Explain the problems involved in bringing the Great Schism to an end. How were these problems overcome? Beginning in 1378 and lasting until 1414, the Great Schism split the loyalties of the Church and Christendom between a number of Popes. Beginning after the College of Cardinals elected two conflicting Popes (one in Rome and one in Avignon) in 1378; the ending of the Schism proved to be problematic. These problems can be divided into two major components.
This is essentially because the Roman Catholic Church was split into two. Therefore the people were divided down the middle on who to side with. The Church essentially tied itself into a knot. The Great Schism led to the downfall of the Roman Catholic Church because it decentralized the Church’s base of power, caused people to question the Church’s authority, it created a vacuum of power, drained the Church’s funds, and let heretical movements get a stronghold. The Great Schism started when Pope Clement VII V moved his presidency to Avignon.
In 1512, the Pope expelled him from the Church. In 1521, he is summoned before the Holy Roman Emperor to the Diet at the city of Worms where he refuses to change his opinions. The Emperor declares him an outlaw and condemns his writings. How did the clergy react to Luther's ideas? They saw it as an answer to Church corruption.
Throughout the 700s to 800's, the Catholic Church underwent many transformative experiences that brought it on track to be the Catholic Church we are a part of today. It began with the Byzantine growing less effective in protecting Rome because of threats from the Germanic tribe of the Lombards. The Church sought help of the called the Franks for protection. When the Pope Stephen II at first turned to Charles Martel, he found nothing in it for him to help the church. It was not until his successor, Pepin, saw it differently and decided to unite forces with the papacy.
Immediately after election, Opimius cancelled several of Gracchus’ laws an called into question his actions in Carthage, “omitting nothing that was likely to irritate him.” A rabble-rouser might have used this as ammunition to riot or try and overthrow the government but Gaius “bore these things very patiently,” and only “at the instigation of his friends,” gathered his supporters to oppose the consul’s decisions. At the meeting of both parties one of the consul’s attendants made an obscene gesture and was killed on the spot by Gracchus’ party. As custom of his character, Gaius was very saddened and “severely reprimanded his own party,” for this action that would eventually lead to his death because Opimius was rousing his party into a frenzy at that same moment. When the two parties met, Gaius could not be convinced to bring any arms except a small dagger under his cloak. Gaius wanted to turn himself in to avoid fighting but his loyal supporters would not let this happen and after Opimius denied the proposals of agreement for the second time he sent his troops after Gaius and his party.
Sara Pourghaed John T. Paoletti and Gary M. Radke, “Florence: The Renewed Republic andthe Return of the Medici” The essay starts off my pointing out how Medici lost power of Florence after 2 years of power. His own people threw him out after he allied with Naples and the French king, Charles VIII. After him came who Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola was one of the strongest political voices at the time. He was among the clergy of the monastery of San Marco, but he could not hold office. His preaching of Christian reform were so powerful that it gave a religious cast on republican reform turning the meeting hall of the Great Council into the Hall of Christ.
The main reasons I will be looking at for why the revolutions failed are The Pope’s Allocution, they didn’t have a common goal, France, lack of foreign support and also the power of Austria. With the appointment of the new Pope, Pope Pius X1 in 1846, the states of Italy believed they would have a better chance of unification. Pope Pius was the first liberal pope Italy had seen and he gained support by ending censorship, telling Austrians to leave a town in the Papal States and he also released 2000 political prisoners. These actions had Metternich scared. He even quoted ‘we were prepared for anything, except a liberal Pope.
In the period between 1815 and 1850, Italy was in a constant state of unrest. Following the defeat of Napoleonic France, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was arranged to redraw the European continent. In Italy, the Congress restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments, either directly ruled or strongly influenced by the currant European powers, particularly Austria. But groups in several Italian states began to push the idea of a unified Italian state again, promoting the idea of nationalism. The Austrian Empire forcefully repressed the idea of nationalism that was growing on the Italian peninsula, as well as in the other parts of Habsburg domains.
One of the major events that assisted the fall of the Holy Roman Empire was Thirty Years’ War. The event that started the Thirty Years’ War was “defenestration of Prague.” Two of Ferdinand’s officials were thrown out a window. The Lutherans violated the Peace of Augsburg by acquiring German Bishops, Calvinists converting princes, and Jesuits reconverting princes to Catholicism. The Calvinists and Catholics had many advantages because of that which made the Lutherans fear the Peace of Augsburg would be negatively impaired. The Lutheran Princes felt it necessary to create the Protestant Union and in retaliation the Catholics formed to Catholic League.
By 1527 Henry VIII had decided to divorce Catherine of Aragon, leading to the Reformation and the greatest crisis of his reign. Historians disagree on Henry’s fundamental desire for a divorce, the trigger for the reformation, and thus the multiple factors of the actual reformation are even more disputed. Due to the fraught political situation in Europe, which resulted in Charles V isolating and controlling the Pope, Henry was unable to gain the divorce through the Catholic Church and so was forced to consider other means by 1529. Attempting to pressurise the Pope through Parliament and by sentencing Cardinal Wolsey, his representative, to death, Henry was still unable to achieve the desired effect and thus began his attack on the Church. He reduced clerical privileges and, by charging the clergy with Praemunire, he undermined their power as representatives of the Pope in order to strengthen his own.