Early Modern Overview Three: Politics and Culture

language and culture that by definition is a nation state. Still, the vast majority of Europeans even by sixteen hundred, were not literate. Thus they didn't likely understand these various translations outside of their village or town. Religion was likely the only thing that gave them a sense of belonging to their state or kingdom. Even language was not a cohesive force by sixteen hundred, as there were many different dialects

throughout most of the kingdoms of Europe. The number one factor by far that led to more nation states in Europe by sixteen fifty was war, specifically the changing nature and growing cost of war. Only kings and queens could afford large standing armies by sixteen hundred. In the fifteenth century, the deadliest type of fighter was a cavalryman wearing full place armor and carrying a lance and sword. Met at arms were always members of the nobility, and their primary

function in battle was frontline troops. They charged information at a steady center with lances drawn against the enemy's front line, hoping essentially to shock it into a retreat. Heavy cavalry were regarded as the most important arm of the military in the fifteenth century, but their invincibility was increasingly being challenged during the later stages of the One Hundred Years War,

which ended in fourteen fifty three. English foot soldiers armed with longbows were very effective against heavily armored French knights, and in other fifteenth century wars soldiers used steel crossbows. Pikes were even deadlier than bows. Foot soldiers armed with ten to fifteen foot long pikes standing very close to one another with all their pikes facing outward, an arrangement called the Swiss Fans were able to defend against a

cavalry charge so long as they held their position. Horses simply wouldn't charge into the wall of pikes, no matter how hard they were spurred. Gradually, pikemen were reinforced by foot soldiers carrying firearms. The first reasonably portable firearm was the arquebus, a short metal tube attached to a wooden handle loaded down the muzzle with powder and a round bullet. The powder was initially lit by a slow burning wick called a match cord, through a touchstone in the barrel,

a firing mechanism that was called a matchlock. Around fifteen hundred, wheel lock firing mechanisms in which iron pyrite caused sparks by being scraped along a metal wheel, was developed, producing the first ever self igniting firearm. The wheel lock was safer to the gunner than the matchlock because you didn't have to use an open flame, but the arcubus was heavy and it took so long to reload that two pipemen stood on either side to defend this man against

a cavalry charge. Now the musket is really what starts to change everything. It was developed in the fifteen twenties and was much lighter and easier to reload than the arcubus. Muskets also originally used matchlocks or wheelocks to fire, but in the early seventeenth century the French invented a flint lock firing mechanism in which flint strikes a piece of steel to make sparks. Which ignite powder and an attached flashpan. In this in turn, if it all goes according to plan,

ignites the main charge in the barrel. Flint Lock weapons quickly replaced other types and remained the most common portable firearm in Europe and European colonies all the way to the middle of the nineteenth century. Musket Balls could easily pierce armor, though plate armor got thicker. This thickness resulted in increased weight, making horses so slow that they were even more vulnerable. A nobleman had to figure he would lose his horse every single time he went into battle.

Military commanders generally arranged their troops with pipemen to one to two every two musketeers, though the later invention and finally adoption of the bayonets, which is a dagger attached to the end of the gun, made the same soldier both musketeer and pipemen. Infantry troops on foot finally became the heart of early modern armies, which is a change that hadn't struck Europe since the Roman legions. In the medieval period, foot soldiers had been the lowest rung on

the totem pole. These had been exclusively peasants, but gunpowder changed all that. In fact, gunpowder was a major factor in the declining role of the nobility in the making of war. Pistols were invented around fifteen to ten, and during several battles of the Habsburg Valois Wars in the fifteen fifties, German mounted pistol users called writers humiliated heavily armored French cavalry armed with lances. Writers were generally members

of the lesser nobility. They had to be able to afford a horse, and their weapons were slowly adopted by nobles elsewhere who abandoned lances and instead had three or four pistols along with their swords. Pistols took a long time to reload, by the way, so these pistoliers or writers charged with several of them already loaded. Cavalry Firing pistols were used by military commanders against other cavalry or

to break up large masses of foot soldiers. While handheld weapons transformed actual pitched battles, large artillery weapons completely transformed military tactics. Early cannons fired rocks, which were not uniform in size intended to shatter on impact. By the middle of the fifteenth century armies were using balls made of cast iron and cannons that could be disassembled for easier movement,

