The
Renaissance and Reformation
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Introduction
to the Modern Period
High-light the main ideas in each section.
The West Reborn The boundary between the medieval and modern worlds is hazy, more a matter of gradual change than of dramatic ends and beginnings. Yet, most historians do set the beginning of modern history at the Renaissance, somewhere between 1300 and 1500. While a noticeably more dynamic and expanding European world is evident, much about Europe remains quite medieval for quite a long time. Historians like to use the phrase the early modern period to describe this "mixed up" period from the 1400s to the 1600s.
Shifting Values and Outlooks We have already noted that the most significant change from one era to another on the "Western Civilization timeline" involves significant changes in how people look at the world and the place of people in it. The Greeks and Romans shared a set of values that historians label classical humanism, which you know emphasized reason, the full development of individual potential, and participation in worldly affairs. In the Middle Ages, the western outlook was dominated by the values of Christianity, which stressed faith over reason, obedience to religious authority over individual will, and focused on development of one's spiritual life to gain eternal life rather than on worldly affairs. So, what are the values of the modern era that set it so distinctly apart from the medieval world that preceded it?
The Modern Outlook Modern thinkers came to reject many features of medieval life. Quite a few of the "new attitudes" they embraced really had their roots in classical humanism. What do modern people value?
Significance of science. In the Middle Ages, the final authority was God's word as written in the Bible and interpreted by the Church. Modern thinkers broke with this outlook. They began to analyze both nature and human society using reason rather than traditional authority. Scientists, beginning with the Renaissance, will challenge traditional ideas about the workings of nature and the structure of the universe. We will examine the scientific revolution that begins in the 1500s and will come to see how the modern era is characterized by wide-ranging scientific discoveries and how reliance on science and technology becomes a key characteristic of modern people.
Secularism. In the Middle Ages, no one doubted that the purpose of life was to gain salvation. Early modern westerners do not reject this idea, but they do make room for multiple purposes for their lives. Even the most superficial look at Renaissance art shows that, for early modern people, religion remained important. (Think of all those portraits by Renaissance artists of the Madonna and Child that will be arriving soon in your mailbox for Christmas. These Renaissance people were still deeply religious.) Yet, modern westerners pursued a more active life in society, politics, and economic activity. By the end of the early modern period, the most influential thinkers were no longer the clergy, and the most influential ideas no longer came from Christian teaching. The Church as an institution lost much of its political power and influence.
Individualism. The modern era revived the classical humanist interest in individuals and their worldly accomplishments. Westerners came, once again, to view the purpose of life as did the Greeks and Romans: the development of each individual's abilities and personality. This recognition had wide-ranging impacts on modern life. In the arts, painters, sculptors, and writers, beginning in the Renaissance, sought to capture the unique qualities of individual personality. In politics, theorists insisted that individuals had rights and that the purpose of government was to protect those rights. The slow development of representative government is a characteristic of the modern era. In economics, ambitious businessmen built personal fortunes and, invented efficient business techniques, established a global network of trade, and laid the foundation of modern capitalism. In exploration, daring individuals, seeking fortunes and glory, sailed on voyages of discovery to worlds hitherto unknown to Europeans, and, in consequence, European nations ruthlessly carved out great empires around the globe.
Freedom. A value that underpins all these others is the value that modern thinkers placed on individual freedom. They insisted that people must be free to think for themselves, to seek after the truth unhindered by censorship. If a person is to achieve self-fulfillment, they argued, that person must be free to make decisions, to criticize and praise, to choose freely among courses of action.
Dynamic Middle Class Historians view the growing middle class as the chief agents of these modern attitudes. Their place in society was determined not by birth but through individual achievement. Their wealth was based not on inherited lands but on hard work. They were a force for change, a dynamic element that weakened the power of the aristocratic lords and the clergy. They led busy, worldly lives based on trade and commerce. Their involvement with the world--its goods, its pleasures, its mysteries, and its opportunities-- will transform that world profoundly.
