Ecclesiastical Breakdown And Revival: The Late Medieval Church

Beginning in the Middle Ages and through the seventeenth centuries, witch trials occurred in Europe. Many people were accused of being witches some of these people were accused of being witches for not following Christian beliefs at that time and others followed witch prosecutions for goods and money. Furthermore, the stereotypes of witches at this period also had a role in causing witch prosecutions. In this essay I argue how these three components led to the death of so-called witches. Firstly, I will discuss how the Catholic Church had an impact on most prosecutions. Secondly, I will explain how social stereotypes of that period have also influenced with the causes of prosecution of many alleged witches. Thirdly, I will discuss how

1.) How did medieval rulers restore order and centralize political power? Medieval rulers restored order and centralized political powers by creating their own form of government. These leaders expanded their territory and spread their authority by creating many micro-managed systems. They developed large bureaucracies, armies, judicial systems and created taxes in order to cause the common-folk pay for all of it.

2. Pope Gregory XI brought the papacy back to Rome in 1377, but then Urban VI alienated

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

England, the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary Roman Empire, Bohemia, and Poland supported Pope Urban VI. While Pope Clement VII had gained support from France, Napales, Scotland, Castile, and Aragon. This

The devastating effect of the Crusades coupled with the spread of the Black Plague launched a changing public view of papal authority. This resulted in a more analytical mindset creating a foothold for the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution . An overtly secular focus took precedence over religious matters and the moral decay of the Church was called into question. This obsession of secular control is most clearly exemplified by the Great Schism that took place from 1378 to 1417 . The Great Schism was the result of the Babylonian Captivity, in which the papacy was forced to relocate to Avignon . Soon after returning to Rome, conflict arose within the papacy resulting in three popes fighting for the title. “When the Council of Constance unified the papacy in 1417 with the election of Martin V, the pope’s political authority outside of the

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.

The idea of two popes destroyed the idea of unified church, which is The Great Schism. The two Popes were constant rivals and while the people were split, the French people obviously followed the Pope from Avignon, while the Roman people followed to Pope in Rome. (http://www.thenagain.info) To try and end the schism a third Pope was chosen John XXII, shortly after in 1414, the Council of Constance received the resignation of Pope Gregory XII and dismissed the claims of the Avignon Pope, Benedict XII. Finally the election of Pope Martin V, ended the schism, he reigned from 1417-1431.

Barbarians were invading Western Europe. Gaul, Italy and the Byzantine Empire were being raided while the church remained independent. The empire was divided but the church remained undivided and stable. With no true leader in Rome, Pope Leo II was the only defense against the Huns. As the barbarians invaded, the Church converted. Their motto was “to convert the monarch and the people

In addition to the horrors carried out by the Seljuk horde on Christians and their shrines, the Byzantines were also begging the pope to protect their empire from other Turkish tribes. Urban II's main incentive for answering this plea for help was not entirely contingent on the letter he received from the Holy Roman Emperor, but more so from the notion that the Eastern and Western sects of the church could be unified. Moreover, they might be fused under the Pope, granting him sovereignty over the entire Christian church. This Papal hope has been revealed to historians through, among other sources, the different accounts of his speech at Clermont. For example, Guibert of Nogent recalls the pope declaring: "And you ought, furthermore, to consider with the utmost deliberation, ..., that the Mother of churches should flourish anew to the worship of Christianity, whether perchance, [God] may not wish other regions of the East to be restored to the faith against the approaching time of the Antichrist" (Peters, Guibert of Nogent, 35). Unfortunately, the Holy Roman Emperor feared his throne was in jeopardy due to the large number of crusaders that arrived to drive out the Turks. He demanded that they press on towards the Holy Land, and for reasons that need not be discussed, strong ties with the Papacy were severed soon

An example of one of these popes was Julius II. He was known as the Warrior-Pope because he sought to eliminate his enemies with his powerful army. These Renaissance Popes angered many Christians who believed that their pope was being unfaithful, and caused some people to lose faith and trust in the Catholic Church. Later popes sold indulgences, which were promises of the remission of one's sins after death. This angered Martin Luther, and it caused him to write his “95 Theses” on why that practice was wrong and unfaithful. Luther found enough people that agreed with him, and started the Reformation.

"In the later eleventh century, mystically enchanted war turned into a categorical and cozy concern of the ameliorated papacy, one which was to transmute Christian states of mind and practices for an immensely colossal portion of a thousand years." The vicissitude was gone for ecclesiastical reinforcing and decontamination of the ministry including another procedure for the decision of incipient popes and assaulting indecencies, for example, administrative espousement and the purchasing and offering of religious workplaces. Pope Gregory VII was the primary impact behind ecclesiastical change. "With nervy tenaciousness, he distinguished what he accepted to be the main driver of the Church's issues the dirtying impact of the people and afterward start assaulting it with close out of control tirelessness, in what has been termed the 'Instatement Controversy'." For every one of his prospects and objective in ecclesiastical change and endeavoring to coalesce the Latin Church, when he kicked the bucket and Pope Urban II took office, the Church was powerless and defenseless. In the terminus however, Urban did instaurate ecclesiastical power probably in light of the fact that he was a "much more aptitudinal ambassador then his forebear, in his dealings with the mainstream and clerical forces of Europe." He had a more adaptable way to deal with change than Gregory and that availed him win back backing for the ecclesiastical reason. In 1095, the year prior to the First Crusade, the papacy was incrementing a plethora of its glory back. When he was requested avail by the Byzantines against the Turks the pope's preparatory replication was "to enhearten 'numerous to ensure, by taking a vow, to avail the sovereign most reliably to the extent they were capable against the agnostics'." This did little to motivate the masses, yet it had planted the

Second, the church was a major political force. Therefore kings and queens wanted/needed papal approval like when they were somewhat weak, as in times of conflict. This allowed the Church to exercise political power as it could help to determine which claimants to a throne would be deemed acceptable.

In 1136, a man named Nicetas stated that “The Roman Church separated herself by her pretensions. She became a monarchy.” (Document 2) The document goes further and explains that the Roman Pope has become more of a supreme ruler, hurls orders at the people and even judges them. That is not the way to rule the church, but to let the supreme God rule instead of man.

The decline of church power became even more apparent during the Babylonian Captivity (1309-1376). Pope Clement V’s agreement on King Philip’s request of settlement in Avignon in southwestern France first signified the Pope’s leadership and authority had been weakened. Furthermore, after Gregory XI’s death, Urban VI (1378-1389) had been planning on church reform, but his endorsement of opposition among the hierarchy had triggered a serious of disaster. As a result, Cardinal Robert of Geneva was elected to be Pope and took the name Clement VII. The situation became two popes in office: Urban at Rome and the anti-pope Clement VII at Avignon, hence marked the beginning of the Great Schism. France immediately recognized the antipope Clement while Aragon, Castile and Portugal follow suit. For England, they recognized Urban VI and the