Celestia - no, Silver Mane, she corrected herself - walked into her next class. This one was under a Dr. Jonathan Laurens. It would be taking a look at events some time in the future of her previous class, so it felt like she was going out of order. However, as a history graduate, she had to factor in the fact that there was no time to take just the one class; she did intend to go back and continue her position as Diarch of Equestria, after all, and continue being a mother to her subjects. As a result, some classes would either have to be taken simultaneously or out of turn altogether. The one was the Renaissance period, which according to her pre-class research took place just after the Medieval Era.
As in the previous class, people stared; a sapient pony was not exactly a common sight on their world. Nevertheless, at least she was on time, and like last time she budged the chair aside and sat down behind a desk.
"Good morning class," the professor said. "This will be our first lecture; as you've probably heard a bunch of times today, we set out the syllabus and course schedules last time, so now we'll be moving on to our first lecture."
He held up a button, and like in the previous class with Professor Roux, a projector flashed on, with a PowerPoint appearing on the screen.
"Now, we have to ask ourselves; what was the Renaissance? In brief, it was a recovery, or rebirth, of Classical Era thought, literature, philosophy, and other concepts. The Renaissance metaphorically brought back the ideas of ancient authors; Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, and many, many others. It also saw a real revolution and explosion of art, which is perhaps what the Renaissance is remembered most for; when you think of the world "Renaissance," no doubt some sort of image of the Pieta, the Last Supper, the Mona Lisa, and others pop up in our heads. However, those were just part of the Renaissance period, and actually part of the later period of the Renaissance. There is no definite cut-off period between the Medieval Ages and the Renaissance, no matter how many people try to convince you it was that year or another, such as 1453; history, especially when we're talking about eras in history, doesn't work like that, or not generally. Important things happened in those years, yes, but the Renaissance started within what most people would consider the Late Medieval Period, perhaps as early as 1300, and would kind of extend into its own era."
That sounds a lot like what Professor Roux said. I wonder if they're friends, or if this is a common idea among historians.
Upon brief reflection, Celestia accepted the idea. Equestrian history was much the same; one era bled into the next, with no clear, absolute cut-off line. There would be important dates and years, such as when the three original tribes - eventually joined (more or less) by the thestrals, or bat-ponies - unified. However, for most of society, change wasn't very quick; peasants largely remained peasants, nobles remained nobles, etc. Art and literature likewise developed slowly, over hundreds of years.
"Furthermore," Professor Laurens continued, "the Renaissance wasn't just something to happen everywhere at the same time and in the same way. In Italy, for instance, we tend to see more of a secular brand of humanism, which is the idea that man is what is important in life and that his achievements should be celebrated. In Germany, on the other hand, Christian humanism, the idea that humans can be self-fulfilled within Christian principles. This actually makes sense; Italy was the original area of the Roman Empire, and much of the Italian Renaissance was finding, or re-finding, that Roman heritage. North of the Alps, Roman influence wasn't as strong and the humanism that came was tied to a religious hunger felt by most of the population there. As such, saying the Renaissance can be a bit disingenuous. In fact, from this point onwards, I'll be referring to this era by region rather than just as a singular movement; the Italian Renaissance, the German Renaissance, et cetera."
That too is noticeably true; a great change starts, and then sweeps like wildfire across the world. Although this has happened much slower in our own world.
"I think I, and most historians, can say with certainty that the Renaissance began in Italy. There were numerous reasons for this. Italy - which was a region rather than a nationality at the time, most Italian entities were city states - was extremely wealthy when compared to the rest of Europe due to trade. In fact, city states like Venice were practically known for their wealth from trade and business. It must also be said that feudalism, except in the south in Naples and Sicily, had never been particularly strong in Italy, so the typical breakdown of Medieval society into king, noble, and peasant wasn't as strong. What we would call the middle class tended to be much stronger in Italy as a result and probably contributed to why Italy was so particularly wealthy. Additionally, the trade networks that made these cities wealthy also brought with them cultural and material exchange, which only broadened scholars' knowledge and hunger for the arts and classics. And we also have people patronizing art on a major scale. Much of the art we contribute to this era is religious art, such as The Last Supper and Pieta, both of which I mentioned earlier. It also included wonders such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Brunelleschi's Dome. I would like to point out that it wasn't just religious art that was being made; there was just more art in general in this period. We can also thank the Pope and rulers of the Italian city states for their patronage of art. It's thanks to the Papacy and the Medicis of Florence that cultural growth, including art, spread as far and wide as it did, at least in Italy."
Laurens paused for a moment, letting out a long breath of air. As he did so, Cel- Silver twitched her ears, even as she used her magic to quickly write down as much of this stuff as possible.
"We also have increasing scholarly activity at the time. Archeology as we know it was obviously not nearly as advanced as it was today, but people were looking for, and finding, ancient documents, such as the Letters of Cicero, which were found in 1414. Thanks to scholars such as Poggio Bracciolini and Giovanni Boccaccio, among many others, much of what we know about the Romans was recovered and is available to a modern audience. As to scholarly activity, that was another thing going on during the Renaissance; increased education. More people were able to read and pursue scholarships, more people were able to work on art and things that would be have considered frivolous during the Early and High Medieval eras.
