What was the Renaissance and how did it change Medieval Europe?
Literally meaning “rebirth” the period known as the Renaissance may be
considered as one of the most significant in European history.1 Characterised by
religious, intellectual and artistic movements and introducing new values and beliefs,
the Renaissance was nothing short of a cultural revolution which initiated the transition
of medieval Europe into an era of modernisation. Renaissance Europe experienced
great religious change due to opposition from such reformers as Martin Luther.
Additionally, individuals such as Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) fostered the
development of humanism, an intellectual movement based on the study of the literary
works of Greece and Rome, namely, the classics.2 Emphasis was placed on the
potential of individual human ability, provoking a high regard for human worth.3
Another highly notable feature of the Renaissance was the evolution of art. During the
fifteenth century, Florentine painters developed a persuasively realistic depiction of the
human figure. The realistic portrayal of the human figure became one of the foremost
preoccupations of Renaissance art.4 In addition to these movements, the Renaissance
experienced significant political reforms. Keeping in mind however, while the
Renaissance state was a vast improvement over the feudal anarchy of the Middle Ages,
it was still rudimentary and highly inefficient when compared to the modern state.5
There were three main limitations to state building at this time. First, the
decentralized chaos of the Middle Ages had given rise to a multitude of local
institutions and customs, rights, and inherited titles and offices. The force of tradition
with centuries of history to reinforce it made it almost impossible for kings to prohibit
them. The parlements for example, could modify the king's laws, delay, or even refuse
to enforce them if they thought those laws interfered with long established local
customs and traditions. As a result, kings were forced either to work around the old
offices by creating new parallel offices that would very gradually take over their
1
VHH, Green, Renaissance and Reformation, London, 1952, pp. 29
WJ Duiker and JJ Spielvogel, The Essential World History to 1500, Third Edition, California, 2008, pp.
279
3
ibid.
4
Duiker and Spielvogel, The Essential World History to 1500, pp. 280
5
C Butler, The Rise of the nation State during the Renaissance, 2007, viewed 14 May 2009,
<http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/west/11/FC79>
2
functions, or incorporate the old offices into the new state apparatus, meaning any
regularization of government institutions and practices on a national scale was still
centuries away. Another problem was the aspirations of the nobles. Although they had
suffered from a prolonged decline since the High Middle Ages, they remained
somewhat resilient as a class. A major reason being they were still revered as a class
and many middle class merchants and bankers were eager to buy noble titles and lands
thereby continuing as the nobles of old. A prime example of this was the Fuggers of
Augsburg, Germany, the richest banking family in Europe, who bought noble titles and
lands and passed into idle noble obscurity. Aiding this process were the kings who,
always needing money, sold noble titles and offices to anyone who could pay. As a
result, fresh blood infused the nobility with new life. A third problem was the kings'
inability (or unwillingness) to stay out of debt and pay their armies and bureaucrats.
This encouraged corruption in the government and plundering and desertion by the
mercenaries, which further reduced the kings' revenues and ability to pay their bills.
Finally, although kings could control their national churches, they could not control the
medieval mentality still linking politics and religion. This especially became a problem
with the uprise of the Protestants against the Catholics.6 A major influence to the
protestant uprise began with Martin Luther.
Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, initiated enormous religious reform,
proposing an objection to the Roman Catholic Churches sale of indulgences. To justify
the sale of indulgences, Church leaders claimed to have inherited unlimited amounts of
good works from Jesus, the credit of which could be sold to believers as indulgences.
Ergo, indulgences were portrayed as "confession insurance" against eternal damnation.7
On 31 October 15178, Martin Luther nailed a paper of Ninety-Five Theses against
indulgences (paying for remissions of temporal penalty for sin9) to the church door at
Wittenberg.10 Although there was nothing unusual about this, as these were not the first
theses he had offered for public disputation, nor did they embody necessarily
6
Butler, The Rise of the Nation State During the Renaissance, 2007
J Jones, Against the Sale of Indulgences, Pennsylvania, 2002, viewed 9 May 2009,
<http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his101%5Cweb%5C37luther.htm>
8
GR Elton, Reformation Europe, 1517-1559, Second Edition, Massachusetts, 1999, pp. 15
9
RW Shaffern, ‘Learned Discussions of Indulgences for the Dead in the Middle Ages’, Church History,
vol. 61, no. 4, Dec. 1992, pp. 367-381
10
A Pettegree, The Reformation World, London, 2001, pp. 73
7
revolutionary doctrines, Lutheran countries continue to celebrate this as the anniversary
of the Reformation, and justly so. The controversy over indulgences brought together
the man and the occasion, signaling the end of the medieval Church.11 Though
indulgences were always proclaimed for ostensibly religious purposes, they were
revealed to be no more than an important source of papal revenue.12 Thus, the argument
proposed in Luther’s theses revealed the Churches extortion of its saints, becoming a
foundation for the Protestant reformation. As it developed during the Renaissance, the
Protestant Reformation had profound implications, not only for the modern world in
general, but specifically for literary history. Just as Renaissance Humanists rejected
medieval learning, the Reformation seemed to reject the medieval form of Christianity.
