People Who Had a Great Influence in the Renaissance Period: Castiglione, Machiavelli, and Martin Luther - Paper Example

Castiglione was born in 1478 in Casatico and ended in living in Urbino and Milan. He had himself painted when he met the famous Raphael who was an artist. At age 18, he was sent to a court in Milan and left a great impression because of his incredible mannerisms and behavior. Additionally, people in the court were also pleased by his excellence in letter, athletics, arts and music. I think excellence achievement coupled with great character can make someone great and of great influence. Following the death of his father, his mother would persuade him to get married something he did not do until seventeen years were over. He enrolled and served as a soldier for a limited period and also played a part in most of the great courts in Spain. However, when he broke his ankle, he surrendered as a soldier and chose the path of diplomat serving in a court in Urbino for about 11 years. While there, he paid close attention to the nature of man, art, philosophy and love and also enjoyed playing games, dancing listening to music and singing.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

In the book Courtier, Elisabetta the duchess asks the men of the court to select a topic of discussion for the nights entertainment. They indeed get and settle for the topic relating perfection of courtiership. Lewis is the one who starts the digressions. I think the fact that Castiglione chose to write about the court was because of the experiences he had in the courts and the setting was very familiar and it would be easy to relate facts. Lewis describes how an ideal courtier should look like, behave, and what skills they need to possess. He states that such a person needs to have a pleasant disposition, be a born noble, witty and an individual who is calm with a composed personality. The responsibilities of a courtier require him to possess those traits to gain the respect of others and be able to carry out the function ably, I think. Additionally, these ideal courtier needs necessary training that will make him a professional soldier who can fight and protect his prince. Of essence will be the ability to handle all kinds of weapons, ride the horse, be a wrestler and a swimmer and participate is sports that will strengthen the muscles and make the soldier agile. While the training and the skills are essential, this courtier will be required to also possess social skills that will enable him to communicate with other people, be able to dance and participate in social activities and possess a certain level of grace and ability to bring out all these in an effortless manner. Such would make a close-to-perfect courier.

Castiglione is trying to communicate with his readers what a professional courtier should look like to be able to perform his duties. Also, in a way he is trying to describe his real life and share with his readers what it would take to be great and influential within his circles. As the digressions change and take different twists, it gets to the aspect of language and in the conversation, it is stated that a courtier should not use jargon or unfamiliar words. The reason is, they will be talking and communicating with different kind of people and of such all of them need to be able to understand the message appropriately. Finally, they discussion is concluded by stating knowledge is more important than diction and skills in music and art are an added advantage for a courtier.

Machiavelli (with the Butterfield handout), Discussion

Machiavelli was a philosopher who was always determined to occupy a political position. From the age of about 29 years working as a secretary in Florence interacting with various politicians, his passion for politics was reignited. He undertook a diplomatic mission in various courts in and outside of Italy. During his travels, he met statespersons and politicians and thus admired the position they held as well as the responsibilities they had. It is noteworthy that the exposure we get at our young age has the potential of influencing the career choices we make as well the aspirations one might have. Every encounter we have in our lives changes us and transforms our inclinations as it provides important information that is the basis of decision making. Through the diplomatic missions, Machiavelli learned various approaches and techniques that politicians utilized like Borgia in the power politics. Additionally, this exposure allowed him to gain experience on how to organize infantry forces, military tactics, and various Italian political campaigns. Unfortunately, in 1512, Machiavelli lost his job following the change of political powers in Florence during the restoration of Medici as the ruling family. Apart from losing his job, he was arrested, humiliated and tortured but eventually was released something that made him not to return to politics again. It is against this background that he decided to be a writer bringing out the reality of the political circles and the encounters thereof. Bitterness, passion, resentment and experiences he had become motivational factors for his writing, producing remarkable pieces of writing like The Prince.

