This is for Prof Scofied

ANALYTICAL ESSAY 1

ANALYTICAL ESSAY

February 17th,

2017

Introduction

ANALYTICAL ESSAY 2

Europe became a global power at the time it was experiencing internal religious upheaval1.

The reality is that these religious disorders had permanently divided Christians. The Spanish

explorers and the Portuguese had already appealed for the new lands, and Catholic missionaries

collected new souls for the church all the way from Mexico to Japan. It is worth noting that Luther

and Calvin together with a host of others had formed competing branches of the Europe’s

Protestants. There was a lot of disagreement between the Lutherans, Calvinist, and Anglicans on

various issues of doctrine and church organization. However, they all eventually broke from the

Roman Catholic Church2. The Protestant, priest and the laypeople recognized the new Christian

communities having new forms of ritual. There were also new social practices, new doctrines, and

clergy that had different personal lives and powers different from the clergy in the Roman Catholic.

A case in point is that Catholic priest was not to marry. Protestant clergy could marry on the other

hand. Catholic priest heard confessions and said mass. Protestant priesthood preached the word of

God and could not hear confession leaving it to the individual sinner and God undertaking that

such act of confession ought to be between the human heart and God3. This paper analyses three

ways states and societies attempted to create order in this disorderly time in European society

thereby discussing success and limitations of each those ways.

1. Attempting to create order via reshaping society through religion.

1Hutter, Swen, and Edgar Grande. "Politicizing Europe in the national electoral arena: A

comparative analysis of five West European countries, 1970–2010." JCMS: Journal of Common

Market Studies 52, no. 5 (2014): 1002-1018. 2Lualdi, Katharine J. 2012. Sources of The making of the West: peoples and cultures Fourth (4th)

Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

3Lualdi, Katharine J. 2012. Sources of The making of the West: peoples and cultures Fourth (4th)

Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

ANALYTICAL ESSAY 3

In the sixteenth century, the upheavals of the religion in two contradictory ways affected

the European society. In the first instance, reformers together with their followers happened to

have challenged the social order and the political authority. In the second instance, reacting to the

excess extreme of the first manifestation, it was undertaken that there was a need for having

discipline in the worship as well as social behavior. It is imperative to note that radical Protestants

and peasant rebels referred to as the Anabaptists had the motive of pushing the reformation in the

populist direction hence they took the phrase “priesthood of all believers.” As a way of easily

bringing the needed they sided with the downtrodden and the poor. Just the same as the Catholics,

the authorities of the Protestant became alarmed by the possible subversive reforms on the religion.

They perceived Reformation, not as the social and political movement, rather as a means of

instilling order and discipline in the worship of individual as well as a church organization. Bible

reading became the potent tool concerning the creation of the new internally motivated individual.

This move led to Roman Catholics church as well taking some reforms which were considered as

counter-reformation against the protestant reformation hence one of the limitation. Other

limitations include the following; describing the freedom for the Christian, Martin Luther meant

to have an entire spiritual freedom. However, his call for freedom was interpreted by others to

mean freedom in political and social terms. Having to face the social firestorms that were ignited

by reforms of religious, the middle-class urbanites that had supported the reformation of the

Protestant insisted for greater religious conformity in addition to orderly and stricter moral

behavior. Catholic Church only authorized reading of Latin bible despites having errors of

translation that emanated from Hebrew and Greek4.

4Hutter, Swen, and Edgar Grande. "Politicizing Europe in the national electoral arena: A

comparative analysis of five West European countries, 1970–2010." JCMS: Journal of Common

Market Studies 52, no. 5 (2014): 1002-1018.

ANALYTICAL ESSAY 4

All in all, Martin Luther in 1522 translated the Greek’s New Testament into German, which

was, to begin with, full vernacular translation. This enabled Bible reading to be a common

particularly in the most part of the urban and literate households’, church gatherings and in the

family. As a way of promoting some order in the states and society, in 1630 new scientific ways

was accepted by the European intellectual elite. The scientific method appeared to cut across

ancient learning, churches and their theologians, and the long-standing beliefs that were popular.

Sir Francis Bacon the English Protestant politicians (1561-1626) together with the Rene Descartes

(1596-1650) the philosopher and Catholic mathematicians were mainly responsible for the

spreading of the scientific method reputation at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Regarding marriage reform, in an effort to come up with order and discipline, the reformers of the

Protestants denounced the notion of the sexual immorality hence glorified the family. It is worth

noting that early reformers of the Protestant in particular Luther championed the end of the era of

clergy celibacy thereby embracing marriage. Thus the idealized patriarchal family facilitated

protection in contrast to the forces of the disorder. The truth is that in a disciplined home, proper

table manners had the reflection of discipline and morality in a godly household. The father being

the householder leads his wife and children in prayer before meal5. As illustrated below the orderly

behavior parallels a well-off comfort patrician family.

