The Changes in the Catholic Church during the High Middle Ages

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

The issue of religion is presumably the most questionable point of the Renaissance period. With the Catholic Church tangled up in discussion over force, corruption, nepotism and the Pope's fathering of illegitimate kids, numerous followers moved in the opposite direction of the Church and embraced another improved rendition of their beliefs. The increase of education additionally influenced the Catholic Church, as professors adapted more they understood that the Church was lecturing just what they supported to the followers. Possibly the most significant religious occasion during the Renaissance history, was the Protestant Reformation, which was established by Martin Luther in Germany. During the Renaissance the Catholic Church built up a profound

During the time period between 1550 and 1650, Europe had diverse changes. An important issue of this time was the change in the way people thought. Churches had high level of power due to people believing in the same religion. France. Italy, Germany & Scandinavia, and Spain were countries facing hard times as their ruling were changing.

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

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

In the Medieval times, the Roman Catholic Church played a great role in the development of England and had much more power than the Church of today does. In Medieval England, the Roman Catholic Church dominated everyday life and controlled everyone whether it is knights, peasants or kings. The Church was one of the most influential institutions in all of Medieval England and played a large role in education and religion. The Church's power was so great that they could order and control knights and sends them to battle whenever they wished to. The Church also had the power to influence the decision of Kings and could stop or pass laws which benefited them in the long run, adding to this, the Church had most of the wealth in Europe as the

The Great Papal Schism is also known as the Western Schism that lasted from 1378 – 1417, during which the papacy (the position itself) was in great divide between three popes in the Roman Catholic Church. This political upheaval within the Roman Catholic Church caused distrust of the western civilization towards the church. It began after the Avignon Papacy or the more commonly referred to, “Babylonian captivity of the papacy” which was when the papal court was moved to France and French cardinals who later became popes from 1309-1378 resided in Avignon, France (a total of seven French popes by the papal names Clement V all the way to Gregory XI, who moved the court back to Rome) while being heavily influenced by the French kings; this also resulted to the decline of the papal power and authority (Miller, Study.com).

Pluralism attracted the most negative attention to the Church of the 1400-1500s because when Church-appointed officials did not show up to their benefices, leading to the lack of responsibilty of the Church officials. Immorality was mostly neglect of the rule of celibacy, however immorality was not entirely sexual transgressions, there was also clerical drunkenness, gambling, and indulgence in fancy dress. Ignorance was the lack of education, as many priests were barely able to read or write. Finally, in regard to pluralism or absenteeism, many clerics had benefices, but rarely ever visited them, let alone performed the religious duties the offices entailed, this led to the attracton of the most negative attention.

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 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.

The Catholic Church and religion alone, dominated the western parts of the world in 590 to 1517 AD (Jack L. Arnold). England began to create a complex hierarchy and the pope was the higher power of it. Within the religion of being a Roman Catholic, there are many ways of worshipping. However, over the time period of 11th and 12th centuries, there was lots of arguments over how many sacraments there are. The Protestants believed there were two sacrament while the Catholics believed there were seven. The Council of Trent eventually ended the controversy and declared the seven sacraments as Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Marriage and Holy Orders.

The sixteenth century proved to be an era of extreme turmoil and change within the Catholic Church. During this time period a once solid and united religion centered around the Papacy in Rome became splintered and thrust into the middle of a literal crisis of faith. Martin Luther, John Calvin, King Henry VIII and the Anabaptist groups all directly challenged the supreme authority of the Roman Catholic Church leading to wars of both the spiritual and earthly variety.

By The Middle Ages, one understands a relatively long historical period extending from the end of the Roman Empire to the 1500's. The conquest of The Roman Empire by Germanic tribes, and synthesis of Germanic and Roman ways of life formed the civilization which we call medieval (medieval-from Latin words; medium (middle) and aevum (age)). Medieval civilization was greatly influenced by the Muslims in Spain and The Middle East, and by Byzantine Empire and Christians in Southeast Europe.

A catholic church service and the protestant church service have many differences. Catholicism during the 16th and 17th century was very extravagant; the church was very wealthy compared to the Protestantism. Roger Marty (c. 1527-1625) said he recalls Catholicism as seasonal rituals, church decorations, richness and festivity . This portrays the catholic church as being more than just spreading the word of Christianity and the world of God, but shows that Catholicism has more personality then Protestantism. A catholic church alter has a carving of Christ’s passion on a window, they had painted board to cover the window , but gave a great show when they were opened. Also, a catholic church contained crucifixes, and many images of Jesus as well

The papacy of Roman Catholic Church reached its zenith in the thirteenth century. But there was a decline of the papacy in the fourteenth century due to disaster like the Black Death, The Great Schism, and many other evolutions in Europe. Many new ideas and advanced technologies were developed after series of changes. These ideas influenced the lives of many normal people in the Medieval Ages.