Download Europe 1500-1650

Lecture 17--Europe 1500-1650
Outward vs. Inwards
Ming China (15th century): For a short time in the early 15th century, Ming dynasty China
mounted a series of expeditions across the Pacific to various areas around China. They served as a
demonstration of Chinese strength and economic power. If they had continued, they might have
begun a process of Chinese expansion a half-century before Europeans began the quest for routes
to Asia to bypass Moslem territories. But the experience of Mongol rule under the Yuan dynasty
in the 13th to 14th centuries had convinced many Chinese that all other nations were inferior to
China and with the fall of the political faction which backed them, these voyages ended and China
turned inwards. The Chinese had everything they felt they needed, able to produce everything
from wheat to silks and spices at home. And Europe was given its chance to reach out and begin
dominating the world.
Europe (15th century): No outside observer would have guessed in 1400 that Europe would go
on to dominate the world. Europe was divided among many squabbling states and torn by internal
divisions, marked by weak governments and a population still trying to recover from the 14 th
century devastation of the Black Plague. Even the climate was turning against Europe; European
temperatures had been dropping since the mid-12th century, and in the mid-15th century, lasting
until the mid-19th century, the temperatures of Europe plunged in the so-called 'Little Ice Age',
reducing the growing season of Europe by 1-2 months. This increased levels of dearth and
famine. But despite all this, Europe's economy was finally recovered from centuries of decline
and was indeed growing, as were the cities and trade. And it was this trade, the desire for goods
which could no longer be (or which had never been) produced in Europe which made Europeans
turn outwards to get the things they needed.
Rise of International Trade and Exploration
The Silk Road and the Spice Trade
The Silk Road: From Roman times onward, traders crossed central Asia, hauling silk,
spices, and porcelain from China and India and Indonesia to Europe.
The Rise of Islam and the Silk and Spice Routes: The rise of Islam put potentially
hostile states in the middle of the road. Prices roses and trade was sometimes cut off.
Moslems also cut off trade routes across the Sahara to sub-Saharan Africa.
Spices: Pepper (Black Pepper from India; chile peppers were unknown until Columbus,
being native to the Americas) and Cloves (Indonesia) were the two most desired spices.
Venetians: The City of Venice controlled the eastern end of the Silk Road, controlling
shipping in the eastern Mediterranean.
The Fall of Constantinople: The Fall of Constantinople put even more of the route into
the hands of Moslems and helped to prompt a search for sea routes (though this began
before 1453).
The Rise of Portuguese Exploration
Prince Henry the Navigator (March 4, 1394–November 13, 1460): This Portuguese
prince played a crucial role in the beginning of Portuguese explorations by providing
funding and gathering experts to strengthen Portuguese shipping and navigation.
Technical Innovations: New ships (the Caravel) and technologies (the compass and
gunpowder) were key to the rise of Portuguese exploration. The Caravel combined
European square rigging with the lateen rigging of the Arabs, creating a ship which
would sail against the wind and as a result, could return up the African coast against
prevailing winds. (South of Western Africa, there is a circular loop of currents and winds
which drive you south and block a return voyage.) The Compass strengthened navigation
and allowed you to go far from shore more safely. And gunpowder gave Europeans a
military edge in foreign lands. The Chinese invented gunpowder and the compass, but
failed to use them for voyages of colonization as the Europeans would.
The Rounding of Africa: In 1488, Bartholemew Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope,
enabling the Portuguese to now have a sea route to India, China, and Indonesia.
The problem of the Indian Ocean: But they had to fight Moslem fleets in a series of
wars to take control of the Indian Ocean.
Spanish Efforts
Looking Westward: By the time of Spanish unification in 1488, the Portuguese had a
strong lead in controlling the African route to Asia. So Christopher Columbus (14511506) proposed to Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille that he could sail west in
order to reach the Indies. Most people knew the world was round in 1488, contrary to
later myths, but they didn't know how big it was. Ironically, Columbus under-estimated
the size of the Earth, leading him to think it was only 2-3,000 miles from Spain to China.
If he'd known the truth, he'd have never dared to think he could survive going west.
