Which Came First??

The Council of Trent may have been in part brought about in response to Martin Luther. Yet actions of the Catholic Reformation were in progress before Luther was even conceived as a threat to the Catholic Church. This can be seen as starting under Pope Alexander. Though under pope Alexander during the renaissance a reform group was conceived it had little to no observable effect on any of the issues plaguing the church at the time. Yet the reform process was expedited by Luther’s criticism of the Catholic church although many loyal Catholics did agree with Martin Luther that there were issues that needed to be fixed within the church. These loyal followers instead brought about the Council of Trent to solve the issues that they saw needed clarification. Also the Council of Trent condemned the protestant movement.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Trent#List_of_decrees

Happy Massacre Day!

St.Bartholomew's day massacre was killing spree in Paris, France after King Charles IX of France ordered an assassination on the Huguenot Protestant leader the Duke of Guise in Paris. King Charles was very influenced by his mother Catherine de Medici who just so happened to have ordered the assassination of a huguenot leader just two days before King Charles ordered an assassination. This mommas boy listens to everything she says. She told Charles that the Huguenots were planning a rebellion against him and obviously he doesn't want that to happen so he ordered the assassination of their leaders. This obviously did not sit well with the Huguenots. Soon after the massacre began.

The following piece by François Dubois depicts a proclaimed eye witness experience of this massacre. As shown in the painting, there is utter chaos through the streets of Paris as thousands are being killed. According to different factions during the time period anywhere from 3,000-70,000 people were killed during the St.Bartholomew's Day Massacre. This massacre ended about 10 years after the Duke was assassinated.
http://www.britannica.com/event/Massacre-of-Saint-Bartholomews-Day
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/saint-bartholomews-day-massacre

The Spanish Armada

The year was 1588 and the war was over England. The Spanish Armada was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships with a strategic aim to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and the establishment of Protestantism in England. The fleet was tasked with the purpose of escorting an army to invade the English mainland. If they succeeded the course of English history would have taken a drastically different path.

The descent of the Armada came at a pivotal time of change in sea warfare. The Spanish represented the old tradition while the English fought with new design and tactics. In the old model, war was fought on sea as if on land, with soldiers discharging arrows and handguns, boarding the enemy ships and engaging in hand fighting for battle wins. The Spanish ships, or galleons, were made for this type of fighting. They were impressive in size and rode high out of the water with towering masts, but their height and broad nature made them awkward to sail and maneuver.

English captains inspired a new form of ship which was made to be lower in the water, with a long prow and much reduced masts. These sleek ships carried more sophisticated forms of rigging, enabling them to sail closer to the wind, thus making them more maneuverable and faster than the Spanish galleons. The English navy relied on gunnery, rather than boarding, to defeat an enemy. The design of the ships allowed the English to close in and fire repeatedly on the sides of the Spanish ships at short range, inflicting considerable damage and sinking ships. The Armada did not have a way to counter with gunfire-centered attack as Spanish crews were not trained to load and fire repeatedly during a battle and their guns were not designed for rapid fire.

Credits:
http://www.britishbattles.com/spanish-war/spanish-armada.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Armada

Images:
http://www.britishbattles.com/spanish-war/spanish-armada.htm

The Four Witches or the Three Graces plus a Fourth

The Four Witches is an engraving by Albrecht Durer, dating to 1497. The work shows four sensual, nude women gathered in a circle. The women almost look like they are conspiring to do evil deeds together as seen by their expressions and indicated by the bones scattered. The doorway, to the right, is likely a gateway to death as seen by the bones lying across it. The doorway to the left seems to show the Devil, or a monster, engulfed in flames and might be intended as a gateway to hell. The intended meaning of the woodcut is unclear; possible interpretations range from the Three Fates with Discord, to Aphrodite and the Three Graces, or four witches, or four girls in a bath house. The engraving could also depict the Greek goddess Hecate, goddess of the crossroads and patroness of magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and sorcery and her counterpart, Diana. The goddess was often depicted with three faces, suggesting that she could look in all directions. Whatever the subject, the woodcut showcases the fears of witchcraft and paganism in the newly formed Protestant world. 

