Jan Hus – Czech Reformer

Posted on January 11, 2012 by admin

The 14th and 15th centuries were a dangerous time for continental Europeans to oppose the Catholic church.  Jan Hus lived at a time when the Papacy dominated religious affairs and dissent was a serious crime.  It was also an era when some were beginning to feel that the Catholic church had become more about enriching the priests than anything else and the Papal Schism which had split the church between power centres in Rome and Avignon was undermining the organisation.

Born around 1369, Jan Hus was a priest himself who, along with the English reformer John Wycliffe, began to question the way the church worked, theorising that it was not for the church to be the ‘middle man’ between God and his audience and that it was possible for ordinary people to communicate directly.  These ideas were the building blocks of the Reformation and it didn’t take the Catholic church long to realise the danger it posed to their enormous power.

Hus was consequently excommunicated by Pope Alexander V but his (Bohemian) government supported him, ensuring that his influence grew.  The city of Prague, where he was preaching, was put under an interdict, meaning it lost the right to partake in certain Catholic rituals.  Within Bohemia, Hus’ supporters made sure it had now become a battle between their leader and the church, burning the Papal Bulls (official church communiques) and arguing that Hus was the man to follow.

Jan Hus

Jan Hus

By now the situation appeared to be on the verge of violence between the Catholic church and Bohemia and King Wenceslaus of Bohemia attempted to reconcile the opposing parties before the situation deteriorated further.  In 1412 a synod was held at the palace of the Archbishops in Prague (meaning Hus could not attend) and various ideas were put forward to reconcile the two parties.  Hus was unimpressed by the propositions, especially  since Bohemia did not have the same freedom as other countries in regard to religious freedoms.  John Wycliffe was more fortunate in this regard to be English.  Hus famously said that “even if I should stand before the stake which has been prepared for me, I would never accept the recommendation of the theological faculty.”

Despite this setback, the King continued to press for reconciliation while Hus and his followers continued to preach the doctrine of Reformation.  The King’s brother, Sigismund of Hungary, proposed a general council at Constance in 1414, promising Hus safe passage.  Unknown to Sigismund, Hus was consequently captured and imprisoned and after 73 days in captivity, a trial was held in June, 1415.

During this trial, Hus continued to support his own views, offering to recant if he could be proved incorrect by the bible.  King Wenceslaus finally refused to protect him, possibly seeing an end to the argument with the Catholic church and ultimately Hus was sentenced to death.  Just before he was burnt at the stake he was offered one more chance to recant but refused, saying “God is my witness that the things charged against me I never preached.  In the same truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught and preached, drawing upon the sayings and positions of the holy doctors, I am ready to die today.”

 

 

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Swami Dayananda Saraswati – Religious Scholar and Reformer

Posted on November 25, 2011 by admin

Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Long before Ghandi’s efforts to free India from the colonial influence of the British Empire, other individuals such as Swami Dayananda Saraswati had long espoused the “India for Indians” message.  In later life he was highly respected enough to be referred to as the one of the makers of modern India.

Picture of Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Born in 1824 in Tankara, in the state of Gujurat, Dayananda’s family were wealthy and religious Brahmins and his early life followed the somewhat standard pattern of that period;  a future as a Hindu priest awaited him and therefore he studied religious texts such as the Vedas and learned Sanskrit.

Swami Virajananda

From an early age Dayananda became aware of some of the difficult questions asked of religion and argued with his parents about the unquestionable power of the Hindu Gods. When he was still only a teenager, he escaped an arranged marriage by running away and this was to become his life for the twenty years.  He spent these two decades in a search for God, living the life of a nomadic monk until, in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, he met Swami Virajananda who was to become his guru.

Understanding Dayananda’s problems, Virajananda urged him to start from the beginning again; to discard the diverse texts he has acquired and return to the Vedas, one of Hinduism’s foundation books.  Staying with Virajananda for around two and a half years, Dayananda finally left his tutelage and began repaying his guru by spreading the Vedas’ message in society.

Spreading the Vedic Message

What Dayananda saw around him was a Hindu faith which had become in some ways corrupt and he tackled those he saw as responsible head on.  He travelled India, challenging priests wherever he encountered them, arguing that they had moved too far away from the founding principles of Hinduism.  He was not universally popular and threats to his life were frequent.  He accused the priests of twisting the messages of the original texts to enrich themselves and in this manner they were persuading their followers to lean towards superstition and idolatry rather than the Vedic scripts.

Dayananda was not just a critic of the Hindi faith, he was interested in all religions and was equally critical of each of them.   In 1875 Dayananda founded the Arya Samaj; a reform movement based on the founding principles of the Vedas.  This was not his first attempt to establish this type of organisation – for the previous six years he had been visiting various areas to promote something similar but political problems and hostility to his ideas from the priesthood had always stood in the way.

Mumbai was his first successful attempt and in 1977 this was followed by the establishment of a similar set up in Lahore.  The Arya Samaj appealed to the entire population, not just the ruling clases and it was this influence which enabled Dayananda to voice his opinions on social reform, education for women and fair treatment for untouchables.  It also gave him the platform to campaign for self-governance.

