Chapter 17 - The Eighteenth Century: An Age of Enlightment (1685 - 1789)

Balthasar Neumann

A Rococo artist whose two masterpieces were the pilgramage church of the Vierzehnheiligen (The Fourteen Saints) and the Bishop's Palace

Economic Liberalism

A belief in free trade and competition based on Adam Smith's argument that the invisible hand of free competition would benefit all individuals, rich and poor.

Deism

A popular Enlightenment era belief that there is a God, but that God isn't involved in people's lives and allowed it to run according to its own natural laws.

Immanual Kant

Democracies will not war with one another. The Democratic Peace Universal principles of human reason gives moral law.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Called for equality of women. Vindication of the Rights of Women

Diderot and the Encyclopedia

Denis Diderot was from eastern France and became a freelance writer. One of his favorite topics: Christianity, which he condemned as fanatical and unreasonable. Of all religions, he maintained, Christianity was the worst. *Most famous contribution to the Enlightenment was the Encyclopedia, or Classified Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades, that he edited and called the "the great work of his life."* Its purpose was to change the general way of thinking. It did that and became a major weapon of the philosophes' crusade against the old French society. They attacked religious superstition and advocated toleration as well as a program for social, legal and political improvements that would lead to a society that was more cosmopolitan, more tolerant more humane, and more reasonable. The price of an Encyclopedia eventually went down so many more could purchase one and the ideas could spread.

Popular Religion in the 18th Century

Despite the rise of skepticism and the intellectuals' belief in deism and natural religion, religious devotion remained strong in the 18th century.

Reason and Knowledge Will Transform Society

Enlightenment is also known as the Age of Reason Conditions of society could be transformed through reason and knowledge. Reason could fix the problems of contemporary society--politics, religion, economics, and cultural.

Society Must Look to a Better Future

John Locke proposed that concept that humans were born with a clean slate onto which the values and morals could be written by society. Citizens needed all the information possible to secure their independence and make their own decisions.

Enlightened Philosophy

Overlapping ideas presented by the great thinkers of the enlightenment: 1) Reason & knowledge will transform society 2) Church and state must be separate 3) Government powers must separate into branches 4) Citizens deserve legal rights 5) Societies must look to a better future 6) Society does not sufficiently address gender and racial inequality 7) Governments must apply new capitalistic economics

Thomas Hobbs

People are selfish, self-serving, and brutal. Without monarchy, society would be chaotic Leviathan

Antoine Watteau

Pilgrimage to Cythera

Laissez-faire

Policy that government should interfere as little as possible in the nation's economy.

The Paths to Enlightenment

Popularization of Science, A New Skepticism, The Impact of Travel Literature and The Legacy of Lock and Newton

Religion and the Churches

Though much of the great art and music of the time was religious, the thought of the time was anti religious as life became increasingly secularized and men of reason attacked the established churches. And yet most Europeans were still Christians.

Adam Smith

Wealth of Nations The invisible hand - A free market regulates itself. Government should not interfere in the economy. Capitalism

Romanticism

19th century artistic movement that appealed to emotion rather than reason.

The Enlightenment

A movement in the 18th century that advocated the application of the scientific method to the understanding of all life. All institutions and all systems of thought were subjected to the rational, scientific way of thinking if only people would free themselves from the shackles of old, worthless traditions, especially religious ones. If Newton could discover the natural laws regulating the world of nature, then they, by using reason, could find the laws that governed human society. Reason, natural law, hope, progress were all buzz words in the 18th century.

Protestant Revivalism: Pietism

After the initial religious fervor of the 16th century, Protestant churches in the 17th century had settled down into well-established patterns controlled by state authorities and served by a well educated clergy. Protestant churches became bureaucratized and bereft of religious enthusiasm. In Germany and England, the desire of ordinary Protestant churchgoers for greater depths of religious experience led to new and dynamic religious movements. *Pietism* in Germany was a response to this desire for a deeper personal devotion to god. Pietism was spread by the teachings of *Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf*. To Zizendorf, true religious experience consisted of the mystical dimensions--the personal experience of God--in one's life. He was opposed to what he perceived as the rationalistic approach of orthodox Lutheran clergy, who were being educated in new "rational" ideas. After the civil wars of the 17th century, England had also arrived at a respectable, uniform, and complacent state church. The Anglican Church offered little spiritual excitement, the dissenting Protestant groups--Quakers, Puritans, Baptists--were relatively subdued and the growth of deism seemed to challenge Christianity itself. The desire for deep spiritual experience seemed unmet until the advent of John Wesley.

