Things to learn about the Renaissance(Packet 2 of 12)

1. Dante Alighieri

A major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages, who lived from 1265-1321. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa (modern Italian: Commedia) and later christened Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. In the late Middle Ages, the overwhelming majority of poetry was written in Latin, and therefore accessible only to affluent and educated audiences. In De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular), however, Dante defended use of the vernacular in literature. He himself would even write in the Tuscan dialect for works such as The New Life (1295) and the aforementioned Divine Comedy; this choice, although highly unorthodox, set a hugely important precedent that later Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would follow. As a result, Dante played an instrumental role in establishing the national language of Italy. Dante has been called "the Father of the Italian language" and one of the greatest poets of world literature.

2. The Divine Comedy

An epic poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature[ and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The work was originally simply titled Comedìa and the word Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio. The first printed edition to add the word divina to the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce, published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.

3. Inferno

The first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno tells the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth; it is the "realm...of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen."

4. Nine Circles of Hell

The split of Hell into different levels by the poet Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy. Each layer addresses progressively more egregious sinners.

5. First Circle of Hell

First Circle – Limbo
This is the realm of the virtuous pagans. The people who existed before Christianity with no knowledge of it, basically living in an inferior version of heaven.
Some residents: Homer, Socrates, Aristotle, Julius Caesar, Cicero and Hippocrates

6. Second Circle of Hell

For the Sin of – Lust
Punishment: Being blown back and forth by strong winds that prevent rest
Residents: Cleopatra, Tristan, Helen of Troy

7. Third Circle of Hell

For the Sin of – Gluttony
Punishment: Overseen by Cerberus, they are lying in vile slush produced by a never ending icy rain

8. Fourth Circle of Hell

For the Sin of – Greed
Punishment: Overseen by Pluto, they are divided into teams of those who hoarded and those who lavishly spent and forced to battle each other by pushing weights.
Residents: Many clergy and popes

9. Fifth Circle of Hell

For the Sin of – Anger
Punishment: Forced to fight each other on the surface of the river Styx

10. Sixth Circle of Hell

For the Sin of – Heresy
Punishment: Condemned to eternity in flaming tombs
Residents: Epicurus, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II

11. Seventh Circle of Hell

For the Sin of – Violence
This level has three rings

Outer Ring: Murderers
Punishment: Sunk into a river of boiling blood and fire
Residents: Alexander the Great, Guy de Montfort

Middle Ring: Suicides
Punishment: Turned into trees which are fed upon by harpies

Inner Ring: Blasphemers and Sodomites
Punishment: Stuck in a desert of burning sand with burning rain falling on them

12. Eighth Circle of Hell

For the Sin of – Fraud

This circle of Hell is divided into 10 Bolgias or stony ditches with bridges between them. In Bolgia 1, Dante sees panderers and seducer. In Bolgia 2 he finds flatterers. After crossing the bridge to Bolgia 3, he and Virgil see those who are guilty of simony. After crossing another bridge between the ditches to Bolgia 4, they find sorcerers and false prophets. In Bolgia 5 are housed corrupt politicians and in the remaining 4 ditches, Dante finds hypocrites (Bolgia 6), thieves (Bolgia 7), evil counselors and advisers (Bolgia 8), divisive individuals (Bolgia 9) and various falsifiers such as alchemists, perjurers and counterfeits (Bolgia 10).

13. Ninth Circle of Hell

For the sin of – Treachery
It is divided into 4 Rounds according to the seriousness of the sin though all residents are frozen in an icy lake. Those who committed more severe sin are deeper within the ice. Each of the 4 Rounds is named after an individual who personifies the sin. Thus Round 1 is named Caina after Cain who killed his brother Abel, Round 2 is named Antenora after Anthenor of Troy who was Priam’s counselor during the Trojan War, Round 3 is named Ptolomaea after Ptolemy (son of Abubus), while Round 4 is named Judecca after Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus with a kiss.

