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Lance Greene

Renaissance and Reformation

Dr. Jungblut

3/5/2005

The Renaissance: A Clear Break from the Medieval?

For the past century, the period in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries

which is called the Renaissance has been questioned as to whether or not it was as

distinctly different from the medieval as previously thought. Although historians, for the

most part, agree upon the historical events, they often disagree upon the significance of

these events relative to the medieval period. While many historians agree that there is a

clear distinction between the Renaissance and the Medieval, others claim that this is not

the case; they claim that a transition occurred in such a way that one cannot distinctly

separate this period between 14th and 17th centuries from the medieval. Even among

historians that agree a Renaissance occurred, some disagree as to the time-period and

place. Although both sides provide convincing arguments to support their claims, when

one studies the political, social, religious, artistic, and educational movements throughout

the period between the 14th and 17th centuries, it becomes clear as to why historians

heavily debate whether there is a distinct separation of this period from the medieval.

Between the 14th and 17th centuries, all facets of Europe were in a complete state

of chaos (not to say chaos did not exist prior to this period). Papal power struggles began

to cause many to question the Church’s religious legitimacy. Power struggles between the

various monarchs in Europe were a constant source of war. The spread of capitalism from

Italy began to break down the feudal system, as upward mobility became easier for the
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lower-classes. During the middle of the 14th century, the Black Death consumed nearly

one-third of Europe’s population. As technology advanced, most notably with the

improvement of metallurgy and gun-powder production, many other aspects of European

life dramatically changed. Most importantly, the birth of Renaissance Humanism in Italy

began an educational and social movement that spread throughout Europe during the

Renaissance; this movement affected all of the aforementioned aspects of European life.

Throughout the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries, the Church began to

experience problems among its Christian followers. As the Church began to grow

throughout Europe, it began to feel the administrative pressures that accompany every

large institution. This caused the Church to appoint the Pope as its secular head of state,

which was a bureaucratic position. The Church now administered all of its pastoral duties

at a local level. Although this seemed to be a logical move for the Church, the Christian

citizens that it served were discontent by this change.1

The Church also began to experience problems among its higher administrators.

In 1305, after the death of Pope Boniface VIII, Frenchman Clemente V was elected as

Pope. He decided to move the Papacy to Avignon, where Philip le Beau offered him

protection. This caused people to question whether the Papacy would be controlled by the

French Monarch. For the next 70 years, the French were able to influence the Papacy,

until its move back to Rome in 1377. Upon the arrival of the Papacy back to Rome, a new

Pope, Urban VI, was elected. He was disliked by the Cardinals, most of whom were

French, for his propositions for reform. This caused them to reelect another Pope, who

moved Papacy back to Avignon. Neither Pope stepped down from their office. This

caused for a great division throughout Europe. Christian citizens began questioning their
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faith, more importantly the role of the Church regarding their faith and if their religious

claims actually came from God; they also began to blame Church elites for this debacle2.

Spanning from 1337 to 1453, the Hundred Years War which was fought between

England and France devastated most of France and much of England3. There had been

prior deep-rooted issues between England and France dating back to the French conquest

of England in 10664. The war was catalyzed by England’s King Edward III’s claim to the

French throne, after the death of the Philip IV5. Considering the fact that Philip IV had no

male heirs to the throne and that Edward’s mother was the daughter of Philip IV, Edward

III took claim over the thrown. This outraged the French nobility, who gave rule over the

thrown to Philip IV’s nephew, Philip of Valois6. In 1337, Edward and Philip “gleefully”

declared war on each other, which lasted until 1453, in which by then French armies had

completely driven out the English7.

