The 16th
century in Europe was a great century of change on many fronts. The humanists
and artists of the Renaissance would help characterize the age as one of
individualism and self-creativity. Humanists such as Petrarch helped restore
the dignity of mankind while men like Machiavelli injected humanism into
politics. When all is said and done, the Renaissance helped to secularize
European society. Man was now the creator of his own destiny -- in a word,
the Renaissance unleashed the very powerful notion that man makes his own
history.
Reference:http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture3c.html “The History
Guide”
