The Re-emergence Begins
The re-emergence of the Magic Path required that the social authority and loyalty accorded to the Bible be seen as mistaken. This allowed social authority to be once again transferred to nature.
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Primavera (1480 BCE) by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. He was the first major Renaissance artist to paint Pagan themes such as this one. This scene takes place in the garden of Venus who stands in the center framed by a grove sacred myrtle. The goddess, traditionally shown nude, is wearing the clothing of a married woman. Above her, a blindfolded Cupid aims his arrows toward the three graces dancing with their hands entwined. To the far left, stands the god Mercury, looking upward as he reaches toward one of the golden fruits that glow like orbs in the overarching canopy. On the far right, the artist has combined two myths from the Roman poet Ovid. In the first myth Zephyrus, god of the wind, identified by his bluish green skin and puffed out cheeks seeks to rape the nymph Chloris. As she turns back to look at him tendrils and flowers emerge from her mouth as she leans towards Flora, the goddess of spring. The myth states, that full of remorse, Zephyrus changed Chloris into the goddess of spring.
Celebration Of The Pagan Past Begins During The Renaissance (1400-1600)
Celebration Of The Pagan Past Begins During The Renaissance (1400-1600)
(March 20, 2025) The Renaissance was time when new trade wealth supported classical themed art inspired by increasing knowledge of the classics. It was the visible culmination of 200 years of slow cultural change. This patronage of the arts by the leading families of Italy was a left over cultural heritage of Rome in which those deserving of political power had to demonstrate that they were worthy of such power by spending money to better their city.
Additionally, Italy was full of Roman artifacts which engendered a sense of national pride which competed with religion for the devotion of the people. Consequently, the Renaissance could not have started anywhere else.
An often copied Print shop scene from around 1600. (image from Book Impressio Librorum)Top Video: How The Printing Press Revolutionized The World - Aug 25, 2018 • Stephen Fry takes a look inside the story of Johann Gutenberg, inventor of the world's first printing press in the 15th century, and an exploration of how and why the machine was invented.
Communication Revolution with Printing Press and Paper Making (1400-1500)
Communication Revolution with Printing Press and Paper Making (1400-1500)
(July 6, 2022) Repeated exposure to new facts is what breaks old paradigms. This process was accelerated by the invention of the printing press combined with low cost paper.
Paper making as the random combination of plant fibers into a sheet began in China around 105 CE. The first historical report of this appears in the official history of the Han dynasty written sometime in the 400s CE. It says this:
- At the close of the reign of Yeng P'ing (106 CE) Ts'ai Lun was employed at the court and later he was made a member of the Imperial Guard. The emperor Ho Ti upon his accession, learning of Ta'sa Lun's superior qualities and talents, named him a private counselor and he was not spared by his majesty in either praise or criticism. In the ninth year of the reign of Yung Yuan (97 CE) Ta'sai Lun was made inspector of works and through his efforts the engineers and workers by the use of fine materials and skill produced swords and arms that served as models for future generations.
- In ancient times writing and inscriptions were generally traced upon pieces of bamboo or upon strips of silk which were given the name chih (paper). But silk being costly and bamboo heavy, these two materials could not be used conveniently. It was Ts'ai Lun who conceived the idea of making paper from the bark of trees, hemp waste, old rags and fish nets. (quoted in Hunter 1947, p52)
Europe eventually learned of Chinese paper from the Arabs during the crusades between 1095 and 1291. The first European areas to produce papers were Spain and Italy (Hunter 1949). At about this same time Europe started to have a surplus of old rags with the adoption of the spinning wheel and horizontal loom.
As a result paper became much cheaper then vellum. For a comparison, 140 calves had to be killed to provide enough velum for one small Bible. Now the main bottleneck for the production of texts was the hand copying.
Sometime during the 1440's Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468) invented the movable-type printing press. Gutenberg was born in Mainz Germany and had attended the University of Mainz for at least a few years so he would have observed the high demand for various written items. Mainz was also at the center of wine making country so he would have also been familiar with the presses which pressed grapes to extract the juice.
In his early 30's he traveled down the Rhine river to the prosperous trading city of Strasbourg to find the funding to produce his printing press. During the 1430s he got this funding from some Strasbourg merchants. He did his work in secret hiring a carpenter and goldsmith as needed to help produce the printing machine parts. It would have taken him about a year just to make all the needed letter punches by himself. The ink he probably used was soot mixed into the sun thickened, cold pressed, linseed oil which was also used in paints.
His first prints were common high volume items for the church like prayer books and indulgence certificates. This new ability to mass print indulgences was one factor which led to the Reformation because they were an easy source of money for the Catholic church. When Guttenberg felt he was ready he went upscale and printed his famous Latin Bibles starting in late 1454. These used both red and black ink and many pages were hand decorated. The paper was some of the finest paper of the age having no imperfections. These were displayed at the Frankfort trade fair in late 1454 to much acclaim.
References
References
Hunter, Dard (1947) Papermaking, the History and Technique of an Ancient Craft. Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Impressio Librorum, plate 4 from the Nova Reperta (New Inventions of Modern Times), c. 1580–1605, engraving by Theodoor Galle after a drawing by Jan van der Straet, c. 1550; in the British Museum.
