Catholic Church Corruption

Among the many religious changes that occurred throughout Europe in the sixteenth century, few were as widely influential as the Reformation. There were three streams of the Reformation: the common class, the educated middle class, and the monarchs and princes. All three streams wanted the church to be fixed and hoped it could combine old ideas and new ones. The Reformation was influenced by many different people, yet the most important was John Wyclif, who stated that the church did not need possession in order to be powerful. Different ideologies came from the influences of Wyclif, and many others. Lutheranism began in the mid 1500’s by Martin Luther, and he developed a doctrine of Justification by Faith where he wrote of how people stay in the church and get to heaven from faith

Luther wanted to separate from the church because the church leaders got to greedy for money. The priests and leaders of the catholic church started to make up things such as selling indulgences which was basically pay the church to be forgiven for your sins and your families sins. Document 4 says, “They[pastors] fatten on the sins of the people,” this shows that pastors only cared for the ‘fleece’ or money of the people rather than actually caring for them. Another example that shows that the catholic church cares for nothing but money is the fact that they got upset when people spent money on things that did not necessarily matter. Document 8 is proof that people were spending lots money on non holy things, the texts says, “So much money is going into the coffer of the vendor that new coins must be minted on the spot,”. Document 6 shows that priests were getting upset on how people were spending their money. The text says “Where is our gratefulness toward God...For so many enslave all their senses to delights…”. This made Luther want to create Lutheranism because he felt that religion should not be about how much money one has but rather their soul.

During the time of corruption in the Catholic Church, Protestantism was growing because of the influences of politics, corruption within the Catholic Church, and Renaissance ideas. Many Catholics were unhappy with the Catholic Church because of all the corruption in the church, and they wanted reformation. The Catholic Church wouldn’t be able to stop the growth of Protestantism.

The main ideology of Lutheranism is that salvation can be gained by three fundamental precepts: by faith, by grace and by scripture alone. Luther felt that Salvation could not be achieved through good works such as prayer or holy living: "Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works." (Luther, On Christian Liberty, p.9). Faith in God is created through the belief and love for Him; salvation would rise from it nonetheless. Luther felt that it was up to every individual to interpret the Scriptures and decide for himself what was good. This was a revolutionary concept, as previously it had been only the Pope who could interpret the Scriptures. Another concept of Lutheranism was that every believer could achieve priesthood. All men who had true faith had the opportunity to serve God and were equal in His eyes. "Among Christians there shall and can be no authority; rather all are alike subject to one another." (Luther, Part Two. How Far Temporal Authority Extends, p.31). Bishops and priests in the Lutheran church were not authoritative figures but simply serving an office.

Through different inspirations, the Protestant Reformation and Age of Enlightenment sought to change the stagnant traditions of European thinking in the 15th and 16th centuries. Began by German priest named Martin Luther in 1517, he was one of the first people to publicly call out the Catholic Church and their bargaining of indulgences by pasting the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg church for everyone to see. The 95 Theses was a short list of the 95 flaws of the Catholic Church revolving around the use of their indulgences. Luther believed that people should not be scammed by the church and pay for fake indulgences for salvation, but rather come to a new understanding of salvation that came through faith alone. The other change of tradition was not getting your source of beliefs from the Catholic Church, but solely the Bible, which was a

A major 16th century movement initially aimed at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformation was begun by a German monk named Martin Luther who challenge the Catholic Church’s doctrine by posting his 95 Theses on a church door. He did this because he was appalled that the church was selling indulgences, which were written letters that assured people’s salvation, in order to build a new Basilica in Rome under Pope Leo X. Martin Luther argued that the Bible, not the pope, was the central means to discern God’s word and was the only thing capable of giving salvation.

Marin Luther, regardless of his intentions, is one of the most controversial men in all of Christian history. The growth of Martin Luther and essentially the whole Protestant Revolution begins by Luther walking in a storm and getting struck by lightning. At this time, he prays out to the saints in hopes that he will be saved; he promises them that if they save him, he will stop everything a become a monk. Luther is saved and does just that, he quit studying law and took his vows, and he began studying the bible as a monk. While studying the bible, Luther comes across a line in Romans 1:17 stating, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” Luther’s interpretation of this is that no amount of pilgrimages, relics, or good deeds will save someone, what will save that person is his or her faith. At the same time that Luther comes to this conclusion, indulgences are being sold. An indulgence is a ticket to heaven which cleanses a person of all sins. A person pays for this certificate, which typically cost half a year’s earnings, and this will shorten the time in purgatory before going to heaven. The idea of what happened after death terrified some people so this gave those people a false sense of comfort.

Corruption in the Catholic Church was real; the Church has always had a strong present in Mexico since the beginnings. For instance, those in the strong circle of the Church who are not part of the clergy have always been men of power who hold swayed over the government. They have passed laws that benefit the Church, such as the example I pointed out before of Title 1. Precisely, for this reason, was why the Mexican liberals hated the clergy. The main problem and reason why the anti-clerical liberals wanted to remove the clergy in Government was “Fueros”, which means corporate immunities. For the Church, corporate immunities meant that if there was a transgression in the clerical power they were subjected to a different form of justice than the Mexican people. The Liberals saw it as the highest form a corruption because basically those part of the clergy circle who were men of power could get away with corruption. Laws like the example that was given were what ultimately what triggered the anti-clerical liberals to fight back, and that is why by 1861 when Benito Juarez re-established the Mexican government. Once Benito Juarez establishes the Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1857, the Catholic Church was slowly starting to lose the control it had over the Government.

