AP EURO UNIT 1 VOCABULARY
Petrarch
(1304-74) Italian scholar, poet, and humanist whose poems addressed to Laura, an idealized beloved, contributed to the Renaissance flowering of lyric poetry. His inquiring mind and love of Classical authors led him to travel, visiting men of learning and searching monastic libraries for Classical manuscripts. He was regarded as the greatest scholar of his age. One of the pioneers of humanism.
Michelangelo
(1475-1564) Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. He was considered the greatest living artist in his lifetime, and ever since then he has been held to be one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of his works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence. Although the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are probably the best known of his works today, the artist thought of himself primarily as a sculptor. A side effect of his fame was that his career was more fully documented than that of any artist of the time or earlier.
Thomas More
(1478-1535); He wrote Utopia (1516), which was a criticism of contemporary society. He was a humanist and close friend to Erasmus. He was a close friend and diplomat of Henry VIII, but he rejected the Act of Supremacy (king is head of church not pope) and refused to recognize Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn, so he was executed.
Ferdinand Magellan
(1480-1521) Portuguese navigator and explorer who sailed under the flags of both Portugal (1505-13) and Spain (1519-21). From Spain he sailed around South America, discovering the Strait of Magellan, and across the Pacific. Though he was killed in the Philippines, one of his ships continued westward to Spain, accomplishing the first circumnavigation of Earth.
Martin Luther
(1483-1546) German theologian and religious reformer who was the catalyst of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Through his words and actions, Luther precipitated a movement that reformulated certain basic tenets of Christian belief and resulted in the division of Western Christendom between Roman Catholicism and the new Protestant traditions, mainly Lutheranism, Calvinism, the Anglican Communion, the Anabaptists, and the Antitrinitarians. He is one of the most influential figures in the history of Christianity.
Ulrich Zwingli
(1484-1531); He was the leader of the Swiss Reformation and a humanist. He claimed that he was inspired by Erasmus over Luther; he thought Luther was still influenced by medieval sacramental theology. He opposed the sale of indulgences and religious superstition. He had an affair with a barber's daughter that produced a child, which was only slightly problematic when he ran for priest in the main church of Zurich. He advocated for an end to clerical celibacy and for the right of clergy to legally marry. He broke Lenten fast in protest (a big deal), and he believed that whatever lacked literal support in Scripture was not to be believed or practiced. He was killed brutally in the Swiss Civil War between the Protestants and the Catholics
Thomas Cromwell
(1485-1540); he needed to find a way to get Henry his divorce, so he Advised the King to get an annulment through England's own ecclesiastical courts, meaning Parliament had to abolish papal authority in England. After several marriages, he advised Henry to marry Anne of Cleves without seeing what she looked like; Henry thought she was ugly and had him executed.
Hernando Cortes
(1485-1547) Spanish conquistador who overthrew the Aztec empire (1519-21) and won Mexico for the crown of Spain.
St. Ignatius Loyola
(1491-1556); Spanish theologian and one of the most influential figures in the Catholic Reformation of the 16th century. He founded of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Paris in 1534, resisted the spread of Protestantism, and wrote Spiritual Exercises. His Spiritual Exercises taught that a person could shape their behavior and even create a new religious self through disciplined study and practice. He intended to teach good Catholics to deny themselves and submit without question to higher church authority (Counter- Reformation).
Bourbons, Henry IV
(1589-1610); Henry (A Bourbon) was the first of three 15th-century monarchs from the house of Lancaster. He gained the crown by usurpation and successfully consolidated his power in the face of repeated uprisings of powerful nobles. He turns from Protestantism to Catholicism, but he issued the Edict of Nantes to give Protestants more religious freedom. The Bourbons (Calvinists) were one of the most important ruling houses of Europe. The Valois established the Salic Law of Succession, under which the crown passed through males according to birth-order. On this principle, the senior Bourbon became the rightful king of France on the extinction of the legitimate male line of the Valois.
Edict of Nantes
(1598); (Peace of Augsburg for France) Henry IV of France granted a large measure of religious liberty to the Huguenots. It recognized the religious rights of minorities (not anabaptists or jews) within what was to remain an officially Catholic country. It only made the active religious war turn into a cold war; Protestants could only practice their religion in their own towns and territories.
women's roles/status
The women of the Renaissance, like women of the Middle Ages, were denied all political rights and considered legally subject to their husbands. Women of all classes were expected to perform, first and foremost, the duties of housewife. Peasant women worked in the field alongside their husbands and ran the home. The wives of middle class shop owners and merchants often helped run their husbands' businesses as well. Even women of the highest class, though attended by servants, most often engaged in the tasks of the household, sewing, cooking, and entertaining, among others. Women who did not marry were not permitted to live independently. Instead, they lived in the households of their male relatives or, more often, joined a convent.
