Buonarroti's Influence On The Renaissance

The Renaissance was a time of new developments and advancements. Artists, mathematicians, astronomers, and government officials all advanced the knowledge and understanding that humans had of the world around them. Michelangelo Buonarroti was an Italian renaissance artist. He painted the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican (p. 329). Michelangelo also worked with sculpting. All of his works, from paintings to stone carvings, offered strong symbolisms of the Christian faith. Another renaissance artist was Leonardo da Vinci. He was a painter, sculptor, engineer, and scientist (p. 328). His studies of anatomy assisted his artwork by making his human figures more lifelike, like in his painting entitled Mona Lisa.

During this time, scientists conducted experiments using new instruments, like the microscope, while going through experiments with the scientific method (p. 346). Nicolaus Copernicus developed the heliocentric theory which said that the Sun is the center of the universe. This was kind a controversial statement because most people disagreed with the theory because it “contradicted the evidence of the sense” (p. 347). Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei were both mathematicians who indirectly worked together to provide concrete evidence that the Earth does revolve around the Sun (p. 347). Galileo used a telescope to see bumps on the moon and the rings on Saturn. With his telescope, he could prove that the earth rotated on an axis; this was known as the Ptolemy theory. After Galileo’s discoveries, many people wanted telescopes, and those that didn’t thought they were the devil’s work. Even the church didn’t agree with the theory because it appeared to contradict the

A major change throughout Europe was the change of the popular/dominant religion. Starting in about 1500, many northern humanists thought that the Roman Catholic Church had straid from Jesus’ original spiritual mission. Johann Tetzel, a monk in Germany, was sent out by the church to collect money by selling indulgences. Indulgences are pardons from punishments for sins. Originally, they were a reward for pious actions. However, with much corruption through the church, they were morphed into a scheme to take money from misguided Christians. One of the northern humanists, Martin Luther, began protesting this in 1517 (p. 333). Martin Luther’s biggest accomplishment concerning his protests of the Roman Catholic Church would probably be the posting of his 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg (p. 334). This act of defiance against the church sparked the spread of protestantism. The Lutheran Church, led by Luther, was the first separated church. But even with this new church, reformers wanted to see change, causing more breakouts throughout Germany and Switzerland between 1520-1540 (p. 335). One influential new church was made by King Henry VIII of England. He wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine, because she hadn’t produced a male child and he wanted to divorce her to marry Anne Boleyn. The Catholic Church didn’t believe in divorce, and Pope Clement VIII denied his request for divorce. So, Henry, along with