renaissance and reformsn

• A CHANGING WORLD 1500-1700
• Kings/Queens


  • Became less important in making laws and ruling countries
• Parliaments


  • Became more important in making laws and ruling in some countries
• The Church

  • Still had a lot of influence over people's lives BUT rulers and people started to question the teachings of the Catholic Church
• Farming


  • Had been the main way to make money in the Middle Ages and most people lived in the countryside/villages
• Commerce and trade


  • Early modern age: Became more widespread, merchants became more powerful
• Cities and towns


  • Early modern age: Became more important
• Scientific developments


  • No real scientific knowledge, beliefs were often based on Church teachings, witchcraft and magic
• Renaissance


  A rebirth or revival of an interest in learning
• The Renaissance lasted from the 14th-16th centuries and changed peoples attitudes towards themselves and the world around them
• The development of the printing press in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg around 1436 made books quicker to produce and cheaper
• By 1600 there were close to 200 million books printed!
• The Middle Ages


  Often called "The Age of Faith" because most ordinary men and women believed that God controlled everything and the Church was always right
• Church theories of the universe

  Based on the writings of ancient philosopher Ptolemy, the church taught that God created the world and so the earth was at the centre of the universe and other planets and the sun revolved around it
• During the Renaissance people began to think more independently and question the church, which had not been willing to think about new ideas about the world
• Scientists such as Copernicus suggested that the Sun, not the earth was at the centre of the universe. In the 1620s Gailileo invented the telescope and proved Copernicus' ideas were right!
• The church didn't like being told that they were wrong and banned all his works!
• Scientific scholars


  • Used scientific investigation, experimentation and observation to make new discoveries in a variety of areas
• New inventions and discoveries

  • Immunisation against smallpox developed by Sir Hans Sloan
  • Planets in the solar system held together by a force called gravity, shown by Isaac Newton
• Universal men


  • People with wide-ranging talents, such as Leonardo da Vinci who was a famous painter but also studied engineering, anatomy, architecture, physics and meteorology
• A Scientific method of learning began, which involved observation, hypothesis and experimentation
• The Printing Press allowed new ideas to spread quickly around Europe and old and new books to be studied
• A new idea of showing the human body in a more realistic way led to new developments in Art, and led people to study the body more carefully
• New technology such as gunpowder meant injured soldiers got new types of wounds, so doctors had to find new ways of dealing with these wounds
• The discovery of the Americas in the late 1400s showed the value of finding new things and making discoveries, rather than sticking to old ideas. New foods and medicines were also brought back from this 'New World'
• Criticisms of the Church

  • The Power of the Pope
  • Abuses in the Church
• The Pope


  Popes often behaved more like powerful Kings than religious leaders, some plotted to become rich and did not care about teaching religion or controlling their priests and bishops
• Rulers


  Asked to pay large sums of money to the pope in Rome
• Criticisms of the Church members

  • Priests and monks
  • Ordinary Church members
• Priests and bishops

  Some were lazy and greedy for wealth and power, they bought church jobs for money and were often absent from their duties, some even gave church posts to their relatives
• Ordinary Church members


  Many did not know the teachings of the Bible and still believed in their own comfort & magic and witchcraft
• Other abuses in the Church

  • Simony - sale of indulgences
  • Nepotism - giving jobs to relatives who were uneducated & had no training
  • Absenteeism - constant failure to turn up to their church duties
  • Pluralism - having more than one job / in charge of more than one Church
  • Secularism - more concerned about gaining power and wealth rather than reaching the true Christian values
• Martin Luther


  He was born in Germany, became a monk, was shocked by the unholy lives many Churchmen led, and wrote a list of ninety-five things (ninety-five THESES) that he felt were wrong with the Catholic Church
• The Catholic Church then ex-communicated Martin Luther because of this
• What did Martin Luther Believe?

  • Can't buy your way into heaven
  • Bible should be in your language
  • Only God can forgive your sins
  • Clergy should be able to marry or have children
  • Fancy elaborate ceremonies are not needed
  • You don't need to go to church to go to heaven, you'll have to believe in God
  • Bible is source of truth
  • Only pray to God or Jesus
• In the Catholic Church, the bible was only in Latin, many priests were not experienced or Christian, they sold church jobs for money, and could sell forgiveness
• On 31st October 1517 Luther said he listed 95 grievances (problems) with the catholic Church and nailed them to the door of the church in Wittenberg. This was called the 95 theses
• Consequences of the Reformation

  • The Catholic Church reformed itself to counter the spread of protestant religions
  • Europe was divided into catholic countries and Protestant countries
  • Peoples religious beliefs within countries such as France and England were divided as some wanted to remain Catholic and others were happy to be protestant
  • Division over religion sometimes led to wars between countries, e.g. Spain & England
• Leonardo da vinci

  He was perhaps the most famous example of a universal man. He was not only a famous painter but he also studied physics, anatomy, meteorology, architecture and engineering. His paintings and sketches were way ahead of his
• The Renaissance led to greater learning in Europe due to the new ideas and information in the books that became cheaper and more widely available