1.Modern Asian History and Culture
IN FULL What has been the role of immigrants in the plural societies of South East Asia?

The role of immigrants in the plural societies of South East Asia was to attempt realization of material aims that included individual ambition to acquire personal fortunes,activity inspired by cultural values,co-ordinated macro economic activity,territorial acquisition,settlement and politics all of which created significant change in the region

      Immigrants were typically European,Chinese or Indian.Chinese traders had established themselves in the region from the beginning of the Fourteenth century.Europeans founded mercantile and military settlements beginning at the end of the Fifteenth Century and Indians immigrated during the colonial period.Immigrants engaged in wealth acquisition often intending following the realization of this aim to return to their homeland.An example of this is Dutch immigration during the high colonial period in the Indies.

  Chinese migration occurred in two streams.Firstly entrepreneurs or traders and secondly labourers.The Chinese were predisposed to both work and enterprise.This is in part due to their work and entrepreneurial ethics.'It is widely accepted that Chinese culture possesses a work ethic of diligence and unremitting industry.'1.'Chinese entrepreneurship is an important adjunct to the Chinese work ethic and has been defined as a cultural value that requires one to invest ones resources in a long term quest to improve the material wellbeing and security of ones immediate family and to enhance the social esteem of ones lineage.'2.
Beginning in the eighteenth century Chinese entrepreneurs co-ordinated the immigration which consisted in the majority of Southern Male Chinese.Previously Chinese acted as agents for indigenous leaders in trade.In Malaya and other regions the immigrating workforce were put to work mining tin and were controlled through the Kongsi, clan orginisations and secret societies.
European economic activity was overseen by immigrant administrators.Economic policy began with free trade imperialism from the Nineteenth Century until 1850 and was superseded by Liberal capitalism lasting until 1900 and finally centralised dominance.Free trade imperialism allowed trade to be conducted unimpeded by Government policy or territorial administration.Liberal capitalism sought to incorporate production into global markets whilst refraining from capital investment in the region.It differed from the State monopoly of production and sale that were components of the VOC and cultivation systems in Java.Industry in this period became an important part of economic policy due to the industrial revolution.Developments in technology aided economic growth including steamships which were used to transport labourers and goods.Centralised dominance compensated for lost revenue with the abandonment of State monopoly  by increasing the tax base and the proficiency of its collection thus accommodating the increases in production and relying less on duties and revenue farms.during this period Western bankers moved into the cities and took over from Chinese credit houses.A characteristic of the period was an increase in the number of European officials.Increases in the administration and financial sector precipitated increases in infrastructure designed to control the indigenous population and increase export profits.Plantations came under the control of Western companies who used indigenous or foreign labourers who were recruited by organisations such as the Deli Planters association.

  A feature of European activity in South East Asia was mutually advantageous relationships between Europeans and Chinese.In the Eighteenth century relationships between Europeans and Asians had been as equals and during the Nineteenth century relationships were still characterised by fellowship between  Asians and the small number of Resident Europeans.The relationship was also economic.During free trade imperialism Western traders focused on w3orking with previously created mercantile systems facilitating the export of agricultural products.Chinese opium farming in some States provided a major proportion of colonial revenue and it enabled government to tax individuals who were previously unaccountable due to their being foreign and mobile.This revenue financed the creation for frameworks of modernity including officialdom, infrastructure, military and police.In both Vietnam and the Dutch East Indies the colonialists contracted the rights to grow opium to Chinese.Chinese and Western entrepreneurs co-operated in the exporting of rice in Thailand.British and Americans in Manilla provided financial backing and selling opportunities for Chinese Mestivo who either replaced or joined indigenous leaders and began or increased the growth of sugar in Luzon, tobacco in Cagayan and Abaca in Kabikolan for export purposes.The Chinese became increasingly represented in the Phillipines as a consequence of a loosening of regulations regarding the influx of Chinese.During the 1840's they overcame the Mestivo hold on local business.Their function was that of agents for Western consumables especially clothing and material and to deal in the increased quantity of produce.In Thailand Westerners were allowed to run mines and plantations using Chinese labour.In Singapore as elsewhere during the Nineteenth century the colonialists allowed the Chinese to run their businesses unhindered.In Malaya the British obtained from Chinese tin mine operators who taxed gambling, drinking and pawnbroking a significant amount of their revenue.In the Phillipines the Mestivo Chinese and the peasants competed for land in the Luzon Plain and the former were victorious as in part they were able to aquire their land through transactions with the colonialists.The chinese as in other parts of the region were well versed in the rules regarding the law in general and their money enabled them to handle transactions with great proficiency.This combined as effective aquisition of land.Most importantly the Chinese Mestivo lent credit to peasants using their land as collateral which meant the peasants were obliged to pay a portion of their income to the Chinese and by the Twentieth century international market forces, increasing colonial control,modernisation including the introduction of Western systems of ownership and increased technology in the growing of sugarcane disenfranchised the peasants.Previously during the liberal capitalism period the acquisition of haciendas by the Chinese Mestivo provided a good boost to the economy and increases in imported goods levels increased taxation opportunities for the colonialists.Despite the many examples of Chinese-European co-operation a definite trend was emerging which resulted in a stratified by the beginning of the Twentieth century in which Europeans camefirst,then Chinese and then the indigenous Asians which was in part a direct result of economic policy.For example the French made available large tracts of land in Vietnam to French settlers through land registration which was prejudicial against the indigenous population.The chinese Opium farmers were eventually commandeered by the Europeans.The advent of European run plantations and mines was an arena in which harsh working environments for Chinese coolies were regulated with authoritarian legislation such as The Netherlands East Indies Coolie Ordinances which effectively bound Chinese coolies to their European masters depriving them of their liberty.The Industrial Revolution precipitated the diminishing of the Chinese social standing.By 1900 surface deposits of tin in Malaya had become scarce and Europeans surpassed the Chinese and their primitive labour intensive methods through the use of the bucket dredge whose cost precluded Chinese participation.Also the manpower required had become increasingly costly owing to the closure of opium farms and increased mobility of labour and other opportunities available to it.Also the oil and timber industries became the preserve of large European companies whose success was facilitated by the colonial governments who provided guidance and assistance.Finally equality between European immigrants including an increase in the number of European womenresulted in an increase in European culture being transplanted in the region and subsequently Asians and Europeans no longer met socially and in their business transactions behaved as a superior party.The views of Europeans were influenced by Social Darwinism which claimed that Europeans were more highly evolved.

