5. The New Learning was represented in England by a group of scholars of whom Erasmus, Colet, and More were the chief. The great churchmen, too, were its patrons. Men of every rank were interested, and the movement affected the whole life of the people. A new interest was taken in education, in art, in religion, and in social reform. Old methods of instruction were superseded by more rational ones. Hundreds of new schools were established for the benefit of the middle classes. The whole tendency of the New Learning was toward a higher intellectual and more moral life.
6. Its effects:
(a) It awakened a desire for an intellectual life and for social reform;
(b) It made possible the Reformation;
(c) It led to the establishment of schools and libraries and to the extension of the usefulness of the universities;
(d) It aroused the desire for liberty and the spirit of enterprise, and encouraged commercial activity;
(e) It inspired some of the world's greatest artists in painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and music.
(f) It implanted the seeds of freedom of thought and fostered the spirit of scientific research;
(g) It supplied higher ideals of life and conduct, a fact which became responsible to a large extent for the great improvement made in the condition of the people, and in the development of Europe since that time.