Innovations in Art, Music, and Literature

Although the Baroque and Neoclassical styles that had dominated the 17th century continued into the 18th century, a new style known as Rococo had begun to influence decoration and architecture. Unlike Baroque, which stressed majesty, power, and movement, Rococo emphasized grace and gentle action. Rococo rejected geometrical patterns and had a fondness for curves, it liked to follow wandering lines of natural objects, such as seashells and flowers. Highly secular, its lightness and charm spoke of the pursuit of pleasure, happiness, and love. Evident in Antoine Watteau's work, whose lyrical views of aristocratic life--refined, sensual, civilized, with gentlemen and ladies in elegant dress--reflected a world of upper-class pleasure and joy. Another aspect of Rococo was that its decorative work could easily be used with Baroque architecture. The palace of Versailles had made an enormous impact on Europe. "Keeping up with the Bourbons" was important as other rulers began building their own grandiose palaces. While they mirrored Versailles in size, they were modeled less after the French classical style of Versailles than after the 17th century Italian Baroque. The Baroque-Rocco architectural style of the 18th century was used in both palaces and churches, and often the same architects designed both. This is evident in the work of one of the greatest architects of the 18th century, Balthasar Neumann. Newman's two masterpieces are the church of Vierzehnheiligen in southern Germany and the Bishop's Palace, or Residenz. Secular and spiritual become easily interchangeable in both buildings as the visitor is greeted by lavish and fanciful ornament, light, bright colors, and elaborate, rich detail. Despite the popularity of the Rococo style, *Neoclassicism* continued to maintain a strong appeal and in the late 18th century emerged as an established movement in France. Neoclassical artists wanted to recapture the dignity and simplicity of the Classical style of Ancient Greece and Rome. Some were especially influenced by the recent excavations of the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Jacques-Louis David, *Oath of the Horatii,* re-created a scene from Roman history in which the three Horatius brothers swore an oath before their father, proclaiming their willingness to sacrifice their lives for their country.

Wesley and Methodism

An Anglican minister, John Wesley, suffered a deep spiritual crisis and underwent a mystical experience. To Wesley, "the gift of God's grace assured him of salvation and. led him to become a missionary to the English people, bringing the "glad tidings" of salvation to all people. The Anglican Church criticized this emotional mysticism or religious enthusiasm as superstitious nonsense. To Wesley, all could be saved by experiencing God and opening the doors to his grace. In taking the Gospel to the people, Wesley preached to the masses in open fields, appealing especially to the lower classes neglected by the Anglican Church. Wesley's charismatic preachings often provoked highly charged and even violent conversion experiences. Afterward, converts were organized into so-called Methodist societies or chapels in which they could aid each other in doing the good works that Wesley considered a component of salvation. Methodism was an important revival of Christianity and proved that the need for spiritual experience had not been expunged by the 18th century search for reason.

Education and Universities

By the 18th century, Europe was home to a large number of privately endowed secondary schools. These schools tended to be elitist, designed to meet the needs of the children of the upper classes of society. European secondary schools perpetuated the class hierarchy of Europe rather than creating avenues for social mobility. In fact, most of the philosophes reinforced the belief that education should function to keep people in their own social class. The curriculum of these secondary schools still largely concentrated on the Greek and Latin classics with little attention paid to mathematics, the sciences and modern languages. Complaints for the philosophe-reformers, as well as from merchants and other middle-class people who wanted their sons to have a more practical education, led to the development of new schools designed to promote a broader education. In Germany, the first school was opened and offered modern languages, geography, and bookkeeping to prepare boys for careers in business. New schools of this kind were also created for upper-class girls, although they focused primarily on religion and domestic skills. The most common complaint about universities from the philosophes, was the old fashioned curriculum that emphasized the classics and Aristotelian philosophy and provided no training in the sciences or modern languages. Before the end of the century, this criticism led to physics, astronomy and mathematics being offered in the universities. It is significant that very few of the important scientific discoveries of the 18th century occurred in the universities.

Crime and Punishment

By the 18th century, most European states had developed a hierarchy of courts to deal with crimes. Except in England, judicial torture remained an important means of obtaining evidence before a trial. Punishment for crimes was often cruel. Public executions were a basic part of traditional punishment and were regarded as necessary to deter potential offenders in an age when police forces were weak. Although nobles were executed by simple beheading, lower-class criminals condemned to death were tortured. The death penalty was still commonly used for property crimes as well as for violent offenses. In addition to execution, European states resorted to forced labor in mines, forts, and navies. England also sent criminal as indentured servants to the New World. Appalled by the unjust laws and brutal punishments, some philosophes sought to create a new approach to justice. *Cesare Beccaria*'s essay *//On Crimes and Punishment//* argued that punishments should serve only as deterrents, not as exercises in brutality. Becarria was also opposed the use of capital punishment. It was spectacular, but it failed to stop others from committing crimes. Imprisonment--the deprivation of freedom--made a far more lasting impression. He also felt capital punishment was harmful to society because it set an example of barbarism. By the end of the 18th century, growing sentiment against executions and torture led to a decline in both corporal and capital punishment. A new type of prison, in which criminals were placed in cells and subjected to discipline and regular work to rehabilitate them, began to replace the public spectacle of barbarous punishments.

The Later Enlightenment

By the late 1760s, a new generation of philosophes who had grown up with the worldview of the Enlightenment began to move beyond their predecessor's belief. Baron Paul d'Hollback, a wealthy German aristocrat who settled in Paris, preached a doctrine of strict atheism and materialism. //System of Nature//, 1770 He argued that human beings were simply machines; God was a product of the human mind and was unnecessary for leading a moral life. People needed only reason to live in this world. Hollbach shocked most of his fellow philosophes with his uncompromising atheism as most intellectuals were more comfortable with deism and feared the affects of atheism on society. Marie-Jean de Condorcet, a French philosopher, believed that humans had progressed through nine stages of history. Now, with the spread of science and reason, humans were about to enter the tenth stage, one of human perfection.

