The Protestant Reformation and the Challenge to the Old Order

III. Reshaping Society through Religion

A. Protestant Challenges to the Social Order

1. The Peasant’s War of 1525 — Many interpreted the call for greater spiritual freedom as offering freedom in other areas as well. In southern and central Germany, Luther and Zwingli’s anticlerical message resonated with heavily taxed peasants who lived on lands owned by the church or Catholic lords. Many peasants rose in rebellion, attacking convents, monasteries, and castles, and claiming to be following the Word of God. They were joined by urban workers, who looted church property. An ex-priest, Thomas Muntzer (1468?–1525), led the movement in central Germany, promising to chastise the wicked and clear the way for the Last Judgment.  Leaders of the reform movement turned against the rebels, and Catholic and Protestant princes joined to crush Muntzer and his supporters. Across Germany, rebels were hunted down and more than 100,000 were killed. Luther tried to mediate, criticizing both the rebels and the princes for their excesses. He saw Muntzer as a dangerous man doing the “devil’s work.” Luther connected the Lutheran church with the German princes and established political authority. When the Holy Roman Emperor declared Catholicism the state religion, the princes protested and the empire fragmented.

2. Anabaptists — In Zurich, laypeople, many of them artisans and members of the middle and lower classes, attempted to conform themselves to the New Testament descriptions of early Christian communities. Embracing a simple but radical message, they rejected the validity of infant baptism and called for the rebaptizing of adults. Many of these Anabaptists (literally “rebaptizers”) were pacifists who rejected civil authority. Zwingli condemned them in 1529, and when they remained resistant, condemned them to death; however, Anabaptism still spread through southern Germany. In 1534, one group seized control of Munster, proclaiming themselves a community of saints, but they were overthrown by a combined Catholic and Protestant army. In northwest Europe, under the pacifist Dutchman Menno Simons (1469–1561), the Anabaptist movement survived.

B. New Forms of Discipline

1. Reading the Bible — Middle-class urban reformers urged greater conformity and stricter moral behavior. Rulers and clergy encouraged Bible reading and hard work, piety, and attendance at sermons. Many saw the poor as lacking personal virtue, and greater emphasis was placed on the regulation of marriage. Luther’s German translation of the Bible became standard, and a Bible-centered culture took root, with 200,000 copies printed over twelve years. Bibles became central in urban, literate households, and Catholic Bibles in German also circulated. In England, the church executed William Tyndale (1495–1536), who translated the Bible into English, for heresy.

2. Public Relief for the Poor — In Catholic and Protestant states, secular governments began to take over public charity from the church in an era of increasing poverty and less tolerance for the poor. Moralists condemned the sloth and crime that was associated with vagabonds. Protestant magistrates in urban areas appointed officials to certify the genuine poor and distribute funds to them. During the 1520s, cities in the Low Countries, Italy, and Spain prohibited begging. Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives wrote a treatise urging authorities to establish public poor relief, and national laws followed in Spain and England.

3. Reforming Marriage — Seeking order and discipline, Protestant reformers denounced sexual immorality and glorified the family. Magistrates closed brothels and established marriage courts, and fines were put in place for fornication, adultery, and violent behavior. Prior to the Reformation, marriage had largely been a private affair between families, where promises made between couples with witnesses present were recognized by the church. Government control was now asserted over marriage, first in Protestant, then in Catholic countries. The first generation of Protestant women attained a high level of marital equality, but for the most part women’s role in society did not change, although the closing of convents did confine women more to the household and family in Protestant areas.

C. Catholic Renewal

1. The Council of Trent and Its Rejection of Protestantism — In the 1540s, the Catholic church acted dramatically to fend off the Protestant threat. Pope Paul III convened a council at Trent in 1545, which met sporadically for twenty years. It had the goal of renewing religious devotion, clarifying doctrine, and reforming clerical morality. Italian and Spanish clergy predominated among the 255 bishops, archbishops, and cardinals. The council condemned central Protestant doctrines on salvation, the Eucharist, clerical authority over the laity, and interpretation of the Bible. Divorce was rejected, and indulgences confirmed. Bishops had to be residents of their dioceses, and more seminaries were established. The council reduced hope for reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants, as Catholics focused on rolling back dissent.    

2. New Religious Orders — The Catholic Reformation also prompted the formation of new religious orders, the most important being the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), who were established by a Spanish nobleman, Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) . A soldier in wars against France, Loyola was injured in battle in 1521 and during his recovery read the lives of the saints and decided to serve the church. A charismatic and active figure, he attracted followers, and his order was recognized in 1540. The Jesuits vigorously defended papal authority and established hundreds of colleges. They were particularly active globally as missionaries. Jesuits helped to restore confidence in the church, although they also had a reputation for controversy and for having a great deal of political influence. 

