Chapter One

Renaissance and Reformation 1450-1600

Early Modern European Society and Culture

The Big Picture

· 1500 Euro – local, hierarchic, slow, poor, dangerous…

· Status was usually inherited instead of achieved

· Central institutions weak, unstable, unambitious

· Authority with guilds, neighbourhoods, parishes, families

· 1500-1600 religion, philosophy, natural science mingled with God filled world

· Scarcity of info gave way to abundance with press, media, literacy

· Early modern Euro – very dangerous à famine, disease, accidents, violence

· Insecurity set tone for arts, faith, feelings

A Dangerous World

· Disease, poor diet, scarce clothing, crowded housing, dirty streets and rivers, abundant rats, fleas, lice

o Swift and quick, killing many

o Typhus, smallpox, bubonic plague

· Bubonic plague continued to resurface; transmitted through rats, mice

· Wounds, diarrhea, respiratory infections

· Of all children a quarter died by 1, another quarter by marriage; 1 in 7 women died from childbirth à death a fact of life

· The people themselves were also very violent

· Danger of hell and the devil

· Europeans had three shields: religion, community, government

Religion

· Religion had three main tasks: providence, salvation, community

· Providence: God’s justice on Earth, there were no pure accidents

o All bad things were seen as punishment for sin

o All good things were seen as a reward

· Many also prayed to the Saints who were more local and specific

· To get help for sins, you need “grace” channeled through the Church; with out this grace Christians were doomed to eternity in hell

· Holidays and celebration brought in the community aspect

· Religion was a social glue, and defined a social ethic

· Rich web of beliefs and practices draped over a lot of life

· Reformation would rip out many beliefs and alter others; sudden, violent, passionate

The Honour Code

· Stated: Be proud, not humble. Be rich, not poor. If thine enemy smite thee, smite him back. If not, he will steal thine honour.

· Rooted in custom and opinion – ones honour

· Religion fought honour – mercy against wealth and pride, humble simplicity

· Euro culture juggled both honour and religion

· Renaissance, deeply Christian and laced with honour

· Reformation worked to squelch honour’s violence, pride, and love of luxury

Communities

Families and Friends

· Early modern Euros took shelter in communities from dangers (natural and human)

· The more dangerous the world the more willing one makes sacrifices to groups

· Shielded members from violence; tried to advance social life, business, politics

· Of all modern solidarities – family most important

· Property was families bedrock

· The whole land regime was mostly male; females could inherit dowry

· Household – basic unit of ownership and production (land, buildings, tools)

· Family included everyone living under the same roof

· Young people told to marry for money, land, and good connections

· Only poor could enjoy a truly loving marriage

The Renaissance Social Hierarchy

· Little idea of democracy or equality; distinction between high and low

· From middle ages, Renaissance inherited feudal attitudes

o Arrangement that was economic, social, political, legal

· Lords (those who held feudal lands) – power to judge, tax, run market, wine press…

· Middle Ages shifted into early modernity – feudalism didn’t crumble; social inequity

· Renaissance – movement in high culture, little impact outside elite class

· Reformation affected everyone

Demography

· Pre-modern world close to Malthusian equilibrium

o As population rose, resources became scare, mortality increases = ME

· First shock of Black Death – population of Euro kept falling due to aftershocks

o 1400 began to stabilize at half pre-plague pop; 1480 began to grow

o Grew for next 140 years, then began to fall again; strained resources

Political Bodies

· After fall of Roman Empire, political units began to crumble; Feudalism more local

· 1000 to 1500 trend began to reverse

· By 1500 kings emerged more competent – “Renaissance monarchies”

· Hired more officials, laid down more law, surrounded with courts

· Monarchs grew richer; ambitious people swarmed – hoped to receive gifts…

· All countries not equal

· 1500-1700 Euro monarchs got stronger; process not smooth, faced opposition; eventually compromised and co-opted

A Revolution in the Military

Fortresses and Firearms

· Middle Ages perfected two devices: knights on horseback & stone castle

· Knights – ruled battle field; Castles – stronger defensive upper hand

· Gunpowder changed everything – cannons could destroy castles

· About 1500 Renaissance military engineers invented star-shaped bastioned fortress

o sloping walls of earth, clad in stone, protruding platforms

o Costly to build and seize; thus only states could afford either option

Ambitions of the State

· Early modern states would inherit their chief ambitions from their medieval predecessors; raise money, make war, feed the court, and do justice

· Early modern justice limited, the world became an unruly place; glorified violence, poverty, and theft

