Renaissance and Reformation (c.1350–1700)

An intellectual movement that studied classical Greek and Roman texts and put human reason, individual potential and worldly life at the centre of thinking, rather than focusing only on the afterlife.

The Medici of Florence and the Sforza of Milan — both used trade and banking wealth to become political rulers and major patrons of art and learning.

Italy had wealthy independent city-states, direct access to ancient Roman ruins and texts, Mediterranean trade wealth, competitive patronage between rulers, and closeness to the Byzantine scholars fleeing Constantinople after 1453.

The Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine capital sent Greek scholars fleeing to Italy, bringing original Greek manuscripts and reviving direct study of Plato and other classical authors.

Renaissance popes such as Julius II and Leo X spent huge sums rebuilding St Peter's Basilica and commissioning artists like Michelangelo and Raphael, turning Rome into a rival artistic centre to Florence.

A Florentine idea that classical learning should be used actively — to serve the city, debate politics and train good citizens — not just studied privately.

Profits from Mediterranean and Silk Road trade (especially through Venice and Genoa) and the rise of banking (the Medici bank), which created a wealthy merchant class able to pay for art, buildings and scholarship.

A Northern European version of humanism, associated with Erasmus, that applied classical scholarly methods to the Bible and pushed for a simpler, more sincere Christian life.

Gutenberg's movable-type press made books far cheaper and faster to produce; William Caxton brought printing to England in 1476, spreading humanist and classical texts well beyond a small elite.

Henry VIII's court, because he wanted to appear as a cultured 'Renaissance prince' to rival French and Spanish monarchs, and employed humanist scholars and Italian-trained artists such as Hans Holbein.

In Italy, it grew from within — direct contact with Roman ruins, texts and Byzantine scholars. In England, it arrived mostly as an import — through returning scholars, printed books, and Italian artists invited to court.

Some argue trade wealth was the essential enabling factor; others argue political fragmentation, competitive rulers and the classical inheritance mattered just as much, since other wealthy regions (e.g. the Hanseatic League) did not produce an equivalent cultural explosion.

1517, on the door of Wittenberg's Castle Church (or circulated to bishops) — protesting the sale of indulgences.

A payment to the Church said to reduce time a soul spent in purgatory — the practice Luther attacked as corrupt.

Justification by faith alone — salvation comes from faith in God's grace, not good works or payments, which undercut the Church's entire sacramental and financial system.

Emperor Charles V summoned Luther to recant; Luther refused ('Here I stand'); the Edict of Worms declared him an outlaw and heretic.

He was distracted by wars with France and the Ottoman Turks, and needed German princes' support/taxes, so enforcement of the Edict of Worms was weak.

Frederick the Wise of Saxony hid Luther at Wartburg Castle after Worms, letting him translate the New Testament into German.

It let Luther's pamphlets and German Bible be copied fast and cheaply, spreading his ideas across Germany within weeks rather than years.

The Christian humanist scholar mocked clerical corruption and ignorance (e.g. Praise of Folly) and produced a Greek New Testament, exposing problems without ever leaving the Catholic Church.

Both criticised corruption; Erasmus wanted reform from within (better education, no doctrinal break), while Luther rejected core Catholic doctrine and caused a permanent split.

Christian humanism (Thomas More's Utopia, 1516) fused classical learning with Christian ethics; later Elizabethan drama (Shakespeare) drew on classical models and humanist ideas about human nature.

Humanists like Thomas More argued rulers should be educated in classical philosophy and governed for the common good, not just by inherited right — feeding debates about ideal government.

Arts: Hans Holbein's portraits brought Renaissance realism to the Tudor court. Science: Copernican ideas and classical texts began reaching English scholars, feeding later empirical enquiry.

1555. It introduced **cuius regio, eius religio** — each German prince could choose Lutheranism or Catholicism for his own territory.

1) Princes gained religious and political power over the Church in their territories. 2) The Peasants' War (1524-25) erupted partly from Luther's ideas, but Luther condemned it. 3) Germany fractured into competing Catholic and Protestant camps.

Monastery lands and Church property were seized by princes and cities; Protestant work ethic encouraged saving; the Catholic Church lost huge income from indulgences, pilgrimages and tithes in Protestant areas.

A devastating conflict beginning as a religious war in the Holy Roman Empire, but it became a wider European power struggle. It ended with the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which confirmed states' religious independence and devastated the German population and economy.

He was a Catholic humanist scholar who criticised Church corruption and produced a Greek New Testament, inspiring reformers. But he stayed loyal to the Catholic Church and opposed Luther's break — so historians debate whether he caused or merely anticipated the Reformation.

1545-1563 (in three sessions). It reaffirmed Catholic doctrine (including the role of good works and tradition), reformed clerical abuses and discipline, and standardised training for priests through seminaries.

He called the Council of Trent (1545), approved the Jesuit order (1540), and set up the Roman Inquisition (1542) to investigate heresy.

Paul IV was far more hardline and repressive: he expanded the Inquisition aggressively and created the first Index of Forbidden Books (1559), banning texts seen as heretical.

He successfully closed the Council of Trent in 1563 and confirmed its decrees, turning the Council's reforms into official, lasting Catholic Church policy.

Founded by Ignatius of Loyola and approved in 1540, they became the Catholic Church's most effective tool: educating elites, working as missionaries worldwide, and winning back some Protestant regions through persuasion and schools.

The Catholic Church's programme of internal reform and active response to the Protestant Reformation, roughly from the 1530s to the early 1600s.

Some historians argue it was purely reactive (a defensive response to Protestant success), while others argue the Church was already reforming itself before Luther (a genuine "Catholic Reformation") — so how much credit Protestantism deserves for triggering it is debated.