The North had been hurt by the Bubonic Plague and the Hundred Years War By the late 1400s, Renaissance ideas began to spread north from Italy to England, France, and Germany Northern Renaissance artists were more concerned with religious ideas These artists wanted to develop plans for changes to society based on Christian values Merchants brought the ideas from Italy to the rest of Europe The Printing Press 1440: Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press Full Name: Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg Was the first European to use moveable type First book printed: the Gutenberg Bible The Printing Press led to: The spreading of Christianity Increased literacy How? Before: Bible was only written in Latin After: the Bible was now printed in English and Germanmore people could read it! Many of the main figures from the Northern Renaissance were not artists who used paint, but writers. William Shakespeare Erasmus Sir Thomas More From England Also known as the Bard of Avon Wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and many other poems and essays Sonnet: a poem with 14 lines, with each line having 14 syllables Abab, cdcd, efef, gg His works deal with universal themes: themes that we can relate to in everyday life. Like what? From the Netherlands Renaissance humanist as well as a Catholic priest Why is this weird? His Goal: to reform the Church from inside Reform: change for the better Wrote a book called The Praise of Folly Criticized the Catholic Churchs abuse of power Helped lead to the Protestant Reformation From England Advisor to King Henry VIII Renaissance humanist and a proud Catholic Wrote Utopia Book about a fictional island society where everything is perfect Why do you think he would want to write about this? Led to increased: Individualism How? By moving away from the church, humans started focusing on how unique and special man can be. Secularism How? As people moved away from the church, other organizations such as governments became more powerful.