  Territorial acquisition was another component in the role of immigrants especially Europeans.Early forays into the region were undertaken by Portugese sailing from Malacca.Territory was sought to gain an advantage in the regions trade and to convert the indigenous population to Christianity.Shipping in the region included English Carracks which were of formidable size being between three hundred and two thousand tons.Trade was conducted in these cumbersome ships which provided Asia with wool,wine,other European goods and Indian textiles.The commodities were exchanged for animal skins,spices and aromatic wood.Eventually the ships returned to Europe with oriental goods including porcelain and silk from Japan and China.Catholicism was exported from bases in South East Asia such as Malacca by the Portugese Jesuits and from the Phillipines by Spanish Franciscan missionaries but most Asians saw little appeal in Christianity.The colonial powers struggled with one another to acquire land and trading rights.The Dutch and English surpassed the Portugese in control of the region.The Dutch achieved  superiority in Malaysia in1639.The Dutch reacted to news of cessation of the Portugeese trading rights with a thanksgiving dinner.European military success in the region may be attributed variously.Firstly they adapted Chinese technology in regards to firearms and artillery beyond that of South East Asians.Its application included the destruction of fortifications,superiority over less manoeuvvrable Asian vessels during the Seventeenth century.Dutch and English used handheld muskets and steam powered gunboats in the Nineteenth.Secondly improvements in European military technology can be attributed in part to it being sponsored by European leaders.Finally Europeans had realised that humankinds destiny lay in its own hands rather than in a deity.South East Asians however had deeper rooted religious convictions and this at times made them vulnerable to military defeat.In the Nineteenth century in Vietnam Nguyen leaders refused to re-locate their headquarters from Hue as they perceived that to be a compromise of their religion although Hue was in striking distance of french gunships.Historians have described the comprehensive defeat of South East Asians by Europeans,the Thais observed that the Europeans possessed superior military technology and chose a conciliatory approach to the encroaching Europeans,the British following The Bowring Treaty of1855 forced the thais to participate in international rice production and the Dutch in Bali defeated the inferior,suicidal forces of Badung.However there are conflicting accounts of this history.The European conquerers of the region derided the indigenous states as being politically backward.European historians saw the colonisation of Asia as the defeat of an inferior,less developed group of societies.Contradictory arguments claim that the colonisation period should be regarded as contact in which the regions people assimilated modernity.It is claimed that Asian responses in the modern era may be regarded as seperate developmental processess but realizing similar results.Also the perceived inferioty of Asian technology may be an aberration caused by comparisons with European capitalist culture.

  Immigrant patterns of settlement varied between ethnic groups.Chinese labourers were accomodated in the plantations in large huts initially but urban type settlements arose when the number of migrating females became greater.Following the depression the ratio between male and female Chinese in Malaya improved from two hundred and twenty five men to one hundred women in 1931 to one hundred and forty four men to one hundred men in 1939 which occured because whereas males were restricted in migrating females were not and also females without jobs were not repatriated.3Immigrant workers who did not agree to be sent back to their home country during forced repatriation started to identify as permament residents and arranged for their spouses to migrate to Malaya.

  The final arena in which immigrants participated was politics.The communist ISDV which was inaugarated in 1914 by Hendricus JFM Sneevliet was predominantly European amongst its leadership.Some Chinese opposed reformist parties such as the ISDV as they regarded it to be opposed to their interests.However settlers from various groups including the Dutch government,missionaries,immigrant labourers,trade unionists and comintern agitators spread concepts which fed the anti-colonial nationalism of Indonesia.The Nationale Indische Partij established in 1912 sought its support from all races including immigrants and sought equal rights,improved monetary status and freedom from Dutch rule.This party was ineffective as the Dutch successfully outlawed it and itsfigures were punished .Following banishment to Holland these figures were hampered by the Dutch in their activities in the Indies.The supporters of the Nationale Indische Partij regrouped as Insulinde which was however mostly of Eurasian content and could not achieve support from the Chinese or other races in the Indies.Between 1920 and 1930 the Dutch government harshly suppressed Chinese who advocated ideas that had arisen in China.

  The attempts of immigrants to realize their material aims were often doomed to failure.Chinese coolies frequently perished in the desease and filth of the camps,women fell into prostitution and Indians encountered dire poverty however they came in great numbers.The Europeans inspired by the appeal of the regions products,the opportunity to achieve renown for their respective homelands and to win converts to Christianity provided them with economic frameworks which enabled a minority of them to make their fortunes.In this way immigrants contributed to the modernity of the South East asian region.

