Culture and Belief in Europe 1450 - 1600 An Anthology of Sources

by Englander, David; Norman, Diana; O'Day, Rosemary; Owens, W. R.

• ISBN13: 9780631169918
• ISBN10: 0631169911
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-01-08
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This open university reader is a wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection of material from primary sources, illustrating the relationship between cultural change and religious belief in sixteenth-century Europe. It contains more than eighty extracts drawn from a variety of genres including political, religious, philosophical and legal writing, diaries, letters, plays, poems and fiction. Some have never previously been published, others have not been reprinted since their original appearance in the sixteenth century, and a number are translated into modern English for the first time. 'Culture and Belief in Europe 1450 - 1600' includes writing from such renowned thinkers as Erasmus, Luther, Machiavelli, and Sir Thomas More, besides that of lesser-known authors. Works of literature also feature extensively, and writings from Cervantes, Rabelais, Edmund Spenser, and Sir Philip Sidney amongst many others are all to be found here. A general introduction describes the anthology's central aim - to explore aspects of the interrelationship between the politics, religion and writing of the period. The book is divided into eight thematic sections. Spelling in the extracts has been sensitively modernized throughout, and the editors provide a headnote and appropriate explanatory annotation for each item.

Author Biography

David Englander is Lecturer in European Humanities Studies.

Diana Norman is Lecturer in Art History.

Rosemary O'Day is Senior Lecturer in History.

