| abstract
| - 1400: Maffeo Servitore starts working as a secretary for the Medici. 1401-07: Great Reform council of Geneva. After a century full of famines and corrupt popes, and the recent experience of the Black Death, everyone agrees that the church has to reform. Since the church can't possibly control the flagellant movement, and has the warning example of the beggar's republics before its eyes, even the church leaders agree. As one contemporary describes it, "the pope is trembling before the rightful wrath of the believers". The council decides the following reforms:
* Selling indulgences is forbidden. Some reformers propose that the jubilee is restricted to once per 50 or 100 years, but they don't succeed.
* Some of the worst offenders in the church are defrocked.
* Number of benefices per cleric is restricted.
* The pope has to return to Rome (the Italians insisted particularly on that).
* The kings succeed insofar as they have to give the church less money.
* The liturgy isn't reformed, however, and the translation of the bible stays forbidden. For the first half of the 15th century, the popes and bishops are more respectable than before. The Seljuk threat also helps to make Catholic Christianity feel united again. 1401: Holy Roman Emperor Gerhard I of Holstein crushes the beggar's republic of Utrecht, adding it to his empire. 1402: The new continent in the west is mentioned for the first time in a document under the name it finally gets: Atlantis (ITTL, the works of Platon are read more often among the educated Western Europeans). 1404: Florence invades the beggar's republic of Parma, annexing it. Poland attacks the Teutonic Order, wins the first Teutonic-Polish War; Pommerellen (with access to the sea) becomes Polish. 1406: Emperor Gerhard is murdered by a Danish nobleman, who hates the all-powerful Germans. 1407: Maffeo Servitore, a cunning Florentine diplomat, sees the weakness of the divided Northern Italy, so he devises a plan. Meeting with the rulers of Savoy and Venice, all of Northern Italy except Genoa is divided into spheres of influences, which said three states may conquer. Otherwise, the big three are supposed to live in peace. Until the 1430s, this is what happens: The little city states (which are near collapse after the difficult 14th century) of Northern Italy are "mopped up". As a result, many Italians leave their country (especially from Pisa and Milan), going to France and Aragon, and some other states too, spreading Italian art. Hanseatic League defeats the Bornholm brotherhood of pirates, who flee partly to Norway, partly to Frisia. 1408: Duke Ottokar II of Austria (and titular king of Bohemia) asks the Roman king to conquer Bohemia back for him. When king Gerhard declines, Ottokar has himself elected anti-king with Bavarian help and starts a war against Bohemia. In 1413, after his armies have been defeated severely several times by the Czech leader Prokop, he puts down the crown again and apologizes. 1414: Holland, important for its trade, gets the eighth electoral vote in the HRE. 1419: Roman king Gerhard II is crowned emperor and also appoints himself king of the Netherlands (which include Holland, Zeeland, Hennegau and Utrecht at that time), with the pope's OK. 1421/22: Swabish War in the Holy Roman Empire. The Empire proves unable to force Switzerland and its allies of the South German city league back into the fold. 1426: Boleslaw VI of Poland and Birger II Eriksson ally against the Teutonic Order. 1432 they are victorious again; Poland keeps its conquests from the last war and also gets Wolhynien, Sweden gets Estonia (that's only the northern half of OTL Estonia, though). 1430: Emperor Gerhard dies. His lands are divided: His older son Gerhard III becomes king of the Netherlands and Roman king, Heinrich becomes king of Denmark. This leads to some trouble in Atlantis. The Hanseatic League also sees more internal competition: The cities in Holstein compete with the Dutch and Flemish cities, and the cities in the Baltic (and also those in OTL Hanover) stand aside a bit. Vaclav IV elected new king in Bohemia (-1471). His government better shouldn't be mentioned in more secular times: Living completely with his head in the clouds, he claims to listen to God and the angels. Historians of later times claim that he simply suffered under a heavy schizophrenia. Under his reign, Bohemia is transformed into what one can only call a theocracy, with horrible results for their arts, science, economy and diplomacy. 1430-35: Savoy invades the republic of Genoa, annexing it. The duke treats the conquered city relatively well, though; he wants to use it to become a power in the Mediterranean, too. Venice annexes the patriarchate of Aquileia (part of the HRE). 1432: After the death of childless king Zsigmond II of Hungary, the nobles elect Karl von Hessen new king. Uprising of the Ciompi (wool weavers). The Medici use this accident to take full power for themselves. 1435: King Gerhard is defeated by the Frisians under chief (yes, they had chiefs) Enno of the Cirksena family when he tries to conquer their lands. 1442: A primitive kind of printing is developed in Antwerp, center of cloth printing. It has no movable letters, but uses wood blocks instead. Thanks to government contracts, the new technology soon spreads through the Netherlands. 1444: Venice and Aragon defeat Florence, fearing its economical competition, destroy its fleet, force it to sign an "everlasting treaty" forbidding Florence's ships to go to ANY harbor in Europe or the Mediterranean (except those on its own territory). In addition, Florence has to pay a big sum of money. Florence offers the winners to give them Corsica instead, but they are not interested.
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