The Pritting Press Essay -- essays research papers

In 1440 a man by the man of Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type, or as we know it, a printing press. Prior to 1440 everything read in Europe was copied by hand or copied from wooden blocks carved from hand. This was very expensive and time consuming. The only people who were literate were those of the church and a small percentage of nobility. Since the printing press came out, how would this effect European culture and the way things worked?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The printing press had many effects on Europe. Very few peasants could read and besides that there wasn’t much to read but scriptures. The things that were being read were hand written and of course this took a long time and so not many people wanted to take the time to do it. Monks spent there days and nights copying and writing scriptures in solitude. At the time Latin was the only language the bible was written in, this was about to change.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The time the printing press was invented was the era of the Renaissance. The Renaissance era is known for inventions and art and new ideas. The printing press was just one of the many inventions that came out of the Renaissance era. I believe this to be one of the biggest inventions to come out around this time because it changed everything and the way we read now. I am sure that someone else later would have thought of this but for the time if brought on new ideas.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some of the ideas that came about we...

Angles and Demons by Dan Brown Essay

Angles and Demons by Dan Brown was a reading choice out of curiosity rather than real interest because of the Da Vinci Code by the same author. I wanted to see what other works of fiction Dan Brown came up with before his controversial book. This book had me raising my eyebrows more than a few times with story line but that did not stop me from turning the pages until I got to the end. Angels and Demons basically follows the same formula as the Da Vinci Code. It begins with a murder which only Robert Langdon seems capable of solving with his knowledge of religious iconology and history; a strong female character, Vittoria Vetra, daughter to the murder victim Leonardo Vetra, assists Langdon in his â€Å"quest†; a hired assassin who is delusional, a fanatic and has unquestionable loyalty to his belief carries out an unforeseen but well-crafted plan; an ancient secret society, the Illuminati, is out to get revenge on the Church; finally, an unexpected mastermind who calls himself as Janus, works behind the curtains. An anti-matter canister was stolen from CERN when Leonardo Vetra was murdered and this is assumed to have a life span of 24 hours before the batteries die and it explodes. Brown remains true to using archaic bits of knowledge to leave a trail for Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra to follow from Switzerland to the Vatican City in order to find the missing anti-matter canister and find the murderer of Leonardo Vetra. The plot thickens when the anti-matter canister bomb threatens the Vatican and the conclave in the process of choosing the new Pope. The book ends dramatically with a seemingly miraculous event followed by the declaration of a new Pope. Though I enjoyed the chase more from Angels and Demons rather than the Da Vinci Code, I must say that, as a priest, Brown seems have some issues with the Church to come up with troubling concepts for his books. First you have Leonardo Vetra, a priest who turns away from the Church. He becomes a leading physicist of CERN and, together with his adopted daughter, tries to find God through science and research. They seem to be successful with the development of the anti-matter, which was stolen when Vetra was murdered. You also have a Pope who sired a child with a nun, though through artificial means. The child later becomes his camerlengo, the Pope’s Chamberlain. The camerlengo, Carlo Ventresca, unaware of his paternal parentage, murders the Pope upon knowing his dark secret with the belief that he is both cleansing and protecting the Church. Though the book is admittedly a work of fiction, it borders on tarnishing how Catholics and non-Catholics may view the Church and its priests. Brown puts into question the honesty and loyalty of priests to the Mother Church and their commitment to the vow of celibacy, as seen with the Pope. It is appalling to think that Jesus’ surrogates on Earth would be the first ones to violate their vows. Brown also pits religion versus science. Leonardo Ventra is murdered for his research on anti-matter which can supposedly prove the beginning of life, that science can prove God’s existence. I’d like to think that religion is a matter of faith and science is a matter of fact, the two just can’t mix when it comes to explaining God. Then you have the camerlengo who is himself delusional and a fanatic in his belief that the Church, and not science, is the saving power of the world with himself at the wheel of salvation. He goes to great lengths to get the world’s attention, discredit Science and put the Church on a pedestal for the world to see. Angels and Demons made me uncomfortable with the image of the Church that it created – a divided, secretive, vindictive and vulnerable body. Readers, both Catholics and non-Catholics should be discriminating of the events in this book, lest they forget that this is only a work of fiction.

