HISTORY 3230 EARLY MODERN EUROPE

Fall 2014

Prof. Norm Jones

In Deo laetandum One ought to rejoice in God1

Contact: My preferred method is through email, norm.jones@usu.edu, or through the Canvas page for

the course.

Texts:

Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation

Theodore Rabb, The Last Days of the Renaissance & the March to Modernity (2006)

PURPOSE AND GOALS OF THE COURSE

Welcome to the history of Early Modern Europe, a period roughly (very roughly) defined

chronologically as beginning in the late 15th century and ending in the middle of the 18th century. As the

course progresses, you will understand why those dates are so rough, since changes occurred at varying

rates in different parts of Europe.

1All the emblems come from Alciato's Book of Emblems http://www.mun.ca/alciato/index.html

If you wish to understand them, and read the poems that accompany them, go to the website and learn

to see pictures as early moderns did.

mailto:norm.jones@usu.edu

This course has the following content emphases:

1. The vast changes in European Christianity that occurred during the era of the Reformation and early

enlightenment.

2. The emerge of the European state system, with its increasingly centralized governments.

3. The birth of modern capitalism.

4. Globalization of European economies and cultures.

5. Cultural evolution of European societies between the late Middle Ages and the Englightenment

This course will require you to demonstrate the following proficiencies, in keeping

with the History Department’s outcomes for a history degree:

Historical Knowledge

Understand a wide range of historical information

identify the key events which express/define change over time in a particular place or

region

identify how change occurs over time

Explain historical continuity and change

describe the influence of political ideologies, economic structures, social organization,

cultural perceptions, and natural environments on historical events

discuss the ways in which factors such as race, gender, class, ethnicity, region and

religion influence historical narratives

Historical Thinking

Recognize the pastness of the past

explain how people have existed, acted and thought in particular historical periods

explain what influence the past has on the present

Emphasize the complex nature of past experiences

interpret the complexity and diversity of situations, events and past mentalities

compare eras and regions in order to define enduring issues

Emphasize the complex and problematic nature of the historical record

recognize a range of viewpoints

compare competing historical narratives

challenge arguments of historical inevitability

analyze cause and effect relationships and multiple causation

Historical Skills

Develop skills in critical thinking and reading

evaluate debates among historians

differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations

assess the credibility of primary and secondary sources

Develop research skills

formulate historical questions

obtain historical data from a variety of sources

identify gaps in available records

Develop the ability to construct reasonable historical arguments

write a well-organized historical argument

support an interpretation with historical evidence from a variety of primary and

secondary sources

The Pedagogy

After an overview of the period, we will work our way through various themes:

religion, governance, economics, intellectual and artistic change, and globalization. At

the end of the course we will put these themes back together. Each theme will require

an essay based on readings from original documents and secondary sources. The final

will be a paper in which students, drawing on their essays, will write a longer paper

showing how the themes interrelate, creating the characteristics of early modern

European experience.

There will be no exams in this class, only papers. The first is a review of the texts, asking you to

rough out an understanding of the period; the last repeats this exercise but at greater length. In

between, there are a series of short papers that grapple with important issues in the era. These

short papers are the “pre-writes” for the final paper. As a consequence, much of the grade rests

on the final paper. I do not believe in cumulative grading, preferring summative grading.

Translated, I won’t give quizzes that take away points early on. I will give you a grade that

reflects the grasp of the course reflected on the final paper.

Thus the point spread looks like this:

Assignment 1: Early Modern World 50

Critique 20

Assignment 2: Religion 50

Critique 20

Assignment 3: Intellectual crisis 50

Critique 20

Assignment 4: Economy 50

Critique 20

Assignment 5: Governments 50

Critique 29

Final Paper 400

Total Possible 750

If an essay is not turned in, you will lose 50 points for each missing paper.

I will grade Assignment 1 and two of assignments 2-4. On those assignments not graded, you

will receive full credit if you post it on time.

I do not grade on a curve; you will get exactly what you earn. If you earn more than 93% of the

possible points, you will get an 'A'; 90-93% an 'A-'; 87-90% a 'B+'; 83-87% a 'B'; etc.

Vocabulary For each section of the course there is a vocabulary list. These terms are ones that you

will need to know to follow the course of the history under discussion, and, importantly, to

answer the essay questions. In those weeks when there is an essay assigned, I will look for the

vocabulary terms used correctly in your essays. You can also see the vocabulary as a sort of

outline of the topics that will be covered in lectures.