The Reformation started with the ideas and concepts of Martin Luther, all explained in his Ninety-Five Theses. Luther believed that God’s gift of faith was freely given to the unworthy, and the righteousness is passive and is not active or based on our good works or deeds. These ideas clashed with the Roman Church, which in turn created the “Indulgence Controversy.” To raise money to help rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo X issued the offer of indulgences as a penance for parishioners to buy. This penance acted as a way to pay as a remission of temporal punishment due to the sins of the person whose guilt has already been forgiven. Luther caught wind of the issue of indulgences happening within his own church and went ballistic

Martin Luther was arguably one of the most important figures in the entire history of Christianity. If the creation of the Lutheran Church was not enough of an accomplishment, he can also be credited with orchestrating the division of the Catholic and Protestant churches. Even as a young Augustinian Monk Martin Luther was convinced the Catholic Church had lost its way. He obsessed over his purity and relationship with God, and strongly believed the Catholic Church had lost its way over the selling of “Indulgences”. Essentially, how the Church misinterpreted and taught the concepts of sin relative to temporal and eternal punishment. He was destined to confront the Catholic Church which he did and ultimately led to the separation events that are still highly relevant to this day. This was the primary driver for the first phase of his rebellion. The second was his German translation of the New Testament, which he used to both teach anyone to read and learn the holy book.

This fundamental difference from the Catholic dogma that one could buy salvation to Luther’s new ideas as way to Heaven began to transform many people’s beliefs. Supporters of Luther adopted the concept of faith and knowledge of God as a way to repent their sins, and eventually, it reshaped the Christian culture. As Luther personally struggled to be a “perfect” monk, he discovered that faith in the gospel was the only way to be “made righteous by God”(roper 78). In response to his distress for his laity’s desire to buy indulgences, Luther wrote the “95 Theses on the Power of Indulgences.” He knew he was attacking the pope and the values of the church, but records show that he felt “...not fully in control of his actions, but handed over responsibility to a higher power”(84 roper). Cleary, Luther felt a spiritual connection with God and indulgences were in direct opposition to faith. His revolutionary claims in the “95 Theses on the Power of Indulgences” caused a conflict that would eventually be known as the Protestant Reformation.

As one knows today, there are many Churches around the whole world. Although there are many today, back in the 1500’s, there was only one Church, and that is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was a corrupt church back at the time but no one really knew about it. One reason is because peasants and other lower-class people didn’t understand Latin so they couldn’t read the Bible except for the priests. This gave the pope and the whole church administration an idea to get huge wealth. They used relics,sacred items, to their advantage to give false hope to people, gave indulgences, a ticket to heaven, for money, and with this money the Catholic Church grew more powerful than the king. Then a man named Martin Luther started practicing the

A long history of corruption caused people to view the Catholic Church as a for-profit organization rather than God’s voice on Earth. By the Renaissance, the Catholic Church had already lost much of its power over secular rulers but still held leverage over the masses. This authority naturally paved the way for corruption. The most outrageous form of corruption practiced by the Church was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence is the remission of temporal punishment still due for a sin that has been sacramentally absolved. One of the ways the Church would generate income was by selling them. The notion started off innocently enough; it stemmed from the idea that punishment for crimes could be converted to payments of money, in essence, a fine (Simon 35). However, it soon spiraled out of control as the Church used indulgences simply to gain money, as when Pope Leo X needed money for the construction of St. Peter’s basilica (Duiker and Spielvogel 429). People began to view salvation as something that could be bought; they could go out and sin on Saturday night, then simply pay for it monetarily Sunday morning. To encourage people to buy more indulgences, the Church even claimed that indulgences could be bought on behalf of those already dead and in purgatory (Sporre 378). This blatant victimization was what spurred Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses,

The Lutheran Reformation is particularly associated with the German territories and the pervasive personal influence of one charismatic individual Martin Luther. Luther’s concern was the doctrine of justification, which formed his central point of his religious thoughts. The Lutheran Reformation was initially an academic movement, concerned primarily with reforming the teaching of theology at the University of Wittenberg (McGrath 2007). The Lutheran began in 1822 this happen after Luther’s return to Wittenberg from his enforced isolation in Wartburg. Luther was condemned for “false doctrine” by the Diet of Worms in 1512 (Noll 2000).

The offer of indulgences was a practice where the congregation recognised a gift or other beneficent work with a bit of paper, a liberality, that ensured that the supplier 's spirit would enter paradise all the more rapidly by lessening their time in limbo. The Church taught that if a man had submitted no genuine sins that ensured a spot in damnation and they kicked the bucket before apologising and making up for the greater part of their wrongdoings, then their spirit went to limbo—a sort of waystation where a man completed the process of making amends for their transgressions before being permitted to enter paradise.