1517

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political events

The Ottoman sultan Selim sacks Cairo January 22, the sherif of Mecca surrenders to the Turks, and the caliph Mutawakkil is sent to Constantinople as Selim secures control of the holy places of Arabia (see 1516). Selim leaves Egypt under the rule of the Mameluke beys, who have administered the government since 1250, and slaves employed by the beys will hereafter collect taxes for the tribute demanded by Constantinople as wheat and fruit from Egypt go to feed the peoples of Eastern Europe and the rest of the Ottoman Empire while Egyptian farmers are left with almost nothing (see 1524).

Rebels in China's southern Kiangsi Province provoke the governor Kiangsi Wang Yangming (Wang Yang-ming) to take military action against them (see 1510). Bandits and rebels have controlled the province for decades, but Wang launches the first of four campaigns which by next year will have wiped them out, permitting him to proceed with programs of reconstruction and tax reform. He will establish schools and work to improve community morals and solidarity (see 1519).

West Africa's Songhai king Mohammed I Askia suffers a defeat at the hands of the Hausa Confederation, which gains dominance east of the Niger (see 1512; 1528).

The Spanish regent Francisco Cardenal Jiménez de Cisneros dies at Roa November 8 at age 81.

London suppresses Evil May Day riots; 60 rioters are hanged on orders from Cardinal Wolsey.

human rights, social justice

The Archduke Charles grants Florentine merchants a monopoly in the African slave trade.

exploration, colonization

Spanish explorer Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba observes traces of a Mayan civilization in the Yucatán. He has sailed westward from Cuba (see 1480).

religion

The Fifth Lateran (18th ecumenical) Council ends 5 years of deliberations by overturning the Church's age-old prohibition against usury. The Franciscan order has demonstrated a need for the change. It has set up pawnshops for the poor and discovered that the shops are not viable unless some charge can be made for the loans extended. The growth of commerce, with its need for capital, has been making the Church's opposition to charging interest on loans quite untenable, but the Church's new position hurts Europe's Jews and Italians, who have had a monopoly on moneylending.

Reformation of the Catholic Church begins October 31 at Wittenberg, 60 miles southwest of Berlin, on the Elbe. Augustinian monk Martin Luther, 34, writes 95 theses challenging the excesses and abuses of the Roman Church, notably the sale of indulgences, and circulates them among friends. Addressing the subject of financial abuses, Luther says that if the pope realized the extent of the poverty among the German people he would sooner have St. Peter's in ashes than have it built from the blood and hide of his sheep (see indulgence, 1507). Addressing doctrinal abuses, Luther questions whether the pope has any power in purgatory, and if he does he should empty the place. Addressing religious abuses, Luther says that scripture is the only basis of authority: any assertion that the Church's treasury is gospel denies by implication the saintliness of the saints. Middle German working people and small merchants rally to Luther's cause in protest against the monopolies of the Fuggers and other papal bankers, who raise prices and send German gold to Rome. Luther's action begins a long period of religious and civil unrest in Europe in what will come to be called the Protestant Reformation (see 1521).

education

Corpus Christi College is founded at the University of Oxford by Richard Fox, 69, bishop of Winchester, with help from Hugh Oldham, bishop of Exeter, who has added 6,000 marks to Fox's foundation (see Brasenose, 1509). A humanist and classical scholar, Bishop Fox gives the new college a library containing books in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin (see Christ Church, 1546).

literature

Poetry: The Tunnynge of Elynour Rummyng by John Skelton is a comic poem about tavern life.

art

Painting: The Raising of Lazarus by Sebastiano del Piombo; Lo Spasimo by Raphael; Madonna of the Harpies by Andrea del Sarto; Erasmus by Quentin Massys. Fra Bartolommeo dies at Turin October 31 at age 42 (approximate), having influenced many painters, including Correggio, Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, and Titian.

everyday life

The University of Cambridge's vice chancellor bans nude bathing in the Cam River. The one-piece "university costume" is introduced for male swimmers.

architecture, real estate

Seville Cathedral is completed after 115 years of construction.

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