R915thand16th

Theme: Changes in elite and popular culture, such as the development of new attitudes toward religion, the family, work and ritual.

1. New religious orders were established in a response for the need to raise the moral and intellectual level of the clergy and people. The Ursuline order of nuns founded by Angela Merici in 1535, attained great prestige for the education of women. She established this order to combat heresy through Christian education. The Ursuline order was the first women’s religious order concentrating on teaching young girls. IT sought to re-Christianize society by training the future wives and mothers. Because of the council of Trent placed great stress on claustration, or strict enclosure of religious women and called for the end of all active ministries for women, Angela had great difficulty in gaining papal approval. However, official recognition came in 1565 and the Ursuline order rapidly spread to France and to the New World.

2. On April 17, 1432, the Florentine Government established the special magistracy, the Office of the Night, to punish those who performed the act of sodomy. Sodomy meant all sexual acts between persons of the same sex. Sodomites were usually males. The Office of the Night’s board was composed of middle-aged married men. The board was elected annually and charged with pursuing and punishing sodomitical activity between males. Between 1432 and the abolition of the magistracy in 1502, about seventeen thousand men came to the Office’s attention. This represented a great number considering that the population was only about forty thousand.