I feel like I’m writing one of these every year.

Earlier in the month it was announced that there would be a new Assassin’s Creed released in October. What’s so amazing is that we finally get a new protagonist!

Ubisoft (and the reveal trailer) confirms that this one is set during the American Revolution, so expect to wet your hidden blade with the blood of the British.   What’s so interesting is that a percentage of the parkour, occurs in the forest. How that works is anyone’s guess.

I love the Assassin’s Creed series, but after the second time I was really tired of Ezio Auditore Da Firenze.  There’s only so much ‘I’m so smooth, but I’m also deep’ talk I can take. 

I’ve watched the trailer a few times, and I’m getting quite excited. Let’s hope it lives up to all the expectations. 

Old Chuch in Voronej District

The Church had grown enormously rich, as well. Its income was more than that of all the important kings and princes put together. Also, it often recieved large gift of land in addition to the tithe, or tenth part of a person’s income, that each member had to donate to the Church.

The Sacraments

The Church had developed a body of beliefs that all Christians accepted. Nost important were the seven sacraments: (1)Baptism, (2)confirmation, (3)penance, (4) the Holy Eucharist, (5) extreme unction, (6) matrimony, (7) holy orders. These sacraments were ceremonies believed to be necessary for salvation; but no one recieved all seven.

In baptism, a person – usually an infant – became a Christian. In confirmation, the individual crossed over from childhood to become an adult member of the Church. In penance, one confessed his or her sins and was forgiven. In the Holy Eucharist, a priest reenacted Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples, and the people attending the service recieved consecrated bread and wine. A priest gave extreme unction to a dying person. All Church members recieved these five sacraments.

Of the two that remain, matrimony was the marriage ceremony, and holy orders were for men who became priests.

Church Rules

The CHurch had courts to help protect the weak and to punish those who had done wrong. It also tried clergymen for religious offenses. These people were judged by canon law – the law of the Church.

Heresy was considered the most horrible of all crimes against the Church. It was throught to be a crime against God, because it denied important religious teachings. The Church sought out heretics and punished them with excomminication. When a person was excommunicated, he or she was no longer considered a member of the Church and, therefore, could never go to heaven. Thus, the Church tried to persuade heretics to give up their beliefs. If a heretic refused, he usually burned at the stake.

Growing Strength

During the 10th century, the papacy depended upon the German king for pretection against feudal abuses, unruly Italian nobles, and Roman mobs. This arrangement led German kings to interfere in Church affairs, even in the election of popes.

During the 11th century, the monks at the Abbey of Cluny in France spoke out against kings and princes who interfered in church affairs. They started a reform program to remove all civil control over the Pope, stop kings and nobles from choosing bishops, and forbid the sale of Chruch jobs. In 1059, the College of Cardinals was created. It was to elect a successor to the Pope who whould be the choice of the Church, not of a king or a mob.

The power of the Church grew under the papacy of Innocent III (1198-1216), who clamied that his authority was above that of any other ruler and that the word of the Church was final. In 1213, he became the feudal lord when King John of England turned over his kingdom to the Pope and took it back as a fief. This made king John a vassal of Pope Innocent III, who made vassals of other rulers. As part of their feudal obligation, these kings sent part yearly tributes to Rome.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, two friar groups – the Franciscans and the Dominicans – were established. Unlike other religious orders, these two worked among the people. They preached in the towns and countrysides to spread the Gospel and fight heresy. Both groups became famous as university teachers. Slowly, they gained influence at a time when many people were starting to criticize the Church for being too interested in power and wealth.

