Palmer, & Colton, A History of the Modern World 9th ed.

47-54, 65-68, 71-96, 118-139,

143-147, 179-186, 169-179, 288-291, 295-309, 322-325, 398-403, 409- 413, 414-425

5. The Disasters of the Fourteenth Century (pp. 47-53)

A. The Black Death and Its Consequences:
1. Abruptly, almost half of the population was wiped out, a combination of sporadic local
famines and the bubonic plague, which first struck in 1348. Towns were especially vulnerable.
Survivors found their labor scarce and more valuable, but in the general disorganization many
of the poor were unable to find work. There were massive insurrections of peasants, as Wat
Tyler's rebellion in England in 1381; begun over local grievances, these insurrections also led
to spokesman questioning the class structure, as in the couplet: When Adam delved and love
span / Who was then a gentleman? Governments repressed these revolts, but in the long run
the condition of the poor was improved. Not only were wages increased, but peasants were
often given permanent tenure over their land for a fixed money payment--which, with
inflation, made them in effect a class of small peasant property owners, especially in England
and France. [Be sure to check the chart on page 48.]
2. Kings also faced problems, needing to increase income to pay for royal armies of foot
soldiers to combat rebellions by feudal knights. Kings debased the coinage-dividing up a
given weight of gold into more pounds or liras, inflating their value. Kings also sought new
taxes--taxing the clergy, noble landowners, and merchants. Taxpayer resistance made this
period a golden age of medieval parliaments.
3. This period was also the time of the Hundred Years War (1327-1453) between England and
France. Battles were fought sporadically in France, with England winning all major pitched
battles (longbow) and the French ultimately winning the war due to the rise of French national
patriotism (largely due to Jeanne d'Arc). In England, Parliament was able to widen its powers
because of the need for money for the war. But the great barons became unruly, ultimately
participating in royal political struggles; they formed private armies and fought in what is now
called the Wars of the Roses (1450-1485). Upset by this feudal anarchy, the English people
accepted a century of strong rules by the Tudors.
B. Troubles of the Medieval Church
1. "It faced the danger that besets every successful institution...the danger of believing that
the institution exists for the benefit of those who conduct its affairs. The papacy...was most
liable to this danger. It became 'corrupt,' set in its ways, out of touch with public opinion, and
controlled by a self-perpetuating bureaucracy. It was unable to reform itself, and unwilling to
let anyone else reform it."
2. In the 1290's both Philip IV of France and Edward I of England taxed the landed estates of
the Church. In response, Pope Boniface VIII first prohibited such taxes and finally claimed
the supremacy of the Pope over "every human creature." Philip IV sent troops to arrest
Boniface, who died while in French custody. The College of Cardinals, strongly influenced by
Philip, now elected a subservient French pope who moved the papal court to the district of
Avignon on the border with France. During the next 70 years of Church history (the
Babylonian Captivity) French popes and cardinals live in Avignon. The rest of Europe regards
them as tools of French policy, and the prestige of the papacy declined. In 1378 a split in the
College of Cardinals results in the election of a French and an Italian Pope; France and its
allies recognized the pope in Avignon, and England and most of Germany recognized the
pope in Rome. This Great Schism lasts from 1378 to 1414. Papal courts and bureaucracies
swelled, and pious Christians were shocked by the behavior of the cardinals.
3. In a world stricken by the plague, people needed the assurance of salvation, but with two
popes, who could know? Many people began to doubt the powers of their ecclesiastical
superiors. In the 1360s humble cleric named William Langland wrote Piers Plowman, in
which he contrasted the sufferings of the honest poor with hypocrisy and corruption in high
places. John Wyclif, a teacher at Oxford, began to question the elaborate possessions of the
church; he even began to doubt the necessity of an organized Church in achieving salvation.
He felt ordinary people could obtain salvation by reading the Bible, which he began to
translate into English. In Bohemia, John Huss used similar ideas to move towards a national
church. Such ideas were viewed as heretical.
C. The Conciliar Movement
1. In the fifteenth century general councils of the church met to solve the problems. The first,
at Pisa in 1409, deposed both popes and selected a third--but all three continued to claim
authority. In 1414 the Council of Constance successfully ended the schism--and interrogated,
condemned, and burned John Huss. The new pope, Martin V, reaffirmed papal supremacy--
and popes proceeded to fight with church councils for the next 30 years
2. The result of this struggle was that real church problems could not be dealt with: Bribery
and simony, the buying and selling of church offices were rampant; many churchmen had
mistresses, and frequently gave lucrative church positions to children or other relatives
(nepotism). Perhaps worst, indulgences, or the sparing of certain of the temporal punishments
of purgatory, could be obtained for money--though of course the sinner must be properly
confessed, absolved, and truly repentant. The latter conditions were not always met (shock!).
3. The victory of the popes in the struggle brought the papacy into the hands of a "series of
cultivated gentlemen, men of the world, men of 'modern' outlook in tune with their times--the
famous popes of the Renaissance. Some, like Nicholas V (1447-1455) or Pius II (1458-1464)
were accomplished scholars and connoisseurs of books....Alexander VI (1492-1503) of the
Spanish Borgia family, exploited his office for the benefit of his relatives, trying to make his
son Cesare Borgia the ruler of all Italy....Julius II (1503-1513) was a capable general, and Leo
X (1513-1521) was a superb patron of architects and painters."
The Renaissance in Italy
A. Italy in the With century, particularly in Florence, produced a new attitude towards the
world. The Renaissance (rebirth) was the product of men who saw the Middle Ages as a dark
times and believed they were resuming a civilization like that of the Greco-Romans. We must
realize that the languages and nationalities, the institutions of laws government and the
economy all originated in the Middle Ages. However, the Renaissance did mark a new era in
thought and feeling, particularly in the areas of literature and the arts: "They involved the
whole area of culture which is neither theological nor scientific but concerns essentially moral
and civic questions, asking what man ought to be or ought to do, and is reflected in matters of
taste, style, propriety, decorum, personal character, and education....it was in Renaissance
Italy that an almost purely secular attitude first appeared....".
B. The Italian Cities and the New Conception of Man
1. Italian towns boomed with trade; merchants made fortunes in commerce and became
bankers; they bought the wares of craftsmen-artists. People rejoiced Kin the beautiful things
and psychological satisfactions that money could buy." Towns were independent city-states
controlled by merchant oligarchies. Some, like Milan, were under local despots; others, like
Venice, Genoa, and Florence, governed themselves as republics.

