R1315thand16th

Theme: The evolution of political elites and the use of political parties, ideologies, and other forms of mass politics.

1. The Council of Trent was called by Alexander Farnese, who promised to summon a council if he was elected pope. It met intermittently from 1545-1563. The main goals were to reform the church and also to secure reconciliation with the Protestants. Even though Lutherans and Calvinists were invited to participate, their insistence that the Scriptures were the sole basis for discussion made reconciliation impossible. The council gave equal validity to the scriptures and to tradition as sources of religious truth and authority. It also reaffirmed the seven sacraments and the Catholic teaching of transubstantiation. It also formed Tridentine decrees, which required bishops to reside in their own diocese, suppressed pluralism and simony, and forbade the sale of indulgences. The council also created the Tridentine decree, Tametsi on November 1563, which required marriage to be a valid consent as given in the vows had to be made publicly before witnesses, one of whom had to be the Parish priest. 2. The crafty and persistent Ferdinand and the aggressive Isabella performed many tasks to curb the aristocrats power. Such as the restructuring of the Royal council. However to curb the rebellious and warring aristocracy, Ferdinand and Isabella revived the violent old medieval institution, the Hermandades, or brotherhoods. These were popular groups in the towns that were given the authority to act as local police forces and as judicial tribunals. The aggressive Hermandades repressed violence with such savage punishment that by 1498 they could be disbanded. The reviving of the violent and repressive Hermandades displayed Ferdinand and Isabella’s absolute rule in Spain. 3. Charles VII of France was the first to create a permanent royal army by establishing regular companies of cavalry and arches, recruited paid and inspected b the State. He also published the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges in 1438. This asserted the superiority of a general council over the papacy, giving the French crown major control over the appointment of bishops; it also deprived the Pope of French ecclesiastical revenues. It also established Gallican, or French, liberties since it affirmed the special rights of the French crown over the Church. The greater control over the church and the army helped consolidate the authority of the French crown.