First and foremost, there is already one major discordance from the very beginning between Charlemagne’s rule and that of Augustine’s City of God. The “City of God”, of course, is not a man-made institution, but more an abstract concept denoting the optimal way of life under God’s rule: love for God and love for neighbor. From the text City of God Augustine states, “a city surpassingly glorious, whether we view it as it still lives by faith in this fleeting course of time, and sojourns as a stranger in the midst of the ungodly, or as it shall dwell in the fixed stability of its eternal seat.” Indeed, the city is no actual citadel, with law codes and kings, but a city in spirit represented through the faith of the body of believers.
This piece of evidence shows that when the re-introduced idea of humanism was brought to the people during the Renaissance, it was very influential at the time, but people were still not fully on board with the new idea. Although these ideas were very progressive at the time, they did stir some opposing and confusing ideas from others. One conflict that came out of the Renaissance Europe time period was The Protestant
This thesis studies the results of Indulgences on Christian history, ideals, art, and architecture, especially the building and rebuilding of Saint Peter’s Basilica. The text argues that the sale of Indulgences, despite their exploitation of people all over Europe, affected history in a positive way. The author creates her argument by going through the history of the early Basilica of Saint Peter, early Indulgences, subsequent Popes and their use of Indulgences, then the financing of the new Basilica of Saint Peter, and finally the decisive abuse of Indulgences by Pope Leo X, which sparked the Protestant Reformation. The author uses first hand accounts of the history she just described as her evidence, citing many primary sources and journals
Papal authority and credibility combined with pre-existing prejudices towards non-Christians legitimized the need for violence to exterminate danger. Christopher Tyerman expands on the later crusades and this paradoxical thought, saying that the crude typology caused dissent in the Middle Ages, and even more so as the crusades continued. Pope Urban’s preaching and
The 95 theses is a list of questions and propositions for debate. Legend has it that on October 31, 1517 Luther defiantly nailed a copy of his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. In essence, his Theses called for a full reform of the Catholic church and challenged other scholars to debate with him on matters of the church policy. The 95 thesis were to be used by as the basis for a discussion on this topic. It challenged the teachings of the Catholic Church on the nature of penance, the authority of the pope and the usefulness of indulgeneces.
Ignorance was the norm, intellectual life was nearly non-existent. The Church was a dominant and powerful presence in Europe at the height of its power, though sinful and barbaric as it was. As the Renaissance spread through Europe, individuals became educated and fought to break the stronghold the Church held over the continent. Power in the Church declined as intellectuals came to criticize it, garnering supporters and ending the centuries of religious unity in Europe. This rebirth, this period of flowering creativity and thinking led to great changes and improvements as individuals focused on the “here and now” rather than religious affairs.
1. The Suffering and the Mystery of Evil “Man suffers whenever he experiences any kind of evil.” The concept of suffering and evil are closely connected. Pope John Paul II addresses this relationship between suffering and evil in his apostolic letter as follows: Man suffers on account of evil, which is certain lack, limitation or distortion of good. We could say that man suffers because of a good in which he does not share, from which in a certain sense he is cut off, or of which he has deprived himself. He particularly suffers when he an ought-in the normal order of things-to have share in this good and does not have it.
Pope Innocent III initiated numerous technical innovations in the organization of the crusades specifically concerning raising funds, universal recruitment, and preaching the cross. Innocent III’s crusading bulls forcefully reclaimed the authority of the crusade for the papacy. For the first time under Innocent III, the Church led the crusade movement in all its entirety. Reinvented by Innocent III and further developed by his successors, the crusade movement capitalized on the concept of Christendom to define and further extend the religious and political boundaries of papal power.
What should people believe? Should people follow the corrupted church? Where could people find a spiritual support for themselves? These questions all addressed the validity of Renaissance, in a deeper moral and philosophical perspective. It grants a way to people to discover the original meaning of the religion, the importance of salvation for
Augustine challenges this notion through this piece of literature.
He is beginning to realize that he has to change his ways in order to reach absolution. In the ninth book, Augustine shows how he was able to finally connect with God through his books and teachings. “I read on: Tremble and sin no more, and this moved me deeply, my God, because now I had learned to tremble from my past, so that in the future I might sin no more.” (Book IX, Section 4, Page 187) This shows that Augustine was finally able to find God through the readings of the Bible.
Augustine dedicated his life to Christ after reading the epistles of Paul. Original sin was a disputed topic for the Church and had many sides to it. Augustine’s argument about original sin disagreed with Pelagius’, a philosopher in the church. He argued that sin has been passed down from the start when Adam and Eve first ate from the tree of knowledge.
Unlike thinkers such as Socrates, Augustine believed that “without faith, there would be no true knowledge,” which doubtlessly confirms that the medieval world view did not acknowledge rationalism. Again, unlike the classical view that
Augustine, in the early part of his life, struggles with faith and morality, for he is more fascinated by rhetoric than by God. As he grows older, however, he begins to explore religion more, and he eventually becomes a Catholic. Augustine’s book, The Confessions, details his progression from Manicheeism to Catholicism. The writings of the apostle, Paul, greatly influenced Augustine’s conversion. One specific writing of Paul’s that appears to have been especially resonant with Augustine is 1 Corinthians 6, in which Paul discusses the immorality or careless sexual behavior.
“Do good and avoid evil” is a result of the differing educational, religious and cultural influences on man in the various times and places of his historical development. Thomas Aquinas contended that general principles of the natural law cannot be applied to all men in the same way on the great variety of human affairs, thus arises the diversity of positive laws among various people. Human laws deal with changing and contingent matters and often with singulars, do not have the certitude that belongs to the speculative sciences. Each has its own realm of operation and is sufficient that each have the certitude proper to its own realm. [ Ibid. ]
