Technology and education were booming, as inventions of the cannon and gunpowder changed the face of war, compasses and clocks improved tremendously, and universities taught advanced mathematics in a new setting. These advances could only mean an introduction to a new age where war became civilized, everyday life became easier and books and education changed the meaning of the phrase "upper-class." Music and the fine arts flourished with the advent of new musical instruments and polyphony, and new kinds of paint for visual artists.

Large nations had been formed out of the smaller city-states, consolidating small kingdoms in Italy and England. France and England's Hundred Years' War put land and taxes into the hands of royalty. But the people were growing dissatisfied with the Church which had instituted "papal indulgences," leading the wealthy to become more corrupt as they could purchase forgiveness. Pope Martin V replaced a series of popes,...
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