Revival of Learning – Renaissance history

Renaissance History : A Revival of Learning

The Revival of Learning can be seen as a process of natural evolution within the human mind and soul which created our modern world : new ideas about religion and philosophy, a newfound interest in studying the world and human nature, a love of science and art, a period of discovery and invention, a time of political shift, and a time of progression and expansion. The Revival of Learning was a crucial element in history, but there are also important elements that only begin to connect it to the Renaissance.

If we look at the Renaissance and the Revival of Learning collectively, we can see that these events have little to do with recovering the ‘classics’. Instead, these collectively are the dissolution of these ‘classics’ : the decline of empire and church which had governed the Middle Ages and subsequent destruction of the feudal system, the advancement of language and nations, as well as the creation of paper and printing, the compass, and gunpowder, traveling across the ocean to discover new continents, and the replacement of the Ptolemaic ideas of astronomy with Copernican ideas. Europe was already prepared for change before the Revival of Learning hit and culture and human life were redefined. Europe had reconstructed itself after the Roman Empire dissolved and left confusion in its wake.

Teutonic peoples had be assimilated and taught Christianity, absorbed into the Latinized peoples which they had previously conquered. A period of difficult life had given way to a period of material comfort and peace. The nationalities that emerged, all separate elements in the same system, cooperated and formed a European federation. New ideas of church and state were now being welcomed to a populace who would have previously considered them sacrilegious or improper, whereas the Holy Roman Empire and Roman Church has previously maintained a universal monarchy based on indivisible Christendom. When viewing the entire scope of this period of history, it seems necessary to describe it with a term that encompasses a greater scope than ‘Revival of Learning’.