14. Dante’s Satan

Portrayed as a giant demon, frozen mid-breast in ice at the center of Hell. He has three faces and a pair of bat-like wings affixed under each chin. As Satan beats his wings, he creates a cold wind which continues to freeze the ice surrounding him, and the other sinners in the Ninth Circle. The winds he creates are felt throughout the other circles of Hell. Each of his three mouths chews on Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. Scholars consider Satan to be “a once splendid being (indeed the most perfect of God’s creatures) from whom all personality has now drained away.” [1] Satan, also known as Lucifer, was formerly the Angel of Light and once tried to usurp the power of God. As punishment, God banishes Satan out of Heaven to an eternity in Hell as the ultimate sinner. Dante illustrates a less powerful Satan than most standard depictions; he is slobbering, wordless, and receives the same punishments in Hell as the rest of the sinners.

15. Purgatorio

The second part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno, and preceding the Paradiso. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of the same, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, except for the last four cantos at which point Beatrice takes over as Dante's guide.

16. Paradiso
The third and final part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno and the Purgatorio. It is an allegory telling of Dante's journey through Heaven, guided by Beatrice, who symbolises theology. In the poem, Paradise is depicted as a series of concentric spheres surrounding the Earth, consisting of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, the Primum Mobile and finally, the Empyrean.

17. Beatrice Portinari

A Florentine woman who has been commonly identified as the principal inspiration for Dante Alighieri's Vita Nuova, and is also commonly identified with the woman who appears as one of his guides in the Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia) in the last book, Paradiso, and in the last four cantos of Purgatorio. There she takes over as guide from the Latin poet Virgil because, as a pagan, Virgil cannot enter Paradise. She was apparently the daughter of the banker Folco Portinari, and was married to another banker, Simone dei Bardi. Dante claims to have met her only twice, on occasions separated by nine years, but was so affected by the meetings that he carried his love for her throughout his life.


18. Giotto di Bondone
An Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages. He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Renaissance. Giotto's masterwork is the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, also known as the Arena Chapel, completed around 1305. This fresco cycle depicts the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ. It is regarded as one of the supreme masterpieces of the Early Renaissance.

19. Masaccio

Born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone (1401-1428), his name literally means messy Tom. According to Vasari, he was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense of three-dimensionality.[1] Masaccio died at twenty-six and little is known about the exact circumstances of his death. Despite his brief career, he had a profound influence on other artists. He was one of the first to use linear perspective in his painting, employing techniques such as vanishing point in art for the first time. He also moved away from the International Gothic style and elaborate ornamentation of artists like Gentile da Fabriano to a more naturalistic mode that employed perspective and chiaroscuro for greater realism.

20. Lorenzo Ghiberti

Born Lorenzo di Bartolo (1378-1455), he was a Florentine Italian artist of the Early Renaissance best known as the creator of the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery, called by Michelangelo the Gates of Paradise. He won a contest for the right to design those doors, beating out contemporary Filipo Brunolleschi. Trained as a goldsmith and sculptor, he established an important workshop for sculpture in metal. His book of Commentari contains important writing on art, as well as what may be the earliest surviving autobiography by any artist.

21. Humanism

A philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition. The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it. Generally, it refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of human freedom and progress. In modern times, humanist movements are typically aligned with secularism, and today humanism typically refers to a non-theistic life stance centered on human agency and looking to science rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world.

22. Leon Battista Alberti

An Italian humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher and cryptographer who lived from 1404-1472; he epitomized the Renaissance Man. Although he is often characterized as an "architect" exclusively, as James Beck has observed, "to single out one of Leon Battista's 'fields' over others as somehow functionally independent and self-sufficient is of no help at all to any effort to characterize (his) extensive explorations in the fine arts." Among his concerns was the social effect of architecture, and to this end he was very well aware of the cityscape. This is demonstrated by his inclusion, at the Rucellai Palace, of a continuous bench for seating at the level of the basement.

