Structure of the course
There is a lot of material to cover in this class. For one reason or another, early modern Europe tends to be overlooked or else viewed through very narrow apertures. Folks might know a good deal about Henry VIII, for example, or about witch hunts, or perhaps Elizabethan England. But they tend not to know the era in a general way, and unless they have a specific religious background, they tend not to know much about the Reformation. Moreover, because of the way Western Civ gets taught, the Reformation comes at the very end of the first section (101) and often gets neglected, and the second part (102) tends to get taught by modern historians who skip quickly over the 17th century.
So, in a sense, there's a lot of make-up work to be done here. There will be people you've never heard of, concepts that are alien and abstract, and a real rat's nest of countries and dynasties. On the other hand, it's a very colorful time with some fascinating people in it, so it will reward your hard work.
The course is divided into three sections: doctrine, practice, and context. I approach it this way because it's necessary to learn the vocabulary of the Reformation in order to get very far in the study of it. So we begin with religion and ideas, before turning to how those ideas played out and were implemented in the real world.
Section One - Doctrine
Here we concentrate on doctrine, a much larger topic than it might sound. We will look at Martin Luther and John Calvin, mainly, concentrating on their criticisms of the Catholic Church and their proposals for reform. In order to understand the criticisms, however, it is necessary to understand the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, so we will be looking as well at that, including the formal organization and especially the papacy. You will encounter a lot of unfamiliar terms; you will also encounter terms you thought you knew, but will turn out to have somewhat different connotations for the 16th century.
Section One won't be entirely technical, however. We will also meet the principal reformers as individual human beings, learn something of their personalities, and study the dramatic events of their lives. In so doing, we'll be introduced to the social and political world in which they lived, a world we explore in more detail in Section Two.
Section Two - Practice
Here we study how the Reformation developed and spread across Europe. If Section One is mainly about ideas, Section Two is mainly about actions. How did a country "turn Protestant"? We look first at Germany, England, and France, with a particular eye on how the ideas of the reformers played out in practice.
We'll also learn more about the political structures of these countries, their rivalries and wars. This will necessarily introduce us to other countries, especially Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
Section Three - Context
In the third section of the course we change our focus somewhat and will look more at the social, economic, and intellectual context for the Reformation. In addition to the (by now) familiar factual, analytical and interpretive questions, we will have room toward the end of the course for some speculative questions. You will also be focusing on your term papers then.
We expand our focus geographically as well. In this section we look at the Reformation in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Scandinavia and in Scotland. We also look at the Catholic lands: Spain, Italy, Bavaria, Austria.
Finally, at the end of the course we'll address the big questions: what was the Reformation, anyway? When did it begin? When did it end? Where did it happen? What were the effects? And so on. Believe me, we'll run out of time long before we run out of questions!
How this Course Works
This course is fully virtual, Internet-based. We have no physical classroom and there is no on-campus component. If you live far from campus, you can even have books and articles sent to you.
The class is centered around asynchronous discussion using a web-based bulletin board. Supporting the discussion are physical books and online readings. The online readings consist of essays by me, plus selections of primary sources.
You participate in class by doing the assigned reading and participating in the class discussion by posting a minimum of three messages a week. You turn in assignments by sending them to me as attachments via email. Twice during the semester I'll send you a progress report, letting you know how you are doing in discussion and listing any grades on completed assignments.
You can, at any time, contact me directly with questions or problems. My work email is sknox@boisestate.edu. My home email is skip.knox@gmail.com.