The Four Voyages of Columbus: In 1492, he set out with 3 ships to head to China; on
October 12, 1492, he landed at San Salvador (Watling Island) in the Bahamas. He didn't
find any urban civilization like China, but what he did find was enough to send him back
3 more times and to begin creating colonies. Columbus conducted four voyages and
served as colonial governor (but was removed in disgrace). His men brought back
natives, tobacco, gold, chile peppers (which he stuck the name pepper on, feeling them
similar in taste to Indian Black Pepper), and many other goods. Unfortunately, they also
brought back syphillis, introduced diseases which began slaughtering Caribbean natives,
and because he thought he'd reached India, created the misterming of American natives as
'Indians'.
America: Shortly after Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512) and Ferdinand
Magellan (1480-1521) explored the coast of South America and began mapping it.
Amerigo named the new world after himself and the name stuck. Magellan would go on
to attempt to circumnavigate the entire world, only to die in what is now the Phillipines.
Spanish Colonization: We'll examine this more in Chapter 18.
The Ravages of Disease
Thresholds of Disease: As civilization grows larger, diseases can spread more easily
without wiping everyone out and killing themselves. Some diseases can't spread easily
outside climates adapted to them. (Malaria needs mosquitos to spread, for example.)
How Plagues Spread: Plagues spread by human contact, animal vectors and along trade
routes. This had limited the spread of disease in the Americas due to low trade levels; the
result was that the Americas had few wide spread disases and that they were vulnerable
to ones that Europeans, Asians, and Africans had adapted to centuries ago.
Demographic Catastrophe: The Spanish brought dozens of deadly diseases to America,
and over the next two centuries they fanned out across the continent. 30-50% of the
population of North America was wiped out. In Mexico, 95% of the population died in
the first century of Spanish rule.
Exchange of Animals and Plants
Food Exchanges
The Potato: It became a staple of European diets.
Corn: It became a staple of European diets.
Beans and Squash: Also imported to Europe from the Americas.
The Yam: Brought from Africa to America
Wheat and Spices: Brought to the Americas from Europe and Asia (America
had spices of its own also)
Alcohol: Often disruptive to American Indian societies.
The Impact of the Horse and Cattle
End of the lack of draft animals: Agriculture became more efficient and
longer distance travel was possible.
Changes for the Plains Indians: They now became highly effective hunters
and warriors thanks to horses.
Family Life in Early Modern Europe
Farming: The average European was a farmer who probably either rented his land or possibly
was bound to a manor where he worked for a lord, though the latter was in decline by 1500,
especially in Western Europe. The average European was poor, making enough to get by in
average years, having a little prosperity in good years, and sometimes starving in bad years.
Unfortunately for him, due to the Little Ice Age (1450-1850), the bad years were starting to
increase. However, he had more freedom than medieval peasants.
Later Marriages: While a man could marry at 14 and a woman at 12, most men were past 25
when they married and most women past 20, later than in the Middle Ages. This happened
because you couldn't marry until you could support yourself and this was happening later in life.
One in five women never married. Marriages were arranged by the parents, but rarely forced onto
couples against their will. In a context of small villages and low migration, almost everyone
married someone they had likely known since infancy.
Family Size: Married couples often formed a subunit of a larger family unit which might include
one set of grandparents, various siblings of the husband or wife, spouses of said siblings, and
various other relatives and hangers-on. The average married couple would have 6 to 7 children,
losing half of them, mostly by the age of 5. Anyone who survived past age 10 would usually
manage to live into their 50s or 60s. Some families practiced birth control despite Church
condemnations but only the wealthy could afford well made condoms (made out of highly
processed and chemically treated animal skin or organs) and most popular / cheap methods were
not very effective. The most effective was nursing children, and some women nursed longer than
today because women who are lactating do not easily become pregnant. Many upper-class women
sent their children to be wet-nursed. Ironically, this likely killed many of those kids by exposing
them to disease and poor sanitary conditions.
Loving Families?: Early Modern families were more utilitarian than we expect of today's
families. People got married in order to survive economically as much as or more than for love. It
was hard to build bonds with your children when you knew half of them would die. And children
were sometimes sent off to apprenticeships, especially in the cities, at the age of eight. (A
measure that might seem cruel but was the contemporary equivalent of your parents sending you
to college today—it provided for a better future for you.) Their life was hard and most peasants
left little record of their emotional life.
Town Life: Cities were small by modern standards; most towns had perhaps 3-8,000 people.
