The Victorian period, up until the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, was therefore a time of religious confusion, but also, as we will see, of great charity, as well as of birth of new beliefs. What role did religion play in the lives of citizens of this period and their society? The Victorian era was marked by the immense influence of the Church of England in religion, of course, but also in politics- being linked to the government meant it had its hand in certain social decisions, such as the oppression of dissenters. This naturally caused friction amongst people of other faith, especially the Catholics who had previously been stripped of many of their civil rights, which were only returned to them in 1827 by Parliament. They had a long wait until 1840 to see the tax-supported status of the Anglican Church be removed, making them equal once again.
This uncertainty at the head of the church created divisions in Christendom that would last for a long time, divisions that would sow the seeds of the reformation, increase strength of national churches and lead the way to the creation of The Church of England. The crisis of Church in the later medieval ages was one of role, increasingly secular government was coming to the forefront of administration, where before the Church ‘had fulfilled many of the functions of the modern state’ The 18 years of Pope Innocent III’s pontificate is viewed by many as the height of the papacy in the medieval era. Innocent believed that the Pope controlled the spiritual world of man in Gods stead. He realised that to do this the Pope would have to have control of the temporal world as well. Innocent pursued these claims very successfully and Margaret Deanesly argues that ‘he was a greater force in the secular politics of Europe than either emperor or national king’.
This piece of legislation would later give him the power to over through Catholicism and would which later make him ‘Supreme Head’ of the Church in England. The Dissolution of the Monasteries still, to this day, represents the largest legal transfer of land, property and assets in English history, since the Norman Conquest in 1066. But to what extent can the Dissolution of the Monasteries be considered a landmark? The Dissolution of the Monasteries is down to two occurrences, public and private intensions. Within the public intensions the king wanted to bring the clergymen into the sphere of his subjects.
Parliament would eventually go on to create the New Model Army in response to events that surrounded Charles I, personal rule and his marriage to a catholic Queen Henrietta Maria, the daughter of Henry IV of France. (1600-1649). (Visual Sources Book), Plate 10.1a, (p.52). (online britroyals). However, the trigger for unrest and the Civil War was brought about by the king’s demand for money through taxation.
He married a Catholic: Henrietta Maria. This caused great uproar amongst his people and Parliament. Parliament tried to stop him marrying a Roman Catholic in fear of Catholicism gradually seeping back into the country. Since the reign of Elizabeth, the country had been strictly Protestant. In 22 years, this was the first major sign of religious trouble.
1. Which was a major result of the Protestant Reformation? a) new Christian denominations emerged b) religious teachings were no longer allowed in the universities c) the Crusades were organized d) the power of the Pope was strengthened 2. Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses were a call for a) religious revolt against the German princes b) reforms within the Roman Catholic Church c) greater papal authority d) Crusades to spread Christianity 3. Who did Luther think had too much power? a) the King b) the Nobles c) the Pope d) the Knights 4.
In the middle of the 18th century the American colonies experienced two major revivals that had lasting effects on the country regarding religion, government and society. The First Great Awakening was a Christian revitalization movement that swept first European countries and then, in the 1730s and 1740s, the colonies in America. Church leaders, such as Jonathan Edwards or George Whitefield, got concerned that the colonists lost their religious zeal and preached in a dramatic and emotional style, attracting a large following. The new faiths that emerged were much more democratic in their approach and they lessened the hold of the Anglican Church which was later applied to a political field. Through the Awakening, the Colonists realized that religious power resided in their own hands, rather than in the hands of the Church, or any other authority.
However, the changes were not uniformly experienced across Europe. Religious context Religion was one of the aspects of the Renaissance that changed drastically over a few centuries. Before the Renaissance, during the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was dominant in most states of Europe. The medieval thinkers believed that the most important responsibility of the people was to pray to God and aim at saving their souls. Society was believed to be full of evil temptations.
It is as true today as it was three hundred and sixty-seven years ago. While there were several contributing factors to the English civil war in 1641, (economics, personalities, political unrest) religion, and the fact that Charles I married Henrietta Maria a Roman Catholic French Princess, certainly provided the spark. [2] To understand the events leading up to the civil war and the eventual beheading of the sovereign king, Charles I in 1649, we need to take look at the events leading up to his reign. In other words, what did James I do, or not do, that contributed to the tensions in England at the time Charles took the reins? [3] When James called his first Parliament into session, he had nothing but good intensions.
In education especially the control of the church was used to influence future generations in its favour. Leaders of the church were sympathetic to nationalists if there was no violence involved in their movements but after the Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921, they were in favour of the free state. During the civil war they even would excommunicate republicans so when there was peace in 1923 bishops were confident to be highly influential in the new state especially since it was a mostly catholic population. In the 1920s many Free State citizens thought the granting of independence as a triumph for the long time suffering Irish catholic against the officially protestant British state. This strengthened the view of the catholic religion with Irish identity and with a widespread decline of the Irish language; many valued their catholic religion as one of their main signs of their Irish identity.