23. Rucellai Palace

By 1450, the skyline of Florence was dominated by Brunelleschi's dome. Although Brunelleschi had created a new model for church architecture based on the Renaissance’s pervasive philosophy, Humanism, no equivalent existed for private dwellings. In 1446, Leon Battista Alberti, whose texts On Painting and On Architecture established the guidelines for the creation of paintings and buildings that would be followed for centuries, designed a façade that was truly divorced from the medieval style, and could finally be considered quintessentially Renaissance: the Palazzo Rucellai. Alberti constructed the façade of the Palazzo over a period of five years, from 1446-1451; the home was just one of many important commissions that Alberti completed for the Rucellais—a wealthy merchant family.

24. Renaissance Man

A person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas; such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Another term for this is a polymath. The term is often used to describe great thinkers of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment who excelled at several fields in science and the arts. In the Italian Renaissance, the idea of the polymath was expressed by Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), in the statement that "a man can do all things if he will". Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. It is often applied to the gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social, and physical.

25. patronage

Support provided by the wealthy and well connected to artists, especially musicians, painters and sculptors. It was key to an artist’s survival during the Renaissance, especially in Italy. Interestingly, the Latin word for this process is patronus, which J.K. Rowling used in her Harry Potter series as a charm/spell that brought forth the caster’s innermost positive feelings in the form of a spectral protector. In a sense, that’s what these wealthy patrons provided to the artists in the Renaissance – protection.

26. The Della Rovere Family

A family who lived in relative obscurity in Savona near Rome, until two members of the family managed to become pope (Pope Sixtus IV and Julius II). On the backs of nepotism from these connections, they rose to a position of prominence that they were able to retain after both pope’s time.

27. Pope Sixtus IV

The first Della Rovere pope, he was born Francesco della Rovere and lived from 1414-1484. He first drew the attention of Pope Paul II from his religious writings at the university in Perguia, where he was studying theology. Pope Paul II would go on to make him a cardinal, and he later succeeded him as pope in 1471, adopting the new name. He proved a controversial pope. On the positive side, he restored a mostly antiquated Rome to its former glory as the “Eternal City” with the renovation of roads, extension of aqueducts and building of new churches. On the other had, he made questionable alliances, promoted at least six nephews to prominent positions and seized a great deal of power for the papacy.

28. Pope Julius II

Born Giuliano della Rovero, he lived from 1443-1513, and is credited with ushering in the High Renaissance during his reign as pope from 1503-1513. He was a fiery man who did not hesitate to don full military armor over his vestments. His contemporaries called him “il papa terribile” (the pope who inspires awe or terror). He is responsible for calling both Raphael and Michelangelo to Rome to complete papal projects. On the one hand, his holding of multiple benefices and his military campaigns, as well as his well-known sexual relationships with various youths and his fathering of illegitimate children could be seen – and were seen by some – as continuing the type of papal corruption that Dante would later decry in his Inferno. On the other hand, he also heard mass regularly and held it frequently, and helped expand the church in the new world, as well as taking measures to combat various types of corruption in the church, including the practice of simony, or the selling of positions of wealth and influence in the church. His legacy can be seen today mostly in the large amount of art he commissioned.

29. Raphael Sanzio

Usually referred to by just his first name, he was an artist born in Urbino in 1483, who is most known for his work in Rome under Pope Julius II and specifically for his great work the School of Athens. He was known for his close association and friendship with Pope Julius. In fact, School of Athens is painted in a private study of the pope’s, along with three other works on the other walls representing poetry, law and theology.

