history

By the due date, choose and respond substantively to one of the discussion questions posted below. Submit your response to the Discussion Area on W1 Assignment 1: Post Here. Your response should include a clear argument supported by cited evidence as well as your own explanation of what that evidence means and why it is relevant to your post.

Steps to Success

Please use scholarly, college-level research sources to respond to this assignment, including the textbook, class lectures, relevant primary sources, and/or journal articles from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh – Online Division Online Library. If you use websites for your research, they must be reputable scholarly sources.

Acknowledge your sources using in-text citations and a works cited list formatted in MLA style. Summaries and paraphrases require citations; quotes require quotation marks and citations.

Do not use attachments for this assignment. Submit your response directly to the Discussion Area.

Participation Instructions

By the end of the week, please comment substantively on two or more classmates’ assignments. Responding substantively to any questions left to you by the instructor in his or her feedback will count as one of your two required participation responses. Leave comments that raise salient points and stimulate discussion. Focus on the topic and its historical context. Be respectful, helpful, clear, and concise. Always utilize constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of further learning. Good participation comments will assist your educational process and that of the class as a whole.

The discussion questions for this task include:

1. In what ways did the Catholic church counterattack the Protestant Reformation?
2. How did the Dutch painters differ from the Baroque painters who were their contemporaries?
3. What impact did the Reformation have on women in the 16th and 17th centuries?

2205732/Reasons for the Reformation.html

A multitude of circumstances led to the Religious Reformation. By the end of the 15th century, monarchs such as Louis XI of France, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and Henry VII of England, were creating powerful centralized governments. In trying to refocus patriotism from a local to national level, monarchs needed to control religious life. In some countries, rulers broke with Rome and established national churches of their own. Those monarchs who remained Catholic used the church to buttress their own power.

With the growth of these national states, the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy declined in power. The Pope’s one advantage was on the ecclesiastical front. He could grant dispensations from church law, such as the annulment of marriages or the pardoning of sins. He could sell indulgences, often at a great price, which could shorten a person’s time in purgatory after death. In short, heaven went to the highest bidder. (Note: Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses)

The rise of these new monarchies upset the economic balance that had existed during most of the Middle Ages. Although the medieval economy had not been highly productive, it was fairly stable. In the 15th and 16th centuries, however, a series of economic problems developed which caused social unrest and often open revolt.

Some of this social discontent took the form of religious revolt, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, where the cities were hardest hit with economic difficulties. On October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther proposed the Ninety-Five Theses on the powers of the church as a subject of debate, he found a willing audience.

In fact, conflict between Catholics and Protestants broke out all over Europe. Germany was torn by religious wars until the 1550s. France and the Netherlands suffered throughout the 1500s. Indeed, vestiges of this conflict can be seen today in Ireland. The age just prior to the Reformation was a time of flamboyant piety. The cult of the Virgin Mary was especially strong. Pious works were widely produced in art and literature. The piety of the age tried to bring religion closer to daily life. Whether in Flemish domestic scenes showing religious practice at home or in images of a suffering, human Christ. The Reformation bridged the gap between man and God, taking out the middleman as a conduit to Heaven. This empowerment, while less about religion than economics, vastly influenced European culture in every aspect.

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