WEBVTT 1 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:25.559 Hello, and Welcome to Western SIEV. Early Modern overview three. 2 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:33.840 Politics and culture. Early modern Europe is usually seen as 3 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:37.880 the period in European history that sees the development of 4 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:44.439 the nation state. That is, true, patchwork kingdoms gave way 5 00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:49.079 to more settled boundaries between fourteen fifty and sixteen fifty, 6 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:53.840 and those boundaries normally contained a population with a shared 7 00:00:53.960 --> 00:01:01.240 language and culture that by definition is a nation state. Still, 8 00:01:01.759 --> 00:01:06.640 the vast majority of Europeans even by sixteen hundred, were 9 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:13.519 not literate. Thus they didn't likely understand these various translations 10 00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:17.760 outside of their village or town. Religion was likely the 11 00:01:17.799 --> 00:01:20.760 only thing that gave them a sense of belonging to 12 00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:25.239 their state or kingdom. Even language was not a cohesive 13 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:29.519 force by sixteen hundred, as there were many different dialects 14 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:34.319 throughout most of the kingdoms of Europe. The number one 15 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:38.400 factor by far that led to more nation states in 16 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:44.879 Europe by sixteen fifty was war, specifically the changing nature 17 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:50.079 and growing cost of war. Only kings and queens could 18 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:55.719 afford large standing armies by sixteen hundred. In the fifteenth century, 19 00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:59.760 the deadliest type of fighter was a cavalryman wearing full 20 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:04.079 place armor and carrying a lance and sword. Met at 21 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:07.519 arms were always members of the nobility, and their primary 22 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:12.280 function in battle was frontline troops. They charged information at 23 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:15.759 a steady center with lances drawn against the enemy's front line, 24 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:20.439 hoping essentially to shock it into a retreat. Heavy cavalry 25 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:23.319 were regarded as the most important arm of the military 26 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:28.000 in the fifteenth century, but their invincibility was increasingly being 27 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:31.840 challenged during the later stages of the One Hundred Years War, 28 00:02:31.879 --> 00:02:35.840 which ended in fourteen fifty three. English foot soldiers armed 29 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:40.400 with longbows were very effective against heavily armored French knights, 30 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:45.280 and in other fifteenth century wars soldiers used steel crossbows. 31 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:50.599 Pikes were even deadlier than bows. Foot soldiers armed with 32 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:54.599 ten to fifteen foot long pikes standing very close to 33 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:58.680 one another with all their pikes facing outward, an arrangement 34 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:02.319 called the Swiss Fans were able to defend against a 35 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:07.120 cavalry charge so long as they held their position. Horses 36 00:03:07.479 --> 00:03:10.800 simply wouldn't charge into the wall of pikes, no matter 37 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:16.319 how hard they were spurred. Gradually, pikemen were reinforced by 38 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:22.319 foot soldiers carrying firearms. The first reasonably portable firearm was 39 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:26.199 the arquebus, a short metal tube attached to a wooden 40 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:30.560 handle loaded down the muzzle with powder and a round bullet. 41 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:34.879 The powder was initially lit by a slow burning wick 42 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:37.719 called a match cord, through a touchstone in the barrel, 43 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:43.960 a firing mechanism that was called a matchlock. Around fifteen hundred, 44 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:49.639 wheel lock firing mechanisms in which iron pyrite caused sparks 45 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:54.000 by being scraped along a metal wheel, was developed, producing 46 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:59.039 the first ever self igniting firearm. The wheel lock was 47 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:02.240 safer to the gunner than the matchlock because you didn't 48 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:05.960 have to use an open flame, but the arcubus was 49 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:09.800 heavy and it took so long to reload that two 50 00:04:09.879 --> 00:04:14.439 pipemen stood on either side to defend this man against 51 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:19.079 a cavalry charge. Now the musket is really what starts 52 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:23.279 to change everything. It was developed in the fifteen twenties 53 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:27.160 and was much lighter and easier to reload than the arcubus. 54 00:04:28.120 --> 00:04:32.800 Muskets also originally used matchlocks or wheelocks to fire, but 55 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:36.879 in the early seventeenth century the French invented a flint 56 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:40.879 lock firing mechanism in which flint strikes a piece of 57 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:45.160 steel to make sparks. Which ignite powder and an attached flashpan. 