Download 3.2 The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment
Before the Protestant Reformation, the power of the Roman Catholic
Church had been absolute. They had controlled people’s religious lives, explained
how the world worked to those who were curious to know, and also had a hand in
selecting the king or queen of Europe. Once Martin Luther began to question the
Church beliefs, a new form of Christianity began to impact the people of Europe,
which began to take power away from the Church. At the same time, the
Copernican model of the universe began to call the Church’s beliefs about science into
question. The last blow to the Church came shortly after, when philosophers like John Locke,
Voltaire, and others began to question the power and authority of kings as well. This period of
time, when new ideas about governments began to occur, is called the Enlightenment.
Divine Right
Divine Right is the idea that a ruler derives his power from God.
In other words, the reason why the king gets to be king is because
God wants him to be. In Renaissance Europe, this meant that the
pope, who speaks for God, approved of the ruler. During this time,
European countries were ruled by a king (or queen) in a system of
government called a monarchy. Monarchy is a system of government
where a king and queen rules a country with the cooperation of the
nobility and clergy. This meant that the clergy (church officials) got
special power and consideration from the king, because he needed
In divine right, the religious leader approves
of the king, saying that God wanted that king them to be supportive of him and his power. This system limited each
to be in charge. The king then uses his power person’s personal religious freedoms, since they were basically forced
to make sure the church has special
by each king to accept whatever church he chose to endorse. Both
privileges and power in his country.
Catholics and Protestants were guilty of not allowing the people to
choose their own religious affiliations.
John Locke
John Locke was a British economist and philosopher who
thought a lot about governments, and why they exist at all. Locke
stated that every group of people had a special contract with their
ruler, called a social contract. The social contract was the idea
that people give up some of their rights to the government in
order for the government to protect them. In America, we pay
taxes so that the government will maintain a military to protect us
from foreign powers. If we were responsible for this by ourselves,
This diagram shows how the social contract
we wouldn’t be able to pay for the planes and aircraft carriers, so
works positively (inner circle) or negatively
the contract works out well for us. Locke also stated that if the
(outer circle) based on how the people feel
about their government.
government was abusing its powers, so that the people no longer
liked the government they had, they had the right to revolt, and
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set up a new government. This was considered a radical change
from the current system, because Locke was essentially saying that governments get their
power from the people they rule, not from God.
Voltaire
Francois-Marie Arouet, known by his pen-name Voltaire, was a French author in the 18th
century. Voltaire was highly critical of both the French monarchy and the Catholic Church.
Voltaire believed that people should have freedom to practice any religion that they chose, that
they should be allowed to say what they believed without any consequences, and that the
government should be completely separate from the
church.
Voltaire wrote over 2,000 books and 20,000
letters during his lifetime, many of which were focused
on the changes he believed were necessary to the
government. During the 18th century, the French
monarchy had become increasingly harsh in dealing with
any people who criticized the government or the Church.
Voltaire, and many other people who were outspoken,
were eventually either thrown in a prison for political
prisoners, or exiled (kicked out) of the country. It is
because of his commitment to speaking what he
considered to be the truth, regardless of the
consequences, that Voltaire is most strongly linked with
the idea of free speech.
Enlightened despots
Voltaire is known for his writings, particularly about freespeech and freedom of religion. Voltaire was critical of the
Catholic Church and French monarchy because he felt that
they were taking away the rights of French citizens to choose
how to live their own lives.
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While some countries continued to have struggles between philosophers and scientists
and the rulers of their countries, there were some exceptions. Rulers like Frederick the Great
(Prussia) and Catherine the Great (Russia) began to not only listen to men like Locke and
Voltaire, they actually began to voluntarily turn over their powers to the citizens of their
countries. Under the leadership of these rulers, citizens of their countries started to truly enjoy
things like religious freedom for the first time.
Unfortunately, in most countries, it would take far more violent methods in order for
them to gain these freedoms. The first group of citizens to successfully rebel against their ruler
and establish a government based on the ideas of
men like Locke and Voltaire were the 13 British
Colonies located on the North American mainland.
Reading Comprehension Questions
1.
Why did the idea of divine right work well for the king and
church leaders?
2. According to Locke, what should people do if their
government is not doing a good job protecting them or their
rights?
3. How do Voltaire’s ideas still impact us in America now?
The American Revolution was based on the
Enlightenment ideas.
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Write about it. Pretend you are like Voltaire criticizing the French king.
Write a short story (3-5 paragraphs) about a foolish leader (maybe a
teacher?) who takes away people’s rights but doesn’t have any real power
because the people just do what they want, and ends up with nothing in
the end.