During the Gothic period, the religious and worldly affairs were interwoven, both secular and religious lives were led from the churches. This gave the clergy an extreme power within the community. In Gothic, everything was for the sake of the church. I f somebody commissioned a part of the church, it wasn’t recognized with their name, instead it belonged to the church. No authority was higher than the religious men. However, they weren’t using their power for the benefits of the public. Pope became interested in gaining victories in the battlefield along with leading the spiritual activities. The corruption of the clergy was also very disturbing. They were selling land form heaven and giving out pardons. The emphasis on the other world of the Gothic period made their job easier. In order to keep their force, the religious men made the understanding of religion much more complicated and elaborate. They made what’s in their mind fit to the Bible. The religion now was consisting of symbols, and they started to move away from the essence of Christianity, which was welcoming everyone. The corruption of the church had already created a great inequality between the rich and the poor.
Martin Luther, the initiative of the reformation criticized this system. He believed that church belonged to everyone. There was one true God and his words were clearly told in the Bible. The reformists defended that Bible was the only source to understanding Christianity and it was for everyone to read and interpret. Martin Luther refused church’s promise of salvation. In his description of faith, he said that doing good shouldn’t be for salvation, it should be a part of us as a result of what God has given us. The invention of press contributed to the pace of debate. Many princes joined the act. The central authority of the Catholic church was rejected. The number of private patronage churches increased, which gave freedom of interpretation. Everybody was free to communicate with God on their own.
We can see a dramatic change in the arts due to the shift in ideology. In the Gothic period, art was the propaganda of Catholic church. The images about morality and judgement were the visual language of the religion, one that was controlled by the clergy and told however the religious men asked for. After Reformation, secular images increased and the religious depictions reduced. The viewers were reminded that the images were not holy in themselves. Many of the religious paintings depicted individual’s relationship with the God, instead of the clergy.
The Reformation was a result of a disaccord in ideology, but it wasn’t the last one. With Renaissance men started to seek solutions and wanted to reach to the better. They kept questioning to find the truth even if it was in a holy matter which was harder to open a discussion about. I think that’s the most important change that Reformation brought.
Source: Overy, Richard. Complete History of The World. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2006
Question 3 The term “Renaissance” implies that something has been reborn. However, as our textbook suggests, it is not clear what exactly is reborn. The textbook argues that classical ideas have been present at all times especially in Italy, even though they were not as accentuated as they were in Renaissance. Therefore, the book suggests that it would not be accurate to say that ideas in Renaissance were reborn. Even though I partially agree with this statement, I do not belive that Renaissance is just about the “return” of classical ideas. I believe that Renaissance is significant because man has once again became to source of attention. In Antiquity, the human figure and intellect were praised. Art was concentrated on the attributes of man. Philosphers dedicated themselves to question common knowledge and they seeked the truth. However, with Christianity, man’s attention was drawn away from wordly matters to abstract ideas. Art was dominated by spirituality and the search for truth was abandoned. The importance of “man” and his intellect, individual inquiry and the idea of questioning to find the truth were all “dead”. According to my source, after the Ottomans took Constantinople, with the exodus of Greek scholars to Italy, copies of ancient texts that were preserved by the Byzantine Empire became accessible for the Florentines. With increased trade and interactions between the West and the East, scientific advancements by Arabic scholars were shared with the West. The wealth and the great amount of accessible information created the best environment for the rebirth of questioning and knowledge. Man’s interest in the heavens was replaced by focus on the human. In conclusion, Renaissance is justly named a rebirth because not only classic ideas but also the importance of man and his intellect were born again after a thousand years of dormancy.
My source: “Hristiyanlık – Bir Yahudi Mezhebinden Dünya Dinine” (Christianity, from a Jewis Order to a World Religion) by Markus Hattstein.
I think Reformation was one of the wisest things men have done in history. It rejects all restrictions and abuses of the church and seeks freedom in faith. Reformation suggests that people should interpret Bible by themselves instead of being bound to what priests say and blindly following them. Reformation refuses buying pardons and places in heaven, which was seen in Gothic period. Reformists argue that Christianity started as a religion for everyone, where everybody was equal. They tried to bring this concept back, which was forgotten in Gothic and rich people and priests were advantageous. The unnecessary power and authority of church in the Gothic period is rejected. People finally started to question the absurdness of this social hierarchy. In Gothic period, churches were filled with symbols and imposing figures that were meant to scare people. This way people were easily controlled by the church. Even the King was chosen by the Pope. In Reformation, these symbols and figures were viewed as distracting and the churches were purified. Sense finally came to people. Religion wasn't restricted to what priests told anymore, it was only between individual understanding and God. The priests weren't feared. Martin Luther, founder of Reformation, put it this way: "I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the Councils, because it is clear as day that they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless therefore, I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture".
Religion’s authority changed a lot after Gothic period by Reformation. In the Gothic period catholic church was the most powerful establishement. They controled citizens life; rich people contributed to churches but they couldn’t add their individuality, church had the bible and public couldn’t read it themselves so they had to believe what priests said and they had to obey in order to go to heaven, church sold places at heaven and pardons. This was no environment for new free ideas. The church was competing with the palace, the State. Reformation began when people (first Martin Luther) questioned the church’s ridiculus acts. With reformation people were more free in producing ideas and they all could read bible because it was printed; so people didn’t have to believe in priest’s interpratations of the bible. Church Reformation and renaissance are connected and both are awekening times for people.
Renaissance can be called a re-birth in several ways. It is the re-birth of the ideas that have lasted from the antiquity period. Some ideas like humanism, individualism were taken and interpreted according to current period, society and values. It’s also the re-birth of art. In the Middle Ages art didn’t appear to be a much important part of life. Renaissance gave it an opportunity to improve. In that period, artists developed different techniques and new pieces of art were created. The period provided a recreation for art. Renaissance was the age with social, scientific and politic thoughts turning to new directions. So we can call it the age with the re-birth of human mind. It was the time when people started reading and questioning things which led to the birth of new ideas. The patronizing authority of the Catholic Church no longer existed and minds were free to think and apply their ideas. Some people call Renaissance period the awakening after the dormancy of social, artistic, scientific life of the Middle Ages. Some call it the fracture point where there was a sudden change of culture and some call it the beginning of the modern ages. All are different point of views and whether or not they’re true, renaissance is the age of change, whatever we may call it.
