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DBQ samples

THE QUESTION: The period known as the Renaissance witnessed a change in the nature of man. Compare and contrast the views held by the Renaissance thinkers documented in the following quotations.

DOCUMENT 1 Here the question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared or feared than loved. The answer is that it would be desirable to be both but, since that is difficult, it is much safer to be feared than to be loved, if one must choose. For on men in general this observation may be made: they are ungrateful, fickle, and deceitful, eager to avoid dangers and avid for gain and while you are useful to them they are all with you, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons so long as danger is remote, as we noted above, but when it approaches they turn on you. Any prince, trusting only in their words and having no other preparations made, will fall to his ruin. Machiavelli, The Prince" 1513

DOCUMENT 2 As man is born, the Father has planted in him seeds of every sort, shoots of every life; those which each man cultivates will grow, and be artheir fruits in him. If these are vegetables, he will become a plant; if sensual, a brute; if rational, a heavenly being; if intellectual, an angel and son of God. But if Man, not contented with any creature's lot, betakes himself into the center of his oneness, then, made one with God, in the solidary darkness of the Father he who was created above all things will excell allthings. Who would not admire this chameleon of ours? Giovanni Pico, the Count of Mirandola. "The Oration on the Dignity of Man" 1486

DOCUMENT 3 The richest gifts are occasionally seen to be showered,, as by celestial influence, upon certain human beings; nay they sometimes supernaturally and marvelously gather in a single person--beauty, grace, and talent united in such a manner that to whatever the man thus favored may turn himself, his every action is so divine as to leave all other men far behind...This was...the case of Leonardo de Vinci...who had...so rare a gift of talent and ability that to whatever subject he turned his attention...he presently made himself absolute master of it... He would without a doubt have made great progress in the learning and knowledge of the sciences had he not been so versatile and changeful...the instability of his character led him to undertake many things, which, having commenced, he afterwards abandoned. Giorgio Vasari. "Lives of the Painters" 1568

DOCUMENT 4 Just as it is disgraceful and sinful to be unmindful of God so it is reprehensible and dishonorable for any man of discerning judgement not to honor you as a brilliant and venerable artist whom the very stars use as a target at which to shoot the rival arrows of their favor. You are so accomplished, therefore, that hidden in your hands lives the idea of a new king of creation, whereby the most challenging and subtle problem of all in the art of painting, namely that of outlines, has been mastered by you that in the contours of the human body you express and contain the purpose of art...And it is surely my duty to honor you with this salutation since the world has many kings but only one Michelangelo. Pietro Aetino. "Letter to Michelangelo" 1537

DOCUMENT 5 I have always possessed extreme contempt for wealth...I have on the contrary led a happier existence with plain living and ordinary fare...the pleasure of dining with one's friends is so great that nothing has ever given me more delight than their unexpected arrival. I possess a well-balanced rather than a keen intellect--one prone to all kinds of good and wholesome study, but especially to moral philosophy and the art of poetry. The later I neglected as time went on, and took delight in sacred literature...Among the many subjects that interested me, I dwelt especially on antiquity, for our own age always repelled me, so that, had it not been for the love of those dear to me, I should have preferred to have been born in any other period than our own. In order to forget my own time, I have constantly striven to place myself in spirit in other ages, and consequently I delighted in history... Francesco Petrarch. "Letter to Posterity" 1372

DOCUMENT 6 I am not so much in love with my conclusions as not to weigh what others will think about them, and although I know that the meditations of a philosopher are far removed from the judgement of the laity, because his endeavor is to seek out the truth in all things, so far as this is permitted by God to the human reason, I still believe that one must avoid theories altogether foreign to orthodoxy. Nicholas Copernicus. "Dedication of the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies" 1543


 * Describe and analyze the underlying causes which brought about the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century.**

DOCUMENT A And yet my conscience could never give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, You did not perform that correctly. You were not contrite enough. You left out that confession. The more I tried to remedy and uncertain, weak and afflicted conscience with the traditions of men, the more each day found it more uncertain, weaker, more troubled. Martin Luther speaking of his days as a monk, early 16th century.

DOCUMENT B Julius: Some say there is one cause for which a pope can be deposed. Peter: When he has done something good, I suppose, since he is not to be punished for his bad deeds. Julius: If he can be publicly convicted of heresy. But this is impossible, too. For he can cancel any canon he does not like. Or he can recant. Peter: Fortunate pope, who can cheat Christ with his laws! Quite true, the remedy in such case is not a council. Erasmus' play in 1514 entitled Julius Excluded

DOCUMENT C

Within two weeks these theses were circulating throughout all Germany, and in a month throughout Christendom, as if the angels themselves were serving as messengers to bring them to the attention of all men. Myconius speaking of Martin Luther's 95 Theses, 1517

DOCUMENT D German money, contrary to nature, flies over the Alps; the pastors given to us are shepherds only in name; they care for nothing but the sheep's fleece, and they fatten on the sins of the people. One of the "grievances" brought before the diet by the German princes, mid-16th century

DOCUMENT E You know that now in our time, as also many years heretofore, the pure, clear and bright light, the Word of God, has been so dimmed and confused and paled with human ambitions and teachings that the majority who by word of mouth call themselves Christians know nothing less well than the divine will. But by their own invented service of God, holiness, external spiritual exhibition, founded upon human customs and laws, they have gone astray, and have thus been persuaded by these whom people consider learned and leaders of others to the extent that the simple think that such invented external worship is spiritual. From Ulrich Zwingli's debate in Zurich, 1523

DOCUMENT F We must resist the lust of the flesh, which, unless kept in order, overflows without measure. Where is our gratefulness toward God for our clothing if in the sumptuousness of our apparel we both admire ourselves and despise others? For so many so enslave all their senses to delights that the mind lies overwhelmed. A Look at the Giver of the Gift Presents Narrow-mindedness and Immoderation John Calvin, 1536

DOCUMENT G Like an insidious devil you pervert the Scriptures. You say that the Church consists virtually in the pope. What abominations will you not have to regard as the deeds of the Church? Look at the ghastly shedding of blood by Julius II. Look at the outrageous tyranny of Boniface VIII, who as the proverb declares, 'came in as a wolf, reigned as a lion, and died as a dog.' You make the pope into an emperor Maximilian and the Germans will not tolerate this. Martin Luther responding to being accused of heresy

DOCUMENT H By how many human regulations has the sacrament of penitence and confession been impeded? The bolt of excommunication is ever in readiness. The sacred authority is so abused by absolutions, dispensations, as the like that the godly cannot see it without a sigh. Aristotle is so in vogue that there is hardly time in the churches to interpret the gospel. Erasmus in The Annotations on The New Testament

DOCUMENT I

Hawking Indulgences So much money is going into the coffer of the vendor that new coins must be minted on the spot.

DOCUMENT J Indeed, we declare, announce and define, that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human being to be subject to the Roman pontiff. Pope Boniface VIII in 1302

DOCUMENT K Doubtful sentences of divine law, especially on those matters which are called articles of the Christian faith,… must be defined only by the general council of the believers,… no partial group or individual person of whatever status [the pope], has the authority to make such definitions. Marsiglio of Padua (1270-1342), The Defender of the Peace

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