7. The Renaissance Outside of Italy pp. 62-67

A. Religious Scholarship and Science The northern Renaissance was more a blend of the
old and the new, with religious sentiment much stronger than in Italy. In the north, Christian
humanists studied Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts to deepen their understanding of
Christianity. Though politically an ill-defined region, Germany was an economic center; its
bankers controlled vast amounts of capital. Intellectually, Germany shared in the Latin culture
of Europe, with such figures as Regiomontanus (Johann Mller) who laid the foundations for
a mathematical conception of the universe and was far better known and more influential than
Leonardo (1470); Nicholas Copernicus (1540) whose astronomical observations were to
shatter beliefs; and Paracelsus, a scientist and charlatan. It was this age which produced the
legend of Doctor Faustus, the man who would sell his soul to the devil for knowledge and
power. And all of these figures received the stimulus for their work in Italy.
B. Mysticism and Lay Religion
1. Religious feeling, mystical and soberly moral, remained strong in the north. Mysticism is
centered in the belief that the individual soul could, in perfect solitude, commune directly
with God. The mystic did not need reason, or words, or communal worship, or sacraments.
They did not rebel against the church but sought a deeper religion in which the church as a
social institution had no place."
2. Lay religion was active in the Netherlands; for example, the Sisters and Brothers of the
Common Life lived communally but took no vows and were free to leave. They helped the
poor and taught, emphasizing Christian character and conduct.
C. Erasmus of Rotterdam was the most important northern humanist. He ridiculed medieval
thought and studied classical writers (like Cicero). He was the pure man of letters,
unconcerned with worldly power. He saw the need for reform but through gradual education.
He prepared new Greek and Latin editions of the Old Testament with fewer errors. He urged
Christians to read the New Testament in the vernacular to improve their behavior. In his
powerful Praise of Folly satirized the worldly pretensions and ambitions of the clergy,
pointing out numerous evils in the Church of his day. Mildness} reasonableness, tolerance,
restraint, scholarly understanding, a love of peace, a critical and reforming zeal which, hating
nobody worked through trying to make men think...such were the Erasmlan virtues." He
remained one of the most admired men of his day, and his advice was sought by leaders of
both church and state.
8. The New Monarchies pp. 66-74
A. "War, civil wart class war, feudal rebellion, and plain banditry affected a good deal of
Europe in the middle of the fifteenth century. In this formless violence central government
had become very weak." The result was the emergence of a type of rulers known as the "New
Monarchs," a series of rulers who laid the foundations for nation states. In a general outline,
what they did was:
1. Ally with the middle class, who were tired of the private wars and marauding habits of the
feudal nobles. They allowed kings to ignore Parliaments--which the nobles had controlled,
and willingly paid taxes.
2. Develop an army of foot soldiers, armed with pikes and longbows (mercenaries).
3. Break down attachment to feudal, common law (not in England), replacing it with Roman
law, and adopting the Roman concept of sovereignty, maiestas with its principle "what
pleases the prince has the force of law"
B. The New Monarchy in England, France, and Spain
1. The Tudor rulers, beginning with Henry VII (1485-1509) were England's "new monarchs."
Henry prohibited nobles from maintaining private armies and established his royal council as
a new court able to prosecute nobles.
2. France entered the new age with Louis XI Valois (1461-1483), who expanded his royal
domains and built a royal army able to suppress brigands and rebellious nobles. He gained
power to tax without consent. Francis I (1515-1547) secured the Concordat of Bologna by
which the pope received money income from French ecclesiastics while the king appointed
bishops and abbots. This agreement kept France loyal to the Church during the Protestant
Reformation.
3. Spain was unique, by 1469 made up of two kingdoms: Aragon, under Ferdinand (with
Sardinia, Sicily, Naples) and Castille, under Isabella, including the American "New World."
These states, lacking common political, judicial, or administrative institutions, and any sense
of national feeling, were Joined by marriage-- and a sense of belonging to the newly cleansed
and invigorated Spanish Catholic Church. After the conquest of Granada in 1492, the rulers
insisted on religious conformity as the basis of nationhood: Jews And Muslims were expelled.
For a century Christians of Muslim or Jewish origins) and were under suspicion and often by
the infamous Inquisition. Spanish life remained a crusade against unbelief and heresy--a
crusade that was to help ruin Spain.
C. The Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg Supremacy
1. The HRE was made up of princely states which were hereditary and dynastic, (Saxony,
Brandenburg, Bavaria); church city-states under bishops or abbots; fifty imperial free cities
(dominating the commercial and financial life of the Empire; and finally some thousands of
independent imperial knights loyal to the emperor.
2. In 1452 the seven Electors named the Archduke of Austria, a Habsburg, as Holy Roman
Emperor; the family continued to contrive its election until 1806. Within the Empire, the main
small states managed to achieve some of the basic principles of the "new monarchs." While
the emperors introduced centralizing principles, they were doomed by the force of "states'
rights."
a. By marriage the Habsburgs accumulated an immense empire; Maximilian married the
heiress of Burgundy (Netherlands plus Burgundy); his son married the heiress of Ferdinand
and Isabella, and their son Charles V took on the whole thing. When the advancing Turks
defeated the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohacs (1526), the Hungarians elected Charles'
brother Ferdinand as king.
b. Europe seemed on the verge of a "universal monarchy." That it did not happen is due to a
complex series of events involving the decline of the Church and the rise of humanism; the
rise of "new" monarchs who wished to control all elements within their kingdoms, including
the church; the resistance of feudal lords to these same monarchs; the atomistic division of
Germany, the zeal of Spain, the power of Charles V, and the fears felt in the rest of Europe,
(esp France), of absorption or suffocation by the amazing empire of the Habsburgs.
9. The Protestant Reformation (pp. 75-87)
A. Introduction:
1. Three streams fed the flood of the religious turmoil of the sixteenth century: the (l)
laboring poor, part of an overall movement of social protest (Anabaptists plus modern
Baptists, Mennonites, and Moravians); (2) the urban middle class, which desired to run their
own religious affairs (Calvinists, with Huguenots of France and Presbyterians of Scotland);
and (3) kings and ruling princes, opposed to the power of the Church in their realms. In the
end it was these rulers who determined what form of religion would officially prevail.
2. Wherever a major church was established, socio-religious radicalism was reduced to an
undercurrent. Many people hoped for moderation, but the Reformation was a religious
revolution which forced most to take sides. Although a religious frontier that was to prove
permanent had been established by 1560, it was not finally accepted until the Treaty of
Westphalia after the Thirty Years' War in 1648. Only slowly and painfully were Catholics and
Protestants to come to accept each other's existence.
B. Luther and Lutheranism
1. Martin Luther was a vehement, earnest monk who suffered from the conviction that he was
damned, a feeling not allayed by sacraments or prayer. From St. Paul (Romans it 17) he drew
the conviction that one is saved by faith alone ("justification by faith"). Works--prayer, the
sacraments, holy living--were only the consequences and external evidence of inner grace.
Luther then became a theology professor at Wittenberg.
2. Luther's explosion was set off in 1517 by the sale of indulgences by a friar named Tetzel,
who was helping to finance the building of St. Peter's in Rome. Luther, who thought the
people were being deluded, posted 95 theses on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg
and offered to debate these propositions concerning penance. His main point was the a sinner
is freed not by the priest's absolution but by the sinner's inner grace and faith alone. Students
were delighted by this new teaching and the Nlnety-flve Theses were soon printed and spread
through Europe. When Pope Leo X refused to act against indulgences or even call a church
council, Luther announced that the right to define belief was a matter for the individual,
reading the Bible and freely making his own interpretation after his own conscience. Luther
then attacked the special nature of the clergy; denounced fasts, pilgrimages, saints, masses,
and the idea of Purgatory; and reduced the sacraments to two, baptism and communion.
Finally, he called on the princes of Germany to assume control over religion, which idea a
good many princes enthusiastically accepted. Charles V excommunicated and threatened him,
but he was protected by the Elector of Saxony and other northern German princes. He
translated the Bible into German.
3. Lutheranism now swept over Germany, mixing with all sorts of political and social
radicalism. A league of Imperial knights attacked Rhineland church-states to gain territory;
peasants revolted, seeking regulation of rents and secure village rights. Luther repudiated the
peasant "filthy swine," and called for their brutal repression. Anabaptists arose, arguing