30. School of Athens

A painting, part of a four-painting series on the walls of the office of Pope Julius II, painted by Raphael between 1509-1511. The other three walls give homage to poetry, law and theology, while this one deals with philosophy. It represents all the greatest mathematicians, philosophers and scientists from classical antiquity gathered together sharing their ideas and learning from each other. The two thinkers in the very center, Aristotle (on the right) and Plato (on the left, pointing up) have been enormously important to Western thinking generally, and in different ways, their different philosophies were incorporated into Christianity. Plato points up because in his philosophy the changing world that we see around us is just a shadow of a higher, truer reality that is eternal and unchanging. Aristotle holds his hand down, because in his philosophy, the only reality is the one that we can see and experience by sight and touch. Also pictured are Pythagorus, Socrates, Diogenes and Euclid, as well as scholars modeled after the likeness of Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Donatello and Raphael himself.

31. Michelangelo Buonarroti

Perhaps the greatest artist of the Renaissance, he lived from 1475-1564, dying just two months before the birth of Shakespeare. Raised in the shadow of the Medici family, he spent his early years in Florence before being summoned to Rome to work on projects for Pope Julius II and later the Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII. He saw himself as a sculptor first, and his sculpture of David is one of the most important symbols of the city of Florence. He also did tombs for the Medici popes and their fathers and a statue of Moses that was part of an unfinished tomb for Julius II. That tomb was never finished largely because of his most famous project – painting a giant fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and another one on the altar wall called The Last Judgement. He was known for being exceptionally tempermental.

32. Sistine Chapel

Originally known as the Cappella Magna, it was renamed when it was restored under the direction of Pope Sixtus IV in his honor. It is in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Rome. It is currently the site of the Papal conclave where new popes are elected. It is most known for its frescos. During the reign of Sixtus IV, a team of Renaissance painters that included Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Roselli, created a series of frescos depicting the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and drapery below. However, it is more known for the paintings of the ceiling commissioned by Pope Julius II and the altar wall commissioned by Pope Clement VII, which were completed by Michelangelo.

33. The Creation of Adam

The most famous section of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. It a fresco painting by Michelangelo, which forms part of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, painted c. 1511–1512. It illustrates the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God breathes life into Adam, the first man. The image of the near-touching hands of God and Adam has become iconic of humanity. Along with Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper it is one of the two most duplicated pieces of art in history.

34. The Last Judgment

A fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo executed on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. It is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. Michelangelo originally accepted the commission for this important painting from Pope Clement VII. The original subject of the mural was the resurrection, but with the Pope's death, his successor, Pope Paul III, felt this was a more fitting subject for 1530s Rome. The work took four years to complete and was done between 1536 and 1541. Michelangelo began working on it twenty five years after having finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

35. Leonardo Da Vinci

An Italian polymath (Renaissance Man) whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He is renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait and The Last Supper the most reproduced religious painting of all time, their fame approached only by Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. His drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro coin, textbooks, and T-shirts.

36. vanishing point

The point in a work of art at which imaginary sight lines appear to converge, suggesting depth. In the most reproduced work of all time, The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, this point lands just above the head of Christ, in the space of a window at the center of the painting.

37. Mona Lisa

A portrait started in 1503 by Leonardo Da Vinci, it is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo - hence the alternative title, La Gioconda. However, Leonardo seems to have taken the completed portrait to France rather than giving it to the person who commissioned it. Most known for it’s enigmatic smile and eyes that seem to follow the viewer from every angle, it is likely the single most famous and valuable artwork in the world, yet it is only 30'’ by 21'’. It now hangs in the Louvre, in Paris.

38. Borgia Family

A powerful family in Renaissance Italy. Despite the fact that they produced two Popes, their name has become associated with all kinds of dark deeds. They were originally a noble Spanish dynasty, who switched to Italy when Alfonso di Borgia (1378-1458) was made a Cardinal in 1444. Eleven years later, he was appointed as Pope – taking the name Callixtus III – and gave a leg-up to his nephew Rodrigo Borgia. In 1492, Rodrigo kept the family tradition going and also succeeded to the papacy. As the hugely controversial Pope Alexander VI, he began to accumulate a vast amount of land and power for himself and his illegitimate children. His children Cesare and Lucrezia also would have a great deal of notoriety.