Source: The Idea of the Renaissance, Richard Hooker, 1996 Washington State University Website Article www.wsu.edu
Tuğberk 1) Reformation is the awakening of Christian society which I find it enlightened humanity and pulled people away from the darkness of scholastic thinking. There is the “holy book” which must be understood and followed very well by the believers, but instead the church had its own interpretation and the priests basically fooled people by changing the religion according to their own benefits. So in Christianity the priests took a place between “the servant” and God. But a monk, Martin Luther questioned all the corruption inside the church and the religion itself. In the link below we see what he has questioned: Firstly “fear” was a great issue in Christianity which occurred because of the modification done by the church on the subject “penalty and punishment”, the reason of church’s modification was having the absolute power in society and being at the highest level in the “chain of universe”. Martin Luther said that there is no need for such fear and especially buying pardons is the most contradictory act against the philosophy of Christianity. Secondly, he got further telling that real Christians don’t need anyone between themselves and the Lord, because they already have “the Bible” and they themselves can analyze, interpret and apply the rules of their religion. Therefore reformation brought up the idea of “equality” again. Thirdly, “Peace,peace,” what Christ have said but the church was in the most important position in all wars, finally he concluded that the church was corrupted and the believers had to change this situation. Clearly, Reformist have done a great job and carried the civilization up to such high modern level.
Source: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/ninetyfive.html Project Wittenberg Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences By Dr. Martin Luther, 1517
Question 3 I think the answer to this question depends on what we are talking about the Renaissance. If we are talking about some specific ideas, like humanism and individualism, coming back we can say it is a “re-birth.” However, it might be wrong to just stick to the ideas; it is impossible to truly go back before the medieval ages, to the antiquity period, since mankind had improved himself so much up until the Renaissance. We cannot call the Gothic period “dark age” when we look at the progress in architecture and art, even though religion was its primarily basis. In Giotto’s frescos for example we can see the new element, the perspective, which we cannot omit. The book, also, doesn’t say that the Renaissance is a “re-birth,” it describes the period as a time which the old ideas were “rediscovered.” “Birth” is the beginning, the starting point of the life. When a baby is born he is almost clueless, he learns as he ages; and if there is something called “reincarnation,” when he is reborn after his death he forgets everything about his past life, knows nothing about it. What he did in his past life is nothing but a mystery. This is why, I think, it is not actually true to call the Renaissance “renaissance.” People still have the knowledge they built up in medieval ages, the Renaissance is only some ideas from past “reappearing.” I think the best word to describe the period is “realization,” because it is the time period which people realized the significance of individual and human intellectual; and started to question things, especially the position of church in everyday life.
Using the word rebirth when defining renaissance is not really appropriate. Since renaissance is the age of discovery and creating something new. Social structure, economy, art style, concept of knowledge and intelligence, ideas about faith changes in this period. However they are not re-interpreting or reforming the old ideas. Only common factor is questioning which is very general. We cannot deny the fact that society always takes some specialities of the past however a change like this really deserves to be called BIRTH not ‘RE’ BIRTH. Rebirth is when after the dark ages they just took the same concept and used it again after a while it has been disappeared. Reformation questioned what was unquestionable before. Renaissance directly changed the fundamentals instead of just solving some problems or inventions. You can name renaissance with any word that doesn’t include “re”. The meaning of “re” is actually against what has been done in the period.
Da Vinci and the Renaissance Mysteries / Disocvery Channel Documentary
The obvious shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance primarily stemmed from different economic systems and classes that gave shape to the general social structure of the society.In the Middle ages, land-based system, feudalism determined the social structure which was built upon the strict hiearchial principles.Because only ones who were noble and owned land had authority and power, education and consequently, thinking and questioning habit was not spreaded among all classes.On the other hand,in Renaissance, the restricted area of thinking altered into a place of free thinking and questioning by the help of more independent economic structure. As a result of increasing trade, a new class called merchant class arose and formed a powerful middle class which started to have both money and power. The intellectual awakening stemmed from all these processes that changed the strictly settled understanding of the medieval ages. Pressure of the church was no more a threat, obeying was no more present. It was time of thinking, questioning and inventing. It was an intellectual awakening from a deep sleep called Middle Ages... And it shouldn't be forgotten that if there were not major differences in the economic and consequently, social structure of the society, this awakening would not be possible and maybe it would take another hundreds of years for human beings to awake from a deep sleep...
1.) Reformation in Renaissance is counted as a revolutionary act that turned the world upside down for the people living back in the early sixteenth century. Since it gave birth to a new age of faith and gave rise to permanent changes in both people’s behavior and society’s institutions, we can call it revolutionary. In the Gothic period, church was the world to the people because it was the central authority which led the daily life along with the ecclesiastical life that people never considered to question. What made people such as Martin Luther question the church was the obvious corruption, where the basics of Christianity were changed according to the benefit of the church. Once being the religion of everyone equally, Christianity gained a cost in the Gothic Period as the church started to sell lands from heaven or pardons to the ones who can afford it. There actually started the beginning of class differences in the church too, as it was already the same in secular life. I don’t think that anyone who can’t afford the payment of their pardons was still strictly bound to the church by heart after realizing the injustice. However, since the situation was in favor of both the church and the wealthy, they couldn’t do anything till Martin Luther did. It should have been a great way to preserve the authority of the church until the Reformation, a secure way enough that Machiavelli could have used in his book “The Prince” under a section about maintaining power. What Martin Luther does is to remind people of the history and the source of Christianity which is the Bible. People believing in the fact that what priests are telling to them should be what is in the Bible, start to question the reason why then the Bible is kept as a secret under the church. Martin Luther and the reformers thought that the Bible was for everyone to read and there was no need for a third subject, which was the priest. It was all between the God and the individual. The thought was against the benefit of the church because it would mean the revealing of their lies however, it wasn’t avoidable since it was pure logic. Reformation then brought the free environment to individual ideas about everything, including faith. I think of Reformation as the must have of Renaissance because it is the birth of questioning and free thinking is the source to all other aspects of Renaissance.
Source: Ozment, Steven. PROTESTANTS – The Birth of a Revolution. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
1- I think the most striking part of the Reformation in Christianity is the purification of the church art. Starting from the Romanesque Period, the complexity of the Monastery Life pushed the artists to tell more in limited space; simply because these people (monks) lived in this almost isolated-religious world spend almost all of their time thinking of religion and expressing it in new ways. And all those ideas, stories, characters had to be transfered to the church art; that’ s why we got visual bombardment which is usually found overwhelming by most of us. But then, with the growth of the middle class (money spreading more equally) and press, more people had access to the Bible and they all had their individual ways of understanding Christianity. Sawing what the book of God really says contradicted with what the church has said; through it’s art and through it’s priests. It was not church’ s interior to tell the whole story to the visitors, people could now interpret their own ways. Without the need of message giving, we have purer churches that are some how closer to what we have in Jubilee Church; simple enough to be ready to become everyone’ s church.
