Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Columbus Discovers the New World


Christopher Columbus is believed to have been born in Genoa, Italy in 1451, although some have claimed him to have been born in Spain. He was not from a wealthy family, although they were by no means impoverished.

He is of course, famous for his four transatlantic voyages from Europe and subsequent discovery of the America. Little is known of his early life, but by the time he was 16, he was already embarking on a naval career, and following a shipwreck incident off of Portugal, he and his brother were employed as cartographers in Lisbon, Portugal.

However, it was the sea which was to captivate him and through his marriage to a wealthy nobleman’s daughter, it seems he was to acquire charts of the winds and currents of the Atlantic Ocean. During the years 1482 – 1485, he made several voyages whereby he gained further knowledge of these ocean properties. This coupled with a need to find a new trade route to the Indies after Islamic countries to the east had effectively blocked that route; Columbus eventually secured the patronage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain in order to fund a voyage across the Atlantic in 1492.

Encyclopedia Britannica states further reasoning for the voyage, “Christian missionary and anti-Islamic fervour, the power of Castile and Aragon, the fear of Portugal, the lust for gold, the desire for adventure, the hope of conquests, and Europe’s genuine need for a reliable supply of herbs and spices for cooking, preserving, and medicine all combined to produce an explosion of energy that launched the first voyage.”

And so, on 3rd September 1492 as Admiral, the seagoing entrepreneur Christopher Columbus and his ship the Santa Maria left the Spanish port of Palos and set sail to the west in search of an alternative route to the Indies.

The Santa Maria was accompanied by two other ships which were used for supplies and so on. The fleet contained in all, some 120 men forming the party.

After being at sea for a little over a month, the crew became disheartened. On October 11th, a near mutiny was narrowly avoided due to the fact land had not been seen for weeks and the crew did not yet know the true nature of the voyage. Fortunately for Columbus a day after, a crewman from one of the three ships, the Pinta had finally spotted landfall.

On October 12th 1492, Christopher Columbus lands somewhere in the Bahamas and believes he has found the fabled western passage to India and China. What he didn’t know (and never would know in his lifetime) was a big land mass and an even larger ocean stood between him and the Indies.

Nonetheless, over the next few months, he set sail and discovered other islands within the Caribbean including Hispaniola, Jamaica and Cuba also, and he narrowly missed out on setting foot on North American soil in Florida. For some reason, he had changed his mind and set sail southwards in search of China.

Columbus discovered Haiti and acquired gold from there, which would of course bode well for him on his return to Spain in January 1493. He had left a small garrison to set up the first Spanish settlement there, with further materials being supplied by the Santa Maria that had previously run aground and sunk.

The return trip to Europe was horrendous. Caught in strong storms, his remaining two ships limped into port in the Azores. Here, they were captured by the Portuguese and Columbus spent time trying to secure their freedom. Eventually they were freed and departed and arrived at the port of Lisbon where Columbus was obliged to speak to the Portuguese King. When eventually he arrived back in Spain, his arrival was marred significantly because of this meeting, the Spanish being suspicious of collaboration. Columbus was not of Spanish blood, and so his true loyalty could be questioned.

However, Columbus brought back his news of this new world, along with the gold and various objects he had collected and another voyage was commissioned for later on in autumn that same year (1493).

The near munity of his first voyage and various other tensions under his leadership, perhaps by the way he handled his men, had led to many difficulties for Columbus. He was very autocratic in his leadership and had very high religious standards which many would find very difficult to work under. This was to be a common factor throughout all of his voyages and led to him making many enemies.

However, due to his desire to bring home both material and human cargo, he had to give his crew certain leeway and allowed them to loot and to perform other violent acts, else he would lose their support. And so, because his high moral grounds had been compromised he could no longer maintain a consistent level of leadership.

This second voyage contained some 16 ships with over 1500 men, including a group of friars in order to preach the Christian message to the natives and it also contained a group of military personnel.
Columbus expertly made the crossing again with apparent ease which further enhanced his reputation as an expert navigator. On this visit, he further established settlements on the islands and discovered even more, but his methods remained harsh and he left a great deal of devastation in his wake, most particularly to the natives he was to encounter.

He left the islands to return to Spain in the autumn of 1496, leaving his brothers in charge of the settlements and immediately pressed for plans for a further expedition. Although the spoils from this second voyage were significantly less than anticipated, he was granted permission to return with a smaller fleet of six ships. By this time, Spain and France were at war, and Portugal was still a threat, so it was with reluctance that a third voyage was granted.