The Prince is a piece that presents the reality of the politicians behaviors in that they only pursue those interests that will be for their one. In his writing, he is not trying to persuade the writers what to do when they are in authority but rather tries to explain to them what happens in reality in those political positions. He recommends that a prince should not keep a word if the outcome will be to his disadvantage. He further suggests that because these men are wretched, they wont keep a word to the people they serve and thus the people have no nay obligation to keep a word either. Surprisingly, he asserts that any prince who will choose the path of virtue will end in self-destruction as all other individuals are dishonest and pursuing their selfish interests. According to Machiavelli, politicians need to learn how to color their actions by being incredible liars and deceivers. In essence, he was suggesting that the marks of a great politician are an ability to act immorally, selfishly and dishonestly with an aim of outdoing other politicians in such evils. While this is a shocker and seems like he is offering bad counsel that should not be followed, it is the political realism that happens. Machiavelli was only bold enough to pinpoint these vices. Of course, it is better if each member of the society pursue virtue and acted honestly only that it is impossible to expect such high level of integrity from the majority of the society. Therefore, for the success of the ruling family and that of the prince, craftiness, and deceit are inevitable and the path to follow. Sadly, such kind of a society will guarantee a good life and success to the political officials and poverty will characterize the masses. A good political leader ought not to mellow in the norms and practices but need to stand up for what is right and that which propagates the needs of the majority.

Reformation Debate Book Discussion

Reformation debate is about the controversies between the protestants and the Roman Catholics in the around sixteenth century on the matters of doctrinal issues. In this debate, Sadoleto a catholic Bishop expel Protestants from Geneva and a year later writes a letter to the people of Geneva wooing them back to Catholicism in an attempt that they should reject the doctrine of the Protestants. Calvin John and Farel were accused of propagating a gospel that the Catholics termed as wrong that was against the church authority on the individual aspects of faith and salvation. In essence, according to the Protestants, one is saved by grace and good works, a matter between the Christian and God. The Catholics, on the other hand, were persuaded otherwise. When the letter arrived in Geneva, the city council asked John Calvin to pen a reply and within a year after this, Geneva requested Calvin to return to that town from where he was expelled. These two letters forms the heart of the reformation debate albeit not comprehensively.

The reformation debate had two areas of controversy stemming from the place of authority of the scriptures and that of the church as well as the place of works and faith in the justification of a sinner. The Catholic Church accused the Protestants of rebelling from the authoritative body that had existed for years. During this time, Roman Catholic was the dominant religion and the laity was expected to adhere to all the doctrines without opposing or seeking their parallel paths. Moreover, the reformers were accused of causing disunity in the church of Jesus Christ through Protestantism which would eventually result in selfish anarchy. I think the Catholic were afraid of losing members as people read the Bible for themselves and learned things that the Catholics propagated and preached that were contrary to the word of God. It only takes the bold like Farel and Calvin to challenge the norms and practices that had existed for a long time. However, there is a high price to pay for them that choose the path of the minority and roads less traveled.

In response to those accusations, John Calvin suggests his agreement with that fact that unity is important but it should not be pursued at the cost of the truth of the scriptures. In his view, John pointed out that the challenge with the Catholic Church was basing the religion on the traditional of men and fallible authorities that esteemed themselves more than the Bible. Such authorities allow superstitious ceremonies that are contrary to the teachings of Christ and thus erroneous. In my opinion, John was right, if they called themselves Christians the benchmark was supposed to be the Word of God and not something that had originated from men. And finally, John suggests that the Antichrist would be amongst the church of God and thus false teaching would not originate from the world and a need for people to be on guard. Johns response is very articulate basing his arguments on the word of God maybe because of its infallibility.

Finally, John stated that the authority of the scriptures was to supersede any other authority of human making. Of essence is that the scriptures should be interpreted corrected in full view of the whole Bible without having personal interpretations which are erroneous. It is with such a letter that the people of Geneva were persuaded that the reformers were right.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was born in 1483 by a copper miner who wanted his son to pursue legal profession. Interestingly, Luther chose that path and at age 19 he had a bachelors degree. However, on his way from Law school, he was almost struck by lightning and he prayed that St Ann should rescue him and he vowed that he will be a monk after that. He kept his vow and went to Augustinian Hermits where he would train to be a monk. It was while there that he started to realize deficiencies in the Roman catholic doctrine that would force him to study the bible in the quest for the truth. Martin referred his experience with the Holy Spirit as the tower experience that led him to quit Roman Catholic and be a diligent student of the Word of God. He experienced liberty and fellowship with the Word and would write many pieces regarding the truth of the Word of God over man-made doctrines that would lead to the growth of Protestantism.

Luther was amazed to grasp this powerful truth that the word of God comes to people in form of book that has a recording of the dealings of God with people from one generation to another. He reiterates that through that book God presents the message of salvation, repentance, and holiness and not from an individual like the pope. With that understanding, Martin was ready to challenge the Roman Catholic and take a stand for what he believed was the unadulterated word of God. A cat...