The Renaissance: Foundation of Modernity or Pinnacle of the Ancient?

What defines the dawn of a new age and the waning of an old one? The answer to this question would probably differ from time to time; after all, periods of history have only too many characteristics to analyze. It is said that in the case of the European renaissance, the Middle Ages is separated from the Modern Age by the abrupt change in humanist views, but when one thinks of the renaissance, one must remember that the humanists were not sacrilegious liberalists they are often said to be; the Hellenistic theories were not left unstudied during the Middle Ages; and, most importantly, the c…