14.1 The Renaissance and Reformation

The Renaissance

At the end of the Middle Ages, people across Europe found the urge to be creative.

The Renaissance was the period of creativity, new ideas and inspiration.It lasted from about 1350 to 1500.Renaissance is the French word for

“rebirth.”

New Ideas

The Renaissance started in Italy.During and after the Crusades,

Italian cities such as Florence and Venice became rich through trade.

People started to become interested in ancient cultures and started to study the humanities (history, poetry, and grammar) of these ancient people.

FlorenceFlorence was a banking and trade center. The city’s wealthy leaders used their money to beautify Florence.

VeniceVenice was the most successful of the Italian trading cities. Traders brought goods to Venice from as far away as China and India.

This all led to a new way of thinking and learning known as humanism (emphasizes the abilities and accomplishments of human beings. The humanists believed that people were capable of great things.)

Renaissance Art

The Renaissance was a period of talented artistic achievements.

Many artists were also humanists.Michelangelo was an Italian painter

and sculptor who created very lifelike works of art.

Leonardo da Vinci achieved the Renaissance goal of excelling in many areas as he was a great painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, and engineer.

Leonardo da Vinci drew sketches of many devices that were not invented until centuries after his death. This model of a type of helicopter was based on the sketch by Leonardo.

Renaissance sculptors were careful to show the tiniest details in their works. This statue by Michelangelo is of David, a king of ancient Israel.

Renaissance Literature

William Shakespeare was probably the most popular Renaissance author.He wrote excellent poetry, but is

best known for his plays.They include more than 30 comedies, histories, and tragedies.

Renaissance Science

Europeans developed new inventions and techniques during the Renaissance.The movable type printing press was

invented by a German Johann Gutenberg in the mid-1400s.

This type printing press could print books quickly and cheaply.

This invention helped the ideas of the Renaissance spread beyond Italy.

The Printing Press

Printing was not a new idea in Renaissance Europe. What was new was the method of printing. Johann Gutenberg designed a printing system called movable type. It used a set of tiny lead blocks, each carved with a letter of the alphabet. These blocks could then be used to spell out an entire page of text for printing. Once copies of the page were made, the printer could reuse the blocks to spell out another page. This was much faster and easier than earlier systems had been.

The Reformation

The Reformation (a religious reform movement) happened in Europe in the early 1500s because some Europeans thought that the Roman Catholic Church had become corrupt.

The Protestant Reformation The Reformation began in what is now

Germany, which was a part of the Holy Roman Empire.Martin Luther, a German monk, was

one of the first people to express protests against the church.

In 1517 Luther nailed a list of complaints to a church door in the town of Wittenberg and was soon expelled from the church for his actions.

Luther’s followers formed a separate church and became the first Protestants (Christians who broke away from the Catholic Church over religious issues).

Many areas of Europe had become Protestant by 1600.

The Catholic Reformation

Many Catholic officials wanted to reform, or change, the Catholic Church as well.Catholic officials launched a series of

reforms known as the Catholic Reformation.Church leaders began focusing more on spiritual concerns and less on political power.

They also worked to make church teachings easier to understand.

Religious Wars

Catholicism, once the main religion of Europe, was no longer dominant as many areas – especially in the north – became Protestant.In places like France, Germany, the

Netherlands, and Switzerland, Catholics and Protestants fought in bloody religious wars.

After this, many people began relying less on what church leaders told them and instead looked to science for answers.