How Mediums and Rhetoric Shaped the Renaissance

We witness changes in communication today at the very localized level. For example, the way I speak to my friends now is very different from the way I would if I had never been exposed to cell phones and the internet. Between texting and conversing via tagging each other in Facebook memes, today’s social interface hardly resembles that of the Renaissance. While forms of communication in the Renaissance Era is fairly difficult to track there are certain factors and events that can indicate changes in trends.

Caxton showing specimens of his printing to King Edward

Medium:

One such event was the birth of the printing press. With tools like computers, we take the magic of printing for granted. The printing press allowed print to be faster and less costly, causing a spike in the availability of the written word.

Arguably one of the most adept users of the new medium of communication was Martin Luther. His 95 Theses were not the only things he published. He wrote and published many short sermons and pamphlets. These were cheap and short enough that someone could have it read to them if they didn’t know how to read themselves. Luther was a genius who recognized quickly how printing could help him spread his ideas.

Even if the information that was published wasn’t accurate, it’s accessibility gave more people who wouldn’t normally read the option to do so. With more people reading, more people were talking about what they had read and learned.

This led to discussion and debates at Saoirse’s and the birth of the idea of “sprezzatura”, which described a certain wit, sophistication, and eloquence of speaking at these gatherings. An example of the accomplishments of one who possessed this can be found here.

Discussion in the public square acquired a different flavor when the Protestant Reformation took hold. Because open discussion was now the norm, people began to publicly critique, criticize, and even protest against aspects of the Catholic Church.

“Beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3

There is something about studying the past that gives us the false notion that we are now better off than “they” were. We need to be humble enough to recognize, through literature from the past, that what was taught then could apply to us now.

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Our Mormon roots mirror those of the Reformation. Martin Luther found himself sincerely questioning the practices of the Catholic Church. His intentions did not come from a place of wanting to destroy the church, rather from a desire to free the people from the chains the priests had around them. Luther argued that because the Bible was the only source of religious truth, the people had a right to read and interpret it however they saw fit. It was, of course, with the help of the printing press that Luther managed to accrue followers.

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Martin Luther no doubt paved the way for Joseph Smith to do, in his way, the same thing that Luther did: dare to question the churches around him. Just like Martin Luther, Joseph Smith was sincere when he went to the Lord in prayer, asking which of the churches he should join. 

Both of these men had the simplicity of the gospel as a goal. Martin Luther took a stance against all the pageantry of the Catholic Church, and Joseph Smith restored a church that began in simplicity. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is set apart from most other churches because both the outward appearance of the church buildings and the outward appearance of our chapels are almost too simple. Many investigators of our church find this disturbing. 

 Hugh Latimer’s “Sermon on the Plowers” reminded me that although the Mormon Church is more outwardly simple than most, I believe we, who are members of it, are guilty of straying from the simplicity of the gospel in much the same way those believers in the past were. Are we, as Latter-day Saints, seeing the mote in our brother’s eye, all the while ignoring the beam that is in our eye? I’m sorry to say that I believe we are.

Could Latimer, if he were here today, write this about us:

            Down with crosses, up with expensive paintings of Christ;

            Down with the outward addictions of others, up with the inward judgments we
            possess;

            Down with the behaviors of the unbelievers, up with the actions of a Pharisee;

            Down with seeking worldly riches, up with accumulating pride in the name of
            success;

            Down with the pageantry of churches, up with the opulence of our homes;

            Down with lying, cheating, and sinning, up with saying we are honest in our
            dealings with our fellow man.

In Peter’s post on “Be Thou an example of the Believers,” he quotes the scripture by Paul that says, “Be ye not conformed to the world.” My observation and fear is that we, as Latter-day Saints, are indeed conforming to the world and sadly, we don’t seem to notice.

In his post on “The Plowman,” Carson asks, “Are we turning away from the plow?” Let us be very careful in assuming that we are not, and that Christ sees us as one of his plowmen. We may be wrong.