The return to the heyday also caused the revival of sports and body culture in Europe
The Renaissance - from the 14th century to the 17th, when there was a chronological difference in the geographical context in Europe - which was marked by the revival of the ancient classical cultures (Hellenic and Roman), from which an important and logical path (in the light of its gospel) was scored to a very interesting layer of physical culture.
This revival was accompanied by the development of the sciences (such as medicine), the geographical discoveries that led to accepted dogmas of the church, education (outside the walls of the church) and more, and it shocked with its blows and broke fissures in the high wall and fortress of the medievalist church, for all the results and consequences that are required from this.
This revolution could not have taken place without two processes that were well intertwined: the failure of the crusades and the growth of the city on the destruction of the castle and with it the decline of the status of chivalry.
The message of the renaissance is a request to undermine the conventions that the church ordered for many generations in the Middle Ages according to which human life in this world is unimportant in itself, examining a preparatory corridor for life after death. This period, in which humanism was placed at the center of human existence, miraculously promoted the good of man, the development and refinement of the human spirit, and in essence - placing man at the navel of the universe and social dynamics.
The value of chivalry helped quite a bit to strengthen the foundations of the Renaissance (since it reminded something of the classic Homeric epic, i.e. the ideal of ancient Greek society). Even the political situation in Italy - the birthplace of the Renaissance and its cradle - we were independent republics and principalities, headed by well-known families such as the Gonzaga or Medici, signaled a special significance regarding the historical link that connects with the phenomenon of the polis cities in decentralized classical Greece. Moreover, the emphasis on individualism and higher education, which was primarily intended for the city's Jewish people, fought, on their behalf, for the required mediation between ancient Greece and humanist Renaissance Italy. And if that is not enough, it should be noted that the adherents of the humanist school in Italy strove, following the classical revival, to bring man to an overall and complete harmony of soul and body, taste and knowledge, heart and will and more, and oh-so the slogan burst from the strings of their throats in the old-fashioned chord: "A healthy mind in a body healthy".
The most prominent thinker who emerged at that time in Italy was Vergerius (1420-1340). This pedagogue published a book called "On the noble qualities and the free education" in which he targeted the goals of humanistic education as his language - to develop the physical and intellectual powers together. Vargerios published a comprehensive program for physical education in which many sports have an honorable place.
Another figure who made an important breakthrough in Renaissance Italy was that of Vittorino da Platre (1446-1378). Hela established a school in Mantua (Mantova) like the Greek gymnasium, in a magnificent building with courtyards, squares and fountains, which he named "The House of Joy" (La Giocusa). Vittorino showed a fatherly attitude towards his students. He took care of their food and clothing, took an active part in their games and amusements and carefully watched over their behavior and their level of morals.
The two, it will be noted, Vargerius and Vitorino, sought to identify physical education as a means of training the boy for a successful and excellent implementation of the future-urban tasks and for the proper fulfillment of the military duties in the spirit of the time.
Hieronymus Mercurialis (1606-1530), a famous Italian physician, published a treatise entitled "The Art of Gymnastics", in which he divided gymnastics into three levels, arranged according to their importance: hygienic, military, and athletic (it should be emphasized that the last level is steeped in a narrow approach aimed at peak achievements in a particular sport) ).
The Italian thinkers assigned additional goals to physical education, the fruit of the historical circumstances that took shape in Italy, including the imparting of military skill and competence. These attributed great value to reputation, prestige and the ability to conduct an ideal policy, considering giving advice to a "beginner" prince - virtues acquired by proper physical education.
It should be noted that the feminist side was not neglected by these philosophers and educators. These indicated to the women the practice of dancing and riding as part of the courtly physical activity.
Humanism found its first home among princes, aristocrats, wealthy merchants and bankers. These wanted to spread their prestige mainly and raise the city's reputation by a miracle, examining positive rivalries between the different cities. These made sure to establish educational institutions through which physical education in a quasi-formal sense gradually entered the walls of the educational institution, similar to what was conducted in the Hellenic polis. This education was used when he came to the Italian Renaissance school, and as such it was designed for the individual needs of the boy and according to his ability. Even here in the spirit of the revival of the ancient Hellenic culture.
The spirit of the Renaissance that blew in Britain, the result of the radiation of Italian thinkers who ordered to divide the island, gave a place of respect to physical activity (especially from the Tudor period, and in its appearance in Shakespeare's plays for example). Thomas Eliot published his essay, "The Governor", the main part of which was summarized in collecting advice for the noble and the aristocrat, in which he called a prominent layer for physical education. Like the Italians, Eliot took from the Greco-Roman sports those branches that particularly pleased him, such as running, swimming and hunting. However, unlike the Italian school, Eliot attached importance, not only to the shaping of character and the shaping of qualities as social norms, but also to the physiological results that arise from physical activity, such as the contribution to the digestive system, appetite, life expectancy and metabolism.
