Ch 13. European Society in the Age
of the Renaissance
Wealth
and Power in Renaissance Italy
· New art/ways of thinking in REN rest
on economic and political developments in city states of northern Italy
· Economic growth laid material basis
for Italian REN, and ambitious merchants gained political power to match their
economic power
o Used $ to buy luxuries and hire
talent through patronage: cities/groups/individs commissioned writers and
artists to produce specific works
· Political leaders in Italian cities
admired ancient Rome and commission Romanesque art
· Economics, politics, and culture
were interconnected
· Northern Italian cities led way in
great commercial revival of 11th c
o Venice, Genoa, Milan: Enormously
rich through merchant marine and sea trade, Shipbuilding, carrying merchandise
o Florence: commercial leader,
favorable location, commercial hub, city grew wealthy buying/selling all sorts
of goods
· Florentine merchants loaned/invested
money
o Acquired control of papal banking
o Florentine mercantile families began
to dominate European banking
o Profits pumped back into urban
industries
o Profits contributed to city’s
economic vitality and allowed banking families to control the city’s politics
and culture
· By 14th c, economic
foundations of Florence were so strong that even severe crises couldn’t destroy
city
o Bankruptcy
o Black Death
o Labor unrest shook political
establishment
· Florentine economic structure
remained stable
· Wealth allowed many ppl greater
material pleasures, a more comfortable life, and leisure time to appreciate/patronize
the arts
o Commissioned buildings, hired
sculptors and painters
· Rich, social climbing residents saw
life more as an opportunity to be enjoyed than as a painful pilgrimage to the
City of God
Communes
and republics of Northern Italy
· Northern Italian cities: communes:
sworn associations of free men who began to seek political/economic
independence from local nobles
· Merchant guilds that formed built
and maintained city walls, regulated trade, collected taxes, kept civil order
· Local nobles frequently moved into
cities, marrying into rich commercial families and starting their own
businesses
· Merger of feudal nobility and
commercial elite created a powerful oligarchy
· Rivalries among diff powerful
families within oligarchy à communes politically unstable
· Unrest coming from below made
instability worse
o Merchant elites made citizenship in
communes dependent on property qualification, years of residence, social
connections
o Only tiny percentage of male had
these qualifications and could hold office
o Popolo: disenfranchised common ppl
in Italian cities, were heavily taxed and bitterly resented their exclusion
from power
· Popolo used armed force and violence
to take over the city govs
o Repub govs established
o Victory of popolo was temporary –
could not establish civil order within their cities
· Merchant oligarchies sometimes used
powerful military leaders to establish order
o Military leaders called condottieri
had own armies, and in many cities took over political power as well
· Many cities in Italy became signori:
one man ruled and handed down right to rule his son
o Some signori kept communal gov in
place, but these had no actual power
o Oligarchic regimes possessed
constitutions and boasted how much more democratic their gov was
o Oligarchies maintained a façade of
republican gov, but judicial, executive, and legislative functions of gov were
restricted to a small class of wealthy merchants
· 15th 16th c:
signori in many cities and most powerful merchant oligarchs in others
transformed their households into courts
o Opportunity to display and assert
their wealth and power
o Magnificent palaces
o Required all political business to
be done there
· Rulers of Florence, Milan, and other
northern Italian cities became patrons of the arts,
o Hired architects, artists, musicians
o Supported writers and philosophers
o Elaborate rituals
City-States
and the Balance of Power
· REN Italians had a passionate
attachment to individual city states: political loyalty and feeling centered on
the local city
· Intensity fo local feeling
perpetuated dozens fo small states and hindered development of one unified
state
· 5 powers
o Venice
§ International power
§ Republic in name, really oligarchy
of merchant-aristocrats
o Milan
§ Republic in name
§ Sforza family dominated
o Florence
§ Republican with authority in several
councils of state
§ Medici had power for centuries
§ Cosimo and Lorenzo de Medici ruled from behind the
scenes
§ Medici produced 3 popes
§ Most REN popes were members of
powerful Italian families, selected for political skills
§ Pope Alexander VI: most ruthless, had
illegitimate son Cesare Borgia who
reasserted papal authority in papal lands
o Kingdom of Naples
§ Under control of king of Aragon
