Humanities Vocab: Northern Humanism

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Reformation

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The 16th-century religious movement that looked back to the ideals of early Christianity, called for moral and structural changes in the church, and led ultimately to the founding of the various Protestant churches

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Counter-Reformation

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A late 16th-centry movement in the Catholic Church aimed at reestablishing its basic beliefs, reforming its organizational structure, and reasserting itself as the authoritative voice of Christianity

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Christian Humanism

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An intellectual movement in 16th-century northern Europe that sought to use the ideals of the Classical world, the tools of ancient learning, and the moral of the Christian scriptures to rid the church of worldliness and scandal

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Northern Renaissance

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The 16th-century cultural movement in northern Europe that was launched by the northward spread of Italian Renaissance art, culture, and ideals. The Northern Renaissance differed from the Italian Renaissance largely because of the persistence of the Late Gothic style and the unfolding of the Reformation after 1520.

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Revenge tragedy

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A type of play popular in 16th-century England, probably rooted in Roman tragedies an concerned with the need for a family to seek revenge for the murder of a relative.

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Triptych

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In painting, a set of three hinged or folding panels depicting a religious story, mainly used as an altarpiece

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Proverb

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A pithy saying, thought to convey folk wisdom or a general truth

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Lutheranism

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The doctrine, liturgy, and institutional structure of the church founded in the 16th century by Martin Luther, who stressed the authority of the Bible, the faith of the individual, and the worshipper’s direct communication with God as the bases of his new religion.

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Calvinism

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The theological beliefs and rituals set forth in and derived from John Calvin’s writings, placing emphasis on the power of God and the weakness of human beings

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Puritanism

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The beliefs and practices of the Puritanss, a small but influential religious group devoted to the teachings of John Calvin; they stressed strict rules of personal and public behavior and practiced their beliefs in England and the New World during the 17th century

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Anglicanism

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The doctrines and practices of the church of England, which was established in the early 16th century under Henry VIII

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Jesuits

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Members of the Society of Jesus, the best-organized and most effective monastic order founded during the Counter-Reformation to combat Protestantism and spread Roman Catholicism around the world

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Late Mannerism

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The last stage of the Mannerist movement, characterized by exaggeration and distortion, especially in painting.

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Chivalric novel

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A Late Medieval literary form that presented romantic stories of knights and their ladies; the dominant literary form in Spain from the Late Middle Ages into the Renaissance

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Picaresque novel

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From the Spanish term for “rogue.” A type of literature, originating in 16th-century Spain, that recounted the comic misadventures of a rougish hero who lived by his wits, often at the expense of the high and mighty; influenced novle writing across Europe, especially in England, France, and Germany, until about 1800; the anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) was the first picaresque novel.

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Madrigal

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A polyphonic song performed without accompaniment and based on a secular text, often a love lyric; especially popular in the 16th century

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Word painting

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In music, the illustration of an idea, a meaning, or a feeling associated with a word, as, for example, using a discordant melody when the word pain is sung. This technique is especially identified with the 16th-century madrigal; also called word illustration or madrigalism