The Watergate Scandal In The United States of America - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1641 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/07/30 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Watergate Scandal Essay Did you like this example? On June 17, 1972 five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Complex in Washington, DC. This began the biggest political scandal in presidential history. At the same time, it also began a massive cover up that was attempted by Nixon and his aides, but eventually failed and only served to incriminate him. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Watergate Scandal In The United States of America" essay for you Create order At first glance, it may be difficult to understand how a seemingly third-rate burglary could be connected all the way up to Nixon and his administration. There would be a great amount of evidence, speculation, and guilt surrounding Richard Nixon that eventually resulted in him being the first and only President to ever resign from office. It required much effort from the media and reporters Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein played a crucial role in solving the case. The Watergate Scandal tore apart The United States of America and resulted in tragedy for Richard Nixon and his administration while bringing triumph to Robert Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and other investigative reporters. The Watergate Scandal involved a lot of illegal activities that were meant to help President Richard Nixon win his re-election. The scandal included burglary, wiretapping, finance violations, and the use of government power to harm political enemies (Baughman). A major part of the scandal was also the cover-up and lies of all these illegal and inappropriate actions. Watergate, however, was not like previous political scandals because greed did not appear to play as an important factor. Instead, Watergate went after one of the chief figures of our country. The Watergate Scandal received its title from the Watergate Complex in Washington D.C. This large office building was the home to the Democratic National Headquarters, and the site of the break-in that started this story. However, even before it occurred, President Nixon had begun illegal and suspicious activities. President Nixon created a special investigation unit to prevent the leaking of confidential documents that he did not want the public to see (Fritz). He did this after Defense Department papers were released into the public revolving around President Nixons concerns over criticism of his Vietnam War policies. The Plumbers, as they were nicknamed, were lead by two of Nixons top aides, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt (Morton). In order to prevent any information leaks, the Plumbers investigated the personal lives of Richard Nixons political opponents. The White House responded to these actions of the plumbers by saying that they were defending National Security. The actual scandal began on June 17, 1972, with the initial arrest of five men for breaking into the Democratic Partys National Headquarters located in the Watergate Complex in Washington D.C. These five men were part of the Committee to Re-Elect Richard Nixon. They were trying to repair a broken phone tap that they had installed roughly one month before. The five men were charged with burglary and wiretapping (Friedman). Over the next few months as time passed this minor break-in turned into a full blown political scandal. The Washington Post had two highly regarded reporters who researched deep into the investigation. These two men were Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, and they were able to find that one of the suspects had an address book that matched name and phone number of a White House official who could have potentially been involved in the crime (Fritz). The two reporters suspected that the break-in had been ordered by high up White House officials that surrounded Nixon. In a press conference in August of 1972, President Nixon claimed that no one on the White House Staff was involved in this crime. The majority of the public population accepted Nixons word and dropped any questioning they may have had. But when the burglars were forced into trial four months later, this investigation turned into a political scandal. When first questioned on the investigation in 1973, Richard Nixon denied all allegations that he or any White House official was linked to this crime. Later, evidence was discovered that connected a handful of White House officials to the break-in, and or the cover-up and concealment of the evidence. This information proved that White House officials had attempted reached out to the CIA about covering up the crime. In April 1973, prosecutor Archibald Cox was appointed to handle this case. Presidential Council John W. Dean III became the chief witness against President Nixon and testified against him in the court of hearings. On trial, Dean admitted that he was apart of the scandal and that Nixon was well aware of the illegal activities being committed by his administration and council (Samuels). Dean also testified that Nixon had plans to manipulate the IRS and other government agencies to punish people who the White House had placed on what they referred to as