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Early 16th Century Europe

The Black Legend

It was an American propaganda tool used against the Spanish during the Spanish American War in 1898. With the past mostly out of sight and feelings not so sensitive anymore we purse our lips and shrug our shoulders at the Black Legend.

Who are we? Who are you? No matter who you are, you are the result of either those who stepped ashore in 1492, or you are the result of those who greeted them. The world changed at that moment.

It's useless for the descendants of that date to hate each other because of the horrific things that happened. Life is a powerful and terrible story and we are caught in its tides. Only in understanding the origins of the attitude which came to America in 1492 can we begin to discover its modern effects and begin to change it. If we are to survive as a species, change it we must.

The plague, that came here, was of a different kind. It was a plague in the hearts and minds of men. The nightmare of it chuckled along the bows of three ships. It splashed diamond droplets ahead into the cool ultramarine Atlantic waters. It filled the sails and whispered secrets in the rigging. For the native people it was as devastating as the Black Death was in Europe, and equally as confusing.

As the story goes, in October 1347, a ship swung on its anchor rope in Messina harbor in northeastern Sicily. The people aboard ship were dead or dying. The harbormasters tried to quarantine the ship and its deadly cargo, but, cloaked by the darkness of night, rats from the ship swam ashore. The Black Death had arrived. It would torture and kill an estimated 40 million people throughout Europe.

Ring around the rosies

A pocketful of posies

Ashes to Ashes

We all fall down!

Europe had been wracked by war for a very long time. As the unifying power of Rome collapsed, Europe broke down into warring tribes (gangs). The Church of Rome trembled as savage tribes struggled for ascendancy. Around 800 A.D. that changed. The church brought cohesion. The wars did not stop.

In Spain, similar tribes to those who had gnawed up the Roman Empire crossed the boundry of northern mountains and poured onto the fertle landscape to kill and take what they wanted. The Vandals passed through on their way to northern Africa.

Goths and Visigoths settled into the heart of the country. They looked down at the once- prosperous coastal cities. Warriors and herders of sheep, they threw scorn on seafares and businessmen. They forbade their daughters to marry the native people.

Princes and barons fought among each other to gain power.

As they gobbled each other up, their power grew. Then, there were kings, and the kings went to war. It was the survival of the strongest. Finally, there were just a few kings who didn't want to share their power with the church.

The Garden of Worldly Delights - Right wing: Hell by Hieronymus Bosh (ca. 1450 - 1516)

The Sack of Rome

The Roman Catholic church had been at war too.

First it fought the ancient beliefs, then it was threatened by the Moslems.

The Moors had entered Spain in 711 A.D. Welcomed as saviors by the original Spanish, their conquest rushed north over the tribal kingdoms of the Visigoths.

The "reconquista" by the descendants of the Visigoths ended at the Granada in1492.

Now, in 1492, the Church would turn its eyes toward Jewish converts in the Spanish Inquisition. “Zero tolerance” attitudes prevailed.

This endless violence had a very real human price. That price would grow as the Holy Roman Emperor turned his gaze toward France and Italy.

Massacre of the Innocents by Pieter Bruegel (1566 - 1567)

Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, defeated and captured Francis I in February 25, 1525. Now he looked at Rome itself. "I shall go into Italy," he vowed, "and revenge myself especially on that polyroon the Pope." In 1527, an army of 10,000 German Lutherns wandered toward Rome. Joining them was a huge Spanish army and an army of Italians. The entire mass was under Charles V, but he didn't seem to give it real direction, for Charles was far away. Everyone believed that the City of Rome was protected by God. It could never fall.

On May 6th, the multitude approached the walls of Rome. It was a very foggy morning. Inside the city, the men at their cannons couldn't see their enemy. The Italian army struck the Vatican, spilling over its walls. The German army entered to the south.

Roman militia and the Swiss Guards fought bravely, but were wiped out. German soldiers rushed through

the halls of the Vatican slashing at the Swiss guards. They carved their names in the grand paintings by Raphael. Outside the violence grew into a crazed pitch. Soldiers rushed through the streets killing men, women, and children. They marched to St. Peter's Cathedral and slew the people who sought sanctuary there. Entering the hospital and orphanage of Santo Spirito, they slaughtered nearly all the patients. It was Christians killing Christians in their most sacred city. And that was only the beginning. The Army of Charles V, now settled down to rob the Roman people of everything they had.

Nuns and respectable women were violated. Women were assaulted before the eyes of their defenseless husbands and fathers. Many young women, despondent after being brutally raped, drowned themselves in the Tiber River. Pope Clement VII, hid in the fort of Saint Angelo.

Three months later plague broke out. The army retreated into the surrounding countryside to pillage the towns and farms. After the plague died out, they returned to feed on the carcass of Rome for another nine months.