AUT: Re: 1566 and all that

[fabian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

George said:
>It makes for an interesting exercise to compare existentialist philosophy
>with Reformation
>thinking.
>
>For Zwinglie certainty of belief did not guarantee that one was correct
>and  would be
>saved. Under predestination we can never know whether we are members of
>the elect. Only
>god knows those that are to be saved. Consequently no matter what the
>individual does he
>can never be sure that he is to be saved. In short no matter how certain
>and committed the
>individual is to her/his convictions there can be no guarantee that one's
>convictions are
>correct and that commitment to those convictions is meaningful or make
>sense. Convictions,
>then, can never guarantee success.
>
>This reformation theology introduces the element of uncertainty into the
>world.


>From "The Queen's servants and the revolt of the Netherlands: the End of
the Antwerp Mart", Vol II (p.34) by G.D.Ramsay
"Calvinism had strook root there, Its authoritarian system of elders and
consistories was well suited not only to the maintenance of a tight
ecclesiatical discipline but also to the preparation of organised protests
and even revolts. Calvinism introduced an element of fore-thought and
conspiracy that the relatively simple-minded anabaptists and other heretics
had hitherto lacked. The English merchants at Antwerp were now to be
startled spectators of some extraordinary events, and the English
government  was to be forced to ponder some unexpected events. What was to
happen if the discontents of an urban proletariat were harnessed to the
ambitions of able and ruthless Calvinist leaders? What security might
remain for the well-to-do? Was it to be expected that the traffic of the
Merchants Adventurers should remain unaffected? this is not the place for
any general investigation of the phenomena of violence and revolution that
now made their appearance at Antwerp, but a small digression is necessary
to survey the situation that could give rise to some new apprehensions in
the mind of the Englishmen."

 From "Gresham College at Work" LPA NewsletterNo.18 Beltaine 398
"Despite a media blackout on the role of Gresham College, it remains a key
institution in the perpetuation of bourgeois rule. The College was founded
400 years ago by Sir Thomas Gresham, a prominent London merchant. At that
time Antwerp was the centre of world trade, and Gresham had observed how
the bourse facilitated this function. Towards the end of 1563, in an action
echoed by the current BSE crisis, the Duchess of Parma, Philip of Spain's
Regent of the Netherlands, banned the import of English cloths or wools on
the grounds they brought infection in November 1563. This was a manoeuvre
against the export tax introduced by Elizabeth I. It backfired, as the
English switched their trade to Emden. Another consequence was that Gresham
drew up plans for a London bourse - the Royal Exchange - which eventually
got under way in 1566.
It is interesting to note in relation to Tibor Wittman's claims that
Antwerp took the first steps in industrial capitalism, that Gresham
imported bricks from Antwerp to build the Royal exchange. In volume 3 of
his Civilization and Capitalism, The Perspective of the World (1979,
English translation 1984), Fernand Baudel relates how Gillebert Van
Schoonbecke "organised a sort of vertical trust managing about fifteen
brickworks, a gigantic peat bog, various lime-kilns, a forestry estate and
a collection of workers' lodgings" when called upon to take charge of the
city walls in 1550. "He was the biggest entrepreneur and profiteer in the
colossal transformation of Antwerp which took place between 1542 and 1566."
Although Baudel describes such projects as years ahead of other European
cities, he is sceptical whether this can really be called industrial
capitalism. Be that as it may, Gresham was clearly in close contact with
the movers and shapers who were moving in the direction of industrial
capitalism.
We have not space here to cover the 1566 Calvinist revolt in Antwerp.
Suffice it to say that the subsequent repression led a substantial portion
of merchants to flee to Amsterdam which would become the centre of world
trade (circa 1627), after an interlude where it temporarily returned to the
Mediterranean, i.e. Genoa. Although London wasn't to assert itself as the
centre of world trade until the 1770's, the Royal Exchange provided a
centre for the growing bourgeoisie. Being without legitimate heir, Gresham
decided in his will to bestow the substantial proceeds of the Royal
Exchange on the foundation of college open to all citizens wherein the
Gresham Professors would offer lectures on Divinity, Astronomy, Music,
Geometry, Law, Medicine and Rhetoric. The college was to be administered by
a joint committee of the City of London and the Mercers."

Ramsay details how the Calvinists organised a range of rabel rousing
preachers to come to Antwerp: they preached in both French and German. he
paints the picture of an artisanal class who's finacial situation had
deteriorated over the previous three years, and who saw the position of the
large  merchants and the landowners as going against them. He then suggests
that

"The city teemed with youths who had come hopefully or desperately to seek
a living there, or others who wanted to hide and loose their identity.
There were obscure splinter groups of heretics that ranged from a few
individuals meeting together to pray, to secret societies, some with a
criminal tinge, and to organised bands of desperadoes. there were all too
many to loot. But these were not the folk who almost made a revolution in
the summer and autumn of 1566. This was the handiwork of honest artisans
who were thankful at the return to tolerable conditions and responded to
the newly organised sermons with their rousing appeals to cast out idolatry
from their hearts and their worship." (Ramsay p 42) The revolt included the
sacking of the church of Our Lady whose furnishings had cost £133,000
Sterling. Whilst the ardent iconoclasts broke the images in the church
(smashed the society of the spectacle???) others looted the valuables.
After a period of contested power, The duke of Orange was able to resore
power. But trade had been disrupted, and this lead to Thomas Gresham
inaugurate the Royal exchange in London.It was the first step to the
subsequent succesful bourgeois revolt further north in the Netherlands.
[snip]

I think the Calvinists perhaps can be seen as precursors of Bolshevism as
much as Existentialism. Bolshevism thrived on the "inevitability of
communism" which is perhaps a more recent instrumentalisation of the
doctrine of predestination! Of course the two are not mutually exclusive>

Leutha Blissett




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