Calvin and De las Casas
In the 16th century there was a general movement for reform in Europe. The reform obviously varied from culture to culture, religion playing a bigger part of the reform at the time. However cultures with widely differing practices often share certain fundamental values. They all shared in the interest to spread intense religious feelings among the people of Europe. This period in history is called the Reformation. The events of the Reformation, however, were closely tied in to political and social conflict. Two important figures of the time that had to deal with these political and social conflicts were John Calvin and Bartolome de Las Casas. Both of these figures were men of their hour who basically gave their lives in order to see that their goals for reform where met. This paper will take a look at both these men's lives and show that despite the obvious differences in both of these reformers' lives; they used politics in their strategy for reform, thus, sharing a single movement for reform in the 16th century. John Calvin was born on July 10, 1509 in Noyon, France. In those days the most important man in Noyon was a bishop whom Calvin's father was a secretary to. It was a factor that ma
A few of Calvin's ideas includes God being so remote and so powerful that human beings could never understand His purpose. He believed that all people deserved eternal punishment in hell because of how completely corrupt they were. Calvin still believed that a chosen few were to be saved, which is known as predestination. This is the core of his ideas about God and humanity. Since no one knew who was damned and who wasn't, a person's life was not to look for salvation but to honor God. Righteous behavior was to be a clue to who was among the select few. Behavior therefore was strongly emphasized. Calvin had managed to transform a whole city of "13,000 population" 5 with these ideas. This made it an even more remarkable accomplishment in his career as a minister. Looking at both these men's lives, they're basically obvious differences: One being a French Protestant man, the other a Spanish Catholic missionary. At any rate, both choose to use politics as a legal strategy to change practices to increase effectiveness of their churches in society. In Calvin's case, he was asked to come back to Geneva, succeed because he had so many supporters unlike Las Casas, where he went back and forth between the New World and Spain, fighting to even get his own king to support him. Calvin is considered victorious in his time; and although Las Casas was considered a failure in his lifetime, both left something behind when they left. Las Casas left a legacy of humanitarian thinking behind him that would inspire Indian emancipation movements, and Calvin's ideas would spread rapidly throughout the world giving Protestantism a strong base of Calvinistic thinking. What's important here is that both, dealing with different issues realized that there was a fundamental need for change in the new age that they were in. Bartolome de Las Casas was born at Seville in 1474 into a rich merchant's family. He was sent to learn Latin in the academy of the cathedral of Seville in 1497. He did not receive as much education in different areas of studies as John Calvin did. Regardless of that he was a very active humanitarian. In the course of De Las Casas 92 years of life "...he was successively reformer at the court of Spain, unsuccessful colonizer in Venezuela, friar in Hispaniola, obstructer of wars...in Nicaragua, fighter on behalf of justice for the Indians...promoter of the plan to conquer and Christianize the Indians...by peaceful means alone..." 6 Of all of his things that he did in his life, he was one of the foremost humanist in one of the greatest evils of human society. Like Calvin's approach for reform, De Las Casas looked toward the politics to address the issue. He publicly spoke out against the Spanish's' mistreatment of the Indians on August 15, 1514. After this sermon, he devotes his entire life in the defense of the Indians. Using pol
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Approximate Word count = 1936
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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