FOOTNOTES    

1.David Cl Ch'ng,'The Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs In East Asia:Background,Business Practices And International Networks',Commitee For Economic Development Of Australia,1993,43

2.Ibid.,44.

3.N.Tarling,Editor,Cambridge History Of South East Asia Volume.1&2,Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,1992,125.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.Ch'ng,Cl David,The Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs In East Asia:Background,Business Practices And International Networks,Commitee For Economic Development Of Australia,1993.

2.Dodge.S.Ernest,Islands And Empires,Western Impact On The Pacific And East Asia:Europe And The World In The Age Of Expansion Vol.7, University Of Minnesota Press,Minneapolis,1976.

3.Lamb,Ursula,Editor.The Globe Encircled And The World Revealed:An Expanding World Vol3,Variorum,Hampshire,1995.

4.Mackerras,Colin,Editor Eastern Asia Second Edition,Longman Australia,Melbourne,1995.

5.Reid,Anthony,Editor 

                      
2.Modern Asian History and Culture

IN FULL Do any of the theories of nationalism discussed by Smith apply to China in the nineteenth century?

China in the Nineteenth Century was governed by a confuciust ethical and political canon whose precepts included Ren meaning benevolence, Yi meaning correct behaviour and altruism, Li meaning temperance, decency and filial piety and Analects such as ji yu li er li ren which translates as self, desire, establish, also, establish, others meaning that one may expect to be treated as he sees fit.Also confuscism may be regarded as a benevolent religion whose similarity to Christianity is evident in the emphasis it places on doing unto others as you would have done unto you, in the worship of both ancestors and spirits and the belief that if the hierarchy of Chinese society becomes virtuous then balance and mystical creatures such as the unicorn will be returned to the land.1.
The hierarchy engendered by Li held that society should be hierarchical cogent to the family unit in which elders were to be venerated and the family was extended and close knitt.It was a requirement that duties and responsibilities required sincere application by citizenry.Especially ceremonies were to be respected as they were symbolic of the hierarchy of society and the individuals place within it.The Emperor was the head of civilisation whose mandate was divine and claimed absolute authority domestically over his subjects and internationally over subordinate nations and foreigners specifically European nations.Aswell as religious commonality governance of China in the Nineteenth century was aided through the Qing Dynasty's' exercise of the Chinese language, recognition of sovereignty over territory defined by fixed borders and by a bureaucracy which determined the parameters of the education system.Science or enlightenment philosophy are not relevant to this discussion of nationalism in nineteenth century China because Smith's definition of nationalism criticises modernist definitions:
in pre-modern eras,even in the ancient world, striking parallels to the 'modern' idea of national identity and character, in the way Greeks and Romans looked on people who did not share their cultures or come from their city-states...Even in the intervening period, we find a number of 'barbarian' kingdoms in medieval Europe...engaging in a network of political relations, albeit of a rudimentary kind.2.
Universal factors of nineteenth century nationalism are not relevant because Smith criticises primordialist definitions:
one can concede the antiquity of collective cultural ties and sentiments without assimilating them, retrospectively, to nations or nationalism, or suggesting that ancient or medieval collective units and sentiments are simply small-scale, primitive forms of modern nations and nationalism.There may be connections between the two but, if so, these have to be established empirically.
Smith defines Nationalism in terms of ethnie which may be viewed in terms of community, a common name, common ancestry, history, language and religion.
Finally I conclude that whereas primordialist or modernist definitions of nationalism are heterodox a consciousness of ethnicity and it's historiography is not reformatory and true to orthodoxy seeks to reinvent nationalist thinking subordinate to the nation's contemporaneous or inherited ideology and resists alien ideology:
Regarding your nation's worship of the Lord of Heaven, it is the same religion as that of other European nations.Ever since the beginning of history, sage Emperors and wise rulers have bestowed on China a moral system and inculcated a code, which from time immemorial has been religiously observed by the myriads of my subjects.There has been no hankering after heterodox doctrines.5.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Primary Sources:
1.Smith,D.Anthony,The Ethnic Origins of Nations,Basil Blackwell, London, 1985.

Secondary Sources:
1. Allen,Charlotte, Confucius and the Scholars, Document created by The Atlantic On Line, (1999), Boston, (USA) at http://www.theatlantic.com, viewed 19 March 2002.
2.Kelley,L.Ross, Confucius [Kung-Fu-Tzu or Kongfuzi], Document created by The Friesan School, (1997), Los Angeles, (USA) at http://www.friesan.com/confuci.htm, viewed 19 March 2002.
.Schumann,Franz and Schell,Orville (eds), The Ch'ien Lung Emperor A Decree in The China Reader, Imperial China, New York: Vintage Books, 19 7, 112.


FOOTNOTES.
1.Kelley,L.Ross, Confucius [Kung-Fu-Tzu or Kongfuzi], Document created by The Friesan School, (1997), Los Angeles, (USA) at http://www.friesan.com/confuci.htm, viewed 19 March 2002.
2.Smith,D.Anthony, The Ethnic Origins of Nations, London: Basil Blackwell, 1985, 11.
Smith,D.Anthony, op.cit., 1 .
Allen,Charlotte, Confucius and the Scholars, Document created by The Atlantic On Line, (1999), Boston, (USA) at http://www.theatlantic.com, viewed 19 March 2002.
5.Schumann,Franz and Schell,Orville (eds), The Ch'ien Lung Emperor A Decree in The China Reader, Imperial China, New York: Vintage Books, 19 7, 112.

