Renaissance World Civ Test

The Renaissance

From the 1300s to the 1500s, Western Europe enjoyed a golden age in the arts and literature.

Humanism

An intellectual movement at the heart of the Renaissance that focused on education and the classics.

Vernacular

Everyday language of ordinary people

**Florence**

A city in the Tuscany region of northern Italy that was the center of the Italian Renaissnace.

Cosimo de’Medici

He gained control of the Florentine government in 1434 and the family continued as uncrowned rulers of the city for many years.

Lorenzo Medici

Best known Medici and represented the Reniassance ideal. He was a clever politician and he held Florence together through difficult times. He was a generous patron.

Patron

A person who provides financial support for the arts.

Filippo Brunelleschi

Created a majestic dome, modeled on the dome of the ancient Pantheon in Rome. He had many talents and studied sculpture with Donatello and was accomplished engineer, inventing ,many of the machines used to construct his dome.

Leonardo da Vinci

(1452-1519) was an Italian artist considered the ideal Renaissance man due to his varied talents His interests included botany, anatomy, optics, music, architecture, and engineering. His sketches for flying machines and undersea boats resembled the later inventions of airplanes and submarines. His paintings such as the mona lisa and the last supper remain famous today.

Michelangelo

(1475-1564) was an Italian painter also known for his sculpture, engineering, architecture and poems. His famous statue, David, shows the influence of ancient Greek traditions on Renaissance artists.He painted biblically themed ceiling murals for the Sistine Chapel in Rome. As an architect, he designed the dome of St. Peter´s Cathedral in Rome, later a model for the U.S Capitol in Washington D.C

Castiglione

He wrote the most widely read handbook called the books of the Courtier. In it, he describes manners, skills, learning, and virtues that a member of the court should have. In his opinion, a man is athletic but not overactive, good at games but not a gambler. He plays an instrument and is educated but not arrogant. A woman is graceful, kind, and lively but reserved. She is defined by her outer beauty

Machiavelli

He wrote a handbook that served Florence as a diplomat and had observed kings and princes in foreign courts. He studied ancient Roman history. In the book he wrote, The Prince, published in 1513, he offered a guide to rulers on how to gain and maintain power. It combined his personal experience of politics with his knowledge in the past.

The Prince

This did not discuss leadership in terms of high ideals, as Plato had. Instead is looked at real rulers in an age of ruthless power politics. Machiavelli stressed that the end justifies the means. He urged rulers to use whatever methods were necessary to achieve their goals.

Flanders

A region that included parts of present-day northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands; was an important industrial and financial center of northern Europe during the middle ages and Renaissance.

Desiderius Erasmus

(1466-1536) was a Dutch priest, writer, and scholar who promoted humanism. He wrote texts on various subjects and produced a new Greek edition of the Christian Bible. He also called for a translation of the Bible into the vernacular, or everyday language, to help spread learning, ideas, and education. He also wanted to reform Church corruption.

Sir Thomas More

(1478-1535) was born in London. He became a lawyer, scholar, writer, and member of British parliament during the reign of Henry VIII. He wrote Utopia, describing an ideal society. The word Utopian came to mean idealistic or visionary. In 1521, he was knighted.

William Shakespeare

(1564-1616) born in England, became a famous poet and playwright during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first. Between 1590 and 1613, he wrote 37 plays that are still performed around the world. He invented words and phrases still used today. Like other Renaissance writers, he took a humanist approach to his characters.

Johannes Gutenberg

(1400-1468) was born in Germany. He became a goldsmith, printer and publisher. His pioneering inventions of a printing press with moveable type changed the world. Around 1455, he printed the first complete edition of the Christian Bible using his press.

Protestant Reformation

During the middle Ages, the Church had renewed itself from within. In the 1500s, however, the movement for reform unleashed forces that would shatter Christian unity in Europe. This also was other wised known as the reform movement.

Indulgence

In the Roman Catholic Church, pardon for sins commited during a person´s lifetime.

Martin Luther

(1483-1546) was a German monk and theologian who was the catalyst of the Protestant Reformation. Trained to become a lawyer, he changed his path, joined a strict order of Roman Catholic monks and studied theology. Seeking to reform abuses within the Church, he challenged Church teachings with his 95 Theses. This led to his excommunication and the development of Lutheranism, the first of several Protestant sects.

Justification by Faith

a soteriological doctrine in Christian theology commonly held to distinguish the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, among others, from the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian churches.

The 95 Theses

Luther drew this up which was arguments against indulgences. Following the custom of the time, he posted the list on the door of Wittenburg´s All Saints Church. In the 95 of them he argued that indulgences had no basis in the bible, that the pope had no authority to release souls from purgatory or hell and that Christians could be saved only through faith.

Pope Leo X

In 1521,he excommunicated Luther

Johann Tetzel

German priest and set up a pulpit on the outskirts of Wittenburg. He selled indulgences to any Christian who contributed money of the rebuilding of the Cathedral of St.Peter in Rome. He claimed that purchase of these indulgences would assure entry into heaven not only for buyers but for their dead relatives as well.

Diet of Worms

place where the Council of Trent met

The Peasants’ Revolt

Peasants took up Luther´s call for reform. They hoped to gain his support for social and economic change as well. In 1524, this erupted across Germany. The rebels demanded an end to serfdom and for other changes to ease their harsh lives. As this grew more violent, Luther denounced it. With his support, nobles suppressed the rebellion with great brutality, killing as many as 100,000 people and leaving thousands homeless.

The Peace of Augsburg

During the 1530s and 1540s, Charles V tried to force Lutheran princes back into the Catholic Church, but with little success. Finally, after a number of brief wars, Charles and the princes reached a settlement. The Peace of Augsburg, signed in 1555, allowed each prince to decide which religion Catholic or Lutheran would be followed in his lands. Most northern German States chose Lutheranism. The southern German states remained largely Catholic.

