Beheading Holofernes Analysis

She was intelligent and had courage to go her own way. She was a wife, a mother and lover but at the same time a cold hearted ruler that tried to eliminate everyone that stood in her way not caring if it was a stranger or a family member. We don’t have a lot of resources out of her personal perspective but the resources that we do have, paint a picture of a strong woman that lost and regained her throne, was able to make choices that helped expand her countries wealth and territory. She was resourceful with knowledge about Alchemy, Politics, different cultures and languages. She survived the death of her first love and even though afterwards she loved again she was a changed person, colder and more focused on personal gains that anything else.

She had been trained in her earlier years by her mother to be a healer, which included working with herbs and native plants of the area. It is through this practice, many people hired her to help cure them, other family members, animals, and also to drive of bad curses. She earned a reputation for helping others but was also seen as a danger to the community. She had the knowledge through her books and power of her healing skills which was not very typical of the average women of this time era.

The Middle Ages were the era of Reformation. The Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Catholic counter-reformation were all major reform movements that brought about much needed change. However, these three movements strongly disagreed with each other. Why did they disagree? Because they had different perspectives concerning Christianity and the church’s authority.

"So as to allure the eyes of all men that should see her" (Judith 10:4). Judith is adorned in a contemporary costume and rests her arm on the severed head of Holofernes, the enemy of her people. Lucas Cranach the Elder, as mentioned earlier, painted at least eight Judith's, all similar with the composition of the heroine but with some minor changes in appearance, for example, Lucas Cranach has revealed a long-haired heroine with her hand on top of the dismantled head of Holofernes whilst holding the sword she used to remove the threat of her people. All eight Judith’s are clothed in a fantastically elaborate costumes that accentuates the heroine’s figure, this is also a characteristic of Cranach's mannerism. Here, Cranach represented Judith

Haigh concludes his work by assessing the Marian restoration, the Elizabethan political restoration, and policies aimed at a growing catholic minority such as recusancy. Haigh not for the first time provides a balanced argument. He rejects the notion that “Marys reign was an aberration, an inconvenient disruption of the natural process of Reformation.” Haigh undermines this argument because the “demand for religious change had been weak; protestants had become a significant minority movement and had not broken through to mass support. From the perspective of 1558 it is the reign of Edward which appears an aberration, disrupting the process of Catholic restoration which begun in 1538 and was to continue under Mary.”

Throughout the Middle Ages, religion was a strong, pervasive force in society. Most individuals were more concerned with God and the possibility of the afterlife than they were with current human affairs, says Encylopedia Britannica. By the time the Renaissance occurred, this social attitude was beginning to change. Religion was still practiced, but people began to be more focused on secular or humanist values, rather than spirituality, at this

Powerful spiritual renewal and heresy arose from the chaotic scene of bloodshed, the fierce intellectual controversies played an important role in religious freedom. The Reformation had brought individual thinkers to develop the principle that no one should be persecuted for his or her religion. Sebastian Castellio was one of the very first humanists who stood on this principle and describes that the world is entangled in the questions of religion. As indicated on Document 8, he does not agree with doctrine punishment for those who denied faith to Christianity. He believed that a person’s conscience should not be subject to power and suppressed by the civil authorities.

Ever since the Protestant Reformation started in sixteenth century Germany, Europe was arguably no longer the same. The revival of Biblical theology had led to Western Christendom splitting into various denominations of the Christian faith, with Protestant sects and other Orthodox Churches. Despite the Church of Rome still holding remarkable power and influence through its Papal States and the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope could no longer be considered as the sole religious authority in Europe. Contrary to popular opinion, this revolution cannot be solely credited to Martin Luther and his theological writings, but rather to a chain of events that had, was and will happen during the century. The transformations in Europe instead was key to the

They sought to balance religious faith with individual dignity and that wealth should be earned by individual achievements. As a result of a newly founded way of thinking that had won many scholars over Catholicism, the Catholics church and humanists sparked conflict. After the act of questioning the Catholic church’s authority, people began realizing the church’s various flaws which ultimately kick-started the Reformation. Humanism initiated in Italy as of renewed interests in classical culture.

Moreover, the outcome of the relativism of the faith was the relativism of behavior. When rock solid mores, moral absolutes, give way to relativism, you end up with twentieth-century situation ethics, where morality is dictated by the situation and the subject. Also out of relativism came twentieth-century world-come-of age theology, where the secularity of the world is celebrated. University professors can debate whether relativism is relative, but when wrong becomes right people become confused and disillusioned. 6

In a nutshell: The 3 R’s: Reformation, Royalty & Renaissance The first R: The Reformation The reformation of the Christian Church had a huge effect on history, causing a major schism and centuries of sectarian violence. In England and other countries many were to die for being the wrong religion. In the early 1500s in mainland Europe, a huge religious upheaval started in reaction to Roman Catholicism, the existing Christian church. Martin Luther, and many others wanted reform – hence the term Reformation.

The first Reformation of the 16th century, began with Martin Luther with the publication of his great, influential work, The Ninety-Five Theses. Luther’s mission to reform the Church and dispose of the corruption of priests and the sale of indulgences, inspired others such as lawyer-turned-reform advocate and preacher, John Calvin to act in the name of what he believed to be righteous. The ideals of the Reformations presented first by Luther, and then modified through the separate branch of Calvinism began a chain-reaction, motivating King Henry VIII to make use of the changing religious ideals to extend his political power. In this essay, the similarities and differences between the Calvinist Reformation of Geneva and Henry VIII’s Reformation

Thomas More criticized 16th century Catholicism which is paradoxical. Indeed, More was venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, yet in his book Utopia, some of the practices and institutions of the Utopians such as the ease of divorce and both married priests and female priests seemed to be the opposites of More’s beliefs, of the teachings of the Catholic Church of which he was a devout member. Moreover, Thomas More’s Utopia was inspired by Plato’s Republic, a Socratic dialogue concerning justice, the order and character of the just, city-state and the just man. As opposed to Christianity, the Italian Renaissance was focused on secularism - the separation of religion and state, therefore, Machiavelli sees religion as a man-made.

In the sixteenth century, the world was divided about Martin Luther. One Catholic thought Martin Luther was a "demon in the appearance of a man." Another who first questioned Luther's theology later declared, "He alone is right!"(Witherington, 1992). Both Catholics and Protestants affirm he was not only right about a great deal, but he changed the course of Western history for the better. Luther saw how the Old Testament law against idols and the New Testament emphasis on justification by faith alone are essentially the same.

Henri Regnault’s “Summary Execution in Granada Under the Moorish Kings” is a riveting visual experience on multiple levels. Through calculated artistic choices, Regnault ensures that the painting’s grotesque nature strikes first, shocking the viewer on a primal level. He plays with theatrical scale, angles, and lighting to elevate the drama of this scene in a way that would certainly have appealed to the fantastic imaginations of his audience in 19th century France. But equally as mesmerizing is how Regnault quietly imbues the painting with a sense that its characters are subject to some larger, unseen power. Through the use of line, color, and brushwork, Regnault forces the viewer to suspend judgement of the scene by alluding to the the complexity of what influenced the action.