The Renaissance as a Time of Change

The Renaissance as a Time of Change

The Renaissance was a time of social and economic change, feudalism

was nearly

abolished and money became a heavy commodity rather than loyalty and

promises. The

church became secularized and people put more emphasis on science and

arts. Ideas and

values enveloped the land. At this time the peasant population was

around ninety percent

of the overall population.

In this time, the Renaissance adopted Roman arts, literature and even

architecture.

Education was also on the rise as to the many universities being

erected. Great wealth

lead to the purchasing of ancient arts, manuscripts, books and

anything that reflected

Roman civilization. Europeans translated Greek mathematics, medicine,

geography,

natural sciences and astronomy. The magic of divine beings and devils

slowly drained

away. Scientific techniques and methods started to come into place

over the accepted

ideas of the church. All of the sciences took a portion of the power

away from the church

and it dropped a wedge into the values of the church.

During the Renaissance previous ideas of politics took a heavy blow,

the once

unchallenged ideas of feudalism lay in near shambles as the

Renaissance monarchies

grew over it in its place. The Renaissance monarchies were considered

to be ruled by

kings that were more competent than their medieval predecessors. These

monarchies

developed in France, England, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, and some petty

German states.

The pope once revered in politics had very little influence in it and

it was declining still.

After the fall of the Roman empire it fragmented many European

political units. "Early

modern states were ramshackle affairs, full of holes and vague zones

where local

powers claimed ancestral privileges."

Religion, which was the most important thing to anyone in the medieval

times,

now was secularized. This meant that less emphasis was put on the

church then there had

been before.