1.

Why was the Church of England different from many other Protestant sects established during
the Reformation? Explain how it was established, how is that different from other Protestant
churches, and how do the rituals of the Church of England compare to those of the Roman
Catholic church.

To understand the origin of the Church of England we must look first at the schism that
occurred within the church and what caused it. By the middle of the 14th century people view of
the church had greatly changed. Initially people were very close with local priests and monks,
they were among the people sharing in some of their struggles and offering a means of spiritual
guidance. However, this credibility with the people had long since started to erode. In order to
more closely control everything, the Church had set up rules such as establishing separate courts
where priests would be tried, almost invariably they would be found innocent. This along with
the immense wealth of the church itself lead to a growing rift that had not been there before. The
principalities of Europe had their own issues with the church as well. It had long been
established that land under the church’s control could not be taxed or used for resources. And the
amount of land the church was accumulating only continued to grow as more and more people
gave up their lands upon their deaths to the church in order to gain absolution for their sins.
Because of this, vast swaths of land within the states of European princes was outside of their
jurisdiction almost like having separate states within their state. Finally, the sale of indulgences
in order to absolve people of their sins and escape purgatory was a particularly infuriating
prospect for some including Martin Luther. This disillusionment of the common folk along with
the friction with ruling classes made people especially receptive to a new way of doing things,
and after Martin Luther’s 95 theses different forms of Protestantism spread in many parts of
Europe.
The Church of England’s formation is unique though, it’s formation as a separate entity
from Rome occurred under the rule of King Henry VIII. Henry VIII wanted an annulment of his
marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn but, Pope Clement VII refused
in large part to how he feared Catherine’s nephew, Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor, would
react to such a move. In response Henry VIII made himself the head of the Church of England,
an act that would result in his excommunication by Pope Paul III, though till his dying day Henry
thought of himself as being a good catholic and was opposed to Protestantism. During the
remainder of his reign Henry maintained a strong preference for traditional Catholic practices
and protestant reformers were unable to make changes though for a time he did engage in the
dissolution of monasteries which often controlled the most prime land. While other protestant
churches in Europe were founded directly in response to a shift in core beliefs from those
presented by the Roman Catholic Church the Church of England broke away from the Catholic
Church on the whim of ruler who refused to accept Papal control over him.
The Church of England remained similar to the Catholic Church during the reign of
Henry VIII and the architecture of the Catholic Church buildings would remain prominent
throughout the history of the Church of England. It is under the reign of Henry’s son Edward the
VI that protestant influence truly became apparent, much of which was due to the work of
Thomas Cranmer who was the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is from Cranmer that much of the
Calvinist influence seen in the Church of England came from. In addition to the key difference of
believing that faith and guidance in the teaching of the bible alone was enough to achieve
salvation, priests are allowed to marry in England while those of the Catholic church had to take
vows of celibacy. The leadership structure of the churches was also vastly different with the
Church of England not really recognizing a hierarchy that places a certain church or individual
above others which offered much more individual freedom for each individual church to decide
on their local policies.

2. Leonardo da Vinci was a true “Renaissance Man”. Explain why he is called that, what were
some of his accomplishments and how have they impacted us today.

Leonardo da Vinci was considered a true renaissance man because of both his individual
accomplishments and the many different fields in which he displayed some form of mastery in.
These two aspects really embodied what the renaissance was about. It was about the individual
learning different skills and pushing what it is that they could accomplish. The goal would be to
attain mastery in everything from painting to writing, math, architecture, engineering, music, and
philosophy. An impossible goal for anyone, even Leonardo da Vinci, but a goal that people of
renaissance believed everyone should strive for. Unlike many though Leonardo da Vinci, though
maybe not a mastery in everything, was highly talented in nearly all areas that people of
renaissance believed to be important and these achievements explain why we refer to him as a
true “Renaissance Man”.
Many of the inventions and designs that da Vinci created were never fully realized until
far after his death, but they served as blue prints and ideas to go off for future generations.
Looking at his work we see designs for airplanes, bicycles, parachutes and much more. His work
in art from his use of Linear perspective and other techniques which created illusions of depth
would go on to influence future artists for centuries to come. His documentation and study of the
human body were incredibly detailed and were important not only for the information they
presented but for the framework they provided for how scientists would later collect and catalog
their findings.

3. The Printing Press was a revolutionary invention. Explain how books were created before the
printing press, who developed the printing press and how did that invention change the world.

Before the advent of the printing press books had to be very carefully fashioned. The
paper itself was made of animal hide and to make multiple copies of a book required painstaking
copying each word to a new book. This was an expensive and labor-intensive process and
following the collapse of the Roman empire many written works were lost due to the ravages of
war and neglect. The works that did survive were kept safely in monasteries and were not easily
accessible to common folk. Because of the lack of books and the expensive nature of making
them very few people could read because very few people would ever come across a book and
fewer still could ever hope to be able to afford to buy one.
The printing press changed everything, in an instant the process of making and mass-
producing books became cheap and a work could then be spread everywhere in a way that could
never before be done. And because the process was so much cheaper the price of books fell
dramatically. With the sudden drop in price and much greater access to books literacy began to
read as the barriers previously there to prevent people from getting books suddenly fell away.
This rise in literacy would have great consequences moving forward as people could now read
and interpret the works of other without having to rely on other, primarily people of the church to
be the purveyors of all information.
Worth 25 pts. Total

Worth 15 pts.
1. Why was the Church of England different from many other Protestant sects established during
the Reformation? Explain how it was established, how is that different from other Protestant
churches, and how do the rituals of the Church of England compare to those of the Roman
Catholic church.

