As established by Henry VIII in 1550 to distance himself from the Catholic Church and the Pope (and make it possible for him to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon), the official religion of England at the beginning of the Victorian period, circa 1850, was that of the Anglican Church, known as the Church of England. Nonetheless, there were other religions that were quite important in the country, mainly Catholicism and Methodism, which was greatly known thanks to John Wesley and grew under Victorian times. There was also a movement of anti-Church, notably with the Age of Reason of Tom Paine, in 1794, and the apparition of spiritualism. The initiators of such movements where referred to as dissenters, and there were many dissented groups at the time. The Victorian period, up until the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, was therefore a time of religious confusion, but also, as we will see, of great charity, as well as of birth of new beliefs.
One of the long term reasons is religion. Since Henry VIII had been King, the country had been in a long term battle between whether the country should be Catholic or Protestant. Currently, in 1642, the country was Protestant. However, Charles was believed to be a secret Catholic, as he was doing some very Catholic-like things. One of these things was allowing Archbishop Laud’s reforms to the Church.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin worked as an assistant to Charles Barry on the design of the New Palace of Westminster. Prior to the rebuilding of The Palace of Westminster, Britain had seen an unparalleled metamorphosis from a Roman Catholic Country to a Protestant. This affected many aspects of life in the following years including architecture. Pugin himself had already dissented from his Protestant upbringing and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1835. This internal dissent from tradition certainly affected Pugin’s view of what the true Christian style of architecture was.
For instance, “the sale of indulgences for the benefit of the church of Rome specifically for the rebuilding of St. Peters Cathedral provoked harsh criticism, especially by those who saw the luxuries of the papacy as a betrayal of apostolic ideals ” (Fiero 119). Martin Luther stated a list of objections, called the Ninety-Five Theses, against the Roman Catholic Church. The Protestant Reformation changed the course of Western civilization for the long term which led to the impact on the arts using Northern Renaissance art, music and literature. Protestant reformers made two new printmaking processes, which were woodcut and engraving. Compared to the too expensive hand-illuminated manuscripts, books with printed pictures became an inexpensive option for all (Fiero 127).
Whilst both Dracula and Twilight explore similar themes they are expressed in different ways to represent different insecurities in society. For example in each text we see the classic universal battle of good versus evil however in Dracula this battle has been used to express societies fears for the loss of Christian values. In Twilight a key theme involves acceptance of others, which represents societies insecurities about the lack of acceptance for others within our modern society. The concept of the new woman used in Dracula demonstrates the 19th century role of women within society, this is then contrasted by the role of women in twilight, allowing the responder to see how differing themes in each of these gothic texts demonstrate the context of the society during the era in which they were composed. As these themes mirror the insecurities and fears of society as Dracula reflects the 19th Century society and Twilight represents a 21st Century society.
When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1553 she faced a number of problems, but no one problem was of greater concern than religion. This was because arguments were braking out and there was conflict all over England. There was no peace and so many changes were being made that it meant no one could decide on one religion to all follow. Elizabeth had to work out a way of pleasing both religions and cutting corners. She would make a new prayer book to please the catholic and then change it to English to please the Protestants.
The clash between New and Old America is evident with the topic of religion. During the times of Old America, people were particularly Protestant, and they took everything literally; everything in the Bible was taken word for word. During the Scopes Trial of 1925, the major issue was Darwin’s theory of evolution which clashed the description of creation in the bible. The Scopes Trial was against John Scopes who taught evolution in his classroom and later got arrested. Clarence Darrow defended Scopes while William Jennings Bryan went against him defending the bible/the prosecution.
Children of Men also uses symbolism to satirize the conservative nature of British society, making reference to the Holocaust as well as Pink Floyd’s Animals. Though their criticism differs in some aspects, both narratives reflect the British fear of foreign invasion. Thus, Dracula and Children of Men both criticise the same subject matter – that is, the social status quo in Britain – by satirizing the components of society unique to each timeframe as well as the British fear of foreign invasion. The main source of satire of Britain in Dracula is found in the juxtaposition of modern, Victorian era values with archaic, pre-enlightenment era values. Dracula criticises the conservative nature of the social situation in the Victorian era, as well as the unrefined, superstitious nature of the pre-enlightenment era.
One of the main leaders in the act to resist the Roman Catholic Church’s authority and change the ideas of Christianity in the Protestant Reformation was Martin Luther. Martin Luther, a German priest in Wittenberg during the 1500s, had opposed several immoral practices of the Catholic Church not only in Germany, but also all of Europe due to the extensive reach of power
The crusades affected western culture because of their biblical practices that threatened it. By 1905, Urban II’s call for a crusade was only part of a larer shifting in theological interpretations and justification of warfare: the Reconquista in Spain, for instance, had been under way for over two centuries and was rooted in a re-fashioned understanding of just war theory. The explicit pilgrimage and warfare gave the First Crusade a unique potency that triggered widespread enthusiasm across feudal social boudaries. Pilgrimage was a common practice during Middle Ages and, given the perils of travel, pilgrims often armed themselves for defense. The ideology of the crusade, however, was one rooted in the practice redemptive pilgrimage as well as conquest.