lecture 2

At the end of the 1400 s, the world changed. Two key dates can mark the beginning of modern times.

1-In 1485, the Wars of the Roses came to an end

2-following the invention of printing

3-William Caxton issued the first imaginative book to be published in England

4-. In 1492, Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the Americas opened European eyes to the existence of the New World.

England emerged from the Wars of the Roses (1453–85) with a new dynasty in power, the Tudors As with all powerful leaders, the question of succession became crucial to the continuation of power.

Henry VIII

1-it was with the greatest of the Tudor monarchs

2-Henry married six times. But his six wives gave him only one son and two daughters, who became King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I.

3-The need for the annulment of his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, brought Henry into direct conflict with the Catholic church, and with Pope Clement VII (1521–32) in particular.

In reaction to the Catholic church’s rulings, Henry took a decisive step which was to influence every aspect of English, then British, life and culture from that time onwards

1-He ended the rule of the Catholic church in England

2-closed (and largely destroyed) the monasteries

3-established himself as both the head of the church and head of state

Henry VIII’s break with Rome was not carried out as an isolated rebellion. Two European thinkers, in particular, established the climate which made it possible

1-Erasmus

2-martin luther

Erasmus

1-whose enthusiasm for classical literature was a major source for the revival in classical learning.

2-His contempt for the narrowness of Catholic monasticism (expressed in The Praise of Folly)

3- was not an attempt to deny the authority of the Pope, but a challenge to the corruption of the Catholic church

4-He wished to return to the values of the early Christian church and in order to do so, produced a Greek edition (1516) of the Scriptures in place of the existing Latin one why???

Luther’s mission in developing the church outside Catholicism was taken up by the Frenchman, Jean Calvin.