Genevan Consistory
In Calvin's Geneva, everyone will attend church and believe the doctrines as written in the Institutes of the Christian Religion. It enforced moral discipline; it was set up as a court to govern the morality of all citizens in Geneva. As power increased, there was greater punishment (excommunication, public whippings, etc.).
Schmalkaldic Wars
In the 1531, German Protestant lands formed a powerful defensive alliance called the -------League, and prepared for war with the Catholic emperor. They took as their banner the Augsburg Confession (the definitive statement of Lutheran belief). Charles V's imperial armies crushed the ----------League in 1547, defeating and capturing John Frederick of Saxony and Philip of Hesse.
Anabaptists
Protestants who insisted that only adult baptism conformed to scripture. Every group hated the anabaptists and they were heavily persecuted; they believed that human law has no power over the saved. Eventually they become the Pilgrims/Puritans that flee to America.
Anglican Church
Queen Elizabeth I merged a centralized episcopal system that she firmly controlled with broadly defined Protestant doctrine and traditional Catholic ritual which formed this Church.
simony, pluralism, nepotism
Simony: the buying and selling of Church offices; Pluralism: holding more than one Church office at a time; Nepotism: giving Church offices to family members
Bartholomew Diaz
(1450-1500) Portuguese navigator and explorer who led the first European expedition to round the Cape of Good Hope (1488), opening the sea route to Asia via the Atlantic and Indian oceans. He is usually considered to be the greatest of the Portuguese pioneers who explored the Atlantic during the 15th century.
Columbus
(1451-1506) master navigator and admiral whose four transatlantic voyages (1492-93, 1493-96, 1498-1500, and 1502-04) opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, and colonization of the Americas. He has long been called the "discoverer" of the New World, although Vikings such as Leif Eriksson had visited North America five centuries earlier. He made his transatlantic voyages under the sponsorship of Ferdinand II and Isabella I, the Catholic Monarchs of Aragon, Castile, and Leon in Spain. He was at first full of hope and ambition, an ambition partly gratified by his title "Admiral of the Ocean Sea," awarded to him in April 1492, and by the grants enrolled in the Book of Privileges (a record of his titles and claims). However, he died a disappointed man.
Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519) Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495-98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503-19) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time. He applied his creativity to every realm in which graphic representation is used: he was a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. But he went even beyond that. He used his superb intellect, unusual powers of observation, and mastery of the art of drawing to study nature itself, a line of inquiry that allowed his dual pursuits of art and science to flourish.
Giralamo Savanarola
(1452-98) Italian Christian preacher, reformer, and martyr, renowned for his clash with tyrannical rulers and a corrupt clergy. After the overthrow of the Medici in 1494, he was the sole leader of Florence, setting up a democratic republic. His chief enemies were the Duke of Milan and Pope Alexander VI, who issued numerous restraints against him, all of which were ignored. After his death a cult was dedicated to him, which had a long history. Saints canonized by the church, such as Philip Neri and Catherine de' Ricci, venerated him as a saint; an office was said for him, and miracles he had performed were recorded. He was portrayed in paintings and medals with the title of beatus. In the Acta sanctorum he was included among the praetermissi. When the 500th anniversary of his birth came around in 1952, there was again talk of his canonization.
Fall of Constantinople
(1453) After ten centuries of wars, defeats, and victories, the Byzantine Empire came to an end when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in May 1453. The city's fall sent shock waves throughout Christendom. It is widely quoted as the event that marked the end of the European Middle Ages. It is renamed Istanbul.
Peace of Lodi
(1454) treaty between Venice and Milan ending the war of succession to the Milanese duchy in favour of Francesco Sforza. It marked the beginning of a 40-year period of relative peace, during which power was balanced among the five states that dominated the Italian peninsula—Venice, Milan, Naples, Florence, and the Papal States. Venice, faced with a threat to its commercial empire by the Ottoman Turks, was eager for peace in Italy. Sforza, a condottiere (mercenary general) who had been proclaimed duke by the people of Milan, also was eager to end the costly war. By the terms of the peace, Sforza was recognized as ruler of Milan, and Venice regained its considerable holdings in northern Italy, including Brescia and Bergamo. The other belligerents (Milan's allies—Florence, Mantua, and Genoa—and Venice's allies—Naples, Savoy, and Montferrat) had no choice but to acquiesce to the peace. In conjunction with the treaty, a 25-year mutual defensive pact was concluded to maintain existing boundaries, and an Italian League (Lega Italica) was set up. The states of the league promised to defend one another in the event of attack and to support a contingent of soldiers to provide military aid.