3. Missionary Zeal — Missionary activity became especially important in the face of the Protestant challenge. Some missionary work was repressive and coercive, while at other times it offered welcome reason and faith. Catholic missionaries focused on winning over local elites and establishing schools. Initially involving very little racial discrimination, distinctions based on race or language became more common in the Americas and Africa. In Asia, elites were especially targeted by missionaries under Portuguese protection. Missionaries admired Asian civilization; the Jesuit Francis Xavier preached in India and Japan and converted many. In Asia and the Americas, these activities converted many and were successful.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

IV. Striving for Mastery

A. Courtiers and Princes

1. Princely Power, Patronage, and the Arts — Courts, which functioned as centers for state building and the projection of power, also became centers of intrigue, cultural activity, and patronage. Political and cultural elites grew up around courts, as typified by the work of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), an immensely talented artist who worked at the Florentine court and for the pope.

2. The Court of Francis I — Italian artists also flocked to the French court of Francis I (r.1515–1547), the largest in Europe. There were 1,622 people, many of them artists, musicians, and performers at the French court, by 1535. The court moved around between palaces but was centered in a renaissance palace built at Fontainbleau. It took 18,000 horses to move the French court from place to place.

3. Ariosto, Castiglione, and Courtier Ethics — Two Italian writers, Ariosto (1474–1533) at the Este court in Ferrara, and Castiglione (1478–1529), a servant of the duke of Urbino and the pope, composed poetry (Ariosto) and a dialogue (Castiglione) representing court culture as the highest synthesis of Christian and classical values. Gentlemen at court were urged to speak in refined language and carry themselves with nobility and dignity in serving their prince and their lady. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) was a courtier whose essay, The Prince, urged another, more pragmatic, ethic on rulers, encouraging princes to be feared rather than loved. Rulers were urged to keep a firm grip on power through deceit and manipulation if necessary.

B. Dynastic Wars

1. The Valois versus the Hapsburgs — The French Valois and Spanish Hapsburg families fought each other for domination of Europe. The Italian Wars over French claims that began in 1494 escalated into a general conflict that involved the Ottomans and the major Christian monarchies from 1494 to 1559. Both families were Catholic, and they fought over the Low Countries and Italy. After a defeat at the hands of Charles V and his capture at the battle of Pavia in 1525, the Valois French king Francis I was forced to renounce all claims to Italian territory. However, he immediately repudiated the treaty and continued the conflict. When the pope allied with the French, Charles sacked Rome in 1527. Charles made extensive use of German Protestant mercenaries, and their attack on Rome was brutal and spurred Catholic reform. In 1559, the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis ended the conflict, as the French gave up their claim to Italy and the French king Henry II married his sister and daughter into the Hapsburg family. Other Europeans were drawn into this long conflict, often switching sides to gain religious or political advantage.

2. The Extension of Ottoman Power — The Ottomans seized the opportunity the conflict provided to expand. Suleiman the Magnificent (Suleiman I, r.1520–1566) destroyed the Hungarian army in 1526 and lay unsuccessful siege to Vienna. Francis I forged an alliance with the Ottomans in 1535, scandalizing many Christians but reflecting the opportunistic spirit of the times. Ottoman help and Protestant challenge at home prevented Charles V from defeating the Valois.

C. Financing War

1. The Challenge of Meeting Wartime Expenses — The cost of war increased as technology and firepower developed and governments devalued currency to pay for the conflict. Charles V had the largest army and supported it with gold and silver mined or looted from the new world. Still, expenses exceeded income and Charles accumulated a heavy debt, as did other monarchs of the era. Bankruptcy loomed for many states despite the expansion of revenue sources and the devaluation of currency. Hapsburg and Valois monarchies looked to bankers to finance their expenses.

2. The Fugger Financial Empire — The Fugger bank, based in Augsburg, Germany, built a financial empire based on supporting monarchy. Jakob Fugger (1459–1525) built a financial relationship with Maxmillian I, Charles V’s grandfather. In 1519, Fugger arranged through a consortium of Italian and German bankers to secure Charles V’s election as Holy Roman Emperor.  A long relationship developed between the bank and Europe’s largest wealthiest monarchy. Between 1527 and 1547, the bank’s assets doubled, due largely to its management of Hapsburg debt.

D. Divided Realms

1. France — Religious differences challenged political unity in some states. In France, Francis I cracked down on Protestantism after 1534 but did not root it out. Calvinism continued to grow in France in the 1540s and 1550s as noble families converted and protected other Protestants. Francis and his successor Henry II (r.1547–1559) maintained a balance of power between Catholics and Calvinists, but after Henry’s death, four decades of savage religious war followed.

