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Terrell DG, Short Notes on the Renaissance

Short Notes on the Renaissance


David G Terrell
May 2010

Myths

Please, do not underestimate the power of stories learned at the knee of one's mother or in the
initiation house, from the men. The deep reasons for events may get lost or warped but truth
remains. I carry in me tales of World War II given me by my father—which I have passed to
some of my children orally. Other tales wait in my journals, unsaid until after I leave this mortal
coil.

I am very mindful of James Frazier’s and Joseph Campbell's work in comparative mythology.
Campbell starts one book by quoting Sigmund Freud thus, "The truths contained in religious
doctrines are after all so distorted and systematically disguised that the mass of humanity cannot
recognize them as truth.” Soon after, he sets forth to “uncover some of the truths disguised for
us” through the symbolism that, once understood, speaks the ancient meanings (Campbell 1949,
vii)

From their membership in social networks, people learn techniques for living, the language that
shapes their cognitive frameworks, and ideas about rightness and justice. The rituals, such as,
“…birth, initiation, marriage, burial, installation, and so forth…” renders the society visible to its
members, who are enriched and enlarged by participating. (Campbell 1949, 383) The
upbringings of Renaissance youth were not the featureless landscapes moderns tend to envision.

We have a hard time understanding the power of belonging, in our modern individualistic world.
We have cut the communications with our subconscious… we hardly remember our dreams,
much less pay attention to them (Campbell 1949, 387-391).

The people of the Renaissance were still connected to each other by a rich vocabulary of symbols
we see formalized in the art and architecture. Through the symbols, the stories were told. With a
bit of study, the language is still accessible through books like Charbonneau-Lassay’s Bestiary of
Christ and several others I will grab from across the room and list below.(Charbonneau-Lassay
1991).

What was so special about Rome?

Some refer to the “spiritual authority that went with simply being in Rome.”
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Terrell DG, Short Notes on the Renaissance

I have wondered about that. I know that many of the Church Fathers lionized the Church at
Rome, but that was because of its traditional origin at the hands of the apostles Peter and Paul
(Catholic Answers 2004).

If the Bishop of Rome had seniority, why did that authority not travel with him, at least in some
measure? Various Bishops and other leaders appointed vicars to represent them in their absence.
The Pope himself was deemed the Vicar of Christ.

I believe it was based upon the location of Peter’s relics in Rome. The relics sanctified the
church and the city, in the sense of a “guardian spirit” (Hartland, 114). The continuing sanctity of
the Pope depended, in part, on his physical proximity to Peter’s relics.

Death and Dying then and now

As I roll ideas around, I am brought to amazement at the resilience of European society facing
disease.

A few years ago, during the SARS epidemic in Asia, I represented an intelligence agency on an
interagency team providing status, assessments and projections to federal executives. As a team,
we were fascinated to see the strength of social structures in Guangzhou, China relative to Hong
Kong and, more so in comparison with Scarborough, Canada-a locus of the disease.

Given the greater virulence and morbidity of the Black Death, the effect of such a disease upon
modern society would be a breakdown of all social order. Yet, in the Decameron’s depiction,
while things are horrible, they never go completely to chaos--otherwise everyone would have
starved.

What gave them such resilience? I suspect it was somewhat based on a familiarity with death.
After all, people often died young, at home (taken care of by their families) and quickly; unlike
our modern experiences. (Kearl n.d.)

Marsiligio of Padua

When Marsiligio of Padua published Defensor Pacis in 1324, he cast condemnation upon the
Church writ large for exceeding its mandate, as exemplified by Jesus Christ during his life.
Marsiligio based his indictment upon his understanding of the Scriptures and classical sources,
particular the Politics of Aristotle, respectively the original documentary source of sacral and
secular righteousness and doctrine (Marsiligio, Marsilius of Padua: from Defensor Pacis, 1324
1998).
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Terrell DG, Short Notes on the Renaissance

Examining the excerpts of his work and conclusions, I summarize Marsiligio assertions as
follows:

