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History Notes General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes

Reformation Notes

Updated Reformation Notes

General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes

General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform)

Approximately 43 pages

These notes provide comprehensive cover of the General III Preliminary paper. They were the sole resource that I used for my preliminary examination revision, in which I achieved a mark of 69%. They include a wealth of specific and detailed examples spanning across the whole of Europe, as well as discussion of a broad range of historiography, making them a complete resource for studying for the prelim in General III. They are often structured around key questions, meaning that they also come in u...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

GIII Revision Notes.

Reformation.

1. How much did the Reformation change among lay people?

  • The Ref was, to an extent, a popular movement.

  • Ref was “a gloriously disorderly popular movement” (P Marshall). E.g. figure of Karsthans (cocky Lutheran peasant) pop in pamphlets.

  • G Parker argues that mid-C16th to mid-C17th, the Reformers themselves believed that they had failed.

  • Talks of “a broader framework of failure” (Parker) as a backdrop to small successes.

  • However, many contemporary Catholics (e.g. Ignatius Loyola) felt the opposite.

  • Diff in diff areas: “the Ref was an urban event” (A G Dickens).

  • Supported by G Strauss’ study of visitation records (reports e.g. first one not until 1527-8, Luther wrote of ‘lamentable wretchedness’ in Saxony).

  • Not all visitation records –ve, e.g. James Kittelson – ‘report from Strasbourg’ shows “an enviably pious pop” (G Parker).

  • Reformist ideals did spread more easily in towns.

  • “Germany was a land of towns” (A Pettegree) - ^polit literacy, debate, reading.

  • V. Denmark: only 2 towns of approx. 8000 inhabs (Malmø and Copenhagen).

  • V. Eng: next biggest after LDN = Norwich, Bristol. Around 10,000 inhabs = same as 14 towns in Germ SW.

  • Pettegree uses this to explain success of Ref in N’lands (35% in towns).

  • Different political situations also contributed to this.

  • E.g. became part of German nationalism.

  • Acknowledged by Luther: ‘To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation’ (1520) – attack on papacy.

  • “The nasty side of German nationalism was an intense Italo-phobia” (P Marshall).

  • Reichstag complained about papal abuses e.g. list of 102 at Worms.

  • E.g. in France “the ambiguous signals emanating from the court created a decade of confusion” (Pettegree) mid-1530s (Francis I oppressed).

  • E.g. Charles I took successful action v Ref in N’lands.

  • E.g. Eastern Habsburg lands: powerful estates evang as wanted to distance from Cath monarch.

  • “The position of the authorities… was particularly important” (K Maag).

  • More access to relig texts:

  • E.g. fgn priests arriving in Eng 1554 found vernac bibles in almost every parish Church.

  • Better-informed clergy.

  • E.g. ‘The Visitors’ Instructions to the Pastors in Electoral Saxony’ (1528) released to please visitation record takers.

  • Clergy started to aim sermons etc. at true learned believers e.g. one in parish nr Dordrecht devoted weekday sermons for five months to expounding book of Haggai 1584-5.

  • Clerical status declined w/ Ref – lost tax exemptions, special ecclesiastical courts in most places.

  • E.g. Saxony: stipend of most pastors in yr after Ref reduced to that of day labourer.

  • War disrupted religious practice and could contrib to the Ref.

  • E.g. Dutch Revolt – aimed at clergy.

  • E.g. Army of Flanders hanged Calvinist ministers and elders.

  • E.g. German Peasants’ War – Ref “provided the common man with a new vocab and basis of action” (A Pettegree).

  • Reformist ideals did, to an extent, enter popular culture, with songs, plays.

  • E.g. ‘The Gude and Godlie Ballatis’, Scot, 1567.

  • E.g. 1523 citizens of Berne, Switzerland watched play mocking Cath view of death.

  • E.g. Die Totenfresser opened with sacristan meditating and saying ‘I like dead people better than fighting or screwing’.

  • “made full use of all available channels of communication” (Parker).

  • Education was used well.

  • E.g. 1536 Castellino da Castello est ‘School of Christian doctrine, Milan.

  • E.g. Jesuits opened first school 1548 at Messina.

  • E Duffy argues that historians who viewed the pre-Ref Church as in a v bad state were affected by their personal religious bias.

  • E.g. A G Dickens (Prot).

  • Paternal g’father – Anglican Churchwarden.

  • Maternal – Primitive Methodist local preacher.

  • Others saw it in too positive a light, like Aidan Gasquet (“inaccuracy grew on him like a crust” [George Gordon Coulton]).

  • E.g. Thomas More praises laity’s interest in letters to Martin Dorp, 1485-1525.

2. Why was there so much discussion of the need for religious reform?

  • Could say key reasons = Luther, Printing, Humanism, Clerical Abuses.

  • “The call for ‘reform’ within Christianity is about as old as the religion itself” (P Marshall).

  • E.g. ‘C10th Ref’ in Eng Church: ^Benedictine monasticism.

  • Printing press used well by Reformers to spread ideas:

  • E.g. in Hungary first Cath press est 1578 compared to sev Prot presses already in op.

  • Reading also went along w/ Prot focus on individuality.

  • “A religion of the book needs books” (D MacCulloch).

  • Luther’s German New testament 253 editions 1522-1546.

  • 10,000 copies Luther’s ‘Shorter Catechism’ (1529) printed before 1563.

  • 500,000 copies Luther’s German Bible pub’d 1534-1574.

  • Was profitable e.g. Big Bible in Eng, 1537 cost 6s 8d to make and sold for 10s-13s 4d.

  • E.g. fgn countries produced own Reformist texts.

  • E.g. French ‘Livre de la subjection des christiens’ largely derived from ‘Liberty of a Christian Man’, similarly Dutch evang writing.

  • Primus Truber invented first written form of Slovene to communicate and convert.

  • A Pettegree talks of “the great age… of the Flugschriften [pamphlets transmitting info about church controvs]” in Germany.

  • E.g. in Germany, >60 cities involved by 1500. 390 editions of work pub’d 1523 alone, compared to 85 1520-46 in N’lands.

  • Complex:...

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