English Renaissance The Renaissance was a very influential period in England and the rest of Europe. This brought many cultural advances and new ideas. The Renaissance is a term that literally means “new birth”. This was the term that many Italian intellectuals used to describe the period in which they found themselves (Grendler). During this period many artists and other successful people became famous. For example, both William Shakespeare and Leonardo Da Vinci became famous, along with their famous works (Judkins). The English Renaissance was a great period in England in which many new inventions were created, art and literature flourished, and philosophers began to search for new knowledge to contribute to the progress of society. Although during the “dark ages”, before the Renaissance, the only people who received any kind of education were wealthy landowners and royalty. Even at the beginning of the Renaissance, many ordinary people could neither read nor write. Philosophers during the Renaissance decided that to advance society most people needed to be educated and learn to read and write (Guisepi). From the ideas of scholars and philosophers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio, the first official form of schooling and education was born (Guisepi). During this period, humanists and humanism were born. “Humanism was the intellectual movement that defined the Renaissance. It was based on the belief that the literary, scientific, and philosophical works of ancient Greece and Rome provided the best guides for learning and living” (Grendler). Many scholars of this era based most of their beliefs on humanist beliefs and parts of the Bible. Humanism was incorporated into school curricula to teach children good character and prepare them to take on an important position as a judge, teacher, or doctor in the future (Grendler). Humanism had a great impact on English society and changed it for the better. It made the general public more educated and brought intellectual unity