Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment Study Guide

Annul- To cancel or invalidate. Henry decided to remarry, hoping that a new wife would bear him a son. Since the Church law does not permit divorce he asked for an annulment.

Gravity- The force that tends to pull one mass or object to another. Newton used mathematics to show that a single force keeps the plants in their orbits around the sun.

Patron- A person who provides financial support for the arts. Under Lorenzo, poets and philosophers frequently visited the Medici Palace.

Perspective- Artistic technique used to give drawings and paintings a three-dimensional effect. The Renaissance artists learned the rules of perspective.

Theocracy- Government run by church leaders. In 1541, Protestants in the city-state of Geneva in Switzerland asked Calvin to lead their community.

John Calvin- Calvin was born in France and trained as a priest and lawyer. He had a razor sharp mind and his ideas had a profound effect on the direction of the Protestant Reformation.

Henry VIII.- He stood firmly against the Protestant revolt. The pope even awarded him the title “Defender of the Faith” for a pamphlet that he wrote denouncing Luther.

Leonardo da Vinci- Born in 1452 in Vinci. His exploring mind endless curiosity fed a genius for invention.

Lorenzo de’ Medici- He was called “the Magnificent.” Lorenzo died in 1492, represented the Renaissance ideal. He was a clever politician, he held Florence together during difficult times.

Niccolo Machiavelli- He wrote a different kind of handbook. He had served Florence as a diplomat and had observed kings and princes in foreign courts.

Heliocentric- Based on the belief that the sum is the center of the universe. Copernicus proposed it. The sun, he said stood at the center of the universe. The Earth went on, was just one of the several planets that revolved around the sun.

Humanism- Intellectual movement at the heart of the Italian Renaissance that focused on worldly subjects rather than on religious issues. Humanists believed that education should stimulate the individual’s creative powers.

Indulgence- In the Roman Catholic Church, pardon for sins committed during a person’s lifetime. In the Middle Ages, the Church had granted indulgence only for good deeds, such as going on crusade.

Predestination- Idea that God long ago determined who will gain salvation. To Calvinists, the world was divided into two kinds of people-saints and sinners.

Recant- The church tried to persuade Luther to recant, or give up his views. Luther refused to, and instead he developed even more radical new doctrines.

Copernicus- Nicolaus Copernicus was the scientist who revolutionized the way people viewed the universe. Copernicus was an enlightenment thinker in the revolution of the 1500’s and 1600’s.

Durer- Albrecht Durer traveled to Italy in 1494 to study the techniques of the Italian masters. Returning home, he employed these methods in paintings, engravings, and prints that portray the religious upheaval of his age.

Luther- Martin Luther was the man who triggered the revolt against the church abuses. He was a German monk professor of theology.

Newton- Isaac was a student at Cambridge University in England and developed the theory to explain why the planets moved as they did. Using mathematics, he showed that a single force keeps the planet in their own orbits around the sun; he called this gravity.

Petrarch- Francesco Petrarch a Florentine who lived from 1304 to 1374, was an early Renaissance humanist. In monasteries and churches, he hunted down and assembled a library of Greek and Roman manuscripts and his speeches became known to Western Europeans.

Renaissance Focus- The Renaissance focus was political, social, economic, and cultural. But the most important was were the changes that took place in the way people viewed themselves and their world.

Printing Reformation- By 1300, methods of papermaking had reached Europe. By the 1400’s, German engravers had developed movable type. Johann Gutenburg of Mainz, Germany, printed a complete edition of the bible using movable type. With the Gutenburg Bible, the European age of printing had begun.

Results of Reformation- The printing revolution brought immense changes. Books printed with movable type on rag paper were easier and cheaper to produce then hand-copied works. More people learned to read and write because it was easier to read, gained more knowledge on topics of medicine, astrology, mining, and geography. Printing also influenced both religious and secular thought.

Causes of Renaissance- The causes of the Renaissance were Roman Catholic church becomes more worldly Humanists urge to return to simple religion strong national monarchs emerge. The renaissance was the rebirth of Europe. This was spurred by a reawakened interest in classical learning, especially the culture of ancient Rome, creative Renaissance minds set out to transform their own age. They felt their era was a time of rebirth after the disorder and disunity of the Medieval world.

Chapter 18

Hobbes- Thomas Hobbes was an English thinker that set forth ideas that were to become key to the enlightenment. Hobbes argued that people were naturally cruel, greedy, and selfish. If not strictly controlled they would fight, rob, and oppress one another. Life in the “state of nature” without laws or other control – would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Locke- John Locke was an English thinker that set forth ideas that were to become key to the enlightenment. John had a more optimistic view of human nature. People were basically reasonable, and moral. They had natural rights or rights that belonged to all humans from birth. These included the rights to life, liberty, and property.

Joseph II- The most radical enlightented despot was the Hapsburg emperor Joseph II. Joseph traveled in disguise among his subjects to learn of their problems. His efforts to improve their lives won him the nickname the “peasant emperor”

Constitutional Government- A government whose power is defined and limited by law. British constitution is made up all acts of Parliament over the centuries.


Enlightened despot- Monarchs who were absolute rulers that used their powers to bring about political and social change.

Natural Laws- These laws were laws that governed human nature. The people of the community, obeyed these rightful laws.

Natural Rights- Natural rights are the rights that people are born with such as the right to choose and the right of speech.

Physiocrats- these people were other thinkers who focused on economic reforms. They looked for natural laws to define a rational economic system.

Bach- Johann Sebastian Bach was a German Lutheran who wrote complex and beautiful religious works for organs and choirs.

Diderot- He was a philosopher who spent 25 years on a 28- volume Encyclopedia. His purpose was to change the general way of thinking. In the Encyclopedia articles, philosophers denounced slavery, praised freedom of expression and urged education for all.

Tom Paine- a recent immigrant from England wrote the Common Sense pamphlet in 1776. The pamphlet called on them to declare their independence from Britain.

Rousseau- he was a man who wrote the Social contract in 1762. His basic ideas were, people are basically good but become corrupted by society; people would make the laws and would obey them willingly.

Robert Walpole- From 1721 to 1742, the able Whig leader Robert W. molded the cabinet into a unified body, requiring all members to agree on major issues. He was the prime minister of the majority party in Parliament.

Baroque- In the age of Louis XIV, courtly art and architecture were either in classical style, in the Greek and Roman tradition, or in the grand, complex style known as the Baroque. Baroque paintings were huge, colorful, and full of excitement.

Free Market- Adam Smith argued that the free market, the natural forces of supply and demand, should be allowed to operate and regulate businesses.

Laissez Market- Physiocrats urged a policy allowing businesses to operate with little or no government interference. The Physiocrats claimed that wealth came by producing good land.

Salon- Salons were informal social gatherings at which writers, artists, philosophers and others exchanged ideas. The salons originated in the 1600s, when a group of noblewomen in Paris began inviting a few friends to their homes for poetry readings.

Social Contract- The Social Contract was an agreement by which people gave up the state of nature for an organized society. Hobbes decided that this was what people entered into to escape the “brutish” life.