EUROPEAN & ASIAN HISTORY 1542 - 1558
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1525
The church controlled Salzburg castle is attacked by revolting peasants but they fail to breach the castle walls.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) married the former nun Katherine Von Bora having previously rejected celibacy. Luther at this time began defending Jews but later in life became a strong anti-Jewish preacher saying they should be exterminated.
In Spain a royal edict ordered all pasture lands brought under tillage
during the first eight years of the Emperors reign be restored to its original
state and placed at the disposal of sheep-farmers. Agriculture is
considered the lowest form of occupation. Gentlemen and Catholics
don't till the land.
The Anabaptist movement started in Zurich, Switzerland. They
rejected infant baptism, forbid violence, divorce and materialism as described
in the Bible. They also considered Holy Communion as the "Bread of
Idolatry".
Charles V issues an edict in Holland ordering all those that call themselves Egyptians (Gypsy) to leave the country within two days.
1526
Henry VIII (1509-1547) is married to Catherine of Aragon, widow of Henry's brother Arthur and King Charles I (1500-1558) of Spain (also Emperor Charles V (1519-1556) of the Holy Roman Empire) is her nephew. Henry wanted a divorce so that he could produce a son, however King Charles I of Spain (1500-1558) and of the Holy Roman Empire forced Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) to forbid Henry's divorce, for political advantage. Pope Clement alias Cardinal Giulio de Medici is born a bastard some say with a cold and dry heart. He is unable to juggle the rival ambitions of the growing national powers of Europe. Some suggest he attempted to perpetuate the dying Medici line through his bastard sons Alessandro and Lorenzo from a Moorish slave. Catherine de Medici his niece is also being considered to enhance his position. He made a fundamental error when he created the Holy League of Cognac uniting the French and numerous Italian Princes against Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) of the Holy Roman Empire that included Spain and Italy.
As the Pope wages war against the Holy Roman Empire Turkey is quietly invading from the east up the Danube valley. Turkey defeated Hungary in the battle of Mohacs then turned toward Vienna. A plague visited Rome this year.
The slave trade has escalated to the point where Portuguese bribed officials to revolt and provide goods and guns to any chief who would supply slaves.
The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Holland and Portugal.
1527
Charles V (1500-1558), the Holy Roman Emperor (1519-1556) sent an army of 20,000 mercenaries mostly Germans and Spaniards against Rome. The city is put to the most terrible sacking for revolting against the Holt Empire. Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) is made a prisoner for six months. He would remain subservient to the Emperor. May 6, 1527 the Duke of Bourbon, a Celtic-Frenchman, had led the sacking of Rome and began a nine-month continuous orgy of violence and destruction, attacking clergy, nobility, merchants and other Spanish-Roman citizens. Eight days of looting, rapine and killing resulted in more than 12,000 bodies.
The Holy Roman Emperor and Henry VIII (1509-1547) of England had agreed to divide up France giving the Duke a significant share. King Francis I (1515-1547) however would only give the Duke the Duchy of Milan and no funds to support his army. The Duke had sacked Rome to fund his army. Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) paid ransom of 112,000 ducats that he raised by selling cardinal's hats. Rome declared itself a republic and proceeded to rid itself of all vestiges of the loathed Medici name. They again encouraged the French to invade Spanish Italy.
Niccolo Machiavelli died and his book 'The Prince' is published. Vice and evil became respectable providing it was done for political or religious purposes.
Hernando Cortez brought back to Spain tomatoes, avocados, papayas and Vanilla from New Spain. The tomato was not an early success story as its acid content reacted with pewter plates, leaching out the lead, causing lead poisoning, leading to death.
November 20: Wendelmoet Weyntjen Claesdochter, became the first known Dutch woman to be burned as a heretic.
1528
The great Genoese Admiral Andre Doria deserted the French
bringing with him his republic and it great fleet into Spanish dependency.
Spain again marched against Italy driving the French from their short-term
gains.
Members of the Anabaptist movement are banished from Switzerland, Germany
and Austria. The Anabaptist split into the Hutterite, Mennonites
and Amish clans. One group fled to Moravia, Czechoslovakia and settled
into communal living.
1529
The Ottoman Empire (Turks) crushed the Hungarians and laid siege to Vienna, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. After a few weeks they withdrew back to Hungary.
Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) League of Cognac broke up after the second French army is defeated attempting to capture Italy from Spain. Spain extracted tribute from France and the crown of Italy from the defeated pope. Spain dominated the Church and Europe.
Maize from America, grown in Turkey, was introduced to England as 'turkey corn'.
1530
The dikes in Holland burst without warning claiming four hundred thousand lives.
The Lutheran Reformers declaration of faith, the Augsburg Confession condemned pilgrimages, along with set fasts, the worship of saints and the counting of rosaries as childish and needless work.