Carnival

Carnival was celebrated in the weeks leading up to the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period of fasting and purification preceding Easter. Carnival was a time of great indulgence, the reverse of Lent, when people were expected to abstain from meat, sex, and most recreations. Hearty consumption of food, especially meat and other delicacies, and heavy-drinking were the norm during Carnival; so was intense sexual activity. Finally, Carnival was a time of aggression, most often verbal aggression. People were allowed to openly insult other people and even criticize their social superiors and authorities. Certain physical violence such as egg throwing was also permitted.

Montesquieu and Political Thought

Charles de Secondat, the baron de Montesquieu, came from French nobility. //Persian Letters//, 1721 //Persian Letters// used the format of two Persians traveling in Western Europe and sending their impressions back home to enable him to criticize French institutions, especially the Catholic Church and the French Monarchy. Most famous work was //The Spirit of the Laws//, 1748 Montesquieu distinguished three basic kinds of governments: 1) Republics - suitable for small states and based on citizen involvement. 2) Monarchy - appropriate for middle-sized states and grounded in the ruling class's adherence to law. 3) Depotism - good for large empires and dependent on fear to inspire obedience. He used England as an example of the second category. It was his praise and analysis of England's constitution that lead to *his most lasting contribution to political thought--the importance of checks and balances created by separation of powers.* He believed that England's system with its separate executive, legislative, and judicial powers that served to limit and control each other, provided the greatest freedom and security for the state.* The translation of his work ensured that it would be read by American philosphes (Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson) who incorporated its principles into the US Constitution.

John Locke

English philosopher who advocated the idea of a "social contract" in which government powers are derived from the consent of the governed and in which the government serves the people; also said people have natural rights to life, liberty and property.

The New "Science of Man"

Enlightenment belief that Newton's scientific methods could help discover the natural laws of human lives and led to social sciences in the 18th century. *David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, was called a "pioneering social scientist."* //Treatise on Human Nature// *Hume argued that careful examination of the experiences that constituted human life would lead to the knowledge of human nature.* *The Physiocrats and Adam Smith have been viewed as founders of the modern discipline of economics.* Physiocrats claimed they would discover the natural economic laws that governed human society. *Their first principle was that land constituted the only source of wealth and that wealth itself could only be increased by agriculture.* In stressing economic primacy of agricultural production, the Physiocrats were rejecting the mercantilist emphasis on the significance of money--gold and silver--as the primary determination of wealth. *The second principle was also a repudiation of mercantilism's emphasis on a controlled economy for the benefit of the state.* Physiocrats stressed that the existence of the natural economic forces of supply and demand made it imperative that individuals should be left to pursue their own economic self-interest. They argued that the state should not interrupt the free play of natural economics forces by government regulation of the economy but should leave it alone, a doctrine that became known by its French name, *laissez-faire,* "let people do as they choose." Adam Smith's //The Wealth of Nations// enunciated three basic principles of economics and attacked mercantilism. First, he condemned the mercantilist use of tariffs to protect home industries. If one country can make it cheaper than the latter, it is better to purchase the product than produce it. Smith felt free trade was a fundamental economic principle. Second was Smith's labor theory of value. Like Physiocrats, he believed that gold and silver were not the source of a nations true wealth but unlike Physiocrats, he did not believe that land was either. Labor, the labor of individual farmers artisans, and merchants, constituted the true wealth of a nation. Finally, like Physiocrats, Smith believed the state should not interfere in economic matters. Government's three basic functions were to protect society from invasion (army), defend individuals from injustice and oppression (police), and keep up certain public works, such as roads and canals, that private individuals could not afford. Smith believed the state should stay out of the lives of individuals. By emphasizing economic liberty of the individuals, the Physiocrats and Adam Smith laid the foundation for 19th century *economic liberalism.*

The "Woman's Question" in the Enlightenment

For centuries, men had dominated the debate about the nature and value of women. In general, male intellectuals argued the base nature of women made them inferior to men and made male domination of women necessary. In the 17th & 18th centuries, males argued that it was based on "natural" biological differences between men and women. Like Rousseau, many felt that a female constitution destined women to be mothers. Male writers, in particular, were critical of attempts by women to write on intellectual issues during the Enlightenment, arguing that women were by nature intellectually inferior to men. Some English thinkers offered more positive views of women. Diderot maintained that men and women were not all that different, and Voltaire asserted that "women are capable of all that men are" in intellectual affairs. It was women thinkers who made specific suggestions for improving the condition of women. Mary Astell, //A Serious Proposal to the Ladies//, argued that women needed to become better educated. In a later work, //Some Reflections upon Marriage//, Astell argued for the equality of the sexes in marriage. *The strongest statement for the rights of women in the 18th century was advanced by Mary Wollstonecraft" who was viewed as the founder of modern European feminism*. In //Vindication of the Rights of Women//, (1792), Wollstoncraft pointed out two contradictions in the views of women held by such Enlightenment thinkers as Rousseau. To argue that women must obey men was contrary to the beliefs of the same individuals that a system based on the arbitrary power of monarchs over their subjects or slaves was wrong. The subjection of women to men was equally wrong. She also argued that the Enlightenment was based on the ideal that reason is innate to all human beings. If women have reason, then they are entitled to the same rights that men have. Women should have equal rights with men in education and in economic and political life.

