Chapter 11: The Renaissance and Reformation Notes

Standards and Key Vocabulary of Chapter 11

• Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Standards Covered:

  • History 1(D): Identify major causes and describe the major effects of the Renaissance and Reformation.
  • History 4(G): Explain how the Crusades, the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and the Great Schism contributed to the end of medieval Europe.
  • History 5: The student understands the causes, characteristics, and impact of the European Renaissance and the Reformation from 1450 to 1750.
  • History 5(A): Explain the political, intellectual, artistic, economic, and religious impact of the European Renaissance.
  • History 5(B): Explain the political, intellectual, artistic, economic, and religious impact of the Reformation.
  • Culture 23(B): Identify examples of religious influence on various events referenced in the major eras of world history.
  • Culture 24(B): Describe the major influences of women such as Elizabeth I during major eras of world history.
  • Culture 25(C): Explain the relationship among Christianity, individualism, and growing secularism and how the relationship influenced subsequent political developments.
  • Culture 26(A): Identify significant examples of art and architecture that demonstrate an artistic ideal or visual principle from selected cultures.
  • Science, Technology, and Society 27(C): Explain the impact of the printing press on the Renaissance and the Reformation in Europe.
  • Science, Technology, and Society 27(E): Identify the contributions of significant scientists such as Copernicus and Galileo.

• Core Terminology:

  • Hundred Years' War: A series of conflicts fought between England and France from 1337 to 1453 over claims to the French throne, leading to stronger national monarchies and new military technologies.
  • Humanists: Renaissance scholars who studied classical Greek and Roman texts, emphasizing human reason, individual worth, personal dignity, and secular learning.
  • Ninety-five Theses: A document written by Martin Luther in 1517 challenging the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences and papal authority, initiating the Protestant Reformation.
  • Black Death: A devastating epidemic of bubonic plague that swept across Europe between 1347 and 1351, killing approximately one-third of the population.
  • Niccolò Machiavelli: A Florentine political philosopher who wrote The Prince, advocating that rulers maintain power by any means necessary ("the end justifies the means").
  • John Calvin: A French Protestant reformer in Geneva who developed Calvinism, emphasizing divine sovereignty and the doctrine of predestination.
  • Great Schism: A division in the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417 during which rival Popes claimed authority in Rome and Avignon, severely damaging papal authority.
  • Copernicus: A Polish astronomer who proposed the heliocentric model of the universe, demonstrating that the Earth orbits the Sun.
  • Counter-Reformation: The Catholic Church's 16th-century movement to reform internally, redefine doctrines, and combat the spread of Protestantism.
  • Renaissance: Meaning "rebirth," a cultural and intellectual movement beginning in 15th-century Italy characterized by a revival of classical learning, realistic art, and scientific inquiry.
  • Johann Gutenberg: The German inventor who developed movable metal type for the printing press around 1450, enabling mass production of books.
  • Council of Trent: A general council of the Catholic Church (1545–1563) held to redefine Catholic doctrine, eliminate corrupt practices, and halt Protestantism.
  • Leonardo da Vinci: An Italian High Renaissance polymath, painter of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, sculptor, scientist, and engineer.
  • Indulgences: Pardons sold by the Catholic Church reducing temporal punishment for sins in Purgatory.
  • Elizabeth I: Queen of England who established a moderate Protestant settlement, fortified royal authority, and defended England against Catholic Spain.
  • Michelangelo: A Florentine High Renaissance sculptor and painter known for David, the Pietà, and the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.
  • Martin Luther: An Augustinian monk whose public criticism of Catholic indulgences in 1517 sparked the Protestant Reformation and established Lutheranism.
  • Inquisition: A tribunal system established by the Catholic Church to investigate, try, and punish individuals accused of heresy.

