First, from its origins in fourteenth-century Italy, the Renaissance brought a new perception of humanity’s place in the world. No longer did the best minds call for slavish obedience to religious authorities and acceptance of Church dogma. Instead a group of Renaissance thinkers celebrated the individual and the power of human reason. The thinkers, who called themselves humanists, rediscovered many classical literary and scientific works, making this rediscovery the mainspring of their movement. Greek texts especially had, for the most part, been ignored during the preceding centuries, a period that humanists labeled the Middle Ages. Through its emphasis on the power of reason, Renaissance humanism became associated as well with the scientific revolution inaugurated by Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) and others. Often magic and other occult practices were pursued along with science by the same scholarly practitioners.
As Renaissance ideals spread northward, the second transformative movement emerged. A religious revolt known as the Protestant Reformation erupted in 1517 when a German priest named Martin Luther openly opposed the pope’s authority. Denying that the Church or priests must mediate between God and humanity (a necessity according to the central tenets of the Catholic Church), Luther’s followers insisted that all individuals could commune directly with God.
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