A New Skepticism

Great scientists of the 17th century (Kepler, Galileo, Newton), had pursued their work in a spirit of exalting God, not undermining Christianity. As scientific knowledge spread, more and more educated men and women began to question religious truths and values. Skepticism about religion and a growing secularization of thought were evident in the work of *Pierre Bayle.* A Protestant who attacked superstition, religious intolerance and dogmatism. Compelling people to believe a particular set of religious ideas was wrong. Bayle argued for complete religious toleration, maintaining that the existence of many religions would benefit rather than harm the state.

Voltaire

He was especially known for his criticism of traditional religion and his strong attachment to the ideal of religious toleration. Advocated freedom of religion, press, and assembly. Separation of church and state. Letters Concerning the English

The High Culture of The 18th Century

Historians and cultural anthropologists distinguish between a civilizations high culture and its popular culture. High culture means the literary and artistic world of the educated and wealthy ruling classes. Popular culture refers to the written and unwritten lore of the masses, most of which is passed down orally. By the 18th century, European high culture consisted of a learned world of theologians, scientists, philosophes, intellectuals, poets, and dramatists, for whom Latin remained a truly international language. Their work was supported by a wealthy and literate lay group, the most important of whom were the landed aristocracy and the wealthier upper classes in the cities. Especially noticeable in the 18th century was an expansion of both the reading public and publishing. Many books were aimed at small groups of the educated elite, many were also directed to the new reading public of the middle classes, which included women and urban artisans. The growth of publishing houses made it possible for authors to make money from their works and be less dependent on wealthy patrons. An important aspect of the growth of publishing and reading in the 18th century was the development of magazines for the general public. Great Britain was an important center for the new magazines. *//Spectator//* was a periodical whose goal was "to enliven Morality with wit, and to temper Wit with Morality. To bring Philosophy out of the closets and into libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffeehouses.* //Spectator// with its praise of family, marriage, and courtesy, had a strong appeal to women. Along with magazines came daily newspapers. The first was printed in London. Newspapers which were filled with news and special features, were relatively cheap and were provided for free in coffeehouses. Books, too, received wider circulation through the development of public libraries in the cities as well as private circulating libraries, which offers books for rent.

The Impact of Travel Literature

In the 17th century, traders, missionaries and explorers began to publish travel books about their voyages of discovery. The travel literature of the 17th & 18th centuries led to the realization that there were highly developed civilizations with different customs in other parts of the world. European intellectuals began to evaluate their own civilization relative to others. Practices that had seemed to be grounded in reason now appeared to be matters of custom. *Cultural relativism* was accompanied by religious skepticism. As these travel accounts made clear, the Christian perception of God was merely one of many. As Europeans were exposed to growing numbers of people around the world who were different from themselves, some intellectuals also began to classify people into racial groups. Polygenesis - the belief in separate human species. Monogenesis the belief in human species characterized by racial variations. Both groups placed Africans in the lowest rank of humankind.

The World of Medicine

In the 18th century, medicine was practiced by a hierarchy of practitioners. At the top, stood the physicians, who were university graduates and enjoyed a high social status. Despite the scientific advances of the 17th and 18th centuries, university medical education was still largely conducted in Latin and based on Galen's work. A graduate with a doctorate in medicine from a university needed to receive a license before he could practice. In England, only 100 physicians in the early 18th century. Only licensed physicians could hold regular medical consultations with patients and receive payments. Below the physicians were the surgeons, who were still known as barber-surgeons. Their primary function was to bleed patient and perform surgery; the latter was often done without painkillers and in filthy conditions because there was no understanding of anesthesia or infection. Bleeding was widely believed to be beneficial in reducing fevers and combating a variety of illnesses. Surgeons underwent significant changes during the 18th century. They began to separate themselves from the barbers and organize their own guilds. They started to undergo additional training by dissecting corpses and studying anatomy. As they became more effective, the distinction between physicians and surgeons began to break down and surgeons were examining patients in a fashion similar to physicians by the end of the century. Other medical practitioners such as apothecaries, mid-wives and faith healers, primarily served the common people in the 18th century. Apothecaries or pharmacists provided herbs and potions as recommended by the physician but also began diagnosing illnesses and selling remedies. Male doctors increasingly replaced midwives in delivering babies. The tradition of faith healing, so prominent in medieval medicine, continued to be practiced, especially in the rural areas of Europe. Hospitals were not helpful in dealing with disease and illness due to poor conditions.

The Institutional Church

In the 18th century, the established Catholic and Protestant churches were basically conservative institutions that upheld society 's hierarchal structure, privileged classes, and traditions. In both Catholic and Protestant countries, the parish church run by a priest or pastor remained the center of religious practice. In addition to providing religious services, the parish church kept records of births, deaths, and marriages; provided charity for the poor; supervised whatever primary education there was, and cared for orphans.

