The Renaissance was that change in the outlook of Europe which took place during the centuries from the fourteenth to the sixteenth. In its broadest sense the Renaissance affected every department of human life. But in its narrower sense it refers to the revival of the learning of ancient Greece, and to the effects of that revival on the arts and literature of modern peoples. The Church in the Middle Ages had taught men to revere authority and to find in her teaching an answer to all the problems of life, whereas the Greeks taught men to inquire and to explore rather than to accept, and to enjoy rather than to suffer. It was this attitude of mind, more than anything else, which shook the medieval world to its foundations. The views of the ancient Greeks, now re-born into the world, were in sharp contrast with the ideals of the Middle Ages. From these ideals many men for a time turned with a feeling of contempt.
The Renaissance was a many-sided movement: it deeply influenced learning and education, art and architecture, science and invention, geography and exploration, and, above all, religion. After the fall of Rome, a knowledge of Greek had rapidly died out in the West and no provision was made for its teaching similar to that made for Latin. In Italy, owing to the closeness of its relations with the East, the number of scholars, monks, and others, who learnt some Greek was greater than elsewhere. It is not, surprising, therefore, that the revival of learning received its main impulse from Italy. From the time of Petrarch and Boccaccio, Italian scholars became more and more devoted to ancient studies, and they began to visit Constantinople, where Greek learning had been preserved. There they hunted out, copied, and eagerly studied the precious manuscripts of the past, and these opened up a new world of thought. Further, from the time that the Turks' crossed from Asia into Europe, some of the Greeks themselves began to travel westwards and to accept well-paid teaching posts in the wealthy Italian cities. And, though the revival began in Italy, the new ideas were rapidly circulated by the new printing presses invented at the time, and every nation in due course played its part in the Renaissance.
The great and wealthy city of Florence was the centre of the Italian Renaissance. Cosimo de Medici, a merchant prince who became ruler of the city, was a patron of the New Learning, and he encouraged Greek scholars to settle in Florence. His grandson, Lorenzo de Medici, known as The Magnificent, loved to gather round him the learned men of the day; he spent 60,000 pounds a year on books; and he caused 200 rare manuscripts to be brought from the East to the Medici library. Rome was second only to Florence as a centre of the New Learning. The Popes themselves became great patrons of learning. Nicholas V founded the Vatican Library. When the son of Lorenzo de Medici became Pope as Leo X, the Renaissance in Rome reached its highest point. Leo made Rome, as he said, ' the capital of the world in literature, as it is in everything else'. He provided a hundred professors for his Greek college in Rome, and he brought his father's library to the Holy City. The library was afterwards restored to Florence by his cousin Clement VII, another member of this remarkable Medici family. The New Learning influenced England from the time of Edward IV, and it made great headway in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII when the scholars known as the Oxford Reformers were flourishing.
The first Englishman to bring Greek manuscripts to England was William Selling. One of his pupils was Thomas Linacre, who went to Florence and shared the instruction given to the young Medici princes; he read in the Vatican Library, and made the acquaintance of Aldo at Venice. Another Oxford teacher who drew his inspiration from Italian sources was William Grocyn, one of the first men to give lectures on Greek literature at his University.
One of Grocyn's pupils was John Colet, who visited Italy in 1496 and returned to lecture on the Gospels in the Greek original at Oxford. He and Sir Thomas More, were friends of Erasmus, a Dutch scholar of international fame. Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, was herself a patroness of the New Learning. She founded two Cambridge colleges, Christ's and St. John's, and two Lady Margaret Professorships of Divinity, one at Oxford and one at Cambridge. The Revival of Learning was one aspect of the Renaissance; the outburst of artistic energy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was another. The painters of the new period broke away from the conventional art of the Middle Ages and began again to draw from living models. As with the artists, so with the sculptors. Donatello 'went straight with his mighty chisel to original sources - to youth and manhood, and the love of living'. The great figures of that age - Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian - still dominate the history of European art. Examples of their works, and of many other Italian artists of the Renaissance, as well as of the Northern artists - Holbein, Durer, and others - are to be seen in the magnificent collection at the National Gallery.
