Chapter Introduction
Section 1: The Renaissance
Section 2: Ideas and Art of the
Renaissance
Section 3: The Protestant
Reformation
Section 4: The Spread of
Protestantism
Visual Summary
The Renaissance
Why did the Renaissance
begin in the Italian citystates?
Ideas and Art of the
Renaissance
What characterizes
Renaissance art, such as
Michelangelo’s David or
da Vinci’s Mona Lisa?
The Protestant
Reformation
What conditions encourage
the growth of revolutions?
The Spread of
Protestantism
What led to the formation
of different Protestant
churches?
Content Vocabulary
• urban society
• secular
• mercenaries
• dowry
Academic Vocabulary
• instability
• decline
People, Places, and Events
• Italian Renaissance
• Cosimo de´ Medici
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Lorenzo de´ Medici
• Milan
• Rome
• Venice
• Niccolò Machiavelli
• Florence
• Francesco Sforza
The Italian Renaissance
As the Renaissance began, three Italian
city-states were the centers of Italian
political, economic, and social life.
The Italian Renaissance (cont.)
• The Italian Renaissance lasted from 1350 to
1550. It was a time period in which Europeans
believed they had witnessed a rebirth of the
ancient Greek and Roman worlds.
• Characteristics of the Renaissance:
– The Renaissance was mainly led by an
urban society, and Italian city-states came
to dominate political, social, and economic
life.
The Italian Renaissance (cont.)
– The Renaissance witnessed the rise of a
secular viewpoint of wealth and material
items.
– The Renaissance occurred during a time
of recovery from the disasters of the
fourteenth century: the plague, political
instability, and a decline of Church
power.
Renaissance Italy, 1500
The Italian Renaissance (cont.)
– The Renaissance also stressed the
individual ability of human beings. Wellrounded individuals, such as Leonardo da
Vinci, emphasized the belief that
individuals could create a new social ideal.
Renaissance Italy, 1500
The Italian Renaissance (cont.)
• With the lack of centralized power, Italian
city-states such as Milan, Venice, and
Florence played a crucial role in Italian
economics and politics.
• Milan’s location as a crossroads between the
coastal Italian cities and the Alpine passes
made it a very wealthy state.
Renaissance Italy, 1500
The Italian Renaissance (cont.)
• In 1447, Francesco Sforza conquered Milan
using an army of mercenaries. Sforza
created wealth for the government by
creating an efficient tax system.
• Venice was also located in a strategic
position, as a trading link between Asia and
Western Europe. Venice became the cultural
center of Italy.
Renaissance Italy, 1500
The Italian Renaissance (cont.)
• In 1434, Cosimo de’ Medici and his family
came to control Florence using their wealth
and personal influence. Cosimo’s grandson
Lorenzo de’ Medici later ruled the city.
• Powerful monarchial states in Europe were
attracted to the wealth of the Italian citystates, and in 1494 Charles VIII of France
occupied Naples in southern Italy.
Renaissance Italy, 1500
The Italian Renaissance (cont.)
• The Spanish replied to the Italian cries of
assistance and engaged the French in a 30year war on the Apennine Peninsula.
• The turning point of the war came in 1527
when soldiers and mercenaries of Spain’s
King Charles I, who had not been paid in
months, sacked Rome.
• Spain became the dominant force
in Italy.
Renaissance Italy, 1500
Machiavelli on Power
Machiavelli’s The Prince has
profoundly influenced political leaders.
Machiavelli on Power (cont.)
• Niccolò Machiavelli wrote a book that
influenced political thought in Italy and
eventually all of Europe.
• In his influential work, The Prince,
Machiavelli wrote about how to acquire and
hold political power. He stated that a ruler
must put the state first and not focus on
moral principles.
• Machiavelli’s rejection of popular Christian
values would have a profound influence on
the political leaders who followed.
Renaissance Society
Changes in the social classes
occurred during the Renaissance.
Renaissance Society (cont.)
• Despite being the minority, nobles dominated
sixteenth-century Europe during the
Renaissance.
• Nobles were expected to live up to certain
ideals of European aristocracy. These ideals
were expressed in Baldasarre Castiglione’s
The Book of the Courtier.
• Peasants continued to make up the bulk of
European society but were gaining more
independence during the Renaissance.
Renaissance Society (cont.)
• The growing numbers of townspeople were
segregated into social groups.
• Patricians dominated the social and
economic aspect of urban areas.
• Below them were the burghers, followed by
the poverty-stricken workers and the
unemployed.
Renaissance Society (cont.)
• The family bond provided a great deal of
security to Renaissance-era Italians. As in
many societies, a dowry was required in
marriage contracts.
The BIG Idea
Ideas, Beliefs, and Values Humanism was an
important intellectual movement of the Renaissance
and was reflected in the works of Renaissance artists.
Content Vocabulary
• humanism
• vernacular
• fresco
Academic Vocabulary
• attain
• style
People, Places, and Events
• Petrarch
• Raphael
• Dante
• Michelangelo
• Chaucer
• Flanders
• Canterbury
• Jan van Eyck
• Christine de Pizan
• Albrecht Dürer
Italian Renaissance Humanism
Humanism, based on study of the
classics, revived an interest in ancient
Latin; but many authors wrote great
works in the vernacular.
