Geography Secondary authorities Sources Illustrative works Richard III. (16) Could an act of Parliament make a king (17) Why were France and Burgundy hostile to each other? (18) An estimate of Richard III. REFERENCES See map, p. 232; Gardiner, School Atlas, map 20; Hughes. Geography of British History, 169-179. Reich, New Students Atlas, maps 16, 17, 18. Bright, History of England, I. 316-354; Gardiner, Student's History, chs. xxi. xxii.; Ransome, Advanced History, 333–371; Green, Short History, 281-301,- History of the English People, bk. iv. ch. vi.; Gairdner, Houses of Lancaster and York, History of Richard III.; Cheyney, Introduction to Industrial and Social History, ch. vi.; Powell and Tout, History of England, I. 321-348, 359-372; Brewer, Student's Hume, chs. xi. xii.; Lingard, History of England, III. chs. iv.-vii.; Ramsay, Lancaster and York, II. chs. ix.-xxxv.; Lawless, Ireland, ch. xvii.; Edwards, Wales, 291-309; Oman, Warwick the Kingmaker; Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, I. 409-450; Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, ch. xii.; Taswell-Langmead, Constitutional History, 296–303; Denton, England in the Fifteenth Century; Kirk, Charles the Bold of Burgundy. See New England History Teachers' Association, Syllabus, 245–246. Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, nos. 126-133; Colby, Selections from the Sources, nos. 46-48; Kendall, Source-Book, ch. vii.; Durham, English History from Original Sources, 102127; Lingelbach, Merchant Adventurers of England (University of Pennsylvania Reprints, New Series, II.); Thompson, Wars of York and Lancaster; Gairdner, The Paston Letters; Gee and Hardy, Documents of Church History, no. xlv. Bates and Coman, English History told by English Poets, 198230; Bulwer, The Last of the Barons (Warwick); Church, The Chantry Priest of Barnet; Henty, A March on London; Shakespeare, King Henry VI., Parts II. III., — King Richard III.; Stevenson, The Black Arrow. CHAPTER XVII. RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION UNDER THE EARLY TUDORS (1485-1547) sition to modern history FOR many generations forces had been at work which were to transform the mediæval into the modern world. During the fifteenth century, improvements in the mariner's 267. Trancompass and the astrolabe made navigation a more exact art, and prepared the way for the occupation of remote lands by the more vigorous of the old world powers. The use of gunpowder in war made almost worthless the strength and dexterity on which the feudal warriors relied, and transferred the burden of war from the ordinary citizens to a class of professional fighters. Commerce was creating the wealth which made possible a leisure class, free to cultivate their intellectual and æsthetic tastes. Schisms among the rulers of the church, and errors of judgment and moral shortcomings among her servants, roused independent thought about religious and scientific teachings previously accepted without question as matters of revelation. Finally, the discovery of the art of printing made possible that general diffusion of knowledge which, more than anything else, marks the difference between modern and mediæval life. 268. The The three states strong enough to take the lead under the new conditions were France, Spain, and England. Germany, composed of many units loosely federated under the Holy Roman Empire, and severed by the Alps from Italy (the center of mediæval life), had lagged behind these states in her development. France, after two centuries of arrested development, began to make rapid progress under a strong 66 'great powers" in 1485 ruler, Louis XI. (from 1461 to 1483), who quelled civil strife and strengthened the power of the monarch. Spain, formerly divided into two rival kingdoms, was just waking into national life and unity under the guidance of Ferdinand of Aragon, and was ready to assume her place as a world power whenever the current of European trade should set westward instead of eastward. England, with her intelligent population, her strong practical constitution, and her insular position, enjoyed the advantages of both her rivals. In all three states, the monarchs were enjoying more absolute authority than any mediæval king could boast, because they did not have to rely on arrogant and self-willed barons in carrying out their purposes. Hence they were tempted into petty wars of conquest, which are characteristic of the early sixteenth century. 269. Causes of the Ref ormation The history of all these states was profoundly affected by the great religious revolution known as the Reformation, which finally wrenched the majority of the Teutonic peoples of northern Europe away from the Roman communion. Its beginnings can be traced back into the fourteenth century, to such religious movements as those of Wyclif (1324-1384) in England, Huss (1369-1415) in Bohemia, and Savonarola (1452-1498) in Italy; and also to the movement in art and letters known as the Renaissance (1300–1500). 270. The Renais Up to the middle of the fourteenth century the pursuit of war and the satisfaction of physical needs absorbed all the energies of the less intellectual classes; while the more thoughtful few, impelled by the conviction that the flesh and the spirit wage eternal war, devoted themselves wholly to the salvation of their sin-stained souls. But with the progress of civilization, many people came to believe that God made the world to promote, and not to hinder, man's highest development, and that to study its laws and to enjoy its pleasures were both permissible and profitable. Italy first exhibited the new impulse, by reviving the study of the ancient. sance literatures, by cultivating the forgotten art of sculpture and the newer art of painting, by developing a joyous civic life, and by fostering the beginning of scientific investigation. Its liberalizing effect is seen in the outspoken criticism of the church of his day by Dante (1265-1321); in Petrarch's return to the "profane" writings of Homer and Virgil (1304–1374); in the patronage of arts, letters, and science by the Florentine family of the Medici (1389-1492). The classical authors were imitated in the native tongue; the remains of ancient temples were studied, and a new style of architecture (the Italian Renaissance) was created by the skillful combination of Greek and Roman forms; the ancient art of sculpture was revived; and the new art of painting from life, with due attention to perspective, was brought to great perfection in an astonishingly short time. The names of Giotto, Raphael, and Michael Angelo are sufficient to suggest the greatness of the Renaissance impulse in Italy. From that country it spread during the sixteenth century into France, Spain, Germany, and England, where it followed close upon the restoration of order under the Tudors. 271. The Renais sance and Had not the Renaissance promoted the study of the dead languages, and thus enabled individuals to attempt the interpretation of the Scriptures by the light of their own reason, the Reformation might perhaps have stopped short the church of revolution. Yet the tendency to political liberalism was in violent conflict with the conservatism of churchmen who still held that government by absolute monarchs was divinely ordained, and that Popes had authority over all monarchs. Moreover, the Popes themselves, by their activity as territorial sovereigns in Italy, were undermining the influence which belonged to them as spiritual "vicars of God." In England, where the national temper was one of independence in thought and action, where the Pope's orders had been repeatedly set at defiance, where the financial demands of Rome roused the most angry resist |