During the Middle Ages the salvation and God were the main things and people were afraid of life after death.Religion had a cery important role.Besides,the Middle Ages were characterized by the continuos fight between the Pope and the Emperor because they both wanted the supremacy.Indeed men knew that the human being is not eternal, is mortal, one had a segment of life in which he had to find the way, if he did not do that he wasted his life.
With the Renaissance, developed first in Italy and then also in the North, including England, the situation changed into one in which men started to take in consideration their body. Renaissance arrived later in England than in Italy, because Italy had the great influence of the Pope, like the whole Southern Europe.On the contrary, England had the influence of the North populations and so here Renaissance came later.
Renaissance started to develop when men realized that their souls could not be the only goal of their life.
So the body was put in a more central position.Now men do not think only to the salvation but also to their body, this is the reason of the transition between Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Another important aspect is the fear of disorder and instability which men had.People needed a way and they followed the philosophy of the Great Chain of Being.There was also a period when both the Chain of Being and the new trends of God coexisted and people explored the classical culture of Greece(which gave great importance to the exteriority of man) to find a possible answer to Human Being sense of life:I'm talking about Humanism.