The Renaissance As you begin to read the material in your textbook, beginning with the great cultural and intellectual movement known as the European Renaissance, keep in mind the modern values and outlooks discussed above. Look for specific examples of these attitudes in the works of the artists and writers you will be reading about in chapter one of your text. How are Renaissance people and their activities and accomplishments different from the people and events of the Middle Ages? What makes the men and women of the Renaissance our historical "brothers and sisters?" Remember: we, too, are people of the modern period.
Reading Guide: Chapter 1: The European Renaissance and Reformation
Section One Questions:
Italy: Birthplace of the Renaissance (pp. 37-42)
Answer the following in your notebooks.
Explain how three factors--cities, a thriving merchant class, and the heritage of Greece and Rome--help explain why the Renaissance begins in Italy first.
What similarities in outlook and values connect the classical world of Greece and Rome to the modern world of the Renaissance?
Compare/contrast medieval and Renaissance art in style, content, and technique.
Understand the significance of the three giants of the High Renaissance-- Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael--in the following areas:
· As examples of "Renaissance men"
· As influenced by Greek classical style
· As figures who illustrate Renaissance characteristics in their works.
WORKSHEET for Section One:
The impact of the Renaissance in Europe is observable between the years _______________
The term “Renaissance” means a __________________of ___________________________
Venice, along with _____________________________ and __________________________ were the leading city-states of northern Italy.
In Florence (thought of as the “birthplace of the Italian Renaissance”) the _______________ family dominated political and economic life. Within this family, he was the leading patron of the arts: _________________________________.
In 1453, when _________________________________fell to the Turks, many Byzantine scholars fled to Italy bringing __________________________ unknown in the West.
________________________ is the study of classical literature and other texts that focuses on the development of human potential and achievements.
_________________________means non-religious, worldly in focus.
The universal man or “_____________________________Man” focused on developing excellence in many fields. Castiglione’s work _____________________________ (1528) described this ideal.
T or F. Ironically, upper class women of the Renaissance, while better educated than noble ladies of the Middle Ages, actually had less power and influence.
In painting, ______________________________ is the technique that creates the illusion of three dimensions on a two dimensional surface.
Identify the artist.
______________________ Bronze statue of David; first major nude statue since Classical era
______________________ Credited with pioneering use of perspective in painting
______________________ Painted “Marriage of the Virgin”
______________________ Designed the dome of St. Peter’s
______________________ Marble statue of “David” in Florence
______________________ Sistine Chapel Ceiling
______________________ Famous for his notebook sketches
______________________ “Mona Lisa”
______________________ “Last Supper”
______________________ “School of Athens”
Identify the writer.
______________________ Invented the sonnet form; author of “Sonnets of Laura”
______________________ Decameron
______________________ The Prince
Highlight main ideas; note items in italic.
Jacob Burckhardt, the great 20th-century scholar of Renaissance Italy, said that the Renaissance was all about "the discovery of the world and of man." Within this phrase one can find the key features of the Renaissance: its human focus, its emphasis on life in this world, and its fascination with the classical past. The Renaissance did not so much "discover" as "rediscover" the world, long after the Greeks and the Romans, and the Renaissance embrace of the world included a desire to paint and sculpt it accurately and naturalistically, to a degree not seen since Greek and Roman times.
The Early Renaissance
The city of Florence emerged in the 1300s as the earliest center of
Renaissance art. The painter Giotto, showed a clear break with the
past. As his Renaissance biographer noted, Giotto "freed himself from the
rude manner of Gothic art and brought back to life the true art of
painting." Giotto represented a clear departure from the stiff, unnatural,
"saintly" style of medieval religious art. He was as much interested
in his subjects as living human beings as he was with religious symbolism. His
use of color and shadow, and his placement of figures introduced a new realism
in to painting. All these characteristics are clear in his great work, Lamentation
Over the Dead Christ.
