Renaissance didn't happen overnight; rather it took place gradually following the Middle Ages. The two time periods had little in common. The Mid-Ages and Renaissance were different with respect to the society, arts, and economy.
During the Mid-Ages, people were taught by the Church and acted strictly upon the teachings without questioning. They concerned little of worldly matters, and they seemed to be content with their social status. The purpose to educate the people of that time period was solely for the reading of the Bible. They focused mainly on their afterlife instead of their lives on earth. However, Renaissance had a humanistic approach on these matters, which could be seen through the paintings, sculptures, and literature. People had more interest in their present lives instead of afterlife; thus, they concerned largely on their own civic affairs, individual achievement or recognition, public morality and manners, education beyond the Bible, and the arts became secular instead of religious. .
The society during Renaissance often dealt with individualism and secularism. People were more concerned of their etiquette, and morality. Two famous writers on these issues would be Erasmus and Thomas More. Although they were from the Northern Renaissance, the books they"d written had gotten people's attention on their ways of living. The Praise of Folly, in which Erasmus pointed out the evils and vices of the time. Thomas More took a different approach in criticizing the evils of the society. He wrote a book named Utopia, in which he described a perfect community and indirectly lashed out his criticism. However, literature's not the only way to show the humanism of the Renaissance.
The arts had differences between the Mid-Ages and the Renaissance as well. Before Renaissance, arts such as paintings, sculptures, were merely considered as a decoration or a part of the church. However, they were no longer considered as a part of church, and they were seen as arts themselves after the end of the Mid-Ages.
