Patrick Wyman's The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (published in 2021 by Twelve) focuses primarily on the years1490-1530. He argues this period was critical for understanding the modern world as the West moved through these four decades of transition.
In the process of surveying some of the main historical events of this period, he teases out key cultural markers that (he argues) set the stage for the coming period and the world we know today.
A fair bit of time is spent on the unification of Spain and the voyage of Columbus as well as the Italian Wars which eventually range beyond the period he covers. These events were important in themselves and yet Wyman is particularly interested in the transformation of economics and things like Renaissance warfare, the gunpowder revolution, and tying them together – how economics affected the new of age warfare and made it possible.
Students of the period know this discussion cannot be had without considering the Fugger banking empire. Wyman explains how the ancient and medieval prohibition on interest (or usury) was evaded by means of things like currency exchange and fees. Of course this period would also mark a fundamental shift as interest was ultimately embraced and usury redefined as meaning not just interest, but excessive interest, the definition familiar in contemporary society. It's clear enough that Wyman supports this shift and wants to make a substantial argument in favour of capitalism as not just a means of generating wealth and prosperity, but a means of transformation – as the world and the horizon of possibilities was limited when credit was absent.
In addition there's the question of the printing press which was invented before Wyman's time-frame and yet he argues that it did not come into its own or become a cultural force until this period. Or viewed differently, without the press and the nascent printing industry, many of the developments and advances of the 1490-1530 epoch would not have been possible.
This brings us to the Reformation which he covers, though primarily through a sociological lens – which is deficient and yet many contemporary fans of the Magisterial Reformation often exhibit a similar kind of myopia and focusing on the theological revolution, miss many of the larger cultural aspects and impacts of the movement as well as its greater context. In some respects the Reformation failed as in many quarters it did not produce genuine conversion and godliness but was embraced for other reasons. This must be understood if one hopes to grasp the events leading up to The Peasants' War of 1524 or even the Sack of Rome in 1527.
The Habsburgs are covered as they consolidated their power during this period. An already connected and powerful family, their many marriage schemes bore real fruit culminating in the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V who ruled much of Europe and the New World. In fact the larger Habsburg Domain (which ranged well beyond the Imperial constituency) was so vast that after Charles abdicated in the mid-1550's, it was split into what would become the Spanish and Austrian branches. The inbred Spanish line would of course die out by 1700 and be replaced by the Bourbons, while the Austrian line continued until the end of World War I.
And then we have the Turkish advance, and as Wyman points out if someone had been granted a bird's eye view of the period, all bets would have been on the Ottomans. They had the military power, efficiency, and order – and during the period from the late fourteenth century until the seventeenth century they seemed unstoppable.
Twice, they were famously stopped at Vienna in 1529 (by weather and attrition) and again in 1683 by military defeat. And yet many forget that the Ottomans conquered nearly all of the Balkans, ruling the peninsula for a full four (and in some cases five) centuries. And for almost two hundred years, most of Hungary was also part of the Ottoman Empire with some churches transformed into mosques with bell towers serving as minarets. The Balkans remained under their control until the nineteenth century with conflicts over remaining territories continuing until the eve of World War I.
And so Wyman wrestles with the question of why did Europe end up surpassing the once all-powerful Ottomans in terms of military might? It took time to be sure but once the tide turned, the Ottoman Empire became the Sick Man of Europe and endured a more than two-hundred year decline until its ultimate collapse in the aftermath of World War I.
Of course it might be added the Habsburgs also collapsed within the same time period.
One might say that economics overshadows all the discussions in Wyman's work. It could be summarized as a celebration of Capitalism and a testimony to the power of credit and an unfolding of its possibilities.
He argues that with credit, great and visionary projects can be funded. It opens up the possibilities of innovation and this in turn fosters competition.
In the course of the discussion regarding the Ottomans, he reveals numerous interesting points such as the fact that European states were always in debt while the Ottoman Sultans ran budget surpluses. Once again in terms of sheer efficiency and discipline, the Ottomans were the force to be reckoned with and with a centralized power structure, the Sultan could quickly amass huge armies that dwarfed European efforts.
And yet Wyman argues that the Ottoman system stagnated – its command economy lacked the power of innovation. On the contrary in Europe, the profit motive drove the already mentioned twin forces of competition and innovation and as such the race to get ahead eventually pushed Europe as a whole to surpass the Ottomans. Technology was able to overcome numbers and eventually the tide would turn so thoroughly that the Ottomans had little hope of standing up to Western might.
To his credit, Wyman does not shy away from the fact that millions died in the many wars of struggle and millions more died in the New World. And it must not be overlooked that millions were also enslaved through the subsequent centuries, but from his standpoint these ills are reduced to bumps in the road, necessary evils, or growing pains for a mighty civilization.