It was natural that men who sought their inspiration from the Greeks should turn with renewed interest to classical architecture. The ruins of ancient Rome provided examples ready to hand; and soon churches planned like classical temples were rising in every city in Italy. St. Peter's, Rome, was designed by Bramante, and the famous dome added by Michelangelo. But great as was the enthusiasm for this architecture Renaissance architecture did not establish itself in England until the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, though Henry VII's tomb at WestminsterAbbey is an example of the Florentine art of the period.
The Renaissance period, filled as it was with a love of experiment, naturally produced a renewed interest in science. With the exception of isolated geniuses like Friar Roger Bacon, there were no medieval scientists worthy of the name. Practically no scientific discoveries had been made for centuries. Modern Science begins its history with the Renaissance and owes a good deal to Leonardo da Vinci. He was the first of a long line of experimenters whose work has continued to the present day. The greatest shock to the medieval notions of the universe was given by Copernicus. For two thousand years mankind with few exceptions had believed that the earth was the centre of the universe, and that the sun revolved round our planet every twenty-four hours. Such had been the teaching of Ptolemy, the Greek scientist. Another Greek, Pythagoras, had questioned it, and advanced the extraordinary notion that the sun, not the earth, was the centre of the universe; but there were few who accepted his theory until Copernicus turned his attention to the 'solar system'. Through slits cut in the walls of his house, Copernicus watched the movements of the planets. Just before he died in 1543 he published a book - 'The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies' - giving to the world the results of his observations.
Twenty years later the famous Galileo was born at Pisa, and it was he who perfected the telescope. He lived to popularise the theory of Copernicus, but he was nearly put to death for his pains and was forced by the Court of Inquisition to recant. The Italian Galileo, and the English Newton who discovered the laws of gravity, were the two greatest scientists of the seventeenth century. In the realm of geographical discovery, no age in the world' s history was more momentous than the Age of the Renaissance. Columbus, who discovered America; Vasco De Gama, who found the Cape Route to India; Cabot, Cartier, and Cortez, the discoverers of Newfoundland, Canada, and Mexico; Balboa, who first sailed on the Pacific; Magellan, whose ship was the first to sail round the world - all these and many more make the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries an era without parallel in the annals of discovery.
The new ideas which came surging into the world during the Renaissance acted in many respects as disruptive forces. This was particularly true in the realm of religion. An unquestioning acceptance of authority - i.e. of the teaching of the Catholic Church - was the keynote of the medieval attitude to life, but an eager, inquiring generation began to question this attitude. Men, too, were shocked by the moral decay of the Church and of the Papacy; voices were raised demanding reforms. Some reformers, like Colet and Erasmus, tried to reconcile the new ideas with the Church of Rome and worked to reform it; others, of whom Luther was the greatest, rejected altogether its authority.
The revolution in European history known as the Reformation was an indirect result of the Renaissance - of the New Learning which invited comparison between the present and the past; of the invention of printing which scattered broadcast the new ideas; and again, of the growing idea of the Nation and with it the supremacy of the State. Research Renaissance
The Sadducees were a religious party in Judaism, originating about the same period as the Pharisees. They were the aristocratic, priestly party, who, being identified with the government in the time of the Hasmonaeans, became more worldly in their policy, more eager about the independence of the state than about the ideals of religion. Hence they rejected the traditions of the Pharisees. Religion was by them construed as a code of morals, with certain peculiar practices rather than obedience to a god's will; hence their insistence on the freedom of the will. When the temple fell, they, having no other support than the Mosaic ritual, disappeared with it. Research Sadducees
John Eager Howard was an American soldier. He was born in 1752 and died in 1827. A colonel, he joined the Revolutionary army at the outbreak of the American War of Independence, and was a captain under General Mercer at White Plains in 1776. He commanded as major at Germantown and Monmouth, fought at Camden in 1780 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and won great fame at Cowpens in 1781. He was Governor of Maryland from 1789 to 1792. In 1796 he declined the portfolio of Secretary of War in George Washington's Cabinet. He was a US Senator from 1796 to 1803. Research John Eager Howard