"We also have a major schism in Christianity. For well over a hundred years, we've had the Pope, the highest Catholic bishop and the Bishop of Rome, under the firm rule of France, in the city of Avignon. This led to a major schism, with Europe about half divided between following the Avignon Popes and the various antipopes set up in opposition to them Eventually, in 1377 the Papacy did in fact return to Rome, but we had new problems. By the time of the High Renaissance, during the 1460's, the Pope had banned councils as being heretical. This effectively meant that the Pope's power couldn't be challenged by a council of clerics. It would also hamstring the Papacy's efforts to crush the Protestant Reformation later on, as we'll see. Additionally, after the 1460's, we see Popes being elected who were... worldly. They were much more concerned with building church structures, making art, and increasing their own wealth and influence than they were at feeding the spiritual needs of Catholics everywhere. A couple of examples are two Popes elected from the wealthy and powerful, but very worldly, Medici family, Leo X and Clement VII. This led to church corruption in many places, with some church officials gaining multiple titles, meaning they couldn't serve at any one place at a time. It also led to a spiritual hunger in Northern Europe, one that would partly be responsible for the Reformation."
Although the mare could bare process all of this, she made a mental note to herself to read her notes in detail later, along with her textbooks.
"We will be looking distinctly at these subjects, among others, in detail throughout the course. Meanwhile, I expect every student to hold to academic excellence in my class; no cheating, no plagiarism, no using old essays and similar materials to try to scrape by now. Everything you work on will be from this semester, not from last year or ten years ago, or what-have-you. I also expect you to give your work everything you have with the time you have to do them; it may be a fault of mine, but having to give anything lower than an A- is disappointing for me. I understand if you have family or work-related problems, or problems related to scheduling. I also understand if you have medical conditions or trouble that interfere with your work. However, I expect to be told about whatever it is, as far ahead of time as possible. Finally, I want you all to excel at this subject; if you have questions about the subject matter, or you don't understand sometime, then please come and see me; I'll be more than happy to answer. Now, class is dismissed. Please take care, all of you.
Celestia, in her disguise, walked forward. "Professor?"
"Hmm? Oh, yes. First time I've taught... a non-human. What can I do for you?"
"I have to ask, as a new student on the subject, why is human history so blood-stained?"
Laurens took a deep breath. "If you think what humans did in the Medieval and Renaissance eras was bad, 'you ain't seen nothin' yet,' as they say. Trust me; the 19th and 20th centuries see things just as dark, if not darker."
"So humans are growing worse over time?"
"Yes and no. Human beings have struggled with moral issues; colonialism, conquest, slavery, how to treat someone based on the color of their skin and their ethnicity, and many more. I have to add that humans have also gone backward in some respects; when abortion, the killing of the unborn, is legal, then you know something's wrong; the same with sexual deviancy. Likewise to political thuggery on both sides of the political spectrum. Yet I would also argue that in the past two hundred and fifty years, there has been gradual improvement in some areas. Slavery has been formally abolished in much of the world, with those that do still allow or tolerate it are looked down on. We value government of the people, by the people, and for the people; the right for citizens to make their voices heard in government, as opposed to the government just railroading the common man and woman. We've fought to end dictatorships and to end immoral practices, such as the holocaust in Europe and the savagery - no other word, save barbarism, comes close - of fascist and communist rule. We look on things previously seen as good, such as the conquest and subjugation of native Americans, as evil, and view their persecutors as wicked people. While there has been much evil in the world, and still is, I don't know how I could, with a straight face, condemn humanity as having no sense of morality."
"Alright, perhaps the problem is not a lack of morality in a particular sense, but you did admit there are numerous modern moral problems you take issues with."
"I did. But I feel I must raise the issue; as much as I dislike using 'what-about-ism,' I must ask what your own people do that is morally wrong, or what they did in the past that was. I highly doubt Equestria is a paradise where there are no problems or moral issues whatsoever."
The mare paused. "That is true," she said slowly, after a moment. "There are moral issues that plague our country." Not least being the catastrophe that forced us to move here. "However, we've never had a civil war over slavery, nor anything like the Nazi holocaust."
"Perhaps," Laurens replied thoughtfully. "Those were both horrible events. But the lessons from dark days have taught us valuable lessons. For example the sinking of the great ship Titanic brought about necessary safety regulations for ships, including the provision of lifeboats for all on board, as well as a coordinated ice patrol for the Atlantic. The horrors of 9/11 brought about increased security in airports - for better and for worse. And while the world reeled under the Second World War, that conflict, and the various terrible things connected to it such as the Holocaust, brought about lessons as well. While dark days are awful to go through, in a sense there is a silver lining, however slight it may seem to the survivors of such atrocities, for the world to see and take notice of."