Johann Tetzel
(1465-1519) German Dominican friar whose preaching on indulgences, considered by many of his contemporaries to be an abuse of the sacrament of penance, sparked Martin Luther's reaction. His preaching at Jüterbog, near Wittenberg, in the spring of 1517 provoked Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses at Wittenberg on Oct. 31, 1517, attacking the system of indulgences. In reply, an uncompromising 50 theses under -----'s name (but composed by the theologian Konrad Wimpina) were published in May 1518.
Desiderius Erasmus
(1466-1536) , humanist who was the greatest scholar of the Northern Renaissance, the first editor of the New Testament, and also an important figure in patristics and classical literature. Using the philological methods pioneered by Italian humanists, he helped lay the groundwork for the historical-critical study of the past, especially in his studies of the Greek New Testament and the Church Fathers. His educational writings contributed to the replacement of the older scholastic curriculum by the new humanist emphasis on the classics. By criticizing ecclesiastical abuses, while pointing to a better age in the distant past, he encouraged the growing urge for reform, which found expression both in the Protestant Reformation and in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Finally, his independent stance in an age of fierce confessional controversy—rejecting both Luther's doctrine of predestination and the powers that were claimed for the papacy—made him a target of suspicion for loyal partisans on both sides and a beacon for those who valued liberty more than orthodoxy.
Vasco de Gama
(1469-1525) Portuguese navigator whose voyages to India (1497-99, 1502-03, 1524) opened up the sea route from western Europe to the East by way of the Cape of Good Hope.
Isabella d' Este
(1474-1539)was Marchesa of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure. She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dressing was copied by women throughout Italy and at the French court. The poet Ariosto labeled her as the "liberal and magnanimous-----," while author Matteo Bandello described her as having been "supreme among women." Diplomat Niccolò da Correggiowent even further by hailing her as "The First Lady of the world." She was also a prolific letter-writer.
Balboa
(1475-1517) Spanish conquistador and explorer, who was head of the first stable settlement on the South American continent (1511) and who was the first European to sight the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean (on September 25 [or 27], 1513, from "a peak in Darién").
Golden Bull
1356; the initial agreement to establish a seven-member electoral college of German princes to choose a Holy Roman Emperor. It also worked with the elected emperor to provide unity among the German kingdoms.
Mysticism
A doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding, or of a direct, intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy.
Christine de Pisan
(1364-1430); the daughter of the physician and astrologer of king Charles V of France. She became an expert in many languages and wrote poems that were read throughout the European courts. Her most famous work, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, discussed the great accomplishments of historical women. She is considered one of the first feminists.
Leonardo Bruni
(1370-1444) Italian humanist scholar of the Renaissance. He was secretary to the papal chancery from 1405 and served as chancellor of Florence from 1427 until his death in 1444. His 1610 "Twelve Books of Histories of the Florentine People" is the first history of Florence based on a critical examination of the source material. An elegant Ciceronian stylist, he made Latin translations of many classical Greek works, including those of Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch, that furthered the study of Greek literature in the West. His Italian-language biographies of Dante, Petrarch, and Giovanni Boccaccio aided humanism's growing appreciation for Italian poetry.
Jan Hus
(1373-1415); an influence on Martin Luther, he attacked the Church by denouncing the moral failings of clergy, bishops, and even the papacy. He was burned at the stake, and his followers went on to rebel against the Church.
Fillipo Brunelleschi
(1377-1466) architect and engineer who was one of the pioneers of early Renaissance architecture in Italy. His major work is the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) in Florence (1420-36), constructed with the aid of machines that he invented expressly for the project. Used "perspective" in his work.
Great Schism
(1378-1417) During this time, there were two or three rival popes reigning at the same time. It started with Popes Urban VI and Clement VII, and then while neither would resign at the request of the Council of Pisa, it had already elected a third pope, Alexander V. During the Council of Constance in 1414, the council asserted its supremacy and elected a single new pope after the other three had been removed or resigned.