39. Pope Alexander VI

Corrupt, worldly, and ambitious pope (1492–1503), whose neglect of the spiritual inheritance of the church contributed to the development of the Protestant Reformation. He was first made a cardinal by his uncle, Pope Callixtus III, and used his church position as vice chancellor of the Roman Catholic church to amass a fortune. He patronized the arts and fathered a number of children for whom he provided livings, mainly in Spain. By a Roman noblewoman, Vannozza Catanei, he had four subsequently legitimized offspring—Juan, Cesare, Jofré, and Lucrezia. He made Cesare a cardinal and Juan a duke, though Cesare would make more of a name for himself as a military commander. He also divided up the world into Portuguese and Spanish territories with the Line of Demarcation in 1493, which was moved in 1494 with the Treaty of Torsidillas. Upon his death, the next pope, Pope Pius III, forbid the saying of a Mass for him, famously saying, “It is blasphemous to pray for the damned.”

40. simony

Buying or selling of something spiritual or closely connected with the spiritual. More widely, it is any contract of this kind forbidden by divine or ecclesiastical law. The name is taken from Simon Magus (Acts 8:18), who tried to buy from the Apostles the power of conferring the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It was virtually unknown in the first three centuries of the Christian church, but it became familiar when the church had positions of wealth and influence to bestow.

41. Lucrezia Borgia

An Italian noblewoman and daughter of Pope Alexander VI. A notorious reputation precedes her, and she is inextricably, and perhaps unfairly, linked to the crimes and debauchery of her family. Her three marriages into influential families helped build the political power of her own family. Historians debate whether or not Borgia was an active participant in her notorious family’s crimes, but interest in her has inspired countless works of art, books, and films. Her first marriage was annulled when she was sixth months pregnant (later prompting rumors that it was her brother Cesare’s child). He second marriage ended with her husband’s death, likely at the hands of men hired by her brother. With her third marriage, she was able to move away from Rome to Ferrerra and get free of her family.

42. Cesare Borgia

A military leader and son of Pope Alexander VI. At times, thanks to his father’s nepotism, he was an archbishop and a cardinal, but he was more known for his military exploits. He likely had his older brother killed to take over his territory. His father had to then negotiate an annulment of the king of France’s marriage in order to give him those titles, in France. He also had his sister’s husband killed because the husband got in the way of his allegiances to France. He fell out of power with the death of his father and the rise of Pope Julius II, who used his influence to become pope and then turned on him. Basically, he was an all around swell guy, the type of guy that would be the basis for Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. Ironically, with a resume like that, it is a portrait of him by the Venetian artist Giorgione that would go on to be the model for the face of Christ for the next 500 years.

43. Giorgione
        
The first of three great masters of the Venetian Renaissance, he lived from 1477-1510. He helped shape the Veneitian style, which has highly geometric forms, combined with idiosyncratic characteristics. He is perhaps more known for teaching Titian, who would go on to surpass him in importance. He also painted a painting of Cesare Borgia that is eerily similar to the depictions of Christ over the next 500 years.

44. Titian

A student of Giorgione’s, he is the second of the three great Venetian artists of the Renaissance and lived from 1488-1576. He was prolific during his career and was well renowned for his use of color. His best known works include Assumption of the Virgin and Venus of Urbino. He also taught Tintoretto for a brief time at the start of Tintoretto’s career.

45. Venus of Urbino

A 1538 oil painting by the Italian master Titian. It depicts a nude young woman, identified with the titular goddess, reclining on a couch or bed in the sumptuous surroundings of a Renaissance palace. It hangs in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. The shape and style of this pose would prove to be highly influential of future reclining nudes, particularly Edouard Manet’s Olympia.