· Major Italian city states controlled
smaller ones and competed furiously among themselves for territory
o Used spies, paid informers, and any
means to get info that could be used to advance their ambitions
· Italian politics resembled a jungle
where the powerful dominated the weak
· Whenever one Italian state looked
like it gained a predominant position, other states combined to establish a
balance of power against the major threat
· REN Italians invented machinery of
modern diplomacy
· End of 15th c: Venice,
Florence, Milan, and papacy possessed great wealth and represented high
cultural achievement
o Wealthy and divided
o Inviting target for invasion
· When Florence and Naples agreed to
take Milanese territories, Milan called on France for support and French king Charles VIII invaded Italy
· In Florence, French invasion was the
fulfillment of a prophecy by Dominican friar Savonarola
o Predicted God would punish Italy for
its moral vice and corrupt leadership
o Medici dynasty fell after French
invasion
o Savonarola became political and
religious leader
o Reorganized gov
o Called on ppl to destroy anything
that led them to sin
· Ppl tired of Savonarola’s moral denunciations
o Was excommunicated, tortured, burned
o Medici returned as rulers of
Florence
· Savonarola represents internal
instability of Italian cities, an instability that invited foreign invasion
· French invasion inaugurated new
period in Italian and European power politics
o Italy became focus of international
ambitions
o Battleground for foreign armies:
those of France and HRE
· Habsburg-Valois wars: France vs HRE
o Italian cities suffered from warfare
o Sack of Rome 1527 under Charles V
· Failure of city states to form a
federal system, consolidate, or create foreign policy led to centuries of
subjection by outside invaders
Intellectual
Change
· REN was characterized by self-conscious
awareness among educated Italians that they were living in a new era
· Deep interest in ancient Latin and
Greek literature and philosophy
· Developed new notions of human
nature, new plans for education, new concepts of political rule
· Advent of printing press accelerated
spread of ideas throughout Europe
Humanism
· Francesco Petrarch
o Spent long hours searching for
classical Latin manuscripts in monastery libraries
o Wandered around ruins of many Roman
Empire ruins
o Obsessed with classical past
Felt writers and artists of ancient Rome had reached a level of perfection in their work that had never since been duplicated
Felt writers and artists of ancient Rome had reached a level of perfection in their work that had never since been duplicated
o Writers of his own day should follow
these ancient models and ignore “dark ages” afterwards
o Believed that recovery of classical
texts would bring about a new golden age of intellectual achievement
· Petrarch thought he was witnessing
the dawning of a new era in which writers and artists would recapture glory of
Roman republic
o Proposed a new kind of education
o Young men: study works of ancient
Latin and Greek authors, using them as models
o Study of Latin classics became
“liberal arts”
· People who advocated liberal arts
were called humanists, and they followed humanism
· Humanism: human nature and
achievement, evident in the classics, were worthy of contemplation
o Glory of Rome had been brightest,
humans thought, in works of Roman author/statesman Cicero
§ Supported return to republican gov
§ Admired Cicero’s use of language,
literary style, and political ideas
§ Decline of Latin language after
death of Cicero and decline of Roman republic
§ Divided history into 3 eras:
ancient, medieval, modern
o Became increasingly interested in
Greek philosophy as well as Roman literature, especially in the ideas of Plato
§ Marsilio Ficino began to lecture an informal group of Florence’s cultural elite à Platonic Academy
· Regarded Plato as divinely inspired
precursor to Christ
· Translated Plato’s dialogues into
Latin
· Attempted to synthesize Christian
and Platonic teachings
§ Plato’s emphasis on spiritual and
eternal over material and transient fit well with Christian teachings of the
immortality of soul, love, the highest form of love was spiritual desire for
pure, perfect beauty uncorrupted by bodily desires – easily fits with Christian
desire for the perfection of God
o Pico de la Mirandola:
both Christian and classical texts taught that the universe was a hierarchy of beings
with God at top and humans the crucial link in middle
§ On the dignity of Man
§ Man possesses great dignity because
he was made as Adam in the image of God
§ Man is the one part of the created
world that has no fixed place, but can freely choose whether to rise to realm
of angels or descend to realm of animals
§ Humans are truly miraculous
creatures
o Man’s miraculous nature means there
are no limits to what he can accomplish