2. England and Scotland — Henry VIII’s church remained ambiguous. Edward VI (r. 1547–1553) encouraged the growth of Calvinist Protestantism, but he died at fifteen, and when his Catholic half-sister Mary Tudor (r. 1553–1558) became queen she restored Catholicism and persecuted Protestants, executing some three hundred. Others fled to the continent. When Anne Boleyn’s Protestant daughter Elizabeth succeeded Mary (r. 1558–1603), Protestantism regained momentum and became ingrained in the English church. In Scotland, where the monarchy was challenged by strong nobles, Protestantism took root in the 1550s as the Calvinist reformer John Knox (1514–1572) returned from exile. The queen, Mary of Guise, married to James V until his death in 1542, surrounded herself and her daughter Mary Stuart with Catholic French advisors, strengthening the anti-French loyalties of many Protestants in the nobility. In 1558, Knox published an attack on Mary’s reign, and she was deposed by the nobility. Mary Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots) fled to England, and her infant son James was installed as king.

3. The German States — In Germany, Protestant princes formed the Schmalkaldic League in 1531, which included most imperial cities. Emperor Charles V was supported by the Bishops and some Catholic princes, but war with the Ottomans and French kept him from dealing with divisions in Germany until 1541, when he convened an Imperial Diet at Regensberg. When the Diet broke down, Charles went to war with the League in 1547. He suppressed Protestantism in southern Germany with Spanish and German troops and then destroyed the fragmented Schmalkaldic League at Muhlberg in Saxony, capturing the leading Protestant princes. Protestant resistance to the restoration of Catholic worship led Protestant princes to regroup and drive Charles out of Germany, resulting in the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, which recognized the Lutheran church, accepted the secularization of church lands, and established the principle that the religion of princes would determine religion within German states. Calvinists and Anabaptists were excluded and persecuted, but the peace held until 1618. Charles V resigned many of his thrones in 1555 and 1556, leaving the Netherlands, Burgundy, and Spain to his son Phillip II and his Austrian lands to his brother Ferdinand. He retired to a monastery.

The Age of European Exploration and Expansion

I. The Discovery of New Worlds

A. Portuguese Explorations

1. Initial Portuguese Efforts — Spain and Portugal, inspired by their struggle against Islam and a desire for the riches available through trade with the East, increasingly brought Europe into contact with the rest of the world. In 1433, Portuguese mariners began exploring the West African coast, seeking a way around Ottoman-controlled land routes to the east in search of the spice trade and inspired by rumors of Prester John’s mythical eastern Christian kingdom. Using newly developed caravels, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460) financed many voyages with revenues from a crusading order. Early triumphs attracted more sailors, astronomers, and cartographers, who developed better navigation techniques.

2. The New Portuguese Trading Network — Searching for gold and slaves, the Portuguese built forts down the African coast, reaching the Cape of Good Hope by 1487–1488. A decade after that, Vasco da Gama led a fleet to Calicut, India, bringing back Chinese porcelain. By 1512, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor working for the Spanish, led an expedition to circumnavigate the globe. By 1517, the Portuguese had forts all along the Indian Ocean.

B. The Voyages of Columbus

1. Columbus’s Ambitions and the First Voyage — Born in Genoa, Christopher Columbus participated in these ventures and, underestimating the distance, planned his own expedition to China. The Portuguese refused to back him, but Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain agreed to do so. In 1492, Columbus sailed west with three ships, eventually reaching the Bahamas and believing he was near Japan. He explored the Caribbean islands in search of gold, and sought to subjugate and Christianize the Arawak natives he encountered.

2. The Second Voyage and Royal Intervention — Many joined Columbus’s second voyage in 1493, which had seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men. When they did not find gold, his men began enslaving native Caribs, the enemies of the Arawaks. Columbus proposed a permanent trade in slaves in 1494. The Spanish monarchy decided to send priests and officials to the Americas, which was named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who voyaged across the Atlantic from 1499–1502.

3. The Treaty of Tordesillas — To head off conflict between Spain and Portugual, Pope Alexander VI helped negotiate the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which divided the Atlantic between the two powers. The treaty allowed Portugal to claim Brazil in 1500.

C. A New Era in Slavery

1. Historical Slavery — European voyages of discovery initiated a new era in slavery by expanding its scale and by attaching race and color to servitude. Slavery had existed throughout history and was widespread, with slaves of all races toiling in galleys, as domestic servants, as agricultural laborers, and even as soldiers in the Ottoman army.

2. The New African Slavery — From the fifteenth century onward, Africans made up a growing proportion of slaves. Despite criticism from some clergy, Portuguese slave traders took advantage of war within West Africa. Most slaves toiled in Portuguese Atlantic islands and Brazil in the sugar plantations, although some worked in Portugal as domestics.

3. Slavery in the Americas — In the Americas, slavery expanded enormously. Some critics of brutality against native Americans, such as the Spanish Dominican Bartolome de Las Casas (1474–1566), defended the development of African slavery, arguing that they were constitutionally better suited for the labor.