· Difficult to catch these criminals, the ones who were caught, were made into horrid examples to scare

· 1500 and 1650 justice began to get steadier, more ambitious, but not less cruel

Intellectual Life in the Renaissance

World Views

· fields of law, philosophy, political theory, history, literary theory, language studies, medicine, theology, and the natural sciences grew, and changed

· 1500s was still largely medieval, but by the 1700s it began to look almost modern

· changing world views can be summed up as which can be described as “Renaissance” and “Scientific Revolution”

· Renaissance means rebirth

· Renaissance artists and thinkers blended what they recovered with medieval traditions, and then added new knowledge

Aspects of the Medieval Worldview

· Notion of a divine plan – world a product of God’s intelligence

· Idea of hierarchy or “Great Chain of Being”

· Dualism – spirit on one hand and matter on the other

· Allegory – story to find the higher spiritual or moral meaning

· Providence – accidents don’t happen; God sees all

· Teleology – all things have an inherent purpose or goal

Renaissance Worldview

· Renaissance began as linguistic campaign; target medieval Latin

· Loose coalition of men we call “humanists” undertook task to restore lost eloquence

· Humanists unearthed lost works, perfected philology (study of vocab and usage), gave rise to school reforms that pushed eloquence in place of logic

· Renaissance more than humanism – taste for antique extended into visual and other arts

Renaissance Art

The Invention of Linear Perspective: Seeing Far into Space

· Realism emerged in Renaissance painting; extended to portrayal of 3D space

· 1440s Florentines worked on solving problem of vanishing point; pictures acquired depth

· Da Vinci worked out how distance fades colour, how shadows modulate, how surfaces pick up reflected tints of nearby objects

· Raphael mastered all new techniques, could pain amazing naturalism

· Images served as symbols

· Renaissance artists still Christian, art when sacred evoked the world around them

The Sense of History

Seeing Far in Time

· Renaissance, cultural integrity of antiquity mattered; sense of history still looked backwards – norm lay in the past

· Two things helped swing norm from past to future: growing awareness of conflicts and contradiction in ancient heritage, growing confidence

Print

· Medieval info scarce, books costly and for churches or rich collectors

· Johann Gutenberg invented movable type

· Books became popular and cheap, increase range of content, more accurate, more languages

· Fostered news, propaganda; lowered barriers; served as repression and rebellion

· Only minority could read and write

The High Renaissance in Rome

Patronage

· 14^th century, principal residence of Renaissance was Florence

· Almost 60 years, Medici family patronized arts

· 1494, family fell; four revolutionary years as holy republic under puritan Savonarola

· Popes used wealth and power to draw artists to Roman court; most famous were Julius the second and Leo the tenth

· Under Leo’s successor Clement the seventh, the Roman Renaissance died

o Bungled foreign affairs, 1527, raged army of Germans and Spaniards stormed Rome

· Most artists scattered

· Roman Renaissance never recovered

Castiglione: The Courtier as Idealist

· 1514 Baldassare Castiglione – diplomat and courtier, served assorted princes

· Wrote Book of the Courtier

o Series of polite, spirited conversations and debates

o Models of discretion – key to courtly life was sprezzatura

o Book caught on, many translations, people validated their wealth and show, preached self-control

Machiavelli: The Courtier as Cynic

· Secretary to Florentine Republic until 1512 when Medici retook city; suffered

· The Prince dedicated to Leo the tenth in hopes of a job; discarded usual restrictions on honour and religion

· Better to be loved or feared? Should he be generous?...

· Renaissance Englishmen called the devil “Old Nick” they had Mach in mind

· Charles the fifth kept this book by his side

Intellectual Developments

The Renaissance Spreads Through Europe

· 1500 Renaissance spread across parts of Euro that belonged to Church of Rome

· Orthodox Christian zone were little affected

· Mechanisms that helped Renaissance spread: Diaspora of Italian merchants, artists; movement of Euros in and out of Italy; new tourist trade

· The printing press allowed more northerners to pick up humanist scholarship of Italians à northern humanism, strong streak of piety and mysticism

o Helped launch Reformation

Desiderius Erasmus and Thomas More

· Erasmus translated, from Greek to Latin, the New Testament, correcting many philological errors of the official Bible

· Wrote Colloquies – model Latin conversations for schoolchildren

· Wrote The Preaise of Folly – satirized fools and criticized princes for their violent wars

· Became Euros public intellectual with vast correspondence

· Erasmianism – had moral core; blended humanism with piety

· Although him and many of his followers were Catholic, his ideas helped start the Protestant Reformation