Vilnus in modern Lithuania was one of the largest in Europe with 25,000 people. (Naples was the
largest city in Europe with 212,000 people in the mid-sixteenth century.) Cities were governed by
the wealthy merchants and guilds and were strong supporters of royal authority in many countries.
Urban folk were craftsmen, merchants, clergy, and unskilled labor, and usually apprenticed their
children. The major artisan trades were organized into guilds with a lengthy training system.
The Reformation (1500-1650)
Before the Reformation: In the 15th century, the Clergy was powerful, rich, and sometimes
corrupt. In cities, they made up 6-8% of the population. They had their own courts, they owned
huge areas of land, and they dominated the rhythms of ordinary life through the yearly church
calendar and church influence over birth, marriage, and death. Monasteries were large and
wealthy (and often corrupt). Church services were held in Latin, though many priests were just
barely literate. Those who were well educated led the Church, but were entangled in politics,
government, and war. Many grumbled over the major problems of the Church-Problems of Renaissance Catholism
Temporal Power: The papacy headed a significant state, thus leading to situations of
the Papacy getting tangled up in political conflicts, which reduced its religious prestige.
Rising Heresies: As more secular people became literate, they increasingly could read
the Bible, and some people interpreted it differently than the Church.
Monastic Corruption: Many of the monasteries were too rich and functioned as welfare
programs for younger noble kids instead of being places of holiness.
The Indulgences Issue: Desperate for money, the church was selling indulgences
(pardons from time in purgatory, meant to be issued to promote holy behavior)--to raise
money for projects such as wars, palaces, grand cathedrals, etc., a complete abuse of the
purpose of indulgences.
Northern Renaissance Humanism
Reformers: The Christian Humanists saw the problems of the Church and wanted to fix
them. They took the Greek and Roman studies of Italian humanists and applied them to
religious problems. They were greatly aided by the increased ease of publishing books,
thanks to the Printing Press (15th century import from China).
Desiderus Erasmus (1466-1536): Erasmus "aspired to unite the classical ideals of
humanity and civic virtue with the Christian ideals of love and piety." (THOWC, p. 444).
The study of the classics and the bible together would enable the reform of society. His
piety focused on ethics, not on symbolism, magic, relics, pilgrimages, etc. In his biblical
scholarship, he sought to return to the original texts in their original languages and to fix
any problems of transcription which might have corrupted them. His biblical works
would become the basis of the translations of Martin Luther, Tyndale, the Geneva Bible
and the King James Bible, among others.
English Humanism: English humanists, the most famous being Sir Thomas More
(1478-1535), helped pave the way for English protestantism. Sir Thomas More himself,
though, was executed for refusing to accept Henry VIII's revolt. Like Erasmus, they
criticized the accretions of church practice and focused on ethics and a return to the older
texts.
The German Seedbed: Germany was a fertile seedbed for the Reformation because it combined:
1. A growing literate population, combined with the printing press, which made it
easier for new ideas to spread and for translations of the bible to be produced.
2. Political divisions which made it hard for central authorities to suppress heresy;
German princes agreed that the Emperor needed to be kept weak, which made it hard
for him to fight local princes who hid and supported reformers.
3. Problems of clerical corruption and a low-point in the morale and behavior of the
monastic orders.
4. Acceptance of secular influence over the church; because local secular authorities
controlled church appointments, they could change the content of religion without
their populace necessarily turning on them.
The result was that, unlike in previous centuries, heresies could not easily be stomped
out.
Martin Luther (1483-1586)
Origins: Luther was a German Augustinian monk, who came to feel he wasn't holy
enough despite being a monk, and who came to criticize the Church, leading to him
nailing the famous 95 Theses (a list of complaints about the Church) to the door of his
local cathedral in 1517. Efforts to suppress his teachings failed due to protection given
him by the Elector of Saxony, even though the Diet of Worms condemned Luther's
teachings in 1521.
His Protests: Luther attacked the sale of indulgences, the heavy focus on penances and
other 'works' as part of the road to salvation, and the refusal to allow the Bible to be
translated into secular languages.
Protestant Theology: Luther emphasized the role of 'faith' over works, attacked
celibacy of the priesthood and monasticism, and translated the bible into German. He
emphasized that the Bible was the source of our holy knowledge, not tradition or reason.
