The Transformative Power of Literacy Seminal Readings during the English Reformation St John’s Adult Education February 15, 23 & March 1 Nancy Elkington David said of the Apostles and their preaching, "the sound of them went out into each land, and the words of them went out into the ends of the world." John Purvey’s Prologue to the English Bible Translated by John Wycliffe and John Purvey 1390s Week 1: Literacy ca 1400-1450 ▪ Setting the Scene ▪ On Being Christian ▪ John Wycliffe ▪ Listeners and Readers ▪ Teaching and Learning ▪ Praying and Prayers ▪ Scribal Culture ▪ University Learning ▪ Vernacular Bible Movements Week 2: Transformations 1450-1550 Transformative Technologies ▪ Paper, Printing, Moveable Type, Ink ▪ Spread of the combined technologies Transforming England ▪ Wycliffe and Caxton ▪ Impact of Vernacular Bibles on Literacy ▪ What Were They Reading? ▪ Incunable Bestsellers Week 3: English Reformation 16th C • Henry VII – First Tudor; he and his mother Lady Margaret Beaufort were both patrons of William Caxton • Henry VIII – Anne Boleyn & Thomas Cromwell (both Protestants, both died as heretics), The Dissolution, the first royally authorized vernacular bible, Archbishop Cranmer • Edward VI – Cranmer & Book of Common Prayer 1549 • Mary I – Latin mass, bibles, lots of “heretics” burnt-at-stakes • Elizabeth I – Elizabethan Settlement, Book of Common Prayer 1559 revision, disliked long sermons & raised hosts, religious toleration, a middle way Week 1: Literacy ca 1400-1450 ▪ Setting the Scene ▪ On Being Christian ▪ John Wycliffe ▪ Listeners and Readers ▪ Teaching and Learning ▪ Praying and Prayers ▪ Scribal Culture ▪ University Learning ▪ Vernacular Bible Movements Setting the Scene: 1300 - 1400 • Great Western Schism: 1309-1378 Gregory XI’s et al corrupt papacy in Avignon; 1378-1418 Urban VI stays in Rome, Clement VII (Anti-Pope) moves to Avignon • Crop Failures & Famine: throughout 14th century: climate change led to devastating crop failures and widespread famine across Europe 1315-17, 1321, 1351 & 1369. 10%-25% death rate • The Hundred Years’ War: 1337-1450 France and England • Black Death: 1347-1350 – lost as much as 50% of population of Europe within two years; kept returning 1350-1400 • Peasant’s Revolt (England): 1381 - fewer workers (after Famine and Plague), crushing payments to church, higher taxation by government Illiterate Printers & Workers Publishers Literate Semi- Gentry & Literate Above Clergy On Being a Christian • Masses of masses - regular attendance required (but remember, no pews until mid-16th century) • The sacraments: baptism, the Eucharist, confirmation, reconciliation, marriage, ordination and unction • Most could recite the ten commandments, Paternoster, Apostle’s Creed in Latin, many did so by sound & rote • Learned some bible stories: cathedral and church schools, church wall paintings, stained glass windows, sacred drama, mystery plays, itinerant preachers Most ordinary folks never saw a bible their entire lives John Wycliffe (1320-1384) • English activist, reformer, proto-Protestant ▪ Eucharist – not transubstantiation ▪ Separation of Church and State ▪ Secularization of Church possessions ▪ Anti-Simony • Believed bible should be studied • Translated bible from Latin Vulgate to Middle English – available as manuscript to be copied • Died naturally then was dug up 43 years later and burned for heresy Cultural Norms: Listeners and Readers • Listening • Reading privately • Reading aloud • Writing 15th Century Teaching and Learning PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen • Children: rote tuum. Adveniat regnum learning CREDO in Deumtuum. PatremFiat voluntas tua, omnipotentem,sicut Creatoremin caelo caeliet in terra.et terrae. Et in IesumPanemChristum,nostrum Filium eius unicum, Dominumquotidianumnostrum,da nobis qui • Boys: primers, hodie, et dimitte nobis conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, readers, grammars, debita nostra sicut et nos natus ex Mariadimittimus Virgine, passusdebitoribussub catechisms, Pontio Pilato, crucifixusnostris. Et, ne mortuus nos inducas, et classical authors, sepultus, descenditin tentationemad inferos, sed, tertialibera die resurrexit anos mortuisa malo,. ascenditAmen. ad church caelos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris fathers, letter- omnipotentis, inde venturus est writing manuals iudicare vivos et mortuos. