Mohit Agrawal (1.7)
The Western Heritage, 8th edition, by Kagan, Ozment, and Turner
Chapter 10-Renaissance and Discovery
 the late Middle Ages was a time of creative fragmentation
 the result of patronage (paid for by wealthy families due to trade with Asia) in the Italian city
states was a cultural Renaissance unmatched elsewhere
 The fifteenth century also saw an unprecedented scholarly renaissance in Italian humanism and
northern humanism.
 European states progressively superseded the universal church as the community of highest
allegiance, as patriotism and incipient nationalism seized hearts and minds as strongly as
religion.
 For Europe, the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were a period of unprecedented territorial
expansion and ideological experimentation.
 Newly centralized governments began to put long-range economic policies into practice, a
development that came to be called mercantilism.
The Renaissance in Italy
 There are disagreements over how much the Renaissance shifted the world into the modern
age, and to what degree it was continuous with the Middle Ages.
 The Renaissance was a time of transition from the medieval to the modern world.
Medieval
Modern
Feudal society
Growing national consensus/political centralization
Agricultural economy
Urban economy based on trade and capitalism
Power and leadership of Church/religion Greater lay/secular control of thought and culture
 The Renaissance is usually bookended between 1375 and 1527.
 Petrarch—the father of humanism—died in 1374. Petrarch is credited for perfecting the
sonnet, making it one of the most popular art forms to date.
 Giovanni Boccaccio, author of the Decameron (a scandalous novel composed of 100 short
stories of people as they escape an Italian city hit by the plague—the novel shows a new
realism of how people really acted and thought), died in 1375.
 Spanish-imperial soldiers rooted Rome in 1527 and imprisoned Pope Clement VII.
The Italian City-State
 Italy was a natural gateway between East and West.
 Cities prospered with trade and grew powerful.
Growth of City-States
 The pro-papal and pro-emperor forces constantly fought in the HRE. This left the Italian city
states safe and unchallenged, and led to the rise of merchant oligarchies.
 Five main areas: duchy of Milan, the republic of Florence, republic of Venice, the Papal States,
and the kingdom of Naples.
 Except for Venice (with a 300 member senate and the Council of Ten), most devolved into
despotism.
Social Class and Conflict
 There were four social classes: the old rich (grandi), the new rich (popolo grosso), the middle
class, and the poor (popolo minuto).
 The 1378 Ciompi Revolt in Florence by the lower class was due to the feuding between the
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upper classes, the black death, and an untenable economic situation. Class warfare was
always imminent in middle-class Italy.
Despotism and Diplomacy
 the guilds had much power in the city-states
 Most city-states had a revolving door of despots. The nobles and the rich would come together
to select one, called a podesta.
 The podesta used the condottieri (mercenaries) to keep the populaces under control.
 The various city-states could stay abreast of foreign military developments and, if shrewd
enough, gain power and advantage (especially in trade) without actually going to war. This
was the development of diplomacy.
Humanism
 A cultural and intellectual movement during the Renaissance, following the rediscovery of the
art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. A philosophy or attitude concerned with the
interests, achievements, and capabilities of human beings rather than with the abstract
concepts and problems of theology or science.
 Other interpretations:
o the birth of modernity, characterized by an un-Christian philosophy that stressed the
dignity of humankind and championed individualism and secular values.
o Champions of authentic Catholic Christianity who opposed pagan teachings of
Aristotle and the ineloquent Scholasticism that resulted.
o A form of scholarship consciously designed to promote a sense of civic responsibility
and political liberty.
 Humanists advocated the studia humanitatis, a liberal arts program of study that embraced
grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, politics, and moral philosophy.
 Manuel Chrysoloras was a Byzantine scholar who opened the world of ancient Greek works to
a generation of young Italian humanists. He taught in Florence between 1397 and 1403.
 the first humanists were orators and poets who wrote in Latin and the vernacular (as opposed to
Latin alone).
 Unlike Scholastics, humanists did not care about how the classical writings related to God.
They instead wanted to answer the question “why” irrespective of religion. They thus
ignored medieval theologians and went straight to the Bible and classical works.
