History 5: Lecture 8 Outline:
Witchcraft and Religious Wars
Introduction:
P) Protestantism associated with rise of rationalism (Weber) and rise of literacy but Reformation movements lead to unprecedented civil war and a witch craze.
I Spain and Italy
a. Intense inquisitions>preserve Catholic
unity
b. Strong monarchy in Spain and power of the Papacy
in Italy
c. No major religious wars in these areas
II. England
a. After moderate Protestant Henry VIII, two fanatical
monarchs
b. Edward VI (1547-1553): radical Calvinist, persecutes
Catholics
c. Mary Tudor (1553-58) “Bloody Mary”;
burns many Protestants
d. Elizabethan Settlement 1559 consolidates the Anglican
Church
III. France
a. Death of Francis I>period of weak Valois: Henry
II (1547-59); Charles IX (1560-74); Henri III (1574-89).
b. Three-sided religious and civil war (1562-1598):
Catholic Valois vs.Protestant Bourbons, and Catholic Guise
c. St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: 24 august,
1572 (3,000 Protestants killed)
e. Conversion of Bourbon Henri IV (1593); Edict of
Nantes(1598)
IV Thirty Years War:
a. Peace of Augsburg (1555)>formation of League
of Catholic Princes 91609); Union of Protestant Princes (1608)
b. Bohemian revolt: “defenestration of Prague”
1618
c. First phase of war 1618-1629: Hapsburg Catholic
victory with Wallenstein, “Edict of Restitution”(1629)
d. Phase II: 1629-48: Swedish and French: Habsburg
vs. Bourbon
e. Treaty of Westphalia (1648): Germany devastated
(pop decline of 7-8 million); bloodiest European war until World War
I; end of Habsburg empire
V Witch craze
a. 1500-1650: 7,500-10,000 witch trials (80-90% women)
b. Witches and the inquisition: Malleus Maleficarum
(1486)
c. Geography: begins in hinterlands of Italy, Germany,
Switzerland, France and Pyrenees, spreads as far as America and Russia
d. Phases: 1) 1530-1580, escalation with religious
conflict; 2) peaks in religious wars 1580-1630
e. Popular witch craze: vagrancy and social tension
VI Conclusion
a. Religious wars a turning point in European history
b. End of the attempt at doctrinal unity
c. Emergence of secular political theory and institutions
History 5: Lecture 9 Outline:
English Revolution and Constitutionalism
Introduction
a. End of Hapsburg dominance within Holy Roman Empire>fragmentation;
little absolutist states.
b. End of Hapsburg dominance in Netherlands>the
Dutch Republic (1582); economic and cultural renaissance (17th century)
c. Hapsburg legacy defined the two extremes of the
political consequences of the religious wars; absolutism and republicanism
d. The most important republican experiment in England
Causes of the English Revolution:
a. Henry VIII: reformation and centralization>
15th c England is a model “new monarchy” free of feudal
lords and of Pope
b. But it is built on compromises: 15th c sees increase
in power nort only of monarch, but of parliament as well: king has
no real financial or religious independence.
c. Elizabeth I lives on compromises, wits, and parsimony
d. James I (1603-1625) profligate, unpopular and
financially innovative
-beginnings of a constitutional crisis
e. Charles I (1625-1642): foreign, religious and
taxation policies>arbitrary power>parliamentary revolt: “The
Petition of Right “ (1628); rule without parliament, 1628-1640
The Revolution of 1640-60
a. The Long Parliament 1640-42: the Triennial Act;
Trials of Stafford and Laud; failure of compromise 1643-1645)
b. Civil War, 1645-47: Cromwell; The New Model Army;
Levellers and Diggers; victory for parliamentary forces
c. January 1649, king’s trial and execution
d. The Puritan Commonwealth (1649-60) and its failure
e. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
“ Glorious” Revolution of 1688
a. Charles II: from compromise to new conflicts,
1670
b. Emergence of political parties: Whigs (John Locke)
versus Tories
c. The Exclusion crisis, 1679; and new rule without
parliament
d. Revolution of 1688; rule of William and Mary,
Bill of Rights (1689); Toleration Act (1690); Free Press (1695)
e. John Locke, Second Treatise, 1690
Conclusions
a. Dutch and English Republics lead European economy
b. Ultimately, their greatest rival, not one another,
but France
c. Most important consequences of revolutions are
political: new notion of politics rooted not in Scripture (Unam Sanctam
or Calvin’s Geneva), nor in historical precedent (Machiavelli)
but in nature and reason (Hobbes and Locke)
d. Most radical legacy