Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!

In observance of the day, here is the cover of a 1678 book on pirates and piracy, including the career of Sir Henry Morgan.

We're doing rather a lot on 17th century matters in the Western Civ class and the subject of piracy during this period touches on many of the things we have been discussing, including: nationalism, commerce, colonialism, trade, slavery, exploration, warfare, technology, navigation, egalitarianism and so on.

I'm sorry that I won't be discussing piracy and privateers on this blog but I couldn't let Talk Like A Pirate Day go by, with nary a mention....could I?

(source for the image: portcities.org.uk )

Eastern Europe

In Eastern Europe, the success of reformers varied from one locale to another. In Poland, for example, the movement began with the nobility before spreading to the general population. In areas where the movement lacked popular support, the Roman Church was more successful at reasserting its influence.


The Lutheran reforms were more successful in Hungary, where the ruling class had been weakened by the struggle with the Ottoman Empire. Hungary did not return to the Roman Church until a 17th century counter-reformation. Even then, the influence of the Hungarian Protestants remained significant into the 18th century.

Southern Europe

Protestant reform movements were unsuccessful in Southern Europe - in Italy and Spain - where the influence of the Roman Church was the strongest. In both regions, the courts of the Inquisition exercised authority.

In Spain, where nationalism had managed to force out Muslim occupation in the 15th century, a close alliance remained between the monarchy and the established church. Without popular support or the protection and sponsorship by nobility, the Protestant Reformation was unable to find a foothold.

(Image of Ignatius of Loyola from website: The World of Ignatius Loyola )

The Catholic Church's own reform movement was greatly influenced by the work of Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), a Spanish nobleman who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The Jesuits were instrumental in countering Protestant reform in other parts of Europe, including Poland and Hungary.

France

In France, the situation developed in still another way. Francis I was threatened by the challenge to his authority that Protestant reform presented. He tried to drive its advocates out of the kingdom and, in 1535, Protestantism was made illegal. One of these French Protestants was Jean Cauvin - who is probably better known as John Calvin.

In France, the Huguenot (Protestant) minority developed into a political movement that resisted the supression by the monarchy. Civil war broke out in 1562 and, in 1572, an attempt was made to reconcile the two sides by a marriage of Henry of Navarre (a Protestant) into the royal family (Roman Catholic). This resulted in widespread sectarian violence and the warfare continued for decades.



Henry Navarre eventually returned to the Catholic camp and became King Henry IV of France. His Edict of Nantes (1598) granted limited tolerance to the Huguenots. Following Henry's assassination in 1610, the tolerance lessened and the Edict was finally revoked in 1685. French Protestants fled to other parts of Europe that were under Protestant control and some sailed to the Americas.

(Image of Henry Navarre from answers.com )

The Church of England

In England, the Reformation had begun when, in 1532, Henry VIII broke with Rome, asserting his authority as the head of the Church in England. Although Henry's church was not affiliated with the German reform movement, it did open the door for the influence of Protestant reform theology in England.

(Image of Henry VIII from website: schoolhistory.org.uk )


Edward VI's short reign (he died at the age of 15) followed the ecclesiastical reform policies of his father but was influenced by Calvinist theology, under the guidance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. Edward's brief reign was followed by the 9-day reign of his Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey.

Mary Tudor was one of Edward's sisters and a Roman Catholic and took the throne in 1553. As Queen Mary, she tried to reverse the reforms and suppress Protestantism. During her reign many English Protestants fled to sympathetic communities on the Continent - including Geneva.

The reformers began to return to England after the succession of Edward's other sister, Elizabeth Tudor, to the throne in 1558. Under Elizabeth, the Church of England integrated elements of both her father's catholic church and the Calvinist reform movement. There were Protestant critics who wanted a more purely Calvinist approach and reform akin to what had taken place in places like Geneva.

In the 17th century, this Puritan criticism of the Church of England erupted into the English Civil War, the execution of Charles I in 1649, and the institution of the Protestant Commonwealth (1649-1660). With the restoration of the monarchy (1660) a period of persecution took place and it was not until the Toleration Act of 1689 that Protestant groups outside of the Church of England were legally permitted.

John Knox (c. 1515-1572)

John Knox was one of the number of Scottish Protestants who were in exile from their home country. At the time, Scotland was ruled by Mary Stuart (Mary I), who had grown up in France and who was a supporter of the old Church. Knox visited England and eventually returned to Scotland, where he came to the fore of the mounting Protestant opposition to the Catholic Mary.

(Image of John Knox from Project Gutenberg )

Mary, who was also in line for the English throne, became entangled in combating Protestant critics at home and plots that pitted her against her cousin, Elizabeth, Queen of England. She was forced to abdicate the throne of Scotland and was finally executed for treason, after being found guilty of plots against the Protestant Elizabeth.

The Protestant Revolution

Writing Prompt: Compare and contrast the reformation in France, Scotland, England, and Southern and Eastern Europe. Note leading figures and the results of the Reformation in each place.

The Protestant Reformation in Western Europe was a widespread phenomenon. It was also varied in its character and degree of success from one part of Europe to another. The Lutheran approach to reform spread through northern Germany and Scandinavia, while Calvinism had the greatest impact on the reform movements in France, the Netherlands and even Switzerland, where Zwingli had been an early influence.

(Image of Calvin from the website: The World of Ignatius Loyola )



Compared to Luther's theoretical and somewhat experimental approach to ecclesiastical reform, John Calvin's (1509-1564) was more systematic. It was also non-hierarchical and non-ritualistic. In 1536, he published a comprehensive manual for church reform entitled: Christianae Religiois Institutio. He also founded a university in Geneva. Under the influence of Huldrich Zwingli (1484-1531), Geneva had become an urban theocracy that attracted reform-minded theology students from throughout Europe - including John Knox.

