Unit two words+dates

Period 1 Dates (1450-1648) 

1. Italian Renaissance: 1350-1550 

2. Northern Renaissance: late 1400s - early 1500s 

3. Age of Exploration: 1450-1600 

4. Early Modern Society: 1500-1700

5. Reformation: 1500s 

6. Witchcraft Scare: 1580-1680 

7. Thirty Years’ War: 1618-1648 

8. The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War: 1648

Protestantism - a sect of Christianity that separated from Catholicism after Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the Diet of Worms. Unique beliefs of Protestantism include: the priesthood of all believers; sola scriptura - or primacy of scripture; predestination; salvation by faith alone. Protestantism includes many groups such as the Lutherans, Anabaptists, and Calvinists who are divided into French Huguenots and Puritans.  

Martin Luther - Augustinian monk who had concerns about corruption of the Catholic Church. He wrote the 95 Theses in Latin and nailed them to the Wittenberg Church door. Luther’s ideas spread after they were translated into vernacular German and published with the printing press. The Catholic Church denounced him as a heretic and asked him to recant his writings at the Diet of Worms; he refused. 

Vernacular Bibles - Protestant Bibles published in the language of the common man. These differed from Catholic Bibles which were only published in Latin and therefore could only be read and interpreted by those taught Latin, i.e. the clergy. 

John Calvin - a Protestant minister who wrote The Institute of the Christian Religion, which explained the Calvinist beliefs of predestination and the elect. Predestination is the belief that from the beginning of the world, God already decided who would be saved and who would be damned. Those who were chosen by God to be saved were considered the elect. Calvin also taught that wealth was a reward for hard work and a sign of God’s favor. Calvin lived in Geneva, Switzerland, which was run as a theocracy, where the Bible was the rule of law. 

Anabaptists - another Protestant sect that believed that only adults should be baptized because they can profess to have faith; whereas infants cannot. They also believed that church and state should be separate and refused to join the military. Anabaptist women were allowed to become preachers, and nearly one third of the Anabaptists who were martyred at this time were women in leadership.  

Anglican Church - also known as the Church of England, this Protestant church was established by King Henry VIII, when the Catholic Church would not agree to grant him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, who was related to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. Anglicanism includes a blend of Catholic and Protestant beliefs.  

Puritans - English Calvinists, a group of reformers who rose up under Elizabeth I. They wanted to cleanse the Anglican Church of all vestiges of Catholicism. Their attempts at reform came into conflict with the Stuart monarchs, James I and Charles I, leading to the English Civil War, in which the Puritans were victorious. 

Huguenots - French Calvinists, which comprised almost half of the French nobility in the 1500s. When Huguenots started demanding rights in Catholic France, Catherine de Medici decided to purge France of these French Calvinists in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572 by having influential Huguenots killed when they came to attend her daughter’s wedding to Henry of Navarre. Parisian Catholic mobs used these killings as justification for mass murder in other cities as well, killing thousands. 

1. Massacre of Vassy - start of the French Wars of Religion, an event in which a group of Huguenots were killed at a worship service by order of a duke of the Catholic Guise family 

2. Catherine de’ Medici - regent, staunch Catholic, and key player in French Wars of Religion

War of the Three Henrys - one of the French Wars of Religion, in which 3 different Henrys vied for the throne of France. Henry III was on the throne. Henry of Guise, leader of the ultra-Catholic Holy League, thought Henry III wasn’t Catholic enough and wanted the throne himself. Henry of Navarre was a Hugenout (although he converted to Catholicism to save his life, and then back to Calvinism when that was convenient.) With the support of the Spanish, Henry of Guise took the throne from Henry III, who became his chief minister. So Henry III had Henry of Guise assassinated. Later, a disgruntled monk assassinated Henry III, so Henry of Navarre became king. (He realized being a Huguenot wouldn’t be popular with the majority of France, so he converted back to Catholicism.) Henry of Navarre became known as Henry IV and this was the end of the French Wars of Religion. Henry of Navarre AKA Henry IV was known for his establishment of the Edict of Nantes, which was a move toward religious toleration, allowing Huguenots the freedom to worship without fear of another massacre.    

Phillip II - Catholic King of Spain who allied with Poland and the Duke of Lorraine to end Ottoman expansion into Europe. As a devout Catholic, he disliked Protestantism and wanted to restore Catholic unity across Europe, especially in the Netherlands and England. Dutch Calvinists committed iconoclasm by destroying Catholic religious images, so Phillip II had them persecuted. Then, William of Orange rose up as the leader of Dutch Calvinists, and the Netherlands declared their independence from Spanish rule. He also tried to take on Queen Elizabeth I of England, who supported the Dutch Protestants; however, Britain’s navy easily defeated the Spanish armada, allowing for the continued spread of Protestantism across Europe. 

Defenestration of Prague - Catholic Ferdinand became king of Calvinist Bohemia. The Bohemian aristocracy resisted his efforts to convert them back to Catholicism, going so far as to throw two of Ferdinand’s messengers out a window, the fancy word for which is defenestration. Comically, the messengers fell 70 feet but did not die, either due to God’s intervention or the pile of manure that they landed in.  

religious pluralism - a synonym for religious tolerance, which is a condition of harmonious coexistence between adherents of different religious denominations. This occurred during this period in Poland and The Netherlands (during the Dutch Golden Age). In France and Germany, examples of religious pluralism after much conflict—including the French Wars of Religion—include the Edict of Nantes and the Peace of Augsburg respectively. 