Petrarch, Dante, and Boccaccio
 Petrarch (1304-1374) wrote Letters to the Ancient Dead that celebrated ancient Rome; Africa
about a famous Roman general, and Lives of Illustrious Men about famous Roman men.
 He also wrote love sonnets to a married Laura. Her death made him seek out the classical
works, and his results didn't always jibe with modern Christianity.
 Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote the Divine Comedy, the cornerstone of Italian vernacular
literature, and the Inferno.
 Boccaccio's (1313-1375) Decameron was a stinging social commentary and a sympathetic look
at human behavior.
Educational Reforms and Goals
 To goal of humanist studies was to be wise and to speak eloquently, to know what is good, and
to practice virtue.
 These goals changed education, especially at the university level.
 Castiglione's Book of the Courtier explains how one can be smart to rise up in court. This
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includes a description of manners.
 Christine de Pisan became a famous author of The Treasure of the City of Ladies (which
includes a treatise on how to handle one's husband).
The Florentine “Academy” and the Revival of Platonism
 The revival of Plato's work was very important.
 The fall of Constantinople in 1453 led many Greek scholars to come to Florence and led to the
start of the Florentine Platonic Academy.
 Platonism gave a flattering view of human nature. People lived in the perishable world.
Human reason was instead from an eternal sphere of being.
 This stressed the importance of the individual human.
Critical Work of the Humanists: Lorenzo Valla
 humanists could become critics of tradition even when that was not their intention.
 Lorenzo Valla defended predestination.
 He also showed that a 4th century document, the Donation of Constantine, was a fraud. It had
said that Constantine had given the pope a large land grant.
 Valla also showed errors in the Bible (due to anachronisms in the Latin).
 His ideas would later be used by Martin Luther. The Church was not perfect.
Civic Humanism
 Unlike scholastic humanism, civic humanists applied humanist learning to political and
cultural life.
 Many humanists became cliquish and snobbish and were only concerned with pursuing
narrow, antiquarian interests and writing pure, classical Latin in their studies.
 Civic humanists like Machiavelli rebelled against that. They also made contemporary history
their main subject matter, not ancient history.
Italy's Political Decline: The French Invasions (1494-1527)
The Treaty of Lodi
 Italy relied on internal cooperation for its peace and safety from foreign invasion, especially
from the Turks.
 The Treaty of Lodi in 1454 allied Milan and Naples (usually enemies) with Florence against
Venice and the Papal States.
 Against a foreign enemy, the city-states would unite.
 Ludovico il Moro of Milan broke the treaty in 1494 when he made Florence and Naples angry.
They were about to attack him when he asked for help from France.
 This was a mistake. Not only did France have dynastic claim to Naples, they had dynastic
claims to Milan.
Charles VIII's March through Italy
 Louis XI resisted attacking Italy. He died in 1483.
 His son, Charles VIII, had no reservations. He attacked in 1494.
 Florence, led by the Medici, surrendered Pisa in order to save itself. The radical Dominican
preacher Savonarola convinced Florence that the French were coming because of Florence's
sins and he gained power in the city.
 Savonarola paid a large ransom and Florence was saved. However, Savonaraola would be
executed in 1498 as Florence got sick of his theology.
 Ferdinand of Aragon (who wanted Sicily for himself) was scared of a new powerful France. He
formed the League of Venice in 1495 with Venice, the Papal States, and Emperor
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Maximilian I.
 Milan joined later, and the League defeated Charles in 1498.
Pope Alexander VI and the Borgia Family
 The French returned to Italy under Charles's successor, Louis XII.
 They were assisted by the Borgia pope, Alexander VI (1492-1503).
 Alexander VI was probably the most corrupt pope who ever sat on the papal throne. He had
wives and children and had visions of a new Borgia dynasty in the Italian city-states. He
thought the best way to do this was to ally with France.
o Alexander annulled Louis XII's marriage so that Louis could marry a Brittany woman,
and keep Brittany in France.
o Alex wanted Romagna, so he had the French attack.
o Alexander also left the League of Venice, opening up Italy to the French.
o His son also married the sister of the king of Navarre.
o Alexander and the French king did other small favors for one another.
 France attacked in 1499.
 In 1500, Louis and Ferdinand of Aragon divided Naples.
