16th C: COUNTER REFORMATION ROME

1512 LATERAN COUNCIL in Rome
        decrees against simony (buying, selling church offices)
                               financial & moral corruption

1537 Advice on Reforming the Church
        denunciation of city of Rome as “brothel”
         commission appointed by Pope Paul III, Farnese
              Roman family, builder of Farnese Palace
         transitional "Janus Pope" - looking forward & back                    
              father of several illegitimate children, later reformed

COUNTER REFORMATION INSTITUTIONS:

  1)  COUNCIL OF TRENT 1545-63
       general council called to reform Church in response to
                  Protestant Reformation
       reforms create new phase: Tridentine Church 1563-1960
      

  2) ROMAN INQUISITION:
jurisdiction only in Italy
        modeled on Spanish Inquisition (founded in 1478)
        founded in 1542 by Gian Pietro Carafa 
                                    later Pope Paul IV 1555-59

        directed against Protestant heretics:
                    Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists
        Pope Pius V Michele Ghislieri 1566-72 Dominican:
                           second former Inquisitor as Pope
        famous Inquisition trials:  (see below for Scientific Revolution))
                             Galileo Galilei 1630-33
                                 charged with Copernicanism; house arrest
                             Giordano Bruno 1598-1600
                               burned at stake for asserting plurality of worlds
                               statue erected in Campo dei Fiori 1898 as
                                         anti-clerical protest after unification of Italy

  3) INDEX OF FORBIDDEN BOOKS  1559-1960

  4) SOCIETY OF JESUS, OR JESUIT ORDER (S.J.)
         
founded by Ignatius Loyola, Spanish
         goal is reconversion of Europe, missionary activity
          Rome: Church of Il Gesu  

SIXTUS V 1585-90 
renovation of city of Rome; broad streets, fountains,
trident formation at northern entrance, Porta del Popolo,  obelisks
Link to more information on obelisks

     

 

 

FROM SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION TO ENLIGHTENMENT: 17-18TH C.

I. SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION 16th-17th C:  Laws of Nature as mathematical, observable

      "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night;
       God said, ‘Let Newton be!’ and all was Light."
          from:       Alexander Pope, Essay on Man (1729)

   Nicolas Copernicus, Polish monk  1543 On the revolutions of heavenly sphere
      Revolutionary proposals: heliocentrism (sun centered), rejects motion of sun
            replaces it with motion of earth, no longer central to universe
      Opposition to heliocentrism: 1) common sense (sun rises, sun sets)
            2) Scripture: condemned by Protestants & Catholics alike
            3) classical authority of Ptolemy, ancient Greek astronomy
            4) threatens entire Christian cosmology (world view), sense of order

   Galileo Galilei (1584-1642)  Astronomy: popularizer of Copernican system
     invention of telescope: qualitatively new data: sees new stars, moons of Jupiter
     1625 Dialogue on Two Chief World Systems: attack on Ptolemy & Aristotle;
          public defense of Copernican system, charged with Copernican heresy

 **  1630-33 trial by Roman Inquisition, required to recant his errors publicly; says
         sotto voce, "Eppure si muove" (But it does move); house arrest in Florence

   Issac Newton 1687 Principia Mathematica: three laws of motion, inertia & gravity
        as common principles underlying all motion both earthly & heavenly motion; 
      calculus: mathematical description of motion, rates of change (not just static)

II. 18th CENTURY ENLIGHTENMENT – progressive intellectual & cultural movement

    Themes: natural law, reason, optimism, progress through applied knowledge
            rejection of tradition, custom, religion, authority

Early Enlightenment: extension of search for immutable "natural laws"
      to society and morality; rational, universal standards opposed to
      customs and traditions which differ from rational order

VOLTAIRE: central figure of French Enlightenment; anti-clerical and Deist

DEISM: philosophical position based on Creator or "clockmaker" God
              who creates universe, gives it natural laws, but does not interfere
              no miracles, no prayer, no personal devotion; abstract concept of God

ENCYCLOPEDIA: intellectual project of French philosophes to compile all rational
              useful knowledge in one massive, multi-volume compendium; typical of

Later Enlightenment (after 1750): shift away from search for order and natural laws;
             reason defined in practical, utilitarian terms; dominant theme is
             liberty, freedom, self-government (this leads to French Revolution)

CESARE BECCARIA Italian exponent of Enlightenment thought; from Milan,
      lives under "enlightened absolutism" of Austrian Hapsburg Empress Maria Theresa
      1764 Of Crimes and Punishments: treatise against death penalty, use of torture
            as part of judicial process; opposed to "cruel & unusual punishments;"
            his language is incorporated into American Constitution, Dostoyevsky

III. POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF ENLIGHTENMENT: possible forms of "enlightened" gov’t

     ENLIGHTENED DESPOTISM OR ABSOLUTISM
       gov't by "enlightened," educated monarch, who legislates for good of society
       model in eastern Europe: Prussia, Austro-Hungarian/Hapsburg Empire (Milan)

     CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY
        model of English monarchy; government by King with consent of Parliament;
        limited powers of monarch combined with representation assembly combined to
        make this a "reasonable" approach;

     FRENCH REVOLUTION first government after 1789 is
        1789-92 Constitutional Monarchy: Constitution drafted by National Assembly
        1793     execution of King Louis XVI for treason, creation of French Republic

     REPUBLICANISM (government through elected representatives)
        radical, non-monarchical alternative of American colonies in 1776 Revolution
        1792-95 First French Republic influenced by Rousseau, by American Republic
                            and by classical model of ancient Roman Republic

NAPOLEON’S INVASION OF ITALY 1796-1814

        1797 Napoleon's conquest of Venice, Rome, Pope as prisoner
                sets up Italian kingdoms as part of French Empire
                suppresses the Roman Inquisition in areas conquered
        1802 Concordat with Vatican: restores relationship with Papacy
                Coronation of Napoleon: papal ceremony painted by David

Jacques-Louis DAVID : French painter of the French Revolution using Roman Republican themes

19th C Italian nationalism as reaction against French takeover of Italy by Napoleon