How far was the Reformation caused by hostility towards the clergy in the German states? Years of hostility prior to the Reformation encouraged Luther to accelerate his ideas of reforming the Catholic Church. Many factors played crucial roles in developing this idea that the Church was a corrupt organisation who was in dire need of reform. To an extent, anti-clericalism, resentment towards the Clergy, was one of the main causes of hostility and fundamentally convinced people that spiritual duties were put beneath money and power. Despite this, several other factors also caused the growing feeling of hatred towards the Church within the German states.
How far was the Catholic Church in Germany ripe for reform before 1517? There are many contributing factors as to how ripe the Catholic Church was for reformation, one of these was the corruption of the Church. To the people at the time, priests were incredibly important; they had the responsibility of preventing souls from going to hell and were the only ones who could administer the sacraments which would guarantee salvation. However, usually priests would only do this in exchange for money which led the church to be riddled with abuses as the priests only seemed interested in amassing wealth rather than taking care of their parishioners spiritually. Other abuses included simony, nepotism, pluralism and absenteeism.
Medieval Europe was run by petty lords, counts, and kings, and the only unifying institution was the Catholic Church. Authority was vested in men without efficient means to enforce their authority. Power was in the hands of those with money and force. This instability of institutions led to a rise in individual violence, as demonstrated with the murder of Charles the Good. Some may believe that the violence of this period was brought upon by the secular institutions, but the mere lack of these institutions proved to be the true cause.
Martin Luther, a German monk was born during a time of corruption within the Catholic Church. The Church had upmost power and was highly influential on the adherents. The issues of indulgences, simony and nepotism were becoming major issues and they were pulling the church further away from the true teachings and practices displayed by Jesus. Luther objected to these issues and his protests intensified when a Dominican monk named John Tetzel who quoted “When the money clangs in the box, the souls spring up to heaven”. The Black Death also led to a lack of Christian teachings with uneducated priests and clergy.
He believed that the indulgences were unjust because the indulgences were aimed at wealthy people who had the money to buy them while poor peasants were too poor to afford them. John Calvin believed in pre-destination, a belief that people were chosen to go to heaven or hell when they were born, and nothing can change that. He also brought reformation in the city of Geneva, restricting gambling and dancing. Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483. He is famous for his 95 Theses, where he attacked the Catholic Church for selling indulgences and the corruption in the church.
The war caused a great deal of problems for the government, originally they had announced that their involvement would be entirely defensive but were pressured into an offensive battle by the Allies. This greatly angered the already the de-moralised soldiers, due to conscription the army was made up of mainly peasants who weren’t trained to fight and wanted to return home and gain more land for themselves. The June Offensive, which was put in place with the hope that a victory would strengthen moral, did the exact opposite. Far from strengthening Russian army morale, this offensive proved that Russian army morale no longer existed. No Russian general could now count on the soldiers under his command actually doing what they had been ordered to do.
At the end of the 15th century, the Catholic Church was in a bad condition. There was much corruption including simony and pluralism. The Renaissance Popes such as Alexander VI were extremely scandalous and provide no spiritual leadership and instead acted as secular rulers. The emergence of Lutheranism in the 16th century meant that reform now became a matter of urgency however there were many obstacles to be overcome. For reform of the Catholic Church to take place, initiative had to come from the top i.e.
How far were Louis XVI's problems of his own making? The problems Louis XVI faced during his reign were partially due to his lack of leadership ability, his poor decisions and unwise actions. He created these problems by giving too much power to his nobles and hardly utilizing his power in his Divine Right. However, he did inherit an archaic system which was on the verge of collapse in Europe in general and the government of France had many inbuilt weaknesses already. He was faced with a tidal wave of new, enlightened ideas that was also fueled by France's involvement in the American war of independence.
Henry disliked the power of the Church in England because, since it was an international organization, he could not completely control it. If Henry had been powerful enough in Europe to influence the pope it might have been different. But there were two far more powerful states, France, and Spain, with the Holy Roman Empire, lying between him and Rome. The power of the Catholic Church in England could therefore work against his own authority, and the
Christians found it difficult to play a full part in Roman society because of many factors, even those who tried to be a “normal Roman” knew they never could be as much of Roman morality was conflicting with the morals of the Christian faith. One of the most obvious ways that Christians were different is that they did not worship the pantheon of Roman gods as most Romans did and therefore they were classed, ironically, as atheists. It is very obvious why they did not allow Christ to become another god equal to the others in the pantheon, in their eyes he was the one true God and they did not tolerate polytheism. Romans on the other hand could not tolerate monotheism! Christians however did try to be normal, everyday Romans by being good neighbours to those who weren’t Christians, they showed that they had integrity in what they believed and so earned the respect of many Romans.