3.Renaissance and Reformation History
IN FULL What for Machiavelli were the uses of cruelty?(The Prince) 

The uses of cruelty for Machiavelli were to provide a ruler and his subjects with a good life and progress in a climate of stability.This was a Platonic idea of happiness associated with a strong society achieved through strong rule.In The Prince he uses the examples of Hannibal and Scipio, and states that the loyalty of the formers troops and the disloyalty of the latters troops were due to the formers use of cruelty and the latters lack of cruelty.1.He states that the loyalty of citizens is a requirement for stability and will only be acquired if a ruler uses all those means,save those which are imprudent or inhumane in order to establish a climate of fear in which citizens will obey laws through fear or punishment.Punishments witnessed by citizens he says give life to this outcome.This political thought is regarded as negative by many scholars who claim that Machiavellis uses of cruelty were praises of cruelty amounting to negativity,this being rapaciousness

  and such is that book...written by an enemy of the human race ...by which...all types of virtue could more easily be destroyed...written by the hand of Satan.2.

   ...Historically cruelty has been a part of noble rule since the first civilisation.Examples include enslavement or execution of conquered people, corporal punishment, torture and martyrdom.The nobility of Western civilisation achieved their authority through the use of arms.However the Church co-existing with Dark Ages and Medieval nobility were able to accomodate cruelty by calling it 'reason of state'.This reconciled acts of inhumanity with examples from the old testament in which rapaciousness was committed in the name of God.'The Divine Right of Kings' was called 'Divine' as a means to excuse their sometimes excessive use of cruelty in forcing citizens to be loyal.
Satanism is that which is thought to be negative or:
Satan, the God of ruthless pursuit of self interest in defiance of imposed moral systems.3.
This is associated by some scholars with the work of Machiavelli.He advocated a ruler's use of prudent cruelty in order for a ruler to achieve a successful rule, which in the religious dogma of the day, was against the moral system in place.Up until Machiavelli all action undertaken by a ruler was to ultimately serve God and a Christian could not in accordance with the commandments engage in sin in order to procure the good life for himself and his citizens.The rapaciousness which scholars attribute to Machiavelli is his secularisation of the 'Reason Of State' which amounts to the destruction of virtue.Although some Renaissance humanists advocated emulating Cherubims  and Seraphs
such as Giovanni Pico della Mirandola4.,Machiavelli said that in politics one should have a realistic appraisal of society and emulate the qualities of more Earthly beings to acquire the cunning of a fox or the indomitableness of a lion which is a classical idea of flexability in leadership skills.Machiavellis detractors said it is a plan whereby society can be formed exclusive of God and be one which may have rapacious qualities as God is the highest perfection and taking away a citizens religious principles destroys their capacity for attaining virtue and perfection.Machiavellis ideas continued to be disputed into the Reformation by Calvin who said that a ruler must be virtuos and obtain for his subject people a Christian society to live in.5.

  However most contemporary historians do not find Machiavellis ideas quite as negative as they appeared to many Renaissance and reformation scholars.His uses for cruelty are regarded as a moral of dedication to a state by a prince capable of making of difficult decisions as required.This included the harsh suppression of opposition to a new Republic.It also included the use of cruelty to secure virtuos outcomes includind stability,moderation and utility.Whereas Machiavellan thought was said to be tyrannical, Sydney Anglo states that Machiavelli was critical of political behaviour which was characterised by tyranny but the scope of activity in which a just ruler might exercise his power should be enlarged to obtain the most satisfactory condition for the good of society.6.

  Machiavelli said that the alternative to a realist view of politics was social anarchy and in an effort to be merciful a prince may bring about social anarchy.7.

  The legacy of Machiavelli was the foreign diplomacy of Italy which for the first time became capable of employing political strategy.The legacy for mankind was a liberation from political unreality and the dawn of a new awareness of patriotism.In the Florentine History he advocates using cruelty albiet violent and murderous in order to conquer an adversary in order to obtain the good life with no regard for the condemnation of God and with no restriction on class.

FOOTNOTES    

1.Quentin, Skinner and Russel, Price, Cambridge Texts In The History Of Political Thought Machiavelli The Prince, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,1988,60. 

2.Anglo,Sydney.'Realism'  in ,HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe:The World Of The Renaissance And Reformation Course Readings, Sydney University, 2000, 35.

3.Stoddard,Martin,Orthodox Heresy, Macmillan Press,London,1989,17.

4.Pico Della Mirandola Giovanni.'A Speech By Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola' in, HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe: The World Of The Renaissance And Reformation Course Readings,Sydney University,2000, 4.

5.Bard, Thompson, Humanists And Reformers A History Of The Renaissance And Reformation, W.m.B Ferdmans Publishing Co, Michigan,1996,480.

6.Anglo,Sydney,Op.Cit.,41.

7.Quentin, Skinner and Russel, Price,Op.Cit.,64-66.

8.Anglo,Sydney,Op.Cit.,47.

