The Roman Catholic Church During The Middle Ages

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 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

At the beginning of the period during the Medieval Times, the Catholic Church had power and influence over everyone's lives. The church built up its power over the years through superstition and engraining in people’s minds that the only way to heaven was through church. People believed this because they were not exposed to any other formal education and anyone that spoke against the church was subject to heretics. Toward the end of the period, after

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 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.

During the 1500’s a movement away from traditional Catholicism started to take hold. The most notable figure during this time was Martin Luther. He had ideals that, at the time, were extremely radical. As Gerald Strauss put it, “His doctrine of the two realms- the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the world, derived directly from Augustine – entailed the strictest segregation of things spiritual and things material” (22). He did not believe that the people of the church had any right to control the population at large. He believed that they were meant to be spiritual guides, not rulers, and that they wielded way too much control over the common people. One of the most radical things that he did, which was also the most influential

The Church in medieval times played a dominate role in their lives. Everyone, whether they're peasants or nobles, believed that God existed, and along with Heaven and Hell. People were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Church let them, and to be granted that acceptance meant you had to be faithful. Hell, on the other hand, was terrifying. Priests would often read passages out of the bible and preaching the word of God, along with that the suffering that could be experienced if you sinned and were sent to hell. The idea of torture kept people's faith in check, after all eternal suffering was more threatening then it was to pray to God. The Church also had a lot of wealth and power. Mainly the wealth they got from

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

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

Long before the reformation period,people within the church, both clergy and lay were keen for the church to eliminate all corrupt practices and for a reform,which would bring everyone closer to God. Those high up in church authority had ignored the concerns made by these reformers because they were personally gaining from practices like indulgences. However the sixteenth century split of protestant from the Catholic church became obvious and brought about bad publicity towards the church as the loss of members was a large concern, putting them under pressure to reform itself properly. The church responded in a very serious matter which resulted in the church starting

This source is from article written by Alixe Bovey - Canadian historian. The main reason was to educate about The Church in the Middle Ages, its influence on almost every aspect of people’s lives. The source is an educational source aimed at people university level, students or someone who wants to study of medieval history. Source has purpose to educate about The Church and society within it. Tells us that this institution was dominant, shaped almost every aspects of life and had huge influence on people’s lives. Also, which is important the calendar, events, ceremonies or sacramental rituals appeared according to the church decisions. Aspects of life like teachings, marriages, confirmations and many more had the place in religious aspects.

To begin, the Protestant Reformation began in reaction to the Catholic Church’s rather corrupt practices. Prior to the Reformation, the only major Christian denomination in Western Europe at the time was Catholicism, headed by the Pope in Rome. Through many acts of violence such as the formation of the Spanish Inquisition and the slaughter of the Cathars, amongst others, Europe’s Monarchs had wiped out and suppressed any form of religious competition. With the Catholic Church holding a tight stranglehold over Europe, Catholicism was the only option. This allowed

The Catholic Reformation was the response of the Protestant movement in the sixteenth century. By the sixteenth century, many people lost the trust for the Catholic Church because it was corrupt. Popes and Cardinals became involved in politics and were more like kings than spiritual leaders and Nepotism was rampant. This loss of trust led people to moved on into other branches of Christianity which includes, Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anabaptism. Catholic Church’s realized it needed to re-establish itself, thus beginning the Catholic Reformation. The Catholic Reformation was successful because it triggered the start of The Society of Jesus and The Council of Trent which helped resolve the church’s corruption through education,

The Catholic Church as we know it is much different than that of the past. Love, acceptance, forgiveness, giving, and tradition are all things that come to mind when the words Catholic Church are heard. If one were to ask those living in the 1400-1800s what comes to mind when thinking about the Catholic Church, their answer would have been very different. With the exception of a few countries, there is a separation of the church and state in todays’ government. In our current state of government, the church has no say in the justice system or decisions made by the government. There is no priest or king who rules over the country or attends government meetings. In early Europe, this was not the case. The Catholic Church had great influence on the government. The church actually was the government in some countries who operated under a theocratic ruling. With God being the ultimate ruler, the Priest or King was the next in power. The royals are supposedly Gods chosen ones. They are the closest to him and everyone else is below them. The church had power over the military, who had access to education, individuals’ socioeconomic class, the laws, and almost anything else one could think of.1 The ultimate goal of the church was to convert anyone who was not Christian into a Christian, and to conquer lands that were not under Christian rule and use them under the power of the Catholic Church. The goal of the inquisition was to send out

The papacy of Roman Catholic Church reached its zenith in the thirteenth century. But there was a decline of the papacy in the fourteenth century due to disaster like the Black Death, The Great Schism, and many other evolutions in Europe. Many new ideas and advanced technologies were developed after series of changes. These ideas influenced the lives of many normal people in the Medieval Ages.