The birth of Renaissance Humanism, which is the study of human institutions and

relationships inspired by and imitating classical Greek and Roman forms, was probably

the most important movement during the Renaissance. Humanism emphasized education,

individualism, secularism, and the ancient idea of virtu. This ideology differed greatly

from medieval concerns and emphasis. During the middle ages, many people throughout

Europe did not place such a large emphasis on their personal identities. Humanism

promoted the cultivation of one’s beliefs and identity. It also stressed the importance of

an appreciation for “this world” instead of solely on the afterlife, in which the medieval

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Zophy, Jonathan W., A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation
Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, pg.39-43
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Zophy, Jonathan W., A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation
Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, pg.39-43
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people focused. The cultivation of the mind and body was also a central theme to

Renaissance Humanism. As the humanist movement spread from Italy, it began to deeply

influence monarch’s, artists, elites, and religious figures.8

Although there does not seem to be much debate over the basic facts surrounding

many of these events, discrepancies arise among the relationships between the events.

This uncertainty manifests when considering the complexity of these historical events

relative to each other. It appears to be a difficult task to encapsulate a series of events into

a period ranging over hundreds of years.

In the article entitled, “The End of the Middle Ages: Decline, Crisis, or

Transformation”, Donald Sullivan describes three approaches that historians have taken

when analyzing the 14th through 16th century. The first of these approaches taken is the

idea that “the Middle Ages represented a basically distinct civilization with a life cycle

that had to run its course before the modern world could begin.”9 Historians of this

decline approach place a distinct break “between the medieval and modern periods,

generally around 1500.”10 The next approach taken by historians is the crisis approach

which applies to the period between the 14th and 15th centuries. Sullivan writes that “[t]he

crisis concept has received its most extensive application in the field of economic

history.”11 This is the case because many attribute the decline in population to

“agricultural stagnation”. This stagnation also severely affected the economy of Europe.

The effects of the agricultural problem transcended the peasantry, and affected all other

orders. The Black Death in the mid-14th century severely made matters worse, killing

nearly one-third of Europe’s population. Finally, a third approach taken by historians,

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Donald Sullivan, The End of the Middle Ages: Decline, Crisis, or Transformation, pg. 561
10
Lbid., pg. 561
11
Lbid., pg. 555
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including Sullivan, is the transformation approach. This “emphasized the gradual

transformation of medieval society over several centuries into something definably

different.”12 Historians that take this approach reject “emphatically the premise that a

civilization must ‘die’ or be destroyed before its successor can appear.”13 The transitional

period that most agree with is from the 14th to the 16th century. Sullivan explains that the

main benefit of this transformation approach is the fact that it “gives a much broader

interpretive framework than was provided by the other hypothesis.”14 It also allows for a

smoother connection between complex events and movements that were occurring; “from

this perspective, the medieval civilization did not simply decay: it underwent

metamorphosis over the 200 or 300 years after the 1300.”15

In the article, “Recent Interpretations of the Renaissance”, Revilo P. Oliver

describes the interpretations of the Renaissance given by several groups of modern

historians. He begins by explaining that the attempts of one group of historians to

question Burkhardt’s idea that there is a clear distinction between the Renaissance and

medieval has, “in general, illuminated details only to obscure the whole, and by tending

to efface the distinction…they have rendered vague and amorphous both periods of

history.”16 Revilo goes on to explain that although some of these historians agree with

Burkhardt’s definition of the Renaissance, they disagree with time periods, claiming that

the beginnings of the Renaissance dates back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. One

historian by the name of Nordström even claims “that there was more of ‘Renaissance’ in

twelfth-century France than in fifteenth-century Italy.”17 Although he agrees with

12
Donald Sullivan, The End of the Middle Ages: Decline, Crisis, or Transformation, pg. 558
13
Lbid., pg. 558
14
Lbid., pg. 561
15
Lbid., pg. 561
16
Revilo P. Oliver, Recent Interpretations of the Renaissance, pg. 130
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Revilo P. Oliver, Recent Interpretations of the Renaissance, pg. 131
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Burkhardt’s assertion that the revival of Classical Greek and Roman literature was an

integral part of the Renaissance, he claims that this revival occurred in the 11th century at

the schools of Chartes.18 Revilo continues on to criticize another faction of historians that