In the Renaissance with new inventions and discvories merchants class grew stronger. In both of the periods hiearchy was existing. In the Middle Ages having command of God clergy was the most powerful class. Hiearchy was based on religion, holiness. Pope was on the highest step, emperors then nobles were following him. Nobility was passing with heritage. In order to be noble and have a high status in society, you had to be born in one. However in the Renaissance it changed. As I said before in the Renaissance there was still a hiearchic scheme within society, but this it was money which determined, not religion. If you have enough money you have right to speak up. Merchanst did the same thing. They grew wealthier in time and demanded more power in government and they recieved it too. Parallel to the rise of classical humanism number of writers, visual artists, musicians increased. And wealthy families start to use them in building churches, painting portaits etc to last their family fame. People wanted to be good at many things and called it to be a universal man whereas in the middle age you were born with almost like a stamp on your forehead, telling you what you can and cannot do in life. By using religion as a great tool in its hands clergy was determining social, cultural and political life. With the Renaissance and Reformation people start to think and question and oppose to church. To give you this sense of clergy over everything I can give this specific example. Before Renassaince the church had even control over what people were wearing. To wear lastest fashion was forbidded and condemned of the sin vanity.
1. There were fundamental differences between the understanding of the medieval periods and that of Renaissance. How they undertake economy, art and religion in these periods can be described as opposite, because these basic branches were interpreted totally different in these two periods. First, the dualism that was strongly important in the Gothic Period leaves its place to diversifications in thinking, in social/political life. What we see in Gothic Period is reconciliation of science, religion and logic. They try to explain religion with logic, but with a pre-acceptance of what the Bible says. They don’t question the Christian discipline; they fit their logic into what the book says. However, in Renaissance, what we have is the actual questioning, cleaning up, reforming. This time, they question the church, and the parts that doesn’t fit into their logic, they simply exclude it from their beliefs. Also, in the Gothic Period, the towns kept competing about religious matters, cathedrals, pilgrimage etc. Guilds invested for religious purposes, so art was dependent heavily on religion. With renaissance, pieces of art started to be commissioned, and the pieces were much more individual and unique. So art was not for God anymore, in Renaissance, art was performed for the sake of art. The last and I believe the most important difference was about the baking practices that rose with renaissance. The enormous amount of wealth has been composed in this period thanks to these practices, which were hold by Jews in Gothic Period since having interest, investing with money were forbidden in Christianity. Their orthodox religious beliefs stopped them from the liberal improvements; therefore that prosperity couldn’t have been achieved until Renaissance. So what we see through these periods is a shift in the perspective of the society, and change in role of religion, finance and arts among people.
http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/renaissance2/economic.htm, Looking at the Renaissance
Being a revolutionary movement against the corruption of the Catholic Church, the Reformation had also helped the society to leave the misconceptions they were in or forced to be in during the Gothic period. In Gothic period, the religious and worldly affairs were interwoven and were under the control of the church; and as a natural result, the church became the highest authority. This great power that the church has possessed eventually led to its corruption and hence the abuse of the faith of the society. Since the church was the only source of the religious knowledge, people blindly followed the priests’ words without questioning. They took this abuse so far that they were selling pardons and even lands in heaven. However after the printing technology became prevalent during the Renaissance, and people were in access of the Bible; they realized that the church has been making Christianity more complicated that it actually is. As they focused more on the meanings of the words of the Bible itself, they started to question the false concepts the church was insisting on them. For instance; the leader of the Reformation, Martin Luther suggested that human salvation is only by individual faith, not by a clerical mediation. In other words, he believed that the individuals don’t need anyone else in between while communicating with God. Because at the beginning, Christianity was a religion for everyone, suggesting that everyone is equal in the eyes of God; and according to this idea if everyone is equal, then they don’t need a priest to be a mediator between them and God. This realization brought purification in both the meaning of the Bible and the church art of Protestantism. The chaotic symbols and arts of the Gothic church was abandoned, instead a more clear church appearance was accepted. According to the Reformation, the complex artwork of Gothic church was distracting, mainly because many people didn’t actually understand their meanings. This fact again proves how unequal the Catholic Church had made the Christianity; creating a drastic difference between the ones who can comprehend the so-called religious information it gave them, and the ones who can’t.
Source: Kirsch, Johann Peter. "The Reformation." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 11 Feb. 2009 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12700b.htm.
The church and the power it had on the social structure were corrupted before the Renaissance. So, it is fairly appropriate to call it as an awakening of the society, which was started by Martin Luther, a monk himself, to reform the Catholic Church. People were lacking knowledge about the Christianity and the Church misused this fact. As we studied earlier under subject, the Gothic Era, the church had an exclusive power. We could see that even from the art pieces of that Era and there was always a pressure of the judgment, waiting people in the future. The church was even selling lands in heaven and people were buying pardons for the sins they had. With the idea of discontent spread amongst the society by Martin Luther caused people to want to know and reform. Therefore, after the invention of the printing press, there was a huge shift in ideas and beliefs. According to Martin Luther, every Christian had their own ways to communicate with God and so with the cheap prints of the Bible, almost every class had access to the Bible. As a result of this, the importance of the Church vanished. People had the chance to learn and the learning process led to thinking and so they started to question which ended up in great discoveries in mathematics and science. Because there was a free environment for people to think and question, freely.
sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation and our ASL textbook
From my personal point of view the term “re-birth” for Renaissance is appropriate. The definition of the term “re-birth” guides us to understand the fundamental aspects of renaissance. According to Wikipedia, re-birth or reincarnation as it redirects to that page, is “literally "to be made flesh again", is a doctrine or metaphysical belief that some essential part of a living being (in some variations only human beings) survives death to be reborn in a new body”. The essential part is reborn into a new body! When we look at the renaissance we see what has been reborn: the essential ideas that dominated the antiquity. It is not merely the rebirth of a style; it is the rebirth of essential ideas into a new body. A new body with the essential “soul” of something would move forward from what it inhabited. I see Renaissance with a similar fashion; essentials, inhabited traits are there, but yet there is advancement, a growth over what is there already. This growth is the all the interpretations, advancements in science, art and architecture. But it all started with the soul –the essential ideas- finally finding a body to reborn. Just as a newborn child, renaissance grew over time, yielding unbelievable advancements and improvements. “Enlightenment, recreation… those terms does define renaissance, however partially. My belief is that those terms are not adequate to describe the essence of Renaissance, not deep enough to fully explain what it is all about. Re-birth, however, for the abovementioned reasons, can fully describe the essence of renaissance; therefore I believe “re-birth” is the most appropriate.