Catholic Piety

It is difficult to assess precisely the religiosity European's Catholics. The Catholic parish church remained an important center of life for the entire community. It is unknown how many people went to church regularly but it has been established that 90 to 95 percent of Catholic populations did go to Mass on Easter Sunday. Catholic religion proved highly selective. Despite the Reformation, much popular devotion was still directed to an externalized form of worship focusing on prayers to saints, pilgrimages, and devotion to relics and images. This bothered many clergymen, who felt that their parishioners were "more superstitious than devout." Many common people continued to fear witches and relied on the intervention of saints and the Virgin Mary to save them from personal disasters caused by the devil.

Citizens Deserve Legal Rights

Many philosophers believed in some form of representative government, but fought to abolish torture and unlawful imprisonment. Enlightenment philosophers believed in the inalienable rights that all people deserved. Rousseau's conception of a *social contract,* an agreement between rulers and ruled in which there were mutual obligations and promises. Voltaire believed that a free society could not truly exist if ordinary citizens did not possess the right to freedom of speech, press, assembly, and petition.

Government Powers Must Separate Into Branches

Montesquieu proposed the separation of governmental powers into three branches: legislative, judicial and executive. Rather than a government ruled by a monarchy or ruled by a despot (dictator), Montesquieu believed that leaders must have government checks and balances to prevent corruption or abuse of power.

Society Does Not Sufficiently Address Gender Inequality

Most Enlightenment philosophers ignored racial matters and gender inequality. Mary Wollstonecraft advocated for equal women's rights.

Church and State Must be Separate

Most thinkers were Deists, meaning that they believed in the existence of God but that God did not intervene on behalf of mankind. Church and state should be separated and all men should enjoy freedom of religion.

Jacques-Louis David

Neo-Classicism

Popularization of Science

Scientific ideas were spread to ever-widening circles of educated Europeans by popularizers rather than the scientists themselves. An important link between the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century and the philosophers of the 18th century was *Bernard de Fontenelle,* secretary of the French Royal Academy of Science. Fontanelle possessed a deep knowledge of all the scientific works of earlier centuries and his own time. He was able to communicate that scientific knowledge in a clear and witty fashion that appealed to his upper class audiences. //Plurality of Worlds// was an intimate conversation between a lady aristocrat and her lover who are engaged in a conversation under the stars. Thanks to Fontanelle, science was no longer the monopoly of experts but a part of literature. Fontenelle contributed to the growing skepticism toward religion at the end of the 17th century by portraying the churches as enemies of scientific progress.

Rousseau and the Social Contract

No one was more critical of the work of his predecessors than Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In //Discourse on the Origins of the Inequality of Mankind//, Rousseau began with humans in their primitive condition (state of nature), where they were happy. There were no laws, no judges; all people were equal. What had gone wrong? To preserve their private property, people adopted laws and governors. In doing so, they rushed headlong not to liberty but into chains. Government was an evil, but a necessary one. *In his celebrated treatise "The Social Contract," (1762) Rousseau tried to harmonize individual liberty with governmental authority.* The social contract was an agreement on the part of an entire society to be governed by its general will. The general will represented a community's highest aspirations, whatever was best for the entire community. Thus, liberty was achieved through being forced to follow what was best for all people because what was best for all was best for each individual. True freedom is adherence to laws that one has imposed on oneself. To Rousseau, the creation of laws could never be delegated to a parliamentary institution because everybody was responsible for framing the general will. *//Emile//, also by Rousseau, is one of the Enlightenment's most important works on education.* Rousseau's concern was that education should foster rather than restrict children's natural instincts. Life's experiences had shown Rousseau the importance of the promptings of the heart, and what he sought was a balance between heart and mind, between sentiment and reason. This emphasis on heart and sentiment made him a precursor of the intellectual movement called *Romanticism* that dominated Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Rousseau did not practice what he preached. His children were sent to foundling homes, where many children died young. He viewed women as "naturally" different from men. His intended wife in //Emile// was educated for her role as wife and mother by learning obedience and the nurturing skills that would enable her to provide loving care to her husband and children. Not everyone agreed with Rousseau, making gender an important issue in the Enlightenment.

Toleration and Religious Minorities

One of the chief battle cries of the philosophes was a call for religious toleration. Out of political necessity, a certain level of toleration had occurred in the 17th century, but many rulers still found it difficult to accept. Louis XIV had turned back the clock in France at the end of the 17th century, insisting on religious uniformity and suppressing the rights of the Huguenots. Many rulers continued to believe that there was only one path to salvation, it was the ruler's duty not to allow subjects to be condemned to hell by being heretics. No ruler was more interest in the philosophers call for religious toleration that Joseph II of Austria. His *Toleration Patent of 1781,* while recognizing Catholicism's public practice, granted Lutherans, Calvinists, and Greek Orthodox the right to worship privately. In all other ways, all subjects were now equal.

