HSTEU305 TIMELINE GENERAL BACKGROUND FOR EUROPEAN WITCHCRAFT COURSE O'Neil

Old style:      BC =  Before Christ / AD = After Christ = Anno Domini (Year of our Lord)
New style:      BCE = Before the Common Era / CE = Common Era

Classical World

Greece: 5th C. BC: Plato, Aristotle -- classical Athenian Greek philosphers
Rome: 1st C. AD: Roman Empire: rule of Octavian Augustus ends in 14 AD
         2cd C. AD: allegations against Christians of orgies and cannibalism
(see Cohn Ch 1: “Prelude in Antiquity")

313 AD conversion of Emperor Constantine Christianity tolerated in Roman Empire
390 AD tradition pagan religion outlawed in Rome; worship of Roman gods outlawed

410 AD Sack of Rome by Alaric and the Visigoths (Germanic tribe)

413 AD St. Augustine City of God: defense of Christianity against Roman accusations

476 AD Fall of Roman Empire in the West to Germanic invaders (traditional date)

Middle Ages (approx. 5th C - l5th C AD)

5th-8th C. conversion of north European tribes to Christianity

800 Charlemagne crowned King of the Romans by Pope Leo in Rome
10th -11th C: later German rulers take title of Holy Roman Emperors of German Nation

ll-12th C rise of towns, universities

l3th C. heretical groups: Cathars & Waldensians

mendicant orders: Dominicans & Franciscans
medieval (episcopal) Inquisition founded
scholasticism: Thomas Aquinas, University of Paris

l4th C. Black Death (bubonic plague): first struck in Italy l347-48
remains endemic in Europe through l7th C.

Renaissance (revival of Greek & Latin art, learning)

l5th C. in Italy; l6th C. in northern Europe

Reformation l6th C.

l5l7 Luther's 95 Theses: start of German Reformation
l521 Luther excommunicated at Diet of Worms
l534 Calvin begins reform of Geneva, Switzerland
l534 King Henry VIII breaks with Rome; origin of English Reformation
l555 Peace of Augsburg: political settlement of German Reformation

Scientific Revolution l6th - l7th C.

l543 Copernicus proposed heliocentric theory:
(On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres)
l630 trial of Galileo by Roman Inquisition in Italy
on charges of Copernicanism (heliocentrism)
l687 Newtons's Principia Mathematica: 3 laws of motion

Enlightenment l8th C. (Voltaire, Diderot, Encyclopedia)

cultural movement stressing reason, natural law, power of
man over nature through science & technology

Deists: believe in "clockmaker God" who creates universe but does not
        interfere in his creation, permitting it to run according to
        scientifically knowable natural laws;

hostile to organized religion and all "superstition," including belief in
witchcraft & miracles

l789 French Revolution: application of Enlightenment in political sphere
(e.g. Declaration of Rights of Man, constitutional government)

19th C. Romanticism: post French Revolution interest in folklore, oppressed peasantry: Michelet