| A | B |
|---|
| Georgio Vasari | 16th century painter, architect and writer. First to use the word rinascita (rebirth) to describe the Renaissance. |
| Sforza | Mercanary (codottiero) whose family dominated the Italian city-state of Madrid during the Renaissance. |
| Medici | Prominent family in Florence that used their wealth gained from banking to establish themselves as the behind-the-scenes rulers and eventually as hereditary dukes of Florence. |
| Francesco Petrarch | (1304-1374) Father of humanism. Coined term "Dark Ages" (400-900) to refer to period of cultural decline after the fall of Rome. Studied original classical texts such as Cicero. Accepted Christianity and argued for universality of classical ideas. |
| Cicero | Important politician and philosopher whose writings provide an account of the collapse of the Roman Republic. |
| Civic Humanists | Wealthy young Florentines who used their classical education for public good. Served as Florentine diplomats or in the chancellery offices. |
| Plato | (427-348) Ancient Greek philosopher who believed that ideals exist beyond the ability of our senses. |
| Picodella Mirandola | Wrote "Oration on the Dignity of Men" which contains a famous passage about the Platonic view of human potential. |
| Castiglione | Wrote "The Courtier" (1528) to describe the ideal man of the Renaissance. |
| Lorenzo Valla | Critical figure in the new field of critical textual analysis. In 1440, he prove the "Donation of Constantine" to be a fake. |
| Leonardo Bruni | Humanist scholar that created an educational program for women (left out traditional parts of male education). |
| Christine de Pizan | Wrote "The City of Ladies" (1405) which countered the belief that women were inferior to men. |
| Filippo Brunelleschi | Built the dome over teh Cathedral of Florence during the Renaissance. |
| Julius II | Renaissance Pope and Michelangelo's patron who tasked him with creating his tomb and painting the Sistine Chapel. |
| Leonardo da Vinci | (1483-1520) Military engineer, architect, sculptor, scientist, inventor and painter. Sketchbooks contain advanced designs. Painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. |
| Raphael | (1483-1520) Renaissance painter who was given several important commisions in the Vatican palaces. Painted images of Mary and Jesus and The School of Athens which uses classical structure and single point perspective. |
| Michelangelo | (1475-1564) Renaissance artist who was commisioned by Florence to sculpt David as propoganda. Commisioned by popes for various works such as the Sistine Chapel. |
| Desiderius Erasmus | (1466-1536) Wrote "Adages" (contains ancient and contemporary proverbs), "In Praise of Folly" (satiracal crticism of the problems of teh Church), and the "Handbook of the Christian Knight" (emphasized inner faith opposed to outward worship such as the sacraments). Translated the New Testament into Latin. Disagreed with Luther's abandonment of the Church and idea that man does not have free will. |
| Sir Thomas More | (1478-1535) Wrote "Utopia" which was critical of aspects of contemporary society and depicted a society in which injustices were limited by having common property. Critical of church practices. Executed by Henry VIII for refusing to take an oath recognizing him as the head of the Church of England. |
| Albrecht Durer | Made woodcuts that lent support to the doctrinal revolution brought abouth by Luther. Illiterate peasants were moved more by his art than writings. |
| Geoffrey Chaucer | Wrote "Canterbury Tales" (collection of short tales) based on "The Decameron". Father of English Literature. |
| Boccaccio | Wrote "The Decameron" a collection of short tales. |
| Christopher Marlowe | Important writer during the Elizabethan Renaissance. Wrote tradegies and influenced Shakespeare. |
| Ben Jonson | Important writer, plawright and poet during the Elizabethan Renaissance. |
| William Shakespeare | Most significant playwright during Elizabethan Era. Wrote such plays as "King Lear" and "Hamlet". |
| Johannes Gutenburg | German who inroduced moveable type (printing press) to western Europe. Printed nearly 200 bibles between 1452-1553. |
| Jacob Burkhart | 18th century philosopher. First to recognize the renaissance as a rebirth. |
