Renaissance And Reformation

World History
RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION
The Renaissance was a great cultural movement that began in Italy during the early 1300’s. It spread to England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and other countries in the late 1400’s and ended in 1500. The Renaissance marks the passing of European society from an exclusively religious orientation to a more secular one, from an age ofunquestioning faith and mysticism to one of belief in reason and scientific inquiry. But how did the Renaissance move Europe away from the medieval and toward the modern? This is difficult question because there are no an easy answer. In general, however, we could argue that the ordered, formalistic, and compartmentalized society of the Middle Ages allowed those forces which had created it to destroy it aswell. Realities such as surplus of agricultural produce, the increasing urbanization of Europe, a swelling population, wider trading zones and a thirst for knowledge finally broke the stranglehold of the medieval matrix. Man emerged form the fragments of the medieval synthesis and saw the world of Man and the world of Nature.
Three major factors that influenced the fall of the Middle Ager were:The Black Death. It changed society forever by sweeping all across Europe, killing many people and making people question how God favored them. So it made their faith somewhat shakey. The Great Schism, in which the two churches disagreed on issues and the people were divided by their religious faith and own beliefs. This weakened government. Finally, The Hundred Years’ War. (Cumming 73) So,there were many reasons for the downfall for the Middle Age, but the most crucial ones were the decline of the feudal system, and the declination of the Church’s power over the nation-states. In feudal society, every one had a definite place and definition role, with the power resting in the hands of the local lords. The lords or nobles lost power after the Crusades. On the other hands, conflictbetween the papacy and the monarchy over political matters resulted people losing faith in the Church. While some still believed that religions held all the answer, others were beginning to put faith into reason and science. These reasons resulted in the inevitable end of the Middle Age, giving rise to a new age full of new and wonderful things in art and society.
In the late Middle Age, when thethreat of invasion from barbarians had lessened, people left the country for town and cities so they could engage in more profitable pursuits. Nevertheless, life in the city was soon to change drastically. During the late Middle Age and early Renaissance the bubonic plague, also called the “Black Death,” devastated one half of the population of Europe. (Herlihy 39) The population decrease caused bythe plague led to an economic depression. Merchants and tradespeople had fewer people to whom they could sell their wares. As incidence of the plague decreased in the late fifteenth century, populations swelled, crating a new demand for goods and services. A new middle class began to emerge as bankers, merchants, and tradespeople once again had a market for their goods and services. The middle-classpopulation also had leisure time to spend on education and entertainment. In fact, education was essential for many middle-class professions, as bankers and accountants who might need to understand arithmetic. Reading was essential for anyone who needed to understand a contract. The scholars of the Renaissance period went out to find a humanist method in their studies, and wanted to find art thatheld human emotions. (Stendhal 33) The movement has been thought of as the bridge that linked the worlds of the Renaissance to the Middle era.
The Renaissance was not only a time of great art and architectural achievement, by people like Da Vinci and Michelangelo, but it was also a time for questioning the established way of thinking. The established way of thinking at the time was greatly...