D. Conquering the New World

1. The Conquests of the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas — The Aztecs and Incas in the Americas ruled vast empires from urban capitals. Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizzaro, prominent commanders in the Spanish Caribbean, organized gold-seeking expeditions from a base in the Caribbean. Cortes, with many native allies but only two hundred men, attacked and captured the Aztec capital in 1519. Two years later, Mexico was added to the Spanish empire, while Pizzaro conquered the Incan empire in 1532–1533. Later, the Mayan Empire on the Yucatan peninsula fell to Spain. Superior military technology added these vast territories, and the Spanish acquired vast mines of silver and gold, resulting in inflation in Europe.

2.  European Activity in North America — In North America, France sought a northwest passage to China and wanted to establish settlements in Canada. Because of harsh winters and native hostilities, however, permanent European settlements in Canada and the present-day United States would not succeed until the seventeenth century, by which time the English had joined the colonizing effort. When the Dutch broke free from Spanish rule, they began taking over Portuguese and Spanish trade routes, becoming wealthy through this commerce.

E. The Columbian Exchange

1. Definition of the Columbian Exchange — The Columbian exchange refers to the movement of goods, peoples, animals, plants, and diseases between Europe, the New World, and Africa. It was a crucial moment in human history, and dramatically altered the societies involved. The dynamic continued long after Columbus's initial voyages, but many of the later transformations are foreshadowed in the events of the early period of exploration.

2. Transfers Between Europe and the Americas — Diseases brought by Europeans devastated the natives of the Americas, killing up to 90 percent. Syphilis in some form came back to Europe. Tobacco, chocolate, potatoes, maize, and tomatoes changed consumption patterns in Europe, while African agriculture was also transformed by these and other crops. African yams, sorghum, millet, and rice, used to feed slaves in transit, likewise altered agriculture in the Americas.

II. The Protestant Reformation

A. The Invention of Printing

1. Gutenburg and the Development of Printing Technology — The fracturing of the unity of Western Christianity transformed the West, and religious reformers were heavily influenced by Christian humanists. The technology of printing helped spread new ideas. Movable type was developed in Europe in the 1440s by a German goldsmith, Johannes Gutenberg. The Chinese invented movable type in the eleventh century, but used woodblock printing better suited to their language. In 1467, the first press was established in Rome. The press, combined with the production of cheaper paper, did the work of thousands of scribes.

2. Early Consequences of Print Culture — The advent of printing was so important that it brought about a communications revolution. By the 1490s, Frankfurt in Germany was a center for printers and booksellers. The development of mechanical printing increased speed and lowered costs, expanding the audience for the printed word and creating a wider community of scholars. Printing increased the speed at which knowledge could be shared and encouraged free expression and the exchange of ideas. Political and religious authorities quickly instituted censorship regulations.

B. Popular Piety and Christian Humanism

1. The Development of Christian Humanism — Many devout believers had little understanding of official doctrine. Urban merchants and artisans, increasingly literate, sought a more active and better-disciplined faith. Christian humanism developed in urban areas in response, especially north of the Alps where the highly educated were less likely to be attached to wealthy households. The Brethren of the Common Life emphasized religious self-discipline and copying manuscripts.

2. Erasmus and Humanism — One pupil of the Brethren was Erasmus, an Augustinian friar given special permission by the pope to live the life of an independent scholar. Erasmus became well-known across Europe, devoting years to preparing a critical edition of the New Testament in Greek and Latin. Erasmus saw education as the key to reforming individuals and society, and he strove for a united, peaceful Christendom marked by charity and good works as well as learning and piety. His brilliant works urged a simple religion, devoid of greed and the lust for power, and satirized pomposity and wealth. Erasmus was peaceful and moderate, but was soon challenged by more radical and angry reformers; many of his ideas were condemned by the Catholic church even while he was increasingly isolated from Protestant thought.

C. Martin Luther’s Challenge

1. Luther’s Crisis of Faith — Luther was an Augustinian monk troubled about his salvation; he determined that God’s freely given faith alone, and not good works, was essential for salvation. Luther came into conflict with the church when he objected to the sale of indulgences, in return for the forgiveness of sins, as a corrupt practice. In addition, he rejected the sacrament of reconciliation as useless without faith.

2. Luther and the Evangelical Challenge — Luther presented ninety-five theses for academic debate in 1517, specifically rejecting indulgences and the sale of church offices. The theses were printed and widely circulated, unleashing a torrent of criticism throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Many younger humanists and clerics calling themselves Evangelicals supported Luther’s criticisms. Many were university-trained and from middle-class backgrounds. Literate artisans and many peasants also rallied around Luther, some believing the end of the world was near.

3. Luther’s Writings and the Church’s Response — Luther also published three fiery treatises that burned his bridges with Rome. In them, he rejected the papacy and many church doctrines, emphasized the “priesthood of all believers,” criticized the power of the professional caste of clerics, and argued that the Bible provided all the teaching necessary for salvation. He wrote in Latin and also in German, and condemned Italian influence on the church, calling on German princes to defend their nation and lead the reform of the church. The church underestimated his influence and the attractive power of his defiance, and his criticisms fused with social, national, and religious grievances. In 1521, Luther defended his faith before Charles V (r. 1519–1556) at the Imperial Diet of Worms, but was spared from the potential consequences of his actions because he enjoyed the protection of Frederick the Wise, the elector of Saxony. Lutherans printed propaganda that spread throughout Germany and Scandinavia.

