The Renaissance

It was the awakening of the human spirit - feelings and thoughts
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High culture so only affected a few
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Was not religious or scientific but moral and personal
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In Italy an almost secular attitude appeared
Economic growth was the basis for the Renaissance
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Northern Italy (centrally located) benefited from the crusades and the spice trade
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Renaissance started in Florence and follows the success of the Medici family
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Who were the Medici’s? Florentine merchants that gained control of the papal banking
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1397 Giovanni de’Medici founded the Medici Bank

italy at the Beginning of the Renaissance

Northern Italian cities were communes-associations in which free men desired to be politically and economically independent from wealthy nobles
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In order to achieve their goal, wealthy merchants would form oligarchies ( rule by the political elite) with powerful nobles
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How did merchants and nobles form an oligarchy? Marriage vows were business arrangements
\n The popolo (poor class) hated their position and used force to take over the cities, but order was soon restored
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Despots showed their wealth by patronizing the arts - Medici
Individuals had a loyalty to their own city-state
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Five city-states dominated the peninsula: Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal State, and the kingdom of Naples
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Cesare Borgia (Machiavelli’s hero and son of Pope Alexander VI) tried to unite the peninsula
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Northern Europe was uniting - Italy remained fragmented
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Signing and breaking alliances was common
Savonarola of Florence attacked paganism, vice, undemocratic government of Lorenzo de Medici, and corruption of Pope Alexander VI.
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Initially people supported him but later he was burned
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*People did not share his opinions of the commercial elite
Renaissance was characterized by self-conscious awareness that Italians were living in a new era
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The Renaissance was the light after the gloom of the Dark Ages
\n Artists of the Renaissance had contempt for medieval predecessors
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But most people lived exactly the same in the Renaissance period as the medieval period
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A new individualism appeared -
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A deep interest in Latin, a revival of the antique lifestyle, and a more secular spirit.

Individualism stressed:

a) personality

b) uniqueness

c) fullest development of capabilities

d) the quest for glory

Humanism (Petrarch)

The study of the classics became known as “new learning” or “humanism”
Cicero considered this important for anyone who considered himself civilized
Humanism emphasized:

a) human beings

b) human achievements

c) human capabilities

Italian Humanists

i) Deeply religious viewed the classics in a new light

ii) Skeptical of the authority of the classics because of distance from the author

iii) Studied classics to understand human nature

iv) Very Christian - men and women were in God’s image

v) Rejected classical ideas that opposed Christianity but sought a harmony between paganism, secularism, and Christianity.

vi) Loved the language of the classics

Politics

The Prince - Machiavelli
For Machiavelli the test was a ‘good’ government was an effective government.
Machiavelli’s work rests on two principles:

Permanent social order
reflecting God’s will is
impossible
Politics should be considered
a science.

NORTHERN RENAISSANCE

More of a blend of old and new
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Much more religious than in Italy
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Studied Greek and Hebrew texts for a greater understanding of Christianity
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Students from England, Holland, France, and Germany went to Italy for the ‘new learning’
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Northern humanists interpreted Italian ideas in terms of their own traditions.
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They were more religious

b) They stressed the Bible and early Christian themes

c) They developed an ethical way of life

d) Classical and Christian cultures should be combined

e) They had a profound faith in the human intellect

f) People could be improved through education

Northern Humanists

In Germany:
Western and southern Germany were economically advanced
- Fugger Banking Family: wealthier than the Medici’s in Italy
14th century - mystics like Thomas a Kempis believed the human soul could communicate with God (Imitation of Christ) without authority from the church
They did not rebel against the Church but wanted a deeper religion \n

Low Countries (Holland and Belgium)

Erasmus had a deep appreciation for the classics
Most well-respected man in Europe (The “Christian Gentleman”)
Erasmus was a Christian Humanist
Advocate of education, peace, reason, tolerance, and reform from within the church
Wrote The Education of a Christian Prince and The Praise of Folly
Education is a means to reform
“Philosophy of Christ”-follow your heart as Christ would have wanted, not the teachings of a theologian

France

Jacques Lefevre d’Etaples applied humanism to religion

Believed in education
Contemporary of Erasmus
Early French Protestant

Rabelais was secular

Wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel
Failures of the Church
Attacked French society