“regard the Renaissance as a mere appanage of the Middle Ages, and deny, for example,

that skepticism or paganism characterized either the twelfth or the fifteenth century.”19

This group resembles the aforementioned group of historians that have taken the

transformation approach. However, Revilo does acknowledge that there still are groups of

modern historians, of whom he agrees with, that have not radically departed from

Burkhardt’s thesis. One such historian by the name of Pierre Bizilli, “believes that the

contrast between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is the contrast between a static

world-concept and a dynamic world-concept.”20 Revilo concludes that Burkhardt’s

concept of the Renaissance is still the premier approach to the Renaissance, and that the

historians in disagreement have only further extended the “pre-Renaissance” period.21

Finally, in the article entitled “Humanism, Religion, Society: Concepts and

Motivations of Some Recent Studies” Charles Trinkaus explains that the Renaissance

took shape in Northern Europe, nearly two centuries earlier than the Italian Renaissance.

Tinker breaks down this Northern European Renaissance into several categories. He

explains that although the Renaissance scholars claimed that they alone brought about the

revival of the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature, “certain major works of the

literature and philosophy of the classical world were also known and possessed by the

writers and thinkers and men of learning of those previous centuries which we have

learned from the Renaissance humanists to call the Medium Aevum.”; Medium Aevum
18
Lbid., pg. 131
19
Lbid., pg. 132
20
Lbid., pg. 135
21
Lbid., pg. 135
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being Latin for Middle Ages.22 Trinkaus goes on to explain that “[t]he modern world…

rather than originating in the Italian Renaissance, began in the twelfth century with its

earlier Renaissance, its translation of Greek scientific works, and founds its first peak in

the universities of the thirteenth.”23 He then explains that other historians claim that

humanism and scholasticism evolved simultaneously at universities in Italy and Northern

Europe during the 14th century. Trinkaus also explains that one indicator that the

distinction between the Renaissance and the medieval may not have been as prominent as

initially claimed was the fact that by the 17th century, scholars were beginning to question

the degree of distinction. He finally concludes that there is a need for a “more systematic

exploration” as well as a need for historians to stop subscribing to “concepts and

perceptions of a past age.24”

After reading through countless scholarly journals, I found that although many of

the interpretations of historians both modern and of the past varied greatly, a trend seems

to be taking place; it appears as if many modern historians are beginning to question the

degree of distinction between the Renaissance and the medieval. These historians are

beginning to find interrelations between the two periods, so much so, that a distinction is

being obscured. Donald Sullivan described this approach as the transformational

approach. I found this to be the most relevant approach considering that it is the most

rational; by this I mean that between the 14th and 17th centuries, the political, social, and

economic landscapes gradually changed over time. The complex interconnectivity

between these aspects throughout this period obscures distinctions between the

Renaissance and the medieval. Although dramatic changes did occur during this period,
22
Charles Trinkaus, Humanism, Religion, Society: Concepts and Motivations of Some Recent Studies, pg.
677
23
Lbid., pg. 679
24
Lbid., pg. 690
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one must relate events from the medieval as having greatly affected the Renaissance, and

therefore connecting the two periods together.

Works Cited

Lecture. University of Dayton, Jan. 2005.

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Oliver, Revilo P. "Recent Interpretations of the Renaissance."

Italica 12 (1935): 130-135. 5 Mar. 2005

<http://www.jstor.org>.

Sullivan, Donald. "The End of the Middle Ages: Decline, Crisis, or

Transformation?" The History Teacher 14 (1981): 551-565. 5 Mar.

2005 <http://www.jstor.org>.

Trinkaus, Charles. "Humanism, Religion, Society: Concepts and

Motivations of Some Recent Studies." Renaissance Quarterly 29

(1976): 676-713. 5 Mar. 2005 <http://www.jstor.org>.

Zophy, Jonathan W. A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation

Europe: Dances over Fire and Water. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River:

Prentice Hall, 2003. 39-43.

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