Middle Ages Vs Renaissance

There are many contrasts in the art and music of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a time of great suffering, including famine and widespread disease, such as the Black Death. The Renaissance was revival of art, learning, and literature. The people’s attitude and fervor for religion had tremendous effects on the art and music produced. The Middle Ages also referred to as “The Age of Faith” was God centered and gave power to the church who dictated how the art should appear, and music should sound. The Renaissance was more concerned with individuals and their talents, the church was not the centralized power, the art exhibited influences from ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

The Renaissance was a time of change and prosperity. The decision was made depending on the difference of two eras. Unlike the Renaissance, the Middle Ages were a thousand years of ignorance and superstition. The Renaissance men were leaders in an era of rebirth and learning looked to the Ancient Greeks and Romans for models of advance. Many historians felt that the Middle Ages and the Renaissance were one era. The debate centers around whether the Renaissance was a unique age or a continuation of the Middle Ages.

As the tenth century rolled about, the power of the Roman Catholic Church grew steadily stronger, the church had an argument with the normal Kingdom over who should rule supreme out of the Pope or the King, the church believed that the Pope who is the voice of God on Earth should be the ruler of the world while the peasants thought that the King should, the power struggle eventually ended with the Church coming out as the dominant force in the West. The Church passed a law that stated that everyone (mostly peasants) is forced to pay 10% of their income to the Church. The church had the ability to stop any laws that they did not like or make some new laws that benefited them, they were a very powerful group that could manipulate the peasants and knights in any way they liked, in Church there were photos of people being tortured in hell, this intensified the peoples longing for heaven and therefore extended the power and influence of the church. All Christians were expected to attend the mass and, by the 13th century, were expected to take the Eucharist at least once a year.

There are many contrasts in the beliefs and values of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a time of great suffering, including famine and widespread disease. The Renaissance, however, was a revival of art, learning, and literature. Their views of the purpose of life in the present world and man's place in the world was, perhaps, the greatest contrast. However, their views on politics, religion, and education were very different as well.

The Middle Ages were a time when the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope possessed tremendous power in Europe, illiteracy was common, and both art and literature were primarily based off of religious ideas. However, from 1300 to 1700, people’s way of thinking dramatically evolved. Some of the major changes in man’s view of man during the Renaissance were the increased portrayal of expression, a more positive view of human nature, and a greater emphasis on the accuracy of human anatomy.

During the middle ages the lack of protection and a stable government after the Fall of Rome created the need for a new political system. Feudalism was the political system that emerged and shaped the lives of people socially and politically. Manors were small communities that were made up of a castle, church, village, and land for farming. The structured society provided a place and responsibility for everyone. The feudal obligations showed that in exchange for one thing they would be provided with something else. Serfs and peasants would work and produce goods for the rest of the manor and in return had their land and promised protection. The vassals would need to obtain land from the Lord and in return would provide the Lord with military service, loyalty, and ransom if asked for (Doc. 4). To make clear the vassal’s specific allegiance to their lord whom they owed in for exchange for their fief they would take the Homage Oath (Doc. 2). This interdependent system required everyone to do their part and it created social classes that they were born into. Their daily lives were centered on the manor and that was how it stayed until towns began to

The shift between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was characterized by great socio-economic, political, and religious changes. Politically, the feudal system of the Middle Ages was exchanged for a more stable centralized republic/monarchy system that gave the people more freedom and input. Religiously, secularism became more important as stability gave people a chance to concern themselves with the “here and now” rather than simply the “hereafter.” Socially, there was a shift from dogma and unshakeable belief to humanism and the ability to interpret things for oneself. The Middle Ages began around 400 CE and lasted until 1400 CE while the Renaissance began around 1200 and continued until 1600. The 200 years that overlap between

To begin with, religion and the church was an extremely important factor in people's lives in the middle ages. For example, the text states, “...he

