The Renaissance

The church is power hungry and wants to decide everything. Noo, that is a lie. We have decided that. Here in Florence artists and scientists gathered during the 14th century. Among other things they studied ideas and literature from the ancient Greeks and Romans.

During the middle ages this had been impossible. But now it became possible, here. This is because the sailors in Florence had contact with the Muslim world, where they had preserved and translated ancient literature. Those who gathered in Florence wanted to go back to the ideas and art of the ancient world. It felt like a rebirth.

And that is what the word "renaissance" means: Rebirth. During the middle ages the books needed to be copied by hand. That could take several years for one book. Now the printing press arrived, making it quicker for books "and ideas" to reach their audience. Including criticism of The Catholic church.

These rediscovered ancient ideas led to a new way of looking at humanity. Now they realised that people were more than simply just a part of God's creation: that human beings are worthy in their own right. This is called Humanism. These ideas led to a questioning of the church's right to decide in people's personal matters. Not good, decided the Catholic Church; and banned "inappropriate" topics.

The Church imposed censorship, and wrote a long list of books that weren't allowed to be printed. One of these books was Francois Rabelais's "The Very Horrific Life of Great Gargantua, Father of Pantagruel" ... about the giant Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. The book is full of toilet humour - for example Gargantua pees all over Paris so that thousands of people drown. But Rabelais also criticised the Church by using humour.

The use of humour to point out that something is wrong in society is called satire. The giant studies in an old fashioned school for 53 years without being taught anything of importance. This satirised the Catholic Church's tight grip on what was being taught. Gargantua also starts his own crazy monastery - where the only rule is "Do what you want" - a satire of all the rules that monks needed to follow. Despite censorship the new ideas spread and the Christian world split.

Some parts of Europe now chose to leave the Catholic Church and start another, "Protestant" Church. Writers could avoid censorship by going to Protestant areas to print their books. The Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes wrote what is commonly known as "the first modern novel": Don Quixote. This was the first time that a book contained personalities, characters, that develop during the book. In the literature of the middle ages the characters that were evil in the beginning of the story, were still evil at the end.

And the same went for the good guys. This was what was new about Don Quixote. The characters developed. ... And a thief could be considered good although he did something as bad as stealing. The book also makes fun of the stories about knights.

The main character, Don Quixote has read far too many novels about chivalry, and believes himself to be a knight. Everywhere there are dangers and injustices that need to be battled. Among other things Don Quixote believes the windmills to be giants. With him in his adventures, Don Quixote has his squire, a kind of servant, Sancho Panza. Some other characters in the book are Don Quixote's horse: Rocinante, and...

Dulcinea, the great love of Don Quixote. But the woman the confused Don Quixote thinks is Dulcinea - is actually another woman: Aldonza. Don Quixote comes from a noble family and is well read. Sancho Panza is common and uneducated, but still they talk to each other as if they are equal. Their friendship is typical of the Humanist line of thinking; that every human being has their own worth.

No matter how much the Catholic Church wanted to stop the new ideas, they couldn't. The ideas had reached too many, and won too much support.