Catholic Reformation

The "Counter-Reformation" within the Catholic Church was a response to the theological positions that were championed by the Protestants. This Reformation affirmed traditional teachings as well as better fit the modern world.

The Fifth Lateran Council was formed by Pope Julius II to investigate problems of nonresident clergy, and multiple benefices. Members wanted to change the Church by example, and did so by finding the Oratorio order, composing music (combined medieval plain chants with more modern styles). Oratorio services became very popular primarily due to its music.

Ignatius Loyola composed Spiritual Exercises, which emphasized the importance of obedience.

New religious order Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, educated the laities and spiritual advisers. Jesuits were also responsible for a number of conversions, and brought many parts of Holy Roman Empire into communion with the papacy.

When reformers first emerged, Catholics tried to separate ideas they believed were correct and those that they believed incorrect. For example, the pope published lists of books and ideas which he considered error ed. The Council of Trent was very important to the Catholic Church, because during this time, it marked the boundary of the Protestant heresy and the orthodox positions of the Church. In response to the Protestants belief that one's salvation comes from faith alone, the Council stated that good works were not the outcome of faith, but were prerequisites towards salvation. The Council criticizes the Protestants for their lack of leadership and supervision. The Council gave pope the ultimate authority in both administrative and theological matters.

It's a Poetry Attack of Nikki Giovanni

1. "Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day"

Don't look now I'm fading away

Into the gray of my mornings

Or the blues of every night
Is it that my nails keep breaking

Or maybe the corn on my secind little piggy Things keep popping out on my face or of my life
It seems no matter how I try I become more difficult to hold

I am not an easy woman to want
They have asked the psychiatrists . . . psychologists . . . politicians and social workers What this decade will be known for
There is no doubt . . . it is loneliness
-Nikki Giovanni, New York 1978



This image conveys loneliness, reflecting Giovanni's thoughts when she writes, "What this decade will be known for, there is no doubt... it is loneliness". Giovanni wrote this poem in the 1970s, and in it she expresses the political issues during that decade. The major theme of the poem is aging and change, and the image of a young girl looking at her reflection conveys a foreshadow of what is yet to happen, that she will age and undergo change.



2. "The Great Pax Whitie"
by Nikki Giovanni, 1960s
"In the beginning was the word
And the word was
Death
And the word was nigger
And the word was death to all niggers
And the word was death to all life
And the word was death to all
peace be still
The genesis was life
The genesis was death
In the genesis of death
Was the genesis of war
be still peace be still
In the name of peace
They waged the wars
ain’t they got no shame
In the name of peace
Lot’s wife is now a product of the Morton company
nah, they ain’t got no shame
Noah packing his wife and kiddies up for a holiday
row row row your boat
But why’d you leave the unicorns, noah
Huh? why’d you leave them
While our Black Madonna stood there
Eighteen feet high holding Him in her arms
Listening to the rumblings of peace
be still be still
CAN I GET A WITNESS? WITNESS? WITNESS?
He wanted to know
And peter only asked who is that dude?
Who is that Black dude?
Looks like a troublemaker to me
And the foundations of the mighty mighty
Ro Man Cat holic church were laid
hallelujah Jesus
nah, they ain’t got no shame
Cause they killed the Carthaginians
in the great appian way
And they killed the Moors
“to civilize a nation”
And they just killed the earth
And blew out the sun
In the name of a god
Whose genesis was white
And war wooed god
And america was born
Where war became peace
And genocide patriotism
And honor is a happy slave
cause all god’s chillun need rhythm
And glory hallelujah why can’t peace
be still
The great emancipator was a bigot
ain’t they got no shame
And making the world safe for democracy
Were twenty millon slaves
nah, they ain’t got no shame
And they barbecued six million
To raise the price of beef
And crossed the 38th parallel
To control the price of rice
ain’t we never gonna see the light
And champagne was shipped out of the East
While kosher pork was introduced
To Africa
Only the torch can show the way
In the beginning was the deed
And the deed was death
And the honkies are getting confused
peace be still
So the great white prince
Was shot like a nigger in texas
And our Black shining prince was murdered
like that thug in his cathedral
While our nigger in memphis
was shot like their prince in dallas
And my lord
ain’t we never gonna see the light
The rumblings of this peace must be stilled
be stilled be still
ahh Black people
ain’t we got no pride?"

In case one can not figure out, this poem involves social protest during the civil rights movement. Giovanni mocks those who found blacks unintelligent by using improper grammar such as "ain't got no shame". She also breaks down Roman Catholic as "Ro Man Cat Holic" conveys African Americans being ridiculed for being less educated than Caucasians, because they need to enunciate their words. Giovanni using a biblical reference of an African American being a troublemaker, reflects that African Americans have been discriminated since biblical times; it also conveys that African Americans have been discriminated for years and that the reason for the discrimination are outdated and invalid. Though Giovanni illustrates violence, she never offers a solution, a pattern often found in her other published works.

3."Balance" by Nikki Giovanni

"in life one is always balancing like we juggle our mothers against our fathers or one teacher against another(only to balance our grade average) 3 grains of salt to one ounce truth our sweet black essence or the funky honkies down the streetand lately I've begun wondering if you re trying to tell me something we used to talk all night and do things alone together and i've begun(as a reaction to a feeling) to balance the pleasure of loneliness against the pain of loving you."

This poem has is personally significant to me, because my life is made up of balances. Currently, I am undergoing maintaining the balance of the present and the future. With college applications being due, it is very easy for me to get caught up in my future and the road ahead. However, I get pulled away from this state of mind when I realize I have to maintain my current grades on top of my applying to colleges. It is difficult to balance the two, because I'm caught in high-school mode, but I have to be aware that next year I will be out on my own.

Columbus is a villian!!!!!

To most people, Columbus is seen as a hero who opened up the Old World to the New World, to one group in particular,

the Native Americans, he is viewed as scrondrel. Columbus sailed to the "New World" with the intention of spreading Christianity as well as proving one could travel to the West Indies by going west rather than east. Instead, Columus discovered the North and South Americas. Though this was positive for Europe, Natives of the Americas were forced to leave their lands and live under the order of Europeans. When Colmbus left the Bahamas for the first time, his settlers seized food stocks, kidnapped women, and embarked on frenzied search for gold. Once mines were discovered, Indians were forced to work the mines. With an increase in European expedition, diseases such as smallpox, diphtheria, measles, trachama, and chicken pox were exposed to the Indians, leading to many deaths. Because there were so many deaths from the Indian population, there became a larger demand for slaves from Africa.

Even to this day, Native Americans are still bitter of the expeditions that occured over 5oo years ago. Chief Roy Crazy Horse of the Renape nation stated, "He [Columbus] instituted slavery into this continent. Professor Ronald Covil provided his students with a different perspective on Columbus's expedition: the Native Americans. When Columbus was exdepitioning, the Native Americans didn't discover anything, because they had already settled there. For that