46. Tintoretto

The third of the three great Venetian Renaissance artists, though some of his pieces bordered on more mannerism than Renaissance. He lived from 1518-1594 and was briefly tutored by Titian. His name is actually Jacopo Robusti, but he took on this nickname, which means “Little Dyer”, which comes from his family’s line of work. Perhaps his best known work is his version of The Last Supper, which adds much more emotion than Leonardo Da Vinci’s version. He also had a bit of ego. The words over his door loosely translated to: “The color of Titian, and the drawing of Michelangelo”.

47. The Last Supper

The title of multiple works of art, including one of the most famous pieces ever by Leonardo Da Vinci, painted from 1495-98. That version is at the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. In it, Leonardo chooses to capture the moment after Jesus tells the apostles that one of them will betray him. You see all 12 apostles alone in a room on one side of the table. This is the most reproduced piece of art in history. However, Tintoretto also had a famous painting of the same name, and he decided to take a much more emotional take on the scene. In his version, many servants, preparing both the food and the footwashing that is to come, surround the apostles. It is also a much darker painting with light actually emanating from Jesus. That painting was completed between 1592-94 and is housed in the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice

48. Mannerism

A style that bridged the gap between Renaissance art and Baroque art. It emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, lasting until about 1580 in Italy, when the Baroque style began to replace it. Where High Renaissance art emphasizes proportion, balance, and ideal beauty, it exaggerates such qualities, often resulting in compositions that are asymmetrical or unnaturally elegant.
                        49. indulgences

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes one as "a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints". What they became, however, was a way for the Catholic church to fund the overspending of many of their corrupt popes by selling free passes into heaven for yourself or dead relatives, though, to be fair, the Catholic church insists that one could never actually shorten time in purgatory or forgive future sins with them.

50. Protestant Reformation

The upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. In northern and central Europe, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Henry VIII challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian practice. They argued for a religious and political redistribution of power into the hands of Bible- and pamphlet-reading pastors and princes. The disruption triggered wars, persecutions and the so-called Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church’s delayed but forceful response to the Protestants.

51. Martin Luther

Born in Germany in 1483, he became one of the most influential figures in Christian history when he began the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. He called into question some of the basic tenets of Roman Catholicism, and his followers soon split from the Roman Catholic Church to begin the Protestant tradition. He spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. But in 1517 Luther penned a document attacking the Catholic Church’s corrupt practice of selling “indulgences” to absolve sin. His “95 Theses,” which propounded two central beliefs—that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds—was to spark the Protestant Reformation.

52. 95 Theses
        
Popular legend has it that on October 31, 1517 Martin Luther defiantly nailed a copy of these to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. The reality was probably not so dramatic; Luther more likely hung the document on the door of the church matter-of-factly to announce the ensuing academic discussion around it that he was organizing. They are also known as the “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”. They were written in a remarkably humble and academic tone, questioning rather than accusing. The overall thrust of the document was nonetheless quite provocative. The first two of the them contained Luther’s central idea, that God intended believers to seek repentance and that faith alone, and not deeds, would lead to salvation. The others, a number of them directly criticizing the practice of indulgences, supported these first two.

53. Vulgate

A late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible that became, during the 16th century, the Catholic Church's officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible. The translation was largely the work of St. Jerome, who, in 382, was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina ("Old Latin") collection of biblical texts in Latin then in use by the Church. The Catholic Church affirmed it as its official Latin Bible at the Council of Trent (1545–63).

54. Desiderius Erasmus

Living from 1469 to 1536, he was a humanist and the greatest scholar of the Northern Renaissance. He helped lay the groundwork for the historical-critical study of the past, especially in his studies of the Greek New Testament and the Church Fathers. His educational writings contributed to the replacement of the older scholastic curriculum by the new humanist emphasis on the classics. By criticizing ecclesiastical abuses, while pointing to a better age in the distant past, he encouraged the growing urge for reform, which found expression both in the Protestant Reformation and in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. His most famous work was an essay called In Praise of Folly.