| John Wycliffe | (1329-1384) Englishman who questioned the wordly wealth of the Church, transubstantiation, teachings of penance and the selling of indulgences. Urged followers to read the bible and interpret it for themselves. Translated teh Bible into English. |
| Lollards | Followers of John Wycliffe. |
| Jan Hus | (1369-1415) Believed the authority of the bible mattered more than the church and that the congregation should be given the bread and the wine during mass. Upset by the immoral behavior of clergy. Led a revolt in Bohemia. Called before Council of Constance and burnt at the stake as a heretic. |
| Pope Martin V | Called Hus to Council of Constance, condemned him as a heretic, and burnt him at the stake. |
| Hussites | Followers of Jan Huss. |
| Martin Luther | (1483-1546) Upset by selling of indulgences (especially Tetzel) and wrote 95 Theses. Wrote "Adress to the Christian Nobility", "On the Babylonian Captivity", and "Liberty of a Christian Man". Refused to recant beliefs at Diet of Worms. Believed in salvation by faith alone, the bible is the sole authority on Earth, baptism and communion are the only sacraments, contransubstantiation, and rejected monasticism and clergical celibacy. |
| Albert of Hohenzolleren | Bishop who bought the Archbishropic of Mainz with borrowed money. Payed off his debt with money from the sale of indulgences. |
| Johann Tetzel | Dominican friar who preached the indulgence throughout Germany. "As soon as gold in the basin rings, right then the soul to heaven springs." |
| Pope Leo X | Pope that issued a papal bull demanding that Luther recant his ideas or be burnt at the stake. |
| Frederick Elector of Saxony | Sympathetic to Luther's ideas. |
| Charles V (HRE) | Holy Roman Emperor, grandson of Maximilian, that asked Luther to recant his beliefs at Diet of Worms. Fought against Francis I (France), the Ottoman Empire, and Protestant princes in the Schmalkaldic Wars (ended with Peace of Augsburg). Ruled Spain, possesion in the New World, Netherlands, southern Italy, and Austria. |
| Philip Melanchthon | Formed a new church with Luther based on ideas free from papal control. |
| Emperor Maximilian | Holy Roman Emperor and grandfather to Charles V. |
| Anabaptists | Believed baptism only works when practiced by adults who are aware of the decision they are making. Religion declared a capital offense. |
| Menno Simons | Leader of Anabaptists who moved toward pacifism after the capture of Munster. |
| Antitrinitarianists | Denied the validaty of the Holy Trinity. |
| Ulrich Zwingli | (1484-1531) Strict sacramentarian (denied all sacraments). Impacted the residents of Zurich, Switzerland. Believed in contransubstantiation and was more concerned with this world, as he called for social reform. |
| John Calvin | (1509-1564) Wrote "Institutes of the Christian Religion". Believed in predestination in which there is no room for free will. Made Geneva into a strict disciplinarian city in which even minor crimes were severely punished. |
| Huguenots | French Calvinists |
| Henry VIII | Ruled England (1509-1546). Wrote "In Defense of the Seven Sacraments." Created the Church of England after the papacy refused to anull his marriage to Catherine the Great. Passed Act of Supremacy which made him head of the Church of England. |
| Catherine of Aragon | Spanish wife Henry VIII and widow f Henry's older brother. Could not produce a male heir to the throne. Mother of Mary Tudor. |
| Anne Boleyn | Second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth Tudor. |
| Jane Seymour | Third wife of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI. |
| Edward VI | English king (1547-1553) who tried to institute a genuine Protestant theology into the Church of England. |
| Mary Tudor | Short-reigning queen of England (1553-1558) and wife of Phillip II. Tried to re-Catholicize England. Known as Bloody Mary for allowing hundreds of Protestants to be burnt at the stake. |
| Jesuits | Group organized by Ignatious Loyola that recognized the Church as the sole authoity and worked as missionaries to reverse the effects of Protestantism. |
| Ignatius Loyola | (1491-1556) Spanish noble who wrote "Spiritual Exercises" outlining his obedience to the church. Founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). |