A century later, in the early 1400s, Masaccio improved on these early techniques, bringing an even greater naturalism to painting. Masaccio brought a mathematical precision to his use of perspective and through the use of darkness and shadow (chiaroscuro) gave depth and dimension to his figures. His work, The Holy Trinity, shows that, while Masaccio made great strides forward in the use of perspective, artists painting this early still have a few things so learn.
The High Renaissance
The end of the 1400s and the first half of the 1500s represents the High Renaissance. Under the leadership of the Renaissance Popes, Rome competed with Florence as the capital of the Italian Renaissance. Florence, however, continued to produce extraordinary figures in the history of art. Towering above his contemporaries was Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519). His universal genius embraced not only the arts but also the sciences and engineering. Above all, he is remembered for two great paintings, the mysterious Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, a study in the art and science of perspective.
Contemporary with Leonardo was Sandro Botticelli (d. 1510),among the greatest of the so-called "neoclassical" painters. Figures from classical mythology and literature often were his subjects. His two most famous works were La Primavera and the Birth of Venus. In addition to his interest in classical subjects, his works showed a fascination with the accurate observation of nature.
From 1492 to 1521, three great Renaissance popes brought the Roman Renaissance to its peak: Alexander VI, Julius II, and Leo X. The greatest figure of the Roman Renaissance was Michelangelo (d. 1564). He began his career in Florence (where he sculpted the great statue of David), but Julius II brought him to Rome to work on his tomb. (This project was never fully realized, but the magnificent statue of Moses formed part of this project.) Julius insisted that
Michelangelo, who really considered himself a sculptor, take on the enormous
project of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It took him nearly four years to
cover the vaulted ceiling with frescoes depicting the creation of the world, the
fall of man, the expulsion from Eden, the Flood, among other scenes from the Old
Testament. Perhaps the most famous image from this great work was the Creation
of Adam. Thirty-five years later, in 1541, he would complete another great
fresco in the chapel, The Last Judgment, on the wall of the chapel. Other
great works include the Pieta, the sculpture of Mary holding the dead
body of Christ, and Michelangelo's design for the great dome of St. Peters
Basilica.
The other great figure of the Roman Renaissance was the "divine" Raphael, most noted for his harmoniously beautiful paintings, particularly his portraits of the Virgin. In paintings such as the Madonna of the Chair and the Madonna of the Meadow, Raphael created perhaps his most perfect visions of the Virgin as human mother. Raphael also celebrated Greek and Roman themes in his art. His most famous depiction of the classical past was his fresco the School of Athens, which is a pictorial explanation of the contrasting philosophical viewpoints of Plato and Aristotle.
In the year 1527, Rome was invaded by Emperor Charles V of Spain, its libraries, palaces, and churches looted. Rome never fully recovered, and the leadership of the Renaissance passed to Venice. Venice reached its artistic golden age as Rome declined. To a greater extent, Venetian artists used bright colors, complex designs, and exotic settings and subjects. The pure classicism of Renaissance art began its decline. The great figures of the Venetian Renaissance included Titian, Georgione, and Veronese, whose great work, the Feast in the House of Levi (originally titled, "The Last Supper") ran into trouble with the authorities of the Inquisition.
Except in Venice, the Italian Renaissance did not long survive the sack of Rome. Most of Italy fell into a decline that lasted several centuries, and the leadership and the energy of the Renaissance crossed the Alps to influence the civilization of Northern Europe for the rest of the sixteenth century.
Directions: Read the following excerpts from writers associated
with the Italian Renaissance. List characteristics of Renaissance culture in
these work. Support your conclusions by high-lighting examples from the
literature.
Petrarch. (1304-1374)
From In Praise of Antiquity
"O inglorious age that scorns antiquity, its mother, to whom it owes every noble art...what can be said in defense of men of education who ought not to be ignorant of antiquity and yet are plunged in this same darkness? They condemn Plato and Aristotle, and laugh at Socrates and Pythagoras. What shall be say about men who scorn Cicero, the bright sun of eloquence?"
