Holt Literature & Language Arts: The Renaissance (1485-1660) pages 238-254

R3.7: Evaluate philosophical, political, religious, ethical and social influences of the historical period that shaped the characters, plots and setting.

  1. What does renaissance mean, and what does it refer to?
  2. What did people discover in the Renaissance?
  3. According to the text, what does “renewal of the human spirit” mean? What did this do for people?
  4. How do we use the term “Renaissance” in today’s world?
  5. When and where did the renaissance begin? Why?
  6. List the few “Renaissance” men.
  7. Since most Europeans were Roman Catholics, the Church was extremely rich and powerful. What did Pope Julius II commission Michelangelo to do?
  8. What questions drove humanism? Why did individuals seek the answers behind humanism?

What was their goal in seeking the answers?

  1. Detail the two tasks humanists pursued. Why did they pursue them? In other words, what werer they looking for?
  2. How did the printing press transform the way information was exchanged during the Renaissance?
  3. Who invented the printing movable press?
  4. In your opinion, how did the two humanists: Desiderius Erasmus and Thomas More become great friends?
  5. In the most general sense, what was the Reformation? Why did the English resent the Roman Catholic Church?
  6. What did the German monk, Martin Luther found?
  7. Why did the King of England, Henry VII desire a break from the Roman Catholic Church? Explain this in your own words.
  8. What is the main teaching in Protestantism?
  9. Why was King Henry VIII both a Renaissance man AND an executioner? Explain in your own words.
  10. Queen Mary succeeded King Edward after he died of Tuberculosis. What is her relationship to King Henry VIII, and who was her mother? Why was she called Bloody Mary?
  11. After Queen Mary died, her half sister, Elizabeth was reigned the queen of England. What did she do for England after she became queen?
  12. Briefly define the Spanish Armada.
  13. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, what symbolic meaning did Queen Elizabeth represent to her people? Why did authors dedicate their work to her?
  14. Briefly detail the decline of the Renaissance.