The Renaissance was seen as the awakening after medieval period. The increase of trade during this period resulted in the strength of the middle class, which was made up of mostly merchants and bankers. The Reformation was the first movement against the Catholic Church and was led by Martin Luther. With the invention of printing machine, more Bibles were printed within 50 years than before the printing machine was invented. With this improvement, people started to read the Bible rather than listening to interpretations of priests. They started to believe in what made sense to them instead of believing in priests’ words. The power of the church diminished unlike the wealth of merchant families. Bible became the only source, reference of religion. Banks appeared in this period. Jews were the ones who started to realize the fertility of money. Since the reproduction of unnatural sources was sin according to Christians, they couldn’t progress in banking. The idea of buying one’s place from Heaven which was frequently used in the Gothic Period was ‘out’. People wouldn’t buy pardons anymore since they didn’t need priests (aka banks) in order to talk to God. God was everywhere! Since everyone is equal according to Christianity, the priests couldn’t be more important than an ordinary person. Winning a battle against the church, art and science improved. Art work was used as a distractive method during this period.
Along with the new ideas of Renaissance people start to think about and question what is around them. Reformation was one of the fruits of this change. People now had a chance to read the Bible with the invention of the printing press and understand it in their own way. When we look back at the Gothic period we always see someone (king or a priest) leading the way of thinking of people. The clergy was telling people what to believe in, what to do or basically what was in the Bible. The image of the church and its inner structure was damaged as they now represented something more than spiritualism. The papacy had influence on everything; politics, warfare, economics. Selling of pardons, altering the meaning of the Bible and the shifted aim of the clergy estranged people from the Catholic church. The idea of Christianity being the religion for everybody had changed. Everyone who had the money could reach salvation but the ones who could not pay were victims of hell. Then Martin Luther made a move that questioned all these things. Actually he was the first one who said these things out loud, people were already looking for a change in the church. He opposed a third person in the relationship between the worshiper and the God. And one man should not be cleansed of his sins through money or another person's decided punishments but through one's own faith. Luther's movement would not be successful this much if the people were not ready for it. After him oppositions against the Catholic church continued as people kept on interpreting the Bible differently and I believe we see the effect of rebirth of individualism in this situation. Reformation, along with the Renaissance gave people to courage to question and more importantly act on what they think is wrong.
One fact that indicates the significance of Renaissance is the radical shift in social values which were adopted in Medieval age. They can be listed as below:
- People extended their knowledge regarding their professions. They started to be interested in scientific aspects of their jobs. This shift facilitated the transition to humanism and naturalism, which are the new ideas based on concrete themes.
- Discovery and inquiry were promoted in every branch of art and society. As a result of that, people explored and contemplated about diverse issues (including the ones that were once strictly restricted by the church).
- The merchant class gained power in the society. In order to depict their fame and power, they commissioned artworks from artists (painters, sculptors etc.) This caused two positive effects in the development of art. Firstly, the artists who were not working for the church anymore felt more independent in their arts and they created new styles of arts. Secondly, as the merchant class gained more power, the artists produced more artworks which also developed art in renaissance.
- The emphasis of "afterlife" and "divinity" gradually gave way to more realistic, natural subjects in art, philosophy, politics and social life.
- Women gained status in the society, as opposed to Medieval times.
- With the rise of Protestants, the mediation of the church and the selling of pardons were questioned and rejected. With the new printing technology, a lot of people in the society had access to the Bible, and they were urged to read and interpret the Bible by themselves.
2) Feudalism was the social structure of the Middle Ages, where the king is the ultimate ruler in the physical world and everybody else respects and obeys him and his full power. The active life meant to be a part of a strict pyramid of hierarchy where the lower parts were completely devoted to and dependent on the upper parts. Each person’s place was static, his duties predetermined, and his responsibilities listed to him by the church. The church was especially very powerful and set the religious rules and created the mainstream religious thinking. During Renaissance, however, most of this started to change and it’s obvious that money started playing a much more important role in the community (as a result of this, we are able to relate this period to our modern world more easily). The main reason of the increasing importance of money was the geographical explorations. After these explorations, new trade routes and sources of wealth were discovered. The flow of money made the mercantile class richer. Families with professions such as banking started ruling cities. According to my source, the suitable positions of Italian cities as trading centers caused these cities to be “intellectual crossroads”. Consequently, the number of scientific studies and observations increased; the spirit of free inquiry re-evolved; and more pieces of art were commissioned (since newly available ideas about art improved the quality of art and the respect towards art; and since commissioning art was seen as a way to gain prestige). Church’s control over normal life (the one that we live in) decreased (and this made Reformation possible) with the increasing encouragement of free and personal thinking. Finally, the life began to be more full of possibilities; the people therefore chose to use the opportunities: People were not just interested in one profession (like it was in before), they aimed to excel at various subjects to become an ideal man of knowledge and skill. This blurred the lines between social classes even more. Outside source: http://www.boistate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/1-7.htm and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance #Social_and_political_structures_in_Italy (both have the same information)
Under the influence of Martin Luther, a religious movement called The Reformation rises. It spreads out to the whole Europe against the Epicureanism of the Renaissance (La France de toujours, p.33). This movement resulted in the rejection of the authority of the church in Europe. Criticizing the waste and the richness of the Church, Luther and his followers proposed a return to the Bible itself (La France de toujours, p.34). Before the invention of printing machine, there wasn’t many literates, which favored priests. The people who didn’t know how to read the Bible used to listen to the interpretations of the priests in the Gothic Period. These priests used to have the opportunity of getting people to do whatever they wanted. A priest could interpret a psalm as he wanted, sometimes even to his profit. Since everyone is equal according to Christianity, there was no more need to the priests. Saint Martin translated the Bible into German from Greek. This created an example to follow by all European countries. (http://www.reformation.org/) I think that the Reformation was the wisest act of Christians. They broke the power of the church. The merchant class got an increasing wealth. Reading the scriptures, they got to interpret the Bible for themselves. Protestant reformers stopped following the words of the priests without questioning. The idea of buying one’s place from Heaven by paying to the priests was abandoned. The Reformation Period must have been very hard for the priests since they started to lose their ‘eternal’ authority.