55. In Praise of Folly

An essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in 1511. Iit is a satirical attack on superstitions and other traditions of European society as well as on the western Church. Erasmus revised and extended the work, which he originally wrote in the space of a week while sojourning with Sir Thomas More at More's estate. It is considered one of the most notable works of the Renaissance and played an important role in the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation.[

56. William Tyndle

The man who attempted to make the Bible accessible to the common English man. In a time when translating the Bible into English was outlawed, he did it anyway and had 6000 copies printed in Germany and smuggled into England in 1524. This put him at odds with Henry VIII, who was still married to Katherine of Aragon and still Catholic. He tried to hide on the European continent, but he was eventually caught and executed in England in 1536 by strangulation and having his corpse burned at the stake. Henry VIII would change his mind three years later and require every parish church in England to have a copy of the English Bible available to parishoners.

    57. King James Bible

An English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. The books of this version  include the 39 books of the Old Testament, an section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament. In January 1604, James I convened the Hampton Court Conference, where a new English version was conceived in response to the problems of the earlier translations perceived by the Puritans, a faction of the Church of England. The translation is widely considered to be both beautiful and scholarly and thus a towering achievement in English literature. Later versions would remove the books from the Apocrypha.

58. Johannes Gutenberg

German printer from the middle of the 15th century most notable for creating a printing method using moveable type that was used without important change until the 20th century. The unique elements of his invention consisted of a mold, with punch-stamped matrices (metal prisms used to mold the face of the type) with which type could be cast precisely and in large quantities; a type-metal alloy; a new press, derived from those used in wine making, papermaking, and bookbinding; and an oil-based printing ink. None of these features existed in Chinese or Korean printing, or in the existing European technique of stamping letters on various surfaces, or in woodblock printing. This invention changed the world, helping movements such as the Protestant Reformation get traction.

59. moveable type

The system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual letters or punctuation) usually on the medium of paper which was first invented in ancient China. The world's first printing press technology for printing paper books made with this was made of ceramic porcelain China materials and invented in ancient China around 1040 CE by the Han Chinese innovator Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). In 1377, currently the oldest extant movable metal print book, Jikji, was printed in Korea. The diffusion of both of these  systems was limited, however. They were expensive, and required a high amount of labor involved in manipulating the thousands of ceramic tablets or metal tablets, required for scripts based on the ancient Chinese writing script, which has hundreds of thousands of characters. Around 1450 Johannes Gutenberg made another version in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mold. The more limited number of characters needed for European languages was an important factor. Gutenberg was the first to create his type pieces from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony—and these materials remained standard for 550 years.

60. Ulrich Zwingli

A Swiss Protestant leader in the Reformation. He  not as famous as the likes as Martin Luther or John Calvin but he did play his part in the break with the Roman Catholic Church. He published 67 Theses in Switzerland some six years after Luther’s 95, but his were more persuasive, emphasizing Christ first and the church second.

61. John Calvin

A Swiss preacher who lived from 1509-1564. He  created a more extreme Protestantism than Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. He is widely credited as the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. In 1536, he published the landmark text Institutes of the Christian Religion, an early attempt to standardize the theories of Protestantism. His religious teachings emphasized the sovereignty of the scriptures and divine predestination – a doctrine holding that God chooses those who will enter Heaven based on foreknowledge of their good deeds.

62. Wittenberg

A city known for its close connection with Martin Luther and the dawn of the Protestant Reformation; several of its buildings are associated with the events of this time. Part of the Augustinian monastery in which Luther dwelt, first as a monk and later as owner with his wife and family, is preserved and considered to be the world's premier museum dedicated to Luther.

63. Counter-Reformation

A movement of reform in the Catholic Church. The Catholics argue that this movement started even before Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, and that before he split from the church, he was arguably a part of it. In any case, it gathered more steam in the face of the Protestant Reformation. In 1545, the leaders of the Catholic Church gathered in the Northern Italian city of Trent for an emergency conference. Their aim was to reclaim the moral high ground, and the superiority of the Holy Mother Church, in the wake of the Protestant challenge.