The growing arrogance of the Spanish is typified by the order of the Council of the Indies that forbade royal officials to take part in the trade in provisions or small ware, on the grounds that such trade is a menial occupation that causes a gentleman to lose caste. This arrogance would be the primary factor leading to the decline and fall of the Spanish Empire.
The first law expelling Gypsies from England is introduced. Henry VIII forbids the transportation of Gypsies into England. The fine is forty pounds for ship's owner or captain. The Gypsy passengers are punished by hanging.
1531
Henry VIII (1509-1547) persuaded the Bishops to make him head of the Church in England and this became law after the Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy. It was a popular decision.
January 26 a great earthquake shook Portuguese capital Lisbon, demolishing some fifteen hundred houses and killing thirty thousand people.
1532
A Spanish professor questioned the Pope's 'giving' of the New World to Spain on the grounds that its people are neither civilized nor Roman Catholic; heretics, he argued, are not denied property in Europe unless deprived of it by individual trial, therefore the people of the new continents are true owners of their land. Other early trials of law also upheld aboriginal and incumbent rights, declaring that 'discoverers' might have exclusive opportunities to purchase such lands, but not to take them unless after a formal state of war. In spite of such rational thinking in Europe the actions of Spain and then France and England is that vanquished races had no rights save those conceded by their victors.
The seigniorial system based upon an assumption that France owns discovered lands and the grants are made as such would be the basis of French conquest policy.
Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) arranged the marriage of his thirteen year old niece Catherine de Medici to Henry, Duke of Orleans with a dowry of the cities of Pisa, Leghorn, Parma, Reggio nell'Emilia and Modena. France at this time had 25 million people as compared to England’s 4 million.
Charles V (1500-1558), the Holy Roman Emperor (1519-1556), King of Spain and Italy is forced to deal with the Turkish invasion up the Danube valley and siege of Vienna, Austria is to strike a blow against the heart of the Turkish Empire. He sent Andrea Doria with a fleet of forty-four galleys and 10,000 men to the eastern Mediterranean. The Turkish fleet retreated and a number of Turkish garrisons are taken. The Turkish army on the Danube fearing a full-scale crusade abandoned the Danube to beat a retreat back to Turkey. Vienna is thereby saved and after two years Spain abandoned the Turkish garrisons saying it is too distant from Spain to be of permanent value.
1533
A Russian monastery is founded on Petsamo Bay close to the Norwegian frontier. Shortly thereafter the Russian monks are preaching Christianity to the Lapps. Lutheranism is rapidly dominating Norway, Denmark and Sweden. England is in schism yet Pope Clement VII appears oblivious to his role in the reform as he refused to call a General Council and is commissioning monuments to members of his family in Florance.
Dutch Anabaptists believed this year to be the end of the world.
1534
Jacques Cartier reported sightings of huge numbers of whales on his first trip to Canada.
Paul III alias Alessandro Farnese (1534-1549) is elected pope. His nickname is cardinal petticoat because his sister Giulia is the pope’s mistress. His own mistress is noble Roman who bore him three sons and a daughter. He is noted for masked balls and brilliant feasts. He named his two grandsons, boys 14 and 16 as cardinals and then promoted them to key offices.
Turkey responds to the humiliation of the Spanish attack of 1532 by making Barbarossa its supreme commander of an enhanced Turkish fleet. Barbarossa captured Tunas that commanded the narrow seas between Sicily and Africa from the Moorish rulers who governed as vassals of Spain. Unknown to Spain and the Holy Roman Empire the French provided arms to the Turkish army.
1535
Charles V (1500-1558), the Holy Roman Emperor (1519-1556) and King of Spain and Italy raised an army of 10,000 with 400 ships to recapture Tunis from the Turks. The siege of Tunis is successful including the capture of 82 Turkish ships and a vast number of Christian slaves. Barbarossa and some of his army escaped. Spain failed to follow and fully destroy the Turkish army because they discovered the French arms and feared a French attack if the army ventured too far into the field.
Pope Paul III (1534-1549) commissioned nine prelates headed by Cardinal Giovanni Carafa (later Pope Paul IV) who reported " in this Rome, harlots go about in the city like married women, or ride on their mules, followed from the head of the city by nobles and clerics of the Cardinal's household". In no city have we seen this corruption, except in this, as an example to all. A Trento (Spanish) Council is called and for two meetings no clergy attended. Later in December about 32 members attended and issued a rule to outlaw any challenges to the bible or church teachings under pain of death. To enforce this law they proposed the creation of the Spanish Jesuits as enforcers.
The Welsh did not use family names at this time, they used their own name and their fathers name with 'ap' added meaning son of. The English had been using family names for about three hundred years and began pressuring the Welsh to use the English system of naming on official papers and in law courts.