Sources: ‘The 3 "R's" Christ Risen, Reigning, Returning soon’ The Reformation Online, 2009 http://www.reformation.org/ La France de toujours – CIVILISATION by Nelly MAUCHAMP
26 comments:
During the Gothic period, the religious and worldly affairs were interwoven, both secular and religious lives were led from the churches. This gave the clergy an extreme power within the community. In Gothic, everything was for the sake of the church. I f somebody commissioned a part of the church, it wasn’t recognized with their name, instead it belonged to the church. No authority was higher than the religious men. However, they weren’t using their power for the benefits of the public. Pope became interested in gaining victories in the battlefield along with leading the spiritual activities. The corruption of the clergy was also very disturbing. They were selling land form heaven and giving out pardons. The emphasis on the other world of the Gothic period made their job easier. In order to keep their force, the religious men made the understanding of religion much more complicated and elaborate. They made what’s in their mind fit to the Bible. The religion now was consisting of symbols, and they started to move away from the essence of Christianity, which was welcoming everyone. The corruption of the church had already created a great inequality between the rich and the poor.
Martin Luther, the initiative of the reformation criticized this system. He believed that church belonged to everyone. There was one true God and his words were clearly told in the Bible. The reformists defended that Bible was the only source to understanding Christianity and it was for everyone to read and interpret. Martin Luther refused church’s promise of salvation. In his description of faith, he said that doing good shouldn’t be for salvation, it should be a part of us as a result of what God has given us. The invention of press contributed to the pace of debate. Many princes joined the act. The central authority of the Catholic church was rejected. The number of private patronage churches increased, which gave freedom of interpretation. Everybody was free to communicate with God on their own.
We can see a dramatic change in the arts due to the shift in ideology. In the Gothic period, art was the propaganda of Catholic church. The images about morality and judgement were the visual language of the religion, one that was controlled by the clergy and told however the religious men asked for. After Reformation, secular images increased and the religious depictions reduced. The viewers were reminded that the images were not holy in themselves. Many of the religious paintings depicted individual’s relationship with the God, instead of the clergy.
The Reformation was a result of a disaccord in ideology, but it wasn’t the last one. With Renaissance men started to seek solutions and wanted to reach to the better. They kept questioning to find the truth even if it was in a holy matter which was harder to open a discussion about. I think that’s the most important change that Reformation brought.
Source:
Overy, Richard. Complete History of The World.
New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2006
Hazal Yücel
Question 3
The term “Renaissance” implies that something has been reborn. However, as our textbook suggests, it is not clear what exactly is reborn. The textbook argues that classical ideas have been present at all times especially in Italy, even though they were not as accentuated as they were in Renaissance. Therefore, the book suggests that it would not be accurate to say that ideas in Renaissance were reborn. Even though I partially agree with this statement, I do not belive that Renaissance is just about the “return” of classical ideas. I believe that Renaissance is significant because man has once again became to source of attention. In Antiquity, the human figure and intellect were praised. Art was concentrated on the attributes of man. Philosphers dedicated themselves to question common knowledge and they seeked the truth. However, with Christianity, man’s attention was drawn away from wordly matters to abstract ideas. Art was dominated by spirituality and the search for truth was abandoned. The importance of “man” and his intellect, individual inquiry and the idea of questioning to find the truth were all “dead”. According to my source, after the Ottomans took Constantinople, with the exodus of Greek scholars to Italy, copies of ancient texts that were preserved by the Byzantine Empire became accessible for the Florentines. With increased trade and interactions between the West and the East, scientific advancements by Arabic scholars were shared with the West. The wealth and the great amount of accessible information created the best environment for the rebirth of questioning and knowledge. Man’s interest in the heavens was replaced by focus on the human. In conclusion, Renaissance is justly named a rebirth because not only classic ideas but also the importance of man and his intellect were born again after a thousand years of dormancy.
My source:
“Hristiyanlık – Bir Yahudi Mezhebinden Dünya Dinine” (Christianity, from a Jewis Order to a World Religion) by Markus Hattstein.
I think Reformation was one of the wisest things men have done in history. It rejects all restrictions and abuses of the church and seeks freedom in faith. Reformation suggests that people should interpret Bible by themselves instead of being bound to what priests say and blindly following them. Reformation refuses buying pardons and places in heaven, which was seen in Gothic period. Reformists argue that Christianity started as a religion for everyone, where everybody was equal. They tried to bring this concept back, which was forgotten in Gothic and rich people and priests were advantageous. The unnecessary power and authority of church in the Gothic period is rejected. People finally started to question the absurdness of this social hierarchy. In Gothic period, churches were filled with symbols and imposing figures that were meant to scare people. This way people were easily controlled by the church. Even the King was chosen by the Pope. In Reformation, these symbols and figures were viewed as distracting and the churches were purified. Sense finally came to people. Religion wasn't restricted to what priests told anymore, it was only between individual understanding and God. The priests weren't feared. Martin Luther, founder of Reformation, put it this way: "I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the Councils, because it is clear as day that they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless therefore, I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture".
source:
http://www.reformation.org/
Irem Kahyaoglu
Religion’s authority changed a lot after Gothic period by Reformation. In the Gothic period catholic church was the most powerful establishement. They controled citizens life; rich people contributed to churches but they couldn’t add their individuality, church had the bible and public couldn’t read it themselves so they had to believe what priests said and they had to obey in order to go to heaven, church sold places at heaven and pardons. This was no environment for new free ideas. The church was competing with the palace, the State. Reformation began when people (first Martin Luther) questioned the church’s ridiculus acts. With reformation people were more free in producing ideas and they all could read bible because it was printed; so people didn’t have to believe in priest’s interpratations of the bible. Church Reformation and renaissance are connected and both are awekening times for people.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12700b.htm
Renaissance can be called a re-birth in several ways. It is the re-birth of the ideas that have lasted from the antiquity period. Some ideas like humanism, individualism were taken and interpreted according to current period, society and values. It’s also the re-birth of art. In the Middle Ages art didn’t appear to be a much important part of life. Renaissance gave it an opportunity to improve. In that period, artists developed different techniques and new pieces of art were created. The period provided a recreation for art. Renaissance was the age with social, scientific and politic thoughts turning to new directions. So we can call it the age with the re-birth of human mind. It was the time when people started reading and questioning things which led to the birth of new ideas. The patronizing authority of the Catholic Church no longer existed and minds were free to think and apply their ideas. Some people call Renaissance period the awakening after the dormancy of social, artistic, scientific life of the Middle Ages. Some call it the fracture point where there was a sudden change of culture and some call it the beginning of the modern ages. All are different point of views and whether or not they’re true, renaissance is the age of change, whatever we may call it.
Source: The Idea of the Renaissance, Richard Hooker, 1996
Washington State University Website Article
www.wsu.edu
Tuğberk
1) Reformation is the awakening of Christian society which I find it enlightened humanity and pulled people away from the darkness of scholastic thinking. There is the “holy book” which must be understood and followed very well by the believers, but instead the church had its own interpretation and the priests basically fooled people by changing the religion according to their own benefits. So in Christianity the priests took a place between “the servant” and God. But a monk, Martin Luther questioned all the corruption inside the church and the religion itself.