§ Viewed groups as springboards to
higher individual achievement
§ Especially individuals who had risen
above their background to become brilliant, powerful, or unique, and had virtu:
ability to shape the world around them according to their will
§ Not excellent, reached pinnacle of
excellent
o REN thinkers did not exclude
themselves when they searched for models of talent and achievement
§ Leon Alberti:
Exalts himself in his book saying he’s talented, is a “Renaissance man”
o Plato taught best way to learn
something was to think about its perfect, ideal form
Education
· Humanists thought their recommended
course of study in the classics would provide essential skills for future
diplomats, lawyers, military leaders, businessmen, politicians, writers,
artists
· Provided a much broader and more
practical type of training than offered at universities that focused on
theology and philosophy
· Taught a life active in the world
should be the aim of all educated individuals and that education was not simply
for private or religious purposes, but benefited the public good
· Humanists opened schools/academies
with Latin grammar and rhetoric, Roman history, Greek to study Greek lit
· Gradually, humanist education became
the basis for intermediate and advanced education for well to do urban boys and
men
· Humanists disagreed about education
for women
o Saw value in showing women classical
models, but wondered whether it was proper for women, whose spheres were
generally domestic and private
o Alberti stresses wife’s role should
be restricted to orderliness of the household, food and serving of meals, the
education of children, supervision of servants
o Thought tutors/self study, a few
women became educated in classics
o Argued that reason was not limited
to men and that learning was compatible with virtue for women as well
· Baldassare Castiglione: The Courtier
o Sought to train, discipline, and
fashion the young man into the courtly/ideal gentleman
o Man should have broad background
academically, and spiritual and physical training, compose a sonnet, wrestle,
sing a song, ride, speak/write eloquently
o Perfect court lady should be well
educated, paint, dance, physical beauty, delicacy
· The Courtier influenced social mores
and patterns of elite groups in REN and early modern Europe and became a how to
manual for people seeking to improve themselves and rise in the social
hierarchy
Political
Thought
· Ideal courtiers should serve a n
ideal ruler
· Humanist described rulers who were
just, wise, pious, learned, kind, and sometimes got positions or money
· Ideal rulers were hard to find in
Italy
· Humanists looked to classical past
for models
o Some argued republicanism was best
form
o Plato’s philosopher king
o Both argued that educated men should
be active in the political affairs of their city, “civic humanism”
· Most famous civic humanist: Niccolo Machiavelli: Held a gov
position, was fired and tortured, then imprisoned
o Released but had no gov position
o Spend rest of life writing and
making fruitless attempts to regain employment
o The Prince: the function of a rulers
is too preserve order and security
o Weakness leads to disorder, which
might end in civil war or foreign conquest
o To preserve the state a ruler should
use whatever means he needs
o Should not do anything that would
make the populace turn against him
o Popular support needed a strong,
stable realm
o It is much safer to be feared than
loved
o Knew effective rulers exhibited
virtu
§ Cesare Borgia who went from illegit
son to consolidating papal power
§ Said inescapable fate was the only
thing that brought him down
o Seen as first modern guide to
politics
o Argued gov’s should be judged by how
well they provided security, order, and safety to their populace, not by
principles of God
o Ideals needed to be measured in the
cold light of the real world
o Unacceptable to many
o Scholars debate whether Machiavelli
actually meant what he wrote
Christian
Humanism
· Low Countries, France, Germany,
England flocked to Italy to absorb the “new learning” and carried it back to
their own countries
· Northern humanists shared ideas of
Ficino and Pico on the wisdom f ancient texts, but went beyond Italian efforts
to synthesize Christina and classical traditions to see humanist learning as a
way to bring about a reform of the church and deepen people’s spiritual lives
· Christian humanists thought that the
best elements of classical and Christian cultures should be combined
· Thomas More
o Utopia: community where all children
get good classical education, and adults do manual labor and intellectual
activities
o No problems, they have been solved
by beneficial gov
o No private property that promotes
greed
o Religious tolerance
o Order and reason
o Dissent/disagreement not acceptable
o Critique of society? Call for even
firmer hierarchy? Satire?
