Contrast and Causes

The Renaissance really wasn't that awesome. 

Maybe I'm sabotaging my grade by thinking that way, but hear me out. 

The main underpinnings of the Renaissance and Reformation really weren't 'new'. The Greek's had celebrated the individual thousands of years before, Humanism wasn't a groundbreaking concept. Exploration had occurred previously - heck, the Vikings had found the 'new world' hundreds of years before. The Reformation was an outright attempt to return to the tenants spoken by Christ that had caused similar religious upheaval 1400 years before. What was Sprezzatura except an attempt to regain the intellectual culture fostered in the ancient civilizations. Even the printing press, while truly amazing, was simply an enabling tool, allowing for greater propagation of these rediscovered ideas. 

True, most of the buttresses of modern society can be traced to ideas that were rediscovered during the Renaissance - they were at best caretakers of the ideas. Why so much fuss? 

Well, as our good friend Erasmus liked to say:

"In regione caecorum rex est luscus."

"In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king."

(Adagia, III, IV, 96)

Or, as I like to say:

"In a box of black crayons, even a gray one seems bright."

You see - the achievements of the renaissance weren't really groundbreaking when considered as part of history as a whole. But when considered against the backdrop of the Middle and Dark ages (though I maintain we give them a harder time than they deserve) the age really begins to shine. 

"In essence the Renaissance was simply the green end of one of civilization's hardest winters."

 (John Fowls, 1969)

It's when the ideas that make up the reformation - from Humanism to Sprezaturra - are considered against the backdrop of 14th century Europe that they truly begin to shine. The Bubonic Plague had swept Europe, leaving a third of the populous dead in it's wake. Centuries endured in the uncertainty and insecurity of the feudal system proved a stark background for rediscovered concepts of individual worth and achievement. The slowly tightening hand of catholic oppression and corruption made the reformation shine as few other religious upheavals do in our history books today. 

It was the severity of the winter that made the spring so sweet, when in reality the spring was not terribly remarkable in and of itself. 

When I think on the renaissance I think of that one-eyed man. That these men were brilliant - but no more brilliant than we are today. It was simply that, when cast against the proper backdrop, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. 

"How far that little candle throws its beams!"

(Merchant of Venice, Act V, Scene I)