The Renaissance and Reformation.

The Renaissance and Reformation

The Renaissance was truly a time of rebirth, which is a new or second birth or a revival, (Merriam-Webster's Vest Pocket Dictionary, 1989 edition) in many aspects, such as religion, arts and architecture, and science. This time period was truly important, for it would help to shape the world into what it is today. This period is the subject of many courses and is still explored by scholars today.

Religion during the Middle Ages was prominently Catholic. There was also a great deal of corruption in the higher church positions. This made many followers start to lose complete faith in the church. One such person was Martin Luther who, in order to start a reform, posted his list of 95 theses that the church could possibly improve itself. Instead of receiving it in a constructive way, the church was very offended by these theses. They persecuted Luther, and even tried him at the Diet of Worms.

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English: Renaissance print

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Luther was found guilty, but escaped. Many of the people that agreed with what Luther had been fighting for decided to start a new church; the Lutheran Church. Also around this time, the Protestant church was created. Protestants are similar to Catholics except for that Protestants protested the pope's power. Yet another new religion that was founded was Calvinism, which is the belief in much stricter religious rules, such as no theater or dancing. Calvinists also believe that it is decided whether a person will go to Heaven or Hell before they are even born. This is called predestination. After all of these other religions, the Catholic Church finally started a reformation under Pope Paul III. The Church used the Council of Trent, the Inquisition, Jesuits, and Saint Teresa, who at the time was known as Teresa of Avila,