 4.Renaissance and Reformation History
SAMPLE ONLY
...Italian humanists asserted that 'man is master of his own destiny' whilst Pico asserted that the former assertion can be realised 'through an understanding of the metaphysical existence of man'.The development of republican governments in cities such as Venice, Milan and Florence precipitated the need for effective communicators leading to the advent of the dictatores who revived Classical learning resulting in the 'ars dictamia' and finally the 'studia humanitatus'.However what they revived was more than Ancient Rhetorical teachings.
Philosophy taught them that Slavery is Freedom which inspired secularisation because that the population should be required to arbitrarily act as a citizen towards the common good in society introduced many concepts which were adopted enthusiastically throughout Europe chiefly that man functions towards that end through cognition and or that it is his duty to reform society on this basis.Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola created in 1486 a work entitled 'Oration' later known as 'On The Dignity Of Man'.I shall discuss the work in three parts.Firstly it's notion that there is concordance between Mosaic philosophy,Arabic Philosophy,Classical (Latin and Greek),chiefly Platonic Philosophy
and Christianity.Secondly the notion that the formulation of individuality towards a oneness with God is a endowment bestowed upon mankind whose reason enables him in spiritual ambition in the context of a metaphysical framework.Thirdly that this process may be legitimately assisted by education in and practice of Classical (moral) philosophy.
5.Renaissance and Reformation History
IN FULL
What was Tacitism?

In the late Elizabethan and Jacobite periods in England Tacitism or Neo-stoicism was interpreted in three different ways; Stoicism, Pessimism and Moderate Reform.Of chief significance to the development of the modern self is their regard for virtue and the importance of education which the Neo-Stoics had inherited from the Neo-Platonists and promoted the notion that rulers should lead by example amongst the nobility.
Stoicism was advocated by historians such as Camden and Jonson and was based on the philosophy of Seneca which suggested that it was most proper for an individual to withdraw themselves from earthly matters so that the path of virtue could be followed more closely.Jonson was also a moderate reformer, a friend of Camden and believed in egalitarianism which he had derived from his interpretation of the works of Tacitus specifically identifying weakness in a State as that which is immodest and stated that "poets were of far rarer birth than kings'1.
He was critical of the plethora of titles received through descent rather than on the basis of virtue and the low pre-requisites needed for knighthood.Likewise Camden was critical of excessive pomp and ceremony in the court of James 1st.Which they thought suffered from favouritism shown to men such as Robert Cecil and duplicity.Jonson differed from Stoics such as Camden through his sentiment that a more passionately involved political stance was beneficial to promoting public virtue.In other words rather than being progressive he was inclined to believe that one could be progress.
They were all politic historians, which owing to it's relying on the concept of being able to understand one's contemporary situation by comparing it to a previous one was indicative of a sinister quality about the period as they compared theirs to the reign of Tiberius.Similarly they compared contemporary virtue to Roman virtue on the basis that previously England had been a Roman dominion.
In this vein Jonson published 'Sejanus His Fall' being an allusion to the victims of the Elizabethan reign.The politic historians owed much to the work of Lipsius who regarded the sixteenth century to be a period of arbitrary rule and promoted Stoic Philosophy as a remedy to the perilous changes wars in Europe had fostered.
Owing to the near absolute rule of the monarch at the time the writers were required to be obsequious to royalty in their literary endeavours which troubled Jonson because he felt it led to sychophantry that was uncivilised and unbecoming of a noble.However amongst his contemporaries it is this that influenced their work.Indicative of this is the work of Seville and Camden which exhibited deference to the monarch.In the case of the latter reasonable doubt was accorded to the monarch when their guilt regarding social injustice could not be determined absolutely because this absolved his conscience the motivation being the fear of punishment that condemnation precipitated.
Certainly there were examples of historians who were punished such as Sir John Hayward who was imprisoned following the publication of his work 'The Life And Reign Of King Henry 4th'.Also there were spies who sought evidence of their treason.They compared their plight with that of Cordus whose books were burnt.
However despite their dissidence Jonson and Camden were conservatives who disliked sudden change.Although Camden was a Protestant he disliked Protestant radicalism and Puritism.They felt the Catholic structures of England were civilised and limited the arbitrariness of State rule.They were critical of Oligarchy and those that opposed the monarchical system.
Although he was their enemy Robert Cecil also was familiar with Tacitus and construed from it Pessimism.Despite the Stoic proposition that one should withdraw there was ambiguity owing in part to Lipsius's book 'Politics' which introduces the concept of 'prudentia mixta' relating that in politics a cetain amount of surreptitiousness and deceit was acceptable that a government good achieve it's good work and accounted for the court factions and patronage in the court of James 1st.
Jonson and his allies reminisced about Essex comparing him to Coriolanus, Catiline, Pompey, Germanicus and Brutidius attributing him with martial prowess and a fast disappearing chivalric code.Germanicus had been treacherously betrayed by Sejanus.
Possibly politic historiography was counter-productive because they used the very 'dark' Roman Tiberian reign as a comparison.Jonson actually fabricated elements of his version of the Reign of Tiberius to support their allusion.2.

FOOTNOTES:

1.Blair Worden, Ben Jonson among the Historians in, HSTY 1031The Making Of Modern Europe:The World Of The Renaissance and Reformation Course Readings, Sydney University, 2000, 304.
2.Ibid., 311.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Salmon, J.H.M, Seneca and Tacitus in Jacobean England in, HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe:The World Of The Renaissance And Reformation Course Readings, Sydney University, 2000, pp.282-301.
Worden, Blair, Ben Jonson among the Historians in, HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe:The World Of The Renaissance And Reformation Course Readings, Sydney University, 2000, pp.302-313.

Renaissance and Reformation History
IN FULL Assess the importance of Luther's writings in the making of modern Europe.

