Scope of the course
This course covers the history of Europe from 1500 to 1700, with particular emphasis on the course of the Reformation movements. Just about every part in the previous sentence requires some explanation.
Time Period
There will be a little bit of background, but the focus of the course begins more in 1517 or even 1520 than in 1500. We will talk a little about the background of the Reformation, but not a lot.
At the other end, most of the focus is prior to 1650, though we will carry forward a little bit for certain areas. For example, with England we will go at least to 1660 (the Restoration) and perhaps to 1688 and the Glorious Revolution. In France, we'll end the narrative at the time when Louis XIV takes direct control of the government.
Europe
Defining the boundaries of "Europe" is always a challenge, and any line drawn will always be arbitrary. This course focuses on Germany, France and England. Secondary areas of focus are the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Scotland. Tertiary areas are Poland, Denmark, and Hungary.
Reformation Movements
There is another course at Boise State on early modern Europe. Its emphasis tends to be social history with a strong dose of political and economic history. Inevitably, that course must take account of the Reformation as necessary.
This course (History of the Reformation) is the complement to the Early Modern Europe course. That is, my course concentrates on the Reformation and takes into account political, social, and economic factors as necessary background. Both approaches are valid and I strongly recommend you take both, if you are majoring in European history.
The focus is on Reformation movements in the plural because we will be looking not only at various Protestant reform movements, but also at Catholic reform efforts as well. It is in the general sense of reform that we will also pay some attention to attempts at political, social, and economic reform.
Finally, the emphasis is on the Reformation movements as a political and social process. This is not a course on theology. We will learn enough about the doctrinal issues to understand the movements, but the focus is on the development of the movements over time, and how they established themselves in European society, rather than on the finer points of the learned disputes. That is more properly left to a course on theology.
What's Not Covered
I leave out a lot, trusting to other courses and other departments to cover what's omitted here. We aren't going to talk about the Scientific Revolution here. We may take a nod in the direction of Galileo or Newton, but little more than that. Likewise, this isn't an art history class, so we won't spend much time on Mannerism and Baroque; nor will we go into the great philosophers of the age (of which there were many, especially in the 17th century).
We aren't going to go much into the political structures of the countries, the dynastic rivalries, the development of parliamentary governments, absolutism, all of that. Nor will we examine the history of the family, daily life, the witchcraft craze, or other aspects of social history. Early modern Europe is the first place we can really look at ordinary folk, and it's a tremendously interesting field, but we can't do that and the Reformation, so I leave this to other courses.
Finally, we aren't going to go to the New World. This is the first age of colonialism, but the subject deserves a separate treatment.
These topics are not forbidden, of course. Indeed, it will be difficult to avoid them completely. I only want to point out that they are not the focus of this course. By way of comparison, a course on the Scientific Revolution would have to take account of the Reformation, but would not go into the religious controversies in detail. So the reverse is true for this course. You will find there is enough and more than enough for us to study as it is!