In England

Thomas More

Deeply interested in the classics
Entered government under \n Henry VIII
Devout Roman Catholic (did not support policies of Henry VIII and was later beheaded)
Wrote Utopia
- Criticized injustices of many English institutions
- Blueprint for a “perfect” society

“New Monarchs”

A new breed of leaders - ruthless, preferred security to love
Outside of Italy they were actively building states
They used the monarchy to guarantee law and order
The despots of Italy, Henry VII of England, Louis XI of France, Ferdinand of Aragon
All Machiavellian (but could not have read The Prince)

Ruled with strong authority and national purpose (Nationalism)
2) Monarchy linked all classes of society within a boundary (clergy, wealthy/nobility, middle, poor)
3) Insisted on respect and loyalty
4) Ruthless-oppressed rebellions and opposition
5) Loved the business of kingship (What it means to be a king/ruler)
6) Tended to rely on the middle class - new bourgeoisie (artisans, business owners, the “haves” rather than the “have nots”)

FRANCE

Charles VII (Valois) revived the monarchy

Expelled the English (Hundred Years’ War)
Increased the influence of the middle class
Strengthened finances through taxes like salt (gabelle) and land (taille)
Created first permanent royal army
By the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438) asserted French Church supremacy over the papacy
Crown could appoint bishops
\n His son, Louis XI (Valois) was a Renaissance prince
Promoted industry
Improved the army
Signed international treaties
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Louis XI as King and Beyond

The Estates General met only once during his reign
1516 Francis I signed the Concordat of Bologna with Pope Leo X which rescinded the Pragmatic Sanction
- Power and money went back to the Church
- French King could still select bishops
- France remained Catholic

Decimated by the Black Death
A civil war erupted between the ducal houses of York and Lancaster
- War of the Roses
- Yorkists (White Rose) vs. Lancastrians (Red Rose)
- The Yorkists were victorious, and the Tudors (1485-1603) took power

England

Decimated by the Black Death
A civil war erupted between the ducal houses of York and Lancaster
- War of the Roses
- Yorkists (White Rose) vs. Lancastrians (Red Rose)
- The Yorkists were victorious, and the Tudors (1485-1603) took power

The Tudors

They passed laws against nobles having standing armies
Became financially independent of the nobles in Parliament
Royal Council (national government) was the center of authority

Ex. The Royal Council handled the king’s business including arranging marriages

n order to deal with threats from the nobility, a specific court was created called the Star Chamber
The Star Chamber used Roman Law to enforce the law

a) accused people were not entitled to see the evidence against them

b) sessions were in secret

c) torture was often used

d) there were no juries

England

Before 1469, Spain was fragmented like Italy into various city-states
Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon married (1469) and united the regions
They ruled through “hermandades”
- “brotherhoods” that served as a secret police force
Alliance with the Spanish Pope Alexander VI
- Monarch could appoint bishops in Spain and Spanish territories
- Creation of a national church (Catholicism)
Spain’s problem with national church was its many diverse religious groups
- Jews
- Moors (Muslim’s from Northern Africa)
Reconquista (1492) - expulsion of the Jews and Moors from Spain, which lasted for 100 years
Instead of being exiled, Jews and Moors could convert to Catholicism
- Conversos (“New Christians”)
- Moriscos - Christians of Moorish background
- Marranos - Christians of Jewish background
Some of the converts were in name only, and still practiced their old religion
- Ex. Jews not eating Pork and celebrating the Sabbath
Spanish Inquisition - the ruthless court that decided if conversos were telling the truth
- Many were imprisoned, killed, or forced to leave Spain

Absolute religious orthodoxy and pure blood were the foundation of Spain by the 16th Century

Germany

Part of the Holy Roman Empire
Local lords recognized the supremacy of the Emperor, who was elected by 7 Electors
1452 Archduke of Austria (Habsburg) was elected Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519)
He married the heiress of the Duke of Burgundy
Their son, Philip married Mad Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain
Their son was Charles V
- The “Universal Monarch” because he ruled over three houses (Spain, Germany, France)
- He later became Holy Roman Emporer