The Religious Conscience Of Europe

Since Protestantism was not only a religion but a way of life, and since priests and other clergy members were no longer as necessary in religion, in many countries the state and the church began to fuse, and formed a single, all powerful rule. As a result, many Protestant

The break from the Catholic Church began when King Henry VIII came into conflict with the Pope over the divorce he wanted to obtain from his wife Catherine of Aragon. After several years of bickering with the Papacy, Henry VIII eventually separated from the church of Rome to the church of England. But this new entity, the church of England, was basically the Catholic Church without the Pope and the monasteries. For the rest of the reign of Henry VIII, and that of following Tudor monarchs there would be vicious competition between the new Protestants and Catholics for supremacy. There was also dissension among the Protestants themselves over how far the reform of the Church should go, and over the course of some years a split began to form between the members of the Church of England.

None the less the Papacy was now divide. The saying "United we stand, while divided we fall." is very valid in this instance. The church is having many problems around this time period and many people are converting, or shale we say shifting, to other forms or Christianity. Whereas before these problems occurred the church was the central power in Western Europe and had great influence over the governments in their sphere of power. This event, the schism, caused a split in the Catholic Church and divided countries among the two popes. "Everyone realized that the schism resulting from the counter-election of Cardinal Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII . . . was a tragedy for the church . . ."

In one of his most famous works, the Praise of Folly, Erasmus, “attacked monks, theologians, and other Christians for not seeing the true purpose of life, which is to imitate Christ”(Luthy Chu) This belief displayed how to be a better person, a key part in the individualistic element of humanism. It also helped spread new ideas of reformation. One of Erasmus’ other literary accomplishments was publishing the New Testament translated and annotated in Greek. By doing this, “Erasmus promoted the spread of Classical knowledge to encourage a better morality and greater understanding between people.” (Erasmus Biography, biography.com) classical study was a great component of humanism during the Renaissance, especially using Greek materials. In addition to promoting classical study, encouraging morality is part of humanism. The third way translating the New Testament supported humanism was it advanced education. During the time of the Renaissance, education included the study of languages. Making popular texts available in Greek helped in the education of

The Catholic Church had an extremely amount of power that it had become very wealthy and very corrupt. Which leads the revolt of Martin Luther in 1517 against his authorities significant in this time period. Luther’s ideas on the church would spread quickly throughout Europe fueling the flames of Protestantism. Leaders such as Henry VIII took these ideas and used them to break free from the Catholic

The church began to lose to power because the people were no longer listening to the church, and because of what they learned from the 95 statement thesis written by Martin Luther. The thesis informed people they did not need to pay their way to heaven, pay for someone to get out of Purgatory,or pay to get to heaven (Doc.8). The writing of Luther’s 95 thesis led to the printing press being invented by Gutenberg, with creation of the printing press it allowed the people to read the bible for themselves, which in turn allowed them to think for themselves (Doc.9). With this new knowledge from the bible, people began revolting against the church and the government. This led to wars such as the St. Bartholomew Massacre. The St. Bartholomew Massacre started because Catherine de’ Medici felt threatened by the influence of Huguenot Admiral de Coligny and planned on assassinating him. They were not successful and only wounded Coligny. This caused the Huguenots to become furious which made the Medici nervous, who in turn ordered a massacre of all Huguenots. This led to a religion division. With the chaotic acts of freedom from the people, Europe created the Nation States. The Nation States were made to keep people from acting out against the government and to keep control over the

As new humanistic philosophies gained traction. Christian humanists became vocal critics of the corruption that plagued the Church. Leading to the creation of new forms of Christian practice like Lutheranism. Humanist thinkers saw the need for Church reform. They saw the

The protestant reformation happened at the moment that it did because the Catholic Church was very a powerful force in Europe. It controlled people lives both spiritually and temporally. The church had so much power that it maintained political control over a large portion of Italy. The fact that the church held so much control over countries and governments became a point of contention among European countries such as the Holy Roman Empire, Italian city-states outside of Rome, England, France and Spain. The power of the rulers of these areas had greatly increased in the 14th century and they were eager to take the chances offered by a Reformation to weaken the grip of the Catholic Church in Europe and also to develop their own powers across the European continent. For quite some time the Catholic Church had been an institution rampant with internal struggles. Such as the Avignon Papacy from 1309 to 1377 when seven popes opted to live in Avignon, France and not reside in Rome which was and is the traditional home of the Papacy. The Pope and other high ranking church officials often lived opulent lifestyles rather than a more austere lifestyle that should befit a spiritual leader. Many church leaders and Popes maintained political powers. They led armies, waged wars and made many political decisions. Church offices were sold, and many Popes and bishops practiced nepotism to fill church offices. With all of these worldly issues for the Pope

If we travel back to the year 1500, the Church (what we now call the Roman Catholic Church) was very powerful both politically and spiritually in Western Europe. For some time the Church was seen as an institution weighed down by internal power struggles. Popes and Cardinals often lived more like kings than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed political as well as spiritual power. They commanded armies, made political alliances and enemies, and, sometimes, even waged war.

‘They were too involved in politics rather than important issues of the Church’ (Green) This is the most important reason why the Church in Europe required reform because had the Church prioritised sorting out abuses within the Church rather than politics, a reform would not have been required at the end of the fifteenth century. A different reason why the Church in Europe needed reform was that members of the nobility, had become higher clergy because it strengthened their position, rather than for religious reasons. ‘Senior clergy were generally outsiders, often nobility imposed upon the diocese by royal parentage…these clergy regarded their spiritual duties as little more than a source of income…’

Northern Renaissance humanists placed more emphasis on early Christian history and works than their Italian counterparts. They studied the Holy Scriptures and the works of several early church fathers, such as Augustine and Jerome. They believed that the Christian church was much simpler than the church of their time. They were also noted for their reform program, in which they believed that they need to change the humans in order to improve society. Erasmus, a famous humanist, wrote that he “would [prefer] that even the lowliest women read the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles.” (Spielvogel 337). His quote reflected the attitude of many Christian humanists at that time. Christian humanists support the use of education since they believed

There was one main religion in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. This religion was Roman Catholic Christianity. It was both unifying and separating in some ways. Unlike now, religion served various functions, and was the main cultural aspect in people's lives. The Christian patriarch was more powerful than European kings, and wealthier.

By the late 1500s, Christian denominations had been popping up all over Europe. This was in response to the reports of indulgences (selling of freedom from purgatory), clerical immorality, abuse of money, along with many other bad actions that were rampant among the Church. It was these problems that Luther and others rebelled and created their own religions. With the rising of these Reformation movements, the Church needed to make some reforms itself. These reforms took the form of educating the clergy, opening monasteries, the Inquisition, and the organizing of councils. In fact, even though Protestant attacks brought these reforms, many of these reforms were needed anyway. The problems in the Church were so bad that the Church would not

In the eyes from the pope, he thought of the church threatened both its political and religious unity. Now the cardinals that were representing both popes convinced another council on their own authority in Pisa in the year 1409. There is when they deposed both the Roman and the Avignon popes and elected a singular pope, Alexander V. Then the council said that neither pope accepted its action, and Christendom suddenly faced the spectacle of three contending popes. This Pisan successor John XXIII, the popes from Rome and Avignon refused to step down from the

The Renaissance was birthed in Italy during the fourteenth century. In the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Renaissance spread to Germany, France, England, and Spain. However, different aspects appealed to all of these regions. In England, France, and Spain, Renaissance culture was aristocratic but in Germany, vital lay piety and no monarch created anticlerical blend of thought.