The Changing World of the 16th Century

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

In this lecture Professor Harf discussed how in each conflict there was always a reassessment and how each country dealt with it. In the 1500’s the countries had emerged as important international players in either being an ally or an enemy to other nations. This is a significant step in the course of the future in many policies, wars, and agreements yet to come. In 1648, religion was finally kicked out of all of foreign policies which in my opinion was one of the smartest thing done. With church and state separate in America it is easier to make government decisions without having to go through a pope or priest to decide the final answer. In that time as well countries would keep tabs on each other to make sure that countries weren’t trying

Roman Catholics were the first genuine religious social occasion to move to the New World, as pioneers in the areas of Portugal and Spain and later France, were obliged to fit in with that certainty. English settlements included Anglicans, Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans, English Catholics, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, German and Swedish Lutherans, and also Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians and Jews of distinctive nationalities. Various social events of pioneers went to the Americas searching for the benefit to practice their religion without abuse. The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century broke the solidarity of Western Christendom and incited the course of action of different new religious groups, which consistently

During the 16th and 17th centuries a series of religious wars raged throughout Europe. In the fight to gain religious tolerance it created a split between the Catholics and the Protestants. The Dutch Revolt in the Spanish Netherlands was part of the series of religious wars in Europe. For ten years, a civil war raged in the Netherlands between the Catholics and the Protestants. Religion and politics were at the center of this revolt. Calvinism was spreading rapidly and became popular among the lower classes, lesser nobles, and town leaders. However, the strong Catholic King, Philip II desired to eliminate Calvinism within his territories. Philip II believed if he tackled Calvinism, then it would enhance his power in his monarchy. Therefore, politics were at the heart of this revolt since Philip II desired to impose Catholicism in an attempt to centralize his power in the Spanish Netherlands. Furthermore, politics and religion were also at the center of the French Wars of Religion. The religious differences between the two religious sects, the Huguenots and Roman Catholics, reveal that religion was also responsible for these series of wars in France. Therefore, politics and religion were both at the heart of the French Wars of Religion because it created fractional rivalries between the major families in France, members of the Royal Family made several attempts to sustain their power within the estate, and caused several religious battles between the Huguenots and the Roman

16th and 17th Century Religious and Political Controversies During the 16th and 17th century relationships between major political figures were impacted due to the division of Christianity into catholic and protestant dominations. In the early 17th century everyone belonged to the Church of England. The Church of England was the considered the supreme law of the land. In the 17th century the king and parliament fought over religion. Religion in the 17th century was more important than it is today (“Tim Lambert”). It was a very important part of everyday life.

In the early 16th century, the Spaniards were extremely devoted to their religion and spreading their religion to others even if it meant war. The Spanish empire during the early 16th century were spreading catholicism and trying to convert non-catholics to be catholic in the Americas and around Europe. The Incan empire was very large and powerful, but they did not have technological advantages over the Europeans. Francisco de Xeres, a historian and a personal secretary of Francisco Pizarro, wrote The Reports on the Discovery of Peru, a book published in 1534. Xeres addressed, “I am the priest of God, and I teach Christians the things of God, and in like manner I come to teach you.” The text reveals that the Spaniards were really trying to

During the 16th century western Europe experienced a rise in even stronger nation-states with intense religious beliefs and an increased desire to politically control populaces across the continent. This was especially evident in the Low countries where people were separated between Catholics and Protestants. Resentment between these two groups escalated with the Dutch Revolt and in 1579 the seven northern, mainly protestant, provinces declared their independence from King Phillip the second of Spain and became the Dutch Republic. Conflict between Catholics and Protestants did not only occur in the Low countries, France also fought numerous wars in their country over religion mainly between the aristocratic House of Bourbon and House of Guise.

By the mid sixteenth century, religion was spread wide throughout the world, used to enforce and to justify discrimination against many, until the Scientific Revolution took place. Science was being used to controvert religion, disproving certain parts of religion to be false, while explaining through the means of science how the natural world functions. Although the world was transitioning between religion and science, the practice of discrimination was untouched. In order to gain a better understanding of how science and religion contended, connecting only through discrimination, authors Jack Goldstone, Bonnie Anderson, Judith Zinnser, David Hume, and Dipesh Chakrabarty elaborate on the intricacies of this topic in Why Europe? The Rise of

In the 16th to mid-20th century, Western powers and knowledge have dominated other countries, due to the Western superiority to the other cultures in terms of civilization. According to Said, having knowledge is to dominate it; having authority is to deny autonomy to the Oriental country. Evidently, the inaccurate Western cultural perception towards Eastern world has resulted in the practice of power over, what they presumed, the 'weaker' countries. Java was once an influential Hindu-Buddhist empire and yet, it became one of the victims under colonial rule.

