Humanism: Renaissance and Merchant Class
Essay on Humanism
The Renaissance is the label we put upon the emergence of a new perspective and set of ideals in Europe. This does not mean that it was sudden, neat and clean. It was gradual, inconsistent, and variable from place to place. The Renaissance had its origins in Italy because a powerful merchant class arose in its cities that replaced the landed aristocracy and clergy as the leaders of society. This new class, along with many aristocrats and clergy, embraced humanist ideals. Generally speaking, humanism was a new worldly ideal to replace the medieval focus on eternal life. Humanism was founded on the idea that humanity is capable of greatness by its own means--through wealth, knowledge, art--and does not need to place all its efforts and hopes in God's salvation and the world of spirit and eternal life. One must immediately say that these two viewpoints were not perceived to be mutually exclusive. A change in the view of human capacity did not mean that there was no room for God or eternal life. Instead, it was a change in the way both God and salvation were viewed--although it is true that some people in the Renaissance did become almost completely interested and absorbed in human rather than spiritual concerns. Renaissance humanists of all types shared a great optimism that humanity's (God-given) artistic and intellectual abilities could raise humanity individually and collectively to a higher plane of life.
The Renaissance was made possible by new wealth and the rise of the merchant classes, particularly in Italy. In the century after 1450, Europe generally and in particular Italy, Rhineland Germany, and the Low Countries (Holland and Flanders) experienced a great recovery of trade and manufacturing after the war-torn and plague-ravaged late Middle Ages. The population expanded again, and prices rose. Merchants traded wools, linens, wine and other goods to the Muslim east for luxury goods such as
The Renaissance is the label we put upon the emergence of a new perspective and set of ideals in Europe. This does not mean that it was sudden, neat and clean. It was gradual, inconsistent, and variable from place to place. The Renaissance had its origins in Italy because a powerful merchant class arose in its cities that replaced the landed aristocracy and clergy as the leaders of society. This new class, along with many aristocrats and clergy, embraced humanist ideals. Generally speaking, humanism was a new worldly ideal to replace the medieval focus on eternal life. Humanism was founded on the idea that humanity is capable of greatness by its own means--through wealth, knowledge, art--and does not need to place all its efforts and hopes in God's salvation and the world of spirit and eternal life. One must immediately say that these two viewpoints were not perceived to be mutually exclusive. A change in the view of human capacity did not mean that there was no room for God or eternal life. Instead, it was a change in the way both God and salvation were viewed--although it is true that some people in the Renaissance did become almost completely interested and absorbed in human rather than spiritual concerns. Renaissance humanists of all types shared a great optimism that humanity's (God-given) artistic and intellectual abilities could raise humanity individually and collectively to a higher plane of life.
The Renaissance was made possible by new wealth and the rise of the merchant classes, particularly in Italy. In the century after 1450, Europe generally and in particular Italy, Rhineland Germany, and the Low Countries (Holland and Flanders) experienced a great recovery of trade and manufacturing after the war-torn and plague-ravaged late Middle Ages. The population expanded again, and prices rose. Merchants traded wools, linens, wine and other goods to the Muslim east for luxury goods such as