Early Modern Crisis in Leadership

Discussion of primary texts that disclose difficulties in formulating political and religious policy during the crises that start with the later Middle Ages in Western Europe and run into the seventeenth century. Students will be expected to evaluate currently influential interpretations of the crises and proposed resolutions. Specific subjects will be selected from a menu that includes medieval papal imperialism and decline, the development of early modern secular bureaucracies, Renaissance political theory, religious reformations, and religious wars as well as Machiavelli, More, Luther, Calvin, Whitgift, Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth I, Emperor Charles V, and King Henry IV (France). Primary focus historical.