against infant baptism and seeking the "kingdom of love". Thousands of zealots converged on
Monsters where in 1S34 they declared the reign of the saints, abolished property, and
introduced "Biblical" polygamy--led by John of Leyden. After a year Mnster fell to properly
Christian believers, with the death of all heretics.
4. Yet the key to success was the rebellion of the great states against Charles V. Fearing the
loss of local liberty, the imperial states supported Luther and claimed the right to determine
the religion of their own states. Many rulers became Lutheran in doctrine, "secularizing" the
church by confiscating church property. Lutheran princes and imperial cities formed the
Schmalkaldic League, with the active support of Francis I of France, king and good Catholic.
Political interests, as Machiavelli observed, clearly superseded religious ones. (Francis even
allied with the Turks to weaken his great rival, Charles V.)
5. Charles V sought compromise, caught between Francis (both in Germany and in the
Burgundian inheritance) and the attacking Turks, who in 1529 besieged Vienna. He appealed
to the popes to call a council to attempt to restore unity, but pope after pope procrastinated.
The anarchic civil struggle ended with the Peace of Augsburg in 1555: each imperial state
received the right to be Lutheran or Catholic on the principle of cuius regio eius religio
("whose the region, his the religion")--a complete victory for Protestants and the supporters of
states' rights. Generally, the north now remained Protestant, with the south Catholic.
C. Calvin and Calvinism
1. John Calvin, trained as a priest and lawyer, became a Protestant quickly and produced the
Institutes of the Christian Religion.. He agreed with most of the main religious ideas of
Luther, though he viewed communion as only a symbolic act. The main difference was his
view that God, all knowing, had predetermined each soul's salvation or damnation. The saved,
whom he called "the Elect," lived saintly lives through all trials and temptations. Only the
most resolute were attracted to this militant, uncompromising, perfectionist view- including
the Puritans. Secondly, Calvin believed it was the duty of the "godly" to remake society into
the image of a religious community. He reflected bishops, believing that churches should be
ruled by local elected bodies of ministers and devout laymen. Calvin was able to set up a strict
society in Geneva: all loose, light or frivolous living was suppressed; the form of worship was
severe, more intellectual than emotional or aesthetic. Services centered on sermons; color,
images, music (except pious hymns), incense were out. This new vision soon became
international, with Puritans and Congregationalists in England, Presbyterians in Scotland, and
Huguenots in France, Germany, Poland, and Hungary. Calvinism also was a way to oppose
Habsburg rule (Hungary, Bohemia).
2. "Calvinism was far from democratic in any modern sense....Yet in many ways Calvinism
entered into the development of what became democracy. For one thing Calvinists never
venerated the state....For another, the Calvinist doctrine of the 'calling' taught that a man's
labor had a religious dignity, and that any form of honest work was pleasing in the sight of
God. In the conduct of their own affairs Calvinists developed a type of self- government.
They formed 'covenants' with one another, and devised machinery for the election of
presbyteries." They tended to remain unofficial minorities, persecuted by the state. They
remained opposed to established authorities in both church and state, and "hence were
disposed to favor limitations upon established power."
D. The Reformation in England
1. England broke with Rome before adopting Protestant principles. Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547)
had been called the "Defender of the Faith" until his need for a male heir drove him to seek an
annulment of his 20 year marriage to Catherine of Aragon (which had only resulted in a
daughter, Mary). With Parliament's support he passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534 by which
he was declared the head of the English church--and beheaded such opponents as his one-time
councilor, Sir Thomas More, humanist and author of Utopia. His new church was basically
Catholic, but increasingly Englishmen demanded Protestant-style reforms.
2. England passed through several stages before becoming securely Protestant. Henry was
succeeded by his 10 year old son, Edward VI, in 1547; Edward was controlled by Protestant
advisers, but he died in 1553. His death brought Mary to the throne; her goals were to undo
the wrong done to her mother and herself by persecuting Protestants and restoring the "true
faith." She married Philip II of Spain in a fruitless attempt to secure a Catholic heir. She died
in 1558 and was succeeded by Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn--and Elizabeth was as
uncompromisingly Protestant as her half-sister had been Catholic. The "Church of England"
became a Protestant state church, with all Englishmen obliged to belong to it. The basic
Catholic structure remained, though monasteries were gone (Henry VIII had needed their
wealth), priests could marry, services and Bible were in English, and an exceedingly
latitudinarian set of dogmas were established. Ireland was forced to accept the same structure,
but the Irish remained stubbornly Catholic, with priests becoming national leaders of a
discontented people.
E. Religious Situation by 1560
1. The unity of Christendom was broken, and a world of separate states and nations had taken
its place. Protestants differed from one another, but they had much in common. All rejected
Papal authority; all were national or local. All rejected the special nature of the priesthood;
clergy were called ministers and they could marry. The vernacular replaced Latin in services.
Sacraments were reduced to two or threes and those were more symbolic than carriers of
grace. Noble required confession or accepted the idea of Purgatory.
2. Was Protestantism motivated by economics? Did "a new acquisitive, aggressive, dynamic,
progressive, capitalistic impulse" shake off restrictions imposed by religion? England and
Holland underwent rapid change after the Reformation; Spain and Italy remained backward--
but Protestantism also spread in rural, farm areas, and Lutheranism was stronger in backward
north Germany than in the advanced south. In France, urban, bourgeois Paris remained
Catholic, while peasants and lords converted to Calvinism in the provinces. While
Protestantism "contributed to the success of Protestant peoples...it does not seem that
economic forces were of any distinctive importance in the first stages of Protestantism." 10.
Catholicism Reformed and Reorganized A. After Luther's revolt, Charles V tried to convince
the popes to call a truly ecumenical council but was frustrated by his arch-enemy, Francis I of
France. Francis had control of his French church since the Concordat of Bologna of 1516, he
was hardly interested in solving the problems of Charles. He encouraged the German princes
in their rebellion and helped to prevent the calling of a Council. A reforming party of cardinals
finally won out, and a council was called, to meet in the city of Trent in 1545. It was to last 20
years. B. The Council of Trent 1.. The Popes avoided any hint of expanding the power
of councils. The Council of Trent sought to define Catholic belief, without concessions to
Protestantism: (I) Justification by a combination of faith and works (2) Seven sacraments
which were the vehicle of grace; trans-substantiation was reaffirmed, as was confession and
absolution (3) Source of faith was both historical tradition and Scripture, and authoritative
teaching was only from the Latin Vulgate Bible (4) Latin was to be the language of the Mass
(5) Priests were to be celibate (6) Monasticism, purgatory, indulgences, saints, the cult of the
Virgin, images, relics, and pilgrimages were approved (7) the worst abuses were to be
reformed, with standards tightened
C. The Counter Crusade
1. The Renaissance line of popes was now succeeded by reformers like Paul 111. Tithe new
Catholic religious sense, more than the Protestant, centered in a reverence for the sacraments
and a mystical awe for the church itself as a divine institution."
2. The key to Catholic revival was the foundation of new religious orders for
educational/philanthropic endeavors. The most important of these were the Jesuits: St.
Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier, founded the Society of Jesus which was directed towards
active participation in the affairs of the world. Jesuits had to meet high moral and intellectual
standards and undergo rigorous spiritual training. The order was run under iron discipline.
They also took strict vows of obedience to the Pope They became the teachers, gained great
power as confessors to many monarchs, and became a major missionary force in Asia and the
New World, and reconverted many Protestants.
3. Another sector of the Church aimed at heretical non-conformists: Censorship, with the
Index of Prohibited Works and the Holy Inquisition, infamous for its use of torture and its
severe penalties. Most Catholics opposed the Inquisition, which remained restricted to Spain
and, in milder form, Italy.
Conclusion: Political sovereignty remained the primary machinery for enforcing religious
beliefs. Where Protestants won control of government, people became Protestant; where
Catholics retained control, Protestants became minorities. In 1560, all the great powers were
Catholic officially. Protestant nations were small or middle-sized at best. England, the most
important, was a country of only four million people with the hostile Scots to the north and
the restive Irish barely under control. Had a great Catholic crusade developed, Protestantism
could have been wiped out. Such a crusade was a dream of Philip II; why it never succeeded
we shall soon see.

