• One was born into a certain calling – predestined.
• Remember that the Renaissance started at different times in different places and that there were always reminders of medieval life, particularly in monasteries and rural communities.

• Many scholars would refer to Petrarch’s climbing of Mont Ventoux as the start of the Renaissance. He has an advanced and developed view of his world from the mountain, also a different perspective. He is actively seeking, eager to climb and invites his brother to climb with him as his friend. He then reads Augustine’s ‘Confessions’ from the mountain top, opens it at random and is willing to read and accept it’s meanings – willingness to learn from the classical world. However, he emphasises his faith and the fact that he is a Christian Humanist. Religious texts, Cathedrals etc. were still built, just in a different, more classical style.
• The reading of Classical works and the acceptance of their ideals.

• Poetry was a means of seeking inner understanding – self-expression via the outside world and language.

• Wyatt is arguably the first English man of the Renaissance.

Key texts:

1. The Courtier, Castiglione (1528): Danger can corrupt those in power, so always lead the prince to virtue.
2. The Prince, Machiavelli (1530) [a response?]: The prince holds all power and must remain in full control.

• More wrote to Cromwell that they should inform Henry VIII only of what he ‘ought to do’ and not of everything that he can do, otherwise he would grow uncontrollable with his power and they would lose all influence over him.

Key developments:

• Moveable type = the spread of information.
        • 1450, it was rare for a priest to have a bible.
        • 1550, it was rare for a priest not to have a bible.
        • 1650, almost all houses had a bible.
• Siege cannons:
        • Changed and centralised the influence of power.
        • Only Kings could afford them, and it meant that no noble could easily defy the King.
        • E.g. Battle of Pavia, 1525.

• The monarchy in England was never absolute – always a Parliament, even if weak!
• Constitutional monarchy!

• The sack of Rome in 1527 was termed a ‘puncture’ in the Renaissance.
• However, the island nation of England was essentially immune and continued this development – Henry VIII paid for the research and publication of a defense of the Christian faith against the Lutheran threat.

• Mary Tudor attempts to reconvert the country. Some priests had married under the reign of Edward as a way of proving their faith, yet Mary threatened many of them with death if they didn’t divorce. Known as ‘Bloody Mary’ not really due to her violence, but because of the manner in which she ruled – through threat and her devout arguments against Catholicism. Elizabeth killed more people.

• Via Media – Elizabeth I takes a middle way.

Famous women:

• Marguerite of Navarre, a sister of Francois I. Cultured, Catholic and tolerant.
• For England’s women, there was not really a renaissance but a reformation (WHAT?!)
• Generally, the famous renaissance women were Venetians!
• Aemilia Lanier – Italian by birth and brings the Renaissance to English women.
• Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (Mexico?)

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