The Medieval Church

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

All Catholics were terrified of going to Hell after they died. They were told that the only way to go to Heaven was if the Catholic Church let them in. This led to total control over the actions of the people. “Man's life on earth was merely a period of transition on the way to eternal joy in Heaven or eternal damnation in Hell. It was, therefore, of great importance how he lived his life.” (Heinonen) Thus it was extremely important for citizens to appease the Church with donations or taxes. Some peasants would work for free on Church land. Every person was required to give the church 10% of their income in a tax called a tithe. The people were told that a failure to pay tithes would result in an eternity spent in hell. The Church gained wealth because everyone was afraid of what would happen if they did not pay the Church. Also, the only source for religious information was from the Church. If a peasant wanted to hear a Bible passage, they would go to their local church and ask a priest to read them something. Since religious texts were written in languages not spoken by the common people, the peasant would not be able to actually confirm what they were being told was actually in the Bible. This monopoly on religious knowledge was frequently abused in the Middle Ages. Furthermore, there were pardoners who would pardon sins for a price. They would then take this money to the Bishop. This was just another way

To understand the economic cause and consequence of the Protestant Reformation, you have to understand that previous to the Protestant Reformation was an extensive past of wrongdoing and corruption which caused the entire community and towns to perceive the Catholic Church as “dirty” and a profitable organization rather than an ear and mouthpiece for God. Much similar to other rebellions and riots, this reformation didn’t take place all in one night; It took time. One major idea that evolved during the Reformation was the idea of selling and purchasing “indulgences.” When you purchased an indulgence, you were purchasing a smaller amount of time your soul would spend in purgatory. You would think that indulgences were a very high in

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

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and into the duration of the Renaissance, the Medieval Church’s social and political power dwindled. Centuries prior the Catholic Church gained a surplus of control, largely due to the stability it maintained during the chaotic breakdown of the Western Roman Empire . Yet toward the end of the Middle Ages the Church set in motion factors that would ultimately lead to its downfall as the definitive figure of authority. However, despite political and social controversy surrounding the church, the institutions it established cleared a path for a new way of thinking, shaping society in an enduring way.

Since warfare and disease made life unbearable, everyone from the common serfs to the prosperous king looked to Church for direction on the key to a happy afterlife (Document 9). People paid heavy taxes/gifts and devotion to guaranteed themselves in themselves a place in the Church since their births (Document 9). This showed how they had much power over all the other classes in medieval society, especially when the Truce of God was proclaimed to control knights from committing felonies on holy days (Document 4 and

The short yet significant reign of Edward bought with it a series of severe changes to England and all those within it, many of them taking a religious nature. As the once unquestionable authority of the church became challenged by both critics and affiliates alike, England witnessed an almost inevitable reformation. However, the impact on the majority was not necessarily beneficial- as Duffy wrote, the Reformation bought with it an ‘assault on traditional religion’, leaving many men that ‘breathed easier for the accession of a Catholic queen’.

Furthermore, The Protestant Reformation saw a major European movement that challenged the religious practices and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. With the rise of religion attracting many individuals, intellectuals began to challenge religious teachings and expose the corruption of the Church. Rather than offering salvation, the Church became corrupt and stingy for control, power, and money, in which German theologian Martin Luther, highlighted. Luther argued that people only achieve salvation by God through faith alone and criticized the use of indulgences, wealth, corruption, and other religious practices within the Catholic Church in his 95 Theses. For example, one of Luther’s theses says, “Ignorant and wicked are the doings of those priests who, in the case of the dying, reserve canonical penances for purgatory.” Luther believed papal authorities utilized the people to their own advantage in gaining wealth by fostering beliefs that indulgences relinquished sins. The immorality surrounding the Church made it unfair to people of all social groups who “devoted an enormous amount of their time and income to religious causes and foundations” – only finding themselves fooled into bribery (A History of Western Society 402). Luther’s arguments served a pivotal role in influencing others to fight for their own beliefs and redefine the meaning of religion. The common good of the people and their opinions mattered as Protestant thought grew. In the “big picture” of European

