third class 3/23

3/23/09 The catholic reform Anabaptists Keypoints of the catholic reform Free will and sex Reforming clerical sexuality ID?s -The hutterite Brethren - The council of Trent (1545) proposal ? title/author/publication date- what I am interested in pursuing in my 8 page paper. What questions I want to answer, what issues I want to explore, what documents I hope to be using, and how I think those documents will aid in explaining what it is I am trying to pursue. Force me to start thinking what is a viable research paper- investigate/analyze. A means to verify that I will produce the best research paper possible. I can use a book we read and expand on it. April 29th- final paper is due. Worth 20% of overall grade. The role of women as mother and wife- luther explained how this was a natural womenhood that made women born for the purpose of procreation Chose the role of martydom- to die alone- protect their views Anne Askew (d. 1546) and Anabaptist women burned at the stake- used the bible to defend her throughout the trial. Her standard response was that everyone had the right to read and interpret the bible on their own Most of the women who were executed for religion reasons were anabaptists- reborn- they denied infant baptism- no child knew consciously what they were being baptism into. It had to be a concented adulted who knew what they were doing. As a group, they were hated and hunted by catholics and protestants alike Most groups were small and had widely divergent ideas Most of the groups emphasized divine elevation- spiritual experiences Lots of women were taken seriously as prophets They had very different marital and sexual expectations then catholics/protestants Believed in polygamy, and allowed them to leave their unbelieving spouses 1534- a group of radical anabaptists took of munster- believed they were creating their vision of a perfect community- when were creating it with polygamy. Book of revelations- last judgement would come once 144,000 saints were in the world. Forced women into polygamist marriages. Another extreme example was the hudderit brothern Outside of this Anabaptist group there were lots of criticism of the hutterites- they thought they believed in divorce Threatened the institution of marriage Indicative of other Baptist groups Everything had to be in accordance to God Demanded absolute conformity from members of this group To insure uniformity, hutterites selected 3 women for a group or 3 women for a bride, and they could chose of the 3. It was unclear whether the men and women knew each other or not. Hutterites regarded personal sentiment as inconsequential Marriage was only for procreation and to avoid fornication Considered that adam had no sex- men needed to embrace their feminine side Hutterites- a movement that took place throughout Germany The catholics and protestants hated the anabaptists- anabaptists were extremely self righteous. These burnings paralleled witchcraft trials- the burnings of the Anabaptists- women. Men were drowned [oh the irony]. Marriage was important- standard groups (calvinists, lutherans)- rejected polygamy, etc Sexual morality was always reworked in favor of the family and marriage It was always a way on the catholic emphasis on celibacy and chastity. ------------catholic reformation--------------- the protestant reformation was always fairly a minority in the broader span of European religion vast majority of europeans were still catholic there was always support within the catholic church to reform the institution to within its roots. They needed to get back to the original intention of Catholicism This caused them to recognize the importance to valaity Provide well trained pious devote and moral priests In order to win back territory that was protestant they needed to clean up the priesthood 2 key elements of catholic reform- The council of trent- Reaffirmed all 7 sacraments- marriage, baptism, holy orders, etc Created a roman inquisition- court with trained integrators to bring witches to stand trial against the courts Created the index- the list of banned books, what was dangerous the catholic church reaffirmed traditional catholic values after selling indulgances- reaffirmed it?s basic core made priests special again- they were needed faith alone didn?t just get you into heaven- had to achieve salvation by being a good person. Catholic church was the one true church of god reaffirmed the importance of a priest The foundation of New spiritual orders -the Jesuits ? the most important of the new spiritual orders that were created during the catholic reformation loyola- a Spanish noblemen- their founder. He was a soldier. jesuits- only answerable to the pope specific order that the pope sanctioned and their will was of the papasy highly organized, loyal, etc played a role in missionary work win back people to Catholicism created lots of schools and colleges- provide education, part of the instruction was to make sure they created the next generation of devote catholics. New mechanisms of reform within the catholic church- wasn?t about creating something new, but it was about stripping away the corruption Never admitted to selling indulgences- said people ?donated? money Council of trent- confirmed marriage as a sacrament Virgins were above everyone else according to the catholics a key distiniction between catholics and protestant was rooted in the notion of free will catholics believed everyone had free will the protestants denied it calvin said that people have no control over their salvation luther said that people can not fully understand god and also had no free will 1547- the issue of free will was the way in which the catholic church was trying to reclaim their control over morality and sexual practices every sin is a voluntary act the will to sin is a pre-req where there is no will, there is no sin they said there was intention- this was central to morality whether the intention was carried out or not they started to excuse sexual deviations if the intention was procreation the more conservative groups still said the missionary position was the only unproblematic position bishops could get permission to people to give them permission to do it doggy style obesity was a common case for permission to be given the notion of free will was central to the ability of the catholic church to regulate sexual practices free will of the sinner led to sin, but prompted the sinners to obtain forgiveness from the priest the church then basically after the council of trent had to convince members that they had the authority to absolve them of their sins and achieve salvation the clergies superiority was based on their celibacy this celibacy was a hot topic debated furiously in the catholic church celibacy was seen as a key characteristic, but it was hard for the church to enforce. The debate was reinstated largely by humanists- they went back to the early documents of the catholic church and reawakened the debate about celibacy Ermolao Barbaro (1453- 1492) ? sex and family were distracting Bernardino of Siena (1380- 1444)- denounced bachelorhood, would lead to sodomy ?nature, or rather god, the author of nature, put genitalia in the human body so that humans might procreate and preserve the human race; since nature has bound all men to procreate, we call the sterile ?defective? and ?half men; as they lack what is natural. Punishment for soliciting sex were not that big This basically stated that these priest could throw out their game and if they came onto them without seeing them through. So basically they could try to get laid and if they got denied it wasn?t illegal, and if they did, they?d hide it. 1622- the pope drew up a bowl that made any indecent conversation near the act of confession became a punishable offense. It now made it an offense that the church could intervene. They debated to try to relax this. Regulated the sexuality of nuns Enforced enclosure- an idea introduced in the 13th century that expected nuns to be isolated and enclosed and to take solem vows of chastity. Nuns were brides of Christ. Entering into a spiritual world with Christ. 4 principle sins of a married couple the confessional 1. Disobedience of the wife 2. Birth control 3. Spilling of the seed 4. Sodomy