It is important to recognize the difference between self-defined historical periods and those which are later defined by historians. At the beginning of the 20th century there was a general belief that culture, politics and history were entering a new era - that the new century would also be a new "era" in human development. This belief in progress had been largely abandoned by the end of the century with the triumph of militant reaction crowned by a proclamation of the end of history. Yet just as the Catholic Counter-Reformation failed to arrest the spread of the Reformation, the capitalist reaction against the socialist revolutionary movement since 1848 is faced with the option of including socialist programs in the capitalist system or the replacement of capitalism by socialism. Democracy is not the exclusive tool of the bourgeoisie. Just as the bourgeoisie used democracy and the rebellious power of the working class to pressure the aristocracy, the working class will use democracy to remove the bourgeoisie from controlling the fate of the human race.
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The defining moment for the Kamakura bakufu was the unsuccessful invasion of Japan by the Mongol Chinese. In 1258, Kublai Khan conquered the Korean Peninsula and in 1266, he declared himself emperor of China and established the Yuan Dynasty. In 1266, representatives of the Yuan court came to Japan and demanded submission to Chinese rule. The imperial court was terrified, but the Hojo clan decided to stand its ground and sent the representatives home. In 1274, the Yuan emperor sent a vast fleet to invade Japan but it was destroyed by a hurricane - the Japanese called this fortunate hurricane kamikaze, or "wind from the gods". Again in 1281, China launched the largest amphibious assault in the history of the ancient and medieval worlds. The Chinese army was a terrifying invasion force. But the Hojo clan managed to keep the Chinese from landing by building a vast seawall against the invaders. Another hurricane again sank the Chinese fleet.
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Protestantism, as espoused by Martin Luther (1483-1546), was revolutionary because its doctrines held not merely that abuses in the Church must be reformed but that the Roman Church itself, even if perfect by its own ideals, was wrong in principle. Protestants aimed not to restore the medieval Church from Renaissance abuses, but to overthrow it and replace it with a church founded on principles drawn from the Bible. Such principles should not be decreed by the Church but by the individual believer's conscience.
This attitude against central authority was music to the German princes, who responded positively to Luther's invitation to the state to assume control of religion. Protestantism became entwined with social and political revolution. Charles V, as Holy Roman Emperor, was obliged to defend the faith because only within a Catholic world did the Holy Roman Empire have any meaning. The princely states within the empire saw the emperor's effort to suppress Luther as a threat to their own freedom. The imperial free states and the dynastic states of northern Germany insisted on ius reformandi, the right to determine their own religion. They became Lutheran and secularized (ie, confiscated) church properties to enrich the secular sovereigns.
Thus Luther, in placing theological protest under the protection of secular power politics, exploited the political aspirations of budding German principalities in the 16th century. In return, he conveniently provided the German princes with a theological basis for political secession from the theocratic Holy Roman Empire.
Luther exploited the political aspirations of German princes to be independent of the Holy Roman Emperor to bolster his theological revolt from the Roman Catholic Church. But he came to denounce peasant rebellions when the peasants rebelled against the Protestant German princes. He did so even though such peasant uprisings against the German princes claimed inspiration from the same theological ideas of the Reformation that had motivated the revolt against the Holy Roman Emperor by the same German princes for independence. Such radical ideas had been advocated by Luther. However, even Luther's professed personal sympathy for peasant demands for improved treatment from their oppressive princes did not persuade him to endorse peasant uprisings.
The Abduction of Modernity
Part V: The Enlightenment and modernity
Henry C K Liu
Asia Times Aug 12, 2003