Justification by Faith Alone / 'Sola Fide': Luther argued that human practices
could not contribute to salvation; only God's grace could save. Thus, the whole
network of penances, indulgences, pilgrimages, etc, were worthless or even
baneful to salvation and could and should be dispensed with.
Attack on Celibacy and Monasticism: Luther's own experience as a monk had
convinced himself the monasteries were corrupt and could not save. He also
came to feel that the clergy didn't need to be celibate, so long as they were
willing and desirous to get married. (He still condemned sex outside marriage.)
Indeed, Luther married a former nun, Katharina von Bora, who he had helped
escape from her convent with 11 other nuns.
Translation of the Bible into German: Luther discarded portions of the
Catholic Old Testament which had been accepted for a thousand years,
confining himself to those books of the Old Testament which were not written in
Greek (the same canon accepted by Jews at the Council of Jamnia in the late
first century ID, rather than the one accepted by the Church at the Council of
Hippo in the late 4th century.) He used the same version of the New Testament
as Catholics did, though he was said to have rather disliked the Book of James
(probably because it contradicted his teachings).
The Bible As Sole Source of Religious Knowledge: Luther called for a return
to the Bible and threw out 1500 years of built up Christian tradition and practice,
effectively rejecting two of the three pillars of Medieval Christian thought
(Scripture, Reason, and Tradition being the three).
His Impact: Luther shattered the unity of the Western Church and opened the way for
the creation of the several thousand Protestant denominations which exist today.
Spread of the Reformation: Literate city folk could read Luther's writings and decide
for themselves as to his rightness, as could the nobility. In some places, Protestantism
became the religion of cities rebelling against noble authority; in others, nobles changed
religion to increase their autonomy from royal or imperial control. Many other
reformers now began to spread their own ideas on theology and to found new Protestant
traditions. Lutheranism would become the state religion of Denmark in 1536 under King
Christian III. In Sweden, Gustavus Vasa established it in 1527. And after efforts to
crush Protestantism, the Holy Roman Emperor was forced to cede in the Peace of
Augsburg (1555) that each prince would have the right to set his territory's religion.
Luther's Flaws: In some ways, Luther is a major father of our current intellectual and
religious freedom. But Luther didn't see himself fighting for freedom, but for truth, and
was quite willing to use force to impose his truth. (Or more precisely to endorse others
using force to enforce his ideas.) Luther thus has the black marks on his record of
encouraging the slaughter of revolting German peasants during the Peasant's War (15245) and the persecution of the Jews.
Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation:
Spread of Protestantism: Switzerland and France were influenced by Luther's ideas as
well.
Zurich: In the city of Zurich, Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) led opposition to the sale of
indulgences and religious 'superstition'. Zwingli called for the abandonment of any
practice or belief which lacked literal support in scripture. This led to the removal of
religious art and the vast simplification of the Mass. Convents were closed and Church
music was abandoned. Zwingli produced his own translation of the bible: the
Froschauer Bible (printed between 1524-1531). After 1523, Zurich became the capital
of a rather harsh and 'puritanical' branch of Protestantism. 6 Protestant Cantons of
Switzerland now clashed with the 5 Catholic ones. (Zwingli died in this conflict.)
Anabaptists and Radicals:
Adult Baptism ONLY: The Anabaptists and other radical groups rejected the practice
of infant baptism, putting an emphasis on the necessity of adult faculties for salvation;
one could not be saved if one was too young to even understand why one needed
salvation.
Separation: Anabaptists and other radicals withdrew from society to form their own
communities of those with grace experiences, as they thought Early Christians had done.
Farmers: Over time, it became largely a rural faith and was often persecuted.
John Calvin and Geneva:
Calvinism and Revolution: Calvinism would fuel revolutionary movements in
Scotland, France, and England. Calvinists simultaneously believed in predestination
(where God chose those who would be saved even before they were born) and in the
human duty to spread God's word, enforce his law, and make people act as if they were
saved, whether they were or not. They were, to use the English branch's name, Puritans,
enforcing Godly order and regulation of social life, on everyone, believer or not. This
meant corrupt governments had to be overthrown and replaced by 'Godly Magistrates'.