which were much more expensive but much more effective. Cannon balls blasted holes in high castle or city walls, and defensive fortifications changed accordingly, becoming low, thick, earthen ramparts that stood up to artillery quite easily. In the sixteenth century, cities increasingly built more complex fortifications with outlying bastions in which they could place cannons, making it very difficult to

take a city by four sieges grew longer. Starvation was now by large the most important tactic in forcing a city into submission. Undermining a city's walls became essentially antiquated overnight. All this new military technology led to the growth of standing armies that could make better use of them. This benefited the crowned heads of Europe, who now had a monopoly over these new model armies. These new armies were

also much larger than the medieval counterparts. Spain had less than twenty five thousand total men under arms circa fifteen hundred, but by sixteen hundred Spain was fielding a total military of two hundred thousand men. Spread throughout Europe and the Americas. Other European states saw their numbers increase proportionally. In the Middle Ages, powerful nobles might field private armies roughly equal to those commanded by the sovereign, hence the Wars of

the Roses. But by sixteen hundred, even the most powerful of nobles, like Robert Dudley in England, who could still maintain a private army, could not maintain armies of thousands or tens of thousands of men. Military campaigns had been traditionally fought from March to October, when food was available for men and animals, and then the soldiers were simply

sent home for the winter. This was no longer advisable, with the standing army going home meant likely that they would desert, but governments could not afford to build barracks for the troops. They were thus housed with civilian families, with the family expected to provide a place for a certain number of soldiers to sleep and keep warm. In theory, the soldiers were supposed to pay for their food, but as their pay itself often remained theoretical, they simply took

what they needed by force. The relationship between civilians and soldiers was therefore often very hostile. Neither group had enough to eat. The Spanish army, fighting in Flanders in the late sixteenth century, was the first to contract directly with local people to feed and clothe the troops. Technology changed fighting at sea as well. In the Middle Ages, naval combat was essentially non existent. Armies, not navies, fought over

the control of ports to an extent. That's still true in the early modern period, but now navies also fought over the control of the waterways themselves. Often states did this in conjunction with merchants, since they were the ones who owned the ships. Few states had standing navies until the seventeenth century. Now, obviously, all these new militaries had to be paid for. Hence, the growth of the state's military led to a growth of its tax system and bureaucracy.

Otherwise you wouldn't be able to keep up with your neighbor. This led to an increase in power for the sovereign. After fourteen fifty, the size of European bureaucracies exploded as kings issued more and more laws and gradually took over the administrative powers being vacated by the Catholic Church. Because almost all European monarchies were also hereditary. That also meant that marital strategy was just as important as martial strategy.

We've already seen recently what happens when two dynasties, the valoaw and the tutor run out of airs. Now, of course, in addition to great nation states, it's worth considering government and power at the local level. The Italian city states are the most visible example of politics at the level where it had the greatest impact on most people's day

to day lives. Their history reminds us that in all of Europe, underneath the highest layer of in marrying hereditary dynasties, cities, villages, parishes, so on, and so forth, many other governmental small units all had authority over people in their families, just as national and territorial rulers did. These lower levels of government demanded taxes, developed bureaucracies, and issued ordinances. They created and maintained courts that set punishments for those who did not

pay their taxes, abbey officials, or follow ordinances. Though most men could not hope to become an official for a national or territorial ruler, many could gain positions as village constables, gatekeepers, or even market overseers. Some of these more local institutions of government were run by the Church. Christians throughout Europe paid taxes to their local parish and were under the authority of church courts for matters involving marriage, morality, and

a variety of other issues. By fourteen fifty, villages in many parts of Europe become what were called communes, with institutions of self governance, such as councils or courts that regulated planting and harvesting, and might represent the village as a whole to outside political authorities. In some places, such groups could issue ordinances and make legal decisions, either in conjunction with the local lord or on their own. The towns and cities that won their independence from local lords

and gained charters had even stronger institutions of governance. In Germany and Italy, they might be under the jurisdiction of only the emperor or of no higher political authority at all. But even in areas in which national monarchies developed, cities collected taxes, passed and enforced ordinances, built and maintained walls and fortifications. They established courts, hospitals, orphanages, and often even

surprisingly municipal brothels. In his Lives of the most eminent painter, sculptors, and Architects, a series of biographies of artists published in fifteen fifty, Giorgio Vasari wrote as follows quote, the great ruler of Heaven looked down, and, seeing the presumptuous opinion of man, more removed from truth than light from darkness, resolved to send to earth a genius universal in each art, so that the world should marvel at the singular eminence

of his life and works, and all his actions, seeming rather divine than earthly end quote. He also published a new word to describe the new types of art made by this singular genius. He was talking about Michelangelo, and he called them Renaissance artists. Writers and thinkers of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries such as Petrarch and Lorenzo Valla, had already seen themselves as reinvigorating the classical past, but