Sir Thomas More was convicted of treason in London, his sentence was "that he should be ...hanged till he should be half dead; that then he should be cut down alive, his privy parts cut off, his belly ripped, his bowels burnt, his four quarters set up over four gates to the City, and his head upon London Bridge." King Henry VIII however commuted the sentence to beheading. More refused to take an oath recognizing Henry;s supremacy to the Pope.
1536
Between 1534 and 1539 Henry VIII (1509-1547) closed five hundred and sixty monasteries and other religious houses selling the property to the rising classes of landowners and merchants. The monks and nuns were thrown out and many became wandering beggars. A large number of people from the north marched to London to protest, they were cruelly put down and their leaders are executed. Henry however still remained loyal to Catholic religious teaching and executed Protestants who refused to accept it. Some of the money collected was spent on warships and guns, making English guns the best in Europe. Henry failed to understand the monasteries also provided work and food to the poor and during Henry VIII (1509-1547) reign seven thousand thieves were hanged for stealing food in order to eat.
William Tydale (1494-1536) spent his whole life translating the Bible into English for use by the common people. He used existing Greek, Hebrew and Latin texts for his version of the English Bible published in 1526. This year he is condemned for heresy and murdered by strangulation and his body is burned.
The death of Francis, son of Francis I (1515-1547) brought Henry (1547-1559), Duke of Orleans and Catherine de Medici one step closer to the throne of France. Emperor Charles V (1519-1556) (1500-1558) pleaded before the Pope, Cardinals and Ambassadors of Europe for peace and to denounce the unjust aggression of France. This is to no avail as France went on with their offensive.
The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Denmark.
1537
May 29: Pope Paul III (1534-1549) issued his Pastorale Officium, it states that Indians should not be deprived of liberty or their possessions.
June 2: Pope Paul III (1534-1549) issued his Sublimus Deus bull stating the Indians are truly men and are not only capable of understanding the Roman Catholic faith but desire exceedingly to receive it. It also states they should not be deprived of liberty or their possessions. This bull was ignored as Canon Law states slavery is ordained by divine justice. See 340, 600, 655 and 1187.
October 7: A 40 foot wave sank 20,000 small craft and killed 300,000 people in Bengal, India.
1538
Michel de Nostradame (1503-1566) the great prophet and doctor is officially summoned to attend the Inquisition at Toulouse that is as much to be feared as its Spanish equivalent. In 1534 Nostradamus casually remarked to workmen making a bronze cast of a statue of the Virgin that he was only making devils. He said he was only referring to the lack of artistic form of the statue and was spared.
Deportation of Roma in Portugal to colonies begins.
1539
Gypsy (Roma) are prohibited by Frances I from residence in France. The punishment is banishment. A second offence results in corporal punishment.
1540
Pope Paul III ((1534-1549) signed the bull creating the infamous Jesuit Order. The Jesuit order, Society of Jesus is established by Ignatious Loyola, a Basque, to propagate and defend the faith especially from Protestants by force if necessary. Its formation was a quasi-military in nature run by a general and the priests were considered the Popes soldiers, obedience without question was essential. Their motto was, let us follow the methods adopted by our enemy, the Devil, he is all for evil purposes, we all for good. Their unspoken motto was the ends justify the means.
The Spanish were intensively whaling the coast of Labrador, Strait of Belle Isle and Gulf of St. Lawrence from 1540 to 1586. The Spanish insurance records stated "going fishing at Terra Nova or La Provincia de Terranovia" (East coast of America). One Basque rendering site is located on the St. Paul River, Quebec, another St. Anthony, Newfoundland. Some captains recorded they had been coming to Terra Nova for periods of twenty years or more during this period.
France challenged Pope Paul III (1534-1549) papal bull declaring the New World as essentially the property of Spain. The French throne informed Spain and Portugal that possession, not discovery, gave title to new lands.
Gypsies are allowed to live under their own laws in Scotland but this is short lived.
1541
The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Scotland.
Jean Calvin (1509-1564) a Frenchmen introduced the reformation in Geneva, slowly, it spread to France, Holland and Scotland. The French clergy would become adamant that it not spread to New France. John Knox began to preach Calvinism in Scotland and converted most of Scotland to Protestantism in a very short time. John Knox called the Cardinal Beaton, Chancellor of Scotland, carnal Cardinal and spoke of the Cardinal's graceless Grace. Historians are not sure how many bastards he had but possibly eleven sons and four daughters. This same man was preparing to burn a heretic for eating an egg during Lent.
The Portuguse invade Ethiopia.
Michelangelo completed the Sistine Ceiling and many of the faithful are scandalized. Christ is beardless, the angles have no wings and the saints have no cloths. The critics contend this obscenity belongs in public baths and brothels.
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