John Calvin (1509-1564): He arrived in Geneva after local Protestant reformers had
taken over in 1536. Calvin drew up guidelines for the church and government, but ended
up being sent into exile for a time due to fears the reformers were seeking to effectively
set up their own religious tyranny. But in 1540, he was called back, having gone to
Strasbourg and studied with local protestants and begun his religious writings. Calvin
and his allies set out a model for an alliance of government and state to create a godly
society in which all would be made to act like the elect, even though God's decision on
who to save and who to damn was not influenced by human behavior. But they would
enforce God's law anyway (God's law as they saw it...). Many reformers came here to
study, fleeing persecution elsewhere.
Anglicanism
The Quest for Heirs: Henry VIII (1491-1547, ruled 1509-1547) split with the Pope not
over theology, but because the pope wouldn't give him a divorce like he wanted.
Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) had married Henry's older brother Arthur, but he died
before their marriage could be consummated, and so she was married to Henry in turn,
with a dispensation from the Pope to allow this. After 16 years of marriage, however,
Henry and Catherine had a daughter, Mary (1516-1558, ruled 1553-8) but no legitimate
sons. So he wanted a divorce, or more precisely, 'an annulment', which would have
declared his marriage to Catherine invalid due to her having been married to his brother,
which normally would prevent them marrying. Too bad he'd convinced an earlier Pope
to give them a dispensation which let them get married anyway. Henry's attempts to get
the Papacy to give him an annulment failed, so he began taking measures to bring the
Church under his personal control, following the advice of two of his advisers, Thomas
Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell, who were pro-Lutheran. Once he had claimed the
power to appoint Bishops himself, he appointed his own Archbishop of Canterbury who
gave him the annulment he wanted. Catherine went to a monastery and Henry went on to
marry his mistress Anne Boleyn (who gave him a daughter, the famous Elizabeth I
(1533-1608, ruled 1558-1603), and then was executed when there was no sign of boys
coming soon...).
The Split with the Church: Henry mostly kept Catholic theology, but he brought the
Church under state authority, controlling what theology was preached and who became a
bishop or Archbishop. He also shut down the monasteries and took all their wealth for
himself. This was done through a series of acts of Parliament, setting precedent for
Parliament to shape religion also, which would lead to trouble later.
Changes of Course: Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, gave Henry his son Edward VI
(1537-1553, theoretically ruled 1547-53 (actually a regency)). But when Henry died,
Edward was too young to rule and his regents took the Church of England in a more
protestant direction. But when he died due to inheriting syphillis at birth from his
disease-riddled father (which left him permanently weak and killed him at 16), his elder
sister Mary I took the throne from 1553-58, killed or exiled the would be protestant
reformers and tried to restore Catholicism. But she died young and now Elizabeth I took
the throne. She tried to chart a middle course between Catholicism and Protestantism,
retaining a catholic style hierarchy and top-down decision making, while making
theology and church practices more Protestant.
Impact: Anglicanism would become split between Puritans (who wanted to make it
more Protestant) and High Churchmen (who wanted to keep things closer to 'Catholicism
without the pope'). This would eventually lead to Civil War.
Catholic Reform and Counter-Reformation
Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) and the Society of Jesus: One of the strongest Catholic
groups to fight against the spread of Protestantism was the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits),
founded in the 1530s by Ignatius of Loyola, a spanish courtier and soldier. After being
injured in war in 1521, he began a course of spiritual studies during his recovery which
led to his conversion and his creation of a devotional guide to spiritual study known as
the Spiritual Exercises (1548). Disciplined study and practice of emotional and mental
exercises would enable the student to reshape himself into a spiritual paragon, Ignatius
believed. Perfect discipline, self-control, and obedience to Church authorities was
crucial. He and six friends from the University of Paris, where he studied theology,
founded the Society of Jesus (1534). Its purpose was "to enter upon hospital and
missionary work in Jerusalem, or to go without questioning wherever the pope might
direct". (from the oath they swore when founding the society). The Jesuits would
eventually become educators and intellectuals, building strong intellectual underpinnings
for the Counter-Reformation and Catholicism in general.
