The Renaissance and the Reformation were two very important periods in European history that included changes in culture and religion. The Renaissance occurred before the Reformation. The Renaissance was the rebirth of art, literature and architecture. The reformation focused primarily on reforming the Catholic Church from its evil ways. From the Catholic Church came the Protestant Church. There were many different characteristics of the Renaissance. The main one is that the society had a secular, or worldly, outlook. This can be demonstrated by how their art has been changed. They stopped painting religious things and painted the human body. Other main points are that the recovery from the Black Death and the decline of the power of the church led to interest in ancient culture. This happened because people didn't have that much faith in the church. You can see it in how their architecture has changed. They began to use columns, domes and arches. As you can see, many features included the change in European culture. Renaissance society was quite complicated. First and second classes were simple. The upper class was the clergy. This was a group ordained to perform pastoral duties in a church. The second group is the nobility. This group was composed of people who were noble in character, quality or rank. The third group was made up of ordinary people. This class is extremely complicated. 85% of the common population were peasants, most of whom were free and paid rent. Fifteen percent were citizens. This included patricians, bourgeois and poor workers. So, as you can see, Renaissance society was very complicated but very well constructed. Education in the Renaissance was exceptional. The only drawback was that women did not ... middle of paper ......the ideas of purgatory and indulgences were strengthened, but they were prohibited from selling them. So, as you can see, the Renaissance and the Reformation were two very important time periods in European history that included changes in culture, art, literature, architecture, and religion. Many Europeans shifted from religious to secular views during the Renaissance. You can see it in how art, literature and architecture have changed. During this time period they also returned to the classical Greek and Roman styles. The Reformation was concerned with the reform of the church. During this period the church became less politically oriented and more religiously oriented. The Reformation also led to Protestantism and Calvinism thanks to Martin Luther and John Calvin. Clearly, both of these time periods had a major influence on European history.