Tag: #FOWC

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J is for Julius II

Julius on the walls of Mirandola by Rafaello Tancredi, from wikipedia.

Has anyone ever made it all the way through The Agony and the Ecstasy? I have tried, since I delight in old-timey movies, but I confess I can only take about 20 minutes of Charlton Heston grimacing. As one critic said, he seems to paint the Sistine Chapel as long as Michelangelo did…

But much as I don’t care for Rex Harrison either, I like him as Pope Julius II, the Warrior Pope, the dude that hired and fired Michelangelo, the dude that shepherded in St. Peter’s and the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Julius happened to be good buddies with Raphael, Da Vinci, and my buddy, Luca Pacioli. Rome was practically a small town back then.

The Della Rovere popes, by Mellozo da Forli, HistoryofYesterday.com
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I is for Indulgences

Czech manuscript shows Satan distributing indulgences. Image from wikipedia.

Indulgences had a huge influence on the Renaissance in a not-so-pleasant way. These are dispensations granted by the Catholic church under very specific conditions, but those conditions weren’t always followed. Representatives, particularly far from Rome, bent the rules, until the rules were in pretzels. Which might remind you of Germany, and that, as it happens, is where the end of the Renaissance sprouted like a seed.

Just to be clear, indulgences aren’t, on their own, a problem. The church still issues them, and the internet is replete with modern info-graphics on how they can be acquired. It’s just that they aren’t sold on the open market or include absolution for 20,000 years. Clarification is required.

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H is for Honor Code

From Romeo & Juliet’s royal ballet at the London Opera house on Youtube.

The Honor code in the Renaissance was a major driver of personal behavior. However, the code was a shift in attitude from the medieval times. Where once humility and charity had reigned, the new code rested more heavily on public image. That meant far more men would be far more sensitive to public insult, and you know where that leads, if you have swords. As Benevolio says in Romeo and Juliet:

For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

How did men go from bending knee and expressing honor quietly to brandishing epees and prancing about? Change in attitude and little help from the influencers of the day.

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