Renaissance Characteristics: ____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
From Sonnets to Laura: "Sonnet 28"
Alone, and lost in thought, the desert glade
Measuring I roam with ling'ring steps and slow;
And still a watchful glance around me throw,
Anxious to shun the print of human tread:
No other means I find, no surer aid
From the world's prying eye to hide my woe:
So well my wild disorder'd gestures show,
And love lorn looks, the fire within me bred,
That well I deem each mountain, wood, and plain,
And river knows, what I from man conceal,
What dreary hues my life's fond prospects dim.
Yet whate'er wild or savage paths I've ta'en,
Where'er I wander, love attends me still,
Soft whisperings to my soul, and I to him.
Renaissance Characteristics: __________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Castiglione (1478-1529)
From The Courtier
"I would have him well built and shapely of limb...and have him show strength as befits a man of war... I think, too, what is chiefly important and necessary for the Courtiers is to speak and write well and to be knowledgeable...I would have him more than passably accomplished in letters...not only the Latin language but also the Greek...Let him be well versed in the poets, not less in the orators and historians, and also proficient in writing verse and prose, especially in this vernacular tongue of ours...Nor would I have him speak always of grave matters, but of amusing things, of games, of jests, according to the occasion; but sensibly of everything, and with readiness and lucid fullness..."
Renaissance Characteristics: _________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) Italian Renaissance scholar and
writer
From Oration on the Dignity of Man
"God ordained that man whom he had been able to give nothing unique to himself should have a share in the nature of all things...assigning him a place in the middle of creation, God addressed man:
'Nether a fixed place or a fixed nature have we given you, Adam, to the end that according to your wishes and judgment, you may have whatever place or nature you so desire. The nature of all other beings created is limited by My laws. You have no limits, in accordance with your free will...We have placed you at the center of creation and from there you may observe all of the world. You are neither mortal or immortal; with your freedom of choice...you may choose mortality or immortality. You have the power to degenerate into lower, brutish forms of life; you also have the power to be reborn with the angels.'
...Man is worthy of all admiration...Man is rightly believed to be a great miracle..."
Renaissance Characteristics: _________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Machiavelli (1469-1527)
From The Prince
"In politics, a man should be guided by what is, rather than by what ought to be. A man who did only what was right would soon fail among so many who are untrustworthy. Therefore, a prince who wishes to remain in power must learn how not to be good...
Is it better to be loved more than feared or feared more than loved? Ideally, one ought to be both feared and loved, but it is difficult to be both. If one of the two must be sacrificed, it is much safer to be feared than loved... If a prince has relied solely on the good faith of others, he will be ruined. Men are less afraid to offend a prince they love than one they fear...
A successful prince must imitate both the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself
from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves.
It is not necessary for a prince to possess all the good qualities, but it is necessary to seem to have them. I will go so far as to say that to actually have these qualities and to be guided by them is always dangerous, but to appear to have them is useful."
Renaissance Characteristics: ___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
READING GUIDE Section two: The Northern Renaissance (pp. 45-47)
After reading the descriptions of the famous Christian humanists Erasmus and Thomas More, what would you say was the principal aims of their writings?
What characteristics of the plays of William Shakespeare identify him as a Renaissance writer?
Understand the origins of block printing in China and the significance of the "reinvention" of moveable type and the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg.
What is the significance of the invention of the printing press for the Renaissance? What other changes and challenges to traditional ways did the invention of printing encourage?
Was There a Renaissance for Women?
The position of women during the Renaissance has become a subject of much debate in recent years. An older view stressed the intellectual and cultural achievements of individual women, an Isabella d"Este for example, and implied an improvement for women in general. More recently, scholars suggest that Renaissance women were actually less free than their medieval sisters. Others suggest a complicated picture than either of these two extremes.
