Italian Renissance and the Reformation

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The Renaissance and Reformation were two very important periods of time in European history that included change in culture and religion. The Renaissance happened before the reformation. The Renaissance was the rebirth of art, literature, and architecture. The reformation focused mainly on reforming the Catholic Church from its evil ways. Out of the Catholic Church came the protestant church.

There were many different characteristics of the Renaissance. The main one is that society had a secular, or worldly, view. This can be proved by how their art was changed. They stopped painting religious things and painted the human body. Other main points are that recovery from the Black Plague and decline of church power led to interest in ancient culture. This happened because people did not have faith in the church as much. You can see this by how their architecture changed. They started using columns, domes, and arches. As you can see many characteristics included change in European culture.

The society in the Renaissance was quite complicated. The first and second classes were simple. The upper class was the clergy. This was a group ordained to perform pastoral functions in a church. The second group is the nobility. This group consisted of people who were noble in character, quality, or rank. The third group was commoners. This class is extremely complicated. Eighty-five percent of commoners were peasants, most being free and paying rent. Fifteen percent were townspeople. This included patricians, burghers, and poor workers. So, as you can see, the renaissance society was very complicated but very well put together.

The education in the renaissance was exceptional. The only drawback was that women did n...

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...the ideas of purgatory and indulgences were strengthened, but selling them was forbidden.

So, as you can see, the Renaissance and Reformation were two very important periods of time in European history that included changes in culture, art, literature, architecture, and religion. Many European people went from religious views to secular views during the Renaissance. You can see this by how there art, literature, and architecture changed. They also went back to the classical Greek and Roman style of things during this time period. The Reformation dealt with the reform of the church. During this time the church became less politically oriented and more religiously oriented. The Reform also led to Protestantism and Calvinism due to Martin Luther and John Calvin. Clearly, both of these time periods were very influential in European history.

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