The Philosophes and Their Ideas

Philosophes, a French term, were literary people, professors, journalists, statesmen, economists, political scientists and social reformers. Although it was an international and cosmopolitan movement, the Enlightenment also enhanced the dominant role being played by the French culture. The French philosophes created a movement that engulfed the entire Western world, including British and Spanish colonies in America. The role of philosophy was to change the world not just discuss it. Reason was scientific method, an appeal to facts and experience. A spirit of rational criticism was to be applied to everything, including religion and politics. The philosophes call for freedom of expression is a reminder that their work was done in an atmosphere of censorship. State censors decided what could be published and any protest by governmental bodies could result in seizure of books and the imprisonment of their authors, publishers, and sellers. They found ways to get around state censorship *by publishing under pseudonyms or anonymously or abroad*, especially in Holland. The *use of double meanings* became standard procedure. *Books were also published and circulated secretly or in manuscript form* to avoid censorship.

Montesquieu

Separation of powers in government. A system of checks and balances to prevent corruption and absolutism. The Spirit of Laws

Literacy and Primary Education

Popular culture had always included a vast array of traditional songs and stories that were passed down from generation to generation. But popular culture also relied on popular literature as well. Chapbooks were short brochures sold by peddlers to the lower classes. They contained both spiritual and secular material. Its apparent from the Chapbooks that popular culture did not have to remain primarily oral. Its ability to change was dependent on the growth of literacy. France's literacy rate in men increased from 29% to 47% in the late 18th century, for women 14% to 27%. Of course, certain groups were more likely to be literate than others. Upper-class elites and the upper middle classes in the cities were mostly all literate. The figures also indicate a dramatic increase for lower-middle-class artisans in urban areas. Peasants, who made up 75% of the French population, remained largely illiterate. The spread of literacy was closely connected to primary education. The emphasis of the Protestant reformers on reading the Bible had led Protestant states to take a greater interest in primary education. But effective systems of primary education were hindered by the attitudes of the ruling classes, who feared the consequences of teaching the lower classes anything beyond the virtues of hard work and deference to their superiors.

Governments Must Apply New Capitalistic Economics

Prior to Smith's ideas, the success of a nation's economy was measured by it supply of gold and silver. Smith believed that a nation's wealth should be measured by production and commerce. Smith argued laissez-faire capitalism, a system where the government did not interfere in the economy, rather than mercantilism. Smith wrote about the "invisible hand" of the market, whereby the element of unseen economics starting with self-interest would achieve the greatest good for everyone. If the government did not interfere, the market would self-regulate and provide benefits for everyone.

Denis Diderot

Published the Encyclopedia.

Popular Culture

Refers to the written and unwritten literature and the social activities and pursuits that are fundamental to the lives of most people. The distinguishing characteristic of popular culture is its collective and public nature. Group activity was especially evident in the festival: community festivals in Catholic Europe that celebrated feast day of the local patron saint; annual festivals, such as Christmas and Easter, that went back to medieval Christianity; and Carnival, the most spectacular form of festival which was celebrated in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Austria. All these festivals were special occasions when people ate, drank, and celebrated to excess. Festival was a time for relaxation and enjoyment because much of the rest of the year was a time of unrelieved work.

The Development of Music

The 17th and 18th centuries were the formative years of classical music, and saw the rise of the opera and oratorio, the sonata, the concerto, and the symphony. The Italians were the first to develop these genres but were soon followed by the Germans, Austrians, and English. As in previous centuries, most musicians depended on a patron--a prince, a well-endowed ecclesiastic, or an aristocrat. The many individual princes, archbishops, and bishops, each with his own court, provided the patronage that made Italy and Germany the musical leaders of Europe. Many of the techniques of the Baroque musical style were perfected by two composers--Bach and Handel--who stand out as musical geniuses. Bach became director of church music at the Church of Saint Thomas in Leipzig. There Bach composed his Mass in B minor, his *//Saint Matthew's Passion//,* and the cantatas and mores that established his reputation as one of the greatest composers of all time. For Bach, music was a means to worship God. George Frederick Handel experienced a stormy international career and was profoundly secular in temperament. He ran an opera company in England. Although patronized by the English royal court, Handel wrote music for large public audiences and was not adverse to writing huge, unusual-sounding pieces. Although he wrote more than forty operas and much other secular music, Handel is, ironically, best known for his religious music. His *//Messiah//* has been called "one of those rare works that appeal immediately to everyone, and yet is indisputably a masterpiece of higher order." Although Bach and Handel composed many instrumental suites and concerti, orchestral music did not come to the fore until the second half of the 18th century, when new instruments such as the piano appeared. A new musical period, the classical era also emerged, represented by two great innovators--Haydn and Mozart. Their renown caused the musical center of Europe to shift from Italy and Germany to the Austrian Empire. Franz Joseph Haydn spent most of his adult life as musical director for the wealthy Hungarian princes, the Esterhazy brothers. His visits to England in the late 18th century, introduced him to another world--where musicians wrote for public concerts rather than princely patrons. This "liberty," induced hime to write his two great oratorios, *//The Creation//* and //*The Seasons//,* both of which were dedicated to the common people. The concerto, symphony, and opera all reached their zenith in the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a child prodigy who gave his first harpsichord concert at six and wrote his first opera at twelve. He sought a patron, but his discontent with the overly demanding archbishop of Salzburg forced him to move to Vienna, where he was unable to find a permanent patron. He died debt-ridden at age thirty-five. *//The Marriage of Figaro//, //The Magic Flute//, and //Don Giovanni//* are three of the world's greatest operas.