At the time of the Reformation the Papacy was very corrupt and had a lot of issues from the Middle Ages. The church did not provide spiritual comfort, leadership, or answers during the black death, which weakened the people's faith in the church. The church also could not prove its authority when the Great Schism occurred after three popes who supposedly were all the one Pope, but disposed in favor of another Pope. Moreover, Indulgences were extremely over used by those who could afford them, while the poor could only live with the burden of knowing they would suffer more in purgatory. Not only did this oppose doing good works to repay sins, most indulgences were bought in advance and the the church gained wealth from selling indulgences. Therefore,

Initially, the people of medieval Western Europe obeyed the church without question, including rulers during the time, who often times actually had less power than the Roman Catholic church. During these times, “Any blow suffered by the church was a direct blow to [a man’s] own morale.”12 As the plague tightened its grasp on the aspects of life, people began to question the church in large. People felt as though the church, best equipped to be in touch with God, had given no warning, and when it was too late pointed out the people's mistakes.13 Additionally, priests, who some would expect to be spared from the plague, were just as touched, if not in more danger when still administering the Last Rites. It was commented that, “The best of the clergy died, the worst survived.”14 Accordingly, those who cared for themselves lived longer during the plague than others who attempted to care for others. “... Parishes remained altogether unserved and beneficed Parsons had turned away from the care of their benefices for fear of death.”15 The priests that did survive were increasingly failing to fulfill their duties, and instead seeking better paid conditions.16 “Paid clerics would serve only if they were paid excessive salaries… priests hurried off to… where they could get more money than in their own benefices…”17 Perhaps in accordance to this, primarily the wealthy retained complete faith in the Roman Catholic Church, while others in Western Europe began searching for alternative gods and new sources of comfort.18 During that search there was a surge of religious fervor comparable to that shown later during the Age of Exploration. By the end of the Black Death, the majority of medieval people of Western Europe were no longer blinded by the supposed immortality of the Roman Catholic Church. Those that saw

They would say that the questions inspired by the knowledge that the world was round would only breathe life to a new round of questions as soon as a preceding inquiry was answered. His supporters would say he was the man who inspired the Renaissance man to question medieval assumptions. But in reality, Martin Luther was the leader that made people asks questions. Martin Luther became the leader of the reformation against the church the German people had been waiting for. He led his followers against the church and used himself as an example of what man could do if they tried. Luther showed everyone that it was possible to defy the church without anything happening to him. He burned papal bulls, ignored summons to Rome for an audience with the pope, and he even rejected the authority of the popes and cardinals by refusing to recant this works that spoke against the Catholic Church. Luther also took control of those who wished to rebel against the catholic church. He also created his own religion, Lutheranism, and invited all those who followed him to join him. This religion caused problems for the church. If someone didn’t agree with what the church said, they went and joined the Lutherans; because of this, the

The reformation was a period of struggles for power and religion. The Catholic Church had been corrupted despite the belief that it was purely benevolent, and because of its position as the closest way to God, they took advantage of it and claimed their sins would be absolved by paying money to the church. During the Middle Ages, Indulgences were given to as a reward for kind deeds

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.

In the 1400s, Europe had been left in devastation from the aftermath of the black plague. This had left Europe in major religious, social and economic upheavals. Orphans, theft, intoxication, prostitution, brutality and misuse of powerful by important figures were very common. Education was unavailable to anyone without enough money to pay for it, creating an extremely large gap and social division between the classes. Church services and the bible were spoken and written in Latin, resulting in the majority of the common people being unable to understand the true meaning behind the words. As People were unable to read the bible, the only way to connect with God was through church services. Priests and Monks had several different jobs and often refused to help peasants when they asked for it, generating mistrust between the clergy and lay people.

The Religious Reformation was one of the most influential time periods of European history. Not only did it give way to some of the most popular religions of the present day, but it also helped many Europeans realize that the word of the Roman Catholic Church was not the end-all-be-all. Because of the Religious Reformation, new forms of thought began to emerge and many of the Roman Catholic empire’s standards were questioned and revolted upon. While there were many reasons for the Religious Reformation to occur, there are three main causes that helped proliferate it around European society. The Religious Reformation was caused by the Roman Catholic Church’s strict views on penance, the degree of control that the Roman Catholic Church deemed