Donatello
(1386-1466) master of sculpture in both marble and bronze, one of the greatest of all Italian Renaissance artists. Although he knew a number of humanists well, the artist was not a cultured intellectual. His humanist friends attest that he was a connoisseur of ancient art. The inscriptions and signatures on his works are among the earliest examples of the revival of Classical Roman lettering. He had a more detailed and wide-ranging knowledge of ancient sculpture than any other artist of his day. His work was inspired by ancient visual examples, which he often daringly transformed. Made a different "David"
Prince Henry, Navigator
(1394-1460) Portuguese prince noted for his patronage of voyages of discovery among the Madeira Islands and along the western coast of Africa. The epithet Navigator, applied to him by the English (though seldom by Portuguese writers), is a misnomer, as he himself never embarked on any exploratory voyages. The farthest point south that was reached during Henry's lifetime was probably present-day Sierra Leone; after his death, the pace of progress in Portuguese exploration accelerated markedly, suggesting that the prince's reputation as a patron of explorers has been exaggerated. Although the colonization of Madeira proved, at least for a while, to be a brilliant success, most of his enterprises failed
Johannes Gutenberg
(1400-68) German craftsman and inventor who originated a method of printing from movable type that was used without important change until the 20th century. The unique elements of his invention consisted of a mold, with punch-stamped matrices (metal prisms used to mold the face of the type) with which type could be cast precisely and in large quantities; a type-metal alloy; a new press, derived from those used in wine making, papermaking, and bookbinding; and an oil-based printing ink.
Lorenzo Valla (philology)
(1405-57) Italian humanist, philosopher, and literary critic who attacked medieval traditions and anticipated views of the Protestant reformers. His Declamatio (On the Donation of Constantine), written in 1440, attacked the crude Latin of its anonymous author and from that observation argued that the document could not possibly have dated from the time of Constantine.
Sandro Botticelli
(1444-1510) one of the greatest painters of the Florentine Renaissance. His The Birth of Venus and Primavera are often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance.
Lorenzo de Medici
(1449-92) Florentine statesman, ruler, and patron of arts and letters, the most brilliant of the Medici. He ruled Florence with his younger brother, Giuliano (1453-78), from 1469 to 1478 and, after the latter's assassination, was sole ruler from 1478 to 1492.
Vittoria Colonna
(1492-1547) Italian poet, less important for her poetry than for her personality and her associations with famous contemporaries, particularly Michelangelo. Her husband seems to have spent most of their married life on military campaigns; nevertheless, when he died in 1525 she began a series of poems in his memory, the best modern edition of which is Rime spirituali (1882; The "In Memoriam" of Italy: A Century of Sonnets from the Poems of ----------). She also wrote much religious poetry. Her most famous platonic association, was with Michelangelo, whom she met in Rome in 1538 and with whom she exchanged many letters and philosophical sonnets. Michelangelo was at her bedside when she died and, in his touching memorial sonnet, wrote that on her death "Nature, that never made so fair a face, / Remained ashamed, and tears were in all eyes."
Wars of Italy
(1494-1529) series of violent wars for control of Italy. Fought largely by France and Spain but involving much of Europe, they resulted in the Spanish Habsburgs dominating Italy and shifted power from Italy to northwestern Europe.
Francis Xavier
(1506-1552); The greatest Roman Catholic missionary of modern times, who was instrumental in the establishment of Christianity in India, the Malay Archipelago, and Japan. In Paris in 1534 he pronounced vows as one of the first seven members of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, under the leadership of Ignatius of Loyola.
Henry VIII
(1509-1547) king of England (1509-47) who presided over the beginnings of the English Renaissance and the English Reformation. His six wives were, successively, Catherine of Aragon (the mother of the future queen Mary I), Anne Boleyn (the mother of the future queen Elizabeth I), Jane Seymour (the mother successor Edward VI), Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. He has always seemed the very embodiment of true monarchy. Even his evil deeds, never forgotten, have been somehow amalgamated into a memory of greatness. He gave his nation what it wanted: a visible symbol of its nationhood. He also had done something toward giving it a better government, a useful navy, a start on religious reform and social improvement. But he was not a great man in any sense.
Henry VIII
(1509-47); He was the King of England, married six times (had to reform to get divorced) and had three children (Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I, and Edward VI). He was responsible for the English Reformation, declaring himself the head of the Church of England (Act of Supremacy). He was notoriously cruel and executed over 72,000 people. Killed those that disagreed with him (Thomas More, Cardinal Wolsey, etc.). Defended the 7 sacraments against Luther, making him "Defender of the Church". He was religiously conservative despite uprooting the pope and tried to crush the growing popularity of Protestantism with the Six Articles of 1539, which reaffirmed transubstantiation.