13. Changing Social Structures pp. 120-126

As prices rose in the 16th century, the peasants who held land for set money prices were
aided, and became the English yeomanry and their European counterparts. Also aided were
the urban people who had invested in real property, and members of the aristocracy who
received payments set "in kind" rather than in cash. Class lines tended to blur--as aristocrats
moved to town, and well-to-do middle class bought country estates. But the more alike they
were, the more important the badges of difference became--higher education and the
symbolism of refined tastes. The middle class ranged from commercial (bankers, ship
owners, business)--to professionals (doctors, lawyers)--to government officials. The poorest
ranged from landless peasants to urban unskilled wage laborers to the "downstairs," the
servants of the well-off, with a large fringe of "unemployables" who lived by vagabondage or
begging. Inflation rarely led to increased wages, so this majority lived in increasing misery.
The middle class began to be distressed by the "irregular habits" of the poor; thus the Poor
Law of 1601 established workhouses. Education began to expand, with English "grammar
schools" and French "colleges"--both secondary schools. Universities grew rapidly.
Eastern Europe was far different. The aristocratic lords of the land were fully in control, and
it was they who reaped the benefit of better times. The Junkers of Germany, the lords of
Poland and Russia ruled by "hereditary subjection" of the serfs. These lowly creatures owed
three or four days per week of unpaid service (called robot) to a lord from whose judgment
there was no appeal. "The landlord in the east, from the sixteenth century onward, was
solidly entrenched in his own domain, monarch of all he surveyed, with no troublesome
bourgeoisie to annoy him (for towns were few), and with kings and territorial rulers solicitous
for his wishes." The great Polish and Lithuanian magnates enjoyed "palatial homes, private
art galleries, well-stocked libraries, collections of jewels, swarms of servants, trains of
dependent lesser gentry, gargantuan dinners, and barbaric hospitality. The Junkers of
northeast Germany lived more modestly, but enjoyed the same kind of independence and
social superiority."
14. The Crusade of Catholic Spain: The Dutch and English pp. 126-134
l. Philip II (r. 1556-1598)
a. inherited Spain, Netherlands, Burgundy, Milan, Naples, New World
b. "before all else he was Catholic, fervid and fanatical...." personally austere and
abstemious; morally severe
c. Siglo de Oro (1550-1650) (1)Cervantes and Lope de Vega; El Greco, Murillo,
Velzquez (2)Palace: El Escorial (Philip's personality solidified in stone)
d. Years of Success (1)Lack of unity, mutual trust among people of England, France,
Netherlands over religion (2)England: Elizabeth excommunicated, and facing serious
rebellion; great massacre of Protestants on St. Bartholomew's Day; victory over the
Turks at the Battle of Lepanto
2. Revolt of the Netherlands
a. Netherlands: 17 assorted provinces (1)North: German dialects and Amsterdam and
Rotterdam built of herring (2)South: French dialects and Antwerp, thriving on Portuguese
trade (3)Provinces protective of "liberties," united only by opposition to Spanish
(4)Protestantism increasing in the south, with fleeing Calvinist Huguenots
b. Revolt against "foreigner" Philip was political, economic, and religious (1)Began
when Philip insisted on bringing Inquisition into Netherlands--mass revolt of fanatical
Calvinists against "popery" and "idolatry" (2)Joined by journeyman wage-earners with
economic grievances (3)Philip sent the Duke of Alva, whose "Council of Blood" broke
Machiavelli's basic rules: (a)He executed thousands; raised new taxes; confiscated the
estates of key, important nobles (BIG mistake); these acts united the people under William of
Orange (b)Result: anarchy and civil war, and a people united against Spain
c. English involvement (1)Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, and Don Juan of Lepanto; With
English security at stake in the Netherlands struggle, Elizabeth allies with Netherlands
(2)Duke of Parma: soldier and diplomat: was able to win over Catholics and moderates
upset by mob rule. Northern 7 Provinces split off by the Union of Utrecht to form Holland,
Parma moves to take Antwerp, and Elizabeth formally joins the fight. (3)Philip and Spanish
Armada (a)Philip resolves to attack England--and the English execute Mary, Queen of Scots,
as a potential rallying point for English Catholics. (b)Armada catlica is defeated by Drake
and the" Protestant Wind"
d. Results of the Struggle (1)Great surge of English confidence; Netherlands permanently
divided (a)Protestant Holland, tolerant of a large Catholic minority. Rise of Amsterdam.
(b)Spanish Netherlands) remain Catholic, but are ruined by the closing of the Scheldt
(2)Spain is in decline, weakened by inflation and taxation (a)Generations of war produced
hidalgos contemptuous of work (b)Concentration on religion produced economic weakness
(c)Expulsion of Moriscos cost Spain its most socially valuable citizens (d)Split between
Castillian and Catalan regions is worsened
15. The Disintegration and Reconstruction of France pp. 134-140
1. Political and Religious Disunity
a. Political: France was divided: Great provinces like Brittany and Burgundy, each virtually
autonomous; many bonnes villes have jealously protected rights; and over 300 areas have
their own legal systems
b. Religious: (l) French religious independence since the Concordat of Bologna, l5l6 (2)
French Protestantism was a fierce and uncompromising Calvinism. Many nobles became
Protestant to react against royal power. Bourgeoisie were heavily Protestant. (3) Monarchs
began persecutions of French Huguenots in 1550s; Calvinism threatened both royal power
and the idea of an established church
c. Wars of Religion (1) Henry II dies in 1559; France was left in control of his widow,
Catherine de' Medici, who serve as regent and busily engaged in intrigue for the next 30
years during the reigns of three sons. The result was nine civil wars, with roving bands of
armed men loose in France (2) Protestant forces were led by Admiral de Coligny and Henry
of Bourbon, King of Navarre. Catholics forces were led by the Guise family--the Duke of
Guise, the Cardinal of Lorraine. Catherine de Medici was caught in the middle, hating the
Huguenots but fearing the Guises. (3) St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, 1572: Catherine
tried to destroy Huguenot power, but instead began a terrible period of war with both sides
hiring German mercenaries and the Catholic side aided by Spanish troops. Much of the
Protestant southwest of France was devastated. (4) Politiques: Moderates seeking
reconciliation to save France from anarchy. (5) Jean Bodin: modern theory of sovereignty:
"...in every society there must be one power strong enough to give law to all others, with
their consent if possible, without their consent if necessary. Thus from the disorders of the
religious wars in France was germinated the idea of royal absolutism and of the sovereign
state."
d. Henry of Navarre: Reconstruction (1) 1589: the assassination of King Henry III and
Henry of Guise brought Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot politique , to the throne. He became a
Catholic to satisfy the Catholic party, but gave Huguenots the Edict of Nantes. (2) Edict of
Nantes: Protestantism was to be allowed among nobles or in towns (except episcopal centers
of Paris). Protestants were given full civil rights and 100 fortified towns. Henry forced
Catholic approval. (3) Economic reconstruction: royal authority was used and advanced to
rebuild France; mercantilist principles were followed.
e. Cardinal Richelieu (1) Henry IV was assassinated in 1610, leaving a widow (Marie de'
Medici) and a young son, Louis XII. Marie became regent, but with Cardinal Richelieu as her
adviser. Though a churchman, his twin goals were to make the king supreme in France, and
France supreme in Europe (2) Methods: (a)strengthen the economy through mercantilist
measures; (b)prohibit private warfare and dueling, thus weakening nobles; (c)suppress the
Huguenot rebellion of LaRochelle, ended the Huguenot's right to fortified cities; (d)weaken
the power of the Spanish Habsburgs

l6. The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648: The Disintegration of Germany pp. 140-149
Background: The Holy Roman Empire was mostly German-speaking, but language "was far
less important than religion as the tie which people felt to be basic to a community; and in
religion the Empire was almost evenly divided." Bohemia had a Protestant majority,
Hungarian nobles were mainly Protestant, and Transylvania was an active center of
Calvinism. Germany suffered from cultural isolation and backwardness, and economically
the Empire was in severe decline.
l. Background of the Thirty Years' War:
a. Catholics were unhappy because Lutherans were making gains; both Catholics and
Lutherans were unhappy because of the growth of Calvinism. Protestants were negotiating
with the Dutch and England and France for help, while the Catholics were turning to Spain.
b. Spain was eager to crush the Dutch Republic and reopen the mouth of the Scheldt, and
to create a strong territorial block in central Europe composed of Burgundy, the Palatinate,
and the Netherlands.
c. Austrian Habsburgs were eager to crush Protestantism and create a strong German
national statean idea which horrified the French even more than the plans of the Spanish
Habsburgs d. Thus the war was an amalgam: (l)German civil war, between Catholic v
Protestant (2)German civil war over constitutional issues, emperor v. independents
(3)International war of Bourbons v. Habsburgs, Spanish v. Dutch, etc. (4)Soldiers of fortune,
fighting purely for their own gains
2. The Four Phases of the War:
a. Bohemian Phase (1618-1625): The famed "Defenestration of Prague" was the origin;
soon the German Protestant Union joined with the Czechs in a war against the HRE and
Spain. Result: the Catholics won; Protestantism was stamped out in Bohemia and Spain
controlled the Rhineland.
b. Danish Phase (1625-1629): The Danish king reopened affairs, seeking to carve out a
kingdom for his son, with financial help from the Dutch, English, and Richelieu. Albert of
Wallenstein raised a personal army in the name of the emperor--and his mercenaries lived by
pillaging everyone. The Danes were defeated, and Catholicism was on a roll.
c. Swedish Phase (1629-1635): France and Sweden were alarmed, and Sweden's king
Gustavus Adolphus, with French subsidies, created the most modern army of the age--
disciplined and using muskets, pikes, and cannon. The Swedes defeated the divided Germans,
but Gus was killed; soon after Wallenstein was assassinated; the HRE pulled back, easing
Protestant fears.
d. Swedish-French Phase (1635-1648): Richelieu now increased subsidies, and Spain
attacked France directly. France retaliated by invading rebellious Catalonia. "In Germany the
last...phase of the war was not so much a civil war among Germans as an international
struggle on German soil."
3. The Treaty of Westphalia (1648)
a. Peace of Augsburg was renewed, with the addition of Calvinism to the formula
b. Independence of Holland and Switzerland from the HRE was recognized
c. France received rights in Alsace and Lorraine (which remained independent)
d. Sweden was given control of the mouths of the Oder, Elbe, and Weser Rivers
e. Brandenburg and Bavaria were given increased territory
f. German states were sovereign, all 300 of them, with no hope of unification
g. Germany had been looted, wrecked, and depopulated, losing 1/3 of its population
j. Goals of the Habsburgs, Spanish and Austrian, had been frustrated
k. The Peace "marked the advent in international law of the modern European...system of
sovereign states....independent powers recognizing no superior or common tie....Europe was
understood to consist in a large number of unconnected sovereignties, free and detached
atoms, or states, which acted according to their own laws, following their own political
interests, forming and dissolving alliances, exchanging embassies and legations, alternating
between war and peace, shifting positions with a shifting balance of power."

20. Britain: the Triumph of Parliament (pp. 176-181)

l. The Restoration of the Stuarts (1660-1688): Charles II and James II
a. Charles was careful not to provoke Parliament and Parliament took a number of far-
reaching steps: creation of modern land tenure, abolishing certain feudal payments to king--
in exchange for which they agreed to support the state (king) by taxing themselves--and share
in the governing of England. Local landowners also ran local affairs as justices of the
peace: squirearch. Dissenters, i.e. Puritans, were severely restricted--disenfranchised.
b. In general, the tendency in Europe was for Protestants to return to Catholicism; however,
the English people and Parliament were anti-Catholic. Charles II, however, admired Louis
XIV and made a secret treaty involving English help against the Dutch in exchange for cash.
Angered, Parliament passed Test Act: all office-holders had to take communion in the Church
of England, Catholics could not serve in army or navy. Parliament also sought to prevent
James Stuart from becoming King since he was a strong Catholic. This struggle led to the
terms Whigs and Tories: Tories were lesser aristocracy, gentry loyal to Church and King
and suspicious of the moneyed interest of London. Whigs were upper aristocracy, strong
rivals of the king, backed by the middle class and merchants of London.
2. The Glorious Revolution of 1688:
a. James II became king in 1685, and antagonized all by ignoring the Test Act and
appointing Catholics to lucrative positions--a threat to monopoly of power by Anglicans;
he also believed in his power to make/unmake laws. The crisis reached a head when his new
wife produced a son, James, who was baptized a Catholic. Parliament offered the throne to
Mary, Protestant daughter of James and wife of William of Orange--who was thoroughly
Protestant and opposed to Louis XIV. Offered the crown, William invaded England; James
fled, to be defeated in 1690 at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland, an event still celebrated by
the Orangemen of North Ireland. James II fled to the court of Louis XIV; France continued
to support the Stuarts as legitimate rulers--a major item in a century of war.
Results: (1) Bill of Rights (1689): No law could be suspended by the king; no taxes or army
without Parliaments consent; no subject could be arrested or detained without legal process
(2) Act of Settlement (l701): No Catholic could be King of England (3) Toleration Act (1689):
Religious freedom for Dissenters (4) Act of Union (1707): Created the United Kingdom of
Great Britain; Scots kept their legal system and religion (5) Ireland: fearing Irish counter-
revolution, to the burden of an alien church and absentee landlords was added the penal
code: their clergy were banished, they could not be attorneys, teachers, or constables; their
political rights were ended, they could not buy land or lease it long-term nor inherit it;
Irelands international trade, even by Protestants, was stopped--except for agricultural goods--
to allow payment of rents 6) Bank of England: to pay for his new war with France, William
borrowed from private lenders who were granted the right to operate a bank--the Bank of
England