  The importance of Luthers' writings should be assessed as the spiritual but not entirely as the intellectual inspiration of the popular non-humanist movement being emancipation from Papal authority and Protestantism whilst in the making of modern Europe inadvertently as the target of Counter-reformation vitriol.

  Spiritually the reformation,began the day,Luther nailed his theses to the Wittenberg Castle Church door.That it provided the catalyst for Protestantism is historically well established:

  The theses struck an extraordinary responsive chord.In retrospect Luther later said that they "almost raced through all of Germany in almost fourteen days."Even if this assertion is tempered somewhat by the relatively small number of re-printings, still the success of this piece of scholastic and scholarly writing is thoroughly remarkable.1.

Although emancipation from Rome was articulated in Luthers' theses number thirteen:

  Death puts an end to all the claims of the church;even the dying are already dead to the cannon laws,and are no longer bound by them.2.

  It was by no means entirely original to the history of Europe up until that time.Religious piety was fervent at the time of Luther's conception of the ninety five theses both in Germany and other parts of Europe and the populace had been aware of nepotism in the Church such as it's vulgar endorsement of a seemingly endless supply of artefacts promoted as having miraculous power and the extensive sale of endowments promising salvation to the burghers since Medieval times.3:

By this gaude have I wonne, yeer by yeer,
An hundred mark sith I was pardoner.
I stonde lik a clerk in my pulpet,
And whan the lewed peple is down yset
I preche so as ye han herd bifore,
And telle an hundred false japes more.
Thanne pain I me to strcche forth the nekke,
And eest and west upon the peple I bekke
As dooth a douve, sitting on a berne;
Mine handles and my tonge goon so yerne
That it is joye to see my bisinesse.
Of avarise and of swich cursednesse.4.

Also the authority of Rome had been questioned by the Orthodox Church of Constantinople and by Western Church Councils:
Two words were to appear frequently in the course of the debate-"Greek" and "Bohemian".The first referred to the "Greek" church, that is, to the "Eastern", or 'Greek" Orthodox,church, or that part of early Christendom which refused to accept the bishop of Rome as head of the Church and finally broke with the Western or "Roman" church in the eleventh century.5.

  The history of opposition to Luther's ideas began almost as soon as they were published:

  Therefore the texts of Scared Scripture or accepted history are not in opposition,because the church militant(like one body,in the view of St. Paul)has been founded and patterned after the image of the church triumphant,where there is one monarch,with everyone arranged in order,culminating in one head which is God.Therefore such an order has been established by Christ on earth,since John 5[19] asserts that the son does nothing except what he sees the Father doing.therefore he is not from heavenwho refuses to submit to the head,just as he is not from heaven,but from Lucifer ,who does not wish to be subject to God.6.

  Alternatively the Protestant writings of Luther have been interpreted as an evolution of humanist spirituality and intellectualism due to its reliance on Scripture in the promotion of reform and it's rejection of scholasticism.Humanism had developed the thought of its' 'beata tranquillitas' in which scholars could desist from corporeal pursuits that they believed manifested misery for an individual owing to their being imprudent by nature and could instead undertake contemplation of the meaning of life.also a second development of humanism was its' effort to reform European Society on the basis that its' incongruosness with Classical teachings necessitated it:

  There arose within humanism a new tendancy,which,if I see the matter correctly,appeared only after 1500.It aimed at making classical studies even more fruitful by trying to apply the insights won from antiquity to the events and conditions of contemporary everday life and by seeking not only to understand those conditions but to change them.7.

  This argument rellies on there being a similarity with 'beata tranquillitas' and the sense of rediscovery of the Holy Scripture which Luthers' work generated across Europe aswell as humanist reform and Luthers' successful ecclesiastical challenge to Catholic dogma in Germany.   

FOOTNOTES:

1.Bernd,Moeller,'The German Humanists and the Beginning of the Reformation' in, HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe:The World Of The Renaissance and Reformation Course Readings, Sydney University, 2000, 68.

2.Martin, Luther,'The Ninety Five Theses' in,HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe:The World Of The Renaissance and Reformation Course Readings,Sydney University, 2000, 176.

3.Bernd,Moeller,'Religious Life In Germany on the Eve of the Reformation' in HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe:The World Of The Renaissance and Reformation Course Readings, Sydney University, 2000,51.

4.Geoffrey Chaucer,Margaret Ferguson,Mary Jo Salter,Jon Stallworthy, 'The Pardoner's Prologue And Tale' in, The Norton Anthology Of Poetry, W.W.Norton and Company,New York,London,1996,39.

5.Martin,Luther,'The Leipzig Disputation' in,HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe:The World Of The renaissance and Reformation Course Readings,sydney University,2000, 138.

6.Ibid.,139.

7.Bernd,Moeller, 'The German Humanists and the Beginning Of The Reformation' in HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe:The World of the Renaissance and Reformation Course Readings,Sydney University,2000, 66.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCE:

HSTY 1031 The Making Of Modern Europe:The World Of The Renaissance and Reformation Course Readings,Sydney University, 2000, pp.49-205.