Italian Renaissance Humanism (cont.)
• A key intellectual movement of the
Renaissance was humanism.
• Humanists studied grammar, rhetoric, poetry,
moral philosophy, and history.
• Petrarch believed that intellectuals had a duty
to live an active civic life and put their study of
the humanities to the state’s service.
• The humanist emphasis on classical Latin led
to an increase in the writings of scholars,
lawyers, and theologians.
Italian Renaissance Humanism (cont.)
• The Italian author Dante and the English
author Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in
vernacular, making vernacular literature
very popular.
• Dante’s masterpiece was the story of the
soul’s journey to salvation, called the Divine
Comedy.
• Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales used
English dialect to tell the tale of pilgrims
journeying to the tomb of Saint Thomas à
Becket at Canterbury, England.
Italian Renaissance Humanism (cont.)
• Christine de Pizan wrote in French dialect
defending women and their ability to learn if
given the same educational opportunities
as men.
Renaissance Education
Education during the Renaissance
focused on the liberal studies.
Renaissance Education (cont.)
• The humanist movement led to changes in
education.
• Humanists believed that individuals could
attain wisdom and virtue by studying liberal
studies. Physical education was also
emphasized.
• Liberal Studies: history, moral philosophy,
eloquence, letters, poetry, mathematics,
astronomy, and music.
Renaissance Education (cont.)
• Physical education: javelin throwing, archery,
dancing, wrestling, hunting, and swimming.
• The goal of humanist educators was to
create complete citizens, not great scholars.
• Humanist schools were the model for
European education until the twentieth
century.
Italian Renaissance Art
The Renaissance produced great
artists and sculptors such as
Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo
da Vinci.
Italian Renaissance Art (cont.)
• Renaissance artists sought to imitate nature
through a human-focused worldview.
• Frescos created the illusion of three
dimensions, leading to a new realistic style
of painting.
• Realistic portrayal of the individual,
especially nude depictions, became one of
the chief aims of Italian Renaissance art.
Italian Renaissance Art (cont.)
• Advances in understanding human
movement and anatomy led to advances in
Renaissance sculpture and architecture.
• The final era of Italian Renaissance painting
(1490 to 1520) is known as the High
Renaissance.
• Leonardo da Vinci mastered the art of
realistic painting and sought to advance to
idealized forms of nature and humans.
Italian Renaissance Art (cont.)
• Raphael was a well known artist for his
paintings of the madonna. His works reveal a
world of balance, harmony, and order.
• Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, and
architect. His depictions of idealized humans
are meant as a reflection of divine beauty.
The Northern Artistic Renaissance
Northern European artists, especially
those in the Low Countries, portrayed
their world realistically but in a
different way than did the Italian
artists.
The Northern Artistic Renaissance (cont.)
• Artists in the Low Countries (today’s
Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands)
also sought to portray their world realistically.
• As opposed to Italian artists who perfected
their work on the large, open spaces of
Italian churches, Northern European artists
painted on much smaller canvases.
• One of the most important art schools in
northern Europe was in Flanders, one of the
Low Countries.
The Northern Artistic Renaissance (cont.)
• Artists such as Jan van Eyck were among
the first to use and perfect oil painting.
• Artists from northern Europe, such as
German Albrecht Dürer, traveled to Italy to
study the Italian standards and laws of
perspective.
The BIG Idea
Ideas, Beliefs, and Values In northern Europe,
Christian humanists sought to reform the Catholic
Church, and Protestantism emerged.
Content Vocabulary
• Christian humanism
• salvation
• indulgence
• Lutheranism
Academic Vocabulary
• precise
• ignorant
People, Places, and Events
• Martin Luther
• Charles V
• Desiderius Erasmus
• Bohemia
• Wittenberg
• Hungary
• Ninety-five Theses
• Peace of Augsburg
• Edict of Worms
Prelude to Reformation (cont.)
• During the second half of the fifteenth
century, adherents of Christian humanism
sought to reform the Catholic Church.
• Christian humanists believed that humans
could improve themselves and thus improve
society.
Europe After the Peace of Augsburg, 1555
Prelude to Reformation (cont.)
• Desiderius Erasmus thought that external
forms of medieval religion such as
pilgrimages, fasts, and relics were
unnecessary and that inner piety derived
from religious philosophy was more
important.
Prelude to Reformation (cont.)
• Reasons for Reform of the Catholic Church:
– Catholic Popes were more concerned with
politics and material goods than spiritual
guidance.
– Parish priests seemed ignorant of their
spiritual duties.
Prelude to Reformation (cont.)
– An automatic means of obtaining
salvation, such as the collection of relics,
was being presented to the people.
– The use of indulgences was used to
avoid punishment for sin.
Martin Luther (cont.)
• Martin Luther was a monk and professor at
the University of Wittenberg in Germany.
• He believed that humans would be saved by
their faith in God and not by the good works
done in His name.
Martin Luther (cont.)
• Luther did not want to break away from the
Church, only to reform it. He wrote a list of
his grievances, known as the Ninety-five
Theses, and copies were sent all over
Germany.