The Council of Trent (1545-1563): The growing success of the Reformation and
pressure from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V forced the calling of the Council of Trent
to bring about a coherent response to the Reformation. A reform committee attacked the
greedy practices of the Papacy—the sale of office, indulgences, etc., by Popes to raise
money for palaces and wars ('Simony'). Ironically, Protestants would use this report as
anti-Catholic propaganda. The Council of Trent forbade Simony in all its forms. It
forced better behavior on priests and bishops and gave bishops more control over their
subordinates and local religious practice. Seminaries were created to train priests. But
no theological confessions were made. Catholic reliance on reason and tradition
continued to supplement scripture. The seven sacraments, monasticism, the celibacy of
priests, the structure of Catholic worship (the Mass), transubstantiation, purgatory,
penances, indulgences (no longer sold for money), and veneration of images, saints and
relics were all retained. The council created a better-behaved, better educated clergy, but
one sternly opposed to Protestant ideas for religious change.
Rolling Back the Reformation: In Spain, Italy, Poland, and elsewhere, the Jesuits, the
Inquisition, and the improved clergy stopped the advance of Protestantism, which
remained confined to Northern and Central Europe, though as we'll see, this all kicked off
more religious wars.
Results of the Reformation: The clergy shrunk by two-thirds and monasteries ceased to exist in
Protestant nations. Church lands fell into secular hands. Worship was now conducted in the local
languages, not Latin, and the Bible was translated for local use as well. Shrines were closed and
the practices of penance, indulgences, saints, icons, and relics abandoned. Clergy now were fully
subject to secular authority and could marry. A fifth of Europe's population was Protestant by
1650 (a decline from a peak of one half around 1550).
The Wars of Religion (1560-1650)
Geneva vs. The Society of Jesus: Where the Society of Jesus provided the model for Catholic
spiritual revival based on Catholic tradition, an improved clergy, and obedience to Church
authority, the Genevans provided a model of Church government and theology for Protestants
through the work of John Calvin. Geneva became a refuge and school for Calvinist Protestants
who would spread Calvin's ideas across Europe and help to re-ignite wars between Catholics and
Protestants, between and within nations.
The Calvinist Model: Calvinist churches tended to espouse a sort of federal model; each
local community had a fair amount of autonomy, governed by 'presbyters' (local elders),
who sent delegates to conferences at a series of levels to the top of the national church.
(The 'presbyterian' model) It was attractive to those seeking to decentralize power and
became a religion of political rebellion.
The Catholic Model: Top-down control by a Bishop-appointing Pope and his
bureaucracy. Bishops appointed priests and religious power flowed from the top of the
Church hierarchy, which controlled its own membership and replacement after deaths. It
was congenital to monarchy.
French Wars of Religion: In France, rebellious nobles embraced Calvinism in their struggle with
the growing power of the French monarchy, while the Kings and their noble allies stood with
Catholicism. The death of Henry II in a jousting accident in 1559 led to instability under his
young heirs as the Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici tried to keep her sons on the throne in the
face of noble factions trying to take power. The Bourbon and Montmorency-Chatillon familes
embraced Protestantism (Protestants were known as Huguenots in France) while the Guise family
were ultra-ultra-Catholics. Some 2/5ths of the French nobility and many townsfolk became
Huguenots as well. Catherine first allied with the Protestants against the Guises, only to come to
fear their power as well. Violence had begun to break out, and on August 22, 1572, Catherine
orchestrated the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre against the Huguenots (3000 Huguenots
were killed), only to now find herself with no allies. Her son Henry III (1574-1589), the last of
her sons, found himself largely impotent, though a growing number of French elites, the
politiques, joined him out of growing disgust with religious warfare. He eventually had to ally
with his cousin, Henry of Navarre, leader of the Bourbons, only to end up murdered. Henry went
on to put down the Guises, but converted to Catholicism in order to bring an end to the fighting.
He said "Paris was worth a mass." Henry IV (1589-1610) ruled tolerantly, issuing the Edict of
Nantes in 1598, which allowed Huguenots to practice their faith in private. The Huguenots (over a
million strong) were allowed to hold office and own property, attend universities, etc. ]
John Knox and The Scottish Presbyterians: On the death of James V of Scotland in 1542, his
daughter Mary I of Scotland (1542-1587, Queen of Scots 1542 at age 6 days to 1567) took the
throne at the age of 6 days old. She was not well suited for rulership and faced the implacable
hostility of John Knox, a Calvinist Scot who was one of the biggest haters of women in the history
of the world, noted for writing multiple books on why women were unfit to hold power. Struggles
during her reign between Protestants and Catholics ended with her having to flee to England,
where her cousin Elizabeth imprisoned her, and her son James VI of Scotland (later James I of
England) was left behind to be raised by Knox's triumphant Protestants. Eventually, Elizabeth had
to execute her for plotting Elizabeth's death, in 1587.
