Reformation and Renaissance

Marco Polo

European explorer who traveled through Asia in the 1200s

Interest

A fee that borrowers pay for the use of someone else's money

Cosimo de' Medici

Wealthy banker who turned Florence into a center of arts, culture, and education

Renaissance

Period following the Middle Ages, characterized by renewed interest in Greek and Roman culture and an emphasis on people as individuals

Humanism

Emphasis on human value and achievement

Dante Alighieri

Italian poet who wrote The Divine Comedy

Niccolò Machiavelli

Political writer who wrote The Prince

Petrarch

Renaissance poet and scholar who helped change education

Perspective

Technique in art to represent a three-dimensional scene on a flat space so it looks real

Michelangelo

Master artist who painted the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel

Leonardo da Vinci

Master inventor, engineer, and artist who painted the Mona Lisa

Johannes Gutenberg

German inventor of a printing press with movable type

Christian Humanism

Combination of humanism and Christianity

Desiderius Erasmus

Priest and Christian humanist who critiqued corrupt clergy

Albrecht Dürer

German painter who is also known for his block printing

Miguel de Cervantes

Spanish writer of Don Quixote, a novel that mocked medieval habits and customs

William Shakespeare

English dramatist and poet inspired by the Renaissance

Reformation

Reform movement of Western Christianity

Indulgence

A relaxation of penalties for sins people had committed, sold by the church

Purgatory

In Catholic theology, a place where souls went before they went to heaven

Martin Luther

Priest who criticized church abuses and started the Reformation

Protestants

Those who protested against the Catholic Church

John Calvin

Reformer who believed in the idea of predestination

King Henry VIII

English king who started the Church of England

Catholic Reformation

The effort to reform the Catholic Church from within

Ignatius of Loyola

Man responsible for founding the Jesuit order

Jesuits

Religious order founded to serve the pope and spread Catholic teachings

Francis Xavier

Jesuit missionary who brought Catholicism to parts of India and Japan

Huguenots

French Protestants

Edict of Nantes

Law granting religious freedom in most of France

Thirty Years' War

Long series of wars between Catholics and Protestants involving much of Europe

Congregation

Church assembly

Federalism

Sharing of power between national and local governments