In the link below we see what he has questioned: Firstly “fear” was a great issue in Christianity which occurred because of the modification done by the church on the subject “penalty and punishment”, the reason of church’s modification was having the absolute power in society and being at the highest level in the “chain of universe”. Martin Luther said that there is no need for such fear and especially buying pardons is the most contradictory act against the philosophy of Christianity. Secondly, he got further telling that real Christians don’t need anyone between themselves and the Lord, because they already have “the Bible” and they themselves can analyze, interpret and apply the rules of their religion. Therefore reformation brought up the idea of “equality” again. Thirdly, “Peace,peace,” what Christ have said but the church was in the most important position in all wars, finally he concluded that the church was corrupted and the believers had to change this situation. Clearly, Reformist have done a great job and carried the civilization up to such high modern level.
Source: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/ninetyfive.html
Project Wittenberg
Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
By Dr. Martin Luther, 1517
Question 3
I think the answer to this question depends on what we are talking about the Renaissance. If we are talking about some specific ideas, like humanism and individualism, coming back we can say it is a “re-birth.” However, it might be wrong to just stick to the ideas; it is impossible to truly go back before the medieval ages, to the antiquity period, since mankind had improved himself so much up until the Renaissance. We cannot call the Gothic period “dark age” when we look at the progress in architecture and art, even though religion was its primarily basis. In Giotto’s frescos for example we can see the new element, the perspective, which we cannot omit. The book, also, doesn’t say that the Renaissance is a “re-birth,” it describes the period as a time which the old ideas were “rediscovered.”
“Birth” is the beginning, the starting point of the life. When a baby is born he is almost clueless, he learns as he ages; and if there is something called “reincarnation,” when he is reborn after his death he forgets everything about his past life, knows nothing about it. What he did in his past life is nothing but a mystery. This is why, I think, it is not actually true to call the Renaissance “renaissance.” People still have the knowledge they built up in medieval ages, the Renaissance is only some ideas from past “reappearing.”
I think the best word to describe the period is “realization,” because it is the time period which people realized the significance of individual and human intellectual; and started to question things, especially the position of church in everyday life.
Source:
http://www.iep.utm.edu/r/renaiss.htm
Using the word rebirth when defining renaissance is not really appropriate. Since renaissance is the age of discovery and creating something new. Social structure, economy, art style, concept of knowledge and intelligence, ideas about faith changes in this period. However they are not re-interpreting or reforming the old ideas. Only common factor is questioning which is very general. We cannot deny the fact that society always takes some specialities of the past however a change like this really deserves to be called BIRTH not ‘RE’ BIRTH. Rebirth is when after the dark ages they just took the same concept and used it again after a while it has been disappeared. Reformation questioned what was unquestionable before. Renaissance directly changed the fundamentals instead of just solving some problems or inventions. You can name renaissance with any word that doesn’t include “re”. The meaning of “re” is actually against what has been done in the period.
Da Vinci and the Renaissance Mysteries / Disocvery Channel Documentary
Question 2
The obvious shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance primarily stemmed from different economic systems and classes that gave shape to the general social structure of the society.In the Middle ages, land-based system, feudalism determined the social structure which was built upon the strict hiearchial principles.Because only ones who were noble and owned land had authority and power, education and consequently, thinking and questioning habit was not spreaded among all classes.On the other hand,in Renaissance, the restricted area of thinking altered into a place of free thinking and questioning by the help of more independent economic structure. As a result of increasing trade, a new class called merchant class arose and formed a powerful middle class which started to have both money and power. The intellectual awakening stemmed from all these processes that changed the strictly settled understanding of the medieval ages. Pressure of the church was no more a threat, obeying was no more present. It was time of thinking, questioning and inventing. It was an intellectual awakening from a deep sleep called Middle Ages... And it shouldn't be forgotten that if there were not major differences in the economic and consequently, social structure of the society, this awakening would not be possible and maybe it would take another hundreds of years for human beings to awake from a deep sleep...
Source: http://wsu.edu/~dee/REN/BACK.HTM
1.) Reformation in Renaissance is counted as a revolutionary act that turned the world upside down for the people living back in the early sixteenth century. Since it gave birth to a new age of faith and gave rise to permanent changes in both people’s behavior and society’s institutions, we can call it revolutionary. In the Gothic period, church was the world to the people because it was the central authority which led the daily life along with the ecclesiastical life that people never considered to question. What made people such as Martin Luther question the church was the obvious corruption, where the basics of Christianity were changed according to the benefit of the church. Once being the religion of everyone equally, Christianity gained a cost in the Gothic Period as the church started to sell lands from heaven or pardons to the ones who can afford it. There actually started the beginning of class differences in the church too, as it was already the same in secular life. I don’t think that anyone who can’t afford the payment of their pardons was still strictly bound to the church by heart after realizing the injustice. However, since the situation was in favor of both the church and the wealthy, they couldn’t do anything till Martin Luther did. It should have been a great way to preserve the authority of the church until the Reformation, a secure way enough that Machiavelli could have used in his book “The Prince” under a section about maintaining power. What Martin Luther does is to remind people of the history and the source of Christianity which is the Bible. People believing in the fact that what priests are telling to them should be what is in the Bible, start to question the reason why then the Bible is kept as a secret under the church. Martin Luther and the reformers thought that the Bible was for everyone to read and there was no need for a third subject, which was the priest. It was all between the God and the individual. The thought was against the benefit of the church because it would mean the revealing of their lies however, it wasn’t avoidable since it was pure logic. Reformation then brought the free environment to individual ideas about everything, including faith. I think of Reformation as the must have of Renaissance because it is the birth of questioning and free thinking is the source to all other aspects of Renaissance.
Source:
Ozment, Steven. PROTESTANTS – The Birth of a Revolution. New York: Doubleday,
1991.