Martin Luthor was a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg. This image shows him nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg All Saint's Church in October 1517 as was traditional in organizing the university debate at the time. The debate he wanted concerned the value of purchasing indulgences to absolve sin verses real emotional repentance. This text was written in Latin so it was not initially meant for public consumption and it was officially titled "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences" (image from movie "Luthor")
Catholic Church not Only Source of Authority - Protestant Reformation (1520)
Catholic Church not Only Source of Authority - Protestant Reformation (1520)
(July 6, 2022) The Bible centric authoritarian paradigm really started to be challenged when the Protestants claimed their interpretation of the Bible, and not the interpretation of the Bible by the Catholic church, was the true interpretation.
This challenge could not have happened without its amplification by printing press which also gave voice to class and nationalist frustrations (nothing like controversy to sell papers and books). The Protestants also claimed that human reason could extract Biblical knowledge. It was not some secret knowledge passed down from the Peter and Paul. (See the movie Luthor for an emotionally compelling introduction to this time period)
The Reformation was accidentally started by Martin Luthor who only intended to debate the selling of indulgences for the purposes of absolving sin but ended up challenging Papal authority because the Pope had approved their sales.
The trigger for Martin Luthor occurred In 1515 when Pope Leo X put forth a new and more extreme indulgence selling scheme to raise money for the construction of St. Peters Basilica in Rome. These indulgences had greater benefits than ever before and absolved most any sin, including adultery and theft. All other indulgence advertising was prohibited for the eight years while this program was active. Special indulgence preachers were even sent out and given strict instructions on how to be most effective.
On October 31, 1517 nailed the theses to be debated to the church door as was university tradition (they were written in Latin). Luther then sent a letter with these debate points to the Archbishop of Mainz, Albert of Brandenburg, under whose authority the indulgences were being sold. The theses were then printed and distributed by commercial printers without Luthor's knowledge who were hoping to make some money.
These theses appeared in a four-page pamphlet in Basel and as placards in Leipzig and Nuremburg.. In all, several hundred copies of Luthor's theses were printed in Latin throughout Germany in 1517. Kaspar Nutzel in Nuremberg translated them into German later that year, and copies of this translation were sent to several interested parties across Germany but it was not necessarily printed. (references at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses)
Archbishop Albert, on the advice of his advisors at the University of Mainz, decided Luther should be prohibited from preaching against indulgences in accordance with the instructions in the Papal bull sent out by Pope Leo. Albert passed on this request to the authorities in Rome who agreed that Luthor was a threat because he was challenging Papal authority. In February 1518, Pope Leo asked the head of the Luther's religious order, the Augustinian Hermits, to convince him to stop spreading his ideas about indulgences. Just in case Sylvester Mazzolinin was appointed to write an opinion which would and could be used in a trial against him. He wrote "A Dialogue against Martin Luther's Presumptuous Theses concerning the Power of the Pope," which focused on Luther's questioning of the pope's authority rather than his complaints about indulgence preaching. This Papal opposition is what really gained Luthor a following.
Luthor refused to back down and the result was the establishment of anti-Papal Protestantism throughout northern Europe. Yet Protestantism became as dogmatic and intolerant as Catholics because they thought their interpretation was the true interpretation. This was for two reasons:
References
References
Luthor by Eikon Film and NFP Teleart (2003) Movie directed by Eric Till and stars Joseph Fiennes in the title role. (Highly recommended, Rarely does a movie both capture the feelings of the time and be historically accurate.) Online at: https://www.amazon.com/Luther-Joseph-Fiennes/dp/B001EMYRHU
Catholic lands remained mired in Church controlled thought while Protestant lands took a small step towards freedom only because they fragmented so free thinkers could move around until the found a hospitable ruling prince. Huguenots were French Protestants who survived the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 and various other persecutions until they were granted limited tolerance. Many ended up moving to Protestant lands.
Reformation Divides European Lands Into Fragmented Protestant and Monolithic Catholic Areas by 1600 CE
Reformation Divides European Lands Into Fragmented Protestant and Monolithic Catholic Areas by 1600 CE
(March 27, 2025) After the Reformation, the development of science (and resulting industrial advanced) moved to northern Europe. Significantly, these were also the most recent Pagan lands. The Catholic church imposed thought control at the Council of Trent which was a series of meetings held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent, northern Italy. It ruled in 1546:
The council of Trent in 1546 ruled that
- ” . . . no one, relying on his own skill, shall, – in matters of faith, and of morals pertaining to the edification of Christian doctrine, – wresting the sacred Scripture to his own senses, presume to interpret the said sacred Scripture contrary to that sense which holy mother Church, – whose it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the holy Scriptures, – hath held and doth hold,” (Trent, Session 4, “Decree Concerning the Edition, and the Use, of the Sacred Books”)
The scripture in this case was the Latin Vulgate and not any earlier Greek version. So while salvation could be gained by faith as the Protestants claimed, it could also be gained by merit via good works and participating in various Catholic sacraments and sacrament equivalences (including indulgences).
So the Reformation caused the Catholic church to compromise a little by admitting the Bible as an authoritative source of knowledge existed external to itself yet it retained its control over thinking by claiming that only it could accurately discern its secrets.
Consequently, science and related technology stopped developing in Catholic lands starting in 1545.
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