Reformation
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church, modeled upon the bureaucratic structure of the Holy Roman Empire, has become extremely powerful, but internally corrupt. From early in the twelfth century onward there were calls for reform. Between 1215 and 1545 nine church-councils were held with church reforms as their primary intent. The councils all fail to reach significant accord. The clergy was unable to live according to church doctrine, and the abuse of church ceremonies and practices continued. The Reformation was a movement within Western Christendom to purge the church of medieval abuses and to restore the doctrines and practices that the reformers believed conformed with the Bible and the New Testament model of the church. But besides the more evident spiritual cause of Reformation there were two more, economical, and political. The preparation for reformation was long. Opponents of Orthodox views had asserted themselves over the centuries, and in the 14th century John Wyclif had led a dissident movement. From 1377 he made many vigorous attacks in both Latin and English on Orthodox Church doctrines, especially that of transubstantiation . He spread the doctrine
that the Scriptures are the supreme authority and that the good offices of the church are not essential to grace. Many people expressed discontent with the church and the medieval order of society. There had long been outcries against abuses in the church, especially the obvious worldliness of some of the clergy, the emphasis on money, and the most importantly economic oppressiveness, of members of the church hierarchy. In the 15th century the conciliar movement (i.e., the attempt to establish the superiority of the ecumenical council over the pope) announced the growing internal church dissent. Although the movement failed, the number of those wishing reform nevertheless grew steadily. fæ Church's emphasis on money, economic oppressiveness of members of the church hierarchy (pg.1) The introduction of printing in Western Europe allowed more widespread dissemination of criticism. For example, Martin Luther's 95 theses were written by him in Latin and were only meant to be read by the learned. His students used the printing press to make many copies in German and widely distribute the document, thus making the public more aware of the Church's venality and immorality and the need for Reformation. Printing was to hasten the Reformation, and the Reformation in turn was to spread printing further.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1106
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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