1- I think the most striking part of the Reformation in Christianity is the purification of the church art. Starting from the Romanesque Period, the complexity of the Monastery Life pushed the artists to tell more in limited space; simply because these people (monks) lived in this almost isolated-religious world spend almost all of their time thinking of religion and expressing it in new ways. And all those ideas, stories, characters had to be transfered to the church art; that’ s why we got visual bombardment which is usually found overwhelming by most of us. But then, with the growth of the middle class (money spreading more equally) and press, more people had access to the Bible and they all had their individual ways of understanding Christianity. Sawing what the book of God really says contradicted with what the church has said; through it’s art and through it’s priests. It was not church’ s interior to tell the whole story to the visitors, people could now interpret their own ways. Without the need of message giving, we have purer churches that are some how closer to what we have in Jubilee Church; simple enough to be ready to become everyone’ s church.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/faithvalues/2003820858_religionart04m.html
In the Renaissance with new inventions and discvories merchants class grew stronger. In both of the periods hiearchy was existing. In the Middle Ages having command of God clergy was the most powerful class. Hiearchy was based on religion, holiness. Pope was on the highest step, emperors then nobles were following him. Nobility was passing with heritage. In order to be noble and have a high status in society, you had to be born in one. However in the Renaissance it changed. As I said before in the Renaissance there was still a hiearchic scheme within society, but this it was money which determined, not religion. If you have enough money you have right to speak up. Merchanst did the same thing. They grew wealthier in time and demanded more power in government and they recieved it too. Parallel to the rise of classical humanism number of writers, visual artists, musicians increased. And wealthy families start to use them in building churches, painting portaits etc to last their family fame. People wanted to be good at many things and called it to be a universal man whereas in the middle age you were born with almost like a stamp on your forehead, telling you what you can and cannot do in life. By using religion as a great tool in its hands clergy was determining social, cultural and political life. With the Renaissance and Reformation people start to think and question and oppose to church. To give you this sense of clergy over everything I can give this specific example. Before Renassaince the church had even control over what people were wearing. To wear lastest fashion was forbidded and condemned of the sin vanity.
source:
http://www.realarmorofgod.com/renaissance-era.html
1. There were fundamental differences between the understanding of the medieval periods and that of Renaissance. How they undertake economy, art and religion in these periods can be described as opposite, because these basic branches were interpreted totally different in these two periods.
First, the dualism that was strongly important in the Gothic Period leaves its place to diversifications in thinking, in social/political life. What we see in Gothic Period is reconciliation of science, religion and logic. They try to explain religion with logic, but with a pre-acceptance of what the Bible says. They don’t question the Christian discipline; they fit their logic into what the book says. However, in Renaissance, what we have is the actual questioning, cleaning up, reforming. This time, they question the church, and the parts that doesn’t fit into their logic, they simply exclude it from their beliefs.
Also, in the Gothic Period, the towns kept competing about religious matters, cathedrals, pilgrimage etc. Guilds invested for religious purposes, so art was dependent heavily on religion. With renaissance, pieces of art started to be commissioned, and the pieces were much more individual and unique. So art was not for God anymore, in Renaissance, art was performed for the sake of art.
The last and I believe the most important difference was about the baking practices that rose with renaissance. The enormous amount of wealth has been composed in this period thanks to these practices, which were hold by Jews in Gothic Period since having interest, investing with money were forbidden in Christianity. Their orthodox religious beliefs stopped them from the liberal improvements; therefore that prosperity couldn’t have been achieved until Renaissance. So what we see through these periods is a shift in the perspective of the society, and change in role of religion, finance and arts among people.
http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/renaissance2/economic.htm, Looking at the Renaissance
Response to question 1:
Being a revolutionary movement against the corruption of the Catholic Church, the Reformation had also helped the society to leave the misconceptions they were in or forced to be in during the Gothic period. In Gothic period, the religious and worldly affairs were interwoven and were under the control of the church; and as a natural result, the church became the highest authority. This great power that the church has possessed eventually led to its corruption and hence the abuse of the faith of the society. Since the church was the only source of the religious knowledge, people blindly followed the priests’ words without questioning. They took this abuse so far that they were selling pardons and even lands in heaven. However after the printing technology became prevalent during the Renaissance, and people were in access of the Bible; they realized that the church has been making Christianity more complicated that it actually is. As they focused more on the meanings of the words of the Bible itself, they started to question the false concepts the church was insisting on them. For instance; the leader of the Reformation, Martin Luther suggested that human salvation is only by individual faith, not by a clerical mediation. In other words, he believed that the individuals don’t need anyone else in between while communicating with God. Because at the beginning, Christianity was a religion for everyone, suggesting that everyone is equal in the eyes of God; and according to this idea if everyone is equal, then they don’t need a priest to be a mediator between them and God. This realization brought purification in both the meaning of the Bible and the church art of Protestantism. The chaotic symbols and arts of the Gothic church was abandoned, instead a more clear church appearance was accepted. According to the Reformation, the complex artwork of Gothic church was distracting, mainly because many people didn’t actually understand their meanings. This fact again proves how unequal the Catholic Church had made the Christianity; creating a drastic difference between the ones who can comprehend the so-called religious information it gave them, and the ones who can’t.
Source:
Kirsch, Johann Peter. "The Reformation." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 11 Feb. 2009 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12700b.htm.
The church and the power it had on the social structure were corrupted before the Renaissance. So, it is fairly appropriate to call it as an awakening of the society, which was started by Martin Luther, a monk himself, to reform the Catholic Church. People were lacking knowledge about the Christianity and the Church misused this fact. As we studied earlier under subject, the Gothic Era, the church had an exclusive power. We could see that even from the art pieces of that Era and there was always a pressure of the judgment, waiting people in the future. The church was even selling lands in heaven and people were buying pardons for the sins they had. With the idea of discontent spread amongst the society by Martin Luther caused people to want to know and reform. Therefore, after the invention of the printing press, there was a huge shift in ideas and beliefs. According to Martin Luther, every Christian had their own ways to communicate with God and so with the cheap prints of the Bible, almost every class had access to the Bible. As a result of this, the importance of the Church vanished. People had the chance to learn and the learning process led to thinking and so they started to question which ended up in great discoveries in mathematics and science. Because there was a free environment for people to think and question, freely.
sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation and our ASL textbook
From my personal point of view the term “re-birth” for Renaissance is appropriate. The definition of the term “re-birth” guides us to understand the fundamental aspects of renaissance. According to Wikipedia, re-birth or reincarnation as it redirects to that page, is “literally "to be made flesh again", is a doctrine or metaphysical belief that some essential part of a living being (in some variations only human beings) survives death to be reborn in a new body”. The essential part is reborn into a new body! When we look at the renaissance we see what has been reborn: the essential ideas that dominated the antiquity. It is not merely the rebirth of a style; it is the rebirth of essential ideas into a new body. A new body with the essential “soul” of something would move forward from what it inhabited. I see Renaissance with a similar fashion; essentials, inhabited traits are there, but yet there is advancement, a growth over what is there already. This growth is the all the interpretations, advancements in science, art and architecture. But it all started with the soul –the essential ideas- finally finding a body to reborn. Just as a newborn child, renaissance grew over time, yielding unbelievable advancements and improvements. “Enlightenment, recreation… those terms does define renaissance, however partially. My belief is that those terms are not adequate to describe the essence of Renaissance, not deep enough to fully explain what it is all about. Re-birth, however, for the abovementioned reasons, can fully describe the essence of renaissance; therefore I believe “re-birth” is the most appropriate.
