15th century

The years 1401-1500 AD. This century marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery.
==Events==
* Italian Renaissance
* 1378–1415: Western Schism leads to thee simultaneous popes.
* 1409: Council of Pisa; not officially recognized because it was not called by a pope.
* 1414-1418: Council of Constance, resolves the Western Schism.
* 1415: Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal launches the Age of Discovery. Portuguese missionaries sail around the coast of Africa and reach as far as the Malabar Coast of India.
* 1420-1434: Bohemian or Hussite wars against followers of John Hus.
* 1423-1424: Council of Siena is the high point of conciliarism, emphasizing the leadership of the bishops gathered in council. 
* 1429: Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans and turns the tide of the Hundred Years' War. 
* 1431-1445. Council of Basel calls for Catholic reconciliation with the Orthodox Church, which, however, was not accepted in following years by the Christian East. In this council, other unions were achieved with various Eastern Churches as well. 
* The Assyrian Church of the East decrees that the title of Patriarch could pass only to relatives of then-patriarch Mar Shimun IV. This decree leads to a schism in the next century.
* 1453: The Fall of Constantinople marks the end of the Byzantine Empire. 
* 1481: Spanish Inquisition begins.
* 1483: Birth of Martin Luther (November 10). 
* 1492: The last Moorish (Islamic) kingdom in Iberia, Grenada, is defeated by Spain. Alhambra decree expels all Jews from Spain unless they convert to Roman Catholicism. Christoper Columbus discovers the Americas while seeking a Western passage to India, in competition with the Eastern route dominated by Portugal.
* 1493: Pope Alexander VI divides the nonchristisan world between Spain and Portugal in the bull Inter caetera. The line of demaraction is 300 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands.
* 1494: Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal moves the line of demarcation 810 miles west, placing part of South America (now the country of Brazil) under Portuguese dominion. The treaty is sanctioned by Pope Julius II in a new bull of 1506.
Category:Centuries