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...ete with each other to describe the perfect courtier. By exercising their intellectual freedom in this way, Castiglione's courtiers teach his readers how to cope in a real world rife with despotism. Play, laughter, and style can provide a spiritual release when no political release is in sight. Since the book is a dialogue, as in a play, different points of view co-exist; instead of offering instructions to a prince on how to rule a people, Castiglione's courtiers speculate on how men--and women--might best rule themselves. Like Machiavelli, Castiglione attaches importance to self-image and believes that all courtiers should cultivate the ability to play a variety of roles. Bartolome de las casas: An historian, a theologian, Bartolome de Las Casas spent a large portion of his life fighting for the rights of native peoples of the New World. He was born into 16th century Spain. He wrote a historical study about the history of early Spanish conquests of the New World and later gained experience that enabled him to be a champion for the rights of Indians. His first-hand knowledge helped him to speak extensively and argumentatively about the conditions in which Indians lived under the encomienda system. He does not agree with the Spanish abusing the power over the native Indians. He emphasizes more on converting this people in to Christianity, winning more souls for Catholics overseas. Blaise Pascal French catholic mathematician convinced that belief in God is rational. He is also famous for his Pascal’s wager. Pascal's Wager "Pascal's Wager" is the name given to an argument due to Blaise Pascal for believing, or for at least taking steps to believe, in God. CHRISTINE DE PISAN (1364-1431) was an important French poet and philosopher of the Middle Ages. De Pisan was the daughter of an Italian doctor who served as personal physician to King Charles V of France. She became the first woman in France to earn her living as a writer. Many of de Pisan's works urged that women be allowed to participate more fully in society. She also denounced the way women were portrayed in Medieval literature. Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. Columbus has underestimated the size of the globe when he reached carribian near he thought he reached Japan at the pacific end. His plan was not to prove that the world was flat, but it was to find a shortcut to the Spice Islands. He made fout voyages to the new world. Counter Reformation The Counter-Reformation was the attempt by the Catholic Church to reform itself in the face of the progress made by Luther and Calvin in parts of Western Europe The Catholic church was not caught unawares by the Reformation. It had been steadily battling opposition, resistance, and heresy for over four hundred years; much of the opposition against the church throughout the fifteenth century involved issues that closely paralleled those splitting the church in half during the early Reformation. In answer to the growth of the Protestant movement, the Catholic Church instituted its own series of reforms that balanced real reform with a strident and conservative reaction to Protestantism. This movement was called the Counter-Reformation. The English civil war is the war between the Royalists (Cavaliers) and the Parliamentarians (Roundheads) under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell 1. Enlightened Absolutism is reform minded monarchy Rulers sympathetic to reforms Increase power of state. More efficient armies and bureaucracies. Stronger economies Religious toleration, improved education, legal reforms. Abolition of torture, corporal and capital punishment. Abolition of censorship--freedom of press The Enlightenment They believed that human reason could be used to combat ignorance, superstition, and tyranny and to build...