Imperial Spain and the Reign of Phillip II (1556-1598): Spain provided the muscle of the
Counter-Reformation, using its power to oppose the spread of Protestantism wherever possible.
Phillip II had defeated Turkish incursions into Europe in the 1560s and 70s, but came to grief
when he tried to intervene in France, the Netherlands, and England.
The Netherlands: Phillip tried to impose the Council of Trent's doctrines in the
Netherlands in 1564, leading to the Dutch Revolt, a war which would last until 1648.
Spain would eventually force the south Netherlands (modern Belgium) into submission,
but the modern Netherlands now became independent, Calvinist, and wealthy.
England: Phillip had married Queen Mary I of England, but they had no children.
When Elizabeth became Queen in 1558, he was displeased by her religious settlement
and by her eventual execution of her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots (a Catholic and former
Queen of Scotland who had been overthrown by John Knox and the Scottish
Presbyterians, a Calvinist group) in 1587 and ultimately tried to conquer England using a
giant navy (the Spanish Armada) to transport his forces in the Netherlands across the
Channel to attack England. In 1588, the Armada sailed, only to be destroyed by defeat at
the hands of the English navy and a disastrous attempt to sail around Northern Scotland
in order to return to Spain.
France: His meddling in the French wars of religion also bore no fruit.
Protestantism, the Collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, and The Thirty Years' War (161848)
An Elective Monarchy, A Weak State: Once a mighty nation, the Holy Roman
Empire, which encompassed all of modern Germany and parts of modern France,
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Italy, had
become very weak by 1618, divided into hundreds of mostly independent little
principalities. Under the Peace of Augsburg, each chose its own religion and much of the
Empire was now Protestant. The largest ones elected an Emperor who had little real
power. Because the Catholic Habsburg dynasty controlled one of four secular electorates
(Bohemia) and 3 other of the total of 7 electors were Catholic Bishops, while the other
three secular Electors were Protestants, the Habsburgs had held the Emperorship for a
long time by 1618.
The Elector of the Palatinate: Fredrick II, elector of the Palatinate, was elected King of
Bohemia (another Electorate) in 1618 after a Protestant takeover. The Habsburgs moved
to stop him and this triggered the Thirty Years War.
Blood and Death: For 30 years, the Holy Roman Empire was wracked by wars of first
Catholics vs. Protestants, then by invasions by foreign kings seeking to exploit the
confusion and promote their own interests. Germany was laid waste and eventually the
war became secular power politics
Disgust: The war ended with the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. The end result was a
growing disgust with fighting over religion, the collapse of Spanish power, the crippling
of the Empire, and the rise of France. New states would now arise and European elite
culture would turn more secular after 1650, as we will see.
Superstition and Enlightenment: The Battle Within
Witch Hunts, the Decline of Village Unity, and Panic: Several factors came together to
produce massive witch hunting between 1400 and 1700 AD.
The Witch Hunts: Between 1400 and 1700 some 70-100,000 people were executed for
witchcraft in Europe, accused of consorting with Satan and other witches in secret
meetings known as Sabbats and of practicing unholy magics against others. Why did this
happen?
Survival of Superstition: Medieval religious practice was heavily tinged with
superstition; some village and townsfolk exploited these to claim influence by
claims of supernatural abilities. When conditions went bad, these folk became
scapegoats.
Decline of Village Unity: Further, many were accused of witchcraft because
they were basically old and friendless and dependent on the charity of others
(sometimes coerced through exploiting superstitions). One of the phenomena of
the Reformation was a decline in the internal solidarity of villages; people were
less dependent on each other to survive and those dependent on village charity
were increasingly seen as liabilities. Those who also were seen as strange and
dangerous became targets for witchcraft accusations.
The Clergy: The Church had declared by the late thirteenth century that any
power not coming from the Church was of the devil. Those who claimed
magical powers now became defined as heretics, devil worshippers...witches.
Reformation upheavals also led to turmoil and hunts for religious enemies,
including those accused of witchcraft. Areas torn by religious war were the
most fertile seedbed for accusations.