· More wrote Utopia; plays upon “good place” and “no place” à no place this good could ever exist

o Intended for dangers of wealth, pride, and political power

o opened with moral risks of serving monarch

· 1935 the pope honoured with martyrdom with sainthood; after service of Henry the eighth, he didn’t join Henry in the break with Rome

Writing in the Vernacular

· More to non-Italian Renaissance than Latin scholarship

· Spain, France, England… acquired literature in the vernacular: poetry, plays, histories, travel tales, how-to books

· Shakespeare had a huge variety, as did Christopher Marlowe

· Northern painting also flourished à invented oil paint, pioneered landscape

o Northern art had eye for everyday detail less prominent in Italian art

Skepticism

· Renaissance gave birth to movements that eroded medieval thought: skepticism

· Michel de Montaigne – inventor of the essay; had materialist philosophy that world was only stuff, not spirit

· Blaise Pascal – inventor of ancestral calculator

The Growth of Science

· Best scientific work was done by Arabs who had better grasp of Greek heritage

· 16^th century had more and better translations of Greek mathematics, astronomy, geography, medicine…

· Intellectual developments contributed to process called “the demystification of the world”

· Dualism gave way to materialism; magic, providence, allegory drained away

· Scientific Revolution was a slow process

· 1500 – 1650 religion gripped Euros the most

The Reformation

A Matter of Perspective

· Reformation’s various solution were rooted in culture and politics of the time

· 1500 papacy had taken trappings of the early modern state; reuniting after schism – returned to Rome

· 1440-1510 series of popes retook control of part of central Italy over which Rome had sovereignty

· Pope used wealth of the church to reward clients and to advance his kin; double personality – at once prince and father of all believers

The Pre-Reformation

· One ingredient for Reformation was anticlericalism

o People often accused clergy of idleness, wealth, meddling, hypocriticalness

· Another ingredient was appetite for spiritual experiences among clerics and educated

· 15^th century Euro had shift toward more meditation, understanding, feeling in religion

o Erasmus focused on individual experience and overlooked uses celebration in community; faith was salvation, not providence

· Reformation broke out, Erasmus & humanists stayed with Rome – his ideas influenced reformers on both sides of widening religious divide

Martin Luther and the Start of the Reformation

· Knack for language, surfacing in his Bible translation, helped found modern German prose

· Sent by his confessor to teach at University of Wittenberg; lectured on St. Paul

o Found passage in Romans to the effect that we are saved “by faith alone”; it was not the outward action, but the inward spirit that brought salvation

· Pope Leo launched sale of indulgences aimed at funding new Saint Peter’s Cathedral

o He who could not go, could still find grace in cash

· Indulgences set of the Reformation

· 1517, chief seller of indulgences neared Saxony (where Luther was teaching) – Luther posted on door of Wittenberg’s castle church 95 things against the practice

· Print broadcast his points all over Germany; the pope issued a papal order and Luther burned it

· Charles the fifth, summoned Luther and before the monarch he refused to submit and recant: “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise.”

· He had two basic points: by faith alone, and by scripture alone

· Clergy no longer intermediaries between God and humans – became “ministers” or teachers

· Protestantism stripped away medieval heritage

· In Euro zealots staged a massacre of art; the new religion wrought havoc with high culture

· Germany and Scandinavia moved to Lutheran model of state churches under protection of local rulers; ministers became civil servants

· Jean Clavin founded a church and theology that spread; Calvinist churches took over Scotland and the Netherlands…

· Calvinist theology pushed Luther to his logical consequences; if works are nothing, all is in the hands of God; predestined to heaven or hell

· Calvinist churches less hierarchic; congregation ran itself

· English detractors called their Calvinists “Puritans”

· Some churches – Mennonites, Baptists, Quakers – lay low or fled; Hutterites to Canada and Mennonites and other to North America

The Counter-Reformation

The Church Responds

· Under Paul the third, general council met on and off for 18 years producing a papal victory

· Trent pushed bishops into their cities and strengthened their authority

· To strengthen clergy each bishops district erected a seminary to train priests

· Three countermeasures that didn’t come from Trent are: the Roman inquisition, the Roman Index of Prohibited Books, and the founding of religious orders given to teaching, propaganda, and social services