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum • Girls: religious fare Donatus'scommunionemLatin Grammar (B.M., IB,66)remissionem A fragment from an edition, printed bypeccatorum an unidentified printer, atcarnis Mainz, aboutresurrectionem 1455, in an earlier state of , the 36-line Bible type. The British Museum http://bit.ly/1dJF8oy vitam aeternam. Amen. For the Literate: Prayers and Devotionals Books of Hours • Manuscript on paper • Manuscript on vellum • Printed on paper • Printed on vellum • Illumination • Gilding • Rubrics For the Illiterate: Few Opportunities to Grasp Religion • Stained glass windows • Walls • Statues • Tombs • Memorials • Miracle plays Ever-Present Church • Baptism • Confirmation • Confession • Teach latin • Give alms • Require labor • Offer counsel • Sell pardons • Pray, preside Scribal Culture • Monastic scribes: copying any text, decorating too, primarily for their monastic library; also commissioned work (including royalty) • Lay (or clergy) Clerks: letters, contracts, inventories, wills, Only the well trained or testimony, decrees, et al highly cultured could write as well as read University Learning • Attend lectures • Listen • Discuss • Remember • Read books • Beg • Borrow • Steal • Learn languages • Euro Languages • Greek • Arabic & Hebrew Vulgate Latin or Vernacular • “Englishmen learn Christ's law best in English. Moses heard God's law in his own tongue; so did Christ's apostles.” - John Wycliffe • "By this translation, the Scriptures have become vulgar, and they are more available to lay, and even to women who can read, than they were to learned scholars, who have a high intelligence. So the pearl of the gospel is scattered and trodden underfoot by swine.“ - Papal decree Latin & English Liturgy for Clergy A breviary is a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, Psalms, readings and notations for everyday use by bishops, priests, and deacons Medieval breviary, manuscript on vellum, in the Divine Office. 15th century. Text in Latin and Middle English. Huntington Library. St Jerome Vernacular Bible Movement: Stage 1 • Latin Vulgate – St Jerome – 5th C • Syriac Bible of Paris – 6th or 7th C Syriac Bible • Arabic Old Testament – 10th C • Wessex Gospels – 11th C Arabic Bible • Bible Historiale – 13th C Wessex Gospels • Wycliff Bible – 14th C Bible Historiale Wycliff Bible (French)(Old English) (Middle English) Vernacular Bible Movement: Stage 2 • Wenceslas Bible The printing press – German – 1375-80 • Mentelin Bible played a key role in – German – 1466 the emancipation of • Delft Bible the vernacular Bible in – Dutch – 1477 • Luther Bible the late Middle Ages, – German – 1522-34 creating a juggernaut • Christian II Bible that became the – Danish – 1524 Reformation. The Transformative Power of Literacy Seminal Readings during the English Reformation St John’s Adult Education February 15, 23 & March 1 Nancy Elkington Renaissance/Early Modern Who’s Who ART SCIENCE Donatello (1386-1466) Copernicus (1473-1543) Da Vinci (1452-1529) Mercator (1512-1594) Michelangelo (1475-1564) Vesalius (1514-1564) Raphael (1483-1520) OTHER KEY Galileo (1564-1642) Titian (1488-1576) PLAYERS Kepler (1572-1630) Caxton (1415-1492) de Worde (14??-1534) MUSIC More (1478-1535) THEOLOGIANS Tallis (1510-1585) Cromwell (1485-1540) Savonarola (1452-1498) Palestrina (1525-1594) Tynedale (1494–1536) Erasmus (1466-1536) Byrd (1543-1623) Luther (1483-1546) Dowland (1563-1626) Cranmer (1489-1556) Gibbons (1583-1625) Calvin (1509-1564) Week 2: Transformations 1450-1525 Transformative Technologies ▪ Paper, Printing, Moveable Type, Ink ▪ Spread of the combined technologies Transforming Europe ▪ Wycliffe and Caxton ▪ Impact of Vernacular Bibles on Literacy ▪ What Were They Reading? ▪ Incunable Bestsellers Transformative Technologies • Paper • Printing press • Movable type • Ink All of which combined to facilitate the rapid development of mass production processes The Huntington Library’s 1455 Gutenberg Bible Printed on Vellum The Spread of Printing Interactive timeline: http://atlas.lib.uiowa.edu/ Phisicorum with Marginalia 1485 Canterbury Tales 1478 Biblia Pauperum 1460 First 50 Years of Printing in Europe Regional Incunabula Languages of Incunabula Evolving Role(s) of Printers • Investment required: printing press, paper (sourcing), ink, workshop premises, bookbinders, trained workers • Sponsorship sought, sometimes freely offered • Source material to print? ▪ Existing bestsellers in manuscript form ▪ Vernacular translations ▪ Commissioned work from royal/noble sponsors ▪ Invite authors to create new works • As printers began contracting out the printing functions, they looked more and more like publishers William Caxton (1422 – 1492) • First book printed in English (Bruges) 1473: Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye • First book printed in England (Westminster) 1476: Canterbury Tales • Patrons: Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII, Earl of Oxford, among others Used 10 different typefaces while • Wrote detailed prefaces, giving printing 105 titles in Bruges and context for most publications Westminster; translated 26 titles. Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)