The Portrayal Of The Catholic Church

The influence churches had on Europe was massive. Catholicism was the main religion at that time and people stopped to make the churches the center of everything. Its power had been built up over the centuries and relied on ignorance and superstition on the part of the populace. It had been indoctrinated into the people that they could only get to heaven via the church. Each Catholic church consisted of a priest. Everyone that practiced this religion thought that the priest was their way to heaven, giving him an enormous power. However, the relationship between people and churches was essentially based on money. If people didn't have the same religion as the church they either lied, fled, or they died.

When one hears of a cult, one thinks of organizations such as the Church of Scientology, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and small fanatical groups such as the Assembly of God. According to Robert J. Lofton, author of Letters to an Elder, there are two kinds of cults; those that use mind-control, and those that do not. Lofton describes eight characteristics of destructive mind-control cults, saying, “If any group exercises all eight of these control elements, they are, in fact a destructive mind control cult”. Lofton’s characteristics are ‘Environmental Control’, ‘Mystical Manipulation’, ‘Demand for Purity’, ‘Cult of Confession’, ‘Sacred Science’, ‘Loading the Language’, ‘Doctrine over Person’, and ‘Dispensing of Existence’. These eight

In the Middle Ages the church had its own social hierarchy structure in the Feudal system. This is very important because the church is considered the most powerful in the Feudal system. The church dominated everyone’s life. All the people in the Middle Ages believed that there was a God, Heaven and Hell. Since the beginning of Christianity they were taught the only way to get to Heaven is if the church let them. “The medieval church constituted a kind of second social system, sharing governmental authority with the feudal hierarchy and occasionally coming in conflict with secular lords” (Singman). The social hierarchy set up in the Middle Ages of the church consists of the pope at the top. Like explained earlier he is the most powerful person.

As the tenth century rolled about, the power of the Roman Catholic Church grew steadily stronger, the church had an argument with the normal Kingdom over who should rule supreme out of the Pope or the King, the church believed that the Pope who is the voice of God on Earth should be the ruler of the world while the peasants thought that the King should, the power struggle eventually ended with the Church coming out as the dominant force in the West. The Church passed a law that stated that everyone (mostly peasants) is forced to pay 10% of their income to the Church. The church had the ability to stop any laws that they did not like or make some new laws that benefited them, they were a very powerful group that could manipulate the peasants and knights in any way they liked, in Church there were photos of people being tortured in hell, this intensified the peoples longing for heaven and therefore extended the power and influence of the church. All Christians were expected to attend the mass and, by the 13th century, were expected to take the Eucharist at least once a year.

The church in the Medieval era, however, was incredibly powerful and mostly unopposed. Salvation, to the religious, was and remains the most important aspect of faith. Religion without a fate after death is almost entirely hopeless and borders on nihilistic. The Catholic church used this incessant fear to fuel their political vendettas. This is made evident by the attempted squelching of the Reformation sparked by Martin Luther as well as the expulsion of the Moriscos, Jews, and Protestants from Spain. The church had successfully convinced an entire continent that the only true way to attain eternal life was through the doctrine of the church. This gave the Pope authority, power, and uncontested control over the Christian people, for a

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.

Church a place many people go on Sunday mornings. A place to worship in the Lord and Savior or whichever God the individual believes in. Some individuals believe that church can only be held in the church building. When in reality it can be held anywhere for example the bedroom or a field. A thing that has been noticed is there are many types of people who go that fit in with a certain group. The types include everyone from the screaming child to the strict churchgoers and everything in between. Church may be a good place to go but it is believed that the churches today are corrupt.

The Catholic Church influenced life in Medieval Europe to such an extent that they were the centre of most people’s daily lives. Nearly all of Europe was Roman Catholic which meant that they held a very large influence over people’s behaviours and superstitions. This ensured that they held a unique and powerful position with regard to controlling the way in which Europe was managed. The Church through the Pope ruled over all other powers in Europe. All royalty and monarchs were told what they could or could not do by the church. If they did anything that the Pope felt was against the Catholic Church, he had the power to excommunicate that person from the church. This could be any person from a labourer all the way through to Lords and Kings.

In the year of 1478, the famous catholic monarchs Fernando and Isabel decide to work on a project they came up following there Kingdom-uniting marriage. These two kingdom's, Aragon and Castilla, had opposite views when it came to certain Catholic opinions, ideas, and political decisions. Both kingdoms monarch were aware of this when they united Aragon and Castilla, and decide to create an inquisition to keep and enforce the beliefs of Catholic the church. Thus, the Spanish inquisition was born and with the blessing of the pope, Sixtus the Fourth, the inquisition served prosecution to all the people who didn't or thought to have not followed catholic beliefs. Anyone suspected of practicing Black magic, Protestantism, non- Catholic's religion

During the 14 and 1500’s, the Catholic Church was the major powerhouse on the world stage. The church became the largest land owner, giving them massive amounts of economical power. With limitless amounts of power for the church, they were even more powerful than the king himself; they had their own taxes, laws, and they even could excommunicate the king if they chose to do so. The church made royal officials fear it while also gaining the support of the people, sometimes unwilling support was given. Indulgences were purchased in the hopes that their loved ones would be saved from Purgatory or even Hell. The church’s goal used to be helping all people and preaching the word of God, but now the church was corrupt and blinded by power and money, only one man could initiate the change needed, Martin Luther.

During the middle ages the catholic church had a lot of power. As they were essentially the temporary caretakers of what was most important to the people, their souls which unlike their temporal bodies were eternal. The church also ran all the social services such as benefits for the poor, and education. In most societies the only person who could read the bible was the church priest as it was only available in latin. They also owned over a

The Spanish Inquisition was a time in the Catholic Church when there were trials about heresy,murder and torture. “The Spanish Inquisition started in 1478 and finally came to an end in 1834”.Before the Spanish Inquisition the Catholic Church was supposed to set all the moral and be the most holy religion of them all. But, during The Spanish Inquisition the Catholic Church became one of the most cruel and murderous religion of the time it was also one of the darkest time in the Catholic Church history of all time due to the Pope of time wanting to have a pure Catholic-Spanish race and religion.

Following the history of the catholic church shows us that not even they were perfect as they had many internal conflicts such as the Great schism and a distrust in the church due to them having a huge political influence around the late 1300’s to the 1400’s. Despite these problems the church managed to still become an important part of many christians life. Popes were part of this reason and some had

The middle ages were an extremely different time from today. Everything from government to religion is not the same as it was back then. In the middle ages, government and religion were very much one thing, and there was not the separation of church and state that we have today. The Roman Catholic Church was one of the most important religious institutions that impacted the middle ages. The church and times both changed, causing the inevitable fall of the Roman Catholic Church. Although there were many causes, the three main reasons the Roman Catholic Church lost power and prestige in the late middle ages was because of corruption, changing beliefs, and fall in population.

. . [was] often confusing".6 The Church was fully capable of using obscure rituals and ceremonies in the everyday practice of their religion, but for a peasant to use such "magic," however, it could be considered heresy. As Europe progressed through the Enlightenment, the Roman Catholic Church’s role as a mediator between the common populace and the supernatural became highly disputed.7 Protestantism had ultimately weakened the clergy by making religious controversy familiar to the common tides of Europe.8 The Church was seen as a bastion of religious intolerance and intellectual backwardness because the clergy simply refused to let go of their out-dated ideals in order to embrace scientific reasoning.