... religion continued to be a governing factor. But, pre humanists began to question the teachings of the church and the corruption evident in the Papacy. Many pre Renaissance and Renaissance individuals felt torn between the pious teachings of the church and the earthly pleasures which ... , would dominate his writing in which his sonnets, written in vernacular Italian, would help define Italian as an accepted language. At his father's insistence, he studied law at the University of Bologna, but left after his father's death to pursue a life of scholarship. Petrarch was ... the first to u...

• Word Count: 2254
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School