• In 1521, Luther was excommunicated for
attempting to get German princes to
overthrow the papacy and establish a
reformed German church.
Martin Luther (cont.)
• The Edict of Worms made Luther an
outlaw, and his works were banned.
• Many German princes who supported Luther
confiscated Church land, and a government
church was established.
• A new religious service which consisted of
reading the Bible, preaching the word of
God, and songs, became the basis of the
doctrine known as Lutheranism.
• Lutheranism was the first Protestant faith.
Politics in the German Reformation (cont.)
• The Holy Roman Empire was ruled by
Charles V who wanted the empire to remain
Catholic.
• The empire included Spain, Austria,
Bohemia, Hungary, the Low Countries,
Milan, and Naples.
• Problems with the Ottoman Turks, French
rivalry, and the alliance of the German
kingdoms prevented Charles from asserting
military power over the Protestant
Reformation in Germany.
Politics in the German Reformation (cont.)
• In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg ended the
religious wars by accepting the division of
Christianity. German rulers, but not the
German people, could choose their own
religion.
The BIG Idea
Ideas, Beliefs, and Values Different forms of
Protestantism emerged in Europe as the
Reformation spread, and the Catholic Church
underwent a religious rebirth.
Content Vocabulary
• predestination
• annul
Academic Vocabulary
• published
• justification
People and Places
• Ulrich Zwingli
• Zürich
• John Calvin
• Geneva
• King Henry VIII
• Ignatius of Loyola
• Trent
Divisions in Protestantism (cont.)
• In Zürich, Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli was
influential in reforming the Catholic Church.
His Protestant movement spread through
Switzerland.
• John Calvin was a Frenchman whose
conversion to Protestantism forced him to
flee to Switzerland.
• Calvin believed in an all-powerful
God and the idea of
predestination.
European Religions, 1600
Divisions in Protestantism (cont.)
• Calvin’s ideas led to the rise of Calvinism
which soon became more popular than
Lutheranism.
• Calvin worked to reform the city of Geneva,
Switzerland.
• Geneva soon became the center of
Protestant reform in Europe, and its
missionaries were sent all over to convert
the local populations.
Reformation in England (cont.)
• King Henry VIII of England established the
Church of England when the pope refused to
annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
• The Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared the
king of England the official head of religious
doctrine, with control over discipline, clerical
appointments, and breaking ties with the pope.
• Henry’s Church of England was very similar to
Catholicism, although after his death English
officials attempted to make it more
“Protestant”.
Reformation in England (cont.)
• In 1553, Henry’s daughter, Mary, came to
power and attempted to restore Roman
Catholicism.
• Her efforts, including the burning of more
than 300 Protestants, earned her the
nickname of “Bloody Mary.”
Anabaptists (cont.)
• Anabaptists were Protestant reformers who
did not want to give power to the state.
• Anabaptists believed:
– Religion should be voluntary; baptism
occurred as an adult.
– All believers were equal; any member
could become a minister.
– Separation of state and church; refused to
bear arms or serve in military positions
Anabaptists (cont.)
– The religious and political beliefs of the
Anabaptists seemed radical, and they
were persecuted by Catholics and
Protestants.
Reformation and Society (cont.)
• With the rise of Protestantism came the end of
celibacy for Church leaders.
• Women were subservient, and their roles were
obedience to their husband and to bear
children.
• Protestants expected Jews to convert to
Lutheranism. When they refused, Protestants
such as Martin Luther wrote that Jewish
synagogues and homes should
be destroyed. Roman Catholic, Lutheran,
Calvinist, and Anglican Beliefs
Catholic Reformation (cont.)
• The Catholic response to the Protestant
Reformation was a Catholic Reformation.
• A Spanish nobleman named Ignatius of
Loyola founded the Jesuits, a group who
swore allegiance to the pope.
• Jesuit missionaries were influential in
spreading Catholicism in Germany and the
rest of the world.
Catholic Reformation (cont.)
• Pope Paul II led a reformation of the papacy,
ending corruption either real or perceived.
• The pope, archbishops, bishops, and other
theologians met irregularly at the Council of
Trent to discuss Church matters and
establish Catholic doctrine.
THE RENAISSANCE in Italy and
Northern Europe
• Milan, Venice, and Florence
became centers of
Renaissance learning
and culture.
• Machiavelli’s views on
gaining and holding power
influenced political leaders.
• Humanist education focused on liberal studies.
• Artists sought to portray the world realistically.
THE REFORMATION Begins
• Erasmus and other Christian
humanists paved the way for
the Protestant Reformation.
• Catholic teaching stressed
faith and good works, but
Luther believed that faith
alone was sufficient for
salvation.
• The Peace of Augsburg ended the religious wars
and allowed German states to choose between
Catholicism and Lutheranism.
THE REFORMATION Spreads
• Calvinism replaced
Lutheranism as the most
important form of
Protestantism.
• Henry VIII established the
Church of England for
political rather than
religious reasons.
• Anabaptists believed in the total separation of
church and state.
• Pope Paul III took steps to reform the
Catholic Church.
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