an enemies-lists (Melvin). Dean served four months in prison for his role in the Watergate Scandal, but opened a new door through his testimony. Through a more intense investigation it was discovered by Alexander P. Butterfield, that President Nixon had made tape recordings of conversations with fellow officials in his administration. When asked to release the tapes President Nixon refused, claiming that he had a constitutional right to keep the tapes private. He was then ordered by the court to hand over the tapes without further negotiation. Nixon offered to provide summaries for all of the tapes, but his proposal was rejected and he was once again ordered to hand over all of the original tapes. Completely at crossroads by the courts decision, he commanded his attorney general and his deputy attorney general to fire Cox. For their refusal to fire Cox, both Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus were relieved of their duties as well. This series of events by Richard Nixon was remembered as the Saturday Night Massacre (Genovese). When Cox was fired, Leon Jaworski was appointed and selected to take his place. The firing of Cox, in many ways, did not work to Richard Nixons advantage. In April of 1974, Jaworski ordered Nixon to release the tape recordings and various documents of over 64 White House conversations and proceedings. By the end of April, Nixon had given up 1,254 pages of transcripts and recordings from White House conversations. However, Jaworski was not pleased with this. He demanded that Nixon turn over the original tapes. With President Nixon refusing give the court the original tapes, Jaworski sued him and won the lawsuit. In July, The Supreme Court demanded Nixon to hand over all of the original tapes and ruled that the President cannot withhold any evidence in a criminal case (Friedman). With the tapes in possession, Jaworski began the Watergate trial. In March of 1974, seven of Nixons former members of his council and re-election committee were charged with conspiracy in the cover-up of the initial break-in. Among these seven men were, John D. Ehrlichman, H.R. Haldeman, and John N. Mitchell. They were all found guilty in court of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. They were finally sentenced to 2 and a half to 8 years in prison. Their prison terms were later reduced to just 1 to 4 years at minimum. G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt were also indicted for their involvement as plumbers in this crime and for their involvement in attempting to cover up the scandal. They were sentenced to 1 to 4 years in prison as well (Samuels). In July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted a landslide to impeach President Nixon. They used three articles of impeachment in their decision: obstruction of justice, abusing presidential powers, and illegally withholding evidence from the judiciary committee. On August 5, Nixon finally gave up the final three transcripts of the White House recordings. These final recordings were dated back to six days after the initial break-in. These conversations revealed that Nixon had ordered the FBI to give up on its investigation of the break-in. Nixon ordered them to wrap up the investigation because he feared that the FBI would discover the involvement of his administration. After the release of these final tapes, Nixon lost all of his support in Congress. With no support, and theoretically already impeached, President Nixons top aides advised him to resign. On August 9, 1974 President Richard M. Nixon wisely followed their advice, and resigned from the presidency to officially avoid i mpeachment. Vice President Gerald R. Ford replaced immediately. On September 8, 1974 President Ford pardoned Richard Nixon of all crimes that he had committed while serving as the President of the United States of America (Morton). The resignation of the President, accounted to nearly forty people, and a nation in clear disgust were not the only results of the Watergate Scandal. Richard Nixon would become the first and only President to ever resign from office. In 1974 Congress approved reforms in the financing of political campaigns and certain criteria regarding it (Fritz). The reforms limited the amount of money that could be received by contributors and donors of various sorts and required detailed reporting of all contributions and spending fees. These new laws were adopted shortly after by state legislation as well. The Watergate Scandal tore apart The United States of America and resulted in tragedy for Richard Nixon and his administration while bringing triumph to Robert Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and other investigative reporters. It is hard to imagine that the President of the United States could commit a criminal act to this extent while serving the country. Many citizens initially doubted that the burglary would be connected to Nixon and his administration. Various people played crucial roles in incriminating Nixon and proving his guilt. At the end of it all, American citizens were disgusted with Richard Nixon and simply could not believe what he had done. If it wasnt for the efforts of investigative reporters such as Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Richard Nixon may have never been caught, changing the course of history for our nation.