· Jesuits – stood for efficiency, skill, effective propaganda, highly regarded schools

o Fanned out across Euro, Asia, Americas; winning new converts

· Against Protestantism, Catholics deployed almost all arts: architecture, sculpture, painting, music, stagecraft, preaching, pamphlets

o Developed Baroque style: splendid buildings, furnishings, ceremonies

Social Control

· Both Catholicism and Protestantism stressed individual experience, and conscience; both strove to mobilize believers’ feelings; both attended more salvation, less providence

· Overall, both looked to moral reform

Sixteenth-Century Politics

Spain

· Struggles with France, until 1559 it became weakened and Spain became temp hegemony; 1660 France returned to dominate

· Spain was a divided place

· Two things put Spain on world stage: Christopher Columbus (brought riches of the world), the accident of inheritance that left the throne to Charles the fifth (became tied to Germany as well as expanding fortunes)

France

· Death of Henry the second left monarch to his three incompetent sons

· Spread of Calvinism and ambition of noble factions put France in almost 40 years of civil wars – “Wars of Religion”

· “Saint Bartholomew’s” massacre – Parisian mobs wiped out hundreds of Calvinist nobles; Henry the third slaughtered and decade later Henry fourth of Bourbon took over

· Henry died and Louis the 14^th relied on Richelieu who backed Protestants in 30 years war

England

· 1700 it built global trading empire with colonies/posts on several continents

· Reformation here came from above

· Henry cut all church’s papal ties and took over autonomous Church of England

· Partial Reformation – Bible went English, monasteries succumbed

· Henry died and heir Edward the sixth took place; Church became more Protestant

· Edward died throne went to Mary who married cousin and burned Protestants; many fled and many absorbed Calvinist ideas; Catholic restoration

· Mary died and throne went to Elizabeth the first

· …

· England prospered; London grew as port and center of manufacture, arts, literature, intellectual

Italy

· Italy was not a single state until 1870

· 1490 France, Spain, German Empire began to wade in

· French invasion 1494

· Sack of Rome 1527 wrecked the local Renaissance

· France was down, and Spanish power brought tranquility; next 60 years prosperous

· Italian cities churned out cloth, arms, glass, art; population grow and living standards fell – famines; still remained most urban place in Euro

· 1620 – France recovered, clashed with Spain and regained Italian ambitions

· 1630-1656 plagues swept peninsula, cutting down city dwellers à trading elites shunned commerce

Germany

· Holy Roman Empire elected monarch chosen by seven electors; Kaiser

· Under him: mix of middling princes, ample lands, imperial free cities, imperial free knights

· The empire had become hereditary

· Charles fought two wars against a Protestant Schmalkalkic Leage

· Latter defeat threatened retirement forced him to treaty: Peace of Augsburg

· In this pact “he who holds the power determines the religion” tried to settle question for religion; worked for 63 years

· Militant Catholicism and assertive Calvinism clashed

· 1618 Thirty Years War; peace of Westphalia 1648 – reaffirmed religious settlement of 1555 and the territorial status quo

· War/peace replaced Czech elite…helped discredit religious war

The Netherlands

· Good farms, many rivers for roads

· Rivers invited trade and traders, trade stimulated industry

· War and politics turned role to Amsterdam, which until 17^th century, dominated Euro commerce until London took over

· Rebellion against Phillip the seconds Catholic rule exalted Amsterdam

· Rebellion against Spanish Duke of Alva – civil war

· 1580s – Spanish army retook south, seizing Antwerp; driving skilled and refugees into the north

· Decades of warfare 1609-1621

· Dutch northerners prospered; trading, plundering, taking forts and markets; colonized economy of Baltic

· Netherlands, though Calvinist, were still tolerant of faiths and ideas

· Amsterdam welcomed Jews; many converts from Spain and Portugal

Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire

The Gradual Rise of Muscovy

· Nucleus of future Russian empire was Moscow

· Ivan “the terrible” pushed his borders down the Volga to the Caspin – pushed out boarders of Russia

· Exhausted Muscovy with unsuccessful Baltic wars

· Killed son and heir; his death lead Muscovy to time of troubles (1606-1613)

· At least 20 pretenders tried for the throne

· Under new Romanov dynasty – Muscovy stabilized and grew slowly

The Turkish Empire

· Turkey was feared by Euro, it grew and grew; took Egypt and spread through North African coast

· Differences between empire and Euro: one was a kind of slavery, practice of tolerance of other faiths, manner of choosing a sultan

· Turkey didn’t do bad until 1600; it couldn’t keep pace with Euros scientific and technological experiments – no Renaissance or Scientific Revolution

· Balance of power soon turned against Turkey