How did the role of the church in society chage as Europe moved into the Renaissance?

Answer 1

The role of the church changed in a number of ways as the Middle Ages ended and the Renaissance progressed.

During the Middle Ages the Church worked, with some success, on freeing itself from controls imposed by monarchs. In the Renaissance, the Church in the North of Europe, especially England, was taken over by Protestants and came to be dominated by the states. In England, the Church lost most of its property, the monasteries closed, and the services, such as hospitals and schools, provided by the monasteries had to be provided by the government.

During the Middle Ages, there were crusades against heretics, but they were of short duration and were essentially military operations. The accompanying inquisitions were of limited scale. By contrast, the Church of the Renaissance came to try to control individuals far more than it had during the middle ages, with a great increase in the numbers and extent of inquisitions. The result of this was the introduction of witch hunts, which had not existed until about the time the Renaissance began, and attempts to control science, which was almost the reverse of the medieval approach. Where the condemnations of 1210-1277 had the effect of freeing scientists from doctrines imposed by scholars, the Church began to impose itself on such people as Galileo, dictating the meanings of his observations.

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