HSTEU305  TIMELINE GENERAL BACKGROUND   FOR EUROPEAN WITCHCRAFT COURSE                               

                            BC = Before Christ                      / AD = After Christ
                            BCE = Before the Common Era  / CE = Common Era

 

Classical World

Greece:  5th C. BC: Plato, Aristotle
Rome:    2cd C. AD: allegations against Christians of orgies and cannibalism
                                (see Cohn Ch 1: “Prelude in Antiquity")

                313 AD conversion of Emperor Constantine

                             Christianity becomes official religion of Roman Empire

410 AD St. Augustine City of God

476 AD Fall of Roman Empire in the West to Germanic invaders 

 

Middle Ages (approx. 5th C - 15th C AD)

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

800 Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor of German Nation

11-12th C rise of towns, universities

13th C.   heretical groups: Cathars & Waldensians

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

14th C. Black Death (bubonic plague): first struck in 1348
                remains endemic in Europe through 17th C.

 

Renaissance  (revival of Greek & Latin art, learning)

            15th C. in Italy;  16th C. in northern Europe

 

Reformation 16th C. 1540's Roman Inquisition founded

1517 Luther's 95 Theses: start of German Reformation
1521 Luther excommunicated at Diet of Worms
1534 Calvin begins reform of Geneva, Switzerland
1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome; origin of English Reformation
1555 Peace of Augsburg: political settlement of German Reformation

 

Scientific Revolution 16th - 17th C.

            1543 Copernicus proposed heliocentric theory:
                        On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
            1630 trial of Galileo by Roman Inquisition in Italy
                        on charges of Copernicanism
            1687 Newton’s Principia Mathematica: 3 laws of motion , basis of modern physics

 

Enlightenment 18th 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

1789 French Revolution: application of Enlightenment in political sphere   
      (e.g. Declaration of Rights of Man, constitutional government)