This Week in #Armor is a bit different. We usually discuss weaponry, armor, historic figures and events, fighting techniques, etc.. However, it is the New Year and we would like to extend peace to all humanity--because for a brief time in medieval Italy, they almost abolished war for a minute. Centuries before the first Woodstock concert, in 1399 CE, a movement of anti-war, pacifist, medieval hippies called The Bianchi sought to end military conflict. War had ravaged much of Europe at that time and Italy was no exception. For hundreds of years, it seemed to many that political and civil uprisings, plague, and the Italian city-states constant warring amonst each other had gone on long enough. The Bianchi movement started telling people to chill out in early summer around Genoa, touched off by religious fervor. And while even high-ranking clergy became a part of the movement, there is no evidence they organized it. There is also no evidence they sang Kum Ba Yah. The Bianchi was, in fact, a movement of the people that succeded in stopping much of the violence and disorder in and around the Itailan city-states for a few months. While it did not last long, the Bianchi peace movement forever left an impression on the social and political consiousness of Europe--it might just be possible to seek non-military solutions to conflict. It is arguable that the Bianchi movement laid the foundation for the entire Renaissance period. When a people cease to pursue war, they are free to pursue creativity and innovation, free to pursue exploration, commerce, science, technology, mathematics, medicine, engineering, architecture, music and art--hallmarks of Renaissance civilization, of any civilization. Would you like to read more? Visit: medievalists.net/2013/12/27/a-medieval-peace-movement/ Now, back to our regularly scheduled violence.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 19:09:57 +0000
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