o Written in vernacular
· Erasmus
o Exceptional knowledge of Greek and
Bible
o Formation of a ruler’s character
through careful study of Plutarch, Aristotle, Cicero, and Plato
o Praise of Folly: satire of worldly
wisdom and plea for simple and spontaneous Christian faith of children
o Critical edition of New Testament –
wants all to be able to read it, translated into all languages
· Erasmus’s general ideas
o Education is means to reform, key to
moral and intellectual improvement
o Core of education should be study of
Bible and classics
o Philosophy of Christ meant
Christianity is an inner attitude of heart or spirit, not special ceremonies,
Christianity is Christ – his life, what he said and did
The Printed
Word
· Printing press w/ movable metal type
· Ideas of Petrarch were spread slowly
by hand copy
· Ideas of Erasmus were spread quickly
through print
· Johann Gutenberg: movable type printing press
· Printing enabled by ready
availability of paper
· Increase in urban literacy,
development of primary schools, and opening of more universities created an
expanding market for reading materials
· Other craftsmen built their own
presses and built a business
· Effects of printing press were not
felt overnight
· Movable type brought about radical
changes, transforming private and public lives of European by 16th c
o Printers had connection to
politics/art/scholarship that other crafts did not have
o Gave hundreds of ppl identical books
so they could discuss books and form ideas or even causes
· Gov and church leaders used and
worried about printing
o Printed themselves, but attempted to
censor books and authors whose ideas they thought were wrong
o Prohibited books authors,
confiscated books, arrested printers
o None of this was effective, and
books were printed secretly and smuggled
· Printing stimulated literacy of lay
people and eventually had a deep effect on their private lives
o Though mostly religious, printers
produced anything that would sell
o Pornography, history, illustrations
o Print bridged the gap between the
written and oral cultures
Art and
the Artist
· Dazzling creativity
· Florence led the way
· Florence was not only artistic
center, Rome and Venice also became important
· Northern Europeans had their own
styles
Patronage
and Power
· Powerful urban groups often flaunted
their wealth by commissioning 3 works fo art in early REN Italy
o Brunelleschi’s
dome
o Ghiberti’s
bronze door
· More and more in the 15th
c, wealthy individuals and rulers, rather than corporate groups sponsored works
of art
· Glorify themselves and their
families
· Patrons varied in levels of
involvement as work progressed
o Some super involved, some not so
much
o Julius II commissioned
Michelangelo and ordered him
· Art reveals changing patterns of
consumption among nobility and wealthy merchants in REN Italy
o Before, spent on military gear
o Cities hired mercenaries
o Grand urban palace represented cash,
o Spent money on art, building,
dishes, tablecloths, paintings, sculptures, to adorn their homes
o Increasingly elaborate house
· Private chapel within the palace
symbolized the largest expenditure for the wealthy of 16th c
o Center of household’s religious life
and its cult of remembrance of the dead
Changing
Artistic Styles
· Content and style of REN art were
diff from Middle Ages
o Religious topics remained popular
o Frequently patron and family
portrayed in scene
o Classical themes and motifs were
increasingly shown
o Individual portrait emerged as
distinct artistic genre
· Individual
o Not a spiritual ideal, showed human
ideals
o More realistic style
o Imitating nature and an orderly
sequence of design and proportion
· Giotto: Led
the way in realism
· Linear perspective
· Donatello:
Revived classical figure
· Brunelleschi:
Looked to classical past for inspiration
· Northern European art was more
religious than that produced in Italy
o Artistic equals of Italian painters,
admired in Italy
o Oil based paints, realism, human
personality
· 16th c: Center of new art
shifted from Florence to Rome
o Wealthy cardinals and popes
o Enormous enthusiasm, huge sums of
money to beautify city
· Venice: another artistic center
o Titian:
mannerism
§ Distorted figures, exaggerated
musculature, heightened colors to express emotion and drama more intently
The
Renaissance Artist
· Adulation of the artist
· Many historians saw REN as beginning
of concept of artist as having special talent
o In Middle Ages, ppl believed that
only God created and no particular value in artistic originality
· REN artists and humanists came to
think work of art was deliberate creation of a unique personality who
transcended traditions, rules, theories
· A genius had a peculiar gift, which
laws should not inhibit
· Don’t overemphasize REN notion of
genius
o Came to assert their won artistic
styles and pay less attention to wishes of patrons
o Even major artists worked according
to wishes of patrons
· Most REN artists trained in
workshops of older artists
· Artists were still expected to be
well trained in proper artistic techniques and stylistic conventions
· Beginning artists spend years
copying and drawing paintings, learning