John Calvin
(1509-64); French Theologian. He was the leading French Protestant Reformer and the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. His interpretation of Christianity, advanced above all in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, and the institutional and social patterns he worked out for Geneva deeply influenced Protestantism elsewhere in Europe and in North America. He developed the idea of predestination (God knows everything, so God knows if you're going to heaven or hell; free will is an illusion). Predestined people must be a member of the elect; outward evidence of inward grace; live your life externally as a profession of your internal faith.
Niccolo Machiavelli/The Prince
(1513) Italian Renaissance political philosopher and statesman, secretary of the Florentine republic, whose most famous work, The Prince (Il Principe), brought him a reputation as an atheist and an immoral cynic. He believed that Observed city-state rulers of his day and produced guidelines for the acquisition and maintenance of power by absolute rule. He felt that a ruler should be willing the do anything to maintain control without worrying about conscience; looked at leadership from a realistic point of view instead of a moral point of view; not always practice what you preach; better for a ruler to be feared than loved; rulers should be quick and decisive in decision making; ruler keeps power by any means necessary. The end justifies the means.
Francis I
(1515-47); He was the first of five monarchs of the Angoulême branch of the House of Valois. A Renaissance patron of the arts and scholarship, a humanist, and a knightly king, he waged campaigns in Italy (1515-16) and fought a series of wars with the Holy Roman Empire (1521-44). He employed Da Vinci for military engineering.
Teresa of Avila
(1515-82); Spanish nun, one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic church that revived and popularized the mystical piety of medieval monasticism, and author of spiritual classics. She was the originator of the Carmelite Reform, which restored and emphasized the austerity and contemplative character of primitive Carmelite life. She was elevated to doctor of the church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, the first woman to be so honored.
Charles V
(1516-56) Holy Roman emperor (1519-56), king of Spain, and archduke of Austria, who inherited a Spanish and Habsburg empire extending across Europe from Spain and the Netherlands to Austria and the Kingdom of Naples and reaching overseas to Spanish America. He struggled to hold his empire together against the growing forces of Protestantism, increasing Ottoman and French pressure, and even hostility from the pope. At last he yielded, abdicating his claims to the Netherlands and Spain in favor of his son Philip II and the title of emperor to his brother Ferdinand I and retiring to a monastery.
Charles V
(1519-56); He was the ruler of both the Spanish Empire 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire 1519, as well as of the lands of the former Duchy of Burgundy from 1506. He struggled to hold his empire together against the growing forces of Protestantism, increasing Ottoman and French pressure, and even hostility from the pope. At last he yielded, abdicating his claims to the Netherlands and Spain in favor of his son Philip II and the title of emperor to his brother Ferdinand I and retiring to a monastery.
Appeal to Christian Nobility of the German Nation
(1520) is the first of three tracts written by Martin Luther in 1520. In this work, he defined for the first time the signature doctrines of the priesthood of all believers and the two kingdoms. The work was written in the vernacular language German and not in Latin.
Suleiman the Magnificent
(1520-66); Turkish sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566 who not only undertook bold military campaigns that enlarged his realm but also oversaw the development of what came to be regarded as the most characteristic achievements of Ottoman civilization in the fields of law, literature, art, and architecture.
Diet of Worms
(1521) meeting of the (assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire held in Germany; made famous by Martin Luther's appearance before it to respond to charges of heresy. Because of the confused political and religious situation of the time, Luther was called before the political authorities rather than before the pope or a council of the Roman Catholic Church. On April 17, 1521, Luther went before the assembly. In response to questioning, he admitted that the books displayed before the court were his, but, when asked to repudiate them, he requested time to consider the question. The next day, again before the assembly, Luther refused to repudiate his works unless convinced of error by Scripture or by reason. Otherwise, he stated, his conscience was bound by the Word of God. According to tradition, he said, "Here I stand; I can do no other." Disorder broke out at the conclusion of Luther's refusal to recant.
Habsburg-Valois Wars
(1521-1559); Spain and France fought four major wars over disputed territories within Italy and along their respective borders. The wars ended with the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559, after which Europe experienced a moment of peace.
