The Reason For Francis 's Resignation

The clergy’s function was to administer the sacraments, and if those services were needed by the afflicted faithful as they invariably were, clergy violated charity by fleeing. If it was the duty of a clergy member to visit the sick, it was a scandal and a sin if that person fled the plague. But if a clergy members duty did not necessarily deal with the plague, they were allowed to flee. If a clergy

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

After years of preaching, Saint Francis of Assisi returned to his native country to find that his brotherhood had expanded to 5,000 people. Although it was a group of faithful followers of God, they were constantly arguing and debating about who should be the leader, completely disregarding the fact that Francis was the one who changed them all. He new he would not be pointed a position in the brotherhood, but was fine with the idea of just being a brother.

Saint Francis of Assisi had a great childhood, but as he got older his father began to beat him. He lived the life of luxury, and was the the son of a very rich cloth merchant. He was born in Circa, Italy in 1181. He abandoned the life of luxury, for a life devoted to Christianity, and God. He was very devoted into living in poverty, and he rebuilt the Christian church. He is the patron Saint of ecology and animals. He wanted to go to the Christian church reportedly after hearing God’s voice. He insisted that this was his calling and his adulthood confirmed it.

From his early life studying religion, Louis understood the rules the Church began to establish on kingship. Under Louis’ reign the Church possessed so much power that it removed him from office for his “misdeeds” and placed him in a monastery. Nonetheless, Louis set forth to work with his bishops in order to create a stronger empire, his desire to live a “monkish” life shows signs of exaggeration, but he, according to his biographers strove for this ideal.

The 17th century French aristocrat Michel de Montaigne lived in a tumultuous world. With the spark of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, the fire spread rapidly to France. The nation divided against itself. The rebellious protestant Huguenots and the traditional staunch Catholics both viewed the other group as idolatrous heretics in time when that crime could justify execution. Consequently, Catholic monarchs throughout Europe felt the impending threat to their reigns, too, because if they supposedly ruled through divine right, what would change concerning the support of their subjects? After the peace-making Edict of Nantes, rehashing the religious conflicts of the century was forbidden, but seeing his country—and even his own family—torn apart, how could one refrain from comment? So in his writings, Montaigne has to write around his actual subjects. This isn’t to say, however, that he conveyed none of his ideas directly. Montaigne criticizes the cultural belief in a correct way of life, opposing the idea with a more relativistic viewpoint, though the way in which he presents it, as mere musings in personal correspondence, fails to effectively convince his readers.

Giovanni Bernardone, more widely known as Francis of Assisi, was a Catholic friar that founded the Franciscan Order in the early thirteenth century. The Franciscan Order, under the spiritual guidance and teachings of Francis and his disciples, became one of the largest sects of the Catholic church today. Francis’ teachings brought about a reform in the Catholic church that changed ideas on grace and salvation of the Christian

Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as St. Francis of Assisi (Assisi, July 5, 1182 1 - October 3, 1226), was a Catholic friar from Italy. After a restless and worldly youth, turned to a religious life of complete poverty, founding a mendicant Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans, who renewed Catholicism of his time. With the habit of itinerant preaching, when the religious of his time used to set up in monasteries, and with his belief that the Gospel should be strictly followed, imitating the life of Christ, developed a deep identification with the problems of our fellows and humanity of Christ himself. His attitude was also said when the original goodness and wonder of creation at a time when the world was

During his reign, Louis XIV released The Declaration of the Clergy of France in which he utilized his Divine Right to solidify his secular power while reaffirming ecclesiastical power. The four articles in the Declaration state the following: the Popes have spiritual influence and thus cannot make decisions upon temporal and civil things like reigns of kings, councils have greater worldly authority than Popes, the power of the Popes must be contained by religious doctrine, and that the Pope has unquestionable authority (Dégart). Like Machiavelli, Louis XIV recognizes the undeniable and unwavering power of the Church. In The Prince, Machiavelli says “they [principalities] are maintained, in fact, by religious institutions, so powerfully mature that, no matter how the ruler acts and lives, they safeguard his government” (37). By releasing this Declaration, Louis solidifies his Divine Right and his deep connection with the Church in addition to affirming his religious duty in secular ruling. It was clever and strategic for Louis to create a document that gives undeniable power to himself and undoubtedly acknowledge the influence of the Church. Because he solidified his connection with the Church in addition to deliberately outlining his religious power, he fulfilled the Machiavellian ideal with his

Ambrosio was highly praised within the monastery and Madrid for his stainless character, and yet his hypocritical downfall exemplifies the consequences of mixing Heaven and Earth. This results in both a fall of the credibility of Catholic beliefs and a shift towards more secular viewpoints. Even at the start of The Monk, the congregation present for Ambrosio’s sermon in Madrid is full of people from “a city where superstition reigns with such despotic sway…to seek for true devotion would be a fruitless attempt,” there is evidence that corruption is already present in this society (7; vol. 1, ch. 1). But when a religious figure also falls to this level, the atmosphere of a church’s role within society drastically shifts. This shift then jeopardizes the spirituality of the common people because of the church’s influence and its representation of God on Earth. The

There were also a couple chronological leaps within the book that made some things difficult to understand or put together. For example, the evidence from Pope Gregory I who gave a sermon around 600 is linked with Jacques de Vitry’s sermon around 1220. This made it tough to try and understand the gap and the connection between the two sermons. Time gaps through out the book confused me as the reader, wondering what happened. Through the comparison of the isolation case of a leper asylum in France, it was stated that in Byzantium there was no textual evidence for the intentional isolation of lepers, although it seemed likely that the Zotikos foundation was located outside of the urban center of Constantinople.

The Pope is the supreme leader of the Catholic Church. His every word is to be taken to heart and lived by. The Pope speaks out against many things, such as poverty, hate, greed. Yet when it comes to sexual abuse, there’s only crickets. Sexual abuse has plagued the Catholic Church for many years. Stories come forth of priests taking advantage of their followers and those same priests being moved to different churches without punishment. Pope Francis has the opportunity to change this distasteful pattern, but like others before him he’s chosen to ignore this serious issue. Pope Francis has been accused of covering up and minimizing the problem of sexual abuse, which is hard to deny when each day he adds more fuel

Stigmatization of St. Francis was created in the 14th century during the Renaissance period. During this

Matthew Lewis’s The Monk, published in 1796, depicts the Catholic Church in Madrid as the victim of religious perversion caused by the pride and lust of its leaders. The events of the novel, including the monk Ambrosio’s surrender to temptation, leading to the rape and murder of innocent Antonia, as well as Agnes’s imprisonment by the vain Prioress of St. Clare’s Convent, serve to emphasize the lack of true religious devotion in the city of Madrid. However, despite the shocking events of the novel, the city had already fallen prey to temptation, and had ultimately strayed from the path of the Church long before these new atrocities took place.

“Francesco” was an average son of an upper-middle class merchant in 13th century Assisi, until he stripped naked in front of his father and the townspeople claiming that God himself had spoken to him. Before this shocking scene, “Francesco”, later to be referred to as Saint Francis, was in a militia and captured by the Perugians. During his captivity he suffered from a severe illness which moved him to become more religious, and once while praying in a church he heard the voice of God through a crucifix. After this religious experience, Saint Francis sold all of his possessions and gave his money to charity. When he father found out about this and became angered by his actions, it led to the scene presented above. After this Saint Francis