58 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:47.839 In this in turn, if it all goes according to plan, 59 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:53.600 ignites the main charge in the barrel. Flint Lock weapons 60 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:57.240 quickly replaced other types and remained the most common portable 61 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:00.600 firearm in Europe and European colonies all the way to 62 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:05.399 the middle of the nineteenth century. Musket Balls could easily 63 00:05:05.480 --> 00:05:10.519 pierce armor, though plate armor got thicker. This thickness resulted 64 00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:14.720 in increased weight, making horses so slow that they were 65 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.839 even more vulnerable. A nobleman had to figure he would 66 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:22.319 lose his horse every single time he went into battle. 67 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:27.240 Military commanders generally arranged their troops with pipemen to one 68 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:31.600 to two every two musketeers, though the later invention and 69 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:34.879 finally adoption of the bayonets, which is a dagger attached 70 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:37.480 to the end of the gun, made the same soldier 71 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:43.720 both musketeer and pipemen. Infantry troops on foot finally became 72 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:47.000 the heart of early modern armies, which is a change 73 00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:52.519 that hadn't struck Europe since the Roman legions. In the 74 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:56.120 medieval period, foot soldiers had been the lowest rung on 75 00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:01.639 the totem pole. These had been exclusively peasants, but gunpowder 76 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:06.680 changed all that. In fact, gunpowder was a major factor 77 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:10.199 in the declining role of the nobility in the making 78 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:15.000 of war. Pistols were invented around fifteen to ten, and 79 00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:19.079 during several battles of the Habsburg Valois Wars in the 80 00:06:19.079 --> 00:06:26.240 fifteen fifties, German mounted pistol users called writers humiliated heavily 81 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:31.639 armored French cavalry armed with lances. Writers were generally members 82 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.639 of the lesser nobility. They had to be able to 83 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:38.160 afford a horse, and their weapons were slowly adopted by 84 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:42.720 nobles elsewhere who abandoned lances and instead had three or 85 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:46.959 four pistols along with their swords. Pistols took a long 86 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.720 time to reload, by the way, so these pistoliers or 87 00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:56.279 writers charged with several of them already loaded. Cavalry Firing 88 00:06:56.279 --> 00:07:01.240 pistols were used by military commanders against other cavalry or 89 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:06.439 to break up large masses of foot soldiers. While handheld 90 00:07:06.439 --> 00:07:13.519 weapons transformed actual pitched battles, large artillery weapons completely transformed 91 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:19.160 military tactics. Early cannons fired rocks, which were not uniform 92 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:23.199 in size intended to shatter on impact. By the middle 93 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:26.519 of the fifteenth century armies were using balls made of 94 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:30.959 cast iron and cannons that could be disassembled for easier movement, 95 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:35.800 which were much more expensive but much more effective. Cannon 96 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:40.399 balls blasted holes in high castle or city walls, and 97 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:45.879 defensive fortifications changed accordingly, becoming low, thick, earthen ramparts that 98 00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:50.560 stood up to artillery quite easily. In the sixteenth century, 99 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:55.920 cities increasingly built more complex fortifications with outlying bastions in 100 00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:59.120 which they could place cannons, making it very difficult to 101 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:04.800 take a city by four sieges grew longer. Starvation was 102 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:09.240 now by large the most important tactic in forcing a 103 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:16.920 city into submission. Undermining a city's walls became essentially antiquated overnight. 104 00:08:18.519 --> 00:08:21.600 All this new military technology led to the growth of 105 00:08:21.639 --> 00:08:25.600 standing armies that could make better use of them. This 106 00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:28.399 benefited the crowned heads of Europe, who now had a 107 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:33.559 monopoly over these new model armies. These new armies were 108 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:38.519 also much larger than the medieval counterparts. Spain had less 109 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:42.759 than twenty five thousand total men under arms circa fifteen hundred, 110 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:47.360 but by sixteen hundred Spain was fielding a total military 111 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:52.440 of two hundred thousand men. Spread throughout Europe and the Americas. 