Essay #1

I.Thesis
• There was a change in the viewing of women equal to men
spiritually, became heavily involved in prostitution, and high
class women even became powerful but overall, the status of
women declined because of religious wars.
• The Nature and perspective of slavery changed through key
events linked to war such as the capture of Constantinople, but
slavery also changed through global expansion and the need for
people to help establish settlements through manual labor.
• The popularity of Baroque art and music was caused by
underlying religious emotionalism to the Catholic Reformation
and the nostalgia caused by the artists references to
Renaissance humanism, secularism, and individualism.

Supporting Facts for the Change of Women

• Protestant reformers rejected medieval scholastic ideas on
celibacy and marriage, broke institutional Catholic church,
Protestants scarcely differed with Scholastics’ notions
• Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and the English Puritans all held that
women could merit salvation and that men and women were
SPIRITUALLY equal.
• Yet, the also believed women were subordinate to men.
• Marriage was supported for women and had three purposes
o Procreation of children
o The Avoidance of Sin
o Mutual help and Companionship-Does not mean equality
though
• Reformers urged anyone to marry
• Catholics felt that celibacy was the highest level of Christian life
• Maria of Antwerp was arrested twice for marrying a woman
• Moralist View on the Household
o If women suffered under their husbands’ yokes, writers
explained that submission was the punishment they had
inherited from Eve, penance for man’s fall, like the pain of
childbearing. Moreover, they said, a woman’s lot was no
worse than a man’s: he had to earn the family’s bread by
the sweat of his brows.
• Marriage
o Catholics
 Sacramental union that, if validly entered into, could
not be dissolved.
o Protestants
  Contract in which each partner promised the other
support, good companionship, and the sharing of
mutual goods.
 Recognized a mutual right to divorce and remarriage
for reasons including
• Adultery
• Irreparable breakdown, ETC.
•
• Elizabeth Hardwick
o Orphaned daughter of an obscure Engish country squire
o 4 careful marriages to help her go up the social ladder
o Managed her estates, which totaled over 100,000 acres
 Two Greatest mansions are Chatsworth and Hardwick
• Prostitution
o Pope Pius IV expelled all prostitutes from Rome
 This lasted 1 month as with the absence of
prostitution, there was an absence of money
o Poverty forced women into prostitution
o Moralists railed against prostitution
 Melchior Ambach-Lutheran editor
• “houses of women” why not “houses of boys”
for women?
• “would whoring be any worse for the poor,
needy female sex?”
• Sarcasm
o Protestant reformers believed that convents were
antifeminist and that women would find freedom in
marriage and sex
o With closing of convents, marriage became virtually the
only occupation for upperclass Protestant women
• Supporting facts for Slavery
o 1364-Florence Government allows unlimited imports of
slaves that were not Christian
o Genoese colonial stations
 Almost all slaves were white
• 1453-Ottoman capture of Constantinople halted flow of white
slaves from the Black Sea region and the Balkans
o Mediterranean Europe had no choice but to go to Sub-
Saharan Africa for labor forces
o Henry the Navigator’s sailors discovered the Madeira
Islands and settled there
 “the history of slavery became inextricably tied up
with the history of sugar.”
 New conquests=Large Shortage of labor
 • Slaves filled this void
o Spanish exploitation was harsh
 Aztecs of Mexico and Incas of Peru had
• Agricultural labor
• Domestic labor
• Industrial slavery
 Died quickly from panning for gold 12 hours a day
o Bartolome de las Casas suggested to Charles V to end
Indian slavery and import Africans
 He thought Africans could better survive in the harsh
climate and conditions
 Church did not strictly forbit slavery
 Charles agreed=1518 slave trade began
 Portuguese brought first black slaves to Brazil
o Settlers brought racial attitudes derived from 2 basic
sources
 Christian theological speculation
 Arab ideas
o Overall caused by expansion
• Popularity of Baroque Music and Art
o Influence of Rome and revitalized Catholic church
o Papacy and Jesuits encouraged emotional art
o Baroque drew a sense of drama, motion, and ceaseless
striving from the Catholic Reformation
o Peter Paul Rubens
 Best baroque painter
 Studied in Flanders and Italy, influenced by
Michelangelo
 Rubens glorified monarchs such as Queen Mother
Marie de’ Medici of France
 Catholic
 Half of his pictures treat Christian subjects
• Music
o Johann Sebastian Bach
 Secular concertos and sublime religious cantatas
 Greatest Organ music
 Not appreciated in lifetime like Rubens
• Exploration and exploitation contributed to a more sophisticated
standard of living
o Spices
o Asian luxury goods
o International inflation
 Resulted from influx of gold and silver from South
America