http://www.ladyjanegrey.org/ Lady Jane Grey
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/maryqueenofscots.htm Mary Queen of Scots
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/punishment.htm Crime and Punishment Elizabeth
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/torture.htm Torture in the Tower
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/luther95.txt 95 Thesis
http://www.pbs.org/empires/martinluther/cheats.html 10 things about Martin Luther
http://wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/LUTHER.HTM Great Quick Reference to the main people of the Reformation
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/alexanderVI.htm - Nothing but dirt here on Pope Alexander VI
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/launch_gms_spying.shtml Game Mary Queen of Scots
http://tudorhistory.org/wives/ Henry VIII Wives
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-calvin.html John Calvin
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-knox.html John Knox
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxZIu4SEpz8 Baroque
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=134QfGNwP18&feature=relatedBaroque Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6zxP4QqfG8&feature=relatedBaroque Art
8 comments:
In the first link I viewed, about the Torture in the Tower of London, it tells about a man named Father John Gerard. He was a spy and after three years in captivity he was taken to the Tower of London. At the tower, he was tortured in order to force him to confess that his mission was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and to tell them who the leader of the spy ring was. He refused to tell any information and on October 4, 1957, he escaped and was not discovered for eight years. There is an excerpt where he tells of his experience in the Tower of London and how he was tortured. He basically was hung up by his arms above his head so his feet could not touch the ground. He describes this torture and says that, “…such a gripping pain came over me…All the blood in my body seemed to rush up into my arms and hands and I thought that blood was oozing from the ends of my fingers and the pores of my skin.” The last part honestly freaks me out and I can’t imagine that feeling. He then writes that when he fainted, they would hold his body up or put him on the steps until he became conscious again, and this process repeated eight or nine times. I can’t imagine being tortured like that and I know that there were much worse forms of torture in the Tower of London. I’ve been there before and in one of the towers they still have some forms of torture they used back then. I just can’t imagine being tortured and I know that I could definitely not handle it like Father Gerard did.
The second link I viewed was ten facts about Martin Luther. One fact I found quite interesting was that Luther supported and advocated heavy drinking. A young man once complained to him of the despair of going to Hell and Luther told him to go and get drunk because that is what he did when he felt despair. I also thought it was interesting that his wife managed to escape from her convent by hiding in a barrel that had contained pickled fish. Luther bitterly opposed hunting and when he was disguised as a knight in the castle of Wartburg, he refused to participate in rabbit hunting. Also, when Luther would punish himself, one of the ways he would do so was that he would lay in the snow through the night until he had to be carried back inside. I just found these facts about Luther very interesting because they aren’t the types of things you would expect to see in a textbook.
-Cortney Holmes
One of the links I read was about the types of punishment used in Elizabethan England. Under the impression that society in 16th century England was relatively sophisticated, I was surprised to learn how medieval and barbaric some forms of punishment were. For instance, people who committed great offenses could be quartered alive, have their bowels removed, then be thrown into a fire. Also, people who committed suicide would have a stake driven through them when they were buried. Overall, I had expected the criminal justice system under Queen Elizabeth I to be more just and civil, but I guess it wasn't.
The second link I checked out was a Youtube video on Baroque art. It explained that, historically, the term Baroque refers to the period following the Renaissance. As we already know, the Counter Reformation used Baroque art as a tool to draw people back to the Catholic Church. However, in the video, Dr. Betty Brown explained how. Baroque artists, particularly Bernini, used images of sexual pleasure (as seen in The Ecstasy of Santa Teresa) that ultimately represented religious and spiritual experiences to lure people back to Catholicism. I think that was kind of a sneaky and twisted thing for people of a religion based on moral values and such to do. But then again, the Catholic Church was very corrupt at that time (hence the Reformation).
In the mood for a quick, interesting read I first chose the "10 things you didn't know about Martin Luther," and the title was certainly not misleading. Although I knew how radically some of his ideas departed from those of the Catholic Church, I had not realized the full extent of his decidedly more worldly theology. Although I could report each of these 10 facts as unusual or interesting, but a few stand out. Luther believed in the merits of heavy drinking, condoned extramarital sex, and was one of the most accomplished pre-Baroque composers--a startling contrast with either Calvinism or Catholicism. Also, Luther was somewhat of an animal activist, vehemently opposing hunting. These unusual facts helped to humanize Luther's character and beliefs.
The second link I read was on the Death of Alexander VI, a pope whose name is somewhat synonymous with papal excesses. Through eyewitness accounts of both his death and his funeral, this article provides unique insight into the upper echelons of 16th century society. In particular, greed seemed to dominate most of the proceedings. Even as the Pope was dying, his son Cesare Borgia, uninterested in visiting his father, sent men to violently raid the pope's treasure and, when the Pope passed, valets instantly seized anything of value in his chambers. After the funeral was held, the clergy made an inventory of Alexander's riches; even a brief description of it reveals the pure decadence of his lifestyle and wealth. The passage also indicates how little most cared for the Pope; not only were poor people hired to mourn at his funeral, but also the gravediggers hired to bury his corpse treated his death with "blasphemous" irreverence. Such was the decidedly-unwholesome situation of the Papacy during this period.