Another spirit giant, who did not fall in importance from Eliot was Roger Hasham, the famous educator of the British royal court. Hella miraculously brought up in his book "The Teacher" the necessity of sports for the gentleman or courtier. And as he said: "Young gentlemen should practice court exercises and appropriate amusements and enjoy them. They must... ride gracefully, run gracefully... use all types of weapons, shoot well with a bow... run, jump, wrestle, swim, dance gracefully, sing, play cleverly, hunt with a falcon, play tennis...". These activities embodied a kind of accumulation of the signs of the ancient chivalric/masculine training from one and Italian humanism from the other. It should be noted that the royal house encouraged and fostered sports games. Henry VIII, for example, managed tennis matches at Hampton Court (in 8) and bowling at Whitehall.
Eliot, Hasham and others wrote their essays out of a brave, and in any case understandable, attachment to the life of the British court, and not one of them explicitly discussed the fate of the schools, colleges and universities. These academies sometimes used to criticize the practice of physical activity, and in a series of cases they even showed a very rigid position. The sport of football was strictly prohibited in Cambridge (1574) and Oxford (1584), and the "offenders" who were caught were permanently removed from the walls of the institutions, and were even expected to be flogged or imprisoned.
Bold attempts in the field of formal physical education grew from among pioneers such as Richard Malcaster, headmaster of a London school (1586-1560), who did not hesitate and became a vanguard in the path of imparting physical education to the students of his school. This educational personality carefully sorted desirable sports for special purposes such as social and military, and her innovations advocated gradual exercise and warm-up before physical activity, and a series of relaxation exercises afterwards. Malkaster sought to define the concept of "physical training" as follows: vigorous and voluntary physical activity that changes the rate of breathing, and its goal - the regulation of a person's health and bringing the body into a beneficial and good habit (as if the Rambam's writings were before his eyes more than 300 years earlier).
During this period, the Reformation flourished in Europe, which drew its source of life from the Protestant movement. It was a movement for religious renewal in Christianity, which began with Martin Luther's reformation claim against church establishment, celibacy and asceticism. Luther (1546-1483) saw sports activity as a valuable tool for achieving the lofty goal. That is, the physical activity will focus on keeping the body of the Christian, who will be better, as a result, to engage in his work.
Even Ulrich Zwingli (1531-1484) and John Calvin (1584-1509) saw physical education and games as useful for the fulfillment of lofty goals and completely rejected the dimensions of pure pleasure and amusement included in physical activity.
The attachment of pedagogy to the natural universe and natural dynamics was welcomed by the reformers, of whom Comenius was mentioned (immediately below).
The signs of the new era were clearly visible in their influence even on the church (with the message of the Counter-Reformation). Indeed, in the schools of the Jesuit order, the monks were careful to instill in their students the value of health and hygiene through physical education. The Catholic Church has learned to understand that only through the accepted tools, that is, education, and through the shaping of its positions and their flexibility, will it register a victory over the competing forces, such as the Protestants. Based on this, we will not be surprised about a line of cardinals who hastened to see the cultivation of children's games as an important tool for the development of thinking.
Pope Pius II's memorandum to the king of Bohemia was impressively published as follows: "With regard to the boy's physical training, we must focus on acquiring the habits that will serve him in his later life to his advantage... the boy must know how to steady his head properly, direct his gaze without fear... games and physical training should be encouraged To cultivate and train the actions of the muscles, and every teacher should be encouraged to teach them." It is important, it should be noted, to examine this sentence against the background of the Church's desire to gain victory against the Muslim-Turkish threat.
Italian humanism and the European Reformation to a certain extent sought, as mentioned, to encourage intellectual freedom and value the mind and knowledge. The later humanists criticized the early pursuit of freedom. Against the background of these tensions and on the basis of the continued decline of the church, the realist movement arose for the regulation of life by tools borrowed from realia itself. Its leaders and leaders, such as Francois Rabelais and John Milton, demanded to integrate physical education into the formal education system. However, we argued for the informal and pleasant nature of the physical education classes to carry in order to create greater interest and stimulation among the children.
The adherents of social realism (considering a sub-current derived from its predecessor) sought to direct education and channel it in a preparatory corridor to the world of reality. Michel de Montaigne (1592-1533), a creator of Northern European humanism, which, unlike Italian individualism, had a more social and moral character, was drawn from their line. This French scholar championed the slogan "We want to educate man". In his composition "Trials" he proposed a way to immunize the youth against changes in weather and accustom them to a life of simplicity and patience through an interesting system of physical exercise. Youth education, it should be noted, was also the subject of the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus (1563-1466).
The followers of sensory realism, following the revelations, discoveries and scientific innovations, strove to cultivate self-judgment and the observation of nature as necessary tools for finding the truth. The most prominent of this school was Francis Bacon (1626-1561) and John Amos Comenius (1670-1593). These demanded that the knowledge of life be obtained only by the laws of nature and its forces and by cultivating and sharpening the human senses (and as for the child - a lot of use of toys). These realists sought to determine the scientific relationship between the hours of physical education and theoretical studies, and their combination. Comenius, for example, recommended dividing the day into three sections of time: one third for studying, one third for physical exercise and one third for sleeping.