"But would it not be better to avoid such 'dark days' altogether?"
Laurens scratched the back of his neck. "That's certainly a question, no doubt about it. And I certainly think we should stop them if possible. But we can't stop all bad things from happening even if we tried; for example, the Titanic sank because the way she collided with the iceberg caused 'freak damage' that was not considered a practical possibility at the time. And binoculars and searchlights, as much as people talk about them, would have done little good on a moonless night, especially given that nocturnal optics were scarcely a thing in 1912."
"Couldn't the ship have avoided the iceberg?"
"As I said, night vision wasn't a thing back then, and the ship's first officer allowed her to plow ahead at full speed despite warnings and sightings of lesser ice beforehand, which was against the White Star Line's policy. And the previous winter caused icebergs to go much further south that year than in prior years, so even though Titanic was on the 'southern track,' she wasn't far south enough avoid the ice altogether. Between human error and the combination of natural phenomena, the collision was a near-certainty. And before you start on the human error part, I'm sure that 'pony error' is something that occurs in Equestria as well."
The mare bowed her head. "It does. We do have problems back in the homeland. For instance, there are tensions between the various pony tribes, especially the thestrals."
"Those are the bat ponies, right?"
"Yes. They've been hated ever since m- Nightmare Moon first happened. Even after Princess Luna's return and reformation, her beloved thestrals have faced discrimination because of their nocturnal nature and their fangs. However, it has never gotten to the point where anypony tried to wipe all of them ouuuuuu-" She came to a stop.
"What?"
"...Back in the days just after Nightmare Moon was banished, a duke named August Splendor called for the thestrals to be locked in prisons, or for special "colonies" to be set up for them. His proposals were shot down by the Princess, but he took action behind her back. As in your world, the nobility in those days had a freer hoof to do as they pleased, and he had hundreds of thestrals within his jurisdiction arrested, most on trumped up charges, and threw them into prison camps. 'Camps' perhaps isn't the word to describe them; they were jails without cells, a place for soldiers to work thestrals until they died, and the food shipments - except for the soldiers guarding these camps, of course - were often not enough to feed the poor prisoners, and it was often moldy and maggot-infested. Thankfully, the Princess found these camps, freed the thestrals and helped to heal them; Splendor was arrested, stripped of all his titles and nobility, and de-knighted. Sadly, about a hundred thestrals died of overwork and malnutrition before this horrendous process was halted."
"...I've never heard of that, as much as I've tried to get my hands of Equestrian history."
"Most ponies don't know about it, professor. It wasn't something the Princess was eager to advertise, that Harmony had failed these unfortunates. It wasn't covered up, but it was, for a lack of a better term, allowed to die. Not all forgot, of course; modern day thestrals still point to it when they're being bullied or feeling stressed relations with the other tribes. It's partly due to this incident that for nearly a thousand years the vast majority of them withdrew to mountains and caves, where they set up their own cities. Even today it is relatively rare to meet a thestral outside of their domains, although they come outside at night much more now that Princess Luna has returned."
"It sounds like something that shouldn't have been forgotten. It should have been remembered; not as an example for others to emulate, never that, but as an example of how far real prejudice can go, and to contrast it with the much better way of harmony that your leaders advocate for. And it might have allowed the thestrals to re-integrate better into society."
Celestia wanted to speak up in her own defense; it wasn't so simple; if the event was more remembered, it might be a stain upon the harmony she had been trying to build at the time, a concept that, although inherent within most of ponykind ever since the windigo incident, was still struggling to find a hard foundation.
...But if she was really being honest with herself, though, the "Splendor Camps" were a reminder that she had failed Luna, and had continued to fail her even after her alter-ego was banished.
She also had to remember that she wasn't a Princess here; she was Silver Mane, Equestrian student of history and other subjects, who was learning about the human world in order to bring necessary knowledge about them to her people in order to better their understanding and lot in this new world.
As a result, she simply bowed her head in response after thinking for a moment.
"Not that I necessarily find it easy to blame them; many of us want to forget dark days as well, especially those caused by human beings. You'll find that truth is often a mixture of light and darkness, Miss Mane; sometimes, it is light that is more dominant, other times the darkness."
"You make a convincing argument." Then something caught in her brain. "Do you and professor Roux know each other, by any chance?"
"I should say so! Charles and I are... well, maybe not best friends - Professor James Philips fits that description - but certainly friends as well as colleagues. We do disagree, and quite often, on many on theological points - he's more free will, I'm more predestination and determinist - but we like to discuss and debate theology and history together every so often; it's fun, and it stimulates the brain a bit. Why do you ask?"
"Because your lectures sound a lot alike."
"Well, I suppose it's partly because we're experts in the same field, and partly because we've rubbed off on each other over the years." He looked at his watch. "And now, if you'll forgive me, I really must go; my next class is in five minutes."
"Of course; thank you for your time."
"Not a problem." The man walked out of the room, leaving the mare alone with her thoughts.