112 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:58.840 Other European states saw their numbers increase proportionally. In the 113 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:03.480 Middle Ages, powerful nobles might field private armies roughly equal 114 00:09:03.799 --> 00:09:07.519 to those commanded by the sovereign, hence the Wars of 115 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:12.679 the Roses. But by sixteen hundred, even the most powerful 116 00:09:12.679 --> 00:09:16.120 of nobles, like Robert Dudley in England, who could still 117 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:20.440 maintain a private army, could not maintain armies of thousands 118 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:25.200 or tens of thousands of men. Military campaigns had been 119 00:09:25.240 --> 00:09:28.919 traditionally fought from March to October, when food was available 120 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:31.759 for men and animals, and then the soldiers were simply 121 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.480 sent home for the winter. This was no longer advisable, 122 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.279 with the standing army going home meant likely that they 123 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:42.879 would desert, but governments could not afford to build barracks 124 00:09:42.919 --> 00:09:46.720 for the troops. They were thus housed with civilian families, 125 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:49.120 with the family expected to provide a place for a 126 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:53.480 certain number of soldiers to sleep and keep warm. In theory, 127 00:09:54.039 --> 00:09:56.960 the soldiers were supposed to pay for their food, but 128 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:01.000 as their pay itself often remained theoretical, they simply took 129 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:05.679 what they needed by force. The relationship between civilians and 130 00:10:05.720 --> 00:10:10.480 soldiers was therefore often very hostile. Neither group had enough 131 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:14.120 to eat. The Spanish army, fighting in Flanders in the 132 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:17.679 late sixteenth century, was the first to contract directly with 133 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:22.320 local people to feed and clothe the troops. Technology changed 134 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:25.360 fighting at sea as well. In the Middle Ages, naval 135 00:10:25.399 --> 00:10:30.200 combat was essentially non existent. Armies, not navies, fought over 136 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:34.279 the control of ports to an extent. That's still true 137 00:10:34.279 --> 00:10:38.159 in the early modern period, but now navies also fought 138 00:10:38.200 --> 00:10:41.840 over the control of the waterways themselves. Often states did 139 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:44.559 this in conjunction with merchants, since they were the ones 140 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:48.320 who owned the ships. Few states had standing navies until 141 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:53.080 the seventeenth century. Now, obviously, all these new militaries had 142 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:55.840 to be paid for. Hence, the growth of the state's 143 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:59.360 military led to a growth of its tax system and bureaucracy. 144 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.080 Otherwise you wouldn't be able to keep up with your neighbor. 145 00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:05.840 This led to an increase in power for the sovereign. 146 00:11:06.799 --> 00:11:11.519 After fourteen fifty, the size of European bureaucracies exploded as 147 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:15.519 kings issued more and more laws and gradually took over 148 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:20.360 the administrative powers being vacated by the Catholic Church. Because 149 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:25.000 almost all European monarchies were also hereditary. That also meant 150 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.120 that marital strategy was just as important as martial strategy. 151 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:34.399 We've already seen recently what happens when two dynasties, the 152 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:39.360 valoaw and the tutor run out of airs. Now, of course, 153 00:11:39.559 --> 00:11:44.159 in addition to great nation states, it's worth considering government 154 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:47.919 and power at the local level. The Italian city states 155 00:11:47.960 --> 00:11:51.120 are the most visible example of politics at the level 156 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:53.480 where it had the greatest impact on most people's day 157 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:57.279 to day lives. Their history reminds us that in all 158 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:04.320 of Europe, underneath the highest layer of in marrying hereditary dynasties, cities, villages, parishes, 159 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:07.600 so on, and so forth, many other governmental small units 160 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:11.960 all had authority over people in their families, just as 161 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:17.000 national and territorial rulers did. These lower levels of government 162 00:12:17.080 --> 00:12:23.080 demanded taxes, developed bureaucracies, and issued ordinances. They created and 163 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:26.440 maintained courts that set punishments for those who did not 164 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:31.120 pay their taxes, abbey officials, or follow ordinances. Though most 165 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:33.120 men could not hope to become an official for a 166 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:39.399 national or territorial ruler, many could gain positions as village constables, gatekeepers, 167 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:43.679 or even market overseers. Some of these more local institutions 168 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:47.559 of government were run by the Church. Christians throughout Europe 169 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:50.360 paid taxes to their local parish and were under the 170 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:55.240 authority of church courts for matters involving marriage, morality, and 171 00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:59.120 a variety of other issues. By