ABSTRACT
THE predominance of Christianity which had been characteristic of the Middle Ages was broken by the Renaissance in the south, by the Reformation in the north, and throughout out Europe by Humanism. The chains which the supreme power of the Church had fastened on human life and the human mind had grown unbearable, and at first the Renaissance and Humanism strove only to shake these off, the Reformation to renew a purified Christianity. They did not attack Christianity; they fought only to bring man freedom and the realization of the dignity of the human mind. Yet they started a development which led to a fundamental change in the significance of religion for man.