The ideal education of a Renaissance lady resembled in many ways that of a Renaissance gentleman. She, too, would study the ancient writers, learn to play, sing, dance, draw and to make witty, sophisticated conversation. However, it seems clear that the acquisition of these skills was not such much for the personal fulfillment of the individual woman. Rather, the point was to make her a fitting and graceful marriage partner and a decoration for her husband home or court. So while the skills and accomplishments for Renaissance men and women seen similar, the purpose behind acquiring these skills seems quite different.
Ironically, the new age of science seems to have undermined the position of women in the Renaissance. An argument that women were, by nature, intellectually inferior to men becomes widely accepted during the Renaissance. Scientists who studied human anatomy began to argue that anatomical differences--the fact that women were equipped for childbearing--meant that nature had intended them for a domestic role. Religious figures, both Catholic and Protestant, lend their support to the scientists. The radical religious reformer Martin Luther was no radical when it came to the role of women. He weighed in with support for the "biology is destiny" argument: "Men have broad shoulders and narrow hips, accordingly they possess intelligence. Women have narrow shoulders and broad hips...and a wide fundament to sit upon, keep house, and bear and raise children."
The decline of the feudal world with its emphasis on land, hereditary claims, and constant warfare may have robbed women of power. In the absence of male heirs, women, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, could amass huge holdings. Often, in the absence of their lords (away at war), the lady of the manor was the person exercising real power on the estate. In the modern world, where fortunes are based on the activities of men of business, women were increasingly playing the supporting role at home rather than the active role in business in town.
In an interesting way, the revival of interest in Greek culture played against the interests of women. An interest in Greece really translates as a fascination with Athenian culture. Those Athenians were the West's original male chauvinists. The Athenians emphasized the domestic realm of women as one severely separated from the public realm of men. Renaissance thinkers embraced this model and division between personal and public life, between the "domestic sphere" of women and the "public sphere" of men remains the model of modern life for nearly five centuries.
As in many areas of the relatively new field of women's history, the evidence on the status of women in the Renaissance is not all in yet. The list of Renaissance thinkers who admired the intellectual capacities of women includes such famous figures as Erasmus and Thomas More. More own daughter, Margaret Roper, attained an international reputation for learning. In the plays of William Shakespeare and other Renaissance writers, men and women are depicted as exchanging wit and conversation on an evident basis of intellectual equality. Such depictions, some would argue, are indications of the social position and popular attitudes toward women.
It is significant to remember that Shakespeare’s patron was Queen Elizabeth I of England, herself fluent in a half-dozen languages, including Greek and Latin, and a leader who was to guide England in the period of peace, prosperity and cultural accomplishments that will bear her own name--the Elizabethan Age.
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Question: Did women have a Renaissance? Assess the evidence in the boxes below. |
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Position of women is improving: |
Position of women is not improving: |
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What evidence (if any) is missing from the account that might help you decide?
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Background to the Protestant Reformation
Please read and high- light key ideas.
The Protestant Reformation represents one of history's more dramatic confrontations between an established institution and rebellious ideas. When Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church in 1517, he set in motion a religious revolution. A consequence was that much of the northern half of Western Europe broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. The remarkable religious uniformity that marked Western civilization for more than a thousand years was at an end. The age of the Reformation chronologically overlaps the period of the Renaissance, and, indeed, the spirit of questioning established ideas--such an essential part of the Renaissance spirit-- played an important role in the Protestant challenge to the Catholic Church. Martin Luther may not be a "Renaissance Man" in the sense of Michelangelo or Leonardo, but he certainly is a "man of the Renaissance."
While it is accurate to recognize the "religious uniformity" of Western civilization at the beginning of the sixteenth century, this is not to be confused with universal religious happiness. A wide range of scandals, embarrassing episodes, and corrupt practices contributed to a serious decline in confidence in the Church. The firewood for a great religious conflagration had been piling up for two centuries before Luther came along. Luther lit the match, and the blaze roared.