Credits:

http://risdmuseum.org/art_design/objects/342_the_four_witches
http://www.wga.hu/html_m/d/durer/2/13/1/019.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Witches

Images:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Witches

Judensau: Anti-semitism in the Reformation

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Judensau is a folk art image of Jews in obscene contact with a large sow, which is seen as an unclean animal in the Jewish religion, that appeared during the 13th century, mainly in Germany. The arrangement of Jews surrounding, suckling, and having intercourse with the animal is a blatant example of antisemitic propaganda during the Reformation. The earliest appearance of the Judensau dates to about 1210 on the underside of a choir-stall seat in 1210. Images appear mostly in carvings and sculptures on church walls where they were likely to be seen by many. With the advent of the printing press, the image started to appear more frequently in woodcut form, accompanying many antisemitic commentary in pamphlets. The facade of the Stadtkirche, in Wittenberg, contains a Judensau, from 1305. The sculpture portrays  Jews drinking from a sow's teats, as the rabbi looks under its tail and remains one of the last remaining examples of "medieval Jew baiting" in Germany. 

Credits:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judensau

http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Judensau.htm

Images:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Judensau-Wittenberg.jpg

Malleus Maleficarum

The Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of the Witches, is a pamphlet on the prosecution of witches, written by a German Catholic clergyman, Heinrich Kramer, in 1487. A short three years after its publication, the Catholic Church condemned the treatise in 1490; although, it was still used by royal courts and contributed to the increasingly brutal prosecution of witchcraft in the 16th century, coming at the end of the Reformation. According to the Malleus Maleficarum, there are three elements to witchcraft: the evil intentions of the witch, help from the Devil, and the permission of God.

The treatise is divided into three sections. The first aimed at clergy and refutes critics who deny the existence of witchcraft. The section examines the concept of witchcraft theoretically by addressing the question of whether witchcraft is real or imaginary. The second lays the foundation by describing forms of witchcraft and remedies for it. Matters of practice, the powers of witches, and their recruitment strategies were discussed. It details how witches cast spells and tells how to help those affected by witchcraft. The third section is the legal part of the pamphlet. It offers a step-by-step guide to the conduct of a trail and the formal charging.

Credits:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum
http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org

Images:
http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/MalleusLatin2.jpg

The Three Graces

This painting, called the The Three Graces,was made by Raphael in 1506, and was a probably a panel in diptych given to Scipione di Tommaso Borghese.  The first panel has Scipio, the sleeping knight, choose between Venus, who represents pleasure, and Minerva, who represents Virtue; this panel has three graces rewarding his choice, virtue, with the Golden Apples of the Hesperides.  The painting is composed with a sense of harmony and balance.  The three graces personify grace and beauty, and are the handmaidens of goddesses, usually Venus.  What each of the three graces represent has been disputed; some say its the giving, receiving, and returning of gifts, while others saw them as three phases of love: beauty, arousing desire, leading to fulfillment, and others say they symbolize Chastity, Beauty, and Love.  The Three Graces are in their classical pose, seen throughout centuries of painting, with two facing the audience while one is turned away.  This painting was the first to display the a female's nude front and back.  It was based on a classical sculpture of the Three Graces found in Siena.

Sources:

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/r/raphael/2firenze/1/21graces.html 

Codpiece: Does Size Matter?

When someone thinks of King Henry the VIII of England, typically the initial thought is about his six wives and the split with the Catholic Church. Yet this one of kind king also had a one of kind codpiece. This interesting piece of fashion was initially designed for modesty to ensure that the male genitals would remain covered no matter what the man was wearing or doing. Eventually this innocent and modest piece of garment quickly became a fashion statement that quickly became essential for everybody who wanted to be somebody. Yet King Henry VII took this to a whole new level as his codpiece grew in size over his lifetime to prove its that this piece of garment met a kingly level. Eventually Henry VII had padded his codpiece so much that it was an unbelievable size; even for a king. Also due to the large size of some codpieces that people would hide valuables and even possibly weapons in them. So in-essence this became a multi-purpose piece of fashion, that also offered battlefield protection to ensure the Henry VII could have his baby boy. Unfortunately, though this fashion died out in England after Queen Elizabeth I came to power as she has no need for such gaudy fashion.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ampp3d/henry-viiis-codpiece-big-america-4797298
http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/fashion_costume_culture/European-Culture-16th-Century/Codpiece.html