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The Bubonic Renaissance And The Renaissance

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The Renaissance was a crucial part of the change from the hierarchy and social order that dominated “The Dark Ages” to the social mobility that developed when the “Early Modern Period” began. Due to a myriad of factors, such as the Bubonic plague, which had devastating effects on the population during the Late Middle Ages. This combined with the nobility’s need for peasant labor resulted in common people demanding higher wages and increasing the prices of their products. Likewise, skilled workers could charge more money, since they no longer had as much competition (Perry 189). As a result, the common people were able to engage in social and economic development, which lead to spiritual advancement. These changes were reflected throughout Renaissance literature, such as Hamlet by Shakespeare, Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man, and The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, as well as religious works such as the The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, and The 95 Theses by Martin Luther. These works represent the development of a new social structure that occured in conjunction with the increase learning during the Renaissance. Throughout the Middle Ages, the common people were seen as inferior, inheriting their low social status and lacking any opportunity to advance in society. When the Bubonic plague ravaged the common population and the Renaissance movement took hold of Europe, there was

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