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==Spectacle and Display==
Italy during the Renaissance was a society that was obsessed with display and spectacle. Life in the towns and cities of the time were structured around an apparently endless round of civic and religious ceremonies and festivals. The courts of the rulers were also renowned for lavish spectacles. <ref> Celenza, Christopher and Kenneth Gouvens, Editors. Humanism and Creativity in the Renaissance (Longmans, Leiden 2006), pp. 295–326</ref>. The New Elites such as the De Medici used spectacles and display to assert themselves in society and to demonstrate their wealth. Wealthy members of the urban elite and the aristocracy were always keen to demonstrate their status. This need to publicize and affirm one’s status led to the patronage of great artists and writers to provide displays and exhibit the wealth and power of the elite. This need for others recognition was vital in the Renaissance and it led to the lavish patronage of the period. This led to a great deal of competition to patronize the best artists and writers. For example, the Sforza paid De Vinci a huge sum to work for them in Milan. The need for display and ostentation benefitted humanists, artists, and writers as it allowed them to receive more commissions and it also encouraged them to be more creative and daring to produce works that would get the attention for their patrons<ref> Celenza, p. 296</ref>. [[File: SC1.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Fransico Sforza, a mercenary who became Duke of Milan]]
==Secularism==
Perhaps the great impact of the Papacy on Italy and beyond was on religious belief. The increasing secular outlook and policies of the Pope were viewed with disgust and outrage by many religious people, especially outside Italy<ref> Duffy, Eamon. Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes. Yale University Press, 1997), p. 211</ref>. Many people in Christendom were worried that if the Pope was corrupt, was the church also corrupt and what did this mean for their salvation <ref>Duffy, p. 334</ref>. The Church at this period needed reform, all over Europe. Successive Popes did not attempt to reform the clergy as they were too preoccupied with their interests in Italy and especially in the Papal States. The lives of the Popes scandalized many and led to many becoming disenchanted with the Catholic Church. Prior to the Counter-Reformation religious observance was lax and the Inquisition which was found to enforce Church doctrine, fell into abeyance<ref> Duffy, p. 335</ref>. The increasing secularism of the Italian elite and also of the emerging class of traders and bureaucrats was to prove decisive in the Renaissance. No longer was the world seen just as a vale of tears but it was a place where men and women could find meaning and even beauty. During the Renaissance, people were quite willing to celebrate this life and not just wait for happiness in the next life. People came to see something special and unique in the human experience. In Renaissance society, the body was not seen as a source of sin but under the influence of secular ideas, it came to be something to be celebrated and not scorned. Evidence of this is seen everywhere in the works of the great artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo, that celebrate the human form. This increasingly, secular outlook and the optimism about the human condition led to what Jacob Burckhardt has called the ‘discovery of man and the world’ <ref> Burkhardt, p. 115</ref>. Influenced by classical ideas, many in the Renaissance became more aware of the potential of humans and began to investigate the world. A new worldview emerged in Renaissance Italy, which affirmed the dignity of men and women and their capabilities.