Generalism was another value that changed from the Middle Ages. Generalism soon became a desirable quality during the Renaissance as more people desired to be good at everything. This was completely different during the Middle Ages, where there was barely any time for anyone to study anything other than religion. Days in the Middle Ages were spent providing for the manor, and making sure that everything a person needed to survive was obtained. “Peasants rarely traveled more than 25 miles from their own manor. By standing in the center of a plowed field, they could see their entire world at a glance...In Europe, the majority of the people were peasants. Most peasants were serfs.” (McDougal Littell, page 360) Serfs spent their days farming and providing food for their Lord and the entire manor. They were the “stabilizer” of the manor; without them everyone would starve and the manor would fall apart.“For most serfs, both men and women, life was work and more work. Their days revolved around raising crops and livestock and taking care of home and family.” (McDougal Littell, page 363). Most of the little free time that they had were used to pray. This made it practically impossible to study any other regions of education. As a result of their tedious days on the fields and the expectations of the Church, very few people, if any at all, would be considered the “ideal Renaissance person” during the Middle Ages.

Western Europe went through a lot changes through the 8th and 14th century it was the rise of the medieval culture.The Church started to gain power as Christianity started to gain popularity throughout all over Western Europe. Christianity had a lot of influence on the development of Romanesque and Gothic culture, as they took a lot of the ideas from Christianity and implemented it into theirs. As Western Europe went through all these different events the religious and political aspects started to change as well. The Church started to gain a lot of power as death was spreading all over Europe, people started to worry where their soul would go after their death. In the beginning of medieval Europe the aristocrats had a lot of the power while

Even though the clergymen needed to find ways to administer laws, produce harvests, and protect their territories, conforming to manorialism was not theologically sound or practical for all people. First of all, the ecclesiastics understood that if their roles were the spiritual guidance for the people and the warriors were the church's protection, then they needed someone to support their endeavors. Secondly, it was predetermine that duties of the supporters were beneath the vassals and the clergy, therefore, the people that performed these tasks were less than themselves. This "luckless breed" was not able to own anything with the exception of what it took for them to work (Perry, Chase, Jacob, Jacob, & Von Laue, 2013, p. 221). Coupled

The people of the Renaissance had a different mindset and attitude than the medieval people because what they lived for made a drastic change after the bubonic hit. During the Middle Ages, the thought of God dominated everyones mindset, the thought of heaven excited everyone, the though of hell created a sense of fear.

After the Black Plague crippled Europe, a new period of time erupted known as the Renaissance slowly developed. The Renaissance is known as the “rebirth” for Humans. The reason for this meaning during the 14th century was because of the radical changes in the culture of Europe. The Middle Ages was surrounded by religion in many aspects. The Black Plague helps stimulate the idea that religion is through the individual. Religion in Europe was starting to becoming not so literal, but more of a personal connection with God, instead of a strict public connection. The starts of the renaissance, commoners or nobility were not focused on taking over the family business, but focusing on other career options of interest. The ideas and the development of Humanism were established during the renaissance through the idea of religion being more personal.

In the 1400s, Europe had been left in devastation from the aftermath of the black plague. This had left Europe in major religious, social and economic upheavals. Orphans, theft, intoxication, prostitution, brutality and misuse of powerful by important figures were very common. Education was unavailable to anyone without enough money to pay for it, creating an extremely large gap and social division between the classes. Church services and the bible were spoken and written in Latin, resulting in the majority of the common people being unable to understand the true meaning behind the words. As People were unable to read the bible, the only way to connect with God was through church services. Priests and Monks had several different jobs and often refused to help peasants when they asked for it, generating mistrust between the clergy and lay people.

The Catholic Church was an enormously powerful force in medieval society, and extremely wealthy. The elaborate, ornate, gilded cathedrals built to enshrine saints’ relics were very costly, and the Church also collected regular tithes from its members. By the late fourteenth century, people had begun to become deeply suspicious of the Church’s ostentatious wealth. After the Black Death, which wiped out at least a third of the population, many people no longer trusted the Church’s authority. Church official were often seen as corrupt, bribing and coercing people to obtain money for the church under false pretences. Since members of the church were not allowed to work for a living, they had to gain money by other means. Friars took a vow of poverty and roamed the countryside, relying on charitable donations for their livelihood. Summoners brought sinners to the church court for punishment. People