western civilization- renaissance terms

Renaissance & Reformation – Term Sheet

Person/Place/Event      What Came Before, Describe, What Came After?

Renaissance	The rebirth of interest in knowledge and antiquity in Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Expansion of Trade	By 1500 north German coastal towns established the Hanseatic League growing to more than eighty towns. The league established many settlements and commercial bases across Northern Europe. The Hanseatic league had a monopoly over Northern European trade for over two hunder years with Bruges as the major port. Italy, especially Venice, began to grow in trade with the Ottoman empire.
Banking and the Medici	The banking grew in Florence thanks to the Medici family. They expanded from cloth production to commerce, real estate, and banking. The Medici family was the biggest bank in Europe at the time with branches all across Europe. The bank began to experience troubles near the end of the 15th century from bad loans, bad leadership, and uncollectible loans.
Machiavelli	In 1498 Machiavelli entered the service of the Florence republic as secretary of the Florence council of ten. In 1512 french invasion and Spanish defeat led to the reestablishment of the Medici family and staunch republicans, including Machiavelli, were exiled and forced to not participate in politics. Having to give up his great love of politics, Machiavelli he now reflected on politics and wrote books. His most famous being “The Prince”. His political views came from his knowledge of ancient Rome and Italy’s political problems. In the prince he outlines human nature and how a prince should behave in accordance.
Emergence of Humanism	Petrarch is known as the father of humanism in the renaissance. Humanism was the intellectual movement on the study of classical literary works of Greece and Rome. Humanities encompassed rhetoric, poetry, grammar, and moral and ethical philosophy. Petrarch led a conquest for forgotten Latin manuscripts and raided monastic libraries throughout Europe.
Impact of Printing	The invention of the printing press was the most significant invention of the western civilization. Before they would use wood block system of printing. But in part thanks to Johannes Gutenberg there was now a quicker more ideal way of printing that used metal movable letters. The bible was the first actual book printed and the printing press would soon be widespread throughout Europe. Along with the spread of the printing press the reemergence of classical antiquity literature was seen. This caused an influx of the desire of knowledge, cooperation between scholars, and standardized texts. The reformation can be attributed to printing as well.
Michelangelo	“Giant” of the high renaissance who was a painter, sculpture, and architect.  He was a feverishly energetic worker with a drive to create. Neo-Platonism inspired him, which can be seen in his most famous work the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. Another famous work of Michelangelo was his David. A fourteen foot tall sculpture that shows the beauty of the human body and the glory of human beings.
Leonardo da Vinci	Da vinci studied everything even dissecting human bodies to see how nature worked. He stressed the a need to go beyond realism and brought in the high renaissance view of idealized nature. He was an inventor, painter, and a advocate of anatomy among other things.
The Hapsburgs	The Habsburg dynasty ruled the holy Roman empire. The Habsburg success was not due to military achievements but well executed dynastic marriages. The inter Marrying of the bold of Burgundy and the Emperors daughter, for example, brought much land into the possession of the Empire. Due to unexpected deaths of royals Charles, son of Ferdinand and Isabella, came in direct inheritance of three lines: Habsburg, Burgundian , and Spanish. This made him the leading monarch of the time.
Ottoman Turks Defeat Byzantines	Beginning in the thirteenth century the Ottoman Turks began to spread rapidly through lands of the Seljuk Turks and the Byzantine empire. After taking over Serbia and Bosnia the Ottoman empire laid siege upon Constantinople laying waste to the Byzantine empire.
Protestant Reformation	Reforms of the catholic church led by Martin luther and 95 theses of Christian reforms.
Erasmus	The most influential of the northern Renaissance humanists.he sought to restore Christianity to the early simplicity that was found in the teachings of Jesus himself. His reform did not achieve what he wanted in the church. His work did pave the way for the Reformation.
Thomas More	More was Lord chancellor of England. His political career did not keep him from his other spiritual and intellectual endeavors. In 1516 more wrote the famous novel, “utopia”. The novel outlined the idea life and perfect institutions of the community. He served under king Henry VIII where his views in “Utopia”, were contradicted but he covered his tracks in the novel by rationalizing his service to the king.
Early Luther	Born in germany he studied law at Erfurt receiving a bachelors degree and soon gaining his master in arts. After, Luther entered a monastery to become a monk. He grew doubtful of some of the practices of the church including confession.
Justification	The act of someone being made deserving of salvation. This was the primary doctrine of the protestant reformation.
Indulgence Controversy	Luther did not see himself as a heretic as many did. Nor did he see himself as a innovator. He was forced to see the theological implications of the justification system due to his confrontation with church officials. Angered by the indulgences of the church martin Luther wrote his 95 theses.
Quickening Rebellion	The debate of Leipzig with Martin Luther and John Eck of the Catholic church was the turning point in the reformations validity. The catholic church saw him as a heretic but Luther saw himself as doing God’s work.
95 Theses	95 theses mark the beginning of the reformation. They were Luther’s response of Johann Tetzel’s abuses in selling indulgences. Among some of his points in this was his doubt of the Popes power, disdain for confession, and indulgences with the church money.
Rise of Lutheranism	In 1522 Luther returned to Wittenberg and started his reformed church.  His translation of the new testament into German was one of his foremost achievements. Because only 4-5% of Germans were literate the Luther’s word was spread through sermons. More and more preachers were spreading Luther’s reforms from city to city.
Spread of Luther’s Ideas	With the growing amount of preachers spreading the reforms of Luther from city to city these new ideals were growing more popular. It Started to spread from the northern and central states in Germany and encompassing two thirds of the free imperial cities, especially in the southern areas. Nuremburg was the first of these cities to convert in 1525.
Peasants’ War	Dissatisfaction of the peasants with several aspects led to this short-lived war. Peasants did not see the economic improvement touch them, abuse from their lords, and new taxes and services were required. The peasants also grew unsatisfied with the religious social aspect and looked to Martin Luther for leadership. But Luther was against the peasants because he knew how much his reformation relied on the Princes and Magistrates of Germany.
Reformation in England and Henry VIII	Initiated by king Henry VIII because he wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and the pope would not allow it. The pope being subservient to the Holy Roman Emperor who was Catherines nephew denied the king his request of annulment. This was important because king Henry VIII was in love with Anne Boleyn whom was with child and it was pertinent that the marriage be legitimate so that his son was as well. So with the help of Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell who advised him to have the annulment in the courts of England. After doing so he had made the act of supremacy, which declared Henry the only head of the church of England. In 1536 over 400 religious houses were closed and possessions confiscated by the king. Also that year Henry was tired of Anne Boleyn and had her beheaded on the grounds of adultery. He married jane Seymour who finally produced him a male heir but she died twelve days later. His fourth wife Anne of Cleves, a German Princess was a political marriage but he was unpleased with her looks and divorced her. His fifth wife Catherine Howard was more attractive but soon committed adultery and was beheaded. His last wife Catherine Parr outlived him and his son from his third wife took the throne but was only nine years old. The church of England then began to move in a protestant direction.
John Calvin	The second generation of protestant reformers. He believed in the inner guidance of god. After being chased out of France from the threat of the king he wrote the “Institutes of Christian Religion” a synthesis of protestant thought.
Predestination	Calvin’s idea that God had predestined some people to be saved and some people were to be damned. This was derived from his idea of God’s absolute sovereignty.
The Catholic Reformation	Due to the reforms the Catholic church needed to make some reforms for themselves. There was a revival of the old ways of the church that dated back to days of the Medieval Catholicism.
Council of Trent	The council of cardinals, bishops, and other papal authorities was created to resolve issues created from the protestant revolts. But due to outbreak of the plague, war between France and Spain, and constant changing of popes there were not regular annual meetings. The catholic church hoped that compromises could be made for the protestants to return to the church.  The catholic church was successful in reinstating the supreme power of the pope which would remain unchanged for four hundred years.