Essays:

The essays are “rough drafts” for the “Final Paper.” In addition, you may also earn five extra

points if your weekly essay is chosen as one of the "best of the week." The essays will be submitted

and critiqued on-line.

If an essay is not turned in you will lose 50 points for each missing paper.

The essays will all be critiqued by teams. Each student will post her or his essay to the class web site

under his or her team name. Another team will be assigned to evaluate the essays. Each team will

choose the best essay it read that week. The author of that essay will receive five extra points.

If you do not participate in critiquing papers, you will lose 20 points for each occurrence. The ungraded papers must be posted to the course web site by noon on the day on which they are due.

Critiques will be posted by noon in the class following the one when the essay was due.

Purpose of the Essays

The essence of historical training is knowing how to interrogate documents. When confronted

with something written or made in the past, the historian immediately asks a series of questions to

determine its historical value. These questions operate on several levels. Of course, the first is “What

does it say about X?” This leads to “How does it relate to Y and Z?” and “Can it be trusted to tell the

truth about X, Y, or Z?” This may lead to “If it is lying or inaccurate, what can we learn from the

causes of its inaccuracy?” A good historian asks imaginative variants of these questions constantly,

placing the evidence from each document into a pattern of relationships with other evidence, building

a structure of evidence that is then interrogated, too. Ultimately, the historian looks at the fruits of all

these questions and asks the ultimate question “How does this explain A-Z?”

These essays are designed to strengthen your historical interrogation skills on various sorts of

documents. Some documents are highly self-conscious. The published writing of a Sir Thomas More

or John Foxe was created for a specific purpose determined by the author. Letters have other

purposes, with different audiences. And some documents are historically unconscious–that is, the

historian uses them for purposes not intended by the author. A parish register, for instance, was

created primarily to keep track of births, deaths and marriages for legal reasons, not for the use of

demographic historians wishing to know the average age of marriage or death.

The historian sees the world as historical evidence. Jacob Burckhart, the great nineteenth

century Swiss historian, encapsulated the approach I want you to learn. He wrote “And all things are

sources–not only books, but the whole of life and every kind of spiritual manifestation.”2

Each Essay should be two pages in length, not including notes (there must be foot notes!).

2Jacob Burckhardt, Über das Studium der Geschichte, ed. Peter Ganz (Munich, 1982), 171-2. as

quoted in Jürgen Grosse, “Reading History: On Jacob Burckhardt as Source–Reader,” Journal of the

History of Ideas 60 (1999), 534.

FINAL PAPER

This final paper, worth 400 points, is a summary of the writing you have done for the class,

answering a question about the patterns in history made visible through the course. It will depend

heavily on the essays you have already written.

The question for the Final Paper will be distributed two weeks before the essay is due. The

paper will be no longer than five typed, double-spaced pages.

CITATION GUIDE

In everything you write for this class, you must cite the sources you use. In citing them

follow these rules:

1. A first citation of a source must be a full citation in this form:

Author's first and last named [ed. or trans.] Title (Place of Publication: Date of Publication),

[volume], page #.

Thus, a reference to a monograph might read:

Norman Jones, God and the Moneylenders: Usury and the Law in Early Modern England

(Oxford: 1989), 23.

2. If citing an article in an edited collection the note should look like this:

First and last name of author, "title of the article," name of the editor of the collection, title of

the collection, (place and date of publication), page numbers where the article is found.

Thus:

David Hickman, “From Catholic to Protestant: the Changing meaning of Testamentary

religious provisions in Elizabethan London,” in Nicholas Tyacke, ed. England’s Long Reformation

1500-1800. The Neale Colloquium in British History. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1998), 117-139.

3. If you wish to cite an article in a journal the note should include:

First and last name of author, "title of the article," name of the journal issue number (year), page

number.

Thus:

Kenneth Bartlett, "Papal Policy and the English Crown, 1563-1565: the Bertano

Correspondence," Sixteenth Century Journal 23 (l992), 643-660.

4. After you have cited a work once you need not cite it in full again. Instead use a short title

form containing the author's last name, abbreviated title, and page number:

Jones, Moneylenders, 369.

