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.

In the late 13^th century a new person came to hold the office of pope. Boniface VIII became pope after Celestine V, who resigned his office as pope because he was being taken advantage of by the cardinals and monarchs. Right away Boniface had enemys since Celestine had supporters from the spiritual Franciscans who believed in a prophecy that Celestine would usher in the age of the Holy Spirit. At this time Phillip the fair of France(also known as Phillip the IV) decided to tax the clergy of France to pay for his wars with England. This was against the rule that the king had to ask the pope before he could tax the clergy. Boniface responded by telling the clergy of France to not pay the tax. In response the king forbade any of the churches revenue from going to Rome. After this Boniface changed his mind since the pope needed the revenue to operate. Not long after this skirmish Phillip the fair imprisoned a bishop in France and refused to let him be tried in the churches court. Boniface VIII then sent a letter to the king of France telling him that he should leave these things up to the pope. Instead, before the letter reached Phillip, his courtiers doctored the letter to basically say that the pope claimed that he could be the king of France. To counter this Phillip sent soldiers to the pope to rough him up. This so shocked the pope that he died several weeks later. This was evidence that the power of the pope was beginning to wane.

In the early 14^th century there was a political thinker named Marsilius of Padua. He wrote a book called Defensor Pacis (Defender of Peace) in which he stated that the state should be autonomous and the church should have no control over it at all. The pope would be reduced to an honorary role and the only power he would have would be to declare what the ecumenical councils decided, but the state would have control over that as well. The kingdoms law would be sovereign and only if the law was extremely against Christian law could you disobey the states law. But this was by far the exception and he vouched for the states complete control in everything else. Law would also just be a thing that the state forced you to obey and there was no eternal law that transcended the kingdoms control. This was the beginning of more modern thinking.

In the 12^th century the relationship between the pope and the Holy Roman Emperors was very strained. The king of the HRE (Holy Roman Empire) from the Hohenstaufen family was Frederick Barbarossa. He wanted to fight against the decentralizing that was happening in the HRE but to do that he needed the funds to control the provincial princes. The north of Italy was called Lombardy at that time and ruled by the former Lombard barbarians. It was very wealthy so Frederick decided to take control of Lombardy to use the funds. The pope disagreed with this and Lombardy did not want to be under German rule either. Frederick also supported anti-popes who were popes who were not elected by the college of Cardinals but also felt they had a claim to the title. At one time Frederick declared that if the people of the HRE did not support the anti-pope that their goods would be taken away then they would be hanged and drawn and quartered. He burned the city of Milan but eventually Lombardy pushed back on German rule and the pope and Frederick made up.

Frederick died in 1190 because he drowned while on crusade. At first a king from the opposing family, the Welfs, came to power but the pope, Alexander the third, soon deposed him because of his conquests in Italy. Then Frederick Barbarossa’s son, Frederick the second came to power. He had promised the pope to not unite the HRE with Sicily, because at that time Sicily was also under Hohenstaufen rule. Frederick the second quickly broke this promise and wanted to unite all of Italy under German rule because the Holy Roman Empire should contain the central part of the old Roman Empire. Frederick the second made continual conquests in Italy and eventually the pope deposed him at an ecumenical council due to killing clergy and robbing sees along with many other crimes.

The medieval Gothic style was a departure from the former Romanesque style. The Romanesque style had thick walls to support the stone ceilings and so windows were small and thin. But in the high middle ages people wanted high ceilings with lots of windows to reflect what they thought of God. So to support the walls without them being to thick for windows cathedrals were made with the flying buttress. They took the weight from the ceiling and threw it out to the side to make room inside for large spaces and windows. People in the middle ages thought of God as a great mathematician so the cathedrals were constructed in a very geometric shape. The middle cross section of the church is called the transept, the curved part the chancel and the bottom part the nave.

The number three was important in cathedrals because of the trinity, such as the transept could have a length of thirty three feet. Large, high windows were also an important part of Gothic architecture providing large beams of light as a symbol of Gods glory.

In the high middle ages the rise of towns was also of great importance. They were centers of trade and every town had its own trades guild. If serfs ran away to a town and remained there undetected for a year and a day that serf would be free from their feudal lord. If after that time the lord tried to take the serf back the townspeople would chase the lord out of the town. The lord in the area would allow towns to do this and give the towns other liberties since they wanted it to be a nice place live so people would move there and they would receive more tax money. In the middle ages the difference between a town and a city was not population, but if a bishop lived there or not. Cities were where bishops would stay and have their cathedrals. Towns contributed to the economy of the middle ages and because of them great advances were made.