The Waning and End of Medieval Europe

• The Crusades:

  • Initiated major changes in European society starting in the 12th century.
  • Exposed Western Europeans to Eastern goods, luxury items, and advanced ideas, stimulating a broad revival of international trade.
  • Weakened the Byzantine Empire, contributing directly to its eventual collapse.
  • Stimulated urban growth, leading to the establishment of vibrant commercial towns, the emergence of an influential merchant middle class, and the widespread adoption of a cash economy.
  • Peasants and serfs increasingly paid feudal lords monetary rent instead of traditional labor obligations, undermining the manorial system.

• The Great Famine (1313–1322):

  • Prolonged, unusually heavy rainfall caused catastrophic flooding across Western Europe.
  • Crops rotted in waterlogged fields and livestock drowned in massive numbers.
  • Draft animals essential for plowing were slaughtered for immediate sustenance, and reserve seed grain was consumed.
  • Grain prices spiked exponentially, increasing by more than six times ($6 \times$).
  • Millions of Europeans died from starvation and disease, causing widespread loss of faith and questioning of the Catholic Church's ability to intercede with God.

• The Black Death / Bubonic Plague (1347–1351):

  • Occurred just 25 years after the end of the Great Famine.
  • Originating in Asia, infected fleas living on black rats traveled to European ports aboard merchant trading ships.
  • Between 1347 and 1351, the epidemic claimed approximately 25 million lives, eradicating roughly one-third ($\frac{1}{3}$) of Europe's total population.
  • Bodies were dumped into deep, mass trenches at parish churches at night without receiving traditional religious funeral rites or blessings.
  • Panic led to severe social breakdown: communities scapegoated Jewish populations, falsely accusing them of poisoning wells, while others viewed the plague as divine retribution for human sinfulness.
  • Severe labor shortages allowed surviving peasants to demand wages or leave manorial estates; landowners offered land and freedom in exchange for labor, accelerating the demise of serfdom.
  • Historical descriptions from Marchione di Coppo Stefani (1348, Florence) note that healthy caregivers died rapidly alongside the sick, victims rarely survived past the fourth day, and medical treatments proved totally ineffective.
  • Giovanni Boccaccio documented in The Decameron that social cohesion completely dissolved: neighbors avoided one another, relatives abandoned sick family members, and parents left dying children unattended.

• The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453):

  • Conflict between England and France sparked when the French monarch died without a direct male heir, leading King Edward III of England to claim the French throne.
  • Strengthened national monarchies in both nations; kings bypassed noble feudal levies to maintain permanent, professional standing armies of paid foot soldiers.
  • Technological innovations revolutionized warfare: the English longbow permitted rapid, armor-piercing volleys, while gunpowder and cannons introduced from China breached stone castle fortifications.
  • Heavy armored feudal knights became military obsolete.
  • Fostered heightened national identity and centralized loyalty toward national monarchs rather than regional feudal lords.
  • Joan of Arc: A young French peasant girl who rallied French forces around the Dauphin (Charles VII), broke the siege of Orléans, and escorted the Dauphin to his coronation at Rheims Cathedral. She was later captured by English allies, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake as a witch; however, her military momentum enabled France to expel English forces and end the war within 20 years of her death.

• The Great Schism (1378–1417):

  • Stemmed from escalating disputes between the Papacy and secular monarchs over taxation of Church property, royal jurisdiction over trials of clergy, and rights to appoint local bishops.
  • In 1305, a French Pope was elected and relocated the Papal See to Avignon, France, subjecting the Papacy to French royal influence for over 70 years.
  • In 1378, an Italian Pope was elected in Rome and attempted to re-establish the Papacy there. French cardinals rejected the election as invalid and selected a rival French Pope in Avignon, creating a schism (split).
  • A Church Council convened in 1409 to resolve the split ended up electing a third Pope, worsening the institutional chaos.
  • The Council of Constance finally deposed all three rival Popes in 1417 and elected Pope Martin V as sole pontiff, but the ordeal permanently weakened the moral prestige and authority of the Catholic Church.