fourteen fifty, villages in 172 00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:02.360 many parts of Europe become what were called communes, with 173 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:06.399 institutions of self governance, such as councils or courts that 174 00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:10.399 regulated planting and harvesting, and might represent the village as 175 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:14.759 a whole to outside political authorities. In some places, such 176 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:19.159 groups could issue ordinances and make legal decisions, either in 177 00:13:19.240 --> 00:13:22.240 conjunction with the local lord or on their own. The 178 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:25.759 towns and cities that won their independence from local lords 179 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:30.240 and gained charters had even stronger institutions of governance. In 180 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.200 Germany and Italy, they might be under the jurisdiction of 181 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:37.360 only the emperor or of no higher political authority at all. 182 00:13:38.279 --> 00:13:42.159 But even in areas in which national monarchies developed, cities 183 00:13:42.200 --> 00:13:47.000 collected taxes, passed and enforced ordinances, built and maintained walls 184 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:53.240 and fortifications. They established courts, hospitals, orphanages, and often even 185 00:13:53.320 --> 00:14:11.279 surprisingly municipal brothels. In his Lives of the most eminent painter, sculptors, 186 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:15.120 and Architects, a series of biographies of artists published in 187 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:21.679 fifteen fifty, Giorgio Vasari wrote as follows quote, the great 188 00:14:21.799 --> 00:14:27.039 ruler of Heaven looked down, and, seeing the presumptuous opinion 189 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:30.799 of man, more removed from truth than light from darkness, 190 00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:35.679 resolved to send to earth a genius universal in each art, 191 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:39.879 so that the world should marvel at the singular eminence 192 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:44.320 of his life and works, and all his actions, seeming 193 00:14:44.679 --> 00:14:51.879 rather divine than earthly end quote. He also published a 194 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:56.279 new word to describe the new types of art made 195 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:00.960 by this singular genius. He was talking about Michelangelo, and 196 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:07.159 he called them Renaissance artists. Writers and thinkers of the 197 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:12.600 fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries such as Petrarch and Lorenzo Valla, 198 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:18.360 had already seen themselves as reinvigorating the classical past, but 199 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:23.279 Vasari thought that rebirth had gone beyond the original. He 200 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:27.279 wrote as follows quote, many works today are more perfect 201 00:15:27.320 --> 00:15:31.039 and better finished than were those of the great masters 202 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:36.399 of the past end quote. These creators were, in the 203 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:40.320 eyes of Asari and many now simply highly skilled and 204 00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:46.159 highly trained artisans. These were rare men of genius who 205 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:49.519 needed to take credit for their work now, as we've 206 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:54.399 already seen in previous episodes, scholars still debate whether the 207 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:57.440 Renaissance should be viewed as the beginning of the modern 208 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:01.919 era or as a transition to the mod Personally, I 209 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:06.200 think it's the latter, but again I'm not a historian. Now, look, 210 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:10.720 not everyone could participate in this cultural rebirth, even had 211 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:15.000 they been aware of it and wanted to. Social class, gender, 212 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:19.840 and especially geographic location all influenced the chance that one 213 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:22.320 might be able to join in a community of scholars 214 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:26.600 and artists in a world where few could read or write. 215 00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:31.840 Those skills served as the initial gatekeeper. In the sixteenth century, 216 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:35.639 reformers started calling for the opening of schools that would 217 00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:41.000 teach in the vernacular. This was especially true after the Reformation. 218 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:46.080 By sixteen hundred, there were hundreds of laws and ordinances 219 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:51.320 requiring such schools throughout Germany, but in reality there were 220 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:57.559 very few actual schools. Interestingly, it was the Catholic counter 221 00:16:57.679 --> 00:17:02.679 Reformation and the establishment of Catechism schools that actually made 222 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:09.079 more ground in spreading basic literary skills throughout Europe. The 223 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:15.839 Jesuits were particularly effective there. It's worth noting that in 224 00:17:16.039 --> 00:17:20.240 the early modern period, reading and writing were not taught 225 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:24.880 at the same time. You had to master reading before 226 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:28.119 you could learn to write. To an extent, this was 227 00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:33.000 just about cost. Teaching reading was a lot cheaper, but 228 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:38.240 it was also about pedagogy. Authors believed the most important 229 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:43.359 function of education was to teach children the ideas of others, 230 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:47.839 not for them to express their own thoughts and opinions. 