Unit 1: Merchant vs Pious Christian

Prompt: Read about the life of St. Godric. It’s interesting to note that some accounts divide his life into a merchant phase and a pious Christian phase. Then compare St Godric to a contemporary pious Christian and titan of commerce, Ken Lay, whose Methodist pastor testified to Mr. Lay’s Christian piety at the Enron trial. Which figure manifested greater integrity and why? Is it possible to be both a merchant/capitalist in the modern world and a pious Christian?


For the life of Godric, we have only some legends and the words of his hagiographer to go by. He started out life as the son of a poor farmer and opted to leave the farm and seek his fortune in the world. His career is described in some sources as merchant and in others as pirate. Where ever Godric actually operated along this continuum, the sense is that he decided that his worldly life required repentance. He evidently underwent a conversion experience and chose to leave the world to devote his remaining years to prayer and penance. He died in 1170, having spent approximately sixty years living the life of a solitary and acquiring a reputation as a holy man.

To seek salvation, Godric followed in the footsteps of the desert fathers and green martyrs that left the world behind and went into the wilds, to pray and overcome temptations. Still, in some respects, chucking it all to go stand in a freezing river for sixty years might be easier than trying to live a model Christian life while still remaining in the world, a problem which seems to have confounded businesspeople since the Reformation.

Ken Lay also began his life in humble circumstances and lived out his own rags-to riches story. Like Godric, Lay exhibited outward signs of religious piety appropriate for his era. According to his hagiographer, Godric made pilgrimages to all of the right shrines; Lay became known for his philanthropy and community/civic involvement.

One of the questions posed for this assignment was: Which man manifested greater integrity and why? The rules for Godric and Lay were different. Not only was it possible for Godric’s life to be divided into two drastically different phases, it was also something of a necessity. For one thing, the Church of Godric’s day frowned on profit-making. For another, the model of Christian piety (in case actual martyrdom wasn’t available) was adopting the religious life.

After the Reformation, the Perry text notes that this was no longer an option as “the reformers had condemned the monastery as an unnatural life”. (p 331) The emphasis of Protestant reformers was on sanctifying a life lived in the world - through civic involvement, business and family – and profit was no longer prohibited. If people were looking for an image to be the poster-boy for the Ideal Protestant Businessman in late-90’s Houston, Texas they would have probably settled on Ken Lay. Founder and former CEO of Enron, he was everything one might hope for: philanthropic, civic-minded and active in his church.

Then, in 2001, Enron began to come apart at the seams and, as it unraveled, employees and investors lost vast sums of money. During the federal investigation of the behavior of Enron executives leading up to and surrounding the company’s collapse, Lay’s own behavior came under scrutiny. It was alleged that he knew the company was in trouble and was selling off his shares while continuing to encourage investors to risk their money. Throughout his trial, Lay denied that he had done anything criminal and that others were to blame, not him. He was convicted but died before sentencing. He was eulogized in the most glowing terms as a man of faith.

Which man, then, exhibited the greater integrity? The retired pirate turned hermit? The Houston businessman who defrauded people of millions and refused to accept the responsibility? One tends to think more highly of the former pirate, if only because of an incident that is said to have occurred in his youth. Some men under Godric’s supervision were guilty of theft and, though he was not aware of their activity, he did benefit from the thefts and felt guilty about it. If a pirate can accept personal responsibility, it is not asking too much for a Houston businessman to do likewise.

The original prompt for this writing assignment asked whether or not it was possible to be both a merchant/capitalist and a pious Christian in the modern world. The Perry text describes Modern as those “historical developments in the West since the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries…”. (p G-5) If the question is considered with that timeframe in mind then the answer is that the two aims were not considered to be antithetical by the people of the merchant class during much of recent history.

It was not only possible to be both but the two identities – merchant/capitalist and pious Protestant Christian – arose during the same era. Generations of Western Christians have labored confidently under the conviction/belief/impression that the two identities were quite compatible. As the Perry text notes: “by 1750, the model Christian in northwestern Europe was no longer the selfless saint but the enterprising businessman.” (p 334) Looking back over those centuries, however, the ethics and morality exhibited by some of these pious capitalists involved eradication and displacement of native peoples, religious warfare and persecution, exploitation and a laundry list of basic human rights (not to mention environmental degradation and eradication of species) in the interests of both business and religious conviction.

If the original question is considered as “Is it still possible to be both?” then that becomes more difficult to answer. We are each accountable for our actions but it is never entirely possible to see and fully comprehend the ramifications of those actions, however minor they might be. Perhaps the most one can hope to accomplish – whatever one’s religious tradition or occupation – is to try to act in accordance with one’s principles and hope for the best.



(Text referenced for this essay Perry, Marvin. Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics & Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007.)

Houston

To the Right is the very recognizable logo of the defunct corporation that went down in a maelstrom of bankruptcy and executive shenanigans.

(Source for photo: time.com)

The man in the red tie is, of course, Ken Lay. In this photo, he is on his way to the Houston courthouse where he was being tried for criminal activities associated with the collapse of Enron.

(Source for photo: msnbc.msn.com )

What on earth do Ken Lay and St. Godric have in common?

Finchale Priory

This photo (which can be found at the English Heritage site) is of the ruins of Finchale Abbey. The Abbey was built on the site where St. Godrich lived as a solitary hermit.

The following is the description that accompanies the picture on the English Heritage entry: "The very extensive remains of a 13th-century priory, founded on the site of a retired pirate's hermitage. Part of it later served as a holiday retreat for the monks of Durham Cathedral. Beautifully sited by the River Wear, it can be reached from Durham via a delightful riverside and woodland walk."