Download Biographical Dictionary

Biographical Dictionary
Renaissance and Reformation
1. John Calvin
●  Born: France 1509
●  Supporter of Martin Luther
●  Fled to Geneva Switzerland (dangerous for Protestants in
France)
●  Founder of Calvinism
○  work hard, behave well, and obey
laws
○  predestination
○  church members should choose
clergy not the kings or bishops
2. Desiderius Erasmus
●  Born 1466 Rotterdam, Netherlands
●  Christian humanism leader
●  Best way to reform the church humanist learning and bible study
●  Believed people should use reason
to become better Christians
●  Wrote book - Praise of Folly
o  criticized the wealth and power of
church leaders
3. Vasco da Gama
●  Born 1460’s Portugal
●  Explorer
●  1st person to sail directly
from Europe to India
●  Sailed around Africa to get to
India
4. Leonardo da Vinci
●  Born 1452 Vinci, Italy
●  Leading figure of the
Renaissance
●  Mathematician, engineer,
architect, inventor, artist,
sculptor, etc.
●  Famous paintings: Mona Lisa
and The Last Supper
“Three classes of people: Those who
see. Those who see when they are
shown. Those who do not see” Leonardo da Vinci
5. Bartolomeu Dias
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Born 1450 Portugal
Explorer
Explored the coast of Africa
First to explore to the Cape of
Good Hope
6. Elizabeth I
●  Daughter of King Henry VIII and
Anne Boleyn
●  Half-sister of Queen Mary I
●  Became queen in 1558 when
Mary I died
●  Stopped the persecution of
English Protestants
●  Restored the Anglican Church
●  One of England’s greatest rulers
7. Johann Gutenberg
●  German Printer
●  1450’s developed a printing
press that used movable
metal type.
●  Books could be printed
quickly by machine
●  Made books available to the
people
●  1st European printed book The Christian Bible
8. Henry V
●  Born 1387
●  A great warrior king of medieval
England
●  Famous for his victory against
the French at the Battle of
Agincourt
●  English king during the Hundred
Years War
●  William Shakespeare wrote a
play about him - Henry V
9. Henry VIII
●  Ruled England 1509 to 1547
●  Wanted a son to succeed him. Only had 1
daughter from his marriage to Catherine
survive - Mary
●  Wanted to divorce wife - Catherine.
●  The pope said no! Catherine was the
daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella of Spain.
●  Henry got the Archbishop of Canterbury to
end his marriage.
●  Pope excommunicated him.
●  He married Anne Boleyn and started the
Anglican Church
Henry VII - A member of the Tudor
Family
10. Jesuits
●  Member of the Society of
Jesus - a Roman Catholic
order of religious men founded
by St. Ignatius of Loyola
●  A main agent of the Counter
Reformation
●  Later a leading force in
modernizing the Catholic
Church
11. Ferdinand Magellan
●  Born 1480 Portugal
●  Portuguese explorer
who led the first
expedition that
circumnavigated the
world.
●  He died on the voyage
but his crew continued
on.
12. Martin Luther
●  Born 1483 Germany
●  Catholic Monk
●  Wrote the Ninety-Five Theses nailed to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral, in
Germany, protesting Catholic Church practices
●  Pope Leo X - claimed Luther dangerous and
excommunicated him.
●  His ideas became Lutheranism.
o  faith in Jesus - not works
o  Bible final source for truth about God.
o  church is made up of people not just clergy
13. Mary I
●  Daughter of King Henry VIII and
Catherine
●  Became queen when her father
died
●  Restored the Catholic Church in
England
●  Had 300+ Protestants burned at
the stake
●  Known as “Bloody Mary”
14. Marco Polo
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Born 1254 Venice, Italy
Explorer, Merchant, and Traveller
Traveled from Europe to Asia
Lived in China for 17 years
wrote book - The Travels of Marco
Polo
●  Worked as Special Envoy to
Kublai Khan while in China
Interesting Fact: There is a
“debate among historians as to
whether Marco Polo ever really
made it to China”.
biography.com
15. Medici Family
●  Controlled Florence’s
government during the
Renaissance
●  A banking family and political
dynasty
●  Used wealth to support
artists, architects, and writers
leading to Florence being the
cultural center of Europe
16. Michelangelo
●  Born 1475, Italy
●  Renaissance artist and
sculptor
●  Pope Julius II hired him to
work at the Vatican
●  Painted the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel
●  Famous sculpture - David
Interesting Fact:
“If people only knew how hard I work to
gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so
wonderful at all”
- Michelangelo
17. William Shakespeare
●  Born 1564 England
●  English poet, playwright, and
actor
●  Considered by many to be the
greatest playwright of all time
●  Some famous works:
o  Henry V
o  Romeo and Juliet
o  Macbeth
o  Hamlet
18. St. Ignatius of Loyola
●  Born 1491 Spain
●  Spanish noble and soldier
●  While recovering from a battle
injury, read about Christ and the
lives of the Saints
●  Decided to become a soldier for
Christ
●  Founder of the Jesuits - Society of
Jesus
19. William Tyndale
●  English Scholar and Translator
●  A leading figure in the
Protestant Reformation
●  Wanted to make the Bible
available to everybody
●  1st man to print the New
Testament in the English
language
●  Convicted of heresy and
treason. He was strangled and
his body burned at the stake.