Catholics such as Erasmus sought to reform the Church from within. However, Luther's
disagreements with Church policy ultimately led him to challenge some of its most
fundamental doctrines, therefore leading him and his followers to break away in
protest; hence the term Protestants. Among the most important tenets of Protestantism
was the rejection of the Pope as spiritual leader. A closely related Protestant doctrine
was the rejection of the authority of the Church and its priests to mediate between
human beings and God. Protestants believed that the Church as an institution could not
grant salvation; only through a direct personal relationship with God (achieved by
reading the Bible) could believers be granted such. Many scholars argue that this
emphasis on a personal, individual connection with God spawned the modern emphasis
on individualism in those cultures affected by Protestantism. However, some
Protestants also believed that after the Fall of Adam, human nature was corrupted as far
as human spiritual capabilities were concerned. Humans therefore are incapable of
contributing to their salvation, for instance through good deeds; it could only be
achieved through faith. Overall, there is a good deal of ambivalence regarding many of
the Protestant positions, and in fact the disagreement among the many Christian sects
may be precisely what distinguishes Renaissance religion from Medieval religion.13
11
Elton, Reformation Europe, 1517-1559, pp. 15
ibid., p. 19
13
Adapted from A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of
Literature, New York, 2009, viewed 13 May 2009,
<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/ren.html >
12
As well as significant religious change due to the development of Protestant
beliefs, the Renaissance period produced profound intellectual reforms with the revival
of classical learning due to the introduction of humanism. The Renaissance revived
classical learning in such a way that it broke with the medieval Christian outlook.14
Where the classical authors were regarded as a source of wisdom on a level with the
Bible and the Fathers, and where the Christian texts were rescrutinized in the light of
the humanists’ new knowledge of language, literature and history, there was a shift of
interest away from the abstractions of theology to the problems of leading the good
Christian daily life. Additionally there was a shift of interest from relics, pilgrimages,
the invocation of saints, and other popular routes to eternal salvation, to the individual’s
direct relationship with God.15 As a result, the teaching of the Fathers, and of the Bible
in both of which medieval theologians had been saturated, were treated in such a
different way that many of the conventionally accepted beliefs of the Church were
discarded.16 Though not anti-Christian, Renaissance individuals embraced the
possibilities of this life rather than focusing on the hereafter. Furthermore, instead of
renouncing earthly endeavors for contemplation of God, these elites cultivated personal
excellence, sought the recognition of their achievements, and explored their own
personalities. Individualism in this context was expressed through mastery of the
classics. Similar to the thinkers of the Twelfth-Century Awakening, Renaissance
scholars valued classical learning. However, unlike their medieval precursors, these
scholars delved more deeply into classical texts and appreciated them for their own
sake. Renaissance scholars assumed that classical authors could teach them much about
life, civic duty, and graceful self-expression. However, these thinkers, unlike their
medieval forebears, did not take the classics as timeless wisdom, but studied them
critically in their historical context.17 Though in the Renaissance itself humanism was
never defined as a philosophy18, it prompted notable works of philosophy, history, and
political and social thought. Instructed by Byzantine scholars, many humanists
14
M Perry et al, Humanities in the Western Tradition, First Edition, California, 2003, viewed 9 May
2009, <http://college.hmco.com/humanities/perry/humanities/1e/students/summaries/ch13.html>
15
EN Williams, The Penguin Dictionary of English and European History, 1485-1789, London, 1980,
pp. 223
16
Green, Renaissance and Reformation, pp. 32
17
Perry, Humanities in the Western Tradition, 2003
18
CG Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, Cambridge, 2006, pp. 9
mastered Greek and explored Platonism and Aristotle in the original. Under the
influence of Greek philosophy, humanists including Ficino, Pico Della Mirandola, and
Pompanazzi developed increasingly secular ideas about ethics, the human soul, and the
power of reason. Humanists used the works of Cicero as a model for prose and those of
Virgil for poetry. As Petrarch said, “Christ is my God; Cicero is the prince of the
language.”19 Additionally, humanists often consulted ancient historians for moral and
political guidance, cultivating a critical historical awareness which they then applied in
their own historical writings.20
Although intellectual reforms were undoubtedly critical towards the
modernisation of Europe, perhaps one of the most important reforms was that of Art.
