Niccolo Machiavelli exemplified new secular ideas of the Renaissance in his book, The Prince. In this book Machiavelli describes the way in which princes ought to behave. In the middle ages books such as this would be filled with the moral standered the prince had to live up to, and how he could glorify God. In this book however not once does Machiavelli mention God or hold the prince to a moral standered of any sort. Machiavelli describes how a prince should not hold to morals and if the state is threatened it is right and good for him to behave immorally. If he has to commit crimes in order to help the state they will be glorious crimes. He stated that ideally it would be best to be feared and loved but much better to be feared if one had to be done away with. Overall The Prince shows a massive breaking away from the politics of the middle ages.

In the Renaissance one of the earliest artists was that of Ghiberti. He was commissioned to create bronze paneled doors on the baptistery next to the Duomo, after winning a contest to decide the artist. The set of doors had twenty-eight panels with scenes from the new testament. After this he was commissioned to do the doors for the church which had ten larger panels. This second set was considered so fine that Michelangelo called them, “The gates of paradise.” Fra Angelico was a Dominican fryer who still retained some of the medieval style but with Renaissance influences as well. One of the paintings is the Annunciation c 1440.

In it you can see depth and perspective in the background but with some medieval influences in the people. Masaccio had a relatively short life and yet still created some great works of art. He was one of the first people to practice Brunelleschi’s mathematical perspective of art. In Masaccio’s The Holy Trinity fresco you can see the perception of depth in the background and individualism in the faces. The Renaissance was a turning point in the history of art and perspective.

In the Renaissance new ways of thinking was being formed. Most people know that Renaissance means rebirth but a rebirth of what? In the 15^th century it was a rebirth of interest in classical literature and art. But this Renaissance also brought the way of thinking of studying art and literature just because it was interesting. Not to find a way of glorifying God but just studying art for arts sake. The 15^th century Renaissance was accelerated by multiple reasons. The fall of Byzantium meant that Greek scholars and their manuscripts moved west. The Italian city states and other countries were becoming more wealthy so more people had money to commission art. These and other reasons contributed to the beginning of the 15^th century Renaissance.

One important man in the early Renaissance was Petrarch. He was one of the founders of the Humanitarians. In the 15^th century Humanitarians were people who wanted to expand the things that people were taught in universities. Instead of just studying dry logic learn the art of rhetoric and literature. Humanitarians traveled around locating ancient manuscripts just sitting on monastery shelves of buried in ancient ruins. The Greek scholars from the east also brought their manuscripts to them. In this way much of Plato had been recovered because before this point much of his writings had been lost. Petrarch also believed that he lived in a backward time and the past thousand years had just been wasted by barbaric people. He is believed to be the person to have started the dark ages myth where people in the middle ages are just supposed to be stupid and backwards, which is obviously not true if you look at the cathedrals or literature from this time. He also placed more emphasis on himself in his writings. In a sonnet about his love Laura he mentions himself twenty three times and Laura only two. Petrarch wanted earthly fame, wanting to live on that way, though he was a Christian as well. Petrarch embodies a Humanitarian as well as new ways of thinking that come to form in the 15^th century Renaissance.

In the 14^th century the tensions between France and England finally snapped and the Hundred Years War was started. There multiple reasons that the French and English declared war on each other. One is that since William the Conqueror had come from Normandy England had had land in France. The French were constantly pushing back against this and there were several fights over the city of Gascony. The second was that Charles IV of France had died without sons or brothers. Edward III of England claimed that the throne should be his since his mother had been Charles IV sister and he was his closest relation. But a ruling in 1316 declared that no woman could have a right to the throne. The French considered Edwards claim invalid because his claim was through his mother who did not have a claim to the throne herself. Instead Charles cousin Phillip became king. At first Edward accepted this but in 1337 Edward III declared war on France. The major three battles in the war at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt were decisive English victories but the outcome of the war was a French victory. In the second half of the war with the help of Joan of Arc and Charles VII becoming king of France the French were able to drive the English back. In the Hundred Years War there was not constant fighting. There were periods of 20 years where there was no fighting and if there was actual constant fighting for one hundred years all the soldiers would have been killed.

In the late 14^th century was also the Great Western Schism. This was because from 1378 to 1417 there were two popes. The college of Cardinals while electing the pope in 1378 was disturbed by a mob outside declaring that they wanted a Roman pope or at least an Italian. Gregory XI had only just moved the papacy back to Rome from Avignon and the people did not want another French pope that would move the papacy right back to Avignon. Under pressure the Cardinals elected Urban VI to be pope, a cool level headed person to help the tense situation, and an Italian. Soon after his election though Urban VI started behaving erratically and hitting church officials that came to visit him. The cardinals declared the election invalid because they were under duress and elected Clement VII as pope. Urban VI however did not step down and that is how for 39 years there were two popes and two sets of cardinals supporting different people and excommunicating the other side. Finally an ecumenical convinced the two popes to step down and Martin V was declared pope. The result of this schism was a very confusing time and the churches grandeur was greatly diminished.