The Development of the Novel

The 18th century was also decisive in the development of the novel. The novel was not completely new but grew out of the medieval romances and the picaresque stories of the 16th century. The English are credited with establishing the modern novel as the chief vehicle for fiction writing. With no established rules, the novel was open to much experimentation. Appealed to women readers and women writers. Samuel Richardson's *//Pamela or Virtue Rewarded//* focused on a servant girl's resistance to numerous seduction attempts by her master. By reading the girl's letters describing her feelings about his efforts, the master realizes that the girl has a good mind and marries her. Pamela earned Richardson a large audience as he appealed to the the growing cult of sensibility in the 18th century--the taste for the sentimental and emotional. Henry Felding wrote novels about people without scruples who survived by their wits. His best work, *//The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling//,* was about the adventures of a young scoundrel.

Toleration and the Jews

The Jews remained the despised religious minority in Europe. The largest number of Jews (Ashkenzaic Jews) lived in eastern Europe. Except in relatively tolerant Poland, Jews were restricted in their movements, forbidden to own land or hold many jobs, forced to pay burdensome special taxes. *Pogoms* in which Jewish communities were looted and massacred, made Jewish existence precarious and dependent on the favor of their territorial rulers. Another major group, the Sephardic Jews, had migrated to Turkish lands, and also settled in cities such as Amsterdam, Venice, London and Frankfurt where they were free to participate in the banking and commercial activities that the Jews had participated in since the Middle Ages. The highly successful ones came to provide valuable services to rulers. Some Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century favored a new acceptance of Jews. They argued that Jews and Muslims were human and deserved the full rights of citizenship despite their religion. Many philosophes denounced persecution of the Jews but made no attempt to hide their hostility and ridiculed Jewish customs. Many Europeans favored the assimilation of the Jews into the mainstream of society, but only by the conversion of Jews to Christianity. Austrian emperor Joseph II attempted to adopt a new policy toward the Jews, although it was limited. It freed Jews from nuisance taxes and allowed them more freedom of movement and job opportunities, but they were still restricted from owing land and worshipping in public.

Church-State Relations

The Protestant Reformation had solved the problem of the relationship between church and state by establishing the principle of state control over churches. In the 18th century, Protestant state churches flourished throughout Europe. Lutheranism in Scandinavia and the north German Staes; Anglicanism in England; and Calvanism in Scotland, the United Provinces, some of the Swiss Cantons and German states. In 1700, the Catholic Church still exercised much power in Catholic European states: Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, the Habsburg Empire, Poland, and most of southern Germany. The church also continued to possess enormous wealth. The Catholic Church remained hierarchically structured. The highest clerics, such as bishops and archbishops, were members of the upper class, especially the landed nobility, and received enormous wealth from their landed estates and tithes from the faithful. A wide gulf existed between the upper and lower clergy. In the 18th century, the governments of many Catholic states began to seek greater authority over the churches in their countries. This "*nationalism*" of the Catholic Church meant controlling the papacy and the chief papal agent, the Jesuits. The Jesuits had proved extremely successful, perhaps too successful for their own good. As advisers to the Catholic rulers, the Jesuits exercised considerable political influence. Their high profile attracted a wide range of enemies. The Portuguese expelled the Jesuits from Portugal and confiscated their property. They were also expelled from France and then Spain and the Spanish colonies. Spain and France demanded that the entire society be dissolved and Pope Clement XIV reluctantly complied. The dissolution of the Jesuit order, and important pillar of Catholic strength, was another victory for Catholic governments determined to win control over their churches. The end of the Jesuits was paralleled by a decline in papal power. Already by the mid-18th century, the papacy played only a minor role in diplomacy and international affairs. The nationalization of the churches by the states meant the loss of the papacy's power to appoint high clerical officials.

Rousseau

The general will will guide democracy. End inequality among citizens by an agreement of general will. Humanity should return to nature because it is pure. The Social Contract

Voltaire and the Enlightenment

The greatest figure of the Enlightenment was Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire. Son of a prosperous middle-class family from Paris. He wanted to be a writer and achieved his first success as a playwright. His wit made him popular with the Parisian intellectuals but a quarrel with a nobleman forced him to flee France and live in England for 2 years. //Philosophic Letters on the English//, 1733 Voltaire expressed a deep admiration of English life, especially its freedom of the press, its political freedom, and its religious toleration. In a roundabout way, Voltaire managed to criticize many of the problems oppressing France, especially royal absolutism and the lack of religious toleration and freedom of thought. The criticism of Voltaire and other philosophes reflected the broader dissatisfaction of the middle-class with their society. Upon returning to France, he lived in semi-seclusion because of his writings. Voltaire became wealthy through his writings, inheritance and clever investments and could now write an almost endless stream of pamphlets, novels, plays, letters, and histories. *He was especially known for his criticism of traditional religion and his strong attachment to the ideal of religious toleration.* //Treaties on Toleration//, 1763 Voltaire argued that religious toleration had created no problems for England and Holland and reminded governments that "all men are brothers under God." Voltaire championed not only religious tolerance but also *deism,* a religious outlook shared by most other philosphes. Deism was built on the Newtonian world-machine, which suggested the existence of a mechanic (God) who had created the universe. God had no direct involvement in the world he created and allowed it to run according to its own natural laws. Jesus was not divine as Christianity claimed.