The Italian Renaissance

• Origins and Geographical Advantages:

  • Began in northern Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries (1400s–1500s), marking a cultural transition from medieval to modern times.
  • Italian city-states occupied a central geographic position in the Mediterranean Sea, functioning as crucial commercial crossroads between Europe and Asia.
  • Rapid expansion of trade transformed Italian cities into rich hubs of international banking, maritime trade, and specialized craft manufacturing.
  • Key centers of Mediterranean trade included Genoa, Pisa, and Venice.
  • Rome generated wealth as the capital of the Papal States, receiving religious revenues from across Western Europe.
  • Milan, Florence, and Siena grew affluent through textile manufacturing, trade, and international banking networks.
  • Unlike France or England, no single central monarch united the Italian peninsula, allowing independent merchant-led city-states to flourish.

• Humanism and Secular Growth:

  • Affluent merchant families (such as the Medici in Florence) and high Church officials acted as generous patrons, funding painters, sculptors, architects, writers, and philosophers.
  • Secularism spread as scholars shifted focus toward empirical observation, human experiences, and understanding the physical world rather than strictly relying on medieval theological dogmas.
  • Thinkers drew inspiration from the physical ruins and preserved manuscripts of ancient pre-Christian Greece and Rome.
  • Humanism celebrated the power of human reason, individual worth, personal dignity, and human potential.
  • Petrarch: Honored as the "Father of Humanism," he spent decades tracking down, translating, and analyzing classical Latin and Greek manuscripts.

Artistic, Intellectual, Political, and Economic Impacts of the Renaissance

• Artistic Impact (Painting, Sculpture, Architecture):

  • Pre-Renaissance Style: Medieval and Byzantine art relied on flat two-dimensional figures, gold leaf backgrounds, un-shaded floating bodies, and scale based strictly on religious hierarchy rather than naturalistic spatial depth.
  • Giotto (1267–1337): Initiated a dramatic shift by placing figures in realistic three-dimensional space, using natural shading to convey depth, and portraying genuine human emotion and physical gestures.
  • Masaccio (1401–1428): Mastered mathematical rules of linear perspective, utilizing converging orthogonals meeting at a single vanishing point to represent realistic 3D depth on a flat 2D canvas.
  • High Renaissance Painters and Sculptors:
  • Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519): Master painter (Mona Lisa, The Last Supper), inventor, engineer, and anatomist. Perfected sfumato—a technique using soft, hazy shading and blurred contours around the eyes and mouth to create lifelike expression. Dissected human corpses to study muscular structure and recorded advanced engineering concepts in his notebooks, including designs for parachutes and machine guns.
  • Michelangelo (1475–1564): Florentine artist whose monumental marble sculptures (David, Moses, Pietà) were carved from single slabs of stone to reflect anatomical perfection. Painted the monumental fresco ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, depicting scenes from Genesis directly onto fresh plaster to celebrate human form and divine authority.
  • Raphael: Celebrated High Renaissance master who refined composition, harmony, and perspective.
  • Architectural Innovations:
  • Abandoned medieval Gothic pointed arches, flying buttresses, and elaborate ornamentation.
  • Adopted classical Greek and Roman structural elements: symmetrical columns, simple pediments, and circular arches.
  • Filippo Brunelleschi: Designed and engineered the massive dome of Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore), studying Roman structures like the Pantheon to create an enormous interior space without collapse; at its completion, it stood as the largest church structure in the world.

• Intellectual and Literary Impact:

  • Humanists combined classical textual analysis with critical inquiry; Christian humanists like Desiderius Erasmus used text analysis to highlight Church corruption and advocate internal reform.
  • Authors abandoned exclusive use of scholarly Latin to write major literary works in the regional vernacular (everyday language).
  • Major vernacular authors included Giovanni Boccaccio (The Decameron in Italian), François Rabelais (France), William Shakespeare (England), and Miguel de Cervantes (Spain).