21. The France of Louis XIV, 1643-1715: The Triumph of Absolutism (pp.182-190)
1. French Civilization in the Seventeenth Century
a. Population stabilized at about 19 million in 1700: triple England, double Spain
b. Sizable middle class: fewer merchants, more lawyers and bureaucrats than England
c. Nation self-sufficient and embarking on world trade; it had the largest navy
d. Dominant culture (l) paintings of Poussin, Lorrain; most nations copied French
architecture (2) bourgeois writers producing plays for an aristocratic audience Corneille and
Racine wrote austere tragedies, Moliere ridiculed doctors, the nouveaux riches, and aristocrats
in bitingly satirical comedies (3) mathematics/philosophy: Descartes and Pascal
2. The Development of Absolutism
a. Government: France was a bundle of territories held together by allegiance to a king.
It had a national Estates General (parliament) which never met, and local parliaments
(supreme courts) which nobles used to restrict royal power. There were 300 local regional
legal systems called customs. Neither taxes nor coinage nor weights and measures were
uniform.
b. The Fronde: In 1648 a rebellion of nobles backed by the parliaments broke out against the
power of Cardinal Mazarin, regent for the young Louis XIV--at the same time France was at
war with Spain. The nobles sought to weaken the king and increase their own power. The
frondeurs lost all hope of victory by allying with the Spanish-- Frances long-term enemy.
c. Louis XIV--a brief analysis: He had the ability to learn from experts, though he had
received a poor education. He was able to see and stick to definite lines of policy and was
extremely methodical and industrious in his daily habits. He was extremely fond of himself
and his position of kingship, with an insatiable appetite for admiration and flattery; he loved
magnificent display and elaborate etiquette, though to some extent he simply adopted them as
instruments of policy rather than as a personal whim.
d. Louis view of the state: Feudal lords had maintained manorial courts and had led private
armies; Louis believed that he, as sovereign ruler, had a monopoly over lawmaking processes
and armed forces--thus, Letat cest moi, I am the state. Bishop Bossuet agreed, stating that
all power comes from God, and kings were the representatives of God on earth. Royal power
was absolute, but not arbitrary, because it was reasonable and just, like the will of God. Thus
the divine right of kings. [Of course Louis and other kings were dependent on advisers and
bureaucrats; they often had to compromise with vested interests, and they could be thwarted
by the sheer weight of local custom or meet resistance from a wide range of lawyers,
churchmen, nobles, officeholders, etc.] [cf. Yeltsins difficulty with the old communist elite.]
e. Louis government and administration: (l) Army: ended the independence of colonels
who recruited, trained, equipped, supplied and fed their own regiments--and served their own
interests. Louis made war an activity of state, producing greater peace and order in France
while strengthening the French army. Centralized, systematized; increased size; first
organized war ministry. (2) Palace of Versailles: monument to worldly splendor, the marvel
of Europe. Louis surrounded himself with the highest aristocrats, and turned them into tame
lap dogs eager to do him the smallest favor during the daily routine--lever, diner, and
coucher. (3) Advisers: Louis chose recently ennobled or middle class men with no separate
political influence of their own. He ran France through Councils of State, using intendants
to represent these councils through the country. Each intendant...embodied all aspects of the
royal government, supervising...taxes and recruiting soldiers, keeping an eye on the
nobility...stamping out bandits, smugglers, and wolves, policing the marketplaces, relieving
famine, watching the local law courts...a firm and uniform administration...was superimposed
upon...the old France.
f. Economic and Financial Policies: Colbert
(1) Tax problems: Direct taxes (taille, or land tax) passed through many officials; indirect
taxes were collected by tax farmers who took a big cut; nobles were all exempt from taxes;
most bourgeois bought special tax exemptions; the poor were taxed heavily, but government
deficits grew. To raise money, the currency was devalued (reduced gold content); patents of
nobility were sold to bourgeois; government offices and military commissions were sold
openly. (2) Colbert, greatest of mercantilists, was of bourgeois origin, and thus distrusted by
nobles, but he managed great reforms: He created a great free trade area (or tariff union)
called the Five Great Farms. He promulgated the Commercial Code, national laws affecting
merchants that replaced numerous local laws. He gave subsidies and tax exemptions to key
industries, including tapestry manufactories. He supported the founding of colonies in North
America (Canada and Louisiana). He built up the French navy and helped found the French
East India Company. He encouraged the export of manufactured products and prohibited the
export of food. Finally, he greatly advanced commercial capitalism through large-scale
government purchases.
g. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) Louis acted to centralize religion as all other
aspects of society; he supported the idea of an independent Catholic Church (Gallican); he
repressed Jansenism, a left-wing Catholic off-shoot; he began the systematic conversion of
Huguenots, with missionaries and dragoons; and he revoked the Edict of Nantes, hurting the
commercial, industrial classes
h. Evaluation of Louis XIVs Reign Louis gave considerable advantages to middle and
lower classes. Colberts economic regulations and the continuation of the guilds slowed the
development of innovation and private enterprise, but economically France had been
strengthened. Peasants could be heavily taxed, but they were freer than the serfs further east.
While Louis repression of Protestants drove many able Huguenots to Holland and Germany,
the persecution was generally popular with most Frenchmen. He ended a century of civil
war and advanced the cause of civil equality. And, in spite of competing jurisdictions, special
privilege, and bureaucratic ineptitude, France was nevertheless the best organized of the
large monarchies on the Continent. Yet the people of France ultimately turned against him,
and the reason was the strain of his incessant