Vasari thought that rebirth had gone beyond the original. He wrote as follows quote, many works today are more perfect and better finished than were those of the great masters of the past end quote. These creators were, in the eyes of Asari and many now simply highly skilled and

highly trained artisans. These were rare men of genius who needed to take credit for their work now, as we've already seen in previous episodes, scholars still debate whether the Renaissance should be viewed as the beginning of the modern era or as a transition to the mod Personally, I think it's the latter, but again I'm not a historian. Now, look, not everyone could participate in this cultural rebirth, even had

they been aware of it and wanted to. Social class, gender, and especially geographic location all influenced the chance that one might be able to join in a community of scholars and artists in a world where few could read or write. Those skills served as the initial gatekeeper. In the sixteenth century, reformers started calling for the opening of schools that would teach in the vernacular. This was especially true after the Reformation.

By sixteen hundred, there were hundreds of laws and ordinances requiring such schools throughout Germany, but in reality there were very few actual schools. Interestingly, it was the Catholic counter Reformation and the establishment of Catechism schools that actually made more ground in spreading basic literary skills throughout Europe. The Jesuits were particularly effective there. It's worth noting that in the early modern period, reading and writing were not taught

at the same time. You had to master reading before you could learn to write. To an extent, this was just about cost. Teaching reading was a lot cheaper, but it was also about pedagogy. Authors believed the most important function of education was to teach children the ideas of others, not for them to express their own thoughts and opinions. Hence writing was simply considered less important. Now, it's very

hard to measure literacy in early modern Europe. If we consider the ability to sign one's name as an indicator, then around fifteen eighty, about forty nine percent of male tradesmen and six percent of women residing in East Anglia, England could do so looking at that same county, by sixteen eighty, so one hundred years later those numbers had risen, but only to fifty six percent and sixteen percent, respectively, a much less dramatic increase in a century than I

think we might have expected. Now smash forward to seventeen fifty. By then, almost all upper class men and women could read, but still only a small fraction of male or female peasants could. Once a boy learned root a menory literacy skills, he might be sent to a Latin grammar school and eventually university, assuming his parents could afford it. The Protestant

Reformation increased the number of basic grammar schools considerably. Scholars believe there are around four hundred such schools in England in fifteen hundred, and that that number had doubled by sixteen hundred. Latin grammar schools were typically only open to Christians. Converted Jews, for example, were forbidden to teach. In Spain after the year fifteen seventy three, universities offered the highest level of education in Europe. By the early sixteenth century,

there were over fifty such universities in Europe. Paris and Salamanca were the biggest, with thousands of students each. Most were much smaller, with several hundred students, coming largely from the surrounding area. Over the sixteenth century, most universities adopted some form of humanist education. The Protestant Reformation and then Catholic Counter Reformation both influenced university education in a large degree.

Pope Pious the Fourth, for example, required all professors and students seeking degrees in Catholic Europe to swear allegiance to the Catholic Faith. In fifteen sixty four, Queen Elizabeth the First required students and faculty in England to swear to the Elizabethan Articles of Religion several times throughout the tumultuous fifteen eighties. Another major change in the early modern period came via political theory, which had largely been fixed throughout

the Middle Ages. With the advent of the Reformation, most political theory began to concern the proper relationship between church and state. Over the course of several hundred years, from roughly fifteen twenty to seventeen hundred, the balance of thought shifted in favor of those who supported a more secular government. Civic humanism was also important, and learned men believed it was crucial to be active in the political affairs of their city. One of the more interesting developments in the

sixteenth century was the argument over women's sovereigns. Until the sixteenth century, there just weren't very many. But then from the death of Henry the Athonward we get first Mary then Elizabeth, who rule for a long time if we put their rules together. And then in France, of course we have Catherine de Medici, whose queen in all but name for decade after decade, authorities were very much divided over whether women could overcome the quote unquote limitations of