 The Borgia’s conquered Romagna.
Pope Julius II (1503-1513): The Warrior Pope
 He was strongly anti-Borgia.
 He placed Romagna under papal jurisdiction by driving out the Borgias and the Venetians.
This secured the Papal States.
 Julius became known as the “warrior” pope because he brought the Renaissance papacy to a
peak of military and diplomatic power.
 Erasmus wrote a satire called Julius Excluded from Heaven after watching a bullfight in the
papal palace. Julius wasn’t happy.
 Julius, Ferdiand of Aragon, and Venice formed the Holy League in 1511 and by 1512 had the
French in full retreat.
 The French invaded again under Francis I in 1515.
 The pope compromised with the Concordat of Bologna that gave the French king more power
over his clergy. This helped keep France Catholic after the Reformation, and kept France out
of Italy.
Machiavelli
 The more Machiavelli saw, the more convinced he became that Italian political unity and
independence were ends that justified any means.
 Roman rulers and citizens possessed the ability to act decisively and heroically for the good of
their country.
 Machiavelli scolded the Italian people for the self-destruction their own internal feuding was
causing.
 Only a strongman, Machiavelli concluded, could impose order on so divided and selfish a
people.
 Machiavelli put his bet on the Medici, rulers of Florence and the papacy (Leo X: 1513-1521).
The second Medici pope was Clement VII (1523-1534) who was imprisoned by Charles V.
Revival of Monarchy in Northern Europe
 After 1450, there was a progressive shift from divided feudal to unified national monarchies as
“sovereign” rulers emerged.
Mohit Agrawal (5.7)
 Because of the Hundred Years' War and the Great Schism in the church, the nobility and the
clergy were in decline by the late Middle Ages and less able to contain expanding
monarchies.
 The increasingly important towns began to ally with the king.
 In a sovereign state, the powers of taxation, war making, and law enforcement no longer
belong to semiautonomous vassals, but are concentrated in the monarch and are exercised by
his or her chosen agents.
 Monarchs were assisted by brilliant theorists like Marsilus of Padua and Machiavelli and Jean
Bodin, who eloquently argued the sovereign rights of monarchy.
 Monarchies began to create standing national armies in the 15th century. Artillery became the
backbone of armies. Mercenaries became important parts of armies.
 Monarchs could collect rent from their royal domains. They could levy the salt tax (gabelle) or
sales tax (alcabala). They could directly tax the poor, like the French taille.
 In money matters, the privileged classes remained the king's creditors and competitors.
France
 Charles VII had a strong army (Joan of Arc) and a strong economy (Jacques Coeur). His son
was Louis XI (then Charles VIII, then Louis XII, then Francis I).
 Louis XI oversaw the defeat of the budding new power of Burgundy while allied with the Holy
Roman Empire.
 Because Louis's successors inherited a secure and efficient government, they felt free to pursue
a debilitating foreign policy. The constant attacks on Italy weakened France internally.
Spain
 Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon married in 1469.
 Ferdinand and Isabella could do together what neither could do alone
o subdue their realms
o secure their borders
o venture abroad militarily
o and Christianize the whole of Spain.
 Ferdinand and Isabella exercised almost total control over the Spanish church as they placed
religion in the service of national unity with the Spanish Inquisition.
 Joanna the Mad (daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella) married Philip I of the Holy Roman
Empire. Their son, Charles I (Spain)/V (HRE) would rule over a massive empire.
 Catherine of Aragon was married to Arthur (who died) and then Henry VIII (1st wife).
 Ferdinand and Isabella also sponsored Christopher Columbus.
England
 Following the Hundred Years' War, a defeated England was subjected to internal warfare
between two rival branches of the royal family: the House of York and the House of
Lancaster.
 This conflict became known as the War of the Roses.
 Henry VI was Lancastrian. In 1461, he lost power to Edward IV, a Yorkshire guy. In 1470,
Henry VI came back to power, only to lose it again to Edward in 1471.
 Richard III, Edward's brother, took over on Edward's death in 1483. He probably had
Edward's children killed. This story, true or not, was made famous in Shakepeare's Richard
III. Note that Richard III was written during a time when bashing Richard was popular.
 Henry Tudor (VII) defeated Richard in 1485 and started the Tudor dynasty. He married
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Elizabeth of York to better secure the throne.