                Among the first to name trade a sin were the Muslims in the 8th century. As the story goes the Muslims of Islam believed this until the Divine Inspiration came and told them that there is no harm in them seeking the bounty of the lord. This simple phrase shows that people are starting to realize that trade and commerce are starting to become big in daily life, and it’s starting to get big enough to conflict with what the religions promote. Islam was the first to name it acceptable but not a necessity. That fell upon the Christians. In the 1100’s, with an ongoing war with the Saracens, also known as Muslims, no Christian was allowed to trade or mingle with a Saracen. Doing so resulted in excommunication from the church and the loss of hope of salvation. This absent connection of transferring goods made the Christians suffer. The city in which Pope Innocent III was speaking to was Venice; it was not a city of agriculture, rather it was a city that depended on its commerce and shipping. Pope Innocent III realized that though the trade with Muslims conflicted with the church, but it was a necessary evil if Venice was to survive and thrive. Because of this the people were allowed to trade specific things but nevertheless they were allowed to trade with Muslims.  The importance of necessity and justification were two big saviors that made trade acceptable in religions where trade was thought to be a bearer of bad habits and characteristics in a person. As trade expanded it brought questions in the minds of religious people of whether or not to practice it, but through struggle and realization trade literally came to be known as a necessary evil among religions.

                The last paragraph spoke of active religious individuals, but the expansion of trade did not just walk in unbothered. Trade was accepted as a whole yet the people who were known as merchants became the problem afterwards. Reginald Durham’s description of Saint Godric is a fascinating story speaking of the stages of man. Interestingly enough becoming a merchant was one of Saint Godric’s stages. Saint Godric grew up to be a very successful man in the game of trade. He was wise because of many travels in pursuit of public commerce. During his travels he visited many past homes of saints and he would meditate. With the influence of how these saints lived he himself started wishing that he was alone and not as attached to his merchandise, or other worldly things. After sixteen years of being a wealthy merchant he started to give to charity and take a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He would take notice of the malpractices of other salesman and he would make his goal to give himself to God and repent for all the malpractices that he committed as a merchant. Of course this would be the ideal story for any merchant, to come to realize that he has other duties. But the real problem can be seen when Saint Godric thought of as a better man as a poor follower of God who gave to the poor, rather than a wise rich merchant who would walk the world unbothered by anything else but his needs.

                During the Medieval times of Europe, its markets carried every type of good but only one type person; the deceitful, false being that would sell anything at any cost. Of course this person conflicted with the Christian church, many of the markets would prevent man to lose spirituality and become tangent to the earth, by deliberately skipping things in a normal, good Christian’s life, such as sermon or freely disobeying the duty to listen to mass and consciously go to meetings at the markets against the word of the church. Just because trade was allowed that should mean that Christ should be present in these places because he is justice; justice is one of the last things that was present in the markets and minds of merchants. The Christian Church clashes with trade expanding in this manner; it was severely altering its peoples’ mindsets on God.

Just as a good Christian gives to the poor not take, the same applies to the Confucianism principles of the post classical era. Zhang Han’s Essay on Merchants is a description a lot like the characterization of Saint Godric by Reginald Durham. Though it is more general it carries one of the biggest quotes in understanding why religion came to butt heads with trade. The saying by a Confucian classic, Zhuagzi, a Chinese philosopher, resembles that true wisdom and understanding is immense and generous, outstretched and ample. It says that true understanding can’t be hurried; it will happen calmly over time, a lot like the story of Saint Godric. Little understanding is cramped and busy. Zhang Han, in his essay states that men are in love with profit and those with the most are always in the highest spots in culture, they are always the ones who people submit themselves as servants to, and the ones to dress the best in the land. But, he makes sense in saying that the wisdom of these people is the wisdom described as “cramped and busy”, it’s not worth anything.

Whether the expansion of trade conflicted with religion and the system of beliefs of many culture is a question that has many sides to it. Although, the expansion of trade did become accepted as a necessary evil, and it did break the thin line between faithful religious people, and arrogant, self absorbed person. During the postclassical period the expansion of trade has set new standards for who is really rich and who is not, as well as new understandings of who is wise and who is not. It has ruptured the faithfulness of many people in their religions but has giving new meaning to who is the wiser of the commodities.