Worth 5 pts. each.

2. Leonardo da Vinci was a true “Renaissance Man”. Explain why he is called that, what were
some of his accomplishments and how have they impacted us today.

3. The Printing Press was a revolutionary invention. Explain how books were created before the
printing press, who developed the printing press and how did that invention change the world.

The consequences of this want of firm definition are to be seen in the whole history of the
papacy up to the sixteenth century. From quite early times onward there were disputed elections
and two or more men each claiming to be Pope. The church would then be subjected to the
indignity of going to the Emperor or some other outside arbiter to settle the dispute. And the
career of every one of the great Popes ended in a note of interrogation. At his death the church
might be left headless and as ineffective as a decapitated body. Or he might be replaced by some
old rival eager only to discredit and undo his work. Or some enfeebled old man tottering on the
brink of the grave might succeed him.
It was inevitable that this peculiar weakness of the papal organization should attract the
interference of the various German princes, the French King, and the Norman and French Kings
who ruled in England; that they should all try to influence the elections, and have a Pope in their
own interest established in the Lateran Palace at Rome. And the more powerful and important
the Pope became in European affairs, the more urgent did these interventions become. Under the
circumstances it is no great wonder that many of the Popes were weak and futile. The
astonishing thing is that many of them were able and courageous men.

The Catholic Church began to experience a severe decline in their influence over the
kingdoms of Europe despite efforts made to stop it. A major section of their efforts were to
control the arts and self expression. However doing so would have been an incredibly costly
venture to do in an effective manner even for an organization like the Catholic Church. To
remedy this they decided on the idea of selling indulgences. The idea centered around the idea of
purgatory and the cleansing of sins. Normally an individual had no choice but to suffer for a
certain number amount of time until they were cleansed and could enter heaven. However, the
concept of indulgences provided the idea that the church had the power to forgive in the name of
god. Of course to get these indulgences you would need to pay, and based on the severity of the
crime the price also differed. Many people, especially the wealthy, jumped on the opportunity to
forgo the time they would have to spend in purgatory. And others still would often forfeit their
land once they died, often times these men would be crusaders or those who could not afford to
pay indulgences. This eventually lead to thousands of sections of land coming under the control
of the church all over Europe. This was especially infuriating for the rulers of those lands as
within their kingdoms existed land that had to be ceded and could not be taxed or used for the
resources they could provide.
But the Saracenic world not only gave Christendom the stimulus of its philosophers and
alchemists; it also gave it paper. It is scarcely too much to say that paper made the intellectual
revival of Europe possible. Paper originated in China, where its use probably goes back to the
second century B.C. In 751 the Chinese made an attack upon the Arab Moslems in Samarkand;
they were repulsed, and among the prisoners taken from them were some skilled papermakers,
from whom the art was learnt. Arabic paper manuscripts from the ninth century onward still
exist. The manufacture entered Christendom either through Greece or by the capture of Moorish
paper-mills during the Christian reconquest of Spain. But under the Christian Spanish the
product deteriorated sadly. Good paper was not made in Christian Europe until the end of the
thirteenth century, and then it was Italy which led the world. Only by the fourteenth century did
the manufacture reach Germany, and not until the end of that century was it abundant and cheap
enough for the printing of books to be a practicable business proposition. Thereupon printing
followed naturally and necessarily, for printing is the most obvious of inventions, and the
intellectual life of the world entered upon a new and far more vigorous phase. It ceased to be a
little trickle from mind to mind; it became a broad flood, in which thousands and presently
scores and hundreds of thousands of minds participated.

The Franks were one of many Germanic tribes that settled in central Europe during the collapse
of the Roman Empire. There were tense relations between the Roman and all Germanic tribes
though once the Franks were able to settle somewhat in the region known as Gaul they did often
work with the Romans in order to maintain their lands as they were. The Franks themselves were
not a fully unified people and instead acted in war bands of sorts with particularly talented
individual gathering larger following. The greatest of these rulers was Clovis, he understand that
for the Franks to permanently be recognized he would have to change the Franks. One of these
changes was having his people adopt Christianity, Clovis himself is said to have converted when
the tide of battle suddenly changed in his favor after he prayed to the god of Christianity. After
this he and the majority of his people converted to Christianity. He found what will become
known as the Merovingian line of kings who would preside over Frankland.

The Rule of Justinian is one of grand consequence not only to the lands he was able to
bring under Byzantine control but also what efforts he made to preserve and extend the legacy of
the Roman empire. He was a man of great ambition and tireless pursued the idea of a reunified
Rome. This drive is what allowed him to achieve what he did, but it can also be said that his
tireless chase of his dreams is what left his empire with nowhere to go after his death, unable to
overcome future challenges.
Justinian himself came from humble beginnings, a simple farmer who owned nothing,
how could such a person ever go on to become one of the greatest leaders in history. To
understand the story of Justinian we must look at his uncle Justin. Justin was also a simple
swineherd, owning nothing but the clothes on his back, Justin reached the grand city of
Constantinople and joined the army searching for his fortune. Justin quickly climbed the ranks
eventually becoming a leading member of the palace guard and with his newfound success he
brought his family with him to Constantinople. Having no children of his own, Justin instead
provided everything he could for his nephew who, in gratitude of all his uncle did for him,
changed his name to Justinian. Justinian was tutored in everything from legal studies, literature
and even given a position within the palace guard. It is at this time that the emperor whom Justin
served died without an heir and a sudden power struggle emerged.