McKay AP Euro Cornell Notes Ch 12 & 13

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.

The Protestant Reformation forever changed the religious, social, and political aspects of the world. These changes forever altered the world and paved the way for revolutions to

During the late 14th century and the early 15th century there was a great division in the Catholic Church. The Papacy was becoming blurred. The center of the Roman Catholic Church had been moved from Rome to the city of Avignon during the reign of Pope Clement V; and there was now a movement to return the center of power back to Rome. This movement was first truly seen under Pope Gregory XI and his successor Pope Urban VI. Earlier Pope Urban V had moved the center to Rome but it had been proven to be no more than a temporary idea; he had gone back to Avignon to die and there his replacement, Pope Gregory XI was elected . This along with other political problems and circumstances created a split in the loyalty among

He proclaimed a jubilee year, in which thousands of pilgrims came to Rome, leaving massive amounts of money behind. Then the papacy began to unravel; Pope Boniface VIII excommunicated Philip IV, King of France, who in turn kidnapped the Pope and held him hostage. As a result of his captivity, Pope Boniface VIII died miserably. His successor, Benedict XI, lived for only a short while, and after his death the papal election was deadlocked. The College of the Cardinals finally elected Clement V, a Frenchman, as pope. He then moved to Avignon, which was essentially in France. Seven successive popes ruled out of Avignon; their reigns lasting almost 70 years. Pope Gregory XI then moved to Rome, ending the Avignon papacy. The College of Cardinals then selected Pope Urban VI as pope, but then they regretted it and elected another pope, Pope Clement VII, who moved back to Avignon. The rival popes and their successors continued to rule separately until Pope Martin V was elected by an ecunemiel council. The events of the 14th century weakened the papacy, and some started to see its hypocrisy. The stage was set for an attack on papal power, but not merely its temporal power, as before. The spiritual authority of the Pope as the Vicar of Christ, was about to be under

ii. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Roman Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation.

How did the kings attack the church in this period? Contrast these events with ones in earlier ones in which the pope dominated rulers.

In response to the how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power as it did. Shortly after

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

The weakening of the Catholic Church helped start the Reformation. During the Late Middle Ages, the weakening was caused by two reasons. The first was worldliness and corruption. Many church leaders broke vows and sold indulgences, grants from the Catholic Church releasing a person from punishment. The church was also caught doing simony, the buying and selling of spiritual goods. The second cause of the weakening was the disagreement in power between the Pope and other European monarchs. The European leaders wanted more power and began questioning the Pope’s authority which led to conflicts weakening the church.

As the Church gained traction, one of the key concepts that they wanted to expunge was the influence of pagan religions. St. Augustine wrote The City of God about the actions of the Roman people on the very topic that the people because of their sins had gotten themselves into their own mess. Another way that the Church helped to expunge pagan influences was to build churches and cathedrals on pagan temples. They also came up with religious feasts to replace pagan feasts that would be going on at the same time. Another problem that had arisen for the Holy See was the struggle with royalty. An example, is when Gregory VII excommunicated Emperor Henry IV and he was only absolved by spending three days and nights prostrate outside the papal castle. A great wound to the Vatican that was self-inflicted was when Pope Clement V moved the papacy to France where it remained for nearly sixty years before Pope Gregory XI returned it to Rome. This altercation led to a problem, for the next nearly forty years, there were two Vicars of Christ, one in Rome and an antipope in France.

Pope Innocent III began a sequence of changes that influenced the face of secular and ecclesiastical Europe through careful use of law and political manipulation. It has been remarked that the papacy acquired and retained the most power under the leadership of Pope Innocent III during the late 12th and early 13th centuries. I plan to examine sources primarily pertaining to the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and secondly to a collection of Innocent III’s papal letters. In my analysis, I hope to draw a correlation between Innocent III's actions and these actions influence on medieval society and why this period is considered to be the height of papal power since its inception.

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.

Both the Protestant Reformation as well as the Inquisition made immense impacts on the religious society of western civilizations in Europe during 16th century. Both of the very important movements changed the regular Roman Catholic churches forever.  The Protestant Reformation was a movement when groups of people left the Roman Catholic church in hope for a change. This schism was run by Martin Luther and other protestant reformers during the 1500’s and 1600’s. Another movement that changed the Catholic church forever is the Inquisition, which lasted roughly 700 years. The Inquisition was a time of punishing heretics, or people who were guilty of heresy.

Long before the reformation period,people within the church, both clergy and lay were keen for the church to eliminate all corrupt practices and for a reform,which would bring everyone closer to God. Those high up in church authority had ignored the concerns made by these reformers because they were personally gaining from practices like indulgences. However the sixteenth century split of protestant from the Catholic church became obvious and brought about bad publicity towards the church as the loss of members was a large concern, putting them under pressure to reform itself properly. The church responded in a very serious matter which resulted in the church starting

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