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History 104A, December 2: Like It or Not, We are All Protestant!

What I decide to do, since I got involved with the video tape on

Wednesday, was to do the group meeting first for about 25 minutes.

Come back in between 25 after and 11:30 so we can finish it up. You

have to take a role in the renaissance. You are reborn and decide

where you were reborn or what you were reborn into -- see I have the

Medici family in there I suppose -- and discuss your life at the time.

And then I'll talk about it for a couple minutes to find out who you

were and what you were born into. And then we'll go on and talk about

your anal retentive habits and how we are Protestant even if we're

Catholic or Muslim or Jewish or Hindu if you were born in this

country. In any case, let's break into groups. The papers are up

here.

(group work)

Let's call our meeting back to order. The group meetings haven't

been the greatest success this semester. Sometimes they work and

sometimes they don't. This is one of the semesters they have not

worked extremely well, so it goes. At least it gives you a chance to

get to know a few people.

A I think they worked.

THE PROFESSOR: They're fun to get together. I'm not sure if

we're getting a lot of material out of them.

A I think it varies from group to group.

THE PROFESSOR: In any case, Sara reminded me of something while

we were talking, about the names during the medieval period. How many

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of -- and I guess I really went into it -- how many of the names today

stem from the later medieval period or actually high middle ages

before the black plague when the population really increased? They

took the names from the guilds and from the occupation. In northern

Europe it was Erickson, son of Eric. Throughout much of the west, you

had the name Cooper which was an occupation. Did I deal with this at

all? What is a cooper?

A Barrel maker.

THE PROFESSOR: Shoemaker would be the name -- cobbler, Smith,

blacksmith, goldsmith, silversmith, but Smith, Clerk, Clark. Name a

common name in many parts of England -- Clarks who were clerks. What

others? I found out Kirshner, I thought since kirsch was a cherry in

German, I thought that Kirshner meant cherry picker which sort of

sounded interesting, being Jewish in origin. Kirshner stands for

furrier. There's a big furrier firm in Georgia in the south. I only

know that because of a woman that was working at Radio Shack, so we

learn the backgrounds of our names, anyone?

A My last name is Christian.

THE PROFESSOR: I know you went to a Christian family reunion in

year --

A I would guess that my ancestors were Christian.

THE PROFESSOR: Either that or somebody took the name trying to

prove that they were.

A Thanks.

THE PROFESSOR: That's all right. I think it's interesting how

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names differ. In Mexico there are a lot of Jesuses which you don't

see. I don't know anybody in this country who names their kid Jesus.

A I've known a few.

THE PROFESSOR: That were not South American origin?

A Uh-hum.

THE PROFESSOR: Yeah, well, I haven't. Most of the time they're

either South America or Spanish origin.

Well, the occupations that some of you took, we had merchants,

kings, and one Pope. Was there more than one Pope? He didn't respond

to my question. I asked him how the women were as Pope. And he said

he didn't know, which of course wasn't necessarily always the case.

All right. I want to talk about a change that took place. We

sort of introduced it with the reformation and tie it to, as I

indicated, the American personality, which by the way, is changing and

has been changing since the 1960s. There is quote/unquote an American

culture. Obviously a lot of it was based on recent immigration, and

then of course other changes have occurred. The earlier immigration

to this country really formulated or formed the basic personality of

America. Now again, there were two basic zones of immigration. We

had the south which was mainly settled by Anglican, the church that

Henry the VIII founded, which was really, in many ways, an English

Catholic church. And then in this country, what is the Anglican

church? What is it known as in this country? The episcopalian. On

the East Coast there are two groups that are very very large as far as

Christian groups are concerned besides Catholics, and that was

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Episcopalian and the Congregationalists. The Congressionalists church

stems from the Puritan/pilgrim settlement in New England. You see

it's really different out here. You're all pagans.

A Yep.

THE PROFESSOR: However, going back, the first settlements of

course, Jamestown, 1607, and then of course later in the New England

area with the pilgrims and the Mayflower around starting in 1620 and

then with the Massachusetts Bay colony. Now, when I say that our

personality as a nation has been formed to a large extent, despite the

earlier settlement in the south, the formation of that nation came

about because of the settlement in New England. By pilgrims and

Puritans, which is the difference? Well, basically the pilgrims, the

first settlers there, a small group were not just dissenters but

separatists. They wanted to create their own separate church within

and break away from the Anglican Church. The second group, the

Puritans, were reformers within the Anglican Church. They wanted to

get rid of all papists, Pope doctrine, and make it a truly separate

church and more Protestant background. The Puritans wanted to stay

within the Anglican Church but reform it. The doctrine between the

pilgrims and the Puritans were very similar. They were Protestant

groups breaking away from my papist or Catholic doctrine. Now, we

know that in 1517, October 31st -- we've seen it in the DVD's, et

cetera, Martin Luther posted on the gate door at Wittenberg 95

arguments, theses, in opposition to what he believed to be the

Catholic doctrine. And again, from the videos, you picked up that it

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wasn't brand new to him. It had started in the fourth century with a

man called Wycliffe and continued at the beginning of the 15th

century, 1400s, with John Hus in Czechoslovakia or Bohemia, if you

will.

