Ideas in the Renaissance

~ In the Middle Ages the Church said that only the next life was important. Suffering in this life did not matter. If people obeyed the Church, they would go to heaven when they died. They would be happy forever. But if they did not, they would go to the hell and suffer forever.

===== Humanism =====

~ In the Renaissance there was a new idea. It was called humanism. It was about:

- Ordinary human beings are important.<

- Things that happen in this life are iimmportant too.

- People have the right to be happy herree on earth, as well as in heaven.

- Sickness, death and disasters are nott the orders of God. People do not have to accept them, they can do something about them.

===== Learning from ancient times =====

~ The Church said that Christians were the only important people in hisory. But humanists said that there were good and clever people in ancient times, long before Christ.

~ Italy was full of examples of this. There were ancient Roman buildings with domes and columns. There were statues that looked like real people. The ancient Romans must have been very clever to make these things.

~ Scholars began to study ancient Greek and Roman books. They found out that the Greeks and Romans knew about many things, such as art, science, religion, medicine, building and law.

===== Scholars from Constantinople =====

~ Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman empire. In 1453 Muslim Turks captured it. The Christians scholars in the city escaped to Italy. They brought more ancient Greek and Arab books with them. Scholars in the West had never seen these books before. They realized that many o fhteir old ideas were wrong. New universities opened. Men from all over Europe came to Italy to study the new ideas. Printing helped to spread the new ideas.