SECONDARY SOURCE:

Chaucer Geoffrey,Freguson Margaret,Salter Mary Jo,Stallworthy Jon,'The Pardoner's Prologue And Tale' in,The Norton Anthology Of Poetry, W.W.Norton and Company,New York,London,1996,pp.39.      
7.Renaissance and Reformation History/How does More's Utopia fit into the wider history of Sir thomas More's life and thought?
IN FULL

Utopia is a Neo-Platonic version of Plato's 'The Republic' written in the syle of Homer's 'The Odyssey' providing allegory illustrating the observance of Christian doctrine and Neo-Platonic ideals in society.It fits perfectly into the wider history of Saint Sir Thomas More's life and thought despite the various roles; philosopher, saint, educator and burgher author which history recognises as his primarily because the author's intention was to show how Platonic philosophy, Ciceronian Philosophy and Christian beliefs could be reconciled with the emerging capitalist society of Europe.1
Firstly I will elucidate on the main similarities in the aforementioned beliefs.Secondly that the other perspective's regarding the place of Utopia in More's life and thought cannot absolutely disprove all opposing arguments.Thirdly that some arguments can be proved to be true although their meaning will be necessarily obscured owing to the relative truth associated with the subject of More's thought.Fourthly how the former statement that More intended to reconcile many ideas has evidence in the text.And finally what the other prevalent perspective's are.
Platonic philosophy in brief is that the ultimate good in humankind is their happiness and objectively is God which may be arrived at if the subjects practice virtuos behaviour being stability, temperance, patience and hope, seek wisdom, control bodily desire such as avarice and lust without becoming a zealous ascetic and that furthermore the State if it is virtuos is the destination of these ideas and it is a duty to engender intellectual qualities in himself and the society through education.Cicero who was the student of Plato also believed that 'the common good' could be achieved through the practice of the virtues fortitude, wisdom, justice, courage and temperance.Similarly in Christian doctrine observance of the cardinal virtues, justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude is part of the religious observance in that religion.
Utopia has in some reviews been mistakenly referred to absolutely and exclusively as a work of social commentary and not for instance as a work of the imagination derived from classical philosophy, created for the enjoyment of the reading public, motivated by More's love of humankind and Christianity.2:
"More's intentions,"in Utopia,"must remain mysterious."Thus does the reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement end his consideration of two recent works which attempted to explain what Thomas More's intention in the Utopia really was.Since the works in question did in fact arrive at rather divergent conclusions as to the nature of that intention, the reviewers resigned bewilderment is understandable.A little more difficult to accept is the general implication of the review that the mysteriousness of the author's intent in Utopia is somehow a point in his favour, that the obscurity of his meaning enhances the merit of his work.
The one point of unanimous agreement about Utopia is that it is a work of social comment; and while ambiguity may enhance the value of certain special kinds of poetry, it does not enhance the value of social comment.3
Contemporary criticism of Hexter's statement include:
'J.H. Hexter's brilliant analysis of More's Utopia in the introduction to the Yale edition of the text in 1965... I shall argue, in fact, that despite all the light which Hexter's analysis throws on the text is foundered on an unsustainable hypothesis.'4
Hexter claims that other perspective's have been created without the primary basis of proof being Utopia itself.5:
Their notions of what More should have thought if he was the kind of man they suppose him to be.Thus for Karl Kautsky Utopia is a socialist vision-and to a considerable extent a Marxian socialist vision-far in advance of its time.In the same way, but in a different sense, several recent Catholic scholars have written of More's social views as if he formed them with the encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Quiquagesimo Anno in mind.6
However Hexter also fashions his own ideal of the author, that he was a wary man based on historical circumstances of the period and not primarily on Utopia itself:
It may be argued that when More got back to England he had a sober second thought.He realised that from Utopia as it stood someone might draw the inference which we infact just drew.To prevent such a calamity, when he added the new sections to the book he carefully put not one but two defences of private property into his own mouth.7
Therefore I conclude that when placing the Utopia in the history of More's thoughtit is necessary owing to the absence of any commentary by the author as to the intentions behind the work to choose a perspective and that this is in no way irresponsible.8
Hence any such perspective regarding the wider history of More's thought and life and the place of Utopia is attributed in it will necessarily be relative.However relativism is also a source of historical fact because if we make the claim for instance that More was inspired and in Utopia proposes an alternative social structure for sixteenth century England but in this I am assuming that More was an altruistic political scientist when as I have said previously the text gives no absolute indication of More's intention it is at least known that we know nothing of this and therefore we may deduce the statement we know nothing of this and therefore we know something about this.Hence the albiet relative plethora of interpretations of Utopia are true although their meaning remains obscured.9
The Neo-Platonist school of English humanists to which More belonged, as a consequence of their study in Italian universities advocated the revival of such philosophy both in literature and in everyday life.Utopia begins with the letters between More's circle of friends.These are examples of Platonic love:
The other day a great friend of yours, Thomas More-who is, I'm sure you'll agree, one of the glories of our age...With all good wishes to a great patron of scholarship, who is also among the glories of this age.10.
More had formed such relationships with Erasmus, Grocyn, Gilles and Collet.Examples of More's practice of humility included wearing a hair shirt undergarment.11.
The perspective of reconcilliation of ideas cites the text of Utopia as evidence.The themes of the dialogue and the wordchoice seen in Utopia are symbolic of it.For example it's characters and settings are given names which when translated include 'not place', 'not water' and 'not people' which express a denial of their material existence this being a sacrifice of the ego whereby humility is realised which is both a Christian virtue and a Ciceronian component of the virtue; temperance.12.