W. R. Owens is Staff Tutor in Literature.

Table of Contents

Introduction	x	(4)
Acknowledgements	xiv	(3)
Note to the Reader	xvii
I. Humanism, Popular Culture and Belief	1	(118)
1 The Spicers' Play (c. 1463-1477)	5	(3)
2 The Pewterers' and Founders' Play (c. 1463-1477)	8	(8)
3 Late Medieval Ghost Stories	16	(2)
4 The Pilgrimage of William Wey (c. 1456)	18	(4)
5 Pico: A Young Philosopher Defends His Right to Dispute in Public (1486)	22	(6)
6 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (thirteenth century)	28	(2)
7 Lorenzo Valla, The Profession of the Religious (1439-1440)	30	(9)
8 Erasmus and John Colet (1499-1516)	39	(9)
A. Erasmus to John Colet, October 1499	40	(3)
B. Erasmus to John Colet, December 1504	43	(2)
C. Erasmus to John Colet, October 1511	45	(1)
D. John Colet to Erasmus, June 1516	46	(2)
9 Erasmus: Colloquies and Writings (1523-1526)	48	(23)
A. Courtship	48	(10)
B. Marriage	58	(8)
C. A Pilgrimage for Religion's Sake	66	(5)
10 Machiavelli, The Prince (1513)	71	(5)
A. Letter from Niccolo Machiavelli to Lorenzo de' Medici	71	(1)
B. Chapter 14: How a prince should organize his militia	72	(2)
C. Chapter 15: The things for which men, and especially princes, are praised or blamed	74	(1)
D. Brief extracts from Chapter 17: Cruelty and compassion; and whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse	75	(1)
11 Castiglione, The Courtier (1528)	76	(8)
A. Life at the Court of Urbino	76	(5)
B. Attributes of a lady courtier	81	(3)
12 Rabelais, Gargantua (1534) and Pantagruel (1532)	84	(16)
A. Rabelais' conception of a humanist education	86	(4)
B. Rabelais' delight in the New Learning and the authority of the ancients	90	(3)
C. Rabelais: critic of the Church	93	(3)
D. Rabelais parodies the Papacy	96	(2)
E. Rabelais, Plato and princely power	98	(1)
F. Rabelais on freedom, education and Christian virtue	99	(1)
13 The Church and Discipline (fourteenth to sixteenth centuries)	100	(19)
A. Extracts from an inquisitorial register	101	(5)
B. The Consistory of the French Congregation in London	106	(5)
C. Archbishop Grindal's second visitation of the diocese of York, 1575	111	(2)
D. Henry Trickett in the Lichfield Consistory Court	113	(6)
II. Civic Pride and Civic Patronage: Venice and Antwerp	119	(40)
1 Contarini: Governing Venice (1534)	122	(5)
2 Guicciardini: Antwerp (1567)	127	(6)
3 The Civic Inventory of Household Goods: a Sample for the Antwerp Notary (1582)	133	(5)
4 Inventory of Michiel van der Heyden (1552)	138	(2)
5 The Inventory of Margaretta Boge (1574)	140	(2)
6 Marcantonio Michiel's Description of the Collection of Andrea Odoni, Venice (c. 1530)	142	(2)
7 The Inventory of Willem Pauwels (1481)	144	(2)
8 Bessarion's Act of Donation (1468)	146	(5)
A. Papal Bull authorizing the donation (1467)	147	(2)
B. The Act of Donation	149	(2)
9 Bessarion's Library (1474)	151	(6)
10 Giorgi, Harmony of the World (1525)	157	(2)
III. Reformation	159	(60)
1 Articles of Tabor (c. 1420)	163	(1)
2 Lollard Documents (sixteenth century)	164	(2)
A. The examination of John Florence	165	(1)
B. The confession of a Lollard	165	(1)
3 The Council of Trent and Religious Art (1563)	166	(2)
4 Luther, Against the Heavenly Prophets (1525)	168	(3)
5 Hans Sachs, The Old Game (1554)	171	(6)
6 Martin Luther (1520s)	177	(19)
A. `On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church', 1520	177	(3)
B. Concerning Christian liberty, 1520	180	(1)
C. Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, 1522	181	(2)
D. `On the Appointment of Ministers', November 1523	183	(3)
E. `Secular Authority: To What Extent it Should be Obeyed', 1523	186	(5)
F. `Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants', May 1525	191	(4)
G. A hymn of Luther	195	(1)
7 John Calvin (1536)	196	(5)
8 William Tyndale and the Principles of Protestantism (1530, 1526)	201	(5)
A. Tyndale's Preface to the Pentateuch	201	(2)
B. Tyndale's Prologue to the Epistle to the Romans	203	(3)
9 Hans Sachs, `The Wittenberg Nightingale' (1523)	206	(2)
10 Agrippa, The Vanity and Uncertainty of the Arts and Sciences (1530)	208	(4)
11 The Diary of Lady Margaret Hoby (1599-1605)	212	(7)
IV. Religious Reform and Cultural Change: Spain and England	219	(50)
1 Caxton's Prologue to Virgil's Aeneid (1490)	224	(2)
2 Sir Thomas More, Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1528)	226	(4)
3 John Dee, Preface to Euclid's Elements (1570)	230	(3)
A. John Dee on number	230	(1)
B. John Dee on music	230	(1)
C. John Dee on anthropography	231	(1)
D. John Dee on navigation	232	(1)
E. John Dee affirms the purity of his endeavours	233	(1)
4 Ignatius de Loyola, Autobiography (1553/1555)	233	(4)
5 Ignatius de Loyola, Spiritual Exercises (1522-1538)	237	(6)
6 St Teresa of Avila, Life (1565)	243	(13)
7 Three Poems by Luis de Leon (1572-1577)	256	(5)
A. `On the Ascension'	256	(1)
B. `Dwelling Place of Heaven'	257	(1)
C. `To Our Lady'	258	(3)
8 Juan de Mariana, `Whether it is Right to Destroy a Tyrant' (1599)	261	(8)
V. Europe and the Wider World	269	(84)
1 Durer: On the Netherlands (1520-1521)	274	(4)
2 Montaigne: Travel Journal (1580-1581)	278	(8)
3 Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary (1591-1597)	286	(6)
4 Spenser, A View of the Present State of Ireland (1590s)	292	(5)
5 Letter from Isabella and Ferdinand to the Moorish King (1491)	297	(4)
6 Petition from Francisco Nunez Muley, Morisco Noble (1567)	301	(2)
7 Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq: Impressions of Turkey (1556-1564)	303	(2)
8 Nicholas de Nicolay, Navigations Made into Turkey (1567)	305	(2)
9 Bernal Diaz: Accounts of Mexico (c. 1568)	307	(6)
10 John White: Voyage to Virginia (1590)	313	(3)
11 Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (1519)	316	(2)
12 Amerigo Vespucci: Letter to Piero Soderini (1504)	318	(1)
13 Columbus: First Voyage (1492-1493)	319	(2)
14 Sepulveda: On the Indians (c. 1547)	321	(3)
15 Las Casas: On the Indians (1552)	324	(5)
16 Mendieta: On the Indians (1596)	329	(2)
17 Vitoria: Defence of the Indians (1537-1539)	331	(7)
18 Jose de Acosta: On the Indians and Animals of the New World (1590)	338	(5)
19 Questionnaire on the Spanish American Empire (1577-1586)	343	(10)
VI. Print Culture	353	(40)
1 Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur (1485)	356	(7)
2 Hugh Latimer, `Sermon on the Ploughers' (1548)	363	(11)
3 Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605, 1615)	374	(19)
VII. The Crisis of Authority: France	393	(46)
1 Claude de Seyssel, The Monarchy of France (1519)	397	(1)
2 Lefevre d'Etaples: Restoration of the Gospel (1522)	398	(1)
3 Cellini, Autobiography (1559)	399	(4)
4 Claude de Seyssel Three Bridles on Princely Power (1519)	403	(1)
5 Suriano: Strength and Weakness of France (1561)	404	(7)
6 Hotman: Exclusion of Women (1573)	411	(4)
7 Innocent Gentillet: Anti-Machiavel (1576)	415	(4)
8 Bodin, Method (1566)	419	(6)
9 Bodin, Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576)	425	(7)
10 Entertainment at Antwerp (1582)	432	(7)
VIII. Church, State and Literature in Britain	439	(40)
1 The Acts of Supremacy (1534, 1559)	442	(6)
2 The Vestiarian Controversy: Laurence Humphrey, Thomas Sampson and Bishop Grindal (1563-1566)	448	(3)
3 Scottish Ballads and Court Poetry (fifteenth to sixteenth centuries)	451	(6)
A. `Sir Patrick Spens'	451	(2)
B. `The Bonny Earl o' Murray'	453	(1)
C. Alexander Scott, `To luve unluvit'	454	(1)
D. Alexander Montgomerie, `Hay, now the Day Dawis'	455	(1)
E. Mark Alexander Boyd, `Fra banc to banc'	456	(1)
4 Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella (c. 1582)	457	(12)
5 Sir Philip Sidney, A Defence of Poetry (c. 1582)	469	(10)
Index	479