 The citizenry, as understood in the Grecian city-state and probably, to Marsiligio, in the
early Romano-Christian era, retained the sovereign power and invested it, as Divinely-
inspired Imperium, in a Emperor (Marsiligio, Marsilius of Padua: from Defensor Pacis,
1324 1998) (Marsiligio, Marsiligio of Padua: Conclusions from Defensor Pacis, 1324
1996).
 The Emperor, thus delegated and empowered by the citizenry, was responsible to God for
ordering and protecting the Empire; which included the selection of local religious
leaders (bishops, archbishops and patriarchs) from the body of clergy; and the exercise of
coercive power to the ends of securing peace through soldiers compelled to serve,
persons compelled to pay tax for the public good, and criminals compelled to cease their
unjust and improper actions (Marsiligio, Marsilius of Padua: from Defensor Pacis, 1324
1998) (Marsiligio, Marsiligio of Padua: Conclusions from Defensor Pacis, 1324 1996).
 The supreme authority for individual, imperial and sacral virtue derives from the
examples of Jesus Christ and his Apostles embodied in the Scriptures, and in the works of
Church Fathers, whose interpretation and authority are agreed upon by local religious
leaders, assembled in general ecumenical council; and that the theory of Papal superiority
based on derivation from the Apostle Peter was in error (Marsiligio, Marsilius of Padua:
from Defensor Pacis, 1324 1998) (Marsiligio, Marsiligio of Padua: Conclusions from
Defensor Pacis, 1324 1996).

Marsiligio determined that this traditional order of society was being usurped by individuals,
particularly the Pope, the Bishop at Rome. His principle objection centers upon papal efforts to
assume the Emperor’s coercive powers of Imperium and that of appointing local and regional
Church leaders; and the spiritual authority of interpretation and church justice reserved to
ecumenical councils (Marsiligio, Marsilius of Padua: from Defensor Pacis, 1324 1998)
(Marsiligio, Marsiligio of Padua: Conclusions from Defensor Pacis, 1324 1996).

Pope John XXII condemned Marsiligio’s objections. The Pope reasserted his personal
superiority among the Curia, claiming the mantle of Peter. He insisted upon the Church’s
independence from the Emperor in terms of its property, personnel appointments, and authority
to apply coercive power (Marsiligio, Marsiligio of Padua: Condemnation by John XXII, 1327
1996).

The condemnation of Pope John XXII, simply conceded Marsiligio’s assertions of fact without
allowing that the assertions were erroneous in any way.
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Terrell DG, Short Notes on the Renaissance

David G Terrell
Herndon, Virginia

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: MJF Books for Fine Communications,
1949.

Catholic Answers. "The Authority of the Pope: Part I." Catholic Answers. August 10, 2004.
http://www.catholic.com/library/Authority_of_the_Pope_Part_1.asp (accessed May 26, 2010).

Charbonneau-Lassay, Louis. The Bestiary of Christ. Translated by D.M. Dooling. New York: Arkana
Penguin Books, 1991.

Frazier, James. The Golden Bough. 1922 (abridged). London: Chancellor Press, 1922.

Gardner, John. The Life and Times of Chaucer. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2009.

Gies, Frances, and Gies Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1990.

—. Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

Hartland, E. Sidney. Foundation, Foundation - Rites. Vol. VI, in Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, by
James Hastings, John Alexander Selbie and Louis Herbert Gray, 109-115. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark,
1914.

Hartland, E. Sidney. Foundation, Foundation - Rites. Vol. VI, in Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, by
James Hastings, John Alexander Selbie and Louis Herbert Gray, 109-115. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark,
1914, http://books.google.com/books?id=00ATAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA109.

Kearl, Michael. "Images Across Cultures and Time." Kearl's Guide to the Sociology of Death and Dying.
http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/death-1.html (accessed May 26, 2010).

Marsiligio. "Marsiligio of Padua: Conclusions from Defensor Pacis, 1324." Medieval Sourcebook. March
1996. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio1.html (accessed May 22, 2010).

—. "Marsiligio of Padua: Condemnation by John XXII, 1327." Medieval Sourcebook. March 1996.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio2.html (accessed May 22, 2010).

—. "Marsilius of Padua: from Defensor Pacis, 1324." Medieval Sourcebook. May 1998.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/marsiglio4.html (accessed May 23, 2010).

Ozment, Steven. Flesh and Spirit: Private Life in Early Modern Germany. New York: Viking Pengiun,
1999.
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Terrell DG, Short Notes on the Renaissance

Van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Translated by Monika B Vizedom and Gabrielle L Caffee.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1960.

© David G. Terrell, 2009-2011, except where otherwise noted, content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. For permission to reprint under terms outside the license, contact
davidterrell80@hotmail.com.

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