Into the Renaissance is a scenario in Gods and Kings, an expansion for Civilization V. The scenario is based on religion in medieval times in which you must "Grow your medieval kingdom into one of the great nations of Renaissance Europe, fending off outside invasions from Mongols and Ottoman Turks and fighting the religious wars of the Crusades and Reformation!" There are twelve playable civilizations in this scenario, England, France, Spain, The Celts, Sweden, Austria, The Netherlands, Russia, Byzantium, The Turks (a re-used Ottomans), The Ayyubids (historically Arabs, although their civilization is more similar to the Songhai civilization; uses Assyria's colors), and the Almoravids (historically Moroccans, but better resemble the Arabian civilization; uses Germany's colors). In addition, the Mongols exist as a non-playable civilization.

There are three playable world religions in the scenario, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodxy, and Islam, whose holy cities are in Vatican City, Constantinople, and Mecca, respectively. England, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, the The Celts are all Catholic, Byzantium and Russia are Orthodox, and the Turks, Ayyubids, and Almoravids are all Islamic. Your relationships with other civs can be helped or hindered depending on whether or not that other civilization follows your religion. In addition, a forth religion, Protestantism, will be founded in a random Catholic city-state late in the game and will begin to deal massive damage in particular to the Catholic civilization's religion. All religions enter the game fully enhanced.

The winner of the scenario is whichever civilization has the most victory points after 200 turns. Apart, from attaining victory points normally, there are also several methods to acquire additional points. Civilizations can gain victory points by controlling holy cities. Jerusalem also counts as a holy city in this sense, even though there is no religion based in it. All of these holy cities exist as city-states, except Constantinople, which, as the capital of Byzantium, gives the Byzantines an advantage.

In addition, a wonder specific to this scenario, St. Peter's Basilica, will be immediately built in Vatican City. upon the finished construction, a 50-turn timer begins to count down to a vote for Holy Roman Emperor, which is similar to the UN vote, except winning the vote does not win the game, but rather provides victory points, and the Holy Roman Emperor vote repeats every 25 turns after that. The possession of St. Peter's Basilica provides an additional vote for the owner. This means Vatican City will provide two votes for its allies. If the owner is a civ (by conquering Vatican City or acquiring it through diplomatic marriage as Austria), the extra vote automatically gives that vote to its owner.

Despite being a vote for Holy Roman Emperor, civilizations and city-states do not actually need to be Catholic to vote, be voted for, or to win Holy Roman Emperor. This means that it is even possible for the Mongols to win Holy Roman Emperor (though this is incredibly unlikely, due to their extremely aggressive attitude towards civs and city-states), as well as any of the three Islamic civilizations or the two Orthodox ones.

Additional victory points can be acquired through sending Caravels to the new world (in the same manner as sending Caravels to China in the Conquest of the New World Scenario), or through Holy War, which is conquering cities of competing religions. The amount of victory points acquired through this method is determined by the population of said city.