· Artistic academies emerged
· Most famous and most prolific REN
artists were male, no females
· Women were active in women arts,
“minor” decorative arts
o Yet embroidery also became more
classical, visually complex
o Not trained to view work as products
of indiv genius
· Several women became well known as
painters
o Careers show similarities
o Daughters of painters/minor noblemen
o Many were eldest child, with no sons
· Women inhibited from
o Painting male nude
o Not learn fresco technique
o Couldn’t join group of male artists
o Artistic academies banned women
§ Male only, men of diff ages came to
train
· Most scholars and artists came from
families with at least some money
· REN culture did not influence lives
of most ppl in cities, and did not affect life in villages as well
· Small, highly educated minority of
literary humanists and artists created culture for an exclusive elite
· REN maintained or advanced gulf
between learned minority and uneducated multitude
Social
Hierarchies
· Division of learned minority and
uneducated masses represents one of many social hierarchies
· Social hierarchies were built on
orders of Middle Ages – those who fight, ray, work
· New features: race, class, gender
Race and
Slavery
· Made distinctions based on skin
color
· Distinctions were interwoven with
other characteristics when ppl thought about human differences
· Small number of black Africans came
along with white slaves as spoils of war
· Local authorities offered no
protection
· Long tradition sanctioned practice of
slavery
· Black population increased and
sometimes intermingled
· There were some blacks in Northern
Europe, not as much as Iberian peninsula
o Black servants were sought after
o Curiosities, exotic, marvelous
o Indicated wealth
o Source of entertainment
· Africans were not simply amusements
at court
o Supplemented labor force in
virtually all occupations
· Europeans had little concrete
knowledge of Africans and their cultures
· Perceived Africa as a remote place,
home of strange people isolated from superior Europe
· Africans’ contact with Christian
Europe could only “improve” them and reinforced negative preconceptions about
the inferiority of black Africans
Wealth and
the Nobility
· Class was not used in REN, but the
idea of a hierarchy based on wealth was emerging alongside the medieval concept
of orders
· Most residents of towns were “third
order”: “those who work”
· Group now included wealthy merchants
who oversaw vast trading empires
· Hierarchy of wealth was more
changeable than hierarchy of orders, allowing individuals and families to rise
and fall
· Development of hierarchy of wealth
did not mean an end of hierarchy of orders
o Even poor nobility had higher status
than wealthy commoners
o Nobility maintained status
· Social status was linked with considerations
of honor
o Certain weapons/battle tactics
· Among urban dwellers, certain
occupations might be well paid but were “dishonorable” and of low status
o Sumptuary laws reflected both wealth
and honor
§ Merchants had fur
§ Prostitutes had to wear yellow bands
Gender
Roles
· Learned men began the debate about
women, a debate about women’s character and nature, women’s proper role in
society
· Misogynist: critiques of woman
denounced females as devious, domineering, demanding
· Women supporters compiled long lists
of noteworthy women
· Printing press fomented interest in
debate about women
o Shared across Europe
o Dichotomous arguments
· Debate about female rulers
o Vigorously/viciously disputed
o Could a woman’s being born into a
royal family and educated to rule allow her to overcome the limitations of her
sex?
o Which was stronger determinant of
character and social role: gender or rank?
o No successful rebellions against
rulers because they were women
o In part because female rulers were
strong and had masculine qualities
· Ideas of women’s and men’s proper
roles determined actions of ordinary men and women more forcefully
o “True” man was married head of
household
o Unmarried men not as high as married
men
o Women were “married” or “not
married”
o Women’s work was not supporting
families, and was valued less than men’s
o Earned 2/3 of what men did
· Men on top served as a symbol of the
proper functioning of society as a whole
· Gender ranking was regarded as most
“natural” and most important to defend, linked with social upheaval and viewed
as threatening
Politics
and the State in Western Europe, ca 1450-1521
· High Middle ages failed to create
effective leadership
· Centralization was weakened by
feudal nobilities
· 15th c: rulers did
aggressive rebuilding of gov
· Italy, France, England, Spain
· How
o Reduce violence
o Curb unruly nobles
o Establish domestic order
· Attempted to
o Secure borders
o Raise revenue
· Emphasized royal majesty and
sovereignty instead of respect of all subjects
· HRE attempted, but couldn’t create a
unified state
France
· Black Death and 100YW left France
depopulated, commercially ruined, agriculturally weak
· Charles VII
revived monarchy and France
· Began France’s long recovery
o Reconciled Burgundians and Armagnacs
who’d been waging civil war
o Expelled English from French soil
except in Calais