64. Council of Trent

Held in northern Italy between 1545-63, it was on of the Catholic Church’s most important ecumenical councils. It established the basis for a Catholic counter-attack to the Reformation. Decrees were issued covering every aspect of Church authority, from the holding of multiple offices, to the chastity of priests, and monastic reform. Ignatius Loyola was charged with forming the Jesuits, a band of militant missionaries whose task was to reconvert the converted. The “Index of Forbidden Books” was published, naming and shaming 583 heretical texts, including most translations of the Bible and the works of Erasmus, Calvin and Luther. New churches were ordered, with space for thousands of worshippers, and acoustics designed, for the first time, for vernacular sermons. The Catholic Church used the weapon of reform to entice back its disillusioned congregations.

65. Pope Paul III

The pope who came in the wake of the second Medici pope (Clement VII) in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. He convened the Council of Trent in 1545 but died long before its completion.

66. Holy Roman Empire

An allegiance of states, centered typically around Germany, which lasted from the crowning of Charlemagne in 800 CE until the dissolution in 1806. It had a substantial role in the Protestant Reformation and the 30 Years War, but as the Mike Myers character Linda Richman once said on Saturday Night Live, it was neither holy, Roman nor an empire.

67. The Inquisition

An ecclesiastical tribunal established by Pope Gregory IX circa 1232 for the suppression of heresy. It was active chiefly in northern Italy and southern France, becoming notorious for the use of torture. In 1542 it was re-established to combat Protestantism, eventually becoming an organ of papal government. It spread to multiple Catholic countries, most notably Spain, where the it had a particular fascination with Jews and Muslims and their potential conversions, do in large part to the particular history of that area of the world and its former subjugation under Muslim rule.

    68. Peace of Augsburg

A temporary settlement within the Holy Roman Empire of the religious conflict arising from the Reformation. Each prince was to determine whether Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism was to prevail in his lands. Dissenters were allowed to emigrate, and the free cities were obligated to allow both Catholics and Lutherans to practice their religions. Calvinists and others were ignored. Under a provision termed the ecclesiastic reservation, the archbishops, bishops, and abbots who had become Protestant after 1552 were to forfeit their offices and incomes.

69. Defenestration of Prague

Incident of Bohemian resistance to Habsburg authority that preceded the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War. In 1617 Roman Catholic officials in Bohemia closed Protestant chapels that were being constructed by citizens of the towns of Broumov and Hrob, thus violating the guarantees of religious liberty laid down in the Letter of Majesty of Emperor Rudolf II. In response the Protestants of Prague called a meeting, found the Catholics  William Slavata and Jaroslav Martinic guilty of violating the Letter of Majesty and then tossed them and their secretary Fabricius out of a window. Though, they caused no real harm to the Catholics, this is generally considered the start to the Thirty Years’ War.

70. Thirty Years’ War

Lasting from 1618-48, it began when Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Bohemia attempted to curtail the religious activities of his subjects, sparking rebellion among Protestants. The war came to involve the major powers of Europe, with Sweden, France, Spain and Austria all waging campaigns primarily on German soil. Known in part for the atrocities committed by mercenary soldiers, the war ended with a series of treaties that made up the Peace of Westphalia. The fallout reshaped the religious and political map of central Europe, setting the stage for the old centralized Roman Catholic empire to give way to a community of sovereign states.

71. Hapsburgs

One of the principal sovereign dynasties of Europe from the 15th to the 20th century. The name is derived from a translation of Hawk’s Castle, the family estate built in 1020 CE in what is now Switzerland. The family dominated and continually held the throne of the Holy Roman Empire between 1438-1740, becoming the most dominant of all royalty in the time period. Their last ruler, and only female ruler, Maria Theresa (1745-1780) marked the end of their domination of Europe.

72. Peace of Westphalia

European settlements of 1648, which brought to an end the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years’ War. It was negotiated starting in 1644 in the towns of Münster and Osnabrück.