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History 104A, November 30: Three for the Price of One!

I have decided to give us a little James Burke again, so we have

a multimedia session, two days if you will in a row or at least two

meetings in a row. I hadn't really anticipated doing the one on the

centers, but I just bought it and I really did like it. It obviously

gets us into Martin Luther and the reformation. What I wanted to

identify again for you -- and it did come out in the film -- of the

areas that I identified that make renaissance, how was Martin Luther a

renaissance man? A typical renaissance man? Tough one, huh? The

answer really lies in the sense of individuality, the sense that the

individual can achieve what they will. And what's the ultimate

achievement the individual can make? Salivation, I guess, for some.

So remember, starting with the Wycliffe and Hus or however he

pronounced it -- I'm used to Hus. And then of course being pushed by

Martin Luther, the whole point being what we have then is the belief

that individuals can achieve salivation without the need of

intermediaries, that by reading the Bible you can find Christ. And by

finding Christ, you will do good works and good deeds and you don't

need to talk to statutes of saints nor do you need to buy indulgences

or an intermediary in the sense of a priest. Men can do all things if

they will. Martin Luther had the personality as well as in the sense

of braggadocio in promoting himself. He did an excellent job of

using, as it was indicated, the printing press. The vernacular

becomes important. Vernacular means the native languages. Throughout

the middle ages, the language used in mass and everywhere else was

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Latin. Now, with the reformation, the native language becomes used.

Translation, Martin Luther translates the Bible to German and later

on, of course, the Bible is translated into English and the definitive

quote/unquote version in 1603 or somewhere in that time is translated

into English. So again, that whole sense of worldliness, this world

tied to individual salivation becomes very important to the

renaissance era.

And we'll also identify how Christopher Columbus or Colon,

meaning Christ the colonizer. Now, that's the height of braggadocio,

take the name Christ the colonizer, not bad if you're going to brag

about yourself. And of course men can do all things if they will, go

out there and see the world, search the world. Forget about the flat

Earth and the sea monsters, which most scholars knew at least the flat

Earth didn't exist. We'll get into that a little later as well.

I just wanted to sort of tie that together in that sense of the

meaning, even though they're different periods often in history,

renaissance reformation, age of exploration, they really do tie

together. And they're, of course, within the same date period that

we're discussing.

The exam is coming close. I think we have only three more BS

lessons left by me to go. Next week, Wednesday, you are terminated

here. And then you will terminate on, is it Monday, from 9:30 to

11:30, that your exam is scheduled, if you will, correctly. And it

will be in this room. That means that sometime next week I should

give you a take-home question that I will have to work out. Any

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questions before I proceed to today's video? All right.

(showing video)

Always tough in the morning to watch a film, but I always enjoy

it because we never had any technology, technological learning in

history and it really gives you a little of that background. Okay.

So explore for the rest of the day and we'll see you Friday.

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