Scapegoating: In the face of a Europe getting colder and harder to make a
living as farmers, in the face of uncontrollable natural disasters and religious
authorities whose power was often disputed, people wanted someone to blame
and punish for their misfortunes—witches fit the bill.
Why Women? Most accused of witchcraft were single women and most of
them middle aged to elderly. Widows and unmarried women were more likely to
be poor and in need of claiming supernatural powers to try to leverage their
resources for economic survival. Many of these women were also midwives, an
occupation which could generate hostility if you were unlucky in your work and
people died. And people died frequently in childbirth.
Decline of Witch Hunting: As worldviews became more secular, witch hunting came to
be seen as ignorant peasant superstition by elites, who stopped facilitating it.
Writers and Philosophers: Historians refer to the period from 1650 to 1789 as the Age of
Enlightenment, a time of declining religiousity among European elites and a time of searching for
secular answers to life's mysteries and the practicalities of life alike. Thinkers responded to this by
embracing the changes, by rejecting them, or trying to balance old faith and new science.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616): Centuries of holy war with Islam had left
Spanish writers obsessed with medieval chivalric virtues of honor and loyalty. The work
of Cervantes also examined medieval chivalry, but more skeptically. He was a soldier by
trade, who turned to literature while in prison on theft charges. His work Don Quixote
was published in halves in 1605 and 1615. It parodies medieval chivalric romances in its
story of a delusional old man (Don Quixote) seeking to be a hero like those of the
romances he loves, pairing him with his 'squire', practical and earthy Sancho Panza, a
peasant. It ends badly for Don Quixote when a friend defeats him in combat and forces
him to renounce 'knighthood' in hopes of making him come to his senses, but instead he
returns home miserable, still lost in his illusions. Despite this, the work makes it clear that
Cervantes admired both Panza's practicality and Quixote's religious idealism.
William Shakespeare(1564-1616): A schoolteacher and playwright, Shakespeare was
not a deeply religious man, but a lover of life and entertainment and a scholar in the
Renaissance style whose knowledge informs his famous literary work. Loyal to the
crown, his historical plays form a history of England and a justification of its rulers in his
lifetime, Elizabeth I and James I. He accepted the social structures of his day, though he
teased them in his comedies. Shakespeare had a deep knowledge of human motivations
and his tragedies are generally seen as his best work. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and
Macbeth were written between 1603-6 and have been performed on every continent and
in many languages.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): Short lived and brilliant, Pascal studied both secular and
religious thought, from theology (Pascal's Wager) to mathematics and physical science.
He spent his intellectual career fighting both the dogmatism of the Jesuits and the
skepticism of some of the new scientific thinkers. Pascal believed that religion had to be
based on a leap of faith, rather than the arguments of reason, though reason was a
powerful tool to understand the material world through science. God was a loving being,
who found ways to redeem humans though they did not deserve it. Pascal's Wager was
his 'bet' that it was wiser to act as if God existed whether or not he did, than to risk
damnation by acting as if God did not exist. Belief in God would improve this life as
well as the next.
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677): He was a Dutch Jew, though his views led his own
synagogue to kick him out in 1656. He believed that everything that exists is part of
God, that God and Nature were one and the same. Mind and Matter, mortal and divine,
are all extensions of the same material of God. All that happens is God's will. This
marked him as a madman to many Europeans.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): Hobbes was an English political philosopher who
believed that only strong government could tame the ill aspects of human nature.
Without government, in the state of nature, humans preyed on each other; they had to
give up their freedom to a government in order to have any sort of security. He was a
materialist; humans were nothing but particles in motion like everything else. The
English Civil War drove him to write his famous work Leviathan in 1651. His view of
government lifting men out of degradation challenged the usual view of a fall from
paradise leading from an idyllic pre-government era to the current corrupt age. Hobbes
ultimately thought any degree of tyranny justified in order to escape anarchy.
John Locke (1632-1704): John Locke, by contrast, taught that legitimacy of government
comes from the consent of the governed. Locke's Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (1690) taught that humans begin as blank slates, shaped by their
upbringing. His Two Treatises of Government (1690) sought to justify the Glorious
Revolution by postulating a right to revolt against any government which violated the
rights of the people who created it. Government was formed by a contract backed by the
consent of the governed to benefit themselves.