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Compare And Contrast The Renaissance And The Middle Ages

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When talking about the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, many would consider them to be separate eras. Although, some have argued that the Renaissance should be classified as a continuation of the Middle Ages. However, based on evidence found in several documents, it should be concluded that the Renaissance was its own time period because new cultural ideas and developments occurred, the significance of humanism flourished, and the corruption of the church was eliminated.
The Renaissance is classified as a new time period because of the unique and original ideas developed in order to enhance society. The Middle Ages could have been described as dark and dismal times. There were not many new ideas spreading, and the Black Death was one of the reasons for this. After one-third of Europe was wiped out by the atrocious disease, they had to rebuild. With these new ideas, it allowed Europe to begin the flourishing of art and culture once again. An excerpt from Wallace K. Ferguson’s book, The Renaissance, Ferguson wrote, “The idea that there was a great revival or rebirth of literature and the arts, after a thousand years of cultural sterility, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries originated with the Italian writers of the Renaissance themselves” (Document 1). New ideas had formed and they wanted to start fresh. The art and literature had to come back after everything was killed and all cultural aspects of their lives had vanished. Ferguson also says, “Finding the feudal and

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