• Political Impact:

  • Niccolò Machiavelli: Florentine politician who authored The Prince, an influential handbook on statecraft and political power.
  • Advanced the view that successful political leadership requires pragmatism unconstrained by moral or religious considerations, famous for asserting that "the end justifies the means."
  • Taught that while a ruler might wish to be both loved and feared, it is far safer to be feared than loved, characterizing human nature as ungrateful, fickle, deceitful, cowardly, and greedy.
  • Concept of "Reason of State" (raison d'état): Rulers justified any political or military action necessary to maintain power, state survival, and public order.
  • Emergence of modern diplomacy: European states began exchanging permanent resident ambassadors, establishing systematic taxation systems, and building standing armies using professional mercenaries.

• Economic Impact:

  • Spread of Renaissance ideals created intense demand for consumer goods and material luxury across Europe.
  • Wealthy elites acquired luxury textiles, fine apparel, gourmet foods, vintage wines, and high-end home furnishings.
  • Expanded international trade routes, stimulated commercial production, and accelerated urbanization across Western and Northern Europe.

• Scientific and Technological Developments:

  • Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543): Polish astronomer whose mathematical observations demonstrated that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun (heliocentric theory), directly contradicting the Church's traditional geocentric doctrine. His primary work was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books.
  • Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Italian scientist whose studies of acceleration and motion founded modern physics. Constructed an advanced astronomical telescope, discovering evidence (such as Moons orbiting Jupiter) supporting Copernican heliocentrism. Tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition in 1632, forced under threat of execution to recant his findings, and spent the rest of his life under strict house arrest.
  • Johann Gutenberg's Printing Press (c. 1450): Invented movable metal type in Mainz, Germany, combining individual cast metal letters in a adjustable setting frame with oil-based ink and a wooden press.
  • Suppressed hand-copying and wooden block printing (which had originated in China but required tedious carving of whole pages).
  • Allowed inexpensive mass production of books and broadsheet pamphlets, leading to a dramatic rise in literacy rates and enabling the rapid dissemination of scientific, humanist, and religious ideas throughout Europe.

The Protestant Reformation

• Causes of the Reformation:

  • Widespread corruption and worldliness among Catholic clergy: high officials sought offices for wealth and status, held multiple benefices simultaneously (pluralism), neglected spiritual obligations, and broke vows of celibacy by keeping secret families.
  • Popes acted like secular military princes, financing massive political wars and luxurious building projects rather than serving as humble spiritual leaders.
  • Christian humanists (such as Erasmus and Sir Thomas More) attempted internal moral reform, but Church leadership resisted institutional changes.
  • Sale of Indulgences: Church authorities sold certificates granting remission of temporal punishment for sins in Purgatory. Pope Leo X authorized intensive indulgence sales across German lands to fund the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

• Martin Luther and the Launch of the Reformation:

  • Martin Luther (1483–1546): German Augustinian monk and professor of theology at Wittenberg University.
  • Ninety-Five Theses (October 31, 1517): Luther nailed his document to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, protesting the sale of indulgences and questioning papal authority.
  • Key Arguments from the Ninety-Five Theses:
  • Thesis 6: The Pope cannot forgive guilt, but can only declare that God has forgiven it.
  • Thesis 27: It is false doctrine to claim that as soon as money clinks in the collection chest, a soul escapes Purgatory.
  • Thesis 28: Money clinking in the chest only increases human greed and avarice.
  • Thesis 32: Individuals who believe indulgence letters guarantee salvation are eternally damned alongside their religious teachers.
  • Core Theological Doctrines:
  • Justification by Faith Alone (Sola Fide): Salvation cannot be purchased or earned through good works, sacraments, or indulgences; it is a free gift received solely through individual faith in God.
  • Primary Authority of Scripture (Sola Scriptura): The Bible, not papal decrees or Church councils, is the ultimate authority for Christian doctrine.
  • Priesthood of All Believers: Every believer can read and interpret the Bible directly without requiring intermediate priests or spiritual hierarchy.
  • Escalation and Break with Rome:
  • Pope Leo X issued a papal bull excommunicating Luther, which Luther publicly burned in defiance.
  • Diet of Worms (1521): Holy Roman Emperor Charles V summoned Luther to recant his writings before an imperial assembly. Luther refused, famously stating: "Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract… Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."
  • Charles V declared Luther an imperial outlaw.
  • Sympathetic German princes (such as Elector Frederick III of Saxony) hid and protected Luther, who translated the New Testament into German vernacular.
  • German princes adopted Lutheranism to stop financial payments to Rome and seize rich Catholic monastic lands.
  • German Peasants' War (1524–1525): Peasants revolted against feudal lords, citing Lutheran ideas; Luther rejected social revolution and firmly supported secular princes in crushing the revolt.

