Document 1 - Renaissance
…In the Middle Ages to praise man was equal to praising God, because man was a creation of
God. But Renaissance writers praised man himself as a creator. They played down the sinfulness
he was born with and emphasized his ability to think and act for himself, to produce works of art,
to guide the destiny of others. They freed man from his pegged place in the medieval hierarchy,
halfway between matter and spirit, and allowed him to roam at will, through all the levels of
being, sometimes identifying himself with the brutes, sometimes with the angels. He was seen as
the ruler of nature—the lord, although not the Lord, of creation.
This new Renaissance vision of man sprang from a heightened awareness of self. Medieval men
had been preoccupied with searching their religious souls, but Renaissance men were much more
intrigued with exploring their real life personalities. Petrarch is a perfect example. Although his
serious interests centered on his work in discovering and editing ancient texts, Petrarch was also
interested in himself. In his letters, he wrote his reactions to love affairs and friendship, to
mountains and the flowers in his garden…
Source: John R. Hale, Great Ages of Man: A History of the World’s Cultures: Renaissance,
Time-Life, 1965
1) What were the limitations of men in the Middle Ages that the Renaissance eliminated?
2) What aspects of humanism can you see in how Petrarch lived his life?
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Document 2 - Renaissance
The artists of the early Renaissance period believed that art can't remain stable - it should
develop and move forward. For this, Roman and Greek classical styles in art, literature, and
architecture were studied. The artists of the early Renaissance (1400-1475) examined the light,
color and space techniques used by the ancient Greek and Roman artists. They used the
successful creative processes of the ancient period artists to create a new and modern art form.
Unlike the artists of the medieval period, who painted heavenly creatures and religious figures,
the focus of the artists shifted to the human body. Realistic expressions were given to the human
figures in painting, architecture, or sculpture, and the concept came to be known as Realism.
Painters like the famous Masaccio still painted religious themes, but the saints in the paintings
wore common people's clothes and had natural expressions. The artworks of early Renaissance
depicted people carrying on with their everyday activities like eating, dancing, etc., rather than
doing something extraordinary.
Source: Frederick Hartt, A History of Italian Renaissance Art, (1970)
1) How did the religious art of the Renaissance show humanism?
2) How was Renaissance art different from Ancient Greek and Roman art?
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Document 3 – Scientific Revolution/Printing Press
The earliest books were written on scrolls. From the Second Century A.D. to the present time,
however, most books have been produced in the familiar codex format—in other words, bound at
one edge. During the Middle Ages, manuscript books were produced by monks who worked with
pen and ink in a copying room known as a scriptorium. Even a small book could take months to
complete, and a book the size of the Bible could take several years…
Johannes Gutenberg’s methods for printing books spread rapidly. By 1500 an estimated half
million printed books were in circulation: religious books, Greek and Roman classics, scientific
texts, even Columbus’s report from the New World. The Renaissance spread quickly, but this
was only the first product of the Gutenberg printing press. Without it, the Protestant movement
might have failed as well as the commercial revolution.
Source: Robert Friedman, ed., The Life Millennium: The 100 Most Important Events & People of The
Past 1,000 Years, Time, 1998
1) How did the printing press accelerate the impact of the Renaissance?
2) What were two negative effects of the printing press?
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Document 4 – The Protestant Reformation
As Martin Luther immersed himself deeply in the study of the Bible, God's truth broke
through and Luther came to the knowledge that people were saved by faith, not by their good
work (Ephesians 2:8). When he began to teach as a professor at the University of Wittenburg, he
spoke passionately about Christ as the only figure between God and man (which made all the
priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and even the Pope unnecessary). This would forever
change the direction of the Catholic Church.
During this time Luther learned of the Catholic Church's unbiblical practice of selling
indulgences. The Pope sold religious merits in exchange for money used to build churches.