5. If you have consecutive citations to the same work you should use Ibid., the abbreviated form of

the Latin word Ibidem, meaning "the same." Thus, having already cited Jones, your notes would look

like this:

1. Jones, Moneylenders, 369.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid., 373.

6. To cite something found on the World Wide Web, first give the normal bibliographic citation and

then give the location, as in this hypothetical:

Richard Hooker, “A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and how the Foundation of

Faith is Overthrown,” (1585), page, at

http://www.ccel.org/h/hooker/just/discourse_justification.txt accessed month/day/year

Frequently WWW sites do not provide full publication information, and many do not have (or need)

page numbers. In that case provide as much of the above as you can–double check the web address–

and ask yourself whether the site is a good one. One of the problems with using the web is that

people posting to it do not always adhere to high standards of scholarship, posting things carelessly, or

editing them for polemical purposes.

7. If the thing posted on the WWW is taken from a previously published source, cite it like this:

http://www.ccel.org/h/hooker/just/discourse_justification.txt

“8. The Case of the Five Knights, before the Court of King's Bench,” in Samuel Rawson

Gardiner, ed., Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution 1625-1660, 3rd ed., revised

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906), 57 at http://www.constitution.org/eng/conpur_.htm accessed

month/day/year

http://www.constitution.org/eng/conpur_.htm

PART I

The Shape of the Early Modern European World

Nunquam procrastinandum One ought never to procrastinate

August 26-Sept. 4

The Shape of Early Modern Europe.

The political history of the era is complex because we are watching Europe move from dynastic

rulers toward constitutional rulers. Along the way, wars, some pan-European in scope, frequently

embroiled Europe. At the same time, a military revolution was underway, one that changed the

nature of European states and state craft while making it impossible for small states to remain

viable.

The first half of the sixteenth century was dominated by the struggle between the Holy Roman

Empire [HRE], led of Charles V and his Habsburg family, and the Valois family of France. The

HRE surrounded France and Charles V sought to complete the encirclement by marrying his son

Philip to Mary Tudor of England. The French fought back with their own dynastic alliances with

Scotland.

The second half of the sixteenth century saw major warfare in the Mediterranean basin as the

Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire struggled over control of that sea. Meanwhile, the

focus of politics became global as Spanish and Portuguese overseas empires grew rapidly. It was

in these years that European politics became increasingly ideological as Lutherans, Evangelicals,

Anglicans, and Catholics sought political alliances that would bolster their religious positions.

One of the effects of the were the wars of religion. Beginning with the Schmalkaldic War (1545-

7) most of Europe experienced religious violence. France and the Low Countries had protracted

civil wars over religion and national affiliation, while Spain and the Papal states used the

Inquisition to prevent the possibility of such struggles.

In America Spain was working with the Papacy to Christianize the natives, while in Europe it

was using its military might to influence the politics of religion. Protestants countered, which is

why Philip II launched his invasion fleet, known and the Armada, against England, as well as

putting troops and money, along with papal envoys, into Ireland.

Essay Assignment 1: Early Modern Issues

Write a 2 page paper establishing the major events and trends of the period 1500-1720. What are

the overarching themes of these centuries?

The paper must include the following terms. (Hint: sort these into patterns. Which overlap with

which?)

Vocabulary Ottoman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

Battle of Mohacs (1526)

Charles V (1519-1556)

Habsburg-Valois struggle

Henry VIII

Schmalkaldic War (1545-1547)

Peace of Augsburg (1555)

Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559)

Philip II

Battle of Lepanto (1571)

Ivan the Terrible

Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

James VI&I (1564-1625)

Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)

Defenestration of Prague (1618)

Battle of the White Mountain (1620)

Gustavus II Adolphus

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

English Civil Wars (1642-49)

Restoration of Charles II of England (1660)

Confessionalization

Anglo-Dutch wars (1652-4; 1665-7; 1672-8)

Louis XIV

Huguenots

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)

Siege of Vienna (1683)

PART II RELIGION

Ficta religio

False Religion

Sept. 9-25

To understand why Europe underwent such rapid change in the sixteenth and seventeenth

century we must start with the religious changes which altered the way Europeans thought about

themselves and their world, as well as changing their economies and political systems. The

change in theology began, officially, with Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517, and by the 1540s

Europe was religiously divided into Protestant and Catholic states. In the 1540s the Council of

Trent began to meet, and, with the help of newly formed Society of Jesus, the Catholic Church

began an aggressive comeback.

By the end of the sixteenth century the religious identity of Europeans was officially wrapped up

in confessional identity of Europe’s states. The religion of the ruler became the determinate of

the state’s religion, giving even the Pope less power in these “confessionalized” states. This, in

turn, meant that individual religion became more dependent on personal choice. Skepticism and

market pressure led to major distinctions between individuals even within single denominations.