231 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:55.759 Hence writing was simply considered less important. Now, it's very 232 00:17:55.799 --> 00:18:00.880 hard to measure literacy in early modern Europe. If we 233 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:04.519 consider the ability to sign one's name as an indicator, 234 00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:09.960 then around fifteen eighty, about forty nine percent of male 235 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:15.000 tradesmen and six percent of women residing in East Anglia, 236 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:20.559 England could do so looking at that same county, by 237 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:25.359 sixteen eighty, so one hundred years later those numbers had risen, 238 00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:29.519 but only to fifty six percent and sixteen percent, respectively, 239 00:18:30.359 --> 00:18:33.480 a much less dramatic increase in a century than I 240 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:38.960 think we might have expected. Now smash forward to seventeen fifty. 241 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:42.920 By then, almost all upper class men and women could read, 242 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:47.960 but still only a small fraction of male or female 243 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:53.799 peasants could. Once a boy learned root a menory literacy skills, 244 00:18:54.359 --> 00:18:57.359 he might be sent to a Latin grammar school and 245 00:18:57.480 --> 00:19:02.640 eventually university, assuming his parents could afford it. The Protestant 246 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:09.000 Reformation increased the number of basic grammar schools considerably. Scholars 247 00:19:09.319 --> 00:19:12.200 believe there are around four hundred such schools in England 248 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:15.680 in fifteen hundred, and that that number had doubled by 249 00:19:15.720 --> 00:19:21.920 sixteen hundred. Latin grammar schools were typically only open to Christians. 250 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:27.000 Converted Jews, for example, were forbidden to teach. In Spain 251 00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:32.920 after the year fifteen seventy three, universities offered the highest 252 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:37.839 level of education in Europe. By the early sixteenth century, 253 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:43.240 there were over fifty such universities in Europe. Paris and 254 00:19:43.319 --> 00:19:48.240 Salamanca were the biggest, with thousands of students each. Most 255 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:52.559 were much smaller, with several hundred students, coming largely from 256 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:58.759 the surrounding area. Over the sixteenth century, most universities adopted 257 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:04.079 some form of humanist education. The Protestant Reformation and then 258 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:10.559 Catholic Counter Reformation both influenced university education in a large degree. 259 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:15.000 Pope Pious the Fourth, for example, required all professors and 260 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:19.400 students seeking degrees in Catholic Europe to swear allegiance to 261 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:23.319 the Catholic Faith. In fifteen sixty four, Queen Elizabeth the 262 00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:27.359 First required students and faculty in England to swear to 263 00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:31.880 the Elizabethan Articles of Religion several times throughout the tumultuous 264 00:20:31.880 --> 00:20:37.319 fifteen eighties. Another major change in the early modern period 265 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:42.160 came via political theory, which had largely been fixed throughout 266 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:46.680 the Middle Ages. With the advent of the Reformation, most 267 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:51.440 political theory began to concern the proper relationship between church 268 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:55.880 and state. Over the course of several hundred years, from 269 00:20:55.960 --> 00:20:59.559 roughly fifteen twenty to seventeen hundred, the balance of thought 270 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:03.400 shifted in favor of those who supported a more secular government. 271 00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:08.839 Civic humanism was also important, and learned men believed it 272 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:11.279 was crucial to be active in the political affairs of 273 00:21:11.319 --> 00:21:15.240 their city. One of the more interesting developments in the 274 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:21.079 sixteenth century was the argument over women's sovereigns. Until the 275 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:26.480 sixteenth century, there just weren't very many. But then from 276 00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:30.720 the death of Henry the Athonward we get first Mary 277 00:21:31.160 --> 00:21:34.880 then Elizabeth, who rule for a long time if we 278 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:38.000 put their rules together. And then in France, of course 279 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:41.960 we have Catherine de Medici, whose queen in all but 280 00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:46.920 name for decade after decade, authorities were very much divided 281 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:51.759 over whether women could overcome the quote unquote limitations of 282 00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:56.400 their sex and successfully rule. The most extreme opponents of 283 00:21:56.440 --> 00:21:59.440 female rule were Protestants, who went into exile on the 284 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:02.680 continent