Editor's Choice
What are some continuities and new features between the Renaissance and the Middle Ages?
Quick answer:
Continuities between the Middle Ages and Renaissance include the significant role of religion and the power of the Catholic Church. However, new features emerged during the Renaissance, such as the appreciation of pagan learning for its own sake and the rise of vernacular languages due to the printing press. Renaissance humanism also led to the Reformation, challenging the Church's authority and promoting secularism.
During both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, pagan learning played a considerable part in the intellectual life of Western Christendom. Thanks to the endeavors of medieval thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, ideas from antiquity, most notably the philosophy of Aristotle, were successfully incorporated into the Christian worldview.
Yet such ideas were always subordinate to the dictates of Christian theology. Pagan learning tended to be used as a means to an end, to serve the interests of the Church. During the Renaissance, however, this attitude changed completely. Now, pagan ideas were valued for themselves, not simply for what they could do to bolster the Church's monopoly on learning.
Though most Renaissance thinkers identified themselves as Christians, many of them came to realize that pagan learning could lead to conclusions, especially in what came to be known as the natural sciences, which could contradict the teachings of the Church. Now that...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
the fruits of ancient learning were no longer regarded as simply the handmaiden of official Church theology, they could provide the basis of a future challenge to the enormous spiritual and temporal power enjoyed by the Church at that time.
In due course, Renaissance humanism, with its emphasis on going back to the original sources, would inspire the Reformation, with its firm belief in the all-sufficient nature of the Bible as the source of ultimate truth.
First, we can look at religion. Most of the Latin west remained Christian in both periods. In the Middle Ages, though, the Roman Catholic Church completely dominated the religious environment, challenged only by a few minor movements such as the Lollards and the Albigensians (Cathars). The Renaissance marked the period of the Protestant Reformation, in which western Christianity was divided into multiple denominations.
Although educated people in both periods knew Latin, the vernacular became increasingly important in the Renaissance. European vernaculars evolved rapidly and by the Renaissance took the form of the modern languages we still use.
The late Middle Ages were a period of exploration and technological innovation, but the pace of these developments accelerated in the Renaissance. One major difference was the Renaissance involvement of Europe in the Americas and the rapid growth of colonialism.
Although there were many political continuities between the two periods, the Renaissance marked the consolidation of monarchical power in France, Spain, and England.
There were many important continutities between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Let us look at two of them. First, there were important continuities in political organization. Much of Italy, for example, continued to be ruled by popes or by lords in a fairly feudal system. The same is true for other parts of Europe where feudalism was even stronger than in Italy. Second, there was a great deal of continuity in religious belief. The Renaissance thinkers were known for humanism, but were not, for the most part, shedding traditional beliefs. This was still a very religious age.
That said, there were important changes going on. The rise of humanism and the beginnings of rejection of authority are important changes that came with the Renaissance. This idea that people should study the world as it is and try to determine how it works in an objective way, using scientific reasoning, was something that was clearly new.