German Peasants Revolt
(1524-25) peasant uprising in Germany. Inspired by changes brought by the Reformation, peasants in western and southern Germany invoked divine law to demand agrarian rights and freedom from oppression by nobles and landlords. As the uprising spread, some peasant groups organized armies. Although the revolt was supported by Huldrych Zwingli and Thomas Müntzer, its condemnation by Martin Luther contributed to its defeat, principally by the army of the Swabian League. Some 100,000 peasants were killed. Reprisals and increased restrictions discouraged further attempts to improve the peasants' plight.
sacking of Rome
(1527) Victory over the French at Pavia in 1525 left the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, dominant in Italy. In 1527 these forces stormed the city of Rome and embarked on an orgy of destruction and massacre, terrorizing the population and humiliating Pope Clement VII.
Castiglione's Book of Courtier
(1528) shows that the rediscovered knowledge of the past was both a model and a challenge to the present. Written as a practical guide for the nobility at the court of Urbino, a small duchy in central Italy, it embodies the highest ideals of Italian humanism. The successful courtier is said to be one who knows how to integrate knowledge of ancient languages and history with athletic, military, and musical skills, while at the same time practicing good manners and exhibiting a high moral character.
Act of Supremacy
(1534); The declaration by Parliament that Henry VIII, not the pope, was the head of the church in England.
Instit. of Christian Religion
(1536) John Calvin's masterpiece, a summary of biblical theology that became the normative statement of the Reformed faith. It was first published in 1536 and was revised and enlarged by Calvin in several editions before the definitive edition was published in 1559.
Ecclesiastical Ordinances
(1541); Geneva City Council accepts Calvin's ----------------which created a church government where clergy and laymen were in service of the church. The Genevan Consistory also fell under these ordinances. Missionaries were trained and sent throughout Europe to establish orders.
Council of Trent
(1545-63); Prompted by the Reformation and Charles V, this was highly important for its sweeping decrees on self-reform and for its dogmatic definitions that clarified virtually every doctrine contested by the Protestants. Despite internal strife and two lengthy interruptions, the council played a vital role in revitalizing the Roman Catholic Church in many parts of Europe.
Mary Tudor
(1553-58); Daughter of Henry VII and married to Philip II. The first Queen of England executed Protestants for heresy in a vain attempt to restore Catholicism to England. Many tried to assassinate her, no one wanted her to be Queen from the start.
Peace of Augsburg
(1555); A treaty between Charles V and the Schmalkaldic League, This agreement recognized in law that the ruler of a land would determine its religion. People that were displeased with the religion of their region were permitted to migrate elsewhere. Lutheranism was legalized, but it did not give official recognition to Calvinism or Anabaptism. The Anabaptists retreated, the Lutherans enjoyed the establishment of their religion, and the Calvinists organized national revolutions throughout Northern Europe.
Elizabeth I
(1558-1603); Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Queen of England during a period when England asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in politics, commerce, and the arts. Lasting religious settlement during her reign, developed an episcopal system that had broad Protestant doctrine with traditional Catholic ritual. The Spanish Armada was destroyed under her rule. She was a powerful image of female authority, regal magnificence, and national pride.
Act of Uniformity
(1559); made Protestantism England's official faith, established a form of worship which is still followed in English Parish churches today and showed the country that Elizabeth was bent on following a middle road where religion was concerned. It reinstated the use of the English Book of Common Prayer from 1552, Elizabeth was made Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Catholic mass was banned, etc.
Catherine de Medici
(1560-89); She unsuccessfully tried to reconcile the Protestants and Catholics, and she tried to give the Protestants more religious freedoms. However, the Guises were powerful and she feared them; this placed her in the middle of the Huguenot fanatics and Guise extremes, and she wanted a Catholic France like the Guises which eventually led to her seeking their support against the Protestants and the st. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
(1572); (Red Wedding from GOT) The massacre of French Huguenots (Bourbons) in Paris plotted by Catherine de Médicis and carried out by Roman Catholic nobles and other citizens. Instead of crippling the Huguenot party as Catherine had hoped it would do, it revived hatred between Roman Catholics and Huguenots and helped provoke a renewal of hostilities. Huguenots abandoned John Calvin's principle of obedience to the royal authority and adopted the view that rebellion and tyrannicide were justifiable under certain circumstances.
United Provinces
(1572); The seven provinces that, because of the Union of Utrecht, became a free republic. Even though the Calvinist Reformed Church was its official church, the -------- of the Netherlands was a safe haven for all kinds of religions.
Guises
As the French Monarchy weakened, this family established control of Francis II. They wanted to wipe out the Huguenots. They attacked a Protestant congregation and massacred the people, starting the French wars of religion---plotted the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre with Catherine de Medici and formed the Catholic League.
