The church and the nobles
Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time there was a church that promised a bunch of chieftains the right of the nobility to the earth, if only they accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour.
This made the chieftains very happy and they prospered in their respective realms. Over the course of time though the new nobility got it into its head that instead of the church promising new realms to the local chieftains, it would be much better if it would be promising them to the established nobility. And so they fought about who would become the pope and whoever would would reward his supporters with heathen lands to be converted to Christianity. And so a German pope rewarded the German nobility with the heathen lands in the Baltics. And then a Spanish pope rewarded the Spanish and Portuguese nobility with, well, the rest of the heathen lands anywhere in the world.
This caused disaffection amongst Non-Iberian nobles and some eventually found a monk who told them the good news that it is sufficient to hearken to the Bible in order to accept Jesus Christ as their saviour. And when the Spanish nobles sent the English a frigid woman to be the lawful wife of their king, thus cutting short his dynasty, the English nobles joined the newly formed independent nobility.
However, the nobles continued to feud over their own lands, expecting the people to change their confession as easily as the nobles themselves so as to agree with that of their betters. But the people had started to like reading the Bible. And when the Spanish king demanded of the Dutch to stop doing that or face extinction, the Dutch nobility chanced open war against the Spanish.
As a punishment, the Spanish king forbade the Portuguese to sell pepper and cinnamon to the Dutch, who used to sell it to the rest of Northern Europe. And then Dutch nobles sent their ships to the Portuguese colonies in order to take them over and organise the spice trade themselves. Since Portugal was at the time ruled by the Spanish king, and the Spanish king needed his soldiers in Spanish colonies, the Dutch were very successful in their venture and drove the Portuguese out of all their Indian possessions, with the exception of an outpost here and there. Disaffected with this, the Portuguese henceforth declared their independence from the Spanish.
Well, that's it: The church and the nobles, as wise and noble then as now. So, always listen to your betters.
This made the chieftains very happy and they prospered in their respective realms. Over the course of time though the new nobility got it into its head that instead of the church promising new realms to the local chieftains, it would be much better if it would be promising them to the established nobility. And so they fought about who would become the pope and whoever would would reward his supporters with heathen lands to be converted to Christianity. And so a German pope rewarded the German nobility with the heathen lands in the Baltics. And then a Spanish pope rewarded the Spanish and Portuguese nobility with, well, the rest of the heathen lands anywhere in the world.
This caused disaffection amongst Non-Iberian nobles and some eventually found a monk who told them the good news that it is sufficient to hearken to the Bible in order to accept Jesus Christ as their saviour. And when the Spanish nobles sent the English a frigid woman to be the lawful wife of their king, thus cutting short his dynasty, the English nobles joined the newly formed independent nobility.
However, the nobles continued to feud over their own lands, expecting the people to change their confession as easily as the nobles themselves so as to agree with that of their betters. But the people had started to like reading the Bible. And when the Spanish king demanded of the Dutch to stop doing that or face extinction, the Dutch nobility chanced open war against the Spanish.
As a punishment, the Spanish king forbade the Portuguese to sell pepper and cinnamon to the Dutch, who used to sell it to the rest of Northern Europe. And then Dutch nobles sent their ships to the Portuguese colonies in order to take them over and organise the spice trade themselves. Since Portugal was at the time ruled by the Spanish king, and the Spanish king needed his soldiers in Spanish colonies, the Dutch were very successful in their venture and drove the Portuguese out of all their Indian possessions, with the exception of an outpost here and there. Disaffected with this, the Portuguese henceforth declared their independence from the Spanish.
Well, that's it: The church and the nobles, as wise and noble then as now. So, always listen to your betters.
Labels: 33, geschichte, gesellschaftskritik, gesetze, institutionen, sehhilfen, wahrnehmungen, ἰδέα, φιλοσοφία
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20:52