Thirty Years’ War - A religious-turned-political war with four phases that occurred in the Holy Roman Empire from 1618-1648. Key players included France, Sweden, and Denmark. It included four main phases: the Bohemian, Danish, Swedish, and French Phases. 

1. Phase 1: Bohemian Phase, after the Defenestration of Prague, Catholic forces defeated Protestant ones at the Battle of White Mountain, thereby reestablishing Catholic control across many places in the Holy Roman Empire. 

2. Phase 2: Danish Phase, Britain and Danish king, who was anti-Catholic and anti-Habsburg, took up Protestant cause, but despite additional support for Protestants, Catholics still won this phase of the war. Political motives are starting to bleed in to the war. 

3. Phase 3: Swedish Phase, war extends beyond the borders of the Holy Roman Empire with King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden entering the war and scoring a major victory for the Protestants. Gustavus Adolphus, also known as “The Father of Modern Warfare”, was a military genius who created a professional standing Swedish army and prohibited pillaging of civillian’s property. Another reason for the Protestant success was financial backing from Catholic France, who supported Protestants in order to weaken the Habsburgs. 

4. Phase 4: French Phase, France entered the war on the side of the Protestants and mainly fought Catholic Spain. The Thirty Years’ War ended with the signing of the Peace of Westphalia, marking the end of the religious wars in Europe. The Peace of Westphalia also amended the Peace of Augsburg to legitimize Calvinism, marking the end of the medieval concept of a universal Christendom. Finally, it hastened the decline of the Holy Roman Empire by weakening it, while strengthening individual states.

The Catholic Reformation - The movement for the reform of the Catholic Church in the 16th century. It included a revived papacy; the regeneration of old religious orders and the founding of new ones, most notably the Jesuits; and the reaffirmation of traditional Catholic doctrine at the Council of Trent, which sought to root out corruption of simony and indulgences, reaffirm the doctrines of transubstantiation, espoused salvation by faith AND works, and confirmed the authority of the Bible AND church dogma. 

1. Index of Prohibited Books - list of books that the church said Catholics were forbidden to read. It included Protestant texts as well as Galileo and Erasmus. 

2. simony - the buying and selling of church offices

3. indulgences - purchase of forgiveness of sins, rather than going to confession, money was used to finance church construction such as St. Peter’s Basilica 

4. New orders included the Jesuits and Ursulines - a female Catholic order who focused on educating Catholics, especially young girls, and also undertook missionary efforts around the world

patriarchy - a system of government in which men hold all the power, including having more rights and opportunities than women 

La Querelle des Femmes - “arguments about women;” a centuries-old debate about the nature of women that continued during the Scientific Revolution as those who argued for the inferiority of women found additional support in the new anatomy and medicine. In addition, they used the Bible to argue that women were inferior because it was Eve who was deceived by Satan and plunged the entire human race into sin. On the other side, people argued that women appeared less competent because they had been robbed of opportunities to prove their worth. Queen Elizabeth I of England was a great example of women’s ability if only given the chance. Catholics gave women the opportunity to be nuns, which enabled them to gain an education, have leadership roles, and develop medical and artistic skills. Lutherans and Calvinists believed that women should be subservient to their husbands, but Anabaptists gave women positions of authority, even allowing some to become preachers. 

Early Modern Society - new culture of leisure was on the rise. This included blood sports such as boxing, jousting, and cock fights. 

1. All Saints’ Day - celebration officially sanctioned by the Church, as opposed to Carnival 

2. Carnival - a festival that occurred before Lent, in which people got drunk and danced wildly. Protestant communities tried to outlaw this festival, but it often still occurred in rural areas.

3. Stocks - place of public punishment in which legs, arms, and/or head would be restrained and passersby could throw food and waste at the prisoner 

4. Charivari - a loud, clamorous parade whose goal was to publicly shame those who marched through the streets

Witch Scare - From approximately 1580-1680, folk ideas led people to believe that misfortunes such as sickness and natural disasters occurred because of witchcraft performed by the power of the devil. This led to the trial and execution of 40,000-60,000 people accused of witchcraft. These trials affected mainly women–who many, citing La Querelle des Femmes, argued were the more susceptible to Satan–and mainly people living in the Holy Roman Empire, where both the Protestant Reformation and Thirty Years’ War had occurred. 

Mannerism - A 16th century artistic movement in Europe that deliberately broke down the high Renaissance principles of balance, harmony, and moderation. Rather, it followed the Reformation and sought to stir religious emotion. Originally, the term “mannerism” was an insult that claimed that the artists worked after the manner of the Renaissance painters, but lacked their genius. However, the movement caught on and artists like El Greco were able to convey spiritual depth by using distorted figures, violating rules of proportion, and depicting intense suffering and drama.  

Baroque - An artistic movement of the 17th century that used dramatic effects to arouse emotions and reflected the search for power that was a large part of the 17th-century ethos. Baroque artists combined the Renaissance’s rebirth of the secular classics and use of proportion with Mannerism’s return to religion and emotion. Baroque art was extravagant, ornate, dramatic, and highly detailed. It relied on intensity, drama, and emotion. The Catholic Church embraced Baroque art and commissioned artists to create works that displayed the grandiosity of Catholic doctrine and the greatness of God. The beautiful ornamentation of Catholic churches was a sign of God’s almighty power and glory. Baroque artists and musicians who promoted religion or glorified the monarchy include Peter Paul Rubens, Gian Bernini, George Frideric Handel, and J. S. Bach.