 He started the Court of Star Chamber, in which his councilors were judges in cases with
nobility. This made a more equitable court system (nobles couldn’t just buy justice) and
gave the king more power.
The Holy Roman Empire
 In Germany, territorial rulers resisted every effort at national consolidation and unity. Rulers
continued to partition their kingdoms among their sons, making Germany hopelessly divided.
 In 1356, the emperor and major German territorial rulers agreed on the Golden Bull. It set up a
seven-member electoral college that functioned as an administrative body (cabinet) and
elected the emperor.
 The conditions of the emperor's power were renegotiated with every imperial election.
 The Reichstag, a diet (congress) of the seven plus other rulers, tried to control infighting.
 Diet of Worms: Maximilian I (1490-1519) agreed to an imperial ban on private warfare, the
creation of a Supreme Court of Justice to keep the peace between states, and an imperial
Council of Regency to coordinate imperial and internal German policy.
 These reforms were a poor substitute for true national unity.
The Northern Renaissance
 Northern humanism was initially stimulated by the importation of Italian learning.
The Printing Press
 Johann Gutenberg invented printing with movable type around 1450 in Germany.
 The Bible, because of the large market, became a big hit.
 As that market dried up, vernacular Bibles were printed, as well as other reform materials.
 Printers popped up everywhere in Europe.
 The printing press was a boon to the careers of humanists, who now gained international
audiences.
 The populace now suddenly had a reason to be literate, and education boomed.
 People started to think critically for the first time.
 Print was a powerful tool for political and religious propaganda as well.
Erasmus
 Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), the prince of humanists, taught Latin to students.
 He published his short sayings and advice in Colloquies and in Adages. He coined “to leave no
stone unturned” and “Where there is smoke, there is fire.”
 Erasmus aspired to unite the classical ideals of humanity and civic virtue with the Christian
ideals of love and piety.
 This was in contrast to the dogmatism of the middle ages.
 Erasmus labored to make the ancient Christian sources available in their original versions.
 Albrecht Durer wanted Erasmus to lead the reform movement. Erasmus declined to become a
martyr. This would wait until Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation.
Humanism and Reform
 Thomas More is the best known English humanist.
 He wrote Utopia, a conservative criticism of contemporary society. All materials were held in
common and all people worked to earn their bread.
 More was executed in 1534 when he didn't submit to Henry VIII as head of a new English
church.
 A group of young nobles, influenced by new materials from Italy, were at the head of the
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French humanist movement. They greatly influenced a young John Calvin.
 Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros, the Grand Inquisitor, wrote the Complutensiam Polyglot Bible,
a six-volume work that placed the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin version of the Bible in parallel
columns.
Voyages of Discovery and the New Empire in the West
The Church in Spanish America
 The first clergy in the Americas tended to be imbued with many of the social and religious
ideals of Christian humanism.
 They sought to both convert natives and bring them European culture and civilization.
 Tensions existed between the Spanish conquerors and the mendicant friars, however.
 The priests often deplored the harsh conditions imposed on the native peoples.
 An example is Bartolome de Las Casas, who wrote the “Black Legend,” which basically said
that everything Spain did in the colonies was wrong and bad.
 In 1550, his criticisms led to new royal regulations.
 By the late 1500's however, the Church started to enforce the status quo.
 By the end of the colonial era in the late eighteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church had
become one of the most conservative forces in Latin America.
The Impact on Europe
 Columbus's discovery increased skepticism about the wisdom of the ancients.
 Enlightenment thinkers drew parallels between the discovery of America and the invention of
the printing press—both portrayed as world-historical events opening new eras in
communication and globalization.
 The influx of spices and precious metals into Europe was a mixed blessing.
 The constant supply of bullion as joined with enlarged European production fed inflation,
though over a long period of time.
 The new wealth led to new government programs, some good (research and new industry) but
most not so good (war, arms build up, extravagance at court, etc.).
 The new wealth did lead to the spread of capitalism across Western Europe.
 New crops: tomatoes, corn, potatoes.
 The New World also fed a growing slave trade.