their sex and successfully rule. The most extreme opponents of female rule were Protestants, who went into exile on the continent during the reign of Mary Tudor, of whom the Scottish reformer John Knox is best known. In his work The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, written in fifteen fifty eight, Knox compared Mary Stewart and Mary Tudor to Jezebel, arguing that female rule

was unnatural, unlawful, monstrous, and contrary to scripture. Females had a condition they just couldn't overcome, and subjects of female rulers needed no further justification for rebelling against their monarch other than their sex. Knox's work was published just as Elizabeth the First assumed the throne. Jeanne Bondi, who wrote between fifteen thirty and fifteen ninety six, was a French jurist and a political theorist, He returned to scripture and

natural law in his opposition to female rule. In his Six Books of the Republic, published fifteen seventy six. He also stressed what would become in the seventeenth century. The most frequently cited reason against it that the state was like a household, and just as in the household, the husband or father has the authority and power over all others,

so in the state the man should always rule. The writer Robert Filmer carried this even further in his work Patriarchia, asserting that rulers derived all legal authority from divinely sanctioned fatherly power of Adam, just did all other fathers. Male monarchs used husband lean paternal imagery to justify their assertion of power over their subjects. James the First made the following statement to Parliament. Quote I am the husband, and

the whole isle is my lawful wife. By the law of nature, the king becomes the natural father to all his lieges at his coronation. A king is a newly parenis parai, the political father of his people. End quote. Yet even for Gian Baldin, political authority came directly from God. Thus, whether the ruler was a man or a woman. Resistance to their rule was both treason and sin. So in the early modern period, even though there was this preference

for a male sovereign. But everyone really wanted, and what we've already learned in this show, they wanted was stability. If a female ruler brought stability, then she was generally fine by them. Intellectually, the fall of Constantinople and the treasure trove of Greek and Latin texts that came west as a result, had a profound impact on Europe. Plato was virtually unknown in Western Europe until fourteen fifty three.

As a result, particularly in Florence and other Italian cities, intellectuals became increasingly interested in the ideas of Plato and Cicero. Most prominent amongst these early Greek scholars was Marsilio Ficino. His translations of many of Plato's works made Greek learning

much more available to a wider Western audience. Visinio, he would eventually become an ordained priest, regarded Plato as a divinely inspired precursor to Christ An attempted to synthesize Christian and Platonic teachings Plato's emphasis on the spiritual and eternal over the material and transient fitted perfectly with Christian teachers.

He believed Platonic ideas about love, the highest form of love was spiritual desire for pure, perfect beauty, could easily be interpreted as Christian desire for the perfection of God.

Visinio and his brilliant student Pico de la Mirandola found such ideas not only in Christian Platonic writers, but also it works that they regarded it as even more ancient and now rediscovered, such as Hebrew mystical texts called the Kabbala, metaphysical and astrological works attributed to the shadowy writer Hermes Trisagamus. These are called the Hermetic texts mostly in the West, and a number of mysticism from the pre Platonic Greek

philosopher Pythagoras. Pizino and Pico understood all these texts to be teaching the same truth that the universe was a hierarchy of beings, from God down through spiritual beings and all the way to the material. All this rediscovery, in turn led to a rise in humanism, and by the middle of the sixteenth century, the most prominent university scholars, and certainly the headmasters of most Latin grammar schools were humanists.

In fact, by the middle of the sixteenth century, it was no longer for students of humanism necessary to travel to Italy as they once had in order to simply get the basics. The Dutch humanist Desidrius Erasmus, the most famous scholar of his time in all of Europe, who lived from roughly fourteen sixty seven to fifteen thirty six, did not go to Italy until he was in his forties.

He then spent his time primarily at the print shop of a Venetian printer publisher, working alongside these scholars as he collected Greek and Latin sayings for all of his work. His major work, The Adages, presented and explained over three thousand classical sayings, serving as a guide to classical learning and a source of quotations for centuries. Sir Thomas Moore, the most famous English humanist, learned Greek and Latin in

England and in fact never traveled daily. Moore was a lawyer who held a number of positions in the city of London and at court before the surprise elevation to the most senior legal position in all of the Realm, Lord Chancellor, in fifteen twenty nine. We know that didn't end particularly really well for him. Unfortunately, Moore was in touch with Europe's leading humanists, and many of his Latin compositions and translations were read across the continent. He's most

famous for a controversial dialogue titled Utopia. Utopia, a word more invented from the Greek word for nowhere, describes a state somewhere beyond Europe, in which problems that plagued Moore's fellow citizens, such as poverty hunger, have been solved by a beneficent government, but in which dissent and disagreement were

never tolerated. Whether this followed in the humanist transition of satire or represented Moore's own views was unclear to his contemporaries, and has continued to be a matter of scholarly debate ever since. Increasingly, notably through Erasmus and more, humanist scholars became more interested in reforming the then Catholic Church, in a movement that became known as Christian humanism. In fifteen sixteen, Erasmus published a new Latin translation of the New Testament.