19. Britain: The Puritan Revolution (pp.169- 176)

England after 1588 withdrew from continental matters and was the one great European
power absent from the Treaty of Westphalia. Why? England was involved in a
religious/civil war, fought between the Puritans and the Anglicans, between the forces of
Parliament and those of the king. Wars in England were relatively mild, but at the same time
fierce and savage conflicts were occurring in Ireland.
l. England in the 17th Century had about 4-5 million English-speaking peoples. In
addition, groups had emigrated to the West Indies, North Ireland and the 13 American
colonies. (Total American pop in 1700: 500,000). English culture included Shakespeare,
Milton and Francis Bacon. The English economy was enterprising and affluent, inferior to
Holland in shipping, but with a larger, more productive homeland. The British East India
Company was formed (1600) to compete with the Dutch.
2. Parliament and the Stuart Kings a. James I Stuart: had a major conflict with
Parliament, because of: his belief in royal absolutism; his support of the Anglican hierarchy
under Archbishop Laud who sought religious conformity at a time when Parliament was
heavily Puritan; his Scotch origins; his pedantic ways (wisest fool in Christendom); and his
constant need for money, due to his wars with Spain, his spending habits, and the general
problems of living on a fixed income in an inflationary time. b. Parliament was nationally
unified, with no provincial units as on the continent. The House of Lords was dominated by
great noble landowners; the House of Commons had the gentry plus reps of merchants and
towns. But Parliament was generally unified in social interest and wealth. c. Crisis: Charles
I Stuart decided to rule without Parliament in 1629, and might have succeeded without major
errors: his reforms in Ireland antagonized English landlords; his support of High Anglicans
antagonized Puritans; and his idea of ship money (a new tax for the navy to be paid by all
Englishmen) angered virtually all. Parliament was unwilling to pay for the navy unless it had
a say in the manner in which the navy was used--foreign policy. d. The crisis reached a
head in 1637 when the Scots rebelled against the establishment of the Anglican Church in
Scotland. To fight the Scots, Charles needed an army and recalled Parliament. Parliament
proved hostile and was dissolved, but a second Parliament was equally rebellious and began a
revolution against the king under John Hampden, John Pym, Oliver Cromwell--land-owning
gentry and Puritans who were supported by merchant class. They formed the Long
Parliament, led by root and branch men--the first radicals--who sought to impeach and
execute royal advisers, abolish bishops and end the Anglican hierarchy, and ultimately
declared Presbyterianism the legal religion. The result was open war between the Royalists
Cavaliers, with followers from north and west and Roundheads, of Parliament mostly
from the south and east.
3. Cromwell a. Cromwell created the Ironsides, based on extreme Calvinism for morale,
discipline, will to fight. Supported by the masses, the army became more radically
democratic than Parliament. Cromwell defeated the king, then executed him to prevent
counter-revolution--over opposition in the remnants of Parliament. Colonel Pride drove out
members opposed to execution--first such move called a purge. b. Cromwell now declared
England a Commonwealth (Republic). He crushed the Scots, who had rebelled in reaction to
Charles execution, and took revenge on the Irish, settling English landlords with Catholic
peasants as tenants: the native religion and clergy were driven underground, a foreign and
detested church was established, and a new and foreign landed aristocracy, originally
recruited in large measure from military adventurers, was settled upon the country....
Cromwell also challenged the Dutch naval supremacy and in a brief war with Spain was able
to seize Jamaica. c. Cromwell could never win over the conservatives, and his own
supporters soon divided over radical issues, with the Levellers, who appealed for universal
manhood suffrage, equality of representation in Parliament, and a written constitution;
Quakers, who opposed violence and upset social conventions; Diggers, who repudiated the
idea of private property; and Fifth Monarchy Men, millenialists who believed in the nearness
of the second coming. d. Cromwell finally abolished Parliament (1653) and ruled as
Lord Protector, placing England under Puritan military rule characterized by blue laws of
puritantical ideas. He died in 1658 and was briefly succeeded by his son. e. Royalty was
restored with Charles II in 1660; England was left with the memory of nightmare of standing
armies and rule by religious fanatics. Democratic ideas were rejected as levelling (except in
America where some Puritan leaders took refuge) and political consciousness of the lower
classes basically ceased for the next two centuries.
20. Britain: the Triumph of Parliament (pp. 176-181)
l. The Restoration of the Stuarts (1660-1688): Charles II and James II a. Charles was
careful not to provoke Parliament and Parliament took a number of far-reaching steps:
creation of modern land tenure, abolishing certain feudal payments to king--in exchange for
which they agreed to support the state (king) by taxing themselves--and share in the
governing of England. Local landowners also ran local affairs as justices of the peace:
squirearch. Dissenters, i.e. Puritans, were severely restricted--disenfranchised. b. In
general, the tendency in Europe was for Protestants to return to Catholicism; however, the
English people and Parliament were anti-Catholic. Charles II, however, admired Louis XIV
and made a secret treaty involving English help against the Dutch in exchange for cash.
Angered, Parliament passed Test Act: all office-holders had to take communion in the Church
of England, Catholics could not serve in army or navy. Parliament also sought to prevent
James Stuart from becoming King since he was a strong Catholic. This struggle led to the
terms Whigs and Tories: Tories were lesser aristocracy, gentry loyal to Church and King
and suspicious of the moneyed interest of London. Whigs were upper aristocracy, strong
rivals of the king, backed by the middle class and merchants of London.
2. The Glorious Revolution of 1688: a. James II became king in 1685, and
antagonized all by ignoring the Test Act and appointing Catholics to lucrative positions--
a threat to monopoly of power by Anglicans; he also believed in his power to make/unmake
laws. The crisis reached a head when his new wife produced a son, James, who was baptized
a Catholic. Parliament offered the throne to Mary, Protestant daughter of James and wife of
William of Orange--who was thoroughly Protestant and opposed to Louis XIV. Offered the
crown, William invaded England; James fled, to be defeated in 1690 at the Battle of the
Boyne in Ireland, an event still celebrated by the Orangemen of North Ireland. James II fled
to the court of Louis XIV; France continued to support the Stuarts as legitimate rulers--a
major item in a century of war. Results: (1) Bill of Rights (1689): No law could be
suspended by the king; no taxes or army without Parliaments consent; no subject could be
arrested or detained without legal process (2) Act of Settlement (l701): No Catholic could be
King of England (3) Toleration Act (1689): Religious freedom for Dissenters (4) Act of
Union (1707): Created the United Kingdom of Great Britain; Scots kept their legal system
and religion (5) Ireland: fearing Irish counter-revolution, to the burden of an alien church
and absentee landlords was added the penal code: their clergy were banished, they could not
be attorneys, teachers, or constables; their political rights were ended, they could not buy land
or lease it long-term nor inherit it; Irelands international trade, even by Protestants, was
stopped--except for agricultural goods--to allow payment of rents 6) Bank of England: to pay
for his new war with France, William borrowed from private lenders who were granted the
right to operate a bank--the Bank of England
b. Was the Glorious Revolution truly glorious? (1) It did, at least in part, vindicate the
principles of parliamentary government, the rule of law, and the right of rebellion against
tyranny--as promoted by such writers as John Locke (2) But: it was a class movement,
promoted and maintained by the landed aristocracy. The Parliament which boldly asserted
itself against the king was at the same time closing itself to large segments of the people.
England was a true aristocracy, but the rule of the gentlemen of England was within its
limits a regime of political liberty.

Chapter VII. The Scientific View of the World pp. 287 - 313
Introduction: The Seventeenth Century has been called the century of genius. Between
the birth of Galileo and the death of Newton, science became modern. When Galileo was
young, scientists were alone and the proper methodology was not clear; by the death of
Newton (1727) scientists were a community, science had prestige, methods of inquiry had
been defined, the store of knowledge had been vastly increased, the first modern coherent
theory of the physical universe had been presented, scientific knowledge was applied to
practical fields, science was accepted as basic to progress, and science was popularized,
accepted by non-scientists. The impact was wide- spread, affecting thinking about religion
(the nature of the relationship between God and man), and leading to the view that the
universe was an orderly, rational place where ideas could change man--thus the foundations of
belief in free, democratic institutions.
32. Prophets of a Scientific Civilization: Bacon and Descartes pp. 287 - 292
A. Science before the Seventeenth Century 1. Leonardo: universal genius but isolated,
ideas not transmitted 2. Skepticism: belief no certain knowledge could be reached:
Montaigne 3. Tendency to over-belief a. Lack of dividing lines between chemistry/alchemy,
astronomy/astrology b. Charlatans: Nostradamus and Paracelsus; belief in witches
B. Bacon and Descartes 1. Both doubted non-religious beliefs of preceding generations.
They ridiculed faith in ancient texts. Medieval Scholastic philosophers had embraced
Aristotle so enthusiastically that they neglected to subject his ideas to tests. Likewise, they
rejected the deductive, rationalistic, logic of the Scholastics (which proceeded from
definitions and general propositions to deduce logically). Deductive logic was replaced by
inductive reasoning, in which truth is revealed by experimental testing and investigations of
hypotheses. 2. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) a. Bacon wrote Novum Organum, in which he
insisted on inductive reasoning, from the concrete, particular to the abstract, general; rejected
traditional ideas and preconceptions; and favored empiricism, with knowledge to be derived
from observation and experience. He also wrote New Atlantis, portraying a scientific utopia
where there was no break between pure science and technological invention b. Bacon had no
influence on actual science; he lacked knowledge of the new work being done in his time; and
he failed to understand the role of mathematics, which involves deductive logic rather than
empiricism. 3. Ren Descartes (1596-1650) Descartes was primarily a mathematician,
founder of co-ordinate geometry; believed nature could be reduced to mathematical form. He
wrote Discourse on Method in which he advanced the principle of systematic doubt. Cogito
ergo sum was the basis for his logical proof of God. From this came his Cartesian dualism, a
system of two realities: subjective experience, mind and spirit and extended substance, all
outside the mind and thus objective--occupying space and thus quantifiable, reducible to
formulae and equations. But he agreed with Bacon that science should lead to a practical
philosophy to enable mankind to become the masters and possessors of nature.

