Renaissance and Reformation

The Renaissance was very important for stimulating European interest in the Americas. New advances in sailing and navigation led to sailors being brave enough to leave the Mediterranean and...

Henry VIII started the English Reformation in order to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Their marriage had not produced a male heir, and Henry decided that this was Catherine's fault....

The Renaissance, in both northern and southern Europe, was a time of renewed critical thinking. Throughout the previous Medieval period, philosophical thought was tied intrinsically to the...

The Protestant Reformation radically shifted the power relationship between Church and State in the Latin West. The best way to understand this is to see it as part of an historical trajectory....

The Northern Renaissance is sometimes referred to as the prelude to the Protestant Reformation because it set the stage for the Reformation. It did so mainly in an intellectual sense. As the...

The Renaissance refers to a period of time beginning in Italy in the mid-1300's where the intellectuals of society looked back to Greek and Roman cultural elements for inspiration on artistic and...

In terms of the Renaissance, one could say that humanism was the spark that lit the flame. It was humanism—which in this context means the rediscovery of ancient learning—that inspired this great...

The religious factors that led to the Reformation included a strong sense, as articulated by Martin Luther and others, that the Roman Catholic Church had strayed too far theologically from the...

First, it should be noted that while older histories of science and philosophy, written on a fairly elementary level, emphasize discontinuities, more recent scholarship and scholarly monographs...

Thinking counterfactually about history is always more an exercise in science fiction or fantasy than something realistic, mainly because the variables aren't independent. For example, you can't...

A couple of different forms of corruption can be spotted in Albert of Mainz's career. For one thing, Albert was already the bishop of Brandenburg at the age of 24 and then became the Archbishop of...

These roles did change to some extent. Nobles continued to be extremely important in the military and the government, but the exact nature of their importance changed. In addition, they became...

The Leipzig Disputation took place at Pleissenburg Castle in Leipzig, began in June 1519, ended in July, and lasted three weeks, only two years after Martin Luther posted his famous Ninety-Five...

Actually, the Lutheran church does have bishops and priests and deacons -- that is a hierarchy. They are closer, however, to the pentarchy of orthodoxy and earl Christianity than to the uniquely...

An interesting asside is that some historians say Charlemagne was "furious" when he was unexpectedlly crowned the "Roman Emperor" by the Pope. Charlemagne had built his empire without the help of...

There are at least two ways to look at this question. On the one hand, we can look at the immediate causes of the Reformation. The Reformation was caused by the unhappiness that Martin Luther felt...

It is, of course, impossible to know what might have happened. We can only guess about what human minds are capable of. However, it does seem that it would not have been possible for the...

Philippa Gregory is an author of historical fiction that actually traces the lives of many of the Renaissance Queens--Anne Boleyn (Second wife of Henry VIII and Elizabeth's mother), Mary (rose to...

From our perspective today, the Reformation does seem like an obvious outgrowth of the Northern Renaissance. Luther came to his beliefs through close study of the Bible, which was something the...

It seems likely that doctrinal reforms might well have arisen from the Northern Renaissance had the Reformation not happened. However, it seems very unlikely that they would have gone very far in...

I would say it was a completely new political entity. Being crowned "Roman Emperor" by the Pope was a reach of desperation by the Catholic Church to keep themselves at the seat of power in Europe....

It is very difficult to know the reason for this with any certainty. However, a few plausible explanations have been given for the lack of a reformation in Italy. The Pope was in Rome and was...

Like modern science, the "natural philosophy" of the Renaissance was derived largely from observation. It is well-known that Renaissance humanist thought was deeply informed by classic texts, and...

Henry VIII was more than just a man who discarded his wives through murder, divorce and humiliation, he was an intelligent, complex man who became King of England at the age of 18, rather...

The Protestant Reformation started out merely as an attempt to reform the Catholic Church and its people. However, it then grew into a full-fledged revolution. When Martin Luther first published...

Where: The Protestant Reformation was a Northern European and British phenomenon. When: The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 with the promulgation of Martin Luther’s “95 Theses.” The ensuing...

Three examples of connections between the theatre of Shakespeare and the political and social/cultural events of the Elizabethan era can be found in the areas of:Role of women: All women in...