Renaissance And The Protestant Reformation

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The Renaissance was a time of change in the way people thought and expressed themselves; this gave rise to new achievements in the arts and sciences as well as being a catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. The Renaissance began in the Italian city-states due to their ideal trade location and history as the location of the former Roman and Byzantine Empires. The Renaissance’s spread of new ideas and questioning as well as stress on the importance of the individual led to the Protestant Reformation. The Renaissance was greatly impacted by many of the writers, artists, and political years of the period.
The word Renaissance means rebirth. Before the Renaissance Europe experienced a period known as the Dark Ages. Humanists began to spread …show more content…

In addition, “Italy was the core of the former Roman empire, and, at the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, became the refuge for the intellectuals of Constantinople who brought with them many of the great works of the ancient Greeks and Romans, works that had been lost to the West during the Dark Ages.” The concentration of wealth, intellect, and power in Italy had a great impact on it being the birthplace of the Renaissance. The noble merchants throughout Italy had accumulated so much wealth over time that they could afford to support the arts and sciences. For example, the Italian city-states of Milan and Florence had a high concentration of wealth. The Medici family in Florence became patrons of the arts as did other families in the wealthy cities of Italy which allowed Renaissance painters to flourish. In addition, Northern Italy was urban as opposed to the rest of Europe which was mainly rural. Italy had developed many large city-states as a result of the increased overseas trade caused by the Crusades. Due to this urbanization of Italy was an ideal location for exchange of ideas and growth of an intellectual …show more content…

The Protestant reformation was a rebellion against the rulership and ideas of the Roman Catholic Church. Protestants were those Christians who did not follow either the Roman Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church. There were many ways the Renaissance led to the Protestant Reformation. The Renaissance idea of the importance of the individual and their freedom to express themselves led some people to think about their relationship to God. Some of these people began to realize that they could have their own relationship to God. This idea was a founding principle of the Protestant Reformation. As the Renaissance was a time of new discovery and questioning, educated people began to doubt the religious powers and authority of the Church. These people challenged the Church teachings. These new ideas and the willingness of people to challenge old ideas gave the Reformation its start which directly came about due to the