The Legacy of Locke and Newton

The intellectuals inspiration for the Enlightenment came primarily from Newton and John Locke. Enchanted by the grand design of the Newtonian world-machine, the intellectuals of the Enlightenment believed that by following Newton's rules of reasoning, they could discover the natural laws that governed politics, economics, justice, religion, and the arts. John Locke disagreed with Descartes's belief in innate ideas and argued every person was born with a tabula rasa or blank mind. Our knowledge is derived from our environment, not from hereditary; from reason, not from faith. By changing the environment and subjecting people to proper influences, they could be changed and a new society created.

Philosophes

The intellectuals of the Enlightenment were literary people who came from the nobility and the middle classes.

The Writing of History

The philosophes were responsible for creating a revolution in the writing of history. Their secular orientation caused them to eliminate the role of God in history and freed them to concentrate on events themselves and search for casual relationships in the natural world. The humanist historians of the Renaissance had also placed their histories in purely secular settings, but not with the same intensity and complete removal of God. The philosophe-historians also broadened the scope of history from the humanists' preoccupation with politics. Politics still predominated the Enlightenment, but historians also paid attention to economic, social, intellectual, and cultural developments. The weakness of these philosophers-historians stemmed from their preoccupations as philosophes. The philosophes sought to instruct as well as entertain. Their goal was to help civilize their age, and history could play a role by revealing its lessons according to their vision. The emphasis on science and reason and their dislike of Christianity made them less than sympathetic to the Middle Ages. Edward Gibbon's, *//Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire//* believed the decline of Rome had many causes, but portrayed the growth of Christianity as a major reason for Rome's eventual collapse.

Cultural Relativism

The practice of judging a culture by its own standards.

Taverns and Alcohol

The same sense of community evident in festival was also present in the chief gathering places of the common people, the local taverns. Taverns functioned as regular gathering places for neighborhood men to talk, play games, conduct small business matters, and drink. In some countries, the favorite drinks of poor people, such as gin in England and vodka in Russia, proved devastating for poor people who regularly drank themselves into oblivion. In England, the consumption of gin rose from 2 million to 5 million gallons and only declined when laws restricting sales were implemented. The rich drank, too. Unlike the poor, the rich drank port and brandy, usually in large quantities. The difference in drinking habits between the rich and poor reminds us of the ever-widening separation between the elite and the poor in the 18th century. In 1500, popular culture was for everyone; a second culture for the elite, it was the only culture for the rest of society. Between 1500 and 1800, the nobility, clergy, and bourgeoise had abandoned popular culture to the lower classes. In abandoning the popular festivals, the upper classes were also abandoning the popular worldview as well. The new scientific outlook had brought a new mental world for the upper classes, and they now viewed such things as witchcraft, faith healing, fortune telling, and prophecy as the beliefs of those who lacked judgement and reason (ignorant).

The Social Environment of the Philosophes

The social background of the philosophes varied considerably from the aristocratic Montesquieu to the lower-middle-class Diderot and Rousseau. The Enlightenment was not the preserve of any one class. Of great importance to the Enlightenment was the spread of its ideas to the literate elite of European society. Although the publication and sale of books and treatises were crucial to this process, the *salon* was also a factor. Salons rose to new heights in the 18th century. They were elegant drawing rooms in the urban houses of the wealthy where invited philosophes and guests gathered to engage in witty, sparring conversations that centered on the ideas of the philosophes. As hostesses of the salons, women were in a position to affect the decisions of kings, sway political opinion, and influence literary and artistic taste. Salons provided havens for people and views unwelcome in the royal court. When the Encyclopedia was suppressed by the French authorities, Marie-Therese de Geoffrin, welcomed the encyclopedists to her salon and offered financial assistance to complete the work in secret. Although the salons were run by women, the reputation of the salon depended on the stature of the males a hostess was able to attract. Despite this male dominance, both French and foreign observers complained that females exerted undue influence in French political affairs. This perception led to the decline of salons during the French Revolution. The salons played an important role in promoting conversation and sociability between upper-class men and women as well as spreading the ideas of the Enlightenment. But other means of spreading Enlightenment ideas were also available. Coffeehouses, cafes, reading clubs, and public lending libraries were gathering places for the exchange of ideas. Learned societies were formed in the cities throughout Europe and America. At gatherings such as the Select Society of Edinburgh and the American Philosophical Society, lawyers, doctors and local officials gathered to discuss enlightened ideas. Secret societies also developed. The most famous was the Freemasons who were sympathetic to the ideas of the philosophes.