during the reign of Mary Tudor, of whom the 285 00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:06.519 Scottish reformer John Knox is best known. In his work 286 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:10.440 The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment 287 00:22:10.519 --> 00:22:14.680 of Women, written in fifteen fifty eight, Knox compared Mary 288 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:19.799 Stewart and Mary Tudor to Jezebel, arguing that female rule 289 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:25.960 was unnatural, unlawful, monstrous, and contrary to scripture. Females had 290 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:29.920 a condition they just couldn't overcome, and subjects of female 291 00:22:29.960 --> 00:22:35.039 rulers needed no further justification for rebelling against their monarch 292 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:39.400 other than their sex. Knox's work was published just as 293 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:45.160 Elizabeth the First assumed the throne. Jeanne Bondi, who wrote 294 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:48.680 between fifteen thirty and fifteen ninety six, was a French 295 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:52.519 jurist and a political theorist, He returned to scripture and 296 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:55.680 natural law in his opposition to female rule. In his 297 00:22:56.039 --> 00:23:00.160 Six Books of the Republic, published fifteen seventy six. He 298 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:02.920 also stressed what would become in the seventeenth century. The 299 00:23:02.920 --> 00:23:06.359 most frequently cited reason against it that the state was 300 00:23:06.519 --> 00:23:08.880 like a household, and just as in the household, the 301 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:12.759 husband or father has the authority and power over all others, 302 00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:18.640 so in the state the man should always rule. The 303 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:22.960 writer Robert Filmer carried this even further in his work Patriarchia, 304 00:23:23.559 --> 00:23:28.000 asserting that rulers derived all legal authority from divinely sanctioned 305 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:32.000 fatherly power of Adam, just did all other fathers. Male 306 00:23:32.119 --> 00:23:36.359 monarchs used husband lean paternal imagery to justify their assertion 307 00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:39.599 of power over their subjects. James the First made the 308 00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:43.720 following statement to Parliament. Quote I am the husband, and 309 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:46.839 the whole isle is my lawful wife. By the law 310 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:49.759 of nature, the king becomes the natural father to all 311 00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:53.720 his lieges at his coronation. A king is a newly 312 00:23:53.960 --> 00:24:00.240 parenis parai, the political father of his people. End quote. 313 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:05.440 Yet even for Gian Baldin, political authority came directly from God. Thus, 314 00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:09.279 whether the ruler was a man or a woman. Resistance 315 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:13.880 to their rule was both treason and sin. So in 316 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:17.400 the early modern period, even though there was this preference 317 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:20.759 for a male sovereign. But everyone really wanted, and what 318 00:24:20.759 --> 00:24:23.839 we've already learned in this show, they wanted was stability. 319 00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:29.359 If a female ruler brought stability, then she was generally 320 00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:35.640 fine by them. Intellectually, the fall of Constantinople and the 321 00:24:35.720 --> 00:24:39.279 treasure trove of Greek and Latin texts that came west 322 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:43.440 as a result, had a profound impact on Europe. Plato 323 00:24:43.559 --> 00:24:48.279 was virtually unknown in Western Europe until fourteen fifty three. 324 00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:52.079 As a result, particularly in Florence and other Italian cities, 325 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:57.759 intellectuals became increasingly interested in the ideas of Plato and Cicero. 326 00:24:57.960 --> 00:25:02.839 Most prominent amongst these early Greek scholars was Marsilio Ficino. 327 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:08.119 His translations of many of Plato's works made Greek learning 328 00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:13.079 much more available to a wider Western audience. Visinio, he 329 00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:16.680 would eventually become an ordained priest, regarded Plato as a 330 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:21.799 divinely inspired precursor to Christ An attempted to synthesize Christian 331 00:25:21.880 --> 00:25:26.559 and Platonic teachings Plato's emphasis on the spiritual and eternal 332 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:30.960 over the material and transient fitted perfectly with Christian teachers. 333 00:25:31.079 --> 00:25:35.599 He believed Platonic ideas about love, the highest form of 334 00:25:35.640 --> 00:25:40.119 love was spiritual desire for pure, perfect beauty, could easily 335 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:43.559 be interpreted as Christian desire for the perfection of God. 336 00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:49.640 Visinio and his brilliant student Pico de la Mirandola found 337 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:53.880 such ideas not only in Christian Platonic writers, but also 338 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:56.359 it works that they regarded it as even more ancient 339 00:25:56.559 --> 00:26:01.160 and now rediscovered, such as Hebrew mystical texts called the Kabbala, 340 00:26:01.640 --> 00:26:07.559 metaphysical and astrological works attributed to the shadowy writer Hermes Trisagamus. 