christian church in MA
The Christian Church in the Middle Ages played a significant role in society. Unfortunately though, the church is often regarded as the capital of corruption, evil, and worldliness. Today, so many people depict the medieval church as being led by materialistic popes, devouring tithes from poverty-stricken peasants, having various illegitimate children, and granting indulgences for money from wayward believers. Yes, circumstances like this may have been the case, and is often hard to disapprove, considering the fact that this notion is often advocated in movies. But we must open our mind, and look at the situations first before jumping to conclusions. As many things define the distinct characteristics of history, the Christian church has made a remarkable milestone especially during the Middle Ages. Christianity's emergence as an official religion influenced not only the church, it enabled people to look beyond the obsession of power and worldly pleasures, but to a final and ultimate reward for a life well spent. Everybody put their faith in the hope and love of the Christian God. It gave the people goals and led them to the right path, yet why is it looked down upon so harshly? Maybe it was because of the wealth it exempli
Apart from the Protestant reformers, there were other historical facts of the late medieval church that contributed to the tenacious myth of corruption. During the time that the papacy remained in Avignon is often used as an example of the deterioration of the church. After all, hardly any of the popes lived in Rome, which was and is considered the inalienable habitat of Saint Peter. Going back to Avignon, the popes who lived there were usually subject to nepotism and were in constant fights between the Italian cardinals. The major problem relating to the maltreatment of power between the popes was commonly known as the traffic in indulgences, which certainly was a commercial exploitation. Essentially, it meant to basically pay off for forgiveness whatever you are going to do or did wrong. With this money was the church able to build various art forms that made it clearly visible of the popes abuse because of its elaborate existence. An example of this would be in the Vatican, which we can still see today. With this new pope, corruption became overbearingly existent. The Italian Urban VI was not exactly a discreet person, he was harsh, extravagant, and overbearing, known for usually insulting and threatening the French cardinals. The Italians were horrified at his irregular behavior and soon withdrew their obedience. The French proclaimed that the Italian election was not valid and selected a new pope, Clement VII. Clement VII was an ethical person and knew what was needed of him, a stable and moral pope. He resided in Avignon with the other cardinals and won the adherence of the French king. The only good thing that came out of this ordeal was the growth of a "papal council", where not only the pope, but all the bishops are able to discuss issues and make decisions together. With this, the sales of indulgences brought forth a major factor concerning the corruption of the church. The granting of indulgences was accepted from the Crusades and grew more popular during the later Middle Ages. This practice of Tetzel, Luther's adversary went way beyond the doctrinal limits the church set long ago, though it was readily encouraged by the financial policies of p
Some common words found in the essay are:
Middle Ages, Christian God, II Leo, Urban VI, Western Schism, Clement VII, Peter Avignon, Apart Protestant, Ages Christianity's, Benedict XI, middle ages, medieval church, church corrupt, clerical abuses, church middle ages, popes lived, church church, urban vi, julius ii, age chaos, italian urban vi, medieval church corrupt, julius ii leo, protestant reformers,
Approximate Word count = 1470
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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