Changes

The renaissance was an effort to imitate the lost world of ancient Greece and Rome. The Italian, artists, writers and thinkers who all participated in the Renaissance, sought to create works that were the equal of the ancients, whom they regarded as the pinnacle of civilization. The Renaissance unlike the Middle Ages, stressed the individual, reason, beauty, and secular values. This outlook became known as Humanism and has had a profound impact on European society. The Renaissance not only produced great works of art but also resulted in dramatic change in the views of Europeans and a decisive move away from the world of the Middle Ages. The origins of the Renaissance were in Italy and they were a result of the unique society and its recent history .<ref> Burke, Peter. The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999, p. 6.</ref>  In the aftermath of the Black Death, the economy of Italy benefited greatly from trade and thus some areas became industrialized such as Florence. In this city, there was a large class of weavers who wove cloth for home consumption and export. The wealth of Italy increased because of trade but it also changed people’s outlook, who gradually adopted a more rational approach to the world. Italian society had evolved very differently from the rest of Europe. Northern Italy in particular, was much more urbanized than the rest of Europe. Many of the largest cities in Europe were located in Northern Europe such as Florence and Milan. Urban societies are widely believed to be more dynamic than agrarian societies. In towns and cities' people come together and converse and debate. Urban societies are also more open to new ideas as immigrants and traders settled in them. The plazas and taverns of Florence and other cities were often filled with people, many of them outsiders discussing new ideas and exchanging copies of manuscripts. This was a milieu that was beneficial to creative and intellectual endeavors <ref> Burkhardt, Jacob (1990) The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy . (Hammondsworth, Penguin Classics, 1990), p. 78</ref>.  Because of the increasing urbanization of Italian society and the impact of the Black Death , the feudal economic system collapsed .<ref>Ruggiero, Guido. The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento (Cambridge University Press, 2015), p. 648 </ref>. This Feudalism was a political-social and economic system that gave political and military power to the landed elite and which tied the majority of the population to this elite. Feudalism was a system that demanded obedience and , deference and ordained that people should accept their position in society, without question. It endorsed a view of the world that it advanced the belief that the world was govern by unchanging and fixed by the laws of GodsGod. Feudalism was never strong in Italy, even in the High Middle Ages, and after the 1350s it all but collapsed. The collapse of feudalism led to the release of social forces that led to the Renaissance .<ref>Lopez, Robert Sabatino, The Three Ages of the Italian Renaissance Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1970., p. 89</ref>. People were now freer than ever before and they were prepared to question and doubt and develop new ideas about society and to create new means of expression and styles of art to represent them. The society of Italy in the period from 1350 to 1500 energized people and encouraged them to experiment with the arts, thought and modes of life <ref> Gilbert, Felix. History: Politics or Culture? Reflections on Ranke and Burckhardt. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990). p. 109</ref>.  ==The New Elite==[[File:SC3SC2.jpg|thumbnail|200px300px|Bottecelli’s Adoration of the Magi- many of the thumbnail|Lorenzo De Medici family are actually in the picture‘The Magnificent’]] ==The New Elite==The great artists and the thinkers of the Renaissance needed the patronage of great wealthy patrons and rulers and the wealthy. The unique political situation in Italy meant that the ruling class was distinct from the rest of Europe. They were to play a crucial role in the development of the Renaissance and the values that inspired it. Unlike elsewhere, they were not many hereditary rulers, many of the rulers were often self-made men. The ‘new rulers’ in Renaissance Italy usually acquired power through war, such as the Sforza’s in Milan or by manipulating the existing political system as the case of the De Medici in Florence.<ref> Burckhardt, 1990, p. 78</ref>. They were often not legitimate rulers and they were keen to legitimize their play a crucial role in the statedevelopment of the Renaissance and the values that inspired it. The Since they often ruled by political conquest, they legitimated rule their rule through lavish patronage that was available to of artists and composers. Renaissance artists such as Donatello was part of an effort benefitted this system and allowed artists to legitimize the rule of those who had no substantial claims to political legitimacyconsistently work. A Swiss Cultural historian in the nineteenth century argued that these new rulers saw the ‘state as a work of art’art.’<ref> Burkhardt, 134</ref>.  These new rulers also could not rely on the traditional power structures to justify support their rule or the old apparatus for of their governmentgovernments. This meant that they often adapted and changed the system of governments in the city-states to maintain and perpetuate their rule. This meant that they sought other models of government and as a result, they came under the influence of the classical world. The new rulers employed learned men to help them in their government and for their bureaucracy. They regularly employed humanists and in this way humanism influenced the development of the state. The Humanists often used their classical learning to provide solutions to current problems. This did much to promote classical learning in this period, which was something that could have a practical value and not something merely academic. Through them, the ideas and the works of the classical world, that privileged reason and the individual became very influential and this did much to encourage a new world view among the educated and the literate.<ref> Burckhardt, 1990, p. 156</ref>. [[File: SC2.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Lorenzo De Medici ‘The Magnificent’]]

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’ 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.