The Renaissance was seen as the awakening after medieval period. The increase of trade during this period resulted in the strength of the middle class, which was made up of mostly merchants and bankers.
The Reformation was the first movement against the Catholic Church and was led by Martin Luther. With the invention of printing machine, more Bibles were printed within 50 years than before the printing machine was invented. With this improvement, people started to read the Bible rather than listening to interpretations of priests. They started to believe in what made sense to them instead of believing in priests’ words. The power of the church diminished unlike the wealth of merchant families. Bible became the only source, reference of religion.
Banks appeared in this period. Jews were the ones who started to realize the fertility of money. Since the reproduction of unnatural sources was sin according to Christians, they couldn’t progress in banking.
The idea of buying one’s place from Heaven which was frequently used in the Gothic Period was ‘out’. People wouldn’t buy pardons anymore since they didn’t need priests (aka banks) in order to talk to God. God was everywhere! Since everyone is equal according to Christianity, the priests couldn’t be more important than an ordinary person.
Winning a battle against the church, art and science improved. Art work was used as a distractive method during this period.
Along with the new ideas of Renaissance people start to think about and question what is around them. Reformation was one of the fruits of this change. People now had a chance to read the Bible with the invention of the printing press and understand it in their own way. When we look back at the Gothic period we always see someone (king or a priest) leading the way of thinking of people. The clergy was telling people what to believe in, what to do or basically what was in the Bible.
The image of the church and its inner structure was damaged as they now represented something more than spiritualism. The papacy had influence on everything; politics, warfare, economics. Selling of pardons, altering the meaning of the Bible and the shifted aim of the clergy estranged people from the Catholic church. The idea of Christianity being the religion for everybody had changed. Everyone who had the money could reach salvation but the ones who could not pay were victims of hell.
Then Martin Luther made a move that questioned all these things. Actually he was the first one who said these things out loud, people were already looking for a change in the church. He opposed a third person in the relationship between the worshiper and the God. And one man should not be cleansed of his sins through money or another person's decided punishments but through one's own faith. Luther's movement would not be successful this much if the people were not ready for it. After him oppositions against the Catholic church continued as people kept on interpreting the Bible differently and I believe we see the effect of rebirth of individualism in this situation.
Reformation, along with the Renaissance gave people to courage to question and more importantly act on what they think is wrong.
source: http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture3c.html
Question 2:
One fact that indicates the significance of Renaissance is the radical shift in social values which were adopted in Medieval age. They can be listed as below:
- People extended their knowledge regarding their professions. They started to be interested in scientific aspects of their jobs. This shift facilitated the transition to humanism and naturalism, which are the new ideas based on concrete themes.
- Discovery and inquiry were promoted in every branch of art and society. As a result of that, people explored and contemplated about diverse issues (including the ones that were once strictly restricted by the church).
- The merchant class gained power in the society. In order to depict their fame and power, they commissioned artworks from artists (painters, sculptors etc.) This caused two positive effects in the development of art. Firstly, the artists who were not working for the church anymore felt more independent in their arts and they created new styles of arts. Secondly, as the merchant class gained more power, the artists produced more artworks which also developed art in renaissance.
- The emphasis of "afterlife" and "divinity" gradually gave way to more realistic, natural subjects in art, philosophy, politics and social life.
- Women gained status in the society, as opposed to Medieval times.
- With the rise of Protestants, the mediation of the church and the selling of pardons were questioned and rejected. With the new printing technology, a lot of people in the society had access to the Bible, and they were urged to read and interpret the Bible by themselves.
Source:
http://history-world.org/renaissance.htm
2) Feudalism was the social structure of the Middle Ages, where the king is the ultimate ruler in the physical world and everybody else respects and obeys him and his full power. The active life meant to be a part of a strict pyramid of hierarchy where the lower parts were completely devoted to and dependent on the upper parts. Each person’s place was static, his duties predetermined, and his responsibilities listed to him by the church. The church was especially very powerful and set the religious rules and created the mainstream religious thinking. During Renaissance, however, most of this started to change and it’s obvious that money started playing a much more important role in the community (as a result of this, we are able to relate this period to our modern world more easily). The main reason of the increasing importance of money was the geographical explorations. After these explorations, new trade routes and sources of wealth were discovered. The flow of money made the mercantile class richer. Families with professions such as banking started ruling cities. According to my source, the suitable positions of Italian cities as trading centers caused these cities to be “intellectual crossroads”. Consequently, the number of scientific studies and observations increased; the spirit of free inquiry re-evolved; and more pieces of art were commissioned (since newly available ideas about art improved the quality of art and the respect towards art; and since commissioning art was seen as a way to gain prestige). Church’s control over normal life (the one that we live in) decreased (and this made Reformation possible) with the increasing encouragement of free and personal thinking. Finally, the life began to be more full of possibilities; the people therefore chose to use the opportunities: People were not just interested in one profession (like it was in before), they aimed to excel at various subjects to become an ideal man of knowledge and skill. This blurred the lines between social classes even more.
Outside source: http://www.boistate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/1-7.htm and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance #Social_and_political_structures_in_Italy (both have the same information)
Under the influence of Martin Luther, a religious movement called The Reformation rises. It spreads out to the whole Europe against the Epicureanism of the Renaissance (La France de toujours, p.33). This movement resulted in the rejection of the authority of the church in Europe.
Criticizing the waste and the richness of the Church, Luther and his followers proposed a return to the Bible itself (La France de toujours, p.34). Before the invention of printing machine, there wasn’t many literates, which favored priests. The people who didn’t know how to read the Bible used to listen to the interpretations of the priests in the Gothic Period. These priests used to have the opportunity of getting people to do whatever they wanted. A priest could interpret a psalm as he wanted, sometimes even to his profit. Since everyone is equal according to Christianity, there was no more need to the priests.
Saint Martin translated the Bible into German from Greek. This created an example to follow by all European countries. (http://www.reformation.org/)
I think that the Reformation was the wisest act of Christians. They broke the power of the church. The merchant class got an increasing wealth. Reading the scriptures, they got to interpret the Bible for themselves. Protestant reformers stopped following the words of the priests without questioning. The idea of buying one’s place from Heaven by paying to the priests was abandoned. The Reformation Period must have been very hard for the priests since they started to lose their ‘eternal’ authority.
Sources:
‘The 3 "R's" Christ Risen, Reigning, Returning soon’ The Reformation Online, 2009 http://www.reformation.org/
La France de toujours – CIVILISATION by Nelly MAUCHAMP
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