The same concepts came about, but in 1400, in the late 1300s

there was no printing press. What had happened was that the church

had begun to print on the printing press these indulgences that you

heard of. The indulgence was a piece of paper that I mentioned

previously that simply said you have contributed goodwill and grace by

giving money to the church, and this will give you grace. Salivation

came about through doing good works and good deeds. I think I may

have alluded to before, the arch bishop of Mines wanted to obtain more

territory. And the Pope at the time, in 1500, was building St.

Peter's cathedral, obviously an expensive project. Did you visit

Saint Peters when you were there in Rome, the Vatican?

A We were there when the Pope passed away thorough.

THE PROFESSOR: You were there? They've done two shows on the

Pope last night. In any case, one of the things that struck me more

than anything else was walking in and the immensity of the place. And

the guide we had said, well, see where that fire alarm is. I feel

like I could probably go over there and touch it. There were some

birds on the wall. And he said, why don't you go over and try and

touch it. They were at least 30 feet above my head, even though they

looked like you could touch it. It was an immense work in

architecture in that renaissance spending money. This was the wealth

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of the church that Martin Luther began to protest. The arch bishop

borrowed money from the German bank house, the fuggers. And they got

permission to tend this guy Tetzel like pretzel around preaching, as I

think I indicated, buy some more indulgences, and then you can safely

pay now save later. And then at a certain point you got all the grace

you need to buy yourself out of purgatory, now get all of your

relatives out of purgatory. Martin Luther advised that they not allow

Tetzel into Germany. And then he did go across the river where people

flocked to pay their snake oil medicine, their immediate salivation

from him.

Luther, as you noted, went forth and issued his objections. And

then, when challenged, was swept away and protected by the north

German princes. Now, what have we got? We've got a philosophy known

as justification by faith, faith alone will save you. And the way you

obtain faith was through reading the Bible. And when you read the

Bible, you found Christ and you would do good works and good deeds,

which is the basis of a revolution, men can do all things if you will.

You no longer need intermediaries through priests and saints. You

would have a minister who was an educator, a teacher, and he would

minister to your needs. He would direct you and aid you in finding

things in the Bible. And as it indicated, Luther translated the Bible

into the vernacular German.

Perhaps one of the more interesting books the best known book

about Martin Luther is called Here I Stand that talks about his

philosophy. A German psychologist/sociologist by the name of Eric

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Erickson wrote a book called The Junk Man Luther in which he studied

Luther's early life and decided that Luther's life was very

quote/unquote Freudian in the sense that he was anal retentive,

uptight, humorless, constipated -- constipated people tend to be very

serious and then they finally let it all out, they explode. It's like

taking ex-lax, I guess. And so that personality tends to maintain and

keep itself tight. Max Weber argued that Protestantism came out of

Lutherism -- meaning that capitalism came out of Protestantism because

of this uptightness, this willing to hold it all in. And that meant

holding onto your money and investing it, making more money, not

showing it off. It was now allowed to profit from Protestantism. It

broke with the Catholic sense that you only charged a fair price. And

with that, northern Europe changed into a capitalist world.

Of course when we get into this, which came first the chicken or

the egg, the question is that, is it that north European society a

distant society? Do they tend to be more uptight and closed because

of the cold weather, because of the snow? Is it that Martin Luther is

just an extreme, proud of this, or did the development of

Protestantism not only lead to the development of capitalism, but did

it lead to a basically humorless world of uptight people, control

people? Well, it was expanded in a sense the Protestant ethic with a

man called John Calvin. For months the cartoon Calvin and Hobbs is

reappearing in the newspaper. And of course Calvin reflects the

Calvinistic philosophy and Hobbs named after the English philosopher

who said life is short, brutal, and nasty. John Calvin basically

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became a Protestant minister and took over Geneva, Switzerland and

became part of the theological political mode of Geneva, Switzerland.

He found something in Luther's writings which Luther did write about

in the Bible. He stated that God or Jesus knew before you were born

that you were either going to be a saint or a sinner. You were either

saved or dammed, and there was nothing you could do about it. And he

proceeded to control people in Geneva, Switzerland. If they sinned a

little even, they were punished in the stockades, flogged, hung.