The first link I explored was the Elizabethan Spying Game. The object of the game was to answer twenty questions, and for every question you got right, you broke one letter of the code Mary, Queen of Scots wrote to the Catholics who were plotting to rescue her. I was a little nervous that I would fail early on, because we hadn’t really talked about Mary that much in class other than that she was Elizabeth’s cousin and was executed because she was a potential Catholic-supported rival. However, I actually managed to get all the questions right, mostly because of a book I’d read about four years ago called Queen’s Own Fool which told Mary’s story through the eyes of her fool, Le Jardiniere. The questions ranged from things we covered in class like “Elizabeth I became Queen following the death of which Catholic monarch?” to things we hadn’t like “Who married Mary, Queen of Scots in 1565 and was murdered two years later?” and “In which year did Walsingham discover that Mary was secretely corresponding with the Catholic plotter, Anthony Babington?” Overall, the game was fun, but it also provided a good review of Mary’s story.
The second link I explored was “10 Things You Didn’t Know about Martin Luther.” What drew me in was the title; I thought it was funny, rather like something you’d see on the cover of a People magazine. The facts were interesting though. Some of them I’d already read about in the textbook, like Luther’s views on sex , his translation of the Bible into German, or his extreme measures of confession when he was younger, but most of them were completely new to me. For example, his wife, Katerina von Bora escaped from her nunnery by hiding in a pickled fish barrel. Also, Luther was a very good musician and is regarded as one of the most important German composers prior to Bach. What?! That one blew me away, but after investigation, it is indeed true. Overall, the facts helped give a more complete picture of pretty much the most important man of the Reformation, which always makes history more interesting.
1. The Elizabethan spy game was fun, kind of. I found it to be informative and helped certain specifics stick in my mind, but I don’t think it was the most fruitful activity to participate in. I lost too many times so it wasn’t fun.
2. The description of the torture is absolutely terrible. In this age of horror movies and slasher films, graphic violence doesn’t seem too crazy, but to be put into a perspective of someone who was actually there and was actually tortured it is chilling to say the least. The most astounding thing is how he still thanked God in all of this, truly showing how deep religion ran, even into this time period.
For obvious reasons, I was drawn to the link on Torture in the Tower of London. Father John Gerard was a spy on England who stayed under for quite some time until he was captured, tortured, and finally escaped. He wrote a book on his time in the Tower of London, perhaps one of the first horror novels ever written. The first torture he describes seems like being hung by the hands from the rafters until he fainted. The pain he describes seems excruciating, but the most amazing part is how he endured. His faith brought him through, which is a testament to the power of religion. The process was repeated multiple times in a day, which simply baffles the mind. Some of the pictures they have up on the site seem much more elaborate than the simple water boarding we have today.
Naturally, after this gruesome tale, I entered into Elizabethan Crime and Punishment. The system had been around for years, and the system was very unfair to the convicted. The most severe punishment was to be hung till near death, then to have the innards cut out in front of the face and thrown into a fire. Something I was not aware of was that only the nobility suffered decapitation. I assumed that was a punishment for all classes. The nobility's punishments differ greatly, as most of them consist of being hung till death or decapitation. Suicide, something that most people would consider comical to punish, was in fact punished in Elizabethan England. A stake was driven through the dead body, although whether that hurts the punisher or the victim more is a mystery. As far as theft goes, the lower classes were physically abused, by whip or other painful torture, though not death. However, those who do not confess are crushed under rocks with a sharp stone in their back. A very interesting side note is that those who could read got kinder punishments, with simple burns on the hands or thumbs to mark their crime.
I first looked into the 10 things about Martin Luther, I was watching the giants and needed a short one. I now realize that he had the right idea when it comes to religion, it's not about sex booze or drugs, just be nice to people. I'm not sure how relevant the new learning in this link was, things like him being a tree hugger and sneaking his wife away in a barrel but the resource serves to reinforce some of the more important details for use in an essay later.
Then theres the spy game, I find it interesting to think about espionage during that period and It seems from this other readings that even Jersey shore can't rival the amount of politicking and familial backstabbing present in European Monarchies. I find it odd that Elizabeth never met her sister but this is the tudors we're talking about so nothing surprises me. I had no idea that Mary took a husband who was quickly murdered but now still fail to see how I would use that. The rest was textbook material good for review.
Punishment in Elizabethan England seemed incredibly harsh and distinct from past years. The idea of a slow death which included mutilation would be more than enough to slow crime. It seems that lesser crimes for noblemen is unfair. In a case of murder your punishment would ride only on your social status and not the dastardlyness of the crime.
Alexander VI was a terrible pope who shouldn't of called himself a man of God. Not only did he take a wife but had a number of mistrises and illegitamete children. Marriage and children are one of the biggest rules of the clergy. His lavish life shows how far the clergy had fallen in their lifestyle. His death though tragic seems well deserved. Even those he thought were loyal ran off with his money when his blood went cold.
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