Renaissance art broke with the medieval past by emphasizing the human form and the
natural world. The principles of mathematical perspective were articulated, defining the
Renaissance as a distinct age of cultural rebirth after the period of medieval
decay. During the Early Renaissance, sculptors, architects, and painters all made the
human figure and its proportions the center of their work. Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, and
Masaccio all adapted the principles of linear perspective to their respective arts, while
Donatello revived the classical tradition of free-standing sculpture. To capture further
how the eye sees the world, Masaccio developed aerial perspective, while both he and
Donatello realistically modeled the shapes of their figures. Brunelleschi embodied
Renaissance ingenuity by creating an innovative dome for the Florence Cathedral.
Other painters—including Fra Fillipo Lippi, Botticelli, and Ghirlandaio—experimented
with a variety of techniques, including the use of sensual color, sculptural precision of
line, and Flemish-influenced realism. High Renaissance artists absorbed their
precursors' innovations and adapted them to a style marked by classical balance,
simplicity, and harmony. Leonardo da Vinci pioneered the new style in painting,
developing circular motion and pyramidal design to arrange figures both realistically
and harmoniously. Michelangelo introduced a new degree of emotional and physical
tension into sculpture and, as painter of the Sistine Chapel, skillfully adapted the
proportions of his figures to fit the contours of the space while giving them
19
20
Duiker and Spielvogel, The Essential World History to 1500, pp. 279
Perry, Humanities in the Western Tradition, 2003
monumental weight and definition. He also excelled as a poet and an architect,
executing his revision of Bramante's plan for St. Peter's in Rome. Raphael brought
harmonious pyramidal design to its highest refinement in his Madonna-and-Child
paintings and monumental School of Athens. The Venetian style revolutionized color by
introducing oil paints. Titian developed this style by modeling his figures through color
rather than line, using tone to create individualized portraits. Tintoretto pointed toward
Mannerism with his unusual perspective lines and unearthly light.21 The culmination of
artistic expression during the High Renaissance – whether in painting, sculpture, or
architecture – is one of the glories of the Italian high Renaissance. The thought and
experimentation of a multitude of artists since the days of Giotto and Duccio were
merged in a great creative triumph, one of the most brilliant in all art history. 22
The intellectual, artistic and religious reforms so characteristic of the European
Renaissance23 promoted new ideas, ideals and beliefs which drastically changed
individual perspective towards art, religion and individual self. The emphasis placed on
individual human ability24 was enough to significantly change the way human beings
were depicted, which in turn, had profound effects on the artistic expression on the
human body. Broadly speaking, the Renaissance represented a change of outlook as a
result of which men began to view the old material of literature and art in a new way,
thus arriving at new mental concepts in literature, art and religion.25 The provocative
argument regarding indulgences put forth by Martin Luther in his Ninety-Five Theses
as a reaction against Church corruption,26 incited protests regarding certain policies of
the Church. Consequently, many Catholic saints broke away from the Church, forming
Protestant sects. Finally, in regard to the political condition during the Renaissance,
although the State had improved significantly since the feudal system of the Middle
21
Perry, Humanities in the Western Tradition, 2003
HS Lucas, The Renaissance and the Reformation, Second Edition, New York, 1934, pp. 298
23
JA Fernández-Santamaría, The Sate, War and Peace: Spanish Political Thought in the Renaissance
1516-1559, New York, 1977 pp. 2
24
Duiker and Spielvogel, The Essential World History to 1500, pp. 279
25
Green, Renaissance and Reformation, pp. 32
26
Adapted from A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of
Literature, 2009
22
Ages, the problems implicated as a result of the kings’ inability to effectively centralise
the State, resulted in the hindrance to the significant need for strong political rule.27
27
ibid.