33. The Road to Newton: The Law of Universal Gravitation pp. 293 - 300
A. Scientific Advances: 1. With the increased trade and travel of the Age of Exploration,
botany boomed, often for purely utilitarian motives. 2. An intensive, open-minded
observation of anatomy began by 1500. Vesalius De Fabrica (On the Structure of the Human
Body) (1543) replaced reliance on the often inaccurate work of the Hellenistic scientist Galen
(2d century AD). The work of English physician William Harvey, described in On the
Movement of the Heart and Blood (1628), established the notion of blood circulation. Using
the new microscope, Malpighi identified capillaries in 1661, and Leeuenhoek observed and
recorded blood corpuscles, spermatozoa, and bacteria. 3. Mathematics developed rapidly
with the spread of Arabic numerals, the introduction of decimals and algebraic symbols, and
finally the development of logarithms by Napier in 1614. Descartes coordinate geometry,
Pascals theory of probability, and the invention of calculus by Newton and Leibniz were of
immense importance to science in general and astronomy and physics in particular.
B. The Scientific Revolution: Copernicus to Galileo 1. According to Ptolemy, a
Hellenistic Greek of 2d century AD Alexandria, the universe was earth- centered, with a
cosmos of solid earth, crystalline spheres, fixed stars, and the empyrean, home of angels. All
beings were ranked in a hierarchy of ascending perfection. The theory clearly fit
theologically, but it was also believable scientifically. It was formulated in precise,
mathematical terms, and though exceedingly complicated, it worked. 2. Copernicus (d.
1543), On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs (1543) Copernicus based his ideas on the
new theory that numbers were the key to nature and that simplicity was the sign of truth. His
observations showed that another Hellenistic idea was to be preferred to the Ptolemaic: A
sun-centered universe with revolving planets and an earth rotating on its axis. Yet while the
theory was simpler, it provided too drastic a shift to be acceptable in an age of theological
controversy (Reformation). Besides, the greatest expert of the day, Tycho Brahe, observed
significant flaws. Round One to Ptolemy. 3. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) managed to clean
up Copernican errors by showing that planets moved in elliptical orbits. His revised theory
was simple, had clear proof in mathematics, and it could be tested by observations. The real
world did correspond to the purely rational world of mathematical harmony. 4. Galileo
(1564-1642): provided further proof of Copernicus through observations begun using his new
telescope in 1609--the moon had craters, the sun had spots, Jupiter had moons clearly rotating,
and the stars were clearly much further away than had been thought. Galileo also suggested
the uniformity of matter in the universe. He proceeded to develop mathematical laws of
motion on earth--falling bodies, dynamics/inertia. These ideas shattered notions based on
Aristotelian logic and long accepted by the Church as the truth. And Galileo, fiery and
stubborn, was not the one to remain quiet about his findings. Though many leading
churchmen quietly agreed with Galileo, Mother Church condemned the new heresy and
banned Galileos book, Dialogue on Two World Systems. When Galileo refused to keep
quiet, the Church tried and convicted him, holding him under house arrest until his death. But
the book was published, in Protestant Holland.
C. The Achievement of Newton: The Promise of Science l. Newton (1642-1727) brought
Kepler and Galileo together by proving why planets tend to fall to the sun and thus moved in
elliptical orbits. He showed that gravity was a form of universal gravitation. In his Principia
Mathematica: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687) he showed that all
motion could be described in the same formulae: moving as if every particle attracted every
other particle with a force proportion to the product of the two masses, and inversely
proportional to the distance between them. The theory required calculus, new measurements
of the earths size, and experiments with the pendulum. 2. Newtons work led to
chronometers and the ability to precisely determine longitude; map-making (cartography)
became a science. Math (and better metallurgy) produced much better artillery (aimed more
precisely with the aid of calculus). Artillery meant warfare was more expensive--with
advantages to larger nations with more efficient central governments. Improve firearms also
gave Europeans a major advantage over non-Europeans. Steam power also resulted from
improvements in science: Scientists, mechanics, and instrument makers combined to produce
the steam engine--with a practical non-scientist, Thomas Newcomen finally putting all the
pieces together (and getting all the credit, not to mention the cash).
D. The Scientific Revolution and the World of Thought Man was no longer the center of
creation; the sky itself was shown to be an illusion. Science made clear a universe of
terrifying size and silence. Yet it also produced a confidence in the power of the mind to
discover universal laws--and contributed to the secularization of society. Religion was to
decline, with science reassuring man that his universe was reasonable, orderly, and rational.
Man could aspire to make human society equally orderly and rational.
34. New Knowledge of Man and Society pp. 300 - 307
A. The Current of Skepticism The inter-relationship of Europe and the world brought
new medicines and new diseases, plus new wealth, new foods, new products. Knowledge
of the variety of human types and human customs and cultures tended to undermine old
thought. As philosophers (or social scientists) viewed human diversity, they gained a sense of
the relative nature of social institutions. It became much harder to believe in absolute values,
that one set of human values or institutions was more likely to be God-given than another.
Jesuit missionaries, the most traveled of educated men, stressed natural goodness and
alertness of the peoples they contacted. Others came to praise non-Christian religions for
their virtues. Perhaps the most important Skeptic was Pierre Bayle (1647-1706); his
Historical and Critical Dictionary showed the gullibility of people and the problem of
distinguishing truth from opinion and stressed religious toleration. For Bayle, as for
Montaigne, no opinion was worth burning your neighbor for.
B. New Sense of Evidence l. In English law, new rules of evidence were put into use, with
less discretion by judges. For example, hearsay evidence was not allowed, and accused were
allowed legal counsel. Confessions could not be extracted by torture--and there was a new
search into the validity of confessions in general. But torture continued to be used in Europe.
2. Historians began to insist on evidence and turned to greater use of archival sources. The
science of authenticating coins, manuscripts, etc. was begun. Others began to rethink the age
of the world. James Usher, Anglican bishop of Ireland, declared the Creation dated to 4004
BC (a date still used by some fundamentalists). A scholar announced the earth was 170,000
years old, a figure seen as fantastic and appalling. 3. Catholics adopted the Gregorian
calendar (Gregory XIII) in the 1500s, though Protestants continued to use the Julian. The
English adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, but the Russians did not until 1918. (in both
cases: Why?)
C. Scholars worked in Biblical criticism, applying basic ideas of textual criticism to the
New Testament. Other critics began denying miracles because of their faith in the regularity
of nature and faulty human credulity. 1. Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677) was most upsetting
to the faithful. He was a scientific humanist who stated that God and the World are not
separate. He rejected revelation and all revealed religion; he believed one should live his life
based on a stern, pure ethical code. Scarcely read because of his impiety, his ideas spread
slowly. 2. John Locke (1632-1704) was more reassuring, and thus more widely read. He
favored an established church, but called for toleration for all but Catholics (seen as adherents
of a foreign power) and atheists (lacking a basis of moral responsibility). His Essay
Concerning the Human Understanding (1690) stated that all knowledge is derived from
sensate experience, since the mind at birth is a tabula rasa. He believed the environment was
all-important; all crime, false ideas, and superstitions came from bad environment, (including
bad education and bad social institutions). His ideas became the basis of confidence in the
possibility of social progress, with government playing the key role.
35. Political Theory: The School of Natural Law pp. 307 - 313
A. Political theory is practical, for it deals with what IS rather than what OUGHT to be.
Machiavelli began by ignoring the Scholastic notion of what is the best form of government
to examine how rulers actually behaved. He noted that they worked on one principle: what
advanced their power, without concern for morality. The seventeenth century returned to the
classical notion of natural law.
B. Natural Law held that there is, somehow, in the structure of the world, a law that
distinguishes right from wrong....[and] that right is natural, not a mere human invention.
This right is not determined, for any country, by its heritage, tradition, or customs....All these
may be unfair or unjust. No king can make right that which is wrong. No people, by its will
as a people, can make just that which is unjust. Right and law, in the ultimate sense, exist
outside and above all peoples. Man is rational and can discover natural--or universal-- law
by his reason. Attempts were made to create international law based on natural law (Grotius
and Pufendorf), but in the long run, little has emerged. Ironically, both absolutism and
constitutionalism have been justified by reference to natural law.
C. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): Disliked the disorder and violence of civil war. He
concluded that man in a state of nature lacked even the rudimentary ability for self-rule;
that he was quarrelsome, vicious, and brutal, and his life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short. Out of fear, men made a contract: a ruler was given absolute power to enable a
maintenance of order. Absolutism was to produce civil peace, individual security, and the rule
of law. Absolute power was an expedient to promote the individual welfare-- not as a means
to a totalitarian state. (Leviathan)
D. John Locke (1632-1704) agreed that government was a contract, but man was inherently
good, only hindered by lack of public authority. Man had inalienable rights--life, liberty, and
property. By his own power he could not protect his rights, so he set up a government to
enforce the rights of all. The contract has mutual obligations; if the ruler violates them, he
people have the right of rebellion. Locke took a specifically English event (the Glorious
Revolution) and gave it universal meaning, influencing many later thinkers. He carried over
ideas that were basically medieval, but in a specifically secular way. (Two Treatises on
Government)