• John Calvin and Calvinism:

  • John Calvin (1509–1564): French theologian who established a Protestant teocracy in Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Predestination: Taught that God, being omniscient and sovereign, decided before creation who would be saved (the "Elect") and who would be damned.
  • Calvinist Ethic: Demanded strict moral discipline, plain dress, prohibition of gambling/dancing, intense personal piety, and unrelenting work ethic. Material commercial success was viewed as an outward sign of God's grace and divine election.

The Catholic Counter-Reformation and Religious Conflicts

• The Catholic Counter-Reformation:

  • Council of Trent (1545–1563): Reaffirmed traditional Catholic dogmas (seven sacraments, papal authority, veneration of saints, value of good works and faith), strictly forbade the sale of indulgences, established seminaries to properly train priests, and created the Index of Forbidden Books.
  • The Inquisition: Church courts utilized trials, psychological pressure, and physical torture to identify, convict, and punish individuals guilty of Protestant heresy.
  • The Society of Jesus (Jesuits): Religious order founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534. Functioned as disciplined spiritual soldiers dedicated to absolute obedience to the Pope, defending Catholicism through education, countering Protestant doctrines in Europe, and converting indigenous populations worldwide.

• Political and Religious Geography:

  • Religious unity across Western Europe was permanently broken after a thousand years of Catholic cohesion.
  • Catholic Regions: Maintained dominance in France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Southern Germany.
  • Protestant Regions: Established firm strongholds in Northern Germany, Holland (the Netherlands), Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), and England.
  • The English Reformation:
  • King Henry VIII sought an annulment from Catherine of Aragon to secure a male heir; Pope Clement VII refused.
  • Henry VIII broke with Rome, passed the Act of Supremacy (1534) declaring himself supreme head of the Church of England (Anglican Church), closed all English monasteries, and seized Church property.
  • Queen Elizabeth I: Established a moderate Anglican Protestant compromise, strengthened state authority, united the nation, and defeated the invading Catholic Spanish Armada in 1588.
  • Wars of Religion:
  • Armed conflicts between Catholics and Protestants raged for over a century (1520s–1648).
  • Thirty Years' War (1618–1648): Devastating European conflict centered in German territory that killed up to one-third ($\frac{1}{3}$) of the entire German population through combat, famine, and disease.
  • Religious intolerance led monarchs to violently persecute religious minorities within their borders to enforce absolute uniform faith.

• Artistic and Economic Legacy:

  • Artistic Styles: Catholic Counter-Reformation embraced the Baroque movement—using dramatic, emotional, and grandeur-filled art to glorify Christ, Mary, and the Saints. In contrast, Protestant regions rejected religious imagery in places of worship as idolatry, fostering realism through secular landscape art, still life compositions, individual portraits, and scenes of daily life.
  • Economic Legacy: Ending papal tax extraction retained capital in Northern Europe, while war requirements stimulated weapons manufacturing, trade logistics, and early modern capitalist growth.