Renaissance Research Paper

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Why the Renaissance was Important “In Discussion: The Renaissance” “What a piece of work is a man! . . . in form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel.” –William Shakespeare, from Hamlet. William Shakespeare was a famous writer during the Renaissance. Edmund Spencer, Sir Philip Spencer Sidney, and Shakespeare wrote famous sonnets. Walter Pater stated in his book, “Originally championed by nineteenth-century French aesthetes, this notion of art as an end in itself helped shape the conception of a life dedicated to aesthetic appreciation.” (Pater). In Pater's view the importance of the Renaissance, as of all culture, lies in its power to stimulate the human spirit, to inspire the individual to make the most of that…show more content…
England sought a place on the world stage through exploration. Marco Grassi replied with this answer when he was asked a question about the exploration of the Renaissance, “Fueled by the Renaissance thirst for knowledge, European navigators ventured far and wide, aided by the invention of the compass and by advances in astronomy. Their explorations culminated in Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1942. England’s participation in the Age of Exploration began in 1497, when the Italian-born explorer John Cabot, sailing for an English claims in North America.” (Grassi). Exploration doesn’t have to be an actual adventure, it can be a metaphoric adventure. Embarking on his own metaphoric voyage of discovery, Shakespeare explored the heights and depths of new writing pieces. Through redefinitions of forms and new uses of English, the poets of England, strong enough to, influence writers across the…show more content…
Beginning in Italy, it gradually spread northward. Johnathon Sumption assured, “Renaissance scholars of northern Europe, like Erasmus, attempted to reform the Catholic Church. The German theologian Martin Luther, however, initiated the movement known as the Reformation, which led to the founding of Protestantism.” (Sumption). Martin Luther didn’t like the road the Catholic Church was headed down. So he wrote a book using the printing press. From this came the religion protestant. The reformation led to a sharp religious division in Europe. Renaissance scholars turned to classical authors for inspiration, and people broke with the Catholic Church in their attempt to return Christianity to its original principles. Later in the book Sumption wrote, “England became swept up in both of these two wider European movements, sometimes in a dramatic, even bloody, fashion. In the late 1400’s, England was beginning to heal after thirty years of civil war. By the early 1500’s, the country had plunged into the religious controversies of the reformation. At the same time, the spirit of the Renaissance breathed new life into the arts.” (Sumption). Reformation is when you make changes in something to improve like socially or

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