Chapter VIII: The Age of the Enlightenment pp. 314-360

Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau
1. Montesquieu (1689-1755)
a. Landed aristocrat, part of anti-absolutist movement
b. Spirit of the Laws: separation and balance of powers
2. Voltaire (1694-1778)
a. Bourgeois origins, and known only for literature until 40
b. Trenchant, incisive, scurrilous, sarcastic; master of irony and ridicule
c. Admired, popularized English achievements (esp admiration for him)
d. Admired strong rulers, like Louis XIV and Frederick the Great e. crasez linfame :
bigotry, intolerance, superstition--Catholic Church f. Low opinion of mankind, favoring
enlightened despotism for control
3. Rousseau (1712-1778)
a. Swiss, lower middle class; maladjusted outsider--never a success
b. Declared society to be artificial, corrupt, source of evils; nature was the source of all
good-- kindness, unselfishness, honesty--and preferred emotion and impulse to critical,
rational thought.
c. Social Contract: (l) The contract was with the people and was both political and social;
the individual surrendered his liberty, fusing his individual will into the General Will--which
itself was the only true sovereign power. Kings or elected reps were only delegates of the
People. *(2) He became the first systematic theorist of a conscious and calculated
nationalism....he generalized and made applicable to large territories the psychology of small
city republics--the sense of membership of community and fellowship, of responsible
citizenship and intimate participation in public affairs-- in short, of common will. All modern
states, democratic or undemocratic, strive to impart this sense of moral solidarity to their
peoples. Whereas in democratic states the General Will can in some way be identified with
the sovereignty of the people, in dictatorships it becomes possible for individuals (or parties)
to arrogate to themselves the right to serve as spokesmen and interpreters of the General Will.
Both totalitarians and democrats have regarded Rousseau as one of their prophets. (3)His
most influential works were novels, mile and Nouvelle Hloise, which spread a respect for
the common man, a love of common things, a sense of human pity and compassion and a
rejection of superficial aristocratic life. He developed a sense of humanitarianism that even
touched M. Antoinette and her court.
D. Political Economists
l. Physiocrats: Turgot and Quesnay: Laissez faire
2. Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations (1776)
a. Function of government
b. Free Market: operation of supply and demand
c. The invisible hand: the operation of self-interest
d. Lesser evils: What were they?
E. Main Currents of Enlightenment Thought: l. Divergent and contradictory, inconsistent
currents of thought. Generally accepted beliefs; variations on religion, liberty, equality 2.
France as the center of the Enlightenment, with England closing the gap 3. The state as the
agency of progress: rightly ordered government was considered to be the best guarantee of
social welfare. 4. Universalism: belief in the unity of mankind under a natural law of right
and reason.

Chapter IX. The French Revolution pp. 361-415

France replaced the Old Regime with modern society, and at its extreme phase it became
very radical, so much so that all later revolutionary movements have looked back to it as a
predecessor to themselves. The French Revolution occurred in the most advanced country of
the day, the center of the Enlightenment. It was the most powerful, wealthy nation in Europe.
It had the largest population (24 m) under one government. Paris was smaller than London,
but double Vienna and Amsterdam. Europeans took their ideas from France, and the
Revolution was to profoundly effect them.
46. The Despotic Republic: The Consulate, 1799-1804 pp. 398-402
A. The Consulate
1. Napoleon was unscrupulous, seeing the world as a flux to be organized by a man of genius.
He had an extra-ordinary intellect, with great tenacity, memory. He also had the ability to
lead men; he dazzled, inspired confidence. He had a quick grasp of problems and the ability
to make rapid decisions. In many ways he was the last and greatest of the enlightened
despots.
2. Napoleon easily won a plebiscite, giving himself a mandate. He began by making peace.
Russia had pulled back from the war, leaving only Austria--which he defeated decisively. In
1802 he made peace with Britain. At home, he created a secret police and a centralized
administrative machine. He ended the Vende rebellions. He granted amnesty to all exiles,
of left and right. He required only that his officials be loyal to him, and he chose them from
the full spectrum. Talleyrand, an ex-bishop with a long pedigree and no principles, became
his foreign minister. Enemies of his new order were ruthlessly suppressed.
B. The Settlement with the Church; Other Reforms
1. Napoleon signed a Concordat with the Vatican in 1801 giving the Pope the right to
depose bishops or discipline clergy, and he allowed the reopening of seminaries. The Pope
recognized the Republic and accepted the loss of church lands. Clergy were promised state
salaries. Thus he defused counter- revolution.
2. He created a modern state, eliminating feudal ideas. Promotion was by talent alone:
careers open to talent. Schools were reorganized; education became the key to social
standing. Public finances and expenditures were rationalized, with a sound currency and
public credit secured (possible because the Directory had repudiated the old currency and
debt). He established a new Bank of France. The Napoleonic Code, provided judicial
uniformity and equal rights, though criminal law supported the government over the
individual and clearly recognized male dominance. Overall, the Code set the character of
France as it has been ever since: socially bourgeois, legally equalitarian, and administratively
bureaucratic.
C. The Revolution was over, its beneficiaries secure and the working class movement
gone. France was at peace at home, with its neighbors, with the Pope. Napoleon was soon to
be Emperor. Yet France was still a revolutionary terror to Europe. France was larger, more
powerful, and it willing to use its power to change Europe. French troops were soon to march
across Europe in the name of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.

X. Napoleonic Europe pp. 417-452

The impact of France under Napoleon on Europe was based on military subjugation. Some
peoples worked with Napoleon to gain changes; in other cases, resistance to Napoleon was the
factor that brought change. The period from 1792-1814 was not a world war, but a series of
short, sharp, distinct episodes; only Great Britain remained at war for the full period, and only
in 1813 was there full cooperation in the field against Napoleon. The period is complicated by
the continuation of past stories: Britains economic growth, Russian pressure on Poland and
Turkey, Prussias push for German leadership, and Austrian dreams of territorial expansion.
In pursuit of their own aims, governments were as willing to ally with Napoleon as to fight
him. Only gradually, after repeated provocations, did they conclude that their main interest
was to dispose of the French emperor entirely.
47. The Formation of the French Imperial System pp. 418-425
A. The Dissolution of the First and Second Coalitions, 1792-1802
1. The First Coalition (1792) was between jealous rivals who cooperated only in seizing
Polish territory. Prussia, Spain, and Austria made separate peaces with France; Spain allied
with France because of its animosity towards Britain.
2. The Second Coalition dissolved because Russians feared that a British victory in Egypt
would block their Middle Eastern concerns.
3. Peace in 1802 allowed Napoleon to try to crush the Haitian revolt of Toussaint LOuverture
and build a sugar empire in America. Napoleon gained control over Switzerland (Helvetic
Republic) and created the North Italian Cisalpine Republic. He helped break up the Holy
Roman Empire, thus enlarging the states of Bavaria, Baden, Wurtemburg, and Prussia--all
now indebted to Napoleon.
B. Formation of the Third Coalition in 1805
1. Britain declared war in 1803. Forced to retreat from Haiti by the British navy, Haitian
guerrilla tactics and yellow fever, Nap sold Louisiana to the US.
2. In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor; shortly after, Francis II created the Austrian
Empire, realizing any attempts to regain control of the Holy Roman Empire were futile.
3. The Third Coalition was formed by Austria, Russia and Great Britain. Alexander I
Romanov, raised by Catherine to be an enlightened despot, wished to control Poland.
German liberals saw him as the protector of Germany from France. Moralistic and self-
righteous, he saw himself as Napoleons rival. Europes leaders saw him as either a Jacobin
or a Russian imperialist. His contribution to western thought was a conception international
collective security and the notion of the indivisibility of peace. Upset by the crude force of
Nap, he wanted a society with rights secured by international agreement and organization.
C. The Third Coalition, 1805-1807: The Peace of Tilsit
1. Napoleon wanted to invade Britain, but it was defeated by Nelsons fleet and the potential
threat of the Austrian and Russian armies. When these forces moved west, Napoleon attacked
and defeated a large Austrian force at Ulm in Bavaria. But Nelsons victory at Trafalgar over
the combined Spanish-French fleet prevented any idea of invasion and made England master
of the sea until 1900.
2. Napoleon next crushed the combined Austro-Russian army at Austerlitz. He took Venetia
and began building a new fleet to challenge Britain. He merged the German states into the
Confederation of the Rhine, with himself as protector. Upset, Prussia declared war on
France and was smashed in two battles, Jena and Auerstadt. Nap next defeated the Russians
at Friedland. Alex I agreed to the Peace of Tilsit, allying with Napoleon and recognizing
Frances dominance.
D. The Continental System and the War in Spain
1. Napoleon declared the Continental System to shut out British goods and ruin their
commerce. Russia, Prussia, and Austria followed, declaring war on Britain. Portugals
refusal to join brought Naps invasion of the Iberian peninsula. After Nap placed his brother
on the Spanish throne, the Spanish began guerrilla warfare, aided by the British. The
resulting Peninsular War dragged on for five brutal years. French losses roused anti-French
feeling in Germany and Austria.
2. Napoleon upset Alexander I by creating the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and refusing to back
Russian interests in the Balkans. Talleyrand encouraged the Tsar to play a waiting game; in
case Napoleons plans failed, T. wanted a refuge.
3. Austria declared war on France and for the fourth time was defeated--bringing the rise of
Clemens von Metternich, who was to dominate European politics until 1848. Metternich saw
Russia as the long-term problem and worked for a French alliance--secured by Naps marriage
to Marie Louise. [Nap II was born in 1811.]