By the late seventeenth century the wars over religion that had convulsed the confessionalized

states had led to theological exhaustion and a general move toward the separation of religion

from politics.

The goal of this section is to introduce the major theological values of the Reformation and the

Catholic Reformation, the period of Protestant “Scholasticism,” religious civil wars and the

emergence of thinkers who separated religion from political identity.

Essay Assignment 2: Religion Using the documents and vocabulary for this section identify the important theological models in

use in Early Modern Europe. Try grouping them according to affinities and disagreements. This

essay should not exceed two pages, not including end notes.

It must be posted no later than noon on Sept. 25.

Vocabulary Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Jean Calvin (1509-64)

Elizabethan Settlement of Religion

Book of Common Prayer

Ignatius Loyola (1491?-1556)

Jesuits

Council of Trent (1545-63)

Radical Reformation

Catholic Reformation (a.k.a. The Counter Reformation)

Spanish and Roman Inquisitions

Jacob Arminius & Arminianism

St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

casuistry

Blaise Pascal

George Fox

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (1701)

John Locke

Moralism

Pietism

Scholasticism

TULIP of Calvinism

Martin Luther:

On the Freedom of a Christian at

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/luther-freedomchristian.html

The Five Points of Calvinism [TULIP] at http://www.reformed.org/calvinism/index.html

St. Ignatius Loyola: Spiritual Exercises, watch the video at

http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-spiritual-exercises/sli-eile-spiritual-

exercises-video/

John Locke, “A Letter on Toleration,” (1689) at

http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1651-1700/locke/ECT/toleraxx.htm

“Pascal’s Wager” in Blaise Pascal, Pensées at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9es/III,

parts 233-4.

http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-spiritual-exercises/sli-eile-spiritual-exercises-video/http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-spiritual-exercises/sli-eile-spiritual-exercises-video/

“Flight from the City of Destruction” and “The Slough of Despond” in John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s

Progress at

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress/Part_I/Section_1#.5BThe_House_of_t

he_Interpreter.5D

St. Francis Xavier:

Letter from Japan, to the Society of Jesus in Europe, 1552 at

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1552xavier4.html

PART III INTELLECTUAL CRISIS

Sobrius esto, et memineris non temere credere: haec sunt membra mentis.

Be sober and remember not to be too rashly credulous: these are the limbs of the mind.

Sept. 30- Oct. 9

The European Intellectual Crisis

Matching the religious changes in Early Modern Europe were the developments in philosophy

and science. Obviously, the decline of intellectual authority that produced more skeptical,

personal religion, also produced a different understanding of the way in which truths about the

natural world were established.

These changes produced the scientific method of Sir Francis Bacon, and empirical observational

science in the hands of Galileo confirmed the reality of the Copernican heliocentric theory. In

order to escape the “intuitive” knowledge of theological scholastic reasoning a new language,

mathematics, became the lingua franca of the new knowledge. Religious thinkers like Blaise

Pascal, Renée Descartes and Isaac Newton revolutionized our language of the natural world

with their work in analytical geometry and calculus. The net result was a science that separated

the spirit or mind from physical reality – a concept known as “dualism.”

This new way of finding truth had a deep impact on the way people thought about both money

and power. In the Netherlands Hugo Grotius created a new international law founded on natural

justice – which also justified Dutch global expansion. By the later seventeenth century

philosophers like Thomas Hobbes were developing the social contract that was elaborated by

John Locke.

History underwent a similar revolution. Scientific history required interpretation, based on

evidence. It became the weapon used to shatter the religious impasse between Catholics and

Protestants. Since Protestants claim to be restoring the Primitive Church, all theological fights

rested on historical evidence. In the middle of the sixteenth century the Magdeburg Centuriators

wrote a multi-volume history of Christianity that inaugurated church history as the mother of

modern historical study, while proving that Luther had recovered the Primitive Church.

Naturally, they were answered by Catholic historians in droves. By the mid sixteenth century

Jean Bodin published his Method for the Easy Comprehension of History (Methodus), arguing

that history was the key to political understanding.

Essay Assignment 2: Intellectual Trends Using the readings and the vocabulary, explain the changing philosophical constructions of

knowledge in early modern Europe. In your essay, use a chronological structure, showing how

the “isms” relate to the expressions of their world views by thinkers and artists. How do we get

from Rabelais to Newton?

