Renaissance to Reformation to Scientific Revolution

Throughout history, we have seen many different changes and advancements. Three very well-known periods of great change, mostly in terms of thoughts and knowledge, are the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. The key characteristics of the Renaissance are the increase in creative thinking and more focus on the humanities (reading and writing) and art. The key characteristics of the Reformation are divergence from the Catholic Church and catholicism to the other forms of Christianity and going against Church corruption. The key characteristics of the Scientific Revolution are the desire to understand why things are the way they are and how they work and trying to figure out how science and God coincide. They are all linked together in history because each one essentially helped lead to the next, Renaissance to Reformation to Scientific Revolution.

First, the Renaissance. The Renaissance is a period in time that is largely known for its art. This time period is also a period of increased creative thinking. People started to think about things and how to interpret things. This is also a time when reading and writing started to become much more important in the eyes of the people so they started to read and write more. This increased creative thinking and increase in the teaching of how to read led to some unforeseen ramifications for the Catholic Church. These ramifications are, in essence, what make up the next period of time, the Reformation.

The Reformation was a time of great religious change. Over time, as the Church gained more power, it also became more corrupt. This corruption, among other things, sparked a revolution. One man in particular started this revolution, Martin Luther. With the Church’s corruption growing, he grew annoyed with it, and seeing a priest selling indulgences for money was his last straw. He made a list of 95 theses about what is wrong with the Church, and had no problem gaining many followers. This is due to a few things, but mostly it had to do with the invention of the printing press. This new invention allowed written information to be copied and mass produced, as illustrated in document 4. (Document 4) The printing press helped to spread Martin Luther’s 95 theses and other works all across Europe. This helped to start a rebellion that could not be put down. Martin Luther also blamed the rebellion on the corrupt government. He believes that they brought it upon themselves by acting as they did. (Document 5) The Reformation led to the many different branches of Christianity that we now know.

The last event of the three was the Scientific Revolution. This period could be attributed to an extension of the creative thinking that the Renaissance brought. The Scientific Revolution was a period in time when people started questioning the universe, they wanted to figure out what was right and why things work the way they do. Before this period in time there was very little scientific advancements. One person’s reason, Francis Bacon, was that there was no clear-cut goal for science. (Document 2) This focus on science faced quite a lot of resistance. People did not want