In fact the economic angle to the story could be described as a fixation or even central organising principle – almost akin to what one reads in Marxist analysis and yet in this case it's a Capitalist read. It was interesting to say the least.
Typically these types of arguments and framing are found with Libertarian circles but Libertarianism is just a more extreme form of Classical Liberalism – the assumptions and general principles are shared. Wyman's argument is more in keeping with Liberalism and notions of progress.
For all the fears of woke indoctrination in a secular state college these ideas are almost exactly what my son has encountered over the last year – not all that different from what he might have heard had he attended a place like Grove City College. The Christian angle in The Verge is not as flattering but to be fair it's probably more honest. As a mainstream dissident this doesn't upset me. Some might think that if the tale is told this way Christianity is impugned. Doesn't that bother me? No, because the Christianity being spoken of has nothing to do with the belief system and religion that is revealed in the pages of the New Testament. I have no interest in defending the heresy of Christendom and its many evils – and because it's a heresy it shouldn't surprise us that its ethics are also heretical – a baptising of mammon and murder.
The secular liberal professors my son encounters teach post-Renaissance Western civilisation in a manner very reminiscent of Wyman's The Verge. It's ugly but it had to be – it was for the best. They are thoroughly capitalist and yet they're not necessarily Libertarian types. Their view of the state and its responsibilities is more complex. They are capitalists but more Centre-Right as opposed to Far Right which has become the normative ideology within the GOP and today's conservative Evangelicalism. They may in some cases give a nod to certain aspects of Identity Politics, but this is not a central theme, and critics fail to note that the Right (and especially the Christian Right) has its own version of this bias.
The same (Centre-Right) orientation might be identified with regard to people like Biden and Pelosi – but this of course will not be heard as so many are convinced (wrongly) that they are communists. It's absurd and unhelpful. The fact that they believe in patronage – in bread crumbs being tossed to the lower classes for the sake of social stability and cohesion does not represent a fundamental challenge to the system. I know the Libertarians and Evangelicals won't have it but their judgment is clouded by the fog of political struggle.
And speaking of Evangelicals, some might be a little uncomfortable with Wyman's narrative. What made the West better and more powerful in the end? They would want to say Christianity, while for Wyman it's clearly Capitalism.
To be fair there are some Evangelicals who would argue it's not an either-or question as Capitalism is an outgrowth of Christianity – some of them absurdly suggesting it's derived from Biblical principles. They'll quote the Eighth Commandment which prohibits theft as implying a right to private property. It's a ridiculous oversimplification and completely ignores the historical discussions regarding these points and how such terms are defined. I guess it's news to them but private property also exists in other economic and social systems – even Socialism acknowledges it, albeit within a different framework and set of ethics and obligations.
Contrary to these pro-Western and pro-Capitalist narratives, the New Testament militates against Capitalism. The ethical imperative of Zion is antithetical to caveat emptor, to profiting at the expense of others, to thinking godliness is gain – let alone the deeper philosophical questions regarding money and its relationship to power, and the notion of profiting from the disadvantage of others or their insecurity, or even their muddled thinking. Such exploitation and the relationship of money and power as exhibited in the Capitalist system is the antithesis of turning the other cheek, the New Testament's call to reject lawsuits, its condemnation of those who use the courts, and those who are trapped and deceived by mammon. The Scriptures forbid all interest, not just the modern definition of usury and Christian history overwhelmingly testifies to this – until the Renaissance when the conflict emerged and then with the final victory of Usury at the time of the Enlightenment.
Of course these points cannot be taken for granted even though they are plainly taught. The False Church has an extensive set of arguments and theological frameworks to counter these teachings and explain them away and given that the sell-out theologians who participate in this dark apologetic often themselves grow wealthy and gain access to power – the list of volunteers is inexhaustible.
One might say Capitalism (as per Wyman) provides a good secular narrative – but it still must be condemned. As such, a very different reading of Western history – indeed of Church history is required.
Others like Gordon Clark and those associated with the misnamed Trinity Foundation argue that modern Western Civilisation is built on the foundation of Justification by Faith Alone. This prima facie ridiculous narrative relies on mythological reading of the Magisterial Reformation and tends to treat it as a revival akin to a Second Pentecost. When put that way, it will of course be denied but it is the de facto understanding of many in that camp and since the history becomes effectively redemptive (all but starting over in 1517) – the many darker aspects of the tale are simply whitewashed. The individualist aspect of this argument is subsequently wed to later Enlightenment notions of economics and the rise of capitalism.
And yet to the frustration of men like the Clarkian John Robbins who proffered this distortion of history (which was in keeping with his general distortions of Scripture), the narrative is collapsing. Protestants who want to claim the entirety of the Western heritage are bound to reject this narrow Protestant reading of the history and not a few finding themselves wading in the Tiber, decide to go ahead and swim across finding comfort is a larger and more coherent Western tradition represented by Rome.