The Renaissance

Background

The Renaissance was not about great achievements in art, architecture, and science, even though amazing things were accomplished in each of those fields. It was about much, much more. For almost eight hundred years, Europe had gone through a period of self-discovery. Kingdoms rose and fell, experiments in kinds of governments succeeded and failed. Plagues, famines, and wars had wreaked havoc on entire populations. Even as the continent was undergoing periods of darkness, light was beginning to appear. Two major events occurred that, although seemingly unrelated to one another, spurred the birth of the Renaissance.

The first event, strangely enough, was war. Even though the Crusades had ultimately failed, something good came out of them. As Islam swept through the Middle East region, Muslim leaders had the foresight to preserve many of the ancient Greek and Roman classics. These works were brought to Europe as Crusaders returned home. From there, scholars began to translate them into Latin and English. As knowledge of these classics became known, a whole new world of learning was opened up to teachers and religious leaders.

The second event was the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. His movable-type printing changed the face of learning. Now, books could be printed much faster and cheaper than ever before. As a result, more and more books became available to the average person. The classics challenged great minds of the period, and the Renaissance was born. This cultural awakening affected philosophy, the arts, science, and religion.

Humanism

Up until that time, most learning had taken place within the confines of the Catholic Church. Therefore, the knowledge passed down was distinctly religious. Although there was nothing inherently wrong with this, it did not place emphasis on the human experience. All that changed as the Greek and Roman classics were translated. The views of Aristotle and other Greek thinkers revolutionized the way Europeans looked at the world. This brought about the birth of humanism.

Through the combination of empirical evidence and reasoning, Renaissance thinkers changed the face of education. Emphasis was placed on the study of classical literature and applying classical principles to current government. In addition, some religious leaders applied this knowledge to the doctrines of the Church. This would eventually give rise to the Protestant Reformation, which you’ll study in a future lesson. In the meantime, two men paved the way for humanist thought in politics.