D. Protestantism Spreads and Divides

1. Zwingli and Reformers in Zurich — Luther’s doctrines were challenged by many who also rejected the Catholic church. Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531), the chief preacher of Zurich, also attacked corruption, fasting, and clerical celibacy in the Catholic church, as well as the idea that the Eucharist had anything more than symbolic meaning. In 1529, Evangelical princes and magistrates tried to reconcile disputes among reformers at the Colloquy of Marburg, but they could not come to agreement on the nature of the Eucharist.

2. Calvin and the Institutes — John Calvin (1509–1564) also questioned Catholic teaching. A humanist law student in Paris, Calvin threw himself into the study of theology in connection with a crisis of faith. Influenced by the humanists, Calvin gradually abandoned the Catholic church. Following the Affair of the Plackards, the monarchy in Paris attempted a crackdown on the spread of Protestant broadsheets. Some Protestants were executed, and Calvin fled to Geneva, in French-speaking Switzerland, where many had renounced allegiance to the Catholic bishop there. Calvin came to lead the Genevan reform party and lived there until his death. His Institutes of the Christian Religion, published in 1536, presented an organized, systematic, logical, and coherent explanation of Christianity as Calvin understood it.

3. Calvinism in Geneva — Calvin’s work laid out the doctrine of predestination, in which he argued that God had preordained everyone to either salvation or damnation. According to this doctrine, God knew the identity of the Christian “elect,” who were marked out for salvation. Calvin and his followers lived with rigorous discipline, fusing church and society into the theocratic Reformed church. Calvin’s movement spread to France, the Low Countries, England, Scotland, the German states, Poland, Hungary, and later to New England. In Geneva, Calvin tolerated no dissent, and persecuted those who dissented from his teachings. Catholic and Protestant polemicists alike used violence to control, discourage, and punish dissent, and the persecution of Jews in particular intensified.

E. The Contested Church of England

1. Henry VIII and Religious Reform — King Henry VIII led religious reform in England for reasons that were personal and political. Ambitious and educated, Henry strongly opposed the early Reformation, which made little headway in England. However, in 1527 Henry sought a divorce from his wife, Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, because the marriage had produced no male heir, only the daughter, Mary. After falling in love with a courtier, Anne Boleyn, a supporter of the Reformation, the king argued that his marriage to Catherine was invalid, and demanded that Pope Clement VII annul it. When they failed to secure the annulment or support his policies, Henry arrested or executed his leading advisors. Two new Protestant advisors, Thomas Cromwell, the chancellor, and Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Cantebury, led Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy in 1534, which made Henry the head of the new Church of England.

2. The Struggle for Political and Religious Control in England — Henry made Anne Boleyn his queen and dissolved the monasteries, selling off their land to supporters to strengthen his Reformation. A large but unsuccessful rebellion in the north in 1536 showed that many of the English people retained Catholic sensibilities. When Anne produced only a daughter, Elizabeth, Henry accused her of adultery and had her executed. He married four more wives but had only one son, Edward. When Henry died in 1547, the principle of royal supremacy was well established, although Henry’s personal religious views were ambiguous. He kept the mass and clerical celibacy, but rejected papal authority.

Weekly Assignment 14

What tied the crises of the period (disease, war, schism) to the Renaissance (the flowering of literature, art, architecture, and music)? Your response should fill at least two machine produced sides of 8.5 by 11 sized paper, with one-inch margins and conventional 12 point font, and is due at the beginning of class on Wednesday, December 4.

The Renaissance

I. The Renaissance: New Forms of Thought and Expression

A. Renaissance Humanism

1. Humanism and the Revival of Classical Latin — During the Renaissance period, elements of the classical past were revived by Europeans disillusioned with the present. Humanism sought to recover texts from the classical past and revive Latin and Greek, as well as classical values and sensibilities. Humanism began in the Italian city-states, where humanists wrote texts patterned on classical models, especially Cicero. Most humanists combined sincere Christian piety with their appreciation of the pagan past.

2. The Career of Francis Petrarch — The first humanist was Francis Petrarch (1304–1374), from Arezzo. Petrarch was educated at Avignon, where he fell in love with classical literature, gave up the study of law, and devoted himself to writing poetry in Italian and Latin. He saw humanism as a vocation.