Problems within the Papacy. The prestige of the popes declined as a result of a number of factors. We have already discussed the questions raised in many minds about the motives behind of the calling of the later Crusades. People began to suspect they were less about the Holy Land and more about the power of the Holy Father. That most Europeans ignored repeated papal calls for additional Crusades testifies to the declining authority of Rome.
For much of the 1300s, the popes abandoned Rome and established the papacy in a small city in southern France called Avignon. The Avignon Captivity of the papacy undermined the prestige of the popes for several reasons. Abandoning the "city of Peter" looked bad. The elaborate papal palace and luxurious style of living practiced by the Avignon popes looked even worse. The Avignon Captivity, which lasted until 1370, led to an even stranger episode for the papacy: the so-called Great Schism (split). At the death of the pope in 1370, a group of cardinals in Avignon and a separate group of cardinals in Rome each elected popes. From 1370 to 1417, you had at least two, and sometimes three, different men claiming to be pope. Very embarrassing.
Then there was the problem about the group of popes elected in the 1400s to early 1500s, a group of popes known to history as the "Renaissance Popes." Even the Catholic Encyclopedia says "the popes of the Renaissance had become Italian princes among other princes, who warred and intrigued for worldly interests. Excessive pomp, luxury, and immorality set the tone for the papal court." Three popes who sat in the chair of St. Peter between 1490 and 1521 illustrate the point. Alexander VI spend a fortune bribing the College of Cardinals to win his election. He had a series of mistresses and openly acknowledge a number of illegitimate children, receiving them at the papal palace. Pope Julius II, known to history as the "warrior pope" had a single ambition: to extend the power and territory of the Papal States in Italy. Pope Leo X, unfortunately, occupied the papacy when Martin Luther came on the scene. He coveted the papacy for different reasons. He used the resources of the Church to become one of the greatest patrons of the arts, spending lavishly on grand, artistic projects. The modern historian Barbara Tuchman commented ironically that Leo X wasn't really a bad man and that he would have made a good pope "if only he had been religious." That comment says it all about the Renaissance Popes.
Questionable Practices. A range of questionable or corrupt practices caused comment and scandal for the Church. Some examples:
· Indulgences. The practice of selling indulgences for the forgiveness of sins. This is the issue that first captures the attention of Martin Luther.
· Simony. The selling of high Church offices, such as bishops and archbishops.
· Absenteeism. The common practice of bishop absent from their dioceses, not serving the duties of bishop, but collecting the tithes and revenues for personal use.
· Nepotism. The papal practice of granting high offices to family members.
The tragedy for the Church was a leadership who ignored the problems and refused to listen to voices calling for reform. By the time the Church begins a significant effort to reform itself in the middle of the 1500s, much of the population of Northern Europe had already left.
READING GUIDE Section 3a: Luther Starts the Reformation (part 1: pp. 48-50)
In "Setting the Stage" What two significant points are made about the position of the Catholic Church toward the end of the Middle Ages?
What role did the following play in the Reformation:
Renaissance outlook
The printing press
Northern European merchants
Problems within the Church
How can you draw on your knowledge of The Canterbury Tales to illustrate the significance of the point above?
3. What challenges and criticisms were posed by reformers such as John Wycliffe, John Hus, and the Italian monk Savonarola?
4. Go back to the last section in the chapter and connect the works of Erasmus and Thomas More with the idea of reform.
5. Martin Luther and the revolt against the Catholic Church:
who was Martin Luther
who was Johann Tetzel
what is an indulgence
what was the "95 Theses"
What were some of Luther's other objections to the teachings of the Catholic Church?
NINETY-FIVE THESES (1517) Martin Luther
In the early 1500s, a German monk and university teacher named Martin Luther began to feel that reforms were needed in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1517, Luther made a list of his objections to church practices, called the Ninety-Five Theses, and then, according to legend, nailed the list to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. Although the Catholic Church disagreed with Luther and eventually excommunicated him, the Ninety-Five Theses sparked widespread criticism of the Church and started the Reformation.