Swami Dayananda was finally poisoned by the girlfriend of the Maharajar of Jodpur who he had criticised.  He died in 1883 and Subhas Chandra Bose, one of the most prominent figures in Indian independence said this of him:

“Swami Dayananda Saraswati is certainly one of the most powerful personalities who has shaped modern India and is responsible for it’s moral regeneration and religious revival.”

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Ram Mohan Roy – Social and Educational Reformer – Part two

Posted on October 24, 2011 by admin

Ram Mohan Roy continued his connections with the British East India company will into

Ram Mohan Roy's Blue Plaque in London

Ram Mohan Roy's Blue Plaque in London

the turn of the 19th century.  The Baptist William Carey, who had recruited Roy and who was a partner in the creation of the fake Hindi tome (see Part One), engaged Roy to undermine various tenets of Hinduism, notably the priestly Kulin class.  While the British saw this as vital Christian missionary work, Roy saw it as religious reform in his own country and subsequently refused an offer to convert.  Quite possibly he was also irked by calculations he had performed about where Indian tax money was going; half of all revenue at that point was headed out of the country and towards England.

In the 1820s his zeal for religious and social reform led him to produce a number of written works on various subjects concerning life in turn of the century India.  These included Brief Remarks on Ancient Female Rights, Prospects of Christianity in India, Answer of a Hindu to the Sacred Authorities and several treatise on the wrongs of the caste system.  Roy was also one of the leading proponents of a ban on Suttee, the practice of a widowed woman burning herself (by force or voluntarily) on her late husband’s funeral pyre.  The practice was outlawed in 1829.

It was during this period that almost all of his social reforming work was done.  Now, he is most strongly associated with the following:

  • the outlawing of Suttee
  • property inheritance rights for women
  • the Brahmo Samaj, a Bengali organisation to push social reform
  • modernising Hinduism to appear legitimate by Western standards
  • arguing against child marriage and polygamy
  • the use of education in social and religious reform

Many of Roy’s reforms were influenced by the British in India and he must have walked a fine line between supporting the occupiers and his own patriotism.  He finally visited England in 1830, remaining for three years before dying in 1833 near Bristol in the South West.  He is buried there in the Arnos Vale Cemetery.

 

 

 

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Ram Mohan Roy – Social and Educational Reformer – Part one

Posted on October 10, 2011 by admin

More formally known as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, he is now regarded as religious, social

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

and educational reformer.  Born either on the 22nd May 1774 or in August 1772, Roy was born into the Brahmin caste and therefore into a fairly comfortable upbringing.  His parents were notable for their marriage between different groups – his father was a Vaishnavite while his mother was a Shaivite and it was unusual for these Hindu sects to intermarry.

This religious diversity provided Roy with different influences while he was growing up, one parent urging him to become a scholar while the other wanted him to work towards a career in public administration.  Ultimately Roy chose neither of these paths; after a period in Tibet and the Himalayas he became an employee of the British East India company, prompted by his desire to learn the English language and integrate certain Western values into Indian culture.

At the same time he  became interested in the contemporary revival of the Vedanta school of philosophy and his newly acquired English language skills enabled him to translate older Vedic scriptures into English.  Occasionally his passion for Western culture pushed the limits somewhat; in 1996 the Roy, the British Baptist William Carey and Sanskrit scholar Hariharananda Vidyabagish created a tome, the Maha Nirvana Tantra (Book of Great Liberation), that purported to be a precursor of any Hindu texts. The purpose was to persuade Indians that Hinduism was based on Christianity.

Although the work was eventually discredited, notably by British magistrates when it was introduced into court proceedings regarding property law, it was still in circulation for many years and actually made money for the authors.

Roy continued his service with the British East India company, acting as a private clerk to Thomas Woodforde, Registrar of the Murshidabad Appellate Court, until 1815 when he formed the Atmiya Sabha, which attempted to pursue social and religious reforms in Indian society.

 

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Florence Nightingale – Part III – Later life

Posted on September 29, 2011 by admin

Florence Nightingale Monument - London

Following her experiences at Scutari, Florence travelled to many other army hospitals. The doctors reacted in the same way at these hospitals as they had done at Scutari but she still managed to start the process of change. She eventually collapsed with a fever due to over exhaustion and was not expected to survive.

The news shocked the people back in England who avidly followed the reports on her health. When Florence eventually recovered there was a national celebration and while she was still in the Crimea, a public meeting was held to give recognition to Florence for her work in the war which led to the establishment of the Nightingale Fund for the training of nurses. There was an outpouring of generous donations and Sidney Herbert served as honorary secretary of the fund.

By 1859 Nightingale had £45,000 at her disposal from the Nightingale Fund to set up the Nightingale Training School in 1860 (it is now called the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery).  The first trained Nightingale nurses began work at the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary in 1865.

However, Florence was still to make a major contribution to the peoples of the world. She advised on the treatment of injured soldiers in Egypt and also advised the Americans during the duration of the Civil War. She was involved in a Royal Commission into the health problems in India which resulted in a sanitary board being set up in every province of India.

Florence Nightingale shortly before she died at the age of 90

In 1883, Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria and in 1907, she became the first woman to received the Order of Merit award.  On 13 August 1910, at the age of 90, she died peacefully in her sleep.  The offer of burial in Westminister Abbey  was declined by her relatives, and she is buried in the graveyard at St. Margaret Church in East Wellow, Hampshire.

 


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