Summarize Luther’s Main Points        The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the Canons. Therefore by “full remission of all penalties” the pope means not actually “of all,” but only of those imposed by himself. Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, which say that by the pope’s indulgences a man is freed from every penalty, and saved; They preach man who says that so soon as the penny jingles into the moneybox, the soul flies out of purgatory. It is certain that when the penny jingles into the moneybox, gain and avarice can be increased, but the result of the intercession of the Church is in the power of God alone. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the pardon-preachers, he would rather that St. Peter’s church should go to ashes, than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep. This unbridled preaching of pardons makes it no easy matter, even for learned men, to rescue the reverence due to the pope from slander, or even from the shrewd questionings of the laity. To wit: “Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial.” “Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers?” To repress these arguments and scruples of the laity by force alone, and not to resolve them by giving reasons, is to expose the Church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies, and to make Christians unhappy. Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and hell; And thus be confident of entering into heaven rather through many tribulations, than through the assurance of peace.

Which do you think are his most powerful and why? I feel that Luther’s theses that are the most powerful are those regarding the Pope. Luther indicts the Pope for his actions and politely calls him a fraud. These statements must have been a huge blow to Catholicism and Catholics who put their faith in the Pope as the messenger of God.

When comparing Roman Catholic and Protestant churches today, what evidence is found here that may explain differing viewpoints on Christianity? Some aspects of the bible are rejected by protestants where as Catholics accept. In Catholicism priesthood is a special vocation where as in the protestant church priests are all believers. Good deeds receive merit in catholic church where they do not in the Protestant church.

Connecting History

How does the theme, “The importance of history is realizing its presence” connect to people and/or events in this module? Provide examples. The people who lived to see the renaissance without any doubt realized history’s presence. They knew they were witnessing something great; a grand social revolution. Also a raised awareness in people knowledge of antiquity rose and was studied more.

How does the theme, “The same conditions always produce the same results” connect to people and/or events in this module? Provide examples. In a geographical/agricultural sense when the climate changed from colder to warmer the renaissance came along. Before the previous climate change to cold the warm period brought surplus and prosperity to the Roman empire.

How does the theme “The only thing new in the world is the history you didn’t know” connect to people and/or themes in this module? Provide examples. With Machiavelli’s novel “the Prince” He was describing the ways of human nature and how princes should act to maintain control. This was not a new concept nor was it new to Machiavelli. It was indeed a new concept and history that most readers did not know.