341 00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:10.359 These are called the Hermetic texts mostly in the West, 342 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:14.519 and a number of mysticism from the pre Platonic Greek 343 00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:20.720 philosopher Pythagoras. Pizino and Pico understood all these texts to 344 00:26:20.759 --> 00:26:24.440 be teaching the same truth that the universe was a 345 00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:28.880 hierarchy of beings, from God down through spiritual beings and 346 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:34.240 all the way to the material. All this rediscovery, in 347 00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:37.720 turn led to a rise in humanism, and by the 348 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:41.640 middle of the sixteenth century, the most prominent university scholars, 349 00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:46.319 and certainly the headmasters of most Latin grammar schools were humanists. 350 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:50.359 In fact, by the middle of the sixteenth century, it 351 00:26:50.440 --> 00:26:55.599 was no longer for students of humanism necessary to travel 352 00:26:55.640 --> 00:26:58.240 to Italy as they once had in order to simply 353 00:26:58.359 --> 00:27:04.000 get the basics. The Dutch humanist Desidrius Erasmus, the most 354 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:07.039 famous scholar of his time in all of Europe, who 355 00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:10.599 lived from roughly fourteen sixty seven to fifteen thirty six, 356 00:27:10.960 --> 00:27:13.119 did not go to Italy until he was in his forties. 357 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:16.640 He then spent his time primarily at the print shop 358 00:27:16.759 --> 00:27:22.039 of a Venetian printer publisher, working alongside these scholars as 359 00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:25.160 he collected Greek and Latin sayings for all of his work. 360 00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:30.640 His major work, The Adages, presented and explained over three 361 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:34.839 thousand classical sayings, serving as a guide to classical learning 362 00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:39.519 and a source of quotations for centuries. Sir Thomas Moore, 363 00:27:39.880 --> 00:27:43.640 the most famous English humanist, learned Greek and Latin in 364 00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:47.519 England and in fact never traveled daily. Moore was a 365 00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:49.920 lawyer who held a number of positions in the city 366 00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:53.279 of London and at court before the surprise elevation to 367 00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:56.200 the most senior legal position in all of the Realm, 368 00:27:56.359 --> 00:27:59.359 Lord Chancellor, in fifteen twenty nine. We know that didn't 369 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:03.200 end particularly really well for him. Unfortunately, Moore was in 370 00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:06.519 touch with Europe's leading humanists, and many of his Latin 371 00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:10.920 compositions and translations were read across the continent. He's most 372 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:16.160 famous for a controversial dialogue titled Utopia. Utopia, a word 373 00:28:16.279 --> 00:28:20.000 more invented from the Greek word for nowhere, describes a 374 00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:23.640 state somewhere beyond Europe, in which problems that plagued Moore's 375 00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:27.720 fellow citizens, such as poverty hunger, have been solved by 376 00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:32.000 a beneficent government, but in which dissent and disagreement were 377 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:36.160 never tolerated. Whether this followed in the humanist transition of 378 00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:40.559 satire or represented Moore's own views was unclear to his contemporaries, 379 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:43.920 and has continued to be a matter of scholarly debate 380 00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:50.559 ever since. Increasingly, notably through Erasmus and more, humanist scholars 381 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:55.799 became more interested in reforming the then Catholic Church, in 382 00:28:55.839 --> 00:29:01.480 a movement that became known as Christian humanism. In fifteen sixteen, 383 00:29:01.920 --> 00:29:05.960 Erasmus published a new Latin translation of the New Testament. 384 00:29:06.839 --> 00:29:11.440 Interestingly enough, the Protestant Reformation is generally accepted as the 385 00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:16.039 end of humanism that no longer served a purpose. Thus, 386 00:29:16.119 --> 00:29:20.200 in Northern Europe, at least, Christian humanism was a relatively 387 00:29:20.519 --> 00:29:25.799 short lived phenomenon. Both the expansion of education and the 388 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:29.799 religious controversies of the sixteenth century created a larger and 389 00:29:29.960 --> 00:29:36.400 more avid reading public for vernacular works. The best selling 390 00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:39.279 works between the invention of the printing press and seventeen 391 00:29:39.359 --> 00:29:43.960 hundred were all religious. Between fifteen eighteen and fifteen twenty five, 392 00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:48.039 one third of all books printed in Germany were by 393 00:29:48.119 --> 00:29:53.160 luther Printed religious works varied from expensive leather bound bibles 394 00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:57.200 to eight page pamphlets or chapters with paper covers, or 395 00:29:57.319 --> 00:30:02.880 even single sheet broadsides, usually illustrated. The same qualities could 396 00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:06.119 be found in other popular non fiction printing works. There 397 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:09.000 was a lot of travel literature, accounts of recent events 398 00:30:09.079 --> 00:30:13.279 or sometimes biographies. There were also early modern how to 399 00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:20.480 manuals that sold very well. Baldassarre's Costiglioni's famous The Book 400 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:24.440 of the Courtier, which sets out proper behavior for courtiers 401 00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:27.839