Protestant Ascendancy

interactions between the English and the Irish and attempts to criticize both governments and even criticize the United States. However without the proper knowledge beforehand, the reader gets lost in the history behind “A Modest Proposal” and possibly misinterpret the meaning behind the convoluted work. “A Modest Proposal” has three main parts that need to be fully explained in order for the work to be fully explained: Swift’s views and opinions, the Irish relations with the English, and the Protestant and Catholic relations in Ireland during the writing of this work. It is best to look at the early 1700’s for “A Modest Proposal” as the work was published in 1729. During the time of the writing, Swift had seen a problem with Ireland and felt it needed to be brought into light through the use of satire. Jonathan Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal” during a time wrought with mass amount of poverty and insurmountable amounts of discrimination towards the Catholic faith by the Protestant church. “A Modest Proposal” details these issues by making the “proposer” highly untrustworthy and he highlights the issues by utilizing hyperbole and irony such as being excessively prejudiced towards the Catholic faith or the impoverished living in Ireland. During this time, Ireland was highly dependent on England to the point that they were simply a client of the English. Swift states in “A Modest Proposal”, “For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too…

Wyclif could disseminate his interpretation of the Bible to the laity while allowing them to also interpret the Bible for themselves. Wyclif severely accused the church of being corrupt and through his translations of the Bible, he shared the Scriptures to the general public. Of course, Wyclif’s radical ideas did not miss the attention of the public eye as well as the authority of the church and state. While he had gained many firm supporters, such as those from the lower class and John of…

In Herman J. Selderhuis’ book John Calvin: A Pilgrim’s Life, Selderhuis looked at Calvin in a neutral way. He said, “I feel nothing for Calvin either way but is fascinated by him as a person (8).” Selderhuis used Calvin’s own letter in writing this book. “Calvin himself believed that we learn most about people from their letters (8).” People thought Calvin was a man without much emotion, but the letters showed a man with a heart. The chapters in the book show Calvin’s life in chronological order…

The King of England, King Edward, claimed the French throne his own. The French apposed this claim. King Edward also angered the French with his possession of French territory. The French believed this endangered their policy of centralization. There was also dispute over control of French land known as Flanders. Flanders ' cloth industry depended on wool imported from England. In the Hundred Years ' War France had the advantage of fighting the war on their own turf, with a larger population,…

Humanists: An Introduction, Jonathan Arnold brings to life the intellectual and cultural developments in the centuries leading up to the Reformation. Arnold paints a portrait of this development by honing in on the lives of fifteen great humanists between the years 1304 and 1540. In describing these men, Arnold relies on a key presupposition that all humanists were, at a minimum, nominal Christians. This statement is of utmost importance to his argument because a claim to Christianity during…

press and created art for the common man instead of the rich. Art also looked more realistic anatomically than stylize. Overall, the Renaissance revolutionized old ideas and brought new ones into Europe. The movable type printing press was created by Johan Gutenberg. The significance of this printing press was the movable type created books faster and cheaper than writing books by hand, or using the Chinese type. This allowed people to buy books cheaper, and thus increased the literacy rate. It…

Reading and writing affected the Protestant Reformation greatly because it allowed the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin to be able to gain insight on religious topics and express their opinions effectively. Erasmus of Rotterdam was a Christian humanist who lived from 1466-1536. He wrote in the Latin…

not Marco actually sailed or not. Christopher Columbus the famous man who “found” America. He was in fact looking for India, but found North America, a completely different continent (Hub Pages, 2013). Vasco De Gama was the explorer to find India, and chart it, or create a map to it. Maps were becoming very valuable, but with one error, travelers looked at stars for help directing themselves and surly on open sea you would too, but how does one see the stars during a storm? You don’t, that is…

they found, inducing another form of wealth via land and the resources found on it. The exploration and conquest of uncharted territories due to the inventions of compasses and maps increased the power of strong nation states by expanding borders and developing a new way of trade. Another technological advancement from 1450 to 1600 that shaped the world was the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. Compared to the ruling of older empires, the printing press made the…

During this period in history, Anabaptists were generally looked down upon, but Voltaire makes the most helpful and kind character in Candide an Anabaptist to show how useless the religious prejudices are. When Jacques the Anabaptist first appears in Candide, he immediately starts to help. “The orator`s wife thrust her head out of the window and seeing a man who did not believe that the Pope was AntiChrist, she poured on his head a full… O Heavens! … A man who had not been baptized, an honest…