Chapter 39 through Chapter 42 Summary and Analysis

In "The Renaissance", Dante, a young man from Florence, writes a novel that captures the totality of the Middle Ages but at the same time, Francesco Petrarca becomes a famed poet whose work introduces a change from the old ways of the Middle Ages to the "live for today" mentality of the Renaissance. In Florence, there is a war between the old thinkers and the new, and a Dominican monk, Savonarola, convinces the masses to burn their arts. The masses eventually kill him. The Pope praises the masses, but Savonarola never repents, believing he was doing his best by the people. In "The Age of Expression", Thomas Kempis writes the "Imitation of Christ", a peaceful book which has a later impact on millions. This small book, however, written without experience, personifies the ideas of the Middle Ages...