Humanism In The Renaissance

Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” This quotes rings true in light of all broad aspects of humanity, but upon viewing the Renaissance, one can see a very direct correlation, especially in looking at the concept of humanism of which the root was a drive to go to the source of information. However despite this newfound rush to a source, there were a flowering handful of ideas and discoveries that were new and revolutionary. This time period demonstrated a time of two extremes working in a discordant harmony: backpedaling to the source of an answer, or sprinting to a new experimental solution. The humanist mindset was a brand new view …show more content…
Even in the little things such as the arts, new techniques were being toyed with, such as perspective, shading, color blending and oil on canvas. None of these techniques had ever been seen before and they each brought a new form of beauty to art. Religiously, everything had always been explained by the Bible and a new view came with the ages in regards to this: some decisions were better left to man. Man decides his own fate, in his own time, on his own accord, and God is also important and will help with all of man’s own accord. It was about man now, not about God. This shift was huge culturally, and has left its impact for ages to come. However above these two changes, perhaps the biggest change took place politically. Moving from a feudal monarchy to a national monarchy was a large change many were not ready to fully commit to. This transition angered a lot of people, helped others, but overall was a dramatic change society would have to confront. Feudal monarchy consisted of very subdivided countries, where power was with the town lords and the church. Nobles got very angry at this transition because in feudal monarchy they had power, and in the transition they had power removed from them in the form of taxes and added power to the monarch. Also, taxes could be paid in some form of produce because the monarch did not have an immediate use for the coinage. However these things swung 180 degrees when national monarchy was introduced. National monarchy gave power to the monarch and the poor, while removing it from the church and the nobles. National monarchy encouraged town alliance with the crown, and with this came coinage taxation and one national army as opposed to the many small forces that used to exist. In regards to the army, a shift from twenty years training being invested in knights who were also nobles, now the