His third voyage set sail from Sanlucar in Spain in May 1498, with a modest 6 ships in his fleet. Still believing he had found the Far East, he decided to split this fleet, three ships to voyage to Hispaniola, while his three would sail further south from his previous discoveries in search for a strait to India. He did not find this path to India, but Encyclopedia Britannica tells us “by August 15 he knew by the great torrents of fresh water flowing into the Gulf of Paria that he had discovered another continent—“another world.” But he did not find the strait to India, nor did he find King Solomon’s gold mines, which his reading had led him and his sovereigns to expect in these latitudes; and he made only disastrous discoveries when he returned to Hispaniola.”

His brothers whom he had left in charge before setting back for Spain in 1496 had suffered rebellion by some of their men along with the inhabitants. Columbus managed to regain some sort of control and order through use of hanging the ringleaders of the rebellion. Word had already reached Spain though, and the Spanish Chief Justice had been sent over to investigate. Essentially what had happened was Columbus’s brothers had exploited the inhabitants with the help of favored Spanish personnel. Those who were not in favor, had rebelled against them along with the inhabitants.

Nonetheless, Columbus and his brothers were held responsible by the Chief Justice and were imprisoned and sent back to Spain to answer for their actions. During the voyage home, Columbus penned an intricate letter to his sovereigns detailing his navigational abilities, the fact he believed he was so close to finding gold and “asserted that he had reached the outer region of the Earthly Paradise”. They arrived back in Spain in late October, 1500.

This desperate letter gained Columbus his freedom and an audience in Granada in late 1500 whereby he convinced them to grant him one final expedition to the New World to search for the treasures. His sovereigns were convinced of his navigational abilities, but not of his leadership abilities and so control of the settlement was passed to another.

And so, in May 1502, Columbus embarks on what would prove to be his fourth and final voyage to the New World, this time with just four ships.

By now, his health was failing him, and he also was forbidden to return to Hispaniola due to the previous events there. He was ordered instead to continue his search to the south of the existing colonies to seek gold and locate the passage to India. The expedition was not a happy one despite exploring the likes of Honduras, and the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua. His fleet by now was in very poor condition and only two of the four ships remained. In his search, he narrowly missed the passage to the Pacific due to extreme weather conditions and attacks from various Indian tribes and in the summer of 1503 he and his fleet had run aground and were castaways.

His navigational skills were put to the test again and he accurately predicted an eclipse which frightened the natives there into providing them with food and shelter until rescue arrived around a year later in 1504.

Towards the end of that same year, Columbus made his final voyage back to Spain and two years later in 1506, he passed away.

Despite leading a troubled and brilliant life, Columbus’s legacy paved the way for new exploration, new understanding of navigation and of how the world was made up. And of course he unknowingly had laid the foundations for a “New World” to be opened up and discovered. This “New World” would bring new riches, new ideas, new hope, new freedoms and new life to many. At the same time it would also bring poverty, hardship, no hope, slavery and bondage to many others.

His discoveries also changed the way western civilizations perceived themselves and led to many other European countries like Portugal, England, France and the Netherlands to also create strong navies and head westwards across the Atlantic Ocean to claim these new lands for themselves. He also influenced other great navigators over the following centuries to explore and chart the remainder of the world; explorers such as Sir Francis Drake who became the first to circumnavigate the earth and James Cook to establish colonies in Australia and New Zealand.

So, Columbus’s discovery of the Americas truly marked a major turning point in the history of Western Civilization.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Spread of the Reformation


Catholicism was the major vehicle for Christianity and had gone largely unchallenged for nearly 1500 years. Over this time, false doctrine, paganism and perverted teachings had crept into its belief system. The fact that only a select few could read at the time (the majority of these being monks), poor teaching and perhaps inaccurate copying of the Bible also played its part in Christianity moving away from its origins.

Although the churches teachings had been unchallenged for this time, a couple of men had expressed concerns but they were quickly snuffed out for various reasons. John Wycliffe (1328 – 1384) had been the first and John Hus (1369? – 1415) the other, and it wasn’t until an Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther in 1517 actually began preaching against the church.

Amongst his beliefs, he felt that the Bible should be made available to all and translated into languages other than just Latin in order for the people to read for themselves, and most significantly he believed that the only way a man can be saved is through belief in Jesus Christ.

Through advances in technology via the printing press, his location in a country that was not united, the threat of invasion from the Ottoman Turks and the Renaissance in full swing, his beliefs and ideas were spread quickly and effectively throughout Europe. He raised important questions against the Catholic Church and these would ultimately change religion in Europe for good.