3. Representative Humanists: Lauro Quirini, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and Christine de Pisan — Lauro Quirini (1420–1475?), educated in law at the University of Padua, wrote essays and corresponded with other humanists. A merchant on Crete for the last half of his life, Quirini worried about the fate of Constantinople’s libraries under the Turks and tried to save books written in Greek. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) was a more flamboyant humanist. Born near Ferrara to a noble family, he learned Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic, and attempted to reconcile Jewish mystical writings and the scriptures. The church found some of his ideas heretical. His Oration on the Dignity of Man summed up the humanist sense of man as a creative individual with unlimited potential. Christine de Pisan (c.1365–c.1430), a young Venetian widow, wrote poetry inspired by classical models and obtained aristocratic and royal patronage.

B. The Arts

1. From Agora to Piazza — Patronage strengthened the arts in this era. Unplanned medieval cities developed into planned urban spaces, imagined as places of order and harmony. Florentine architect Leon Alberti (1404–1472) worked to harmonize buildings and public spaces, and in Renaissance architecture the piazza, or plaza, became an important part of cities. Court architecture emphasized the same themes. Duke Frederico’s new palace at Urbino contained spacious courtyards and studies to be filled with books, and Roman temple forms were integrated into some Renaissance churches.

2. Sculpture and Painting — Renaissance artists used classical models for their work, but also mined the ancient world for subjects. Good examples are Ghiberti’s door sculpture of the Sacrifice of Isaac and Botticelli’s painting, The Birth of Venus. Perspective became more important, and developed in part out of military engineering, as demonstrated by the career of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). A northern Renaissance took place as well, outside of Italy. Portrait painting at the court of Burgundy emphasized the individuality and dignity of the subject, reflecting Renaissance values.

3. New Harmonies in Music — Music added glamour to Renaissance courts and musicians were heavily patronized. Some musicians served as chaplains, and some court musicians set humanist or classical poetry to music. Church-sponsored music, especially choral music, increased as papal courts proliferated. Josquin Desprez (1440–1521), the duke of Ferrara’s chaplain, was typical in his addition of classical elements to traditional musical forms to enhance music’s power.

II. Consolidating Power

A. New Political Formations in Eastern Europe

1. Bohemia — The shape of Europe changed a great deal from 1340 to 1492, with the Ottoman empire supplanting the Byzantine Empire. Bohemia gained new status as the seat of the Holy Roman Empire under the Luxembourg dynasty. Bohemia experienced religious and political crisis as the nobility, both Hussite and Catholic, clashed, and most of Europe considered Bohemia a heretic state.

2. The Hanseatic League — Cities were powerful in the Baltic region, especially the Hanseatic League, a loose federation of mostly north German cities established to protect trade and for mutual defense. The league linked the Baltic coast with Russia, Norway, Britain, and France, and defended itself successfully against Denmark and Norway.

3. Poland and Lithuania — Poland and Lithuania developed as two new monarchies. Poland, dominated by its nobility, expanded in the fourteenth century, partly through Jewish emigration. Lithuania was the only major holdout from Christianity in eastern Europe, until it expanded into southern Russia and its Grand Dukes flirted with both Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. When its Grand Duke Jogailo married Queen Jadwiga of Poland, the states were united and he accepted Catholic baptism, promising to convert Lithuania.

B. Powerful States in Western Europe

1. Spain — Four states dominated western Europe in the fifteenth century as powerful monarchies. In the Iberian peninsula, decades of violence ended when Isabelle of the more powerful Castille married Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 and restored law and order. The king and queen ruled jointly over their separate dominions, which retained traditions and laws. Progress toward a united Spain began, and Isabelle and Ferdinand consolidated their central power through taxation, bureaucracy, a compliant cortes, and ideology that glorified monarchy.

2. Burgundy — The Duchy of Burgundy was created when the duke of Burgundy, a member of the French royal family, married an heiress of Flanders in 1369. The rise of this state was due to military power and statecraft. Land was acquired in the Netherlands and the state grew in the area between France and Germany through purchase, inheritance, and conquest. Burgundy was a multi-ethnic patchwork of laws and traditions. Flourishing cities and rich farmland strengthened the state, which had no natural borders. Philip the Good (r.1418–1467) and Charles the Bold (r. 1467–1477) were strong rulers determined to enhance dynastic prestige and security through power and its careful, often theatrical projection. When Charles was killed at the battle of Nancy by the Swiss, Burgundian power came to an end, with the state divided up between France and the Holy Roman Empire.

3. France — France recovered quickly under Louis XI (r.1461–1483) after the Hundred Years’ War, expanding territorially to include Burgundy and inheriting control of Southern France after the Anjou dynasty died out. Louis promoted commerce and industry, imposed effective taxes, and built up the military. Through the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, the French kings asserted influence over the French bishops and set the stage for Gallicanism, or French control over church appointments and revenue.

4. England — In England, the Hundred Years’ War led to a civil war (the War of the Roses), which ended with Henry Tudor becoming Henry VII (r. 1485–1509). The English economy grew despite the conflicts, especially the cloth industry and wool exports. Farm and land rents increased, population grew, and general prosperity strengthened the monarchy.