John Calvin

(1509-1564) was a French theologian and lawyer. Influenced by the humanist philosophy of Erasmus, he became involved with the Protestant movement while a student at the University of Paris. He later moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where he set up a theocracy and wrote Institutes of the Christian Religion. His interpretation of Christian doctrine is called Calvinism.

Predestination

Calvinist belief that God long ago determined who would gain salvation.

Theocracy

government run by religious leaders.

The Catholic Reformation (Counter Reformation)

In Roman Catholicism, efforts in the 16th and early 17th centuries to oppose the Protestant Reformation and reform the Catholic church. 

Sect

a subgroup of a major religious group.

Council of Trent

A group of Catholic leaders that met between 1545 and 1563 to respond to Protestant challenges and direct the future of the Catholic Church.

The Inquisition

This was a church court set up during the Middle Ages. To battle Protestant ideas, this used secret testimony, torture, and execution to root out what the Church considered heresy. it also prepared the Index of Forbidden Books, a list of works considered too immoral for Catholics to read.

Ignatius of Loyola

(1491-1556) went from an early career as a Spanish nobleman soldier to become a theologian and an influential participant in the Catholic Reformation. While recovering from leg surgery, he read a book on the lives of the saints and decided that serving God was holy chivalry. From that time until his death, he studied, preached and did missionary work as founder of the Society of Jesus, an order of religious men who came to be known as Jesuits.

Jesuits

a member of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order of priests founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and others in 1534, to do missionary work. The order was zealous in opposing the Reformation. Despite periodic persecution it has retained an important influence in Catholic thought and education.

Heresy

belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian)

Scientific Revolution

Beginning in the 1500s, profound changes took place in the sciences that pointed toward a future shaped by a new way of thinking about the physical universe. These new understandings about the physical world became part of this.

Nicolaus Copernicus

(1473-1543) was a Polish astronomer who concluded that the sum is the center of the universe around which Earth and the other plants revolve. This contradicted the religious and scientific belief the Earth was the center of the universe. Although he did not suffer immediate challenges from the church, his most important work did not appear in print until his death.

Heliocentric Theory

based on the belief that the sun is the center of the universe.

Geocentric Theory

Europeans believed that the earth was flat and they accepted the catholic church's view that the earth was to center of the universe.

Johannes Kepler

(1571-1630) was a German astronomer whose discoveries expanded on Copernicus's heliocentric universe. His research showed that the planets move in a particular orbit around the sun. His achievements included a correct description of how vision occurs, as well as how a telescope uses light.

Galileo Galilei

(1564-1642) was an Italian astronomer and mathematician whose discoveries using a telescope supported the heliocentric universe theories of Copernicus. His discoveries challenged established scientific and religious thinking. He was an important contributor to the development of the scientific method used by modern scientists.

Isaac Newton

(1642-1727) was one of the most important figures of the Scientific Revolution. An English mathematician and physicist, His three laws of motion form the basic principles of modern physics and led to the formulation of the universal law of gravity. His 1687 book, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy , is considered one of the most important works in the history of modern science.

What were some economic causes of the Italian Renaissance?

Northern Italy was able to lead the Italian Renaissance due to the Mediterranean, the central location for trade. They controlled trade with Asia mostly through the silk road. From Asia, northern Italian cities imported spices, dyes, and silks which were not enough or new in Europe.

Why did Italy’s historic legacy make it an ideal place for the Renaissance to begin?

Italy had three advantages that made it the birthplace of the Renaissance: thriving cities, a wealthy merchant class, and the classical heritage of Greece and Rome. Overseas trade, spurred by the Crusades, had led to the growth of large city-states in northern Italy. The region also had many sizable towns.

Know how the four new ideas (Secularism, humanism, individualism, and skepticism) that defined the Renaissance were different from the Middle Ages.

Humanism-an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems.

Individualism- the focus on individual growth and achievements

skeptism- questioning of society and the church

secularism- the belief that this world and life are worth studying and living for now, not just as prepartion for the afterlife.

How important was the Medici family in patronage of the arts during the Renaissance?  How did their patronage contribute to the rise of their family power and prestige?

The Medici are most famous for their patronage of the arts. They would pay artists commissions for major works of art. The Medici patronage had a huge impact on the Renaissance, allowing artists to focus on their work without having to worry about money.

What effects did the invention of the printing press have on European society?

Johann Gutenberg's invention of movable-type printing quickened the spread of knowledge, discoveries, and literacy in Renaissance Europe. The printing revolution also contributed mightily to the Protestant Reformation that split apart the Catholic Church.

Who was Martin Luther and what did he do to spur the Protestant Reformation?

Martin Luther, a German teacher and a monk, brought about the Protestant Reformation when he challenged the Catholic Church's teachings starting in 1517. The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement that swept through Europe in the 1500s.

What was the Counter Reformation and what did it try to accomplish?  How successful was it?

The Counter-Reformation served to solidify doctrine that many Protestants were opposed to, such as the authority of the pope and the veneration of saints, and eliminated many of the abuses and problems that had initially inspired the Reformation, such as the sale of indulgences for the remission of sin.

Why were the discoveries of astronomers like Galileo seen as radical and a threat to church authority?

Galileo's discoveries caused an uproar. Other scholars attacked him because his observations contradicted ancient views about the world. The Church condemned him because his ideas challenged the Christian teaching that the heavens were fixed, unmoving, and perfect.

How did the Reformation help spur the Scientific Revolution?

The Protestant Reformation helped to spur the Scientific Revolution by calling into question the authority of the Catholic Church. For the entire medieval era of European history, the Church was the sole guardian of knowledge and insisted that all findings must correspond to dogma and doctrine.