Those who purchased these indulgence documents were promised a reduced punishment for their
sins, for the sins of dead loved ones, and in some cases, total forgiveness from all sin. Luther
publicly objected to this dishonest practice and abuse of church power. On October 31, 1517
Luther nailed his famous 95-Theses to the University's bulletin board—the Castle Church door,
formally challenging church leaders on the practice of selling indulgences and other Church
practices he found went against the teaching of Christ like the collection of relics (objects that
Saints and Apostles owned and used). This act of nailing his Thesis to the church door has
become a defining moment in Christian history, symbolic of the birth of the Protestant
Reformation. Soon printing presses all over Germany were publishing his 95 Theses, and so it
was that because of the printing press, the Catholic Church could no longer control the flow of
ideas through its priests.
Luther also translated the New Testament into the German language, giving ordinary
people the opportunity to read God's Word for themselves and distribute Bibles among the
German people for the first time ever.
Source: Mary Fairchild, “Martin Luther Biography”. About.com, 2010.
1) In what ways did Martin Luther protest and rebel against the Catholic Church?
2) Before Martin Luther, why was it easy for the Church to convince people that
indulgences were a real way of eliminating sin?
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Document 5 – Scientific Revolution
Over time a new way of thinking about science emerged. Europeans began to read books by
Muslim scientists who had studied Greek thinkers like Aristotle and Euclid. Two commonly
known Muslims were the Arab physicist Ibn Al-Haytham, who wrote The Book of Optics about
how light travels and how the eye functions, and the Persian scientist Abu Al-Biruni, who
focuses on repeated experimentation as the only way to find exact truth. As Byzantine scholars
fled to Italy, they brought with them translations of Greek scientific and mathematical texts.
Renaissance scientists like Francis Bacon, Renee Descartes, Sir Isaac Newton, Nicolai
Copernicus, and Galileo Galilee copied these methods and applied them to new areas of study.
They did experiments to test these ideas. This way of thinking was called the scientific method
Source: Guide to the Essentials of World History, Prentice Hall, 1999 (adapted)
1) How did Ancient Greek ideas get to Renaissance scientists?
2) In what ways does using the scientific method make sure that a conclusion is definitely
the truth?
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Document 6 – Scientific Revolution
The Copernican Model: A Sun-Centered (Heliocentric) Solar System
The Earth-centered Universe of Aristotle and Ptolemy held sway on [influenced] Western
thinking for almost 2000 years. Then, in the 16th century a new idea was proposed by the Polish
astronomer Nicolai Copernicus (1473–1543).
In a book called On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, Copernicus proposed that the Sun,
not the Earth, was the center of the Solar System. Such a model is called a heliocentric system.
The ordering of the planets known to Copernicus in this new system is illustrated in the
following figure, which we recognize as the modern ordering of those planets.
Source: The Copernican Model: A Sun-Centered Solar System, Department of Physics
& Astronomy, University of Tennessee
1) According to document 6, what did Nicolai Copernicus discover about the universe?
2)
Why would people in Medieval Europe have believed that the sun moved around the
earth?
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Document 7 – Scientific Revolution
Leonardo da Vinci studied the anatomy of the human body while he was apprenticed to Andrea
del Verrocchio. To learn about the body, he dissected and studied human corpses. Da Vinci was
interested in the structure and the function of the various parts of the human body. His drawings
reflect what he learned as he studied.
Source: David Reuteler’s website, “The Drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci”
1) How does Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings show the ideas of humanism and secularism?
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Document 8 – The Power of Governments instead of the Catholic Church
During the Renaissance, many princes and kings sought to increase their own power, wealth, and
influence on their own without being controlled by the Pope in Rome or local Archbishops
(leaders of all the churches in one country). Niccolo Machiavelli was an official for an Italian
Prince who wrote a guide for all kings called The Prince. It contained lessons for how a ruler (a
prince) should act.
The Prince ought to have no other goal or thought than war and its rules and discipline; for this is
the sole art that belongs to him who rules. It is much safer to be feared than loved, because in
general men are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and they will offer you their blood,
property, life, and children when they need something or another. And that prince who relies
entirely on promises is ruined, because friendships that are obtained by payments are not secure,
and fear never fails.
A prince ought also to show himself a patron of ability, and to honor the skilled of every art. At
the same time he should encourage his citizens to practice their art peacefully, both in commerce,
agriculture, and every other following; but the prince ought to offer rewards to whoever wishes
to do these things and to honor his city or state.
Source: Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, ed. W. K. Marriott. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1908.
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