History answer the Q in 12 hours

What Was Utopia in the Sixteenth Century? HIST 101: Discussion-Section Questions Week Ten: April 6-April 10, 2020

1. The title of Sir Thomas More’s “Utopia” has entered the English language as signifying an ideal place (note, though, that the word literally means “No Place”). What features supposedly made Utopia ideal?

2. Sebastian Lotzer’s “The Twelve Articles of the Peasants of Swabia” is a list of political demands made by the peasants who rose up in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1525. What seem to be the peasants’ main complaints about their lives? What do they envision as an ideal relationship between themselves, their lords, and their church?

3. After reading “Draft of Ecclesiastical Ordinances,” what would you say the Protestant reformer John Calvin thought about the separation of church and state? That is, is he describing here running a church, a state, or both?

4. According to Calvin’s “Catechism of the Church of Geneva,” what were his reasons for writing a catechism (i.e. the content of a faith’s teachings, set out in a question-and-answer format)?

5. In this selection from “The Spiritual Exercises,” Ignatius of Loyola (the founder of the Roman-Catholic order of the Jesuits) offers rules for how Catholics should think and act, especially in response to criticisms from Protestants. How would you describe Ignatius’ general attitude in these rules?

6. Although the authors and their circumstances differ, all of this week’s readings are attempts at describing, or designing, perfect worlds. Which one of these “utopias” do you think would be the most likely to succeed, and why? Which one is the least likely?

7. What would you include if you were designing your own “utopia”? Would it look like any of these? What does that tell you about the historical similarities and differences between sixteenth-century Europe and twenty-first-century America?