C. Power in the Republics

1. The Swiss Confederation — Traditions of both self-rule and powerful leadership thrived in parts of the West. The Swiss Confederation was made up of cities from the Alpine regions of the Holy Roman Empire, who formed long-standing local alliances for defense and trade. By the end of the fourteenth century, they formed an effective political force. Tradesmen and merchants dominated the confederation, which remained fiercely independent.

2. The Republic of Venice — Venice, built on a lagoon, ruled an extensive empire, and its merchant ships were active everywhere. In the early fifteenth century, Venice took over many neighboring city-states. Its struggle with the powerful state of Milan for control of Northern Italy ended with the peace of Lodi in 1454. Venice was ruled by the Great Council, which was dominated by traditionally important families, with a leading magistrate (doge) elected by the council. The geography of the city fostered community and cooperation and may have helped prevent rebellion. Venice was influenced by humanism and by Byzantine art and architecture, and art was widely patronized by the church and lay confraternities.

3. Florence and the Medici Family — Florence was a republic dominated by the Medici family from 1434. Cosimo de’ Medici (1389–1464) used the Medici bank, which handled papal finances, to gain political power and to direct a broad consensus that he built among the ruling elite. His grandson, Lorenzo (1449–1492) bolstered the regime’s legitimacy and patronized the humanities and arts. Although driven from Florence in 1494, the family returned in 1512, and finally declared themselves the dukes of Florence in 1530, ending the republic.

D. The Tools of Power

1. New Taxes, New Knowledge: The Florentine Catasto — States increasingly exercised power in this era. An example of their growing intrusiveness is the Florentine catasto, a detailed inventory of households that was conducted in 1427. The catasto showed how wealth was divided and revealed a great deal about household size and child-rearing practices.

2. Driving out Muslims, Heretics, and Jews — More powerful monarchs and states were better positioned to persecute and oppose their enemies. Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain made efforts to impose religious uniformity and purity. They persecuted Jewish converts (conversos) by strengthening the Inquisition to investigate them on behalf of the crown, treating them as heretics and decreeing in 1492 that all Jews needed to convert or leave the country. Perhaps 150,000 fled and scattered. Ferdinand and Isabella also determined to rid Spain of its last Muslim stronghold, Granada. They conquered the city in 1492 and forced Muslims to convert or emigrate.

Crisis in the Late Medieval Period

I. Crisis: Disease, War, and Schism

A. The Black Death, 1347–1352

1. “A Pestilential Disease” — The Black Death transformed the West, decimating populations and wreaking havoc on social and economic structures. It began in 1346 in the region between the Black and Caspian seas, probably caused by bacteria carried across the seas by rats. It arrived in port towns first in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Marseille, and Constantinople, and spread rapidly across much of Spain, Italy, the Balkans, and France. It then spread to the north, to Germany, England, Scandinavia, and Russia, as well as the Islamic world. The Black Death recurred every ten to twelve years throughout the fourteenth century, and intermittently until the eighteenth century. With local variations in incidence, it killed somewhere between one-third and one-half (perhaps as much as 60 percent) of the population of Europe. The earlier Great Famine had weakened the population and made the disease even more deadly.

2. Consequences of the Black Death — Some areas adopted quarantines as the plague spread. Religious responses included the widespread belief that sin had caused the plague. Many became flagellants, while others blamed the Jews, especially in Germany, causing many to flee to Poland. A bleak preoccupation with death was evident in the Dance of Death processions, performance, artwork, and literature. The Black Death also brought opportunities for survivors. Farming became more profitable, as marginal lands were not needed and agricultural diversity expanded. Standard of living and wages improved for the poor, and diet also improved. Birthrates improved and marriages increased after the plague passed. New universities were established by survivors made rich by the wealth of the dead.

B. The Hundred Years’ War, 1337–1453

1. Origins and Early Course of the War — In 1337, Philip VI of France claimed Guyenne, the area around Bordeaux, which was a part of the continent still held by the English monarchs. In return, Edward III of England claimed the French throne, leading to more than a century of conflict. The war had two phases—in the first, which climaxed in 1415 at the battle of Agincourt, England gained territory and established the Duchy of Burgundy.

2. Joan of Arc — In the second phase, the French recovered and reconquered nearly all of England’s continental territory. French success was partially due to Joan of Arc, a sixteen-year-old peasant girl who claimed to have visions in which God told her to fight against the English. Joan of Arc fought courageously in the successful battle of Orléans and convinced the French dauphin to travel to the cathedral in Reims to be anointed and crowned King Charles VII. In 1431, in a failed attempt to take Paris, Joan was captured, turned over to the English, and burned at the stake after being tried as a witch.

