With the decline of the Church, other religious movements emerged dominant among Renaissance thinkers and followers, which included the movement of Protestantism, and later on, Reformation. Under the Protestantism movement, reformed Catholic churches established their own assembly, disassociating from the Catholic Church to form their own religious organization. Protestantism, in fact, preceded the Protestant Reformation, which culminated the Renaissance movement in the 16th century. Under the Protestant Reformation, socio-economic

Renaissance The term "Renaissance" means "to be reborn," or "rebirth," and as a cultural movement in Europe, the Renaissance is generally accepted to have begun in Florence Italy in the late 13th century. Some claim that it was the result of the fall of Constantinople and the many Greek scholars and texts which found their way to Italy soon after bringing with them not only the knowledge of the classical world,

One cannot look at humanism and the Renaissance without looking at how each influenced religious thought. In fact, the most significant difference between the Renaissance and the Middle Ages is "where God had previously been the centre, Man now takes this place" (Dresden 13). Man in now the focal point of the world and he is the "centre of all that is taking place" (12). The most "corrosive impact"

In one portrait of a Renaissance man, the aristocrat's musical instruments are placed alongside his various scientific instruments, books, and weapons (Arkenberg 2002). Eventually, in spite of "some of the obscure, antiquarian concerns of humanist engagement with the music of the classical past…music came to be thought of not as a branch of mathematics" but as an art ("The Renaissance," Free Encyclopedia, 2009). Humanism shifted the analytical understanding of

The Renaissance gave them the opportunity to explore and create without restraint. As a result of this, learning took on an entirely different meaning in that it included the human experience as a significant aspect of knowledge, increasing the desire to know more. A result of a desire to learn resulted in an invigorated self-confidence that only reinforced the belief that mankind had the power within him to understand all

34). The Renaissance man is also literally well-rounded: he should be agile and strong, with "shapely" limbs (Castiglione, p. 30, line 26). Renaissance women must also fulfill specific requirements. Though they should develop their bodies as well as their minds, Renaissance women should not undertake strenuous activities, as even dancing too energetically can impede her "womanly sweetness," (Castiglione, p. 35, line 192). Neither men nor women should take sport