Explain The Crises That Happened In The Late Middle Ages
1
J. Combs
Italian Culture, UMUC 334
18 September 2011
Mid-Term Essay Test
1a). Outline and explain the crises that occurred in the Late Middle Ages that would eventually lead Italian scholars to seek alternatives to a society they viewed as decayed, corrupt, and outmoded? Also begin your description by explaining why those crises differed with preceding centuries, characterized by a sense of place and of relative progress in the West? Provide some roundabout dates to place both the High Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era within context.
There were radical changes in all areas of known societies that encompassed demographic collapse, political instabilities, and religious turmoil. The countries were literally sick, living in poverty, broken and broke by wars, and tired of being lead around their noblemen and/or religious leaders. Sick, broke and tired – three components for change! …show more content…
Consequently, most books were of a religious nature. There were Greek and Roman texts stashed away in the monasteries, but few people paid much attention to them. All that changed during the Renaissance. For one thing, increased wealth and the invention of the printing press created a broader public that could afford an education and printed books. Most of these newly educated people were from the noble and middle classes. Therefore, they wanted a more practical and secular education and books to prepare them for the real world of business and politics. Along the same lines, a more secular literature largely replaced the predominantly religious literature of the Middle Ages. As study of the past was emerging as lessons learned for the future, hence political science was becoming the new discipline. Nicolo Machiavelli’s governing techniques in “The Prince” urged the prince to do whatever was necessary to carry on and were in contrast to St. Augustine’s concept of the “just
J. Combs
Italian Culture, UMUC 334
18 September 2011
Mid-Term Essay Test
1a). Outline and explain the crises that occurred in the Late Middle Ages that would eventually lead Italian scholars to seek alternatives to a society they viewed as decayed, corrupt, and outmoded? Also begin your description by explaining why those crises differed with preceding centuries, characterized by a sense of place and of relative progress in the West? Provide some roundabout dates to place both the High Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era within context.
There were radical changes in all areas of known societies that encompassed demographic collapse, political instabilities, and religious turmoil. The countries were literally sick, living in poverty, broken and broke by wars, and tired of being lead around their noblemen and/or religious leaders. Sick, broke and tired – three components for change! …show more content…
Consequently, most books were of a religious nature. There were Greek and Roman texts stashed away in the monasteries, but few people paid much attention to them. All that changed during the Renaissance. For one thing, increased wealth and the invention of the printing press created a broader public that could afford an education and printed books. Most of these newly educated people were from the noble and middle classes. Therefore, they wanted a more practical and secular education and books to prepare them for the real world of business and politics. Along the same lines, a more secular literature largely replaced the predominantly religious literature of the Middle Ages. As study of the past was emerging as lessons learned for the future, hence political science was becoming the new discipline. Nicolo Machiavelli’s governing techniques in “The Prince” urged the prince to do whatever was necessary to carry on and were in contrast to St. Augustine’s concept of the “just