Primary Sources Of Thomas Becket

At the beginning of the 11th century, the predominant faith in Western Europe is the Catholic one, and the Church in those territories follows, in theory, the same Canon Law and has the Pope at its head as the deciding voice in religious disputes. The Church was the main unifying factor between territories that had evolved in very different ways, had different power structures in place and spoke different languages.

Henry took a big step against the Catholic Church when he began the, “Dissolution of the Monasteries” in 1538. Henry had sent inspectors to watch the behavior of the monks and if the monasteries were being run as Henry wanted. Henry discovered that doing the complete opposite of what he wanted or

St Thomas Becket (December 21, 1118 – December 29, 1170) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to 1170. He engaged in a conflict with King Henry II over the rights and privileges of the Church and was assassinated by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral.

The Church had a lot of power over the government(OI). For example the church had so much power that the Code of Chivalry has rules that talk about the church. In the Code of Chivalry it states “Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and shalt observe all its directions”(Doc 5).The Code of Chivalry is important because that is the code the knights followed.That is how the politics of the Catholic Church influenced the Middle Ages of Rome.

The English Reformation was a detailed process, in 16th-century England, where the Church of England broke ties with the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church. It all began with King Henry VIII marriage with Catherine of Aragon. After years of marriage Catherine had not produced a male heir who survived into adulthood angering the King. With this in mind King Henry will set his eyes own Anne Boleyn who was a maid of honor to Queen Catherine. By the late 1520s, Henry wanted his marriage to Catherine annulled, claiming it to be invalid due to the fact that Catherine was his late brothers wife making it wrong for Henry VIII to be allowed to marry her. In 1527 Henry asked the Pope, Pope Clement VII, to annul his marriage. The pope refused in fear of the Queen’s nephew, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. this

In conclusion the feuds between church and state have a long history. Many powerful figures have fought over the power to control church and state resulting in lives being lost. Although, it is said that Boniface was mot trying to gain power, but to protect the church. Despite this claim figures were so hungry for power that they would do anything to again or protect

Furthermore, in England, King Henry VIII considered himself a worthy Catholic king. He had “enthusiastically attacked the outbreak of Protestant heresy when it began, and the papacy gave him the title Defender of the Faith as a result”. This did not matter when Henry wanted to divorce from Catherine of Aragon. When the church would not grant the divorce he wanted, Henry’s resulting decision to create the Church of England set the standards for more than a century of religious conflict/isues in England. The Act of Supremacy in 1534 essentially “took power away from the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.” Henry VIII made an entirely new church which he made himself head of, because he was the king. This demonstrates the actions that politics affected Europe and that they were not always necessarily for religious purposes but for power and personal

These two kings were fighting over land in modern southwestern France. The men both prepared to go to war with each other, so they both wanted the churches in their kingdoms to pay taxes to help fund for the war. However, according to the canon law they church didn’t have to pay taxes to the lay ruler, unless the lay ruler got approval from the pope to tax the church. Despite, knowing the rulers both kings taxed the churches from their kingdoms without papal authorization, thus testing the Papacy’s power. The clergy had to choose between the kings or the Pope. Although, the pope had to power to excommunicate any clergy that disobeyed him, he didn’t win the conflict. The French king Philip IV cut off the wealth from France that was sent to the Pope. This cut off a major amount of Boniface income, causing the pope to back down. Meaning the kings of England and France had the power to tax their clergy, no matter what the canon law

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.

Catholic leaders believed they were defending traditional Christian civilization against rebellions and anarchical forces, whilst the latter argued they were restoring pure religion and defending against corruption and superstition. To them, the Pope was anti-Christ, whilst to the Catholics, Luther, Alvin and all other ‘reformers’ were heretics. Consequently, the secular rulers sought to base their political unity upon that of a religious nature, using their authority to compel their subjects into adopting one form of Christianity. In contrast to Pope Leo X, who face the Lutheran revolt, who urged secular leaders to suppress Protestant heretics by force, Luther appealed for this same force to be used against Catholics, and even Calvin, considered to be an apostle of religious tolerance didn’t permit Catholics to reside in Geneva. Meanwhile, Spain, Portugal and Italy all used methods such as the Inquisition and the Index to eliminate religious dissent and persecute Protestant subjects. Therefore, this shows that despite the argument regarding whether England was ‘torn apart’, the rest of Europe was considerably so, which could subsequently have impacted England.

Throughout the central Middle Ages, Europe was characterized by the power struggle between the secular and the ecclesiastic. The question of rule by God or by man was one which arose with unwavering frequency among scholars, clergy, and nobility alike. The line which separated church and state was blurry at best, leading to the development of the Investiture Conflict in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the attempts to undermine the heir to the throne in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Four men stand out among dozens in this effort to define the powers of the lay versus that of the spiritual: Emperor/kings Henry IV and John of England, and the popes who aggressively challenged their exertions of authority, Pope Gregory VII

In the early 1500s, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, grew in the favor of Henry VIII. When Henry VIII was attempting to divorce Catherine of Aragon, Thomas Cranmer helped Henry VIII build his case for the annulment of the marriage. Thomas Cranmer also supported the law of Royal Supremacy, which made the king the head of the Church. These things led to Thomas Cranmer getting in Henry VIII “good books” which later helped him once Edward VI acceded the throne. Thomas Cranmer’s willingness to compromise helped him reach such a powerful position in the church so quickly. If Cranmer had gone about things the way Luther did, he would have easily been executed for heresy and defying the Law of Treason and Heresy by revolting against the king. By compromising some

The monarchs only listen to god not their own subjects.Divine right was the idea that God made the monarchs.During the the war between the church and the protestants,leaders tried to get a grip on the church,and war and death broke lose from this

In 1533 Henry VIII wanted to leave his wife Catherine Aragon to marry his new love Anne Boleyn, but the pope Pope Clement VII did not approve of divorce of marriage. Henry didn't approve of this because he wanted to have kids but she did not. He wanted a heir, a son to take the thrown. Henry VIII’s wanted his marriage annulled because of this. Because of this Henry was outraged and this is where the English Reformation started and which then started a series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church in England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Henry VIII's break with Rome was an act of state, primarily by political motives of him not being able to divorce his wife due to personal issues, but

People faced the rise and the fall of the Catholic Church during the medieval time. The Popes used to hold the final authority for the church and over the state. Pope Gregory VII asserted the Pope had granted the divine power from God because Saint Peter was the first of getting this