The Roman Catholic Church In The Late Middle Ages

The Magna Carta was created in 1215. It was an unsuccessful attempt to bring peace back early to England civilization. King John ruled during this time period. The first baron war forced him to create the Magna Carter. It eventually became known as the Great Charters of liberties.

In the 1500s, the Catholic Church headed by the pope with its central institution located in Rome was very powerful and one of the wealthiest church in Europe. It united most of the people across Europe and had a major political role in every decision making that concerns the state. But, as the church gained more power and wealth, its hierarchy of top officials also became corrupt and greedy. Eventually, people started to get angry and frustrated over its corruption and started a religious rebellion against the church. The conflict among the people and the church began to escalate therefore causing a ripple effect throughout the world.

The Reformation was a religious revolution in the 16th century, which changed Catholic teaching, and created Protestant churches. These ideals (such as questioning authority and religion) have created modifications that are still affecting and altering our society today. Since the establishment of The Roman Catholic Church, the Church had filled the needs of stability and authority for the masses. Although this hierarchal institution left little room for individuals to question the rules forced upon them.

During the period from 1760’s to the 1910’s, the European intellectual viewpoints have evolved over time starting with the Enlightenment, which sparked in the French Revolution. Equality and education became very important to the Europeans along with theories on human behavior and reason. Winding time forward, Romanticism was a movement in the arts and literature that emphasized passion, emotion of the individual, and admiration of nature. This praising of the individual transitioned to imperialism era, which was the colonization by the European powers, USA, and Empire of Japan. Every nation was in a competition to take over the natives’ land first.

The Church in the 1500’s In the 1500’s, the Catholic Church had gained a lot of political power, “There was no legal alternative” (Trueman, 2017). The Catholic Church heavily guarded its position and anyone that went against them was deemed a heretic and was burned at the stake. The Church didn’t want to be seen as having any weaknesses. The Church took the Judgemental perspective of God forcing people to do what they asked or they would be punished for eternity.

The King of England, Henry VIII, noted the anger and began a reform in the Catholic Church. He took the Church in Rome and reformed it. He changed some of the policies and renamed it the Church of England. However, some felt that the reform did not go deep enough. They were still upset.

In the medieval period of 1050-1300, the Kingdom of France progressed and developed along many lines. A new culture developed, a central government emerged and new lines of thought began to come into fruition. With these developments, many problems began to emerge. The issue of violence in general emerged as a problem that needed to be addressed by the government. In addition, greed and corruption ravaged the church questioning its moral integrity, and thus, its authority.

Historical Essay – Natsha Nair In Medieval Europe between 500-1500AD, how did the power of the church impact peoples’ lives? In Medieval Europe during 500AD – 1500AD peoples’ lives were significantly impacted by the church and the amount of power and control it had over peoples’ daily lives. People depended on the church during the entirety of their life they believed and acted upon its teachings. People had short, hard lives and looked for a sense of purpose in life, and found this in religion.

The Reformation was essentially a campaign to reform the Roman Catholic Church and its teachings. There were many factors as to why there was an outbreak of Reformation such as political factors, social factors and religious factors. One main factor for the outbreak was the many abuses of the Church like absenteeism, lack of education within the clergy, sales of indulgences for Church benefit e.g. the rebuilding of St Peter’s Bascilla. People like Erasmus, Thomas More, Zwingli, Martin Luther and John Calvin saw this corruption and tried to do what they could in their power to see change within the Church. Their actions led to a schism within the Roman Catholic Church.

The western world changed a lot during the 17th and 18th centuries. In over 200 years, science, art and world literature changed greatly. Enlightenment thinkers, writers, scientists, and artists affected the way the physical world and the religious world coexisted. People like Copernicus, Newton, Galilei and Sir Francis Bacon changed the scientific field forever. A lot of their ideas are in use today and form the basis for our modern science.