Europe at Home: Challenges & Changes to Authority (1450–1600)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key religious, scientific, socioeconomic, and political transformations in Europe between 1450 and 1600.

Indulgences

Pardons sold by the Catholic Church that enabled sinners to buy their way into heaven.

Martin Luther

A German monk who protested the sale of indulgences and posted the 95 Theses in $1517$, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

95 Theses

Formal statements written by Martin Luther in $1517$ attacking the Catholic Church for improper conduct and corruption.

Johann Gutenberg

A German goldsmith who combined interchangeable metal type, oil-based inks, and an adapted squeeze press to invent the printing press around $1450$.

John Calvin

A Protestant reformer who established a strict theocracy in Switzerland and emphasized the concept of predestination.

Predestination

The Calvinist religious doctrine that God has already determined who will gain salvation.

John Knox

The religious figure who established Presbyterianism in Scotland.

King Henry VIII

The English monarch who broke away from the Catholic Church to form the Church of England after the Pope refused to annul his marriage.

Anglican Church

The Church of England created by King Henry VIII, establishing Protestantism across England.

Council of Trent

A series of Catholic Church meetings held between $1543$ and $1563$ to clarify doctrines, address abuses, and condemn Protestantism.

Counter-Reformation

The Catholic Reformation movement aimed at correcting Church corruption and halting the expansion of Protestantism.

Jesuits

A Catholic religious order founded during the Counter-Reformation whose missionaries preached and taught Catholic doctrine.

Huguenots

French Protestants who were targeted and killed by Catholic mobs during religious conflicts in France.

Edict of Nantes

A $1598$ decree issued by French King Henry IV that granted religious toleration to French Protestants.

Spanish Inquisition

A judicial institution established in Spain in the late 1400s to torture and prosecute Jewish and Muslim converts suspected of heresy.

Conversos

Jewish converts to Christianity in Spain who were suspected of secretly continuing their original religious practices.

Queen Mary I

The Catholic Queen of England who earned the name 'Bloody Mary' for trying to forcibly return England to Catholicism.

Queen Elizabeth I

The Protestant Queen of England whose navy successfully repelled and defeated the Spanish Armada.

Spanish Armada

A large naval fleet dispatched by King Philip II of Spain in $1588$ to invade Protestant England, which was defeated by smaller English warships.

Heliocentric Theory

The astronomical theory formulated by Nicolaus Copernicus stating that the planets revolve around the sun.

Nicolaus Copernicus

The astronomer who developed the heliocentric model of the universe.

Johannes Kepler

The astronomer who discovered that planetary orbits are elliptical rather than perfectly circular.

Galileo Galilei

The astronomer who used a telescope to discover that the moon contains mountains and valleys.

Isaac Newton

The scientist who theorized that gravity governs the movement of celestial objects.

Robert Boyle

The founder of chemistry who proposed theories regarding the atomic composition of matter.

Andreas Vesalius

An anatomist who dissected human corpses and created detailed drawings of internal human anatomy.

René Descartes

A mathematician and philosopher who advocated using reason and logic, maintaining that everything should be doubted until proven.

Bourgeoisie

The wealthy urban middle class of merchants and business owners that emerged due to expanded trade, commerce, and education.

Absolutism

A form of governance in which monarchs hold unrestricted, centralized power over their nations.

Nation-State

A political unit where the majority of citizens share a unified cultural identity alongside political boundaries.

Holy Roman Empire

A multi-ethnic confederation of central European territories established under Charlemagne around $800$ that lasted nearly $1000$ years.

Charles V

The Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain during the early 1500s whose reign coincided with the Protestant Reformation and American colonization.