History 112

• The sale of indulgences became a controversial practice during the Renaissance and was one of the factors contributing to the Protestant Reformation
• The Edict of Worms issued Luther as an outlaw and he went into hiding for a year with an old friend where he translated the Bible from Latin to German
• Martin Luther

  • Emphasized justification by faith
  • Stated everyone gains salvation through faith not indulgences
  • Believed salvation is freely offered to all that believe in Jesus
• Indulgences during the Renaissance were certificates issued by the Catholic Church offering remission of the temporal punishment due for sins
• Desiderius Erasmus


  • Emphasized inner piety rather than relics, fasts, and pilgrimages (external)
  • Believed salvation comes from good deeds
• Desiderius Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched
• Northern Christian Humanism


  • Believed in making better humans
  • Major goal was to reform the Catholic Church
• Institutes of Christian Religion is John Calvin's seminal work on Protestant systematic theology and an introductory manual to Christian doctrine
• Communion

  • Luther believed Christ is present physically
  • Zwingli believed Christ is present symbolically and figuratively
• John Calvin


  • Known for his doctrine of predestination
  • Believed in absolute sovereignty and that God has already chosen who will receive salvation
• Anabaptism


  • Believed in separation of church and state
  • Believed baptism should be done as an adult, not a baby
  • Were radical in their ways
• Ulrich Zwingli


  • Preached authority of scripture and the rejection of religious practices
  • Figure in the Swiss Reformation
• The European Witchcraze led to the persecution of more than 100,000 people, mostly women, causing a questioning of attitudes on religion
• The Council of Trent reaffirmed traditional Catholic teachings rather than Protestant beliefs, reaffirming scripture and tradition as equal authorities in religious matters
• People, especially women, went to Geneva, Switzerland to seek refuge during John Calvin's time, where a theocracy was created
• Due to the crisis in the 17th century, an increase in monarchial power resulted in absolutism or an absolute monarchy where kings received their power from God
• Ming Dynasty


  • Known for expansion to the outside world and refurbishment of the Great Wall
  • Modern Chinese novel
• Constitutionalism is the doctrine that a government's authority is determined by a body of laws or constitution
• European trade in Japan was limited due to China's refusal to modernize and change
• Qing Dynasty


  • Territory of the Chinese empire expanded greatly
  • Population increased drastically
  • Industry reached a new height with porcelains
  • Last imperial dynasty
  • Ideal family was joint with sons being more desirable and arranged marriages were common
  • Qing painting became repetitive as they refused foreign techniques
  • Represents the height of traditional Chinese art as well as the beginning of its decline
• The first European (Portuguese) ship landed in Japan in 1543 and was the first Jesuit missionary; Europeans put up Christian churches and tore down Japanese beliefs, angering the people
• Ming sought to ban trade with Europeans, so Japanese merchants engaged in printing; Dutch ships were allowed to dock once a year in Nagasaki harbor
• Ptolemy supported a geocentric view
• Aristotle was the first to develop a formal system for reasoning
• Copernicus proposed the heliocentric theory that the Sun is at rest near the center of the Universe, and the Earth revolves around the Sun
• Peasants in China relied on rice, but taxes were high so many were forced to work for wealthy neighbors
• Descartes is credited as the father of analytic geometry and proposed the dualism of mind and body
• Hideyoshi banned Christianity
• Japan gave in to Western pressure to open their ports and cities to foreign trade and relations, while China refused. This allowed Japan to successfully modernize
• Consequences of "European Intrusion" (China and Japan): peace was supported by a rise in trade and manufacturing; technology was favorable (banking)
• Trade with European countries was extremely limited; Dutch ships were allowed to dock once a year in the Nagasaki harbor
• Ming sought to ban the trade, so Japanese merchants engaged in printing
• Europeans put up Christian churches and tore down Japanese beliefs which angered the people
• Galileo was the first European to make systematic observations of the heavens through the use of a telescope; the church condemned Copernicanism and ordered Galileo to abandon the Copernican system
• China & Japan were the least affected by Europe
• Christianity spread well in China, mostly in the South, but tension rose with the culture clash of Christianity and Japanese beliefs
• Francis Bacon created the Scientific Method
• Newton formulated laws of motion and gravitation
• Kepler came up with the laws of planetary motion that confirmed Copernicus's heliocentric theory; Kepler's First Law stated that planets move in elliptical paths around the Sun
• The Scientific Revolution had achievements in astronomy, medicine, and physics