Throughout history, people have debated whether or not the Renaissance was a period of revolutionary change. Thorough examination of the following aspects of society: politics, science, religion and art prove that the Renaissance was generally a period of revolutionary change.
Politics were the one aspect of society in which the Renaissance had little impact. Feudalism can be defined as the "social system of Western Europe that developed during the eighth and ninth centuries in which vassals were protected by their Lords in exchange for service on their land and in war"1. Feudalism began in the Middle Ages, and was the main source of political power throughout The Renaissance. The Lords owned everything, and held the power to judge and tax as well as run the local market, winepress and mill and tavern. The slight changes that took place in politics during the Renaissance had little impact outside the upper class society. .
Religion and science, were the two aspects of society that experienced the most change during the Renaissance. With the new discoveries in science, religion was changing dramatically. Europeans were exploring math, geography, astronomy and natural sciences, and for the first time religion and science were being separated. Copernicus discovered that the sun was the center of the cosmos, not earth and that earth rotated on its axis every 24 hours. Vesalius was the first person to use a cavidar to study the human body. Galileo Galilei discovered that the sun was the center of the universe and immovable. The Church however, disagreed entirely with Galileo's findings, Pope Paul V even went as far as to order Galileo not to teach or defend the theory of a heliocentric universe. When Galileo published a book on his findings, the Church brought Galileo to a Holy Inquisition where they tortured him, and threatened him into retracting his theories. This proves how much power the Church held during the Renaissance, but it also shows the beginnings of citizens stepping away from believing everything the Church said, and how with the new scientific theories, the Church was losing much of it's influence throughout Western Europe.