5Lualdi, Katharine J. 2012. Sources of The making of the West: peoples and cultures Fourth (4th)

Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

ANALYTICAL ESSAY 5

2. Searching for order in elite and popular culture

As a matter of fact, most of the Europeans feared disorder above everything else. Culture

is the accepted way of life. The search for order occurred on different levels from the establishment

of the government bureaucratic routines to the reforms of disorderly poor. It is imperative to note

that the Louis XIV’s absolutist government served as the model to those who had the objective of

increasing central state’s power. The truth is that even the rivals of Louis including Leopold the

Holy Roman Emperor and the great Brandenburg Elector Fredrick William had to follow him in

centralizing authority in addition to building up their armies. Whether having the form of

constitutionalist or absolutist, states in the seventeenth century had committed to penetrates more

deeply into their objectives hence successful effort. Some of the limitations include; more taxes to

support projects was needed, there was a need for more men for armed forces. And more control

of foreign trade and religious dissent. The civil war between Parliament in England and Charles, I

in the year 1640, lead to political participation new demands. In the eighteenth century new levels

of the economic growth together with the appearance of the social groups exerted pressure on the

ANALYTICAL ESSAY 6

European state systems. It is also imperative to note that the success of the rulers in seventeenth

century created an economic as well political environment that their critics would flourish6. The

bringing together of the political and religious purposes in the baroque art is very well

demonstrated in the architecture and the sculpture of the Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680).

Nevertheless, Pascal, the French mathematician was skeptical about the ability of human of forging

order out of the chaos despite having made important contributions to theories of probabilities.

3. Attempt to create order by consolidating European state system

In the first half of the eighteenth century, Europeans crossed over the major threshold as

they move from an economy attributed to scarcity and potential threats of famine to that of ever-

increasing growth as well continued prospects of improvement7. The truth of the reality is that

expansion of the home development economies and overseas enhanced greater wealth, higher

future expectations, and longer life span. It is equally important to note that the spirit of the

optimism prevailed in such better times. People had the capacity to spend money on novels,

newspapers, as well as on the travel literature, cotton cloth, tea, and coffee. As most of the public

became literate, they followed the latest trends concerning the religious debates, music, and arts.

Politics as well changed too as there was an increase in the population and production hence the

growth of the cities. The government was urged by the experts to enhance public health. Moreover,

the states found it necessary and to their interests to have numerous international disputes by

6Lualdi, Katharine J. 2012. Sources of The making of the West: peoples and cultures Fourth (4th)

Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

7Anievas, Alex, and KeremNisancioglu. "How the West came to rule." University of Chicago

Press Economics Books (2015).

ANALYTICAL ESSAY 7

diplomacy that later on became more routine and regular. It is worth noting that the consolidation

of the European state system gave room for a new thinking and tides of criticism concerning the

society in France and Great Britain and thereof spilling throughout the Europe8. Eventually,

bringing together of the Atlantic system together with the enlightenment would thereof give rise

of the series of Atlantic revolutions. All the above are successes of this method with limitations

being the existence of the deep divisions among different groups in the European society9.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it’s apparent from the above content that the three main ways that attempted

to create orderly in the European society and state include first and foremost religion. Religion

brings orderly though installing of new discipline life, marriage reforms and eventually influencing

the whole society in more orderly manner. The other way entailed searching for order in elite and

popular culture, and finally, there was also attempt to create order by consolidating European state

system.

References

Main book

8Wallace, Helen, Mark A. Pollack, and Alasdair R. Young, eds. Policy-making in the European

Union. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.

9Lualdi, Katharine J. 2012. Sources of The making of the West: peoples and cultures Fourth (4th)

Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

ANALYTICAL ESSAY 8

Lualdi, Katharine J. 2012. Sources of The making of the West: peoples and cultures Fourth (4th)

Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Other reference

Anievas, Alex, and KeremNisancioglu. "How the West came to rule." University of Chicago Press

Economics Books (2015).

Hutter, Swen, and Edgar Grande. "Politicizing Europe in the national electoral arena: A

comparative analysis of five West European countries, 1970–2010." JCMS: Journal of

Common Market Studies 52, no. 5 (2014): 1002-1018.

Wallace, Helen, Mark A. Pollack, and Alasdair R. Young, eds. Policy-making in the European

Union. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.