Now, the Puritans and pilgrims were, in a sense, descendants from

this Protestant descendant Geneva, not free will Christians but free

destined. Those of you who are Christians, have predestination

Christianity and free will Christianity. The Puritans came to America

and set up, in New England, area the king, the City of God on Earth,

where of course they not only used the stockades, they used the

scarlet A to control people for adultery, the scarlet letter of the

Hawthorne book. The pilgrims created, in this world that they

created, an educational system. The first university in the Americas

was Harvard founded in 15 -- I'm sorry, 1636, but a few years after

the Puritans arrived. The Puritans arrived in 1620s. The pilgrims in

1620s. Obviously reading, education became important. It became

important because you had to read the Bible. You had to read the King

James version which was produced only a few years earlier so that you

could find Christ. That educational system, with the founding of

Harvard and then Yale, and then King College which became Columbia in

New York. All of that became the foundation of the institutions of

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education. They were originally established to train ministers to

have people go out, like the Matther family in Boston, to educate

people on the Bible. And with that, they went out throughout the

country. They became the professors, the teachers, the educators, the

writers of American society. The first university founded in the

south was almost 100 years after Harvard, even though the southern

colonies had been settled earlier. And most southerners -- the upper

class did not send their children to William and Mary. They sent them

to Europe to get an education. The south was out of that thrust

somewhat, but many of the professors from Harvard, Yale, et cetera,

began to move into William and Mary and the university of Virginia and

other southern schools. And they brought with them this Puritan

sense, the sense of predestination that also created what we call the

Puritan work ethic. What it also created was the need to have white

picket fences and green grass grow in the desert causing a whole new

settlement in Las Vegas with good, green golf courses costing a lot of

water.

There was in the sense of predestination, the sense of the

Protestant work ethics, the concept as well that families began to be

born into it. Certain families were born good and certain families

were born evil. This was known as the halfway doctrine. So if you

were born in the upper class elite like the Bushes, you would

obviously be rewarded by God throughout your life. And it created --

part of this uptightness was because if you sinned a little, that

would mean you were going to hell. There was no way to get over it.

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In the Catholic faith, you could go confess your sins and the priest

who tell you to go burn a few candles, say a few hail Mary's and then

God might forgive you. In other words, you felt redemption. You

showed your penance. You asked for forgiveness even if you were a

Maffia chieftain. With that, people were afraid to sin because they

didn't want to wind up in hell because if they sinned in the littlest,

they would be dammed forever. They held it in creating a greater

element of uptightness.

The American society was free. It didn't need external control.

If a Catholic woman, up until a few years back, went out on a date

with a Catholic man or any man but usually Catholic, they had a

chaperone. The chaperone made sure that nothing could occur because

there was sin of the flesh, not acceptable but almost understandable,

so you controlled it by having somebody being there to be sure nothing

happened. In Protestant America, you went out on dates and you didn't

need a chaperone because you took care of yourself. You didn't want

to sin. In fact, in Protestant New England, there was a system called

bundling. And they had a bundling board in a bed that when a boy and

a girl courted -- because it was cold during the winter -- they put

the covers over them and of course they watched TV from there. Now,

the boys never hopped over the board. They never took advantage of

knotholes in the board, nothing.

A For real.

THE PROFESSOR: For real, self-control. Interestingly when the

English Anglican troops came into New England right before the

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Revolutionary War, they didn't respect the tradition because they were

basically Catholic. They hopped over the board and caused a lot of

problems. Bundling ceased to exist. By the way, that's why so many

guys are much more willing to go out with Catholic girls than

Protestant girls. Just thought I'd pass that on.

That whole sense of the anal retentive personality has not only

come down to us through the picket fences, the green lawns, the

closest of course we see some of that is with the Amish and the

Mennonites in the Amish country in Pennsylvania. How many of you have

visited that area?

A My brother went there and he took a picture of like deers

crossing but they have one of carriage crossing like be careful.

THE PROFESSOR: What's strange about it is with all of their lack

of wanting to use technology, they all walk around with cell phones

now. I guess that's somehow legitimate. The whole point was to

invest the money, not to show it off, not to show wealth, not to

mammon excessive wealth. And this is reflective in a sense in our

society. We are, in a sense, anal, the culture is anal. Perhaps the

most decorated room in our houses is the bathroom. There's no other

society where you can walk into a bathroom and see wall to wall

carpeting, fancy shower setups, toilet paper that are smelly because

of the perfume, jokes on it because you have to laugh somehow in the

toilet, little soap balls like little cups, furry toilet seats -- I

never could understand that -- sheets you sink into, showers with

radios in them and clocks. Bathtubs you can't fit in because you have

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to get into that shower and work shard. If you get in the shower, you

get out fast and you get to work. If you soak in a bathtub, you're

wasting time. A stitch in time saves nine. All of those Puritan

terms that you -- adages that they used to have on the classrooms. A

bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, not a George Bush. A

stitch in time saves nine. How do they go? All of that sense -- it's

so different. You go to some other countries -- southern European

countries or France and guys urinate anywhere.

A Yeah.

THE PROFESSOR: They have these walls. The restrooms are outside

and people walk by and a guy is behind the wall. In this country, men

are uptight. We go into a restroom and we've got little stalls. And

if somebody is standing next to us, we get -- we can't tickle. But

you have to pay to use the bathroom there, so maybe that's why. At

the time I went, they had these little old ladies. You go in a

restroom and there was a little old lady who asked you for money. The

strangest thing is a bidet. I didn't know.

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