3. The Hundred Years’ War as a World War — Other Europeans became involved in the war, as both sides made much use of mercenaries. Burgundy played both sides against each other before siding with France in 1435 and eventually being absorbed into France

4. From Chivalry to Modern Warfare — Although many considered the war a chivalric adventure, most of the soldiers who fought in it were mercenaries or “free companies” who lived off the land at times and extorted protection money from peasants. Archers and foot soldiers were more important in the conflict than knights, and cannon and gunpowder weapons became more important as the war continued. Armies became increasingly professionalized and centralized.

5. The War’s Progeny: Widespread resentment among the common people of France and England, who paid ever-higher taxes to support the Hundred Years’ War, fueled popular uprisings, which contributed to further political and social disorder. In 1338, the war led to pro-English rebellions in Flemish cities and towns. These were put down in 1348, but some revolts continued. A Parisian revolt in 1358 against high taxes and incompetent leadership was also put down and its leader assassinated. The same year a peasant revolt, branded the “Jacquerie” by disgusted elites, was brutally repressed. In England, the passage of a poll tax in 1381 triggered a peasant revolt known as Wat Tyler’s Rebellion. Rebels demanded, among other things, an end to serfdom and marched on London before the rebellion was put down and its leaders executed.

C. The Ottoman Conquest of Constantinople, 1453

1. The Conquests of Murad I and Mehmed III — The Ottomans were a central Asian tribe who began to expand under Osman I (r. 1280–1324), waging holy war against unbelievers. Under Murad I (r. 1360–1389), they reduced the Byzantine Empire to Constantinople and vassal-state status. The Ottomans also expanded in the Balkans and across Anatolia. At the 1389 battle of Kosovo, Murad defeated a Hungarian-Serbian army. Ottoman conquest resumed after a pause during the reign of Mehmed II (r. 1451–1481), who resolved to take Constantinople. In 1453, the city fell when cannons breached its walls and the Byzantine emperor was beheaded, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire.

2. Ottoman Rule — Mehmed sought to become a successor to the Roman emperors. He turned Justinian’s Hagia Sophia church into a mosque. He kept the name Constantinople, but the city was popularly referred to as Istanbul. Requisitioned Christian boys were converted, trained as soldiers, and served as Janissaries to defend and administer formerly Byzantine regions. Mehmed expanded the empire through Serbia by 1458 and conquered Athens and the Peloponnese by 1460, gaining Bosnia six years later. By 1500, the Ottoman state bridged Europe and the Middle East.

D. The Great Schism, 1378–1417

1. New Criticism of the Papacy — The removal of the popes to Avignon from Rome produced much criticism. Critics of the papacy emerged, such as the English Franciscan William of Ockham (c.1285–1349), who argued that the faithful were more important to the Church than the papacy or church councils.

2. The Great Schism — Pope Gregory XI (r. 1370–1378), responding to critics, returned to Rome in 1377. After his death, an Italian, Urban VI, was chosen as his successor. Urban sought to curb the power of the cardinals, and in response some of them elected a French pope, Clement VII, and installed him at Avignon. Clement and Urban excommunicated each other, causing the Great Schism (1378–1417). Clement was supported by the French king, while the king of England supported Urban, and other states also chose sides, formed alliances, and switched sides for gain.

3. The Conciliar Movement — Many argued a church council was needed to resolve the dispute. In 1409, with the successor popes in power refusing to attend, cardinals loyal to neither pope met in a council and elected a new pope, resulting in three popes. The Council of Constance (1414–1418) met to resolve the papal crisis and institute reforms. All three popes resigned or were deposed, and the council elected Martin V as pope, who was recognized by every significant ruler, ending the schism.

4. New Forms of Piety — With the plague continuing and the church in crisis, new forms of piety emerged. The pious sought to ensure their salvation through plenary indulgence (full forgiveness of sin) for those who made pilgrimages to designated holy places, and to reduce the amount of time in purgatory by purchasing indulgences or earning them by certain devout acts. Education was strengthened, more schools were established, and priests were instructed to teach the faithful the basics of religion. A range of popular devotions proliferated in homes. Public processions of the Eucharist and images of the suffering Christ were widespread.

5. New Heresies: The Lollards and the Hussites — New heretical movements emerged out of religious anxiety, dissent, and social unrest. In England John Wycliffe (1330–1384) inspired the Lollard movement, which emphasized Bible readings and preached against monasticism, corruption in the church, and the mass. The Lollards were active and included many women, but they were widely persecuted. In Bohemia, the Hussites were led by Jan Hus (1372?–1415), an admirer of Wycliffe. They insisted on the equal dignity of the laity and the right of the people to receive the wine as well as the bread at Eucharist. Hus was condemned as a heretic, lured to the Council of Constance, arrested, and executed. His outraged Czech supporters revolted against German rule and defeated several crusades sent against them, establishing several communities where radicals attempted to live according to the example of the first apostles. They negotiated with the Holy Roman emperor and were incorporated into the Bohemian system, winning the right to receive communion in both kinds and strengthening Czech identity