Reformation, Religious Wars, and Early Modern European Society

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the Protestant Reformation, religious conflicts, the Catholic Counter-Reformation, early modern social structures, and European art movements.

Indulgences

The practice that became to mean the buying of forgiveness for sin, taking peasants' money.

Papal Infallibility

The doctrine or belief that the papal word cannot be wrong.

Simony

The buying and selling of Church appointments and offices.

Pluralism

The holding of multiple Church positions at the same time.

Nepotism

The appointment of family and friends to Church positions.

Immorality

The decline in moral standards of clergy and monks.

Sola scriptura

Martin Luther's belief emphasizing the supreme authority of the Bible over church traditions.

The priesthood of all believers

Luther's principle asserting that all Christians had direct access to God.

Frederick III

The prince of the Saxony German state who protected Martin Luther at Watburg Castle.

John Calvin

French-born reformer who authored Institutes of Christian Religion and formulated doctrines of predestination and the elect.

German Peasants War

An unsuccessful uprising against the social hierarchy inspired by Luther, organized under a confederation known as The Twelve Articles.

Anabaptists

Radical reformers based in Zurich who rejected infant baptism, avoided secular governmental affairs, and prioritized scripture over secular authority.

Vernacular Bibles

Bibles translated into everyday spoken European languages that spread Reformation concepts despite official suppression.

Puritans

English Calvinists who sought to purify the Anglican Church of England by removing Catholic practices.

Concordat of Bologna

An agreement permitting the Catholic Church to collect income from French churches while granting the French king power to tax clergy and appoint bishops.

Huguenots

French Calvinists who engaged in power struggles against the Catholic French monarchy.

Peace of Augsburg

An agreement that allowed a German ruler to determine whether their territory's residents would be Catholic or Lutheran.

Amboise Conspiracy

A plot by a group of Protestants to kidnap King Francis II to free him from excessive Catholic influence.

Jeanne d’Albert

Major Huguenot leader who outlawed Catholicism in Navarre and whose son Henry IV became king of France.

Massacre of Vassy (1562)

An incident where Francis, Duke of Guise attacked a Protestant gathering, leaving 50 Huguenots dead, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion.

St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572)

A widespread slaughter of Huguenots sparked when Henry I de Guise initiated attacks against Protestants following the shooting of Admiral de Coligny.

War of Three Henrys

The final conflict of the French Wars of Religion that ended after the deaths of Henry of Guise and Henry III, placing Henry of Navarre on the throne.

Edict of Nantes

A decree establishing Catholicism as France's official religion while allowing Huguenots to worship freely to foster political stability.

Habsburg-Valois Wars

A series of armed conflicts between the Spanish Habsburgs and France over control of the Italian peninsula.

Cardinal Richelieu

Chief minister to French King Louis the 8th who funded Protestant forces during the Thirty Years War to counter Habsburg power.

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

Treaty concluding the Thirty Years War that recognized Calvinism, confirmed the Peace of Augsburg, and granted independence to the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Roman Inquisition

An institution established in 1542 designed to stop Catholics from converting to Protestantism.

Index of Prohibited Books

An official Catholic list of forbidden literature designed to prevent the spread of Protestant and unauthorized ideas.

Jesuits

An all-male religious order founded in 1540 by Ignatius Loyola committed to poverty, authority, prayer, communal living, and global missionary conversion.

Ursulines

An all-female Catholic religious order that established convents dedicated to the Christian education of girls.

Teresa of Avila

A reformer who tackled secularism in the Catholic Church by restoring the Carmelite Order to strict poverty and property rejection.

Council of Trent

A general council convened three times by Pope Paul III that addressed abuses like simony, pluralism, and indulgences while preserving Latin as the Church's language.

Primogeniture

The customary and legal practice of passing a father's total land and wealth directly to his eldest son.

La Querelle des Femmes

A literary and intellectual debate over whether women were inherently inferior to men or disadvantaged by lack of education and male oppression.

Carnival

A period of indulgence and celebration held prior to Lent to exhaust impulses, which faced criticism from Protestants.

Chavari

A traditional public mock parade featuring the clanging of pots, which declined as capitalism supplanted subsistence agriculture.

Mannerism

An artistic movement that replaced balanced classical compositions with distortion, illusion, and exaggeration to reflect post-Reformation turmoil.

Baroque

An art and architecture movement merging classical traditions with intense religious drama, utilized by the Catholic Church to inspire faith.

Caravaggio

A Baroque painter known for works like Calling for Saint Matthew that depicted everyday people in tense, dramatic religious scenes.

Artemesia Genileschi

A female Baroque painter and pupil of Caravaggio who emphasized strong lighting and chose female subjects.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

A Baroque architect and sculptor renowned for St. Peter’s Basilica whose figures were crafted to appear dynamically in motion.