Also in regards to the theme of private property More shows it to be necessary as it provides the work motivation in which a commonwealth will realise the common good and resemble a 'republic'.13.
There are however contradictory statements made in the work whose existence is symbolic of those which occur in the bible and require 'faith' to understand rationally which is symbolic of the intense humility which More believed Christians were meant to experience as a mark of their struggling sincerely to interpret God's will regarding the design of a Neo-Platonic society.Another feature of Ciceronian philosophy is the negativity it associates with vice;disorder, discord and disease that in the text More associates this with European Christians.14.
The philosophy of Giovanni Pico Mirandola which More had translated valued virtus and Utopia has much diatribe meant to represent humanities departure from that virtus:
Besides, privy councillors are either too wise to need, or too conceited to take advice from anyone else-though of course they're always prepared to suck up to the king's special favourites by agreeing with the silliest things they say.15.
There is allegory representing Neo-Platonist views on Atlantis for whereas the Thomists believed that the world should be interpreted in terms of natural philosophy.More and his colleagues preferred mythical/allegorical hypothesises such as those of Ovid, 'it's quite possible that the ancients knew of the island under another name.'16.
Education is regarded as a mark of the nobility.17.
More himself was a great educator who pioneered school curriculum and who together with Erasmus precipitated the creation of English schools such as St Pauls and Eton.The disciplines of the studia humanitatis are promoted specifically in terms of the school of rhetoric.18.
The role of humanists as the mechanism for achieving the successful practice of government through rhetorical ability may be seen in Peters' praise of Raphael.19.
Humanist passion for the Greek language occurs.20.
The status of provincial Kings adhering to the concept of the common good whose integrity as gentlemen has yet to be disproved by the onset of the religious wars also occurs:
By polite and friendly behaviour they gradually started ingratiating themselves with the local inhabitants.Soon relations were not merely peaceful but positively affectionate.They got on particularly well with a certain king...21.
That Kings should aim to fulfil the criteria of the common good rather than their own wishes is another feature of the dialogue which is the Platonic philosophy that the rulers of a state should act as philosophers.22.
There is the humanist belief in individualism, that societies' members could mould their selves rather than be members of a corporate society which is also from the 'studia humanitatus', specifically Ovid and is an idea which the Italian humanist Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola expounds.23:
O great liberality of God the Father!O great and wonderful happiness of man!It is given him to have that which he chooses and to be that which he wills.24.
Liberty is also dealt with whereby the Neo-Platonic and Christian belief that freedom is slavery in which although citizens will differ in rank their contribution will be equally important, 'They can hardly expect me to go a stage further, and become a king's slave for their benefit.PETER: God forbid!Service, not servitude, was what I suggested.'25.
In horological terms humanists made use of new techologies particularly the printing press and understood their benefits:
The sailors out there have a good knowledge of winds and tides, but I made myself extraordinarily popular with them by explaining the use of the magnetic compass.26.
The Platonic belief that subjectively humankind achieves it's ultimate goodness when it achieves happiness and that the state should not unfairly hinder it's citizens in realising this is represented in Raphael's criticism of the English justice system:
You English, like most other nations, remind me of incompetent schoolmasters, who prefer caning their pupils to teaching them.Instead of inflicting these horrible punishments, it would be far more to the point to provide everyone with some means of livelihood, so that nobody's under the frightful necessity of becoming first a thief and then a corpse.27.
Another Platonic belief which is expressed is that a monarch should try to establish a virtuos State whose characteristics include order and harmony rather than a State be vice ridden whose characteristics include suffering, corruption and disorder:
Well first of all there are lots of noblemen who live like drones on the labour of other people, in other words, of their tennants, and keep bleeding them white by constantly raising their rents.For that's their only idea of practical economy-otherwise they'd soon be ruined by their extravagance.But not content with remaining idle themselves, they take round with them vast numbers of equally idle retainers, who have never been taught any method of earning their living.The moment their master dies, or they themselves fall ill, they're promptly given the sack-for these noblemen are far more sympathetic towards idleness than illness, and their heirs often can't afford to keep up such large establishments.28.
Certainly other perspective's state that it is a work of creative writing or a political discourse.Also there are claims that Thomas More intended Utopia to be a comedy of sorts or at least a way of getting people to take their minds off their troubles.29.
Marxist's believe that it is the first articulation of communism in a practical form as it provides a clear denunciation of feudal society.30.
Theologians regard it as the work of a Saint who was martyred for refusing to recognise a completely different faith oweing to the severance of any Papal authority over Christian religion in England by Henry The Eighth:
Henry [the eighth] broke from the Roman catholic Church by denying Papal claims to ecclesiastical or any other jurisdiction and by declaring himself rather than the Pope as the Supreme Head of the Church in England.The preface to the 39 Articles of the Church of England describes the monarch as being by God's ordinance, according to our just title, Defender of the Faith and...Supreme Governor of the Church of England...[presently] the Queen's title includes the words"Defender of the Faith."31.
In conclusion I summise that the wider history of More's thought and life is reflected in Utopia which expresses the English Neo-Platonist vision of a society which relinquishes conscious philosophy, religion, democracy and art so that an unconscious state may be brought into being more closely representing God's plan for society as he believed is described in the Scriptures.
It is ironic that the author of Utopia, which desribes the Neo-Platonist vision of a theocracy, came to be executed by a theocracy:
The man also appeared to have a special talent for exposition-though I suppose we can always desribe what we've seen more effectively than what we've heard.But when I consider More's quasi-pictorial treatment of the same theme, I sometimes get the impression that I'm living in Utopia.32.

HOME