In the 16th century the church played a huge role in the lives of people in Europe, however, in some parts and Germany in particular, the Church was seen as not responding to the appetite for spiritual fulfillment and failing in some of its duties. The Church was involved not just spiritually but economically, politically and educationally; therefore, any corruption within the Church had consequences all over Christendom. The role of the Church was to perform the seven sacraments in order for Catholics to reach their goal – salvation. Firstly, the Church was resented because it was corrupt. This was resented in Germany because it seemed hard to obtain salvation and live a spiritual life when the representatives of Christianity were dishonest.
9- The common masses were also unhappy with the Pope and church: not only unhappy with the prevailing corrupt practices in church and the flimsy grounds- on which the church collected funds from innocent people- but also disliked its interference in the secular affairs; some clergymen took keen interest in politics. 10- The rulers were eagerly looking for someone to provide them a lead for a
The failure of foreign policy in the years 1514-1525 can be attributed to many things. The combination of Henry's isolation from European affairs and the fact that his attempts to raise tax were ultimately unpopular failures, meant that he had no way to impose himself upon Europe. Even when he did manage to scrape together the finances needed for a strong foreign policy his reliance on his allies led to disaster. As soon as Henry took the throne in 1509, it was obvious that he was a king that wanted to fight a war. However, wars generally led to very expensive costs to the country.
Rachel Kay How accurate is it to say Frederick William IV was responsible for the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament? The Frankfurt Parliament was established to create freedom of press, German citizenship for all, fair taxation, equality of political rights and to create a unified Germany. However, countries like Austria greatly opposed it. Frederick William IV could be seen as responsible for the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament because he refused to accept any form of leadership and made it clear he distrusted the ‘gentlemen of Frankfurt’. However, many other factors played a role in the demise of the Parliament such as the fact that they were ill-organised, the lack of popular support and their inability to enforce decisions.
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.
Shehab Amin How important was Buckingham in the breakdown of relations 1625-29? Between the years 1625 and 1629 Charles’ favourite the Duke of Buckingham had a huge influence on English politics, the breakdown of relations between Crown and Parliament can be said to be because of how he used this power directly, for example the military failures at this time and relations with France, which he was directly behind. But as a separate point of conflict was religion, the rise of Armenianism. Other factors however such as tonnage & poundage, did cause problems with Charles but again without Buckingham these wouldn’t have been major points of conflict. In 1625 Buckingham decided England needed a new ally in Europe in France after the failure of the Spanish match, they could see diplomatic advantages, France was becoming worried about the successes of the Hapsburg Spanish and might be persuaded to take part against them.
These were people who protested against the Catholic church. They felt the Pope had too much power and control over England. They also complained that the Catholic church was corrupt - shown by the wealthy monasteries. Henry did not really agree with all the complaints against the Catholic church, but was determined to have a male heir. Henry used Parliament to push through his changes.
Clemenceau resented Wilson’s generous attitude towards Germany and Lloyd George’s desire to not treat Germany too harshly. He said “if they British are so anxious to appease Germany they should look overseas and make colonial, naval or commercial concessions”. These disagreements left the big three unsatisfied and ultimately left them with a weak mere shadow of a perhaps great treaty due to their own arrogance and. It contained many faults and weaknesses. The treaty of Versailles greatly humiliated Germany forcing it to accept soul responsibility for the war.
Nicholas II was the last tsar of the Romanov dynasty, and his own arrogance and incompetence was a key factor in what led him to that title. His decision to maintain an autocratic government, fight in the Russo-Japanese war, and, ultimately, drag Russia into World War I, proved he was not fit to rule, and his actions led to the destruction of his dynasty. In these ways, Nicholas II, while faced with many problems, may have survived had he not ruled the way he did. Nicholas II was an implacable autocrat, and his fear of change alienated the Russian people from their leader. When Nicholas was young, he witnessed his grandfather, Alexander II, being assassinated by terrorists.
This predominantly Protestant power base caused disputes with the Catholics who immigrated to America, as the Catholics felt disenfranchised and apathetic due to the politicians in power not being able to relate to their culture. In addition, many of the traditions of that those who immigrated were discordant with those of the WASPs, which generated great amounts of segregation and suspicion around those who immigrated. A prime example of this would be the Russian Jews, as their beliefs about washing their dead were very different to the traditional funeral values instilled in the Protestants. Moreover, the suspicion was in many cases political as well as religious, due to the proliferation of socialist, and later Communist ideals in Europe: both were substantially different to the philosophies set out in the American Constitution. For example many of the Jews escaping the Pogroms in Russia had been influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx and Lenin.