A World Lit Only by Fire: the Medieval Mind and the Renaissance

In the first-class honours degree segment of William Manchesters A World Lit Only By Fire, we are taken into a world that is vastly different from our own, and we see a kind of situation which is rarely seen today. Manchester stresses the fact that the peasants in the Dark Ages had no chicaneledge of what was adventure in the rest of the world. In our age of twenty-four-hour news networks and instantaneous gate to information from across the globe through the internet, it is hard to fathom that if we were palliate living in the Dark Ages most of us would be wholly oblivious to the activities of the rest of the world awayside of our small village.Manchester also points out that the common people in the Dark Ages had no conception of time. near would not have known what century it was, let alone the ad hoc date. For most peasants, time passed in a cycle of seasons, and they only essential to know the days of the week in order to know when it was the Sabbath. This is in sta rk contrast to the life of a youthful valet de chambre. We can know time down to the second. And we need to know time with greater precision. go the peasants of the Dark Ages needed only to recognize the passing of the seasons and when the Sabbath was, modern man often needs to know the time of day precisely.We are endlessly on a schedule. School and work starts at a sure time, and we must be at that place on time. Another fascinating departure which Manchester points out is the fact that most of the peasants did not have surnames and were either referred to by their first name alone, or by a nickname. I make this very strange. Manchester does a good job of showing the differences mingled with the modern mind and the medieval mind. Being aware of these differences allows the reader to appreciate the commodious impact that the Renaissance had on Europe.Now in the next section of A World Lit Only by Fire, entitled The Shattering, Manchester shows us some(prenominal) situat ions that shattered beliefs during the Renaissance. Most of these had something to do with the church at the time because organized religion was one of the most important parts of Medieval and Renaissance life. The first stock-stillt that shattered beliefs and flipd life did not immediately cause a revolution exclusively had a long-lasting impact on the upcoming of Christianity. That event was the dissemination of the works of Erasmus.With his constant criticism of the church service and his calls for portentous reform, he proved that one could criticize the church without being a radical revolutionary, for Erasmus was a devout Catholic. Before Erasmus, few had dared to criticize the popish Church and those who did were not taken seriously. However, with his satires, Erasmus appealed to all classes of people and gave the people the encouragement to call for reform and criticize the Church. This may have influenced Martin Luther, even though he disliked Erasmus work, to nail his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door at Wittenberg.The fact that Erasmus was widely popular also contri barelyed to the change in the thinking that anyone who criticized the church would be damned to hell. Even though Erasmus didnt do anything as revolutionary as Martin Luther, his brilliant satires were able to change the mindset of Europeans and may have enabled, against his own wishes, the Protestant Reformation. The next event discussed by Manchester is the Reformation itself. Sparked by Martin Luthers outrage at the sales agreement of indulgences, this is the event that split Christianity in half.Those hardcore to the existing Christian Church headed by the Pope became known as Roman Catholics, and those who were not loyal to that Church formed different Protestant Churches. Before the Reformation there was one authoritative representative of the word of God i. e. , the Pope. Most Christian literature was in Latin, but since Latin was essentially a jobless language, most people could not read or understand it, and this helped the Church maintain control of Christians of the age. Within this system, freedom of religious thought was super limited.Saying anything that contradicted the pope could get you labeled as a heretic and sentenced to jail, or even death. After the Reformation, several different Churches formed and as they formed, they warred with from separately one other. The pope was no longer the supreme head of Christianity as he had been before the Reformation. Bibles where published in living languages. All kinds of opinions were published in pamphlets. 1 undesirable consequence of the Reformation was the different sects fighting with each other.Each different sect believed it represented the one true religion. Fighting between sects became common. Fighting between Catholics and Protestants was rife. Protestants burned Roman Catholic churches, smashing mosaics and statues, and even killing innocent women and clergy. The Roman Church s tarted its notorious Inquisition, which was especially unfounded in Spain. Before the Reformation there was only one Christian Church so religious violence in Europe was rare, but after the Reformation religious violence and persecution became commonplace.The Reformation was a major(ip) turning point in the history of Christianity. Without it, America today would be a different country, since many settlers in early America came to consort religious persecution. Manchesters section on the Reformation is therefore by chance the most important section in the book. In the last section of A World Lit Only by Fire, entitled One Man Alone, Manchester writes about Ferdinand Magellan and his circumnavigation of the globe.In this section, Manchester takes time to go into extremely fine exposit about Magellans voyage in order to explain what geek of man Magellan was, and, more importantly, to show how big the odds were against his actually ending his voyage. Manchester seems to idolize M agellan, in part because Magellan wasnt seeking fame or wealth, but instead simply had a dream and was determined to make it a reality, something that I think most people can respect.