14.1 The Renaissance and Reformation

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14.1 The Renaissance and Reformation
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The Renaissance

• At the end of the Middle Ages, people across
  Europe found the urge to be creative.
• The Renaissance was the period of creativity, new
  ideas and inspiration.
• It lasted from about 1350 to 1500.
• Renaissance is the French word for rebirth.

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New Ideas

• The Renaissance started in Italy.
• During and after the Crusades, Italian cities
  such as Florence and Venice became rich through
  trade.
• People started to become interested in ancient
  cultures and started to study the humanities
  (history, poetry, and grammar) of these ancient
  people.

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Florence Florence was a banking and trade center. The citys wealthy leaders used their money to beautify Florence.
Venice Venice was the most successful of the Italian trading cities. Traders brought goods to Venice from as far away as China and India.
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• This all led to a new way of thinking and
  learning known as humanism (emphasizes the
  abilities and accomplishments of human beings.
  The humanists believed that people were capable
  of great things.)

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Renaissance Art

• The Renaissance was a period of talented artistic
  achievements.
• Many artists were also humanists.
• Michelangelo was an Italian painter and sculptor
  who created very lifelike works of art.
• Leonardo da Vinci achieved the Renaissance goal
  of excelling in many areas as he was a great
  painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, and
  engineer.

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Leonardo da Vinci drew sketches of many devices that were not invented until centuries after his death. This model of a type of helicopter was based on the sketch by Leonardo.
Renaissance sculptors were careful to show the
tiniest details in their works. This statue by
Michelangelo is of David, a king of ancient
Israel.
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Renaissance Literature

• William Shakespeare was probably the most popular
  Renaissance author.
• He wrote excellent poetry, but is best known for
  his plays.
• They include more than 30 comedies, histories,
  and tragedies.

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Renaissance Science

• Europeans developed new inventions and techniques
  during the Renaissance.
• The movable type printing press was invented by a
  German Johann Gutenberg in the mid-1400s.
• This type printing press could print books
  quickly and cheaply.
• This invention helped the ideas of the
  Renaissance spread beyond Italy.

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The Printing Press
Printing was not a new idea in Renaissance Europe. What was new was the method of printing. Johann Gutenberg designed a printing system called movable type. It used a set of tiny lead blocks, each carved with a letter of the alphabet. These blocks could then be used to spell out an entire page of text for printing. Once copies of the page were made, the printer could reuse the blocks to spell out another page. This was much faster and easier than earlier systems had been.
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The Reformation

• The Reformation (a religious reform movement)
  happened in Europe in the early 1500s because
  some Europeans thought that the Roman Catholic
  Church had become corrupt.

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The Protestant Reformation

• The Reformation began in what is now Germany,
  which was a part of the Holy Roman Empire.
• Martin Luther, a German monk, was one of the
  first people to express protests against the
  church.
• In 1517 Luther nailed a list of complaints to a
  church door in the town of Wittenberg and was
  soon expelled from the church for his actions.

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• Luthers followers formed a separate church and
  became the first Protestants (Christians who
  broke away from the Catholic Church over
  religious issues).
• Many areas of Europe had become Protestant by
  1600.

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The Catholic Reformation

• Many Catholic officials wanted to reform, or
  change, the Catholic Church as well.
• Catholic officials launched a series of reforms
  known as the Catholic Reformation.
• Church leaders began focusing more on spiritual
  concerns and less on political power.
• They also worked to make church teachings easier
  to understand.

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Religious Wars

• Catholicism, once the main religion of Europe,
  was no longer dominant as many areas especially
  in the north became Protestant.
• In places like France, Germany, the Netherlands,
  and Switzerland, Catholics and Protestants fought
  in bloody religious wars.
• After this, many people began relying less on
  what church leaders told them and instead looked
  to science for answers.