fishermen because of their long, indented coastline and because the hinterland did not support enough wheat for everyone. Starting in the High Middle Ages, however, and accelerating as they reached the Renaissance, the English pioneered the establishment of a real navy.
When did the term Christendom come into use?
We cannot date the precise year, but the expression was widely used throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Rather than refer to Europe or to Western Europe, as we do today, the Europeans of that time spoke of Christendom, meaning all the peoples and nations who lived under the law of Christianity. It was a beautiful concept, and a far more appealing word than simply Europe, but it did not long survive once the Reformation took hold.
During the reign of King Henry VII (1485–1509), the English Navy became a professional organization with a table of ranks and schedules (still no pensions as yet). The English, too, decided to militarize several towns along their southern and southeastern coast. Naming these the Cinque Ports, the English monarchy established special laws for governance of these towns, and it is worth noting that hardly any of them ever fell to a foreign foe.
When did the Reformation begin?
This is one of the few times when we can date something with great precision. The Protestant Reformation began on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther (1483–1546)—a German monk and priest—tacked up a series of statements for debate on the door of the church at Wittenberg.
Luther did not, originally, wish to destroy or divide the Roman Catholic Church. His entire life had been devoted to the church, and he loved it with great intensity. Luther’s goal was to reform the Roman Catholic Church by putting an end to the selling of indulgences. These documents, either handwritten or struck off a printing press, explained to the purchaser that his deceased relative was released from a certain number of years in Purgatory. To Luther, and many others, this amounted to spiritual fraud and encouraged materialism within the Church. He, therefore, posed his Ninety-Five statements—or Theses—for debate.
How many religious reformers were there?
The big three were Martin Luther (1483–1546), John Calvin (1509–1564), and Stefan Zwingli (1484–1531). What they had in common was the belief that one must read the Bible, preferably in one’s native tongue rather than Latin. From that point, their beliefs diverged, but in sum, they brought about the Protestant revolution, guided by the idea that a Protestant is “one who protests.”
Could the Roman Catholic Church have reformed, and would that have ended the protests?
Yes and yes. Luther was the foremost among many critics of the Church, but the great majority of them would have backed off if Pope Leo X (ruled 1513–1521) had withdrawn the sale of indulgences. The Pope was concerned with raising funds for the building of the new St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, however, and he was not greatly concerned by the stipulations laid down by a German monk.
Pope Leo misjudged both the character of his critic and the sharp focus that would soon shine on the corruption and abuses within the Church. Luther was the first great reformer, but he was followed by many others.
How did Emperor Charles V become involved in the religious controversy?
Charles V was king of Spain from 1516 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1519. With the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella on one side, he was the grandson of Emperor Maximilian I on the other, and overall he possessed a dynastic grandeur unsurpassed since the time of Charlemagne. Emperor Charles V was involved in many conflicts and struggles, but the religious one would be the defining aspect of his career.
In April 1521, Martin Luther appeared before Charles V at the Diet (or Council) of Worms. Charles’ lawyers made numerous efforts to persuade Luther to recant his heretical beliefs, most notably that the Pope was merely a high churchman, not the vicar of God. After many hours of wrangling, Luther had the question put to him one last time. He replied, “I can do none other than to obey Scripture. Here I stand. I can do no other.” Charles V, therefore, outlawed Luther, making it a crime for the people of the Holy Roman Empire to aid or comfort him. Not everyone accepted this, however, and Luther was hidden by a high German nobleman.
Who was Hernán Cortés, and how did he get his grand idea of Mexican conquest?
Cortés (1485–1547) was a member of the minor Spanish nobility. He emigrated to Cuba by 1512, and in 1519 he led roughly 600 Spaniards to the coast of Mexico. Cortés, at that time, knew little of the Aztecs or their empire: he knew only that stories of silver and gold often originated from Mexico. While on the coast, Cortés won over some of the native peoples, who were not fond of the Aztecs.
Did any of the Indians actually think Cortés was a God?
Yes. Roughly 400 years earlier, a folk legend had developed about Quetzalcoatl, an Aztec leader who departed in the direction of the rising sun, saying that he would one day return. Over time, Quetzalcoatl developed from a folk hero into a god, and when Cortés and his men appeared from the east—the direction of the rising sun—carrying weapons that performed previously unheard-of wonders, many Indians concluded that Cortés was Quetzalcoatl.
Cortés would not have known all about this, or been able to take such advantage of it, were it not for Malinali. She was a sixteen-year-old Mayan girl who, along with nineteen others, was handed to Cortés as a gift soon upon his arrival on the coast. Malinali, whose Indian name meant “sharp blade of grass,” was very skillful with languages: she knew both the coastal Indian languages and the Aztec tongue. Learning Spanish quite rapidly, she became Cortés’ go-between, his chief interpreter. She also became his lover, and they had a son.
Spanish nobleman Hernán Cortés knew nothing about the Aztecs when he stumbled upon their empire and, eventually, decimated their civilization.
Which impressed the Indians more: guns, cannon, or horses?
All three were impressive, actually downright frightening. But the horses, very likely, had the biggest impact. Cortés came with fewer than twenty horses, but to people who had never beheld a horse of any kind, the massive war horses—bred in Andalusia, Spain—were a terrifying sight. In battle, the horses provided the Spaniards with their winning card on many occasions.
The Spaniards had no muskets or even matchlocks: their guns were clumsy harquebuses which had to be set upon a tripod just to control them. But the barking sound of these guns, plus the occasional roar of a cannon, was enough to persuade the Indians that these were no ordinary newcomers. Over time, the Indians realized that neither Cortés nor his men were gods (this realization may have occurred when they first witnessed a Spaniard bleeding), but they continued to fear the newcomers, who had powerful magic, to say the very least.
When did Cortés and Montezuma first meet?
On November 8, 1519, Cortés and 600 Spaniards, joined by perhaps 10,000 Indian allies, descended from the mountains into the Valley of Mexico. Approaching the magnificent city built on two islands on the Lake of Mexico, Cortés met Montezuma at the gateway to Tenochtitlan. All records concur that this first meeting was peaceful, with Malinali serving as the interpreter, but a mere two weeks later Cortés seized Montezuma and held him as a hostage. This was the beginning of the conquest of Mexico.
At nearly every stage of the conquest, Cortés proved bolder than Montezuma and those who followed him. Realizing that some of the Indians thought him a god, Cortés used it to its fullest potential. When the governor of Cuba sent 900