Castile and Aragon
Castile: traditional central region constituting more than one-quarter of the area of peninsular Spain. Castile's northern part is called Old Castile and the southern part is called New Castile. The region formed the core of the Kingdom of Castile, under which Spain was united in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Aragon: By the 15th century the nobles of Aragon proper had come to favour union with Castile to counterbalance the power of the mercantile Catalans. Their chance came in 1412 when, after the extinction of the house of Barcelona in 1410, they procured the election of a Castilian prince, Ferdinand of Antequera, to the vacant Aragonese throne over strong Catalan opposition. One of Ferdinand's successors, John II of Aragon (1458-79), countered residual Catalan resistance by arranging for his heir, Ferdinand, to marry Isabella, the heiress of Henry IV of Castile. In 1479, upon John II's death, the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile were united to form the nucleus of modern Spain.
Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
Founded by Ignatius of Loyola around 1540; they believed that the Protestants had distinguished themselves by disobedience and religious innovation. Ignatius of Loyola taught that good Catholics should have absolute obedience to the papacy. It is noted for its educational, missionary, and charitable works, once regarded by many as the principal agent of the Counter-Reformation, and later a leading force in modernizing the church.
Fuggers
German mercantile and banking dynasty that dominated European business during the 15th and 16th centuries, developed capitalistic economic concepts, and influenced continental politics. They bankrolled the Habsburg rulers. They lent Charles I of Spain (Charles V) over 500,000 florins to buy his election as the Holy Roman Emperor. They participated and profited in the sale of indulgences.
Michael Servetus
He was a Spanish physician and theologian whose unorthodox teachings led to his condemnation as a heretic by both Protestants and Roman Catholics and to his execution by Calvinists from Geneva. He was a radical Protestant in a group called Antitrinitarians. Calvin was criticized for his role in the execution, "To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man."
Italian city-states
In the time of the Renaissance, they were urban societies with major trading centers, and many of them were extremely wealthy (mainly Venice). These were not as reliant on the Catholic Church as were other countries, despite their proximity to the Papal States.
Christian humanism
Northern European Reniassance. A branch of humanism. Like thier italian counterparts the christian humanists closely studied classical texts however they also sought to give it a specifically christian content. Christian humanists like Erasmus were committed to religious piety and institutional reform
civic virtue (virtu)
The obligation of citizens to participate in society by performing the minimally necessary activities in support of the state, such as paying taxes. However, political theorists agree that the sum total of a person's well-being is not solely attributable to his or her own talents but is a product of social cooperation. To promote cooperation, Aristotle argued that it involved citizens taking part in ruling and being ruled. Others have highlighted the essential virtues of justice, courage, or honesty.
Munster
The site of an Anabaptist that determined fate of Dutch Anabaptism. Offered haven for Anabaptists. By end of February 1534, millenarian (end of the world is at hand!) Anabaptists had taken control of the city. They believed they would usher in the kingdom of God with this city as the New Jerusalem. Eventually, leadership fell into hands of John of Leiden, the King of "New Jerusalem." The city was gruesomely sacked, and John Leiden still hangs in the steeple of the Cathedral.
Indulgences
a distinctive feature of the penitential system of both the Western medieval and the Roman Catholic Church that granted full or partial remission of the punishment of sin. Epitomized the corruption of the Catholic church and infuriated Luther and his followers
Perspective
a system of creating an illusion of depth on a flat surface. All parallel lines (orthogonals) in a painting or drawing using this system converge in a single vanishing point on the composition's horizon line. It is thought to have been devised about 1415 by Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi and later documented by architect and writer Leon Battista Alberti in 1435 (Della Pittura). It was likely evident to artists and architects in the ancient Greek and Roman periods, but no records exist from that time, and the practice was thus lost until the 15th century.
Guilds
an association of craftsmen or merchants formed for mutual aid and protection and for the furtherance of their professional interests. They flourished in Europe between the 11th and 16th centuries and formed an important part of the economic and social fabric in that era. The medieval ones were generally one of two types: merchant or craft. Merchant ones were associations of all or most of the merchants in a particular town or city; these men might be local or long-distance traders, wholesale or retail sellers, and might deal in various categories of goods. Craft ones, were occupational associations that usually comprised all the artisans and craftsmen in a particular branch of industry or commerce. There were, for instance, groups of weavers, dyers, and fullers in the wool trade and of masons and architects in the building trade; and there were groups of painters, metalsmiths, blacksmiths, bakers, butchers, leatherworkers, soapmakers, and so on. These began to decline as Europe entered the Renaissance and the Reformation.
