Compare And Contrast The Renaissance And Reformation

The Pope is the head of the Church: he represents the ultimate religious authority. However, as a Bishop of Rome, the Pope is also in command of certain secular affairs, including some military aspects. Certainly, the Pope is a link between the earthly and the divine realms. Problems arise when the imperfect world the Pope physically lives in interferes with his heavenly objectives. Taking Pope Gregory I as an example, I am going to look at his letters to analyze how he reconciled his political and spiritual goals, whether he valued one category over the other, and how he justified it.

religion. The Papal Authority on the other hand had a monumental task of keeping Catholicism

The Renaissance challenged the status quo of the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, the Church had authority over most people. These people also had limited rights. All of this changed during the Renaissance. This period of time focused on the philosophy of humanism, which embodied the idea that humans were a significant part of the world. The Renaissance changed man’s view of man through the institutions of literature, astronomy, anatomy, and art.

During this time, feudalism developed. In the feudal system, weak kings granted lands to greater lords in return for military aid. Greater lords in turn granted lands to lesser lords below them. These nobles governed all people, including clergyman to whom they granted a ‘fief” of land. When a clergyman, who were to pay their loyalty to the pope, became a vassal, or under the charge of a lord who granted him land, it gave the nobles and kings power. But because the papacy had the unified support of the larger peasant class and there were no strong kings to challenge him, the pope gained greater secular power than the nobility in addition to religious influence. Not only could he banish people from the Church through religious excommunication, but he could establish secular decrees like the Peace and Truce of God, which limited the appropriate locations and days for war. Secular powers such as these were previously reserved to kings, and illustrate that the pope due to the weakening of kings in the feudal system, held greater authority.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

Renaissance, what’s that? The Renaissance was a time of creativity and finding out who you really were. Did you know that the word “Renaissance” actually means “rebirth” in french? Also, just because the Renaissance was a time of creativity and self-worth it still saw real problems like religious wars, political corruption, inequality, and witch-hunts. Humanism influenced people during the Renaissance in two ways, people began to realize they weren’t controlled by the zodiac symbols, they controlled themselves, and literature and writing became very helpful in everyday lives, because of books and philosophy.

When the Roman Empire collapsed, the Catholic Church was the only powerful authority not complete disrupted by the attack by barbarians. In fact, the work of great Popes is what helped their power increase even more. The newly christened barbarians, done by the Pope Gregory the Great, inaugurated a new age in Jesus Christ called Christendom. All culture in Christendom conformed to that of the Church’s, and, with its headquarters in Rome, the powerful “papal monarchs”, as they were called, controlled the machine that was the Catholic Church.

Due to Christianity’s importance, the Church consequently held significant power during the Medieval times. In a decree titled the “Unam Sanctam,” Pope Boniface VIII wrote, “URGED BY FAITH, we are obliged to believe and to maintain that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and also apostolic. We believe in her firmly and we confess with simplicity that outside of her there is neither salvation nor the remission of sins” (Dennis). In other words, the Pope established that all answers to Christianity exist solely in the Church, including on the basis of salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Further on in the “Unam Sanctum,” he proclaimed his part in the equation: “Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff” (Dennis). In this instance, the Pope arguably assumes the role of God on earth, defining that he is absolutely necessary for salvation, not solely Jesus Christ. His assertion provides further evidence for the

When talking about the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, many would consider them to be separate eras. Although, some have argued that the Renaissance should be classified as a continuation of the Middle Ages. However, based on evidence found in several documents, it should be concluded that the Renaissance was its own time period because new cultural ideas and developments occurred, the significance of humanism flourished, and the corruption of the church was eliminated.

The middle ages were regarded as a dark and desolate time period in history. Society during this time has no social progress, incessant wars, extreme violence, and no improvement to intellect or education. The Renaissance marked the end of the middle ages lasting roughly from the early 1400s to the 17th century. The Renaissance was exceptionally different from the Dark Ages because of many evolutions to the human intellect, social climate, and the beliefs of Renaissance men. During the bridge between the middle ages and present times the Renaissance innovated art, architecture, philosophy, science, and literature. Also, there was s shift from heavily relying on the church to a focus on humanism. William Manchester author of A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, Portrait of an Age discusses the concept of the medieval mind, the culture of the Renaissance, and significant changes during these time periods. According to Manchester the end of the middle ages and the beginning of the Renaissance is referred to as ‘The Shattering.’ ‘The Shattering’ is the destruction of the medieval world view, “the implications of the Renaissance appear to be obvious. It was astonishing that no one saw where is was leading” (Manchester, 26). The previous medieval mindset was challenged frequently by religious shifts and numerous prominent historical individuals. ‘The Shattering’ occurred because of a shift in mindset and worldview caused by changes in the church and

The Renaissance was a period of discovery, and one of the most important ideas was just how monotonous we were in so many ways, yet just how unique we were in others. During the Renaissance, the church was the center of attention, and instead of a philosophical view of the world, beliefs were centered around basic logic. Inspiration from the ancient Greek and Roman people led to humanism beliefs and encouraged man to become multi-talented. Therefore, the Renaissance man, “an individual who has interests and skills in a wide range of activities”, became prominent (B.E. 433). Also, the ideals of the people changed, and religion no longer ruled their lives like in the Middle Ages. Advancements in all aspects of life virtually improved which caused

John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism, believed in absolute dominance of God in salvation of the human soul from death and eternal sentence. He wrote many commentaries on most books in the Bible and created a lot of controversy. Calvin helped reform the church in Geneva. His spent his final years promoting reformation throughout

Proving to be the paramount of the conflict between faith and reason, the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century challenged each of the traditional values of that age. Europeans were changing, but Europe’s institutions were not keeping pace with that change.1 Throughout that time period, the most influential and conservative institution of Europe, the Roman Catholic Church, was forced into direct confrontation with these changing ideals. The Church continued to insist that it was the only source of truth and that all who lived beyond its bounds were damned; it was painfully apparent to any reasonably educated person, however, that the majority of the world’s population were not Christians.2 In the wake of witch hunts, imperial

When, in 1965, the Second Vatican Council was coming to an end, the message of Pope Paul VI aimed at sealing the closure by perpetuating St. Augustine's advise to "set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love." (Pope Paul VI, 1965). It seems as though the Church's leader and, with him, the whole representative body of the Catholic Church had felt the imperious urge to send a new, but somehow antique message to the world. In the following, we shall attempt to analyze a few key points relating the council to specific challenges of the modern world, challenges to which some theologians have responded in a particular manner and, as such, have given course to a series of innovative ideas regarding religion today and its understanding.

During the Middle ages countless disputes over power occur. From corrupted government officials, to establishing a proper structure for Roman Catholicism. However, one can argue whether it’s good or bad intentions with great powers comes great responsibility. The Medieval period began from the 5th century when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, to 15th century. During the Medieval Period the Roman Church was the dominated church. The church controlled religion, philosophy, morals, politics, art and education. In addition, many practices from the Middle Ages laid the foundations to today’s modern world.