Corrupt Pope Corrupts

The Catholic Church during the early 16th Century was rooted throughout Europe. The Church influenced every country and its respective monarchs through the Church’s wealth and power. The Catholic Church placed a tight hold on the general populace with individuals who went against the Church being branded as heretics and excommunicated. The wealth and power of the Church eventually caused the quality of the clergy to deteriorate. Priests became corrupt and subjected to their physical desires. They frequented taverns, gambled and kept mistresses. The reputation of the clergy were horrid as the general populace was relieved that “their priest [kept] a mistress” because it “[secured] their wives from seduction” The knowledge of the clergy degenerated as well as they were no longer required to learn and teach the Holy Scriptures because the Church dictated their actions. The pinnacle of the Church’s corruption was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence was the “extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment” sold by priests as a temporary relief from sins. The indulgences were then sold to the general populace for money as the monetization of a priest’s services. Johannes Tetzel was a prominent preacher of indulgences who relied on the money from the sales to subsidize the rebuilding of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. The corrupt sales did not go unnoticed as Martin Luther, in an effort to stop the corruption of the Church, posted the 95 Theses on the door of a Castle

     One of the first things that Simon does that depicts a Christ-like action, is found in chapter 3 when he helps the littluns get fruit, “Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach” (Golding 56). During his lifetime, Jesus often aided the hungry, one example being when he turned 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish into enough food for thousands of people. Later in the chapter Simon finds himself in the wilderness. While there, Simon was calm and enjoyed the solitude of

Practices. Even though just about every pope has hurt the Church in his own unique way, there are some common sins among them, such as the acts of simony and selling indulgences. These sins are closely related because one led to the other. Simony is selling positions within the Church, which led to corrupt people buying their way in, and once they were in, they sold the people certificates called indulgences that were supposed to get one's soul out of purgatory, and then pocketed the profits from this. Once people started finding out about these shady dealings, it revealed the hypocrisy of the Church. They would preach ideas like the one found in 1 Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving

Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?” it helps my argument by stating what was happening and how the priest was getting richer and the poor people were getting poorer. And on 75 it states– To consider papal indulgences so great that they could absolve a man even if he had done the impossible and had violated the mother of God is madness. This shows why the indulgences wouldn't help you go to heaven and how it was angering the mother of god then they started disbelieving in the church and they started disbelieving on what the Priest would say and it showed that how the church lied and the indulgences wouldn't give you a better spot in

Rulers opposed papal power because the canon laws that restricted things the rulers were allowed to do with churches within their kingdom. They would have to get approval from the pope before they did certain things. This forced them to have to make compromises where secular and religious claims coincide.

In the 11th Century, Pope Urban II called the Christians to battle, stating that they should go “carry aid promptly” to their “brethren who live in the east” as they were being attacked by the Turks and Arabs (Pope Urban II). Pope Urban II went on to say that they must “destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends” or else the Christians would be more “widely attacked.” He ended his speech by declaring that “Christ commands” (Pope Urban II) that the people go and assist their Christian brothers. If they did not go and take up this call to arms, they risked the disapproval of the Lord. After the Pope’s speech calling the Christian people to action, many went to the aid of their fellow Christians.

Women are still not allowed to be priests, despite the fact that there are many examples in the Bible of Jesus telling people through parables and other means that everyone is equal. Some Catholics just accept the fact that women cannot be priests in the Catholic Church, as this is the Pope's orders and he is infallible. Nobody seems to dispute that the Pope must be male, firstly because 'Pope' means father and maybe because they know that the idea of a woman becoming Pope is just too unlikely. However there are Catholics that exist who believe in the authority of the Pope but, 'are convinced that the Pope and his advisors in Romeare making a serious mistake by dismissing women as priests. '[3]

Simony is the sale of church offices of members of the clergy, including that of bishops and cardinals (“The Reformation” 1). “‘Simony’ received its name from Simon the Magician, who in the book of Acts, offered money to Simon Peter for his spiritual gifts, to which Peter replied, ‘thy money perish with thee.’” (“The Lutheran Reformation”). Simony was very popular during the 15th and 16th centuries although it was a sin. “In 1487, the pope sold 24 offices” (“The Reformation” 1). Because the clerical positions were then held by whoever possessed the highest fortune, the officials in power knew very little about the church. Priests would teach people many different things that often had very little to do with the Bible. Reformers were extremely angered that unqualified people could hold positions of power. These sales increased the wealth of the Catholic Church and caused resentment and jealousy in people of all economic statuses. This abuse also led to anti-clericalism, a dislike and distrust of the clergy. “Some people began to argue that the layperson was just as good as the priest…” (Kreis). Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk from Germany was one of the founders of the Protestant Reformation, and penned the 95 Theses (“Martin Luther and The 95 Theses”). In his Theses, Luther criticized simony as one of the main issues with the Catholic Church that needed

a. “race chosen and beloved by God” The Pope is telling his listeners that God loves them and that they have been chosen by God. By invoking this message, the Pope is trying to convince the Franks to join the crusades by making them believe that it is their destiny given to them by God.

In 1887 Lord Action wrote to Bishop Creighton how all men should have the same morals applied to them, especially religious and political leaders. Demonstrated in Donna Woolfolk Cross’ novel, “Pope Joan” where rich white men possessed the most power. Set in the 800s there were people who brandished power like a sword, the people who weren’t allowed to be in power, some have quiet power, and the institutions which are in power.

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,

In the void left by the collapse of the Roman Empire, the bishop of Rome grew even more in both power and prestige beginning in the sixth century and continuing to the reformation in the ninth century. It is the aim of this paper to explain how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power of the medieval world, the factors contributing to this dominance over Western Europe, and the positive and negative ramifications of the position becoming so powerful. Through this paper you will discover how papacy was able to fill the vacuum of power left by the fall of an empire.

Money and Power: Corruption in the late medieval Church Money and power are often what rules a society. With that said, often both money and power are found at the root of corruption.1 This essay seeks to analyse to what extent had the late medieval Church become a corrupt monolith, out of touch with its mission and the people it was meant to serve. The extent of the corruption within the medieval church can be derived from two major components that are the forefront and height of most religions; money and power. Who has it, why do they have it, how did they get it and what are they using it for?

The Middle ages was a dark time for the church and the communities and people involved in the church. Priest, Popes and even nuns would involve themselves in sexual relationships and do evil things such as simony and selling of indulgences for their own personal wealth. But why didn't anyone stop them, well because during this time period the Church and Pope had served as a there main power in Eastern Europe. Corruption wasn't the only issue that was occurring in the middle ages, there was a plague that the people believed was sent from God in anger. They named it the Black Death or the Black plague, it took millions of lives because of the plagues air-born effects.

The hatred and slander of women continued over this period of time. Women were considered to be unclean, created by defect, only to service men, witches, and whores. They were not allowed in the sanctuaries because they were considered unclean especially during there monthly cycle. Even today women receive less pay for jobs that are not suited for their skills, they are not always the first choice in any areas of political or social positions.