Interestingly enough, the Protestant Reformation is generally accepted as the end of humanism that no longer served a purpose. Thus, in Northern Europe, at least, Christian humanism was a relatively short lived phenomenon. Both the expansion of education and the religious controversies of the sixteenth century created a larger and more avid reading public for vernacular works. The best selling works between the invention of the printing press and seventeen

hundred were all religious. Between fifteen eighteen and fifteen twenty five, one third of all books printed in Germany were by luther Printed religious works varied from expensive leather bound bibles to eight page pamphlets or chapters with paper covers, or even single sheet broadsides, usually illustrated. The same qualities could be found in other popular non fiction printing works. There was a lot of travel literature, accounts of recent events

or sometimes biographies. There were also early modern how to manuals that sold very well. Baldassarre's Costiglioni's famous The Book of the Courtier, which sets out proper behavior for courtiers and court ladies, sold very well in its original Italian. It was ultimately translated into Spanish, French, English, German, and even Polish. The personal qualities Costiglione praises, reserved discretion, good manners. All those things became ideals for people much further down

the social scale than his original audience. Both middle class people and courtier's read poetry in prose fiction, along with religious works and instruction manuals. A circle of poets grew up in Florence at the court of Lorenzo de Medici, who patronized writing an Italian as well as humanist scholarship in Latin. Lorenzo himself famously wrote love lyric sonnets and all kinds of odes. Humanist similar groups and other European cities offered people an opportunity to discuss and share works

written in the vernacular as well as Latin. Though most of these groups were made up only of men because they were less formal than universities or academies, sometimes women could participate. Italian was the first modern European language to be transformed into a literary language. Dante began the process in the early fourteenth century when he decided to write his Divine Comedy in Italian. France was not far behind

the epics Romances and lyric poetry of medieval trovadors. Traveling French poets laid the foundation of modern friends, and by the sixteenth century, authors such as Maghari to de Anglume were combining chivalric theme with Platonic and Christian ideals. A circle of seven poets at the French Court defended the use of French as a literary medium, writing in what they saw as the new style that combined classic Italian and French forms. Humanism was also a boon for the stage.

Humanists rediscovered old classical plays, which were much more engaging and developed compared to the old medieval morality plays where somebody would actually take the stage and declare themselves to be the representation of sin. Plays of all types were very popular in England, were writing in the vernacular, developed out of a dialect spoken in the city of London

and the nearby court at Westminster. Before the One Hundred Years War, English kings and nobles, many of them descendants of the Gnomans, had spoken French, but the war had made the use of English a national source of pride. The writings of Jeffrey Chaucer, who was a diplomat and royal official in addition to famous writer, especially his Canterbury Tales,

solidified this language while still incorporating classical models. Later English poets such as Edmund Spencer, who wrote in the sixteenth century, and Sir Philip Sidney wrote alongside him, built on this base, composing in English but blending him classical structures and conventions. Christopher Marlowe, who wrote a little bit later, began to use blank verse for his plays as well as his poems, often centering a plot around a figure whose life is

destroyed by his own character. And of course, William Shakespeare wrote some of the greatest plays throughout all of English history. Shakespeare dominates English literature today in a way that no single writer dominates any other European literature, not even Dante. Shakespeare came from a middle class background in a medium sized town, probably attended a Latin grammar school, but had

no further former education. We know he was married and traveled to London, where he became an actor and a playwright for the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company of professional actors. He later became part owner in several London theaters and spent most of the rest of his life in London.

