The Renaissance

The Renaissance

During the Tudor period we have the passage from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age;this passage was called 'Renaissance' all over Europe Becouse it was a rebirth from a period of obscurity and supertition, as the Middle Ages were considered.

- At the social level the Reinassance witnessed the raise of a new class, the merchants (Henry VII),which were middle-class people interested in commerce and trade and were not nobles.They represent the future bourgeoisie wich will become the leading class in the 18th century but their social ascent started in this period.It was a very modern class,interested in the economic development of England and in colonial expansion,and very active at the economic level;it contibuted to the economic development of England a lot.This class became richer and richer not only thanks to colonial expansion,which opened new markets for their trades outside England,but also thanks to the Protestant reformation.In fact with the reformation of Henry VIII lots of Catholic orders of friars and monks togheter with their monasteries were dissolved and their lands were confiscated and sold to this new,very rich class wich became even richer because now it had money and lands.

- At the geographic level this was an age of important geographical discoveries (America - 1492) which changed the old conception of the world and showed how the earth really was.They also gave new possibilities of commerce with new countries whoose existence was before unknow,countries which sometimes proved to be very rich in precious metals or exotic products.This,too,contributed to the economic progress of England.

- At the scientific level there were new discveries which caused a real revolution in the common vision of the Universe.The most important of them was Copernicus' one.In his book 'On the revolution of Spheres'(1543)Copernicus showed that it was not true that the Earth was at the centre of the Universe and the sun and other planets went around it.

This discovery,confirmed later by Galileo and Kepler,was one of the most important ones in the history of man and it caused a lot of grat changes in the vision of the universe and in the way of thinking of people.

Actually man started to realize that he was a very intelligent being who,through science,could not only know the organization of the world and of the Universe,but he could also change it and improve it.This was a very new and modern conception which replaced the medieval one.In the Middle Ages people believed that the Universe was a perfect machine created by God and ruled by divine laws, in which man was only a little part of it (the other parts were animals,plants,inanimate objects,stars,planets,etc);as this machine was already perfect because it was a divine creation,it could not be an act of blasphemy,an offence to God,because it would mean that man believed he was able to modify something created by God and therefore he was more intelligent than God.On the contrary in the Reinassance the new scientific discoveries showed that although the Universe was a perfect machine probably created by God,it was governed by scientific laws and therefore it could be still improved,it could become even better,more perfect,and man,who was the most intelligent of the creatures living in the Universe,could improve it through science and scientific discoveries.Therefore a new faith in man ond in his capabilities replaced the old,medieval faith in God and literature became more individualistic,that is,more interested in the individual,in man and in his capability of contributing to the progress of the Universe.

This new faith in man was called Humanism or New Learning,from 'humanae litterae' (=the study of grammar,rhetoric,poetry,Greek and Latin) as opposed to 'litterae divinae' (=the study of Theology,of God).Humanism was the interest in the study of those fields of knowledge which concerned man and his development as opposed to the old,medieval interest in the study of God.At the literary level Humanism caused the rediscovery of classical (Greek and Latin) culture,thanks to the Greek refugees to Italy after the fall of Costantinopoli to the turks (1453),and the birth of a new type of literature which was based on and influenced by the classical one.This new literature developed in Italy and from there it spread all over Europe and to England,too.But in England this literature was a little different because it was influenced by Protestantism.

At the first the Reformation was the result of Anticlericalism rather than result of an interest in Protestantism.English people had supported the separation of the English church from the church of Rome because they were tired of the privileges,wealth and corruption of the Catholic clergy;for them the Reformation meant the abolition of all the privileges,abuses and power of the Catholic clergy.Only in second moment the Reformation meant some important changes at the doctrinal level;but these changes were not immediate,they lasted many years and for many years the old,Catholic values and beliefs coesisted in England with the new Protestant ones.

The new Protestant values and beliefs were of Calvinistic inspiration.

They were based on a more direct relationship between man and God through the reading of the Bible,without the interference of the church and of the priest.According to the Catholic religion the relationship between man and God is mediated by the priest who is a sort of link between the human world and the divine world.Besides man is not directly responsible of his actions before God,because through the confession he has the possibility of responting of his sins and of being saved;the priest,giving the absolution,acts as an intermediator between man and God in this process of repentace and salvation.On the contrary,according to the calvinistic conception and therefore to Protestantism,man is the only responsible of his actions before God and he himself only can contribute to his eternal salvation and can conquer it through a correct and morally honest way of living.

This deep sense of responsability influenced the English literary production,too.In fact,while in Italy and in other European counties,the Reinassant literature was very pagan,interested in man and in science,rather than in God,in England it was characterized by this deep conflict between man and God,by the conflict between man's desire to improve his knowledge through science and to increase his influence on the Universe and the necessity to submit to God and his will and to justify his actions before God.It was as if man was entrapped by his fear of God's judgment and this vision was still very near to the old,medieval one.