Renaissance and Reformation

Humanism

A Renaissance intellectual movement in which thinkers studied classical texts and focused on human potential and achievements

Petrarch

the father of Italian Renaissance humanism

Florence

an Italian city-state and leading cultural center during the Renaissance

patron

a person who provides financial support for the arts

Perspective

An artistic technique that creates the appearance of three dimensions on a flat surface.

Leonardo da Vinci

A well known Italian Renaissance artist, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, and scientist. Known for the Mona Lisa, and the Last Supper

Michelangelo

An Italian sculptor, painter, poet, engineer, and architect. Famous works include the mural on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and the sculpture of the biblical character David.

Raphael

Italian Renaissance painter; he painted frescos, his most famous being The School of Athens.

Baldassare Castiglione

An Italian author who wrote the book The Courtier in 1528. He described the ideal Renaissance man and woman.

Nicollo Machiavelli

The author of one of the most influential works of political power called "The Prince."

Gutenberg

German printer who was the first in Europe to print using movable type and the first to use a press (1400-1468)

Flanders

a thriving trading region where the northern Renaissance began

Albrecht Durer

a leading German painter and engraver of the Renaissance

Erasmus

Dutch humanist and theologian who was the leading Renaissance scholar of northern Europe. Wrote "Praise of Folly"

Sir Thomas More

Englishman, lawyer, politician. Wrote Utopia which presented a revolutionary view of society, in which the problems of society were caused by greed.

utopian

idealistic or visionary, usually used to describe a perfect society

William Shakespeare

English poet and playwright considered one of the greatest writers of the English language; works include Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.

Indulgence

Within the Catholic Church, this is the remission punishment for ones sins. Such as for a sin that has already been forgiven by God but which still carries with it some kind of punishment. Centuries ago the Church would sell certificates that would get a person out of purgatory. This practice contributed to the Protestant reformation.

Martin Luther

a German monk who became one of the most famous critics of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1517, he wrote 95 theses, or statements of belief attacking the church practices.

Wittenberg

A city in northern Germany, where Luther drew up his 95 theses.

Charles V

This was the Holy Roman Emperor that called for the Diet of Worms. He was a supporter of Catholicism and tried to crush the Reformation by use of the Counter-Reformation

Diet of Worms

Assembly of the estates of the empire, called by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1521. Luther was ordered to recant but he refused. Charles V declared Luther an outlaw.

John Calvin

religious reformer who believed in predestination and a strict sense of morality for society

Predestination

Calvin's religious theory that God has already planned out a person's life.

Geneva

Swiss city-state which became a Calvinist theocracy in the 1500s; today a major city in Switzerland

Theocracy

A government controlled by religious leaders

sect

A relatively small group that has broken away from an established denomination.

Henry VIII of England

Tudor King of England who launched the English Reformation because the Roman Catholic Church opposed his actions of divorcing Catherine of Aragon and marrying Anne Boleyn. Also: severed ties with Rome and allowed the Bible to be printed in English legally for the first time.

Mary Tudor

daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon who was Queen of England from 1553 to 1558 she was the wife of Philip II of Spain and when she restored Roman Catholicism to England many Protestants were burned at the stake as heretics

Thomas Cranmer

first archbishop of the Church of England, wrote The Book of Common Prayer

Elizabeth I

She supported the northern protestant cause as a safeguard against Spain attacking England. She had her rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, beheaded. Elizabeth I of England succeeded Mary and reestablished Protestantism in England.

Council of Trent

A meeting of Roman Catholic leaders, called by Pope Paul III to rule on doctrines criticized by the Protestant reformers.

Ignatius of Loyola

(1491-1556) Spanish churchman and founder of the Jesuits (1534); this order of Roman Catholic priests proved an effective force for reviving Catholicism during the Catholic Reformation.

Teresa of Avila

(1515-1582) Spanish Carmelite nun and one of the principal saints of the Roman Catholic Church; she reformed the Carmelite order. Her fervor for the Catholic Church proved inspiring for many people during the Reformation period.

Ghetto

During the middle Ages, a neighborhood in a city set up by law to be inhabited only by Jews; now used to denote a section of a city in which members of any minority group live because of social, legal, or economic pressure.

Nicolaus Copernicus

A Polish astronomer who proved that the Ptolemaic system (geocentric theory) was inaccurate, he proposed the theory that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system (heliocentric theory)

Heliocentric Theory

the idea that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun.

Tycho Brahe

Danish astronomer who collected data to prove that Copernicus was correct

Johannes Kepler

Assistant to Brahe; used Brahe's data to prove that the earth moved in an elliptical, not circular, orbit; Wrote 3 laws of planetary motion based on mechanical relationships and accurately predicted movements of planets in a sun-centered universe; Demolished old systems of Aristotle and Ptolemy

Galileo Galilei

Italian astronomer and mathematician who was the first to use a telescope to study the stars

Francis Bacon

developed the scientific method

Rene Descartes

17th century French philosopher; wrote Discourse on Method; 1st principle "I think therefore I am"; believed mind and matter were completely separate; known as father of modern rationalism

Scientific Method

A series of steps followed to solve problems including collecting data, formulating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and stating conclusions.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory

Robert Boyle

Irish chemist who established that air has weight and whose definitions of chemical elements and chemical reactions helped to dissociate chemistry from alchemy (1627-1691)

Isaac Newton

English mathematician and scientist- invented differential calculus and formulated the theory of universal gravitation, a theory about the nature of light, and three laws of motion. was supposedly inspired by the sight of a falling apple.

Gravity

A force of attraction between objects that is due to their masses.

Calculus

a branch of mathematics in which calculations are made using special symbolic notations; developed by Isaac Newton

Humanities

Branches of knowledge concerned with human beings and their culture: philosophy, literature, and the fine arts, as distinguished from the sciences

Vernacular

Everyday language of ordinary people