In turn, the Renaissance had a profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people perceived the relationship between man and God. Furthermore, the popes, in a spirit of refined competition with other Italian lords, spent lavishly both on private luxuries and public works, repairing or building churches, bridges, and a magnificent system of aqueducts in Rome that still function today.
From to , St. This was a time of increased contact with Greek culture, opening up new avenues of learning, especially in the fields of philosophy, poetry, classics, rhetoric, and political science, fostering a spirit of Humanism—all of which would influence the church.
The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort composed of four major elements—ecclesiastical or structural reconfigurations, new religious orders such as the Jesuits , spiritual movements, and political reform. Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality.
It also involved political activities that included the Roman Inquisition. One primary emphasis of the Counter-Reformation was a mission to reach parts of the world that had been colonized as predominantly Catholic, and also try to reconvert areas, such as Sweden and England, that were at one time Catholic but had been Protestantized during the Reformation.
Feudalism began to crumble during the Late Middle Ages, as strong kings seized power from their vassals. The Black Plague had wiped out many of the vassals, and their power weakened. Knowing that the English people sought peace, Henry married off his sons and daughters to the ruling families of other countries, including Scotland and Spain.
People began to leave feudal lands, heading to cities where they formed guilds. A guild is a group of people who do the same type of work, like making clothes. The Roman Catholic Church also began to lose its power as church officials bickered. At one point there were even two popes at the same time, each one claiming to be the true Pope.
During the Renaissance, men began to challenge some of the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. An Englishman, named John Wycliffe, was one of the early challengers. Wycliffe felt the Church should be poor, like the early apostles of Jesus.
Wycliffe also believed that the Bible should be translated into English, so people could understand its message. Wycliffe's reforms made little difference, but in the early 16th century, a man named Martin Luther changed the Church forever. Luther, a Roman Catholic priest in Germany, posted 95 poor practices of the church on the door of a church in Germany. This document was called the 95 theses and was meant to point out how the Church could be improved.
One of the problems he saw was the selling of indulgences. An indulgence is a pardon or forgiveness for a sin that a person has committed. Pope Leo X at the time was selling indulgences to raise money to build a grand new church in Rome. An advance in technology that helped to spread the message of Martin Luther was the invention of the moveable-type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg.
Gutenberg, a German, created the press that used movable type pieces for characters, rather than woodcuts of entire pages that had been used in presses in the past. Moveable-type made books faster and these books were less expensive than books made from woodcuts. Martin Luther started a movement called the Reformation. Many people tried to reform the Church during the s. These break-away Christians are called Protestants because they were protesting the practices of the Catholic Faith. All Protestants have one thing in common, they refuse to follow the Pope.
Lutherans are the Protestant group that follows the teachings of Martin Luther. Wars followed between Catholic and Protestant nations, as well as attempts to convert the people of the New World to each type of faith. The discovery of the New World by Europeans was a result of exploring and sailing to find faster and safer trade routes to Asia than the long and dangerous land routes.
The most successful movement by Catholics to stop the tide of the Reformation was called the Jesuit movement. Palmer says the Reformation was a climax of long, slow processes which had started before the Renaissance, including the corruption of the Catholic Church. Disillusioned by the bribery and other corruptions of the church, including indulgences, which allowed citizens to buy absolution from sins, the German monk Martin Luther wrote the 95 Theses in , allegedly nailing them to the chapel door at the University of Wittenberg in Saxony.
In this way, Palmer says, the intellectual movements of the Renaissance led to Reformation—by stimulating the demand for books and encouraging people to read more and to think about how to reform the present. This included re-reading the Bible, as Luther did. His translation played a part in initiating the split in the Catholic Church into those loyal to the pope and Protestants and those who protested the rules of the Catholic Church. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV.
0コメント