They believed that wealth enabled them to do fine noble deeds, and that good citizens needed a good solid education. They also felt that moral and ethical issues were related more to the secular society than they were to spiritual concerns (van Hoesel 2). The main reason that the focus was place on the secular is that there was a massive expansion of trade, growing luxury and prosperity, and a breakdown of the feudal system (Kreis 1). These factors made people have better lives, and there was more interest in worldly pleasures than there was in pleasing God. Not only that, but the humanists welcomed classical writers and their same social values and secular attitudes (Kreis 1). It was easy for them to relate to pagan writing because they were so like the pagans in the way the felt about God and how they began to need the church less. The humanists encouraged people to move outside of their realm of usual thinking and begin to pick up the classics, and expand their minds. .
The work that he humanists brought forth was old and had been forgotten, but was at the same time an important part of their culture. One of the humanist movements was towards moving the church back to what it had been, a church. All the humanists became critical of society and most of its institutions as well as the political tyranny and church corruption. The humanists shifted ideas off of the platform of theology and onto people and their real lives (Hooker 2). One of the main focuses of these humanists was to get people to change their lives so that they could better the lives of those around them. They believed that there was no way for people to better the community unless they were able to better themselves first (Kreis 2). Petrarch was really into finding old documents, even if he could not read them, just so that he could have a piece of the Golden Age. .
The humanists began to make those things that seemed so unattainable real and tangible.