1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying “Repent ye,” etc., intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence.
6. The Pope has no power to remit [forgive] any guilt, except by declaring and warranting it to have been remitted by God…
21. Thus those preachers of indulgences are in error who say that, by the indulgences of the Pope, a man is loosed and saved from all punishment.
37. Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has a share in all the benefits of Christ and of the Church, given him by God, even without letters of pardon.
40. True contrition seeks and loves punishment; while the ampleness of pardons relaxes it, and causes men to hate it, or at least gives occasion for them to do so.
43. Christians should be taught that he who gives to a poor man, or lends to a needy man, does better than if he bought pardons.
44. Because by a work of charity, charity increases, and the man becomes better; while by means of pardons, he does not become better, but only freer from punishment.
46. Christians should be taught that, unless they have superfluous wealth, they are bound to keep what is necessary for the use of their own households, and by no means to lavish it on pardons.
50. Christians should be taught that, if the Pope were acquainted with the actions of the Preachers of pardons, he would prefer that the Basilica of St. Peter be burnt to ashes, than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.
86. Again; why does not the Pope, whose riches are at this day more ample than those of the wealthiest of the wealthy, build the one Basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with that of poor believers?
92. Away then with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ: “Peace, peace,” and there is no peace.
94. Christians should be exhorted to strive to follow Christ their head through pains, deaths, and hells.
95. And thus trust to enter heaven through many tribulations, rather than in the security of peace.
(from the
Ninety-Five Theses )
READING GUIDE Section 3b: England Become Protestant (part 2: pp. 51-52)
1. Why is Henry VIII so insecure and obsessive about the need for a male heir?
2. What did Henry VIII want from the Pope and why did he want it? Why did the Pope say no?
3. How does Henry solve his own problem? What are the consequences of this?
4. How did Henry's children bring religious confusion to England for a time? Who finally puts an end to this religious turmoil, and how?
5. The Anglican Church is sometimes called the "Anglican compromise" or the via media or"middle way." Explain.
6. How did quarrels over religion contribute to problems with Spain?
7. Significant Identifications:
Catherine of Aragon Reformation Parliament
Anne Boleyn Act of Supremacy
Charles V taking of the monasteries
Edward VI Book of Common Prayer
Mary I the Spanish Armada
Elizabeth I Philip II
Review--People:
1. King who broke England away from the Catholic Church: ______________________
2. His first Queen, the Spanish princess: ______________________________________
3. The Queen’s powerful nephew: ___________________________________________
4. The King’s second Queen: _______________________________________________
5. Daughter by his first Queen: ______________________________________________
6. Daughter by his second Queen: ___________________________________________
7. Finally, his son: _______________________________________________________
8. English Chancellor who refused to publicly support Henry; he was executed for
treason: _________________________________
9. He launched
the Spanish Armada against England: ___________________________
Review--Key Events:
1. The Tudor monarchs originally came to the throne by _________________________
2. Henry wanted a ________________________________ to succeed him to the throne.
3. Catherine’s only child was _______________________________________________
4. Although divorce was forbidden, the Church often ____________________________
5. The pope was reluctant to grant Henry a divorce because_______________________
____________________________________________________________________
6. ___________________________________ finally gave the King his divorce in 1533.
7. The Act of __________________________ separated the English Catholic Church
from Rome and made the monarch the head of the church in England.
8. Henry received economic benefits by breaking away when he __________________
___________________________________________________________________
9. Under Henry’s three children, England moved in different religious directions
__________________________________ tried to make England more Protestant
____________________________ tried to return England to the Catholic Church
____________________________ officially created the Church of England. Or the
Anglican Church, which tried to be a compromise between Catholic and Protestant
10. What Catholic elements remained as a part of this “via media” (middle way) Church:
__________________________________________________________________
John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536)
Presbyterians (John Knox)
Huguenots
Puritans
Pilgrims
Catholic Counter Reformation
Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits
The Council of Trent