John Eager Howard was an American soldier. He was born in 1752 and died in 1827. A colonel, he joined the Revolutionary army at the outbreak of the American War of Independence, and was a captain under General Mercer at White Plains in 1776. He commanded as major at Germantown and Monmouth, fought at Camden in 1780 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and won great fame at Cowpens in 1781. He was Governor of Maryland from 1789 to 1792. In 1796 he declined the portfolio of Secretary of War in George Washington's Cabinet. He was a US Senator from 1796 to 1803. Research John Eager Howard
John Eager Howard was an American soldier. He was born in 1752 and died in 1827. A colonel, he joined the Revolutionary army at the outbreak of the American War of Independence, and was a captain under General Mercer at White Plains in 1776. He commanded as major at Germantown and Monmouth, fought at Camden in 1780 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and won great fame at Cowpens in 1781. He was Governor of Maryland from 1789 to 1792. In 1796 he declined the portfolio of Secretary of War in George Washington's Cabinet. He was a US Senator from 1796 to 1803. Research John Eager Howard
Alexander III was King of Scotland from 1249 to 1286. He succeeded his father, Alexander II when just a boy of eight. In 1251 he married Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry III of England. Like his father, Alexander II, he was eager to bring the Hebrides under his sway, and this he was enabled to accomplish in a few years after the defeat of the Norse King Haco at Largs, in 1263. The mainland and islands of Scotland were now under one sovereign, though Orkney and Shetland still belonged to Norway. Alexander III was strenuous in asserting the independence both of the Scottish kingdom and the Scottish church against England. He died in 1285 by the falling of his horse while he was riding in the dark between Burntisland and Kinghorn. He left as his heiress Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, daughter of Eric of Norway, and of Alexander's daughter, Margaret. Under him Scotland enjoyed greater prosperity than for generations afterwards.
Alexander III was an Emperor (Tsar) of Russia. The son of Alexander II, he was born in 1845 and died in 1894 of kidney disease. He became heir to the throne on the death of his eldest brother, Nicholas in 1865, and succeeded in 1881, on the assassination of his father, being crowned in Moscow in 1883. He gave up the reforms begun by his father, and ruled in the old autocratic fashion, restricting the liberties of Finland and the Baltic Provinces, and encouraging persecution of the Jews. He spent much time in the closely-guarded castle of Gatchina, to be safe from Nihilistic attempts, several of which he narrowly escaped. 'He endeavoured to put down corruption and underhand dealing among the bureaucracy, and in his own habits gave an example of simplicity and economy. While showing himself suspicious of Germany and Austria-Hungary, he entered on friendly relations with France. He began to suffer from disease of the kidneys in 1893, and died at Livadia in 1894. Research Alexander III
Benjamin Franklin was an American statesman and scientist. He was born in 1706 at Boston and died in 1790. The son of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler, he was apprenticed to his elder brother, a printer, and developed an eager fondness for books and writing.
At seventeen he ran away to Philadelphia, where, in 1729, he established a newspaper. His public spirit, his talents as a writer and the fame of his scientific discoveries advanced him in prominence. In 1753 he was appointed deputy postmaster-general of the British colonies. In 1754, being a member of the Albany Convention, he proposed an important plan for colonial union.. From 1757 to 1763, and again from 1764 to the American War of Independence, he was agent of Pennsylvania in England; part of the time, also, for Massachusetts, New Jersey and Georgia.
In 1773, acting as agent for the political leaders in Massachusetts, he sent over to them the correspondence of Hutchinson, Oliver and other Massachusetts loyalists with a confidant of the British Ministry. The publication of the letters aroused great excitement in the colonies, and brought down upon Benjamin Franklin violent abuse on the part of the ministerialists, and dismissal from his office of postmaster-general.
In 1775 seeing that reconciliation was impossible, he returned to Pennsylvania, and was at once chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress. In 1776 he was one of the committee of five who drew up the Declaration of Independence,, and in the autumn was sent to join Arthur Lee and Silas Deane in the mission to France. In Paris he was received with great enthusiasm. He succeeded in obtaining from the French Government not only the treaty of 1778, but also large sums of money supplied in secret before that government declared war on England and openly afterward. Benjamin Franklin had a leading part in the beginnings of negotiation with Great Britain for peace and independence. In respect to the actual manner in which the treaty was concluded, he was overruled by John Adams and Jay, who deemed it best, contrary to the instructions of Congress, to negotiate apart from France and make separate terms. Benjamin Franklin played an important part in the arrangements of the treaty, especially those respecting the loyalists. After the Treaty of Versailles had thus been signed on September the 3rd, 1783, Benjamin Franklin negotiated a favourable treaty with Prussia.
