had a very important role in early society, they are the only institution to teach and practice the education, they was the ones to choose, how are the people that have the privilege to study and teach, by these era only one language was the primary language of Europe, all the studies and services offered by the Catholic Church was in Latin, the official language of the Rome empire and it’s territories. They build all across Europe magnificent churches and structures to spread the world of Good these can be seen as a sign of power as well, from followers and enemies. In the medieval era the political structure of the church was one of the most advance and effective political system, and proves to be the most correct to maintain this humongous institution. All this power and position was challenged by one man in 1522, Martin Luther born in Germany in 1483, in 1512 he received his doctorate in theology and became a professor at the University of Wittenberg. The study of the Bible show a different prospect of view of the faith, and begin to challenge the pope and the Catholic Church practices, he state he has the same power to read, understand and interpret the Bible as the Pope. One of the factors to trigger Luther discomfort with the Pope was the practice of sale of indulgence, most notorious to collect funds for the ongoing construction of Saint Peter Basilica in Rome by Pope Leo X in 1517. Angered by these events Luther issue his Ninety-Five Theses, where he present his indictment of the abuses in the sale of indulgences. After these events Luther begin a series of movements against the Pope and the church, in 1520 he write in German a political act called the address to the nobility of the German Nation, basically he pursue the German princes to overthrow the papacy in Germany and establish a reformed German Church. After appear in front of the Reichstag, the imperial diet of the Holy Roman Empire and made the famous reply that became the battle cry of the reformation, he was force to hide from the Roman empire at the Wartburg Castle for nearly a year, here he made the most foremost achievement, the translation of the New Testament into German. All these event begin the important process of division suffer by the Roman Catholic Church, as consequence a series the events, battles and war between the Catholic Church and the protestant Church of Germany took place for many years in Europe. To reinforce the division of the church, a second generation of protestants raise on the hand of John Calvin from France, he study in deep Luther writings and became a protestant reformer leader by 1533, force to move from Paris, by King Francis I, active persecutor of protestant church followers, to Basel, where in 1536 published the first edition of the institutes of the Christian Religion, this publication secure his reputation as one of the new leaders of Protestantism. As a result by 1650 the Catholic Church is divide in Europe, many countries, decide to follow the new Protestant church of Germany and in the future a new church will raise in England as well, now with the help of the new discovery the imprint machine, the spread of the new testament become more easy thru the western civilization, the use of local dialect become more effective to teach and have more impact to the shape of the new western society, regions become countries, and people become to from part of these countries as citizens. With the Church division kings gain more control and power over their territories and start to be more independent from the Pope and the Catholic Church. In conclusion the Church experiment increased lack of influence in the new world, where man and his ideologies, became most important than Christianity faith of the medieval world. The education suffer a big change as well, in the new world, everyone have the opportunity to read the Bible and be knowledge to interpretation, in contrast to Roman Church, where only few people can read and study the holy scripts. One of the major transformation that occurred during these years, took place in the scientific and technology areas, in the earliest 1400, the access to study was only for a few people, most of this people where part of the Roman Catholic Church, the rest of the population never receive any type of education, as a consequence, the medieval world experiment none notorious progress in the science or technological areas, most of the invention of these era where designated to be use in wars. With the Renaissance era a new group of people raise in many areas of society, artist, designers, scientific’s, architects, and many others, begin to shape and redesign a new world, the transition in education make a huge difference, from only few people that can study, to be available to all, increase the level of knowledge of the population and become more prepare and curios to learn and experiment new things, the study of science became more popular, and the outcomes showed great changes, names like Galileo, Miguel Angel, Leonardo Da Vinci, live in the same world and they make a deeply mark in our world. Today society use and watch their legacy as world marvels, new way to express art was invented by people like this, new constructions easy can tell the difference from the medieval world, new techniques in painting and sculpture are used by this artist, the results show a perfection in their areas. The need of exploration leads to a new world of new experiments and sciences, for example astronomy became a very important practice to understand the starts and the interaction with the planet, used mainly to navigate thru oceans in new adventures, the invention of instrument of navigation and measurements use to write down new maps of the world, and many other inventions that still use in today civilization. In 200 years Western civilization underwent a major transformation from medieval to early modern era. Today society is a consequence of these changes, and the similitude to that world is impressive notorious, thanks to this contrast we are able difference this eras from each other, understand history and find explanations. This was the time of big changes in society in all aspects, where the divine explanation was change for the scientific method, to prove reality, and the man became more rational

References Jacson J. Spielvogel (2010). Western Civilization. Wadsworth, Gengage Learning: USA

References: Jacson J. Spielvogel (2010). Western Civilization. Wadsworth, Gengage Learning: USA