Vocabulary Scholasticism

Humanism

Skepticism

Empiricism

Francois Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (1494-1553)

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1547-1616)

Petrus Ramus, Aristotelicae Animadversiones[Comments on Aristotle]

Michele de Montaigne, Essays

Sir Francis Bacon, Novum Organon (1620) [The New Organon]

Renée Descartes, Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la verité

dans les sciences[Discourse on the Method for

proper Conduct of Reason and Finding Truth in the Sciences]

Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius [The Starry Messenger]

Nicklaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium [On the Motions of Heavenly Bodies]

Isaac Newton, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica [The Mathematical Principals of

Natural Philosophy]

Blaise Pascal, Pensées [Thoughts]

Hugo Grotius, De Jure Belli ac Pacis [On War and Peace]

Albrecht Dürer

Caravaggio

Baroque

Dutch and Flemish masters

Bernini

Francois Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book 2, chapters 7-9 at

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1200/1200-h/1200-h.htm#link22HCH0005

Michele de Montaigne, “ Apology for Raimond Sebond” at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htm#chap12

Sir Francis Bacon, “Aphorisms 65-71” in Novum Organon (1620) at

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45988/45988-h/45988-h.htm

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1200/1200-h/1200-h.htm#link22HCH0005http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45988/45988-h/45988-h.htm

Isaac Newton, “Preface” and “Axioms” The Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy in

lxvii-lxvix; 83-4 at http://archive.org/stream/newtonspmathema00newtrich#page/n7/mode/1up

http://archive.org/stream/newtonspmathema00newtrich#page/n7/mode/1up

PART IV NEW ECONOMY

Bonis a divitibus nihil timendum.

Good men ought to fear nothing from the rich.

Oct. 14-30

Feeding the religious and scientific changes of the era was the emergence of a global economy.

The arrival of the Spanish in the New World in 1492 had been made possible by the maritime

revolution that allowed the Portugese to round the Cape of Good Hope and establish an imperial

presence in the Indian Ocean. By the seventeenth century parts of Europe were prospering from

their global trade and anxious to open more of the world to their merchants. This resulted in

international trade wars by the middle of the century.

The European economy of the earlier sixteenth century had recently emerged from the shock of

the Black Death. As Europe repopulated, the demands of European states for modern armies and

navies, as well as the consumption of manufactured goods like cloth, glass and iron, brought

even peasants into a capitalist system. This stressed the traditional, guild based, local economies

and consumers, causing frequent debates about the function of money. Much of the debate turned

around theology. Thus conversations about the effects of lending money for interest (usury) were

occurring across Europe as capital became necessary for production.

One solution to the need for capital was to recruit new sources of capital for lending. The Dutch

opened the first deposit bank in Antwerp at the beginning of the seventeenth century. By then the

redefinition of the concept of the function of money had changed a great deal, and economic

justice was ceasing to be a moral issue.

As European states moved from localized economies into trading economies the distortions of

their markets were often blamed on the supply of money. Assuming that there was a finite

amount of it in the world, it became their goal to acquire as much as possible, encouraging

exports and discouraging imports. This theory was known as “mercantilism.” Its implications for

the behavior of governments towards their economies are important because they encourage state

intervention.

This portion of the course will follow the globalization of the European economy and look at the

effects it was having on Europe itself as the internal economy was altered, sometimes radically,

by the trade. New crops, new sources of bullion, new ideas about nations and Christian origins

were reaching Europe.

Essay Assignment 3: Economy Using the readings and vocabulary describe the major economic changes occurring in the period.

This two page paper must be posted by noon on Oct. 30.

Vocabulary

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

R.H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism

Gerardus Mercator (Mercator Projection)

Gresham’s Law

The Great Inflation

Sir Thomas Wilson

Hugo de Grotius

Hakulyt’s voyages

Joint Stock Company

British East India Company

Dutch East India Company

Virginia Company

Antwerp Bourse

Royal Stock Exchange

Francis Xavier

Mercantilism

Thomas Mun, England’s Treasure by Foreign Trade

Gerard De Malynes, The Canker of England’s Common Wealth

Readings:

Thomas Wilson, The Discourse of the Commonweal (1571), pp. 11-20; 44-50 at

https://archive.org/stream/discourseofcommo00lamouoft#page/20/mode/2up

“The voyage of M. Ralph Fitch marchant of London by the way of Tripolls in Syria, to Ormus,

https://archive.org/stream/discourseofcommo00lamouoft#page/20/mode/2up

and so to Goa in the East India, to Cambaia, and all the kingdome of Zelabdim Echebar the great

