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Renaissance & Reform
The core areas of Western civilization changed dramatically between 1450-1750
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Italian Renaissance | 14th- and 15th-century movement influencing political forms, literature, and the arts; consisted largely of a revival of classical culture. |
Niccolo Machiavelli | author of The Prince; emphasized realistic discussions of how to seize and maintain power. |
Humanism | philosophy, or ideology, with a focus on humanity as the center of intellectual and artistic endeavor. |
Northern Renaissance | cultural and intellectual movement of northern Europe; influenced by earlier Italian Renaissance; centered in France, Low Countries, England, and Germany; featured greater emphasis on religion than the Italian Renaissance. |
Francis I | one of many monarchs of the Renaissance period that were influential through their patronage of the arts. |
Johannes Gutenberg | introduced movable type to western Europe in the 15th century; greatly expanded the availability of printed materials. |
Martin Luther | German Catholic monk who initiated the Protestant Reformation; emphasized the primacy of faith for gaining salvation in place of Catholic sacraments; rejected papal authority. |
Protestantism | general wave of religious dissent against the Catholic church; formally began with Martin Luther in 1517. |
Anglican church | form of Protestantism in England established by Henry VIII. |
Jean Calvin | French Protestant who stressed doctrine of predestination; established center of his group in Geneva; in the long run encouraged wider public education and access to government. |
Catholic Reformation | Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation; reformed and revived Catholic doctrine. |
Jesuits | Catholic religious order founded during Catholic Reformation; active in politics, education, and missionary work outside of Europe. |
Edict of Nantes | 1598 grant of tolerance in France to French Protestants after lengthy civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. |
Thirty Years War | war from 1618 to 1648 between German Protestants and their allies and the Holy Roman emperor and Spain; caused great destruction. |
Treaty of Westphalia | ended Thirty Years War in 1648; granted right of individual rulers and cities to choose their own religion for their people; Netherlands gained independence. |
Copernicus | Polish monk and astronomer; disproved Hellenistic belief that the sun was at the center of the universe. |
Scientific Revolution | process culminating in Europe during the 17th century; period of empirical advances associated with the development of wider theoretical generalizations; became a central focus of Western culture. |
Witchcraft persecution | outburst reflecting uncertainties about religious truth and resentments against the poor, especially women. |
Proletariat | class of people without access to producing property; usually manufacturing workers, paid laborers in agriculture, or urban poor; product of the economic changes of the 16th and 17th centuries. |
English Civil War | conflict from 1640 to 1660; included religious and constitutional issues concerning the powers of the monarchy; ended with restoration of a limited monarchy. |
Johannes Kepler | resolved basic issues of planetary motion and accomplished important work in optics. |
Galileo | publicized Copernicus’s findings; added own discoveries concerning the laws of gravity and planetary motion; condemned by the Catholic church for his work. |
William Harvey | English physician who demonstrated the circular movement of blood in animals and the function of the heart as pump. |
René Descartes | philosopher who established the importance of the skeptical review of all received wisdom; argued that human wisdom could develop laws that would explain the fundamental workings of nature. |
Isaac Newton | English scientist; author of Principia; drew the various astronomical and physical observations and wider theories together in a neat framework of natural laws; established principles of motion and defined forces of gravity. |
Deism | concept of God during the Scientific Revolution; the role of divinity was limited to setting natural laws in motion. |
John Locke | English philosopher who argued that people could learn everything through their senses and reason; argued that the power of government came from the people, not from the divine right of kings; they had the right to overthrow tyrants. |
Absolute monarchy | concept of government developed during the rise of the nation-state in western Europe during the 17th century; monarchs held the absolute right to direct their state. |
Louis XIV | French king who personified absolute monarchy. |
Glorious Revolution | English political settlement of 1688 and 1689 which affirmed that parliament had basic sovereignty over the king. |
Frederick the Great | Prussian king who introduced Enlightenment reforms; included freedom of religion and increased state control of the economy. |
Enlightenment | intellectual movement centered in France during the 18th century; argued for scientific advance, the application of scientific methods to study human society; believed that rational laws could describe social behavior. |
Adam Smith | established new school of economic thought; argued that governments should avoid regulation of economies in favor of the free play of market forces. |
Mary Wollstonecraft | Enlightenment English feminist thinker; argued that political rights should be extended to women. |