Shakespeare's talent was so great that some have doubted whether someone from such a simple background could actually have written the plays, but his use of classical and historical sources, and of both humanist and medieval forms of language, demonstrate just how widely humanism and humanist education had finally spread by the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Now, of course, most of Europe remained illiterate, and oral culture continued to evolve,

just like the spoken word, often involving music. Plays included music, particularly interludes called intermediate between scenes. Fairs, marketplaces, and inns provided a place for performers to both perf for people to listen. Vocal music was the center of musical composition, with the basic compositional technique the counterpoint, which independent melodic lines usually four, were combined in a polyphonic so multi

voiced harmony. Secular music was usually sung by small groups, but sacred music was now increasingly sung by large choirs, which is a major influence of the Reformation. Now, Roman and Greek art served as the model for humanist writers, sculptors, and painters, but no one had any idea how classical music sounded. Music itself was a hotly debated topic during the Reformation. Luther thought music was good and lifted the spirit.

Calvinists opposed music in the liturgy. Ironically, while some Protestant churches refused to allow organ music during service, they were forced to hold concerts of the same music on Sunday afternoons because it was so popular. Artists and their patrons view the purpose of art as the imitation of nature, which they recognized meant creating an illusion of reality rather

than copying it. Bileticelli, for example, worked on contre pasto, the shape of the body when the weight is mostly on one foot, and the way that fabrics were draped. For years. Leonardo da Vinci both theorized about and in his actual paintings, statues and buildings, experiment the effects of light on different sort of surfaces, systems of proportion based

on the human body, and compositional structures. In architecture, Filippio Bruniskeuelli designed a new hospital for orphans set up by the Silk Workers Guild in Florence, in which all proportions of the windows, height, floor plan and covered walkway with a series of rounded arches were carefully thought out to achieve a sense of balance and harmony. Brunus Gelli later turned his talents to designing and constructing a dome for Florence Cathedral, based to some degree on Roman domes, but

hire and more graceful. In the fifteenth century, Florence became the center of new art for Italy, but in the early sixteenth century this shifted to Rome, where wealthy cardinals and popes wanted visual expression of the church, owned families, power and piety. All of this was a dramatic change from the medieval past, in which none of these questions were even considered. And it wasn't all just the Florence and Rome show. Venice in the sixteenth century became a

center for art. The Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus hired Italian and French architects to rebuild and remodel his palace in the classical style. In the Netherlands, the Dukes of Burgundy patronized goldsmiths and sculptors. In Germany, wealthy cities like Cologne

and Nuremberg became centers for artistic creation. The famous wood carver and engraver Albrex Durer worked in Nuremberg, and one thing I do want to point out, though, is that these men, and they were mostly men, were not necessarily seen as artistic geniuses as many writers would have loved them to be seen. Artistic genius is a modern idea. These were artisans who had acquired their skills through years

and years of training and work. No one believed you could just be a gifted artist and skip the years of training with an older master in a workshop. Artistic works themselves were normally commissioned by a private individual, guild, or religious organization, and it showed like literally. In Boncelli's painting The Adoration of the Magi, you can see three members of the Medici family looking on as baby Jesus receives his gifts, and to my knowledge, no one from

that family was there. As I mentioned, nearly all of the most prolific Renaissance artists were male. Only one female sculptor, Propecia de Rossi, is known. Women were not allowed to study the male nude, which was viewed as essential if one wanted to paint large history paintings with many figures, so they generally painted portraits, smaller paintings with only a few subjects, or by the seventeenth century still life's and

interior scenes. Neither did women learn the technique of fresco, in which colors are applied directly to wet past or walls, because such works had to be done in public, which was judged inappropriate for women. Concerns about the propriety and morality thus limited the media that women could use. In In addition to their subject matter, worries about morality shaped far more than the works of female artists as the

sixteenth century progressed. Though Catholic writers defended the veneration of religious images against Protestants who wanted to do away with them, they also called for decorum and decency in all portrayals of the human form. They were particularly scandalized by nudity, even that of the infant Jesus or saints being martyred, and debated painting over certain body parts in naked figures

of Michelangelo's The Last Supper. Such moral concerns have often been seen as the product of the Protestant Reformation culminating and of course, but we traditionally think of when we hear the word Puritan. In fact, worries about order and morality predated the Protestant Reformation, especially among those in the cities, and would eventually be just as powerful among Catholics as among Protestants. It's week in our fourth and final installments

of this overview series. I'm going to take a broad look at some religious change, though not much because we've already talked about it to a large extent, and really focus in on economic and technological change from roughly fourteen fifty to the year seventeen hundred. If you've enjoyed the show,

please consider leaving a rating or review. It's the easiest way to help other people find the podcast, and if you're interested, there's a link in the show notes to Western CIV two point zero, another way to support all that we do.