Mogor, to the mighty riuer Ganges, and downe to Bengala, to Bacola, and Chonderi, to Pegu, to

Imahay in the kingdome of Siam, and backe to Pegu, and from thence to Malacca, Zeilan,

Cochin, and all the coast of the East India: begunne in the yeere of our Lord 1583, and ended

1591, wherin the strange rites, maners, and customes of those people, and the exceeding rich

trade and commodities of those countries are faithfully set downe and diligently described, by

the aforesaid M. Ralph Fitch” in Richard Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques

and Discoveries of the English Nation http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hakluyt/voyages/v08/chapter69.html.

Gerard De Malynes, The Canker of England’s Common Wealth, 95-124 at

http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/malynes/canker.pdf

Norman Jones, “Usury,” at http://eh.net/?s=usury.

“Preamble of the Charter of the Dutch West India Company: 1621” at

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/westind.asp

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hakluyt/voyages/v08/chapter69.htmlhttp://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/malynes/canker.pdf

PART V GOVERNMENTS

Princeps subditorum incolumitatem procurans.

The prince, ensuring the safety of his subjects.

Oct. 21-Nov.

The net effect of the religious, political, social and economic changes of the early modern period

was the emergence of a different understanding of the individual’s relation to the community and

the state. The era began with contractual feudal monarchs and prince; it ended with the

emergence of stronger centralizing states that depended on for legitimacy on constitutional

legitimacy.

At the same time, conceptions of the sources of political legitimacy were changing. Monarchs

were loudly asserting the “divine right of kings,” claiming that God gave his anointed rulers

absolute power. Pushing back were the emerging political powers of merchants, the conceptions

of the individual’s relation to God produced by the religious changes, the traditional ideas of

feudal contractualism, and the impossibility of the state being truly powerful without a strong

bureaucracy.

This plays itself out in different ways in different places, depending on the local political,

religious and economic conditions. In Britain, for instance, it produces, by the late 17th

century, a

sort of constitutional monarchy in which Parliament has a great deal of power as the

representatives of the people. In Russia, Ivan II “The Terrible,” developed his state into an

imperial power by working with the nobles to create serfs bound to the land. In France, Louis

XIV’s long reign saw major developments in the state, driven by his very effective military

machine, but, despite asserting that he was the state (“L’Etat c’est moi”) regional powers

remained very important in France.

21

Essay Assignment 4: Government Using the readings and the vocabulary, expound the movement from contractual monarchy

toward constitutionalism in the major European states.

Vocabulary feudal monarchy

Theory of the Two Swords

noblesse obligée

Henry VIII

James I

Louis XIV

Ivan IV Vasilyevich “The Terrible”

Gustavus II Adolphus

British Civil Wars

Thirty Years’ War

Thomas Hobbes

Army Debates

Social Contract

Peace of Westphalia

SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX ESTO – Locke

Confessional states

Monarchical Republicanism

Military Revolution

Readings Leo X, “Exsurge Domine” at http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo10/l10exdom.htm

The Act of Supremacy, 1534 at http://www.britainexpress.com/History/tudor/supremacy-henry-

text.htm

Pius V, “Regnans in Excelsis,” at http://tudorhistory.org/primary/papalbull.html

John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, (1690), chapters 9-13, at

http://jim.com/2ndtreat.htm#9CHAP

Jean Bodin, Six Books of the Commonwealth, chapter 1, at

http://www.constitution.org/bodin/bodin_1.htm

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, II, chapters 17-18, at

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/%7Erbear/hobbes/leviathan2.html

http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo10/l10exdom.htm

22

Part VI Modern Europe?

Sustine et abstine

Bear, and forbear

The historiographic debates over the Early Modern period in European history turn in part

around the definition of what “modern” means and how the period transitions Europe from a

“Medieval” economy, political system, and world view to “modern” ways of doing and seeing.

In preparation for the final essay, we will debate these issues, especially as portrayed in Rabb’s

book, The Last Days of the Renaissance. Although there is no essay for this section, I expect to

see Rabb’s arguments reflected in your final paper.

In preparation for the final paper, there will be an in-class Disputatio on whether the sixteenth

and seventeenth centuries should be classified as “Modern,” “Medieval,” or “Hybrid.” Students

will be assigned positions to argue.

Reading Theodore Rabb, The Last Days of the Renaissance & the March to Modernity (2006)

Nov. 26-Dec. 6