CHAPTER 1: 1492: The Seven Deadly Sins Tumble out of Europe

Europe Rebelling Against Christianity

REVISIONISTS' UNFAVORABLE PICTURE OF FIFTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE is largely correct. Sale sees it as "uniquely a culture in flux." It was "far less stable and conservative in its religious customs or political systems than those ancient, encrusted regimes of long-sanctioned rule and unquestioned authority" in Mesoamerica. To Stannard, Spain appears "a land of violence, squalor, treachery, and intolerance . . . no different from the rest of Europe." That is an exaggeration, but, compared to indigenous societies, Europe was unstable and dynamic to the point of being destructive, aggressive, unbalanced and contentious. Its religion did not integrate fully its economy, politics and society as did Native American religions. That is the key.

But we must not oversimplify. Western Europe was a large area with many competing states, language groups, cities and classes--all of which made for dynamism and discord. It had two conflicting cultural roots--Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian--which caused a "flexibility of mind" but also instability.¹⁴ Before Christianity, Greek and Roman cultures were dynamic and imperialistic. When Renaissance Italians used classical Greek and Roman heritage to authenticate their rebellion against medieval Christianity, their dynamism stemmed from both their rebellion and their classical models. Europe's flux had many causes, but rebellion against religion was crucial in preventing full cultural integration. To be sure, a common Christianity caused cultural similarities throughout Europe and between the linked realms of church, economy and state. But rebellion against the Christian God caused similarities to fall short of integration. Parts did not function smoothly as a whole.

We must not fault Europeans too strongly. Christianity was not designed to accomplish a human purpose such as integrating a culture, a polity or an economy. Implicit in the Scriptures were the right of private property (theft is condemned) and the God-ordained right of rulers to rule (submission to governments is commanded). Within a society permeated by total obedience to God, those two ideas would be controlled by a more powerful one--the knowledge of God. In a society rebelling against God, they could not be. Avarice and ambition ran rampant. Medieval Europeans attempted to integrate their society around a popular lay religiosity and a bureaucratic church, but they failed to restrain individual self-seeking. Their religious-political-economic mix satisfied many people's interests, but it did not make for a harmonious, integrated society.

Lack of full integration meant that few European institutions really worked to accomplish their supposed goal. Instead, they used proclaimed goals to achieve aggrandizement, personal wealth and power as ends in themselves: to reiterate, "ends and means changed places." We can see this if we examine in more detail European churches, governments and economies. The purpose is not to preach at the past or urge the deceased to repent but to understand Europe's impact on the New World and on history. If rebellion is a driving force in history that helps to produce capitalism, democracy, imperialism and other driving forces, then we must understand it.