I should add a little note on education during these heady times. In the 1600’s, despite all the great scientists and philosophers, about 80% of the population was illiterate. (Not the modern "functionally illiterate," meaning they are not very good at it, but totally unable to read and write.) Nevertheless, change was coming. For example, in 1619, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar (in Germany) ordered compulsory education for all children between six and twelve years old, with a month of "vacation" at harvest time so they could work on the farm - practically the same system we have today, including the summer vacation!

John Comenius (Jan Komensky, 1592-1670), a bishop of the Moravian Brethren, wrote the first printed textbook (illustrated, no less) which was used for 250 years. In the Didactica Magna (“Great Art of Teaching”), he outlined principles of education that could be used by most any schoolboard today. Take a look at a few by clicking here!

Note, however, for all the religious reform and scientific progress, over one million people, mostly older women, were executed as witches from the time of the Papal Bull concerning witches, issued in 1484, through the 1700s. There was even a witch hunting manual first published in 1486 called Malleus Maleficarum ("The Hammer of Witches") - how to recognize them, how to torture them into a confession, how to effectively kill them.... Women continue to be mistreated today, of course, although we seem to be coming to our senses (too slowly) as the world moves into the second millennium.

Note as well that slavery, which was a minor issue in the Middle Ages (what with the convenience of serfs), had resurrected its ugly head with Spanish and Portuguese conquest of vast areas of Africa and the Americas. Many people in Spain (where else?) believed that no decent Christian should perform manual labor! Protestant nations and their colonies found the practice of slavery equally profitable. Although slavery still exists in some third-world nations, it has died out in most of the world, mostly because the industrial revolution made it too costly, not because we were offended by the practice.

© Copyright 2000, C. George Boeree