o Reorganized royal council, giving
increased influence to lawyers and bankers
o Strengthened royal finances through
taxes
§ Chief sources of income
o Established regular companies of
cavalry and archers recruited/paid by state
o First permanent royal army
· Louis XI “Spider King”, son
o Improved army
o Used army to control nobles’
separate militias and to curb urban independence
o Conquered Burgundy
o Got Anjou, Bar, Maine, Provence
· Marriage of Louis XII and Anne of
Brittany added duchy of Brittany to state
· Francis I and
Pope Leo X reached mutually
satisfactory agreement about church and state powers
o Concordat of Bologna: approved
pope’s right to receive first year’s income of new bishops and abbots
o Leo X recognized French ruler’s right
to select French bishops and abbots
o French kings controlled appointment
and policies of church officials in kingdom
England
· Suffered from disorders of 15th c
· Problems
o Aristocracy dominated gov of Henry IV and indulged in disruptive
violence at local level
o Population continued to decline
o Dual houses of York and Lancaster
waged civil war called Wars of the Roses
§ Hurt trade, agriculture, and
domestic industry
· Henry VI:
under him, the authority of monarchy sank lower
· Edward IV: began to establish domestic tranquility
o Defeated Lancastrian forces
o Began to reconstruct monarchy
· Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII of Tudor began to restore royal prestige, crush
power of nobility, and establish order and law at local level
o Conducted foreign policy on basis of
diplomacy, avoiding expensive wars
o Did not depend on PLMT for money
o Undercut source of aristocratic
influence of PLMT
· Henry VII
o Summoned several meetings of PLMT,
but center of royal authority was royal council, governed at national level
o Few great lords were the king’s
closest advisors, he chose men among the smaller landowners and urban residents
trained in law (distrusted nobles)
o Council conducted negotiations with
foreign governments and secured international recognition with marriage of son Henry VIII and Catherine of
Aragon
o Council dealt with real or potential
aristocratic threats through Court of Star Chamber
§ Secretive sessions, torture, no
juries
§ Effectively reduced aristocratic
troublemaking
· When Henry VII died, he left a
country at peace both domestically and internationally, a substantially
augmented treasury, an expanding wool trade, and dignity of royal majesty much
enhanced
Spain
· Spain remained a conglomerate of
independent kingdoms
· By 15th c, kingdoms of
Castile and Aragon dominated the weaker kingdoms
· Wedding of 1469 of Isabelle of
Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon did not bring administrative unity
o Marriage constituted a dynastic
union of two royal houses, not political union of two people
· Ferd and Isabella
o Common foreign policy
· Until later on, Spain existed as a
loose confederation of separate kingdoms, each maintaining its own cortes:
laws, courts, systems of coinage, taxation
· Ferd and Isabella were able to exert
their authorities similar to rulers of England and France
o Curbed aristocratic power by
excluding high hobbles from royal council, appointed lesser landowners
o Recruited men trained in Roman law,
which exalted power of Crown
o Secured right to appoint bishops in
Spain and territories in America, establishing a national church
o Expanded territories to include
remaining land help by Arabs in southern Spain
§ Conquest of Granada
o France and England expelled Jews,
they were potentially dangerous – they sought refuge in Spain. Jewish money
supported royal power and Christians borrowed from Jewish money lenders
o Strong undercurrent of resentment of
Jewish influence and wealth festered
o Looked for scapegoat during Black
Death, anti-Jewish preaching à Anti-Semitism
o Anti-Semitism pogroms
o Killed or forced to convert
o Conversos: New Christians
§ Often well educated, held good
positions in church, medicine, law, business
§ Exercised power disproportionate to
their numbers
· Jewish success bred resentment
o Resented their financial dependence
o Hated conversos tax collectors
o Churchmen doubted their sincerity
· Inquisition to “search out and
punish convert from Judaism who had transgressed against Christianity by secretly
adhering to Jewish beliefs and performing Jewish rites
o Investigations and trails
o Anyone who showed any sign of
incomplete conversion
· Most conversos were sincere and had
been convsersos for generations
· A person’s status as a Jew could not
be changed by religious conversion, a person’s blood was heritable, so Jews
could never be full Christians
· Having pure Christina blood became
required for noble status
· Isabella and Ferd issued an edict expelling
all practicing Jews from Spain
· Muslims became another type of New
Christian
· Absolute religious orthodoxy and
purity of blood served as the theoretical foundation of the Spanish national
state
· Spanish national state rested on
marital politics as well as military victories and religious courts
· F + I’s son married off
· Their son: Charles V
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