The Reformation in the 16th century covered several different things. There was many opinions, people chastise and to me did not understand what was about to happen. This era showed the changes that were made with the Protestant women, there was a difference in Roman Catholic beliefs and Protestants marriages. The views of religion, politics and cultural became a confusion around that century. This later put in place the beliefs and build the greatness that happen over time in the modern eras. The reading gave me a better understanding of what was being done in the 16th century and why it was so important. Points that I felt were important or that drew me closer to the reading was when MacHaffie ststaed “ Ah, but what a joy it is when yje spirit of God teaches us and gives us understanding, flitting from one text to the next-God be praised-so that I canme to see the true, genuine light shining out. I don’t tend to buty my talent, if the Lord gives me grace.” (MacHaffie, pg.119)

In the beginning of the 16th century, Western Europe only had one primary religion: Roman Catholicism. The church was very powerful and rich, and had preserved Europe’s classical culture throughout the years. However, soon enough, churchmen had begun to criticize the administration of the church and doubt some of the teachings, such as the church insisting that it alone had the authority to interpret the Bible for the masses (“The Reformation”). However, as early as the fourteenth century, an English priest and teacher at Oxford University named John Wycliffe stated that people had the right to read and interpret the Bible for themselves – something that greatly upset the church. Despite its protests, however, followers of Wycliffe translated

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were periods of questioning and searching for truth. The practice of challenging traditional institutions, including the Church, was revolutionary. Individuals began to use reason to guide their actions and opinions and realized the oppressive nature of the Catholic monarchy. Individuals strove to act in their own best interest and in the name of what was true to them. The consensus was that society would be better off with an economy that shifted away from agriculture, looked globally, and decreased monopolies and the importance of Guilds, as economic opportunities would surface for all classes of men. This type of economy was only possible in light of religious reform, as religion was the

The 17th century was a time of restoration, revolution, and death. It became a time of growth and change. From death came periods of inovation and creativity. Aside from disease, insanity filled a period of strong violence because of certain belief. Events of our modern society can compare to the growth and change of the 17th century. Both centuries struggled with the extraordinary idea of religion and its beliefs.

Medieval Western Europe, in the late 6th century, was a primitive region compared to its neighboring counterparts; specifically, to those territories under the control of the Eastern Roman empire. The Eastern Roman empire was comprised of great monastery influence, wealth, high population, and urbanization. In contrast, the West, being the worst of the heirs of the Roman empire, was impoverished. It lacked monetary funds, education, and sufficient infrastructure to sustain itself. The West represented remains of the old Roman world, as if it were left in the past. Remarkably, the British Isles fell into this geographical area; Anglo-Saxon England in particular. Relying heavily upon agriculture as a means of income, the Saxons occupied a rather humble life. Furthermore, Europe at this time lacked a sense of identity, having nothing to uniquely unify them as each region had their own unique beliefs and traditions. Seeing this, Pope Gregory the Great, who was the Catholic Pope of Rome from 590 to 604, sent missionaries to the southern tip of the Anglo-Saxon British Isles. He hoping to convert non-believers, pagans, and those practicing other forms of Christianity into Roman Catholics. This particularly represents a special link between England and the Church of Rome. The means and tactics used by Pope Gregory the Great as exemplified in Bede (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People), demonstrates that though his ultimate goal was to gain the control of the religious

The end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of new era, the beginning of the transition from feudal to bourgeois medieval society, when the foundations of the feudal social way of life were shattered, and the bourgeois-capitalist relations have not yet emerged with all their mercantile morality and soulless hypocrisy, is known as the Renaissance. The love of aristocracy for wealth and splendor were provocative, where the Church considered as a clear access to the political power. Rome itself became the biblical Babylon, which dominated by corruption, unbelief and immorality. The era of free urban communes was short, the era of tyranny began shortly. A commercial rivalry among the European cities eventually turned into a bloody rivalry. In