Conquistadores
any of the leaders in the Spanish conquest of America, especially of Mexico and Peru, in the 16th century. (e.g.- Cortes and Pizzaro)
seven sacraments
baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist (the Lord's Supper), penance, holy orders, matrimony, and anointing of the sick. Practiced mainly by Catholics, with Protestants only accepting baptism and communion
Dante's Divine Comedy
completed in 1320, it is considered one of the foundational works of Italian literature. Being originally written in Italian instead of Latin, it helped to create the Italian language. It describes Dante's journey through the stages of Hell, lead by Roman poet Virgil, and it helped to establish the way that we picture Hell to this day.
Hanseatic League
dominating trade in the Baltic Sea, this group of German merchant guilds and their respective towns, established to protect the guilds' interests. It had its own system of laws and raised its own armies
Ottoman Empire
empire created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia (Asia Minor) that grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries. This period spanned more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922, when it was replaced by the Turkish Republic and various successor states in southeastern Europe and the Middle East. At its height the empire encompassed most of southeastern Europe to the gates of Vienna, including present-day Hungary, the Balkan region, Greece, and parts of Ukraine; portions of the Middle East now occupied by Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Egypt; North Africa as far west as Algeria; and large parts of the Arabian Peninsula.During the century that followed the reign of Mehmed II, this Empire achieved the peak of its power and wealth. New conquests extended its domain well into central Europe and throughout the Arab portion of the old Islamic caliphate, and a new amalgam of political, religious, social, and economic organizations and traditions was institutionalized and developed into a living, working whole.
"one king, one faith, one law"
how Louis XIV wished to rule France, under one king (himself) one law (his ruling) and one faith (catholicism). Carried out this policy greatly during his reign by removing the Edict of Nantes, declaring himself an absolute ruler, and creating centralized government Louis XIV went to great extents to carry out this goal, and was largely successful.
Transubstantiation
in Christianity, the change by which the substance (though not the appearance) of the bread and wine in the Eucharist becomes Christ's Real Presence—that is, his body and blood. Believed by Catholics, but not protestants
Predestination
in Christianity, the doctrine that God has eternally chosen those whom he intends to save. The emphasis of the New Testament on the divine plan of salvation has made the issue especially prominent in Christian theology. It has been especially associated with John Calvin and the Reformed tradition.
Reconquista
in medieval Spain and Portugal, a series of campaigns by Christian states to recapture territory from the Muslims (Moors), who had occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th century.
Condotierre
leader of a band of mercenaries engaged to fight in numerous wars among the Italian states from the mid-14th to the 16th century. The name was derived from the condotta, or "contract," by which they put themselves in the service of a city or of a lord. At first, they were mainly foreigners, but as time went on, Italians became them as well.
Ferdinand and Isabella
marriage (1469) led to the unification of Spain, of which they were the first monarchs. Although employed earlier, the appellation Católicos was formally conferred on them in a bull published by Pope Alexander VI in 1494, in recognition of their reconquest of Granada from the Moors (1481-92), their New World discoveries (1492), and their strengthening of the church by such agencies as the Spanish Inquisition and such measures as compelling Jews to convert to Christianity or face exile (1492).
Pope Leo X
one of the leading Renaissance popes (reigned 1513-21). He made Rome a cultural center and a political power, but he depleted the papal treasury, and, by failing to take the developing Reformation seriously, he contributed to the dissolution of the Western church. He excommunicated Martin Luther in 1521.b n
Huguenots
the Calvinists in France in the 16th and 17th centuries, many of whom suffered severe persecution for their faith. They were inspired by the writings of John Calvin and endorsed the Reformed tradition of Protestantism. House of Bourbon, next in line after Valois succession.
Habsburg- Valois Rivalry
the Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire and the Valois of France came to hate each other in the period during and following the Protestant Reformation. At one point, the Valois were surrounded on both sides by Habsburgs, making them feel threatened by them.
Humanism
the study of Greek and Latin and of the Church Fathers both for their own sake and to promote the rebirth of ancient norms and values during the Reniassce.
vernacular literature
with the rise of the printing press, the people began to crave more literature in languages they could understand. Prominent figures such as Martin Luther and Dante advocated for this in order to help better educate the people.
The Index
written by Pope Paul IV as part of the Counter-Reformation. It forbade Catholics from reading books considered "harmful" to faith and morals. This indicates the significance of the printing press in disseminating Reformation ideas