His beliefs led to his excommunication from the Church in 1521 at the Diet of the Worms, following his grievances and for the Ninety-five Theses that he had published and distributed four years earlier in 1517.

So what made Luther’s challenges successful where others before had failed? And what were the differences in belief between him and the Catholic Church?

It is important to firstly know what each side claims. So firstly, what does the Bible say about how sin came to be with mankind and how is man able to be saved?

Genesis chapter 3 tells of how mankind originally came to be under sin. Adam and Eve were told in Genesis 3:3, “But as for [eating] of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘YOU must not eat from it, no, YOU must not touch it that YOU do not die.” However, Eve was deceived by the serpent and consequently ate the fruit and gave some to Adam who also ate. God then proceeded to drive them from the Garden of Paradise in order to punish for their disobedience and to make sure that Adam did not eat of the tree again. Genesis 3:21 states “Here the man has become like one of us in knowing good and bad, and now in order that he may not put his hand out and actually take [fruit] also from the tree of life and eat and live to time indefinite,—”. Most significantly of all though, they would eventually die.

How mankind is to be saved is through the ransom sacrifice that Jesus Christ made many years later. Exodus 21:24 states “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,” This principle may also be applied to the ransom sacrifice. A perfect man in Adam had sinned, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), therefore the logic is that a perfect man (Christ) must die in order to pay that price, to balance the books.

And so, it was Christ’s death that enabled mankind to have the chance of eternal life. To link in further, Christ has also been called ‘the tree of life’, which from Genesis 3:21 above, reinforces this belief.

That is salvation as taught by the Bible in a very simple form, and probably one of the most famous Biblical quotes is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Therefore, the only way for a person to gain everlasting life is to believe in Jesus Christ.

This is not what was being taught in Luther’s time. The Catholic Church was teaching indulgencies. About indulgencies, the Encyclopedia Britannica states “The debt of forgiven sin could be reduced through the performance of good works in this life (pilgrimages, charitable acts, and the like) or through suffering in purgatory. Indulgences could be granted only by popes or, to a lesser extent, archbishops and bishops as ways of helping ordinary people measure and amortize their remaining debt. “Plenary,” or full, indulgences cancelled all the existing obligation, while “partial” indulgences remitted only a portion of it. People naturally wanted to know how much debt was forgiven (just as modern students want to know exactly what they need to study for examinations), so set periods of days, months, and years came gradually to be attached to different kinds of partial indulgences.”

This is clearly very much against what the Bible teaches in that to be saved, one simply has to believe in Christ.

In a sermon preached by Martin Luther in Erfurt, 1521 (written down by a member of the audience) we are given an excellent summary of the teachings in the Bible compared against the false teachings told by the Catholic Church.

The sermon describes how man came to be in sin and how this sin was paid by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was based on Biblical teachings and backed up with several scriptures. It is a very positive and freeing sermon, which no doubt captured many people’s attentions thus helping Reformation along its way (indeed, the person taking notes of this sermon, wrote it up and delivered it to a printers in order for copies to be made and distributed).

In contrast to what the Church was preaching, this message is one of good works being done by the person as a consequence of believing in Christ and being Christian, whereas the Church was effectively ordering persons do to works in order to gain salvation. There is a clear and distinct difference – one cannot earn salvation.

This sermon, and no doubt others like it, was the first stepping stones to the movement of the Reformation. To have something worthy of spreading, a quality source will always be the foundations of a successful campaign. And already, this sermon was quickly republished in order for others to hear about it.

The second way for the Reformation to be spread was in the form of hymn. Luther penned many hymns and the key element in it was for the congregation to sing them together. Not only did it help reinforce the message within people’s minds (remembering still many people were unable to read at this time), but outside the church, people would have been singing them as they did their daily chores and other people hearing them. And repetition is an important key to learning. Often in teaching, a teacher will state the same point several times over the course of a lecture or class in order that it may remain in the students heads thereafter.

‘Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word’ was such a hymn written by Luther around 1541. The first verse is a blatant attack and defense against the Pope and the Turk who were the threats. “Lord, keep us steadfast in thy Word, And curb the pope’s and Turk’s vile sword, Who seek to topple from the throne, Jesus Christ, thine only Son.”