In 1785 Benjamin Franklin returned to America, and was chosen president of Pennsylvania, and again in 1786 and 1787. He was an influential member of the Convention of 1787, and died at Philadelphia a few years later. Beside his eminence as a statesman and as a philosopher and scientific discoverer, Benjamin Franklin was noted as a shrewd and practical philanthropist, and was one of the best of English writers. He was renowned for his identification of lightning with electricity, but also wrote widely criticising corruption, philosophising and even describing Harvard College as a place where money was valued above intelligence. Research Benjamin Franklin
Diego Velazquez was a Spanish administrator. He was born about 1460 at Cuellar, near Valladolid and died in 1522. He sailed with Cgristopher Columbus on his second voyage, and in 1511 conquered Cuba, of which he became governor, founding several towns, and remaining there until his death. Velazquez was responsible for an expedition which discovered Yucatan, in 1517, and sent Hernando Cortes to Mexico in 1518. Regretting, however, the extensive powers he had given to Cortes, he sent a force under Panfilo de Narvaez, which was overthrown by Cortes in 1520.
Diego Rodriguez De Silva Y Velazquez was a Spanish painter. He was born in 1599 at Seville and died in 1660. He studied under Francesco Herrera and then, when Herrera's temper got too much for him, under Pacheco whose daughter he later married. Velazquez also came under the influence of Luis Tristan, a pupil of El Greco. Settling in Madrid in 1623, he there painted a portrait of Fonseca, almoner to Philip IV which introduced him to the notice of the king. In the same year he painted a portrait of Philip IV, the first of a very long series which he painted of that king at every period of his life.
In 1628 Velazquez met Rubens, who came to Madrid as ambassador from the regent of the Netherlands. Having then conceived an eager desire to visit Italy, he left Spain in 1629, journeying to Venice, and then to Rome, by way of Ferrara and Bologna, and in 1630 was in Naples. The next year saw him back again at Madrid, and from that time began his long series of notable portraits.
His second visit to Italy was paid in 1649, v/hen his main object was to collect pictures and casts from the antique. On this occasion he painted his celebrated portrait of Pope Innocent X. In 1651, home again in Spain, he was given a high court appointment by the king, which took up much time. His pictures at this period include Maids of Honour, and the Tapestry Weavers.
The main feature of the art of Velazquez is its absolute truth. He was an impressionist in the truest meaning of the word, could seize upon an effect in its momentary force, and represent it in all its bare truth, painting colour as it really was. He had an unequalled command of values. There is never any false lighting or inaccurate incidence of light in his pictures, and he not only understood atmosphere, but grasped the mystery of shadows and darkness. He selected essentials with unerring judgement, and no other works are so near to the effect of nature as are his, or produce like them the true perspective of the atmosphere. Research Diego Velazquez
John Biddle was an English Unitarian. He was born in 1615 at Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire and died in prison in 1662, having been imprisoned for his controversial writings. He was educated at Oxford, and became master of a free-school at Gloucester. He was repeatedly imprisoned for his anti-Trinitarian views, and the Westminster Assembly of Divines having got parliament to decree the punishment of death against those who should impugn the established opinions respecting the Trinity were eager for his punishment, but the act was not put in force.
A general act of oblivion in 1652 restored him to liberty, when he immediately disseminated his opinions both by preaching and by the publication of his Twofold Scripture Catechism. He was again imprisoned, and the law of 1648 was to be put in operation against him when, to save his life, Oliver Cromwell banished him to St Mary's Castle, Scilly, and assigned him a hundred crowns annually.
Here he remained three years, until the Protector liberated him in 1658. He then continued to preach his opinions until the death of Oliver Cromwell, and also after the Restoration, when he was committed to jail in 1662, and died a few months after. He wrote Twelve Arguments against the Deity of the Holy Spirit; Confession of Faith concerning the Holy Trinity; etc. Research John Biddle
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