Not only would these words have been taken in deeply by the followers of the Reformation, but Luther seems to show a great deal of lack of respect of the authority of the Pope in this verse. The word ‘Turk’s’, ‘Son and Lord all start with a capital letter, but the Pope, technically a pronoun does not have this. This again shows how much Luther questions the authority of the Pope and the Catholic faith as being truly Christian.

The hymn ‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God’ written in 1527 is another hymn written by Luther and enforces that the Protestant Reformation is attempting to go back to the roots of Christianity. He really seems to claim God, as his own, the opening lines “A mighty fortress is our God, A sword and shield victorious; He breaks the cruel oppressor’s rod…” again show the movement away from Catholicism and towards what he sees as a truer Christianity. The Catholic Church is no doubt the target of the third line there.
 In 1524, Paul Speratus wrote the hymn ‘Salvation unto Us Has Come’ and the entire message or theme of this hymn is one of salvation through Jesus Christ.

There were many other hymns sung throughout which have helped people understand and receive the message that Luther was trying to put across, these three highlight some of the things the people were singing about and thus another reason why the Reformation took off in the way it did and people’s movement from Catholicism to this new freer church.

The printing press was an extremely effective medium for the new message of Reformation to reach the people, even if perhaps most still couldn’t read. The next five sources are all pictorial and use images and pictures to get the message across. A little like early graphic design, and the old saying of a picture telling a thousand words comes to mind.

In a 1546 broadsheet, Matthias Gerung contrasts the two Christian religions, what he now deems the ‘false’ Christian religion at the bottom with the Pope two the right looking over what appears to be demon type figures handing out papers, no doubt the indulgencies. In contrast, the top shows a peaceful vision of a sermon under Protestant reform along with babies being baptized.

Another image by Gerung, once again split into two parts, shows the righteous being received into heaven by Christ at the top, and those rejected at the bottom being tortured and tormented amongst demons. Interestingly, both Protestant and Catholicism still believe that when a person dies, they will either go to heaven or a fiery hell despite the Bible not being very clear as to whether this is the case or not.

From a pamphlet in 1521, Lucas Cranach has produced four images with those on the left showing Biblical scenes, and those on the right, the equivalent Catholic misdemeanors. We have the image of Christ in the top left, humbling himself and washing the feet of his disciples. The contrasting image to the right is people worshiping the Pope, highlighting that the Pope does not have a humble attitude as Christ did. The bottom two pictures depict money within the temple or church. Bottom left, Christ throwing the men making money in the temple out, and the contrasting picture with the Pope receiving money for indulgencies.

An unknown artist in 1522 portrays the Pope and his followers as wolves and geese. These were symbolic as wolves seek prey and are dangerous, while geese are seen as foolish followers. Also, Matthew 7:15 warns followers of Christ to “Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to YOU in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves”, again linking scripture with what was happening in the day.

The final print, a rather comical image of defecation into the Pope’s hat from a pamphlet by Lucas Cranach in 1545, really underlines what the Reformed Church thinks of Catholicism.

From these various images, one can conclude a real war of propaganda against the Catholic Church which accelerated the new movement and gained many, many new converts.

Finally, in an anonymous German pamphlet from 1523, we are shown a dialogue between two friends. One is telling the other about a sermon he heard. This piece tells a lot about other aspects on how the Reformation spread. Not only were dialogue of this kind distributed in pamphlets, but they taught people not only about Biblical matters, but it showed them how to spread this news to others. This dialogue shows how excited Hans was about what he had heard and how he wants to speak out about it. It also shows how he reasoned with Claus (his friend) when asked about it. So not only is the Reformed church teaching (what they perceived as the truth in the Bible), but they were indirectly teaching the followers how to speak about it and spread the word further.

Through various mediums, such as sermons, pamphlets, images, posters, and word of mouth and, it is clear how the Reformation spread so quickly and widely. The printing press was certainly a major player in this, getting the same message spread throughout, as well as people’s educational skills improving and along with the oppression that the Catholic Church had imposed on everybody, it’s very understandable people were excited and wanted to talk more and more about it.

“In conclusion, then, every single person should reflect and remember that we cannot help ourselves, but only God, and also that our works are utterly worthless.” This piece of advice from Luther’s sermon makes for a fitting conclusion. And perhaps this was the most motivating feature of the entire spread of the Reformation across Europe, and a new fresh hope.

One can only imagine after many years of oppression by the Church, what hope through the Reformation must have given them. That they didn’t feel hopeless, that their lives need to be controlled by the Church, that they themselves would eventually have the opportunity to read and learn for themselves and to be finally in charge of their own destiny.