For centuries historians have argued about what might have caused the decline in
the fourteenth century Roman Catholic Church, and whether it was related to the Great Western
Schism, or the Black Death and famine. While each of these events were devastating to Europe
at the time, the majority of decline in authority and power of the church and pope lie within the
anomaly of the Great Western Schism. According to much research a divide in power of the
Catholic Church led to two strongly opposing popes claiming legitimacy. The schism began soon
after the death of the Avignon pope, Gregory XI (1305-1377), more specifically 1378. Once an
election was ran for the new pope, the people of Rome demanded they enlist a pope of Italian
heritage. In response to
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Their election did result in a
pope from Italy; however, Pope Urban VI proved himself unfit for Papacy—displaying acts of
selfishness, greed, and extravagant living. Since the reign of Papacy on Avignon, “…the Great
Western Schism, and what [it means is] far from over, and we have had more than four centuries
of arguments…” (4). During the last four centuries, something that historians have in fact agreed
upon is that Pope Urban VI has been “…considered, both by the majority of contemporary
chronicles and by most later historians, one of the most arbitrary and, indeed, insane of all
popes” (5). Because of the obvious mistake the Cardinals had made, they decided to withdraw
their election of Pope Urban VI, and bestow it upon Robert of Geneva, making him Pope
Clement VII. Urban VI was not happy about this, and was not ready to give up his authority as
pope; in retaliation to the Cardinals, Pope Urban VI manipulated Queen Johanna to support his
claims that Clement VII was the ‘anti-pope.’ The claim made by Pope Urban VI (who at
Fulcher’s version of Urban II’s speech focuses firstly on the reprimands issued by Urban to the People of France for their infighting; He quotes Urban as addressing the council as being “Urged by necessity... come into these parts as an ambassador with a divine admonition” . He reports the Pope as complaining to ...
In the speech, Urban first lectures his fellow clergymen regarding problems in the church, saying that they should "set [themselves] right before [they] do others"1 Fulcher, 51. Urban II next, as according to Fulcher, declares the doctrine of the church and re-instates the idea of the "Truce"2 McGinty, 52. He also discussed various crimes for which the criminal would be excommunicated from the Church.
Catholic empire by bishops of the west. The west was looking to restore their empire as bishops
Elected in 1958 as a ‘caretaker Pope’, Pope John XXIII implemented the greatest reforms in the Church’s history. His involvement within the Church had played a significant contribution to the reforming of social, political and liturgical Christian traditions. During the early twentieth century, the Catholic Church still held the century old conservative beliefs and traditions as they continued to separate the Church from the secular world, therefore, disadvantaging the Church to a world that was modernising. In addition to this, the Church restricted modernist thoughts due to the belief that new theologies would threaten the power and authority of the Church, but ...
Pope Urban II was sought by Alexius Comnenus, a Byzantine Emperor who wanted the papacy to help his army hold off the advancing Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor. The reason for Alexius Comnenus contacting the pope rather than another emperor or monarch wasn’t just the fact they were secular, but because the pope would have more power to persuade the people. The Gregorian movement in 1050-80 was ultimately was responsible for the new instilled power of the papacy’s position over nonreligious rulers. The pope agreed to aid the Byzantine emperor, but he also had his own agenda when it came to the military advances and the new power of his position. The papacy did not intend to only help the Byzantine Empire but to further save all of Christendom from being overrun.
"The Church was in poor shape as well. The popes resided at Avignon, not at Rome, to the scandal of many.
The prestige of papacy has faltered many times during the History of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the largest issues with papacy prior to the time of reformation was the influence of France on the church. Throughout history countries or monarchies have often fought for power and influence over the church and state. For a period of time, the papacy left residency in Rome and moved to Avignon, France due to France’s strength influence of the popes of the time. The results of this residency would affect both the church and all people in the surrounding areas. Not only that, but the effects lasted well on past the residency eventually leading to the Great Schism. In order to understand the effect of Avignon papacy it is important to
...sition to reform as Pope Paul III, but again the changes he wished to implement during his papal reign were not entirely popular. Pope Paul III and Pope Julius III had a less forceful nature then Caraffa, so when he was provided with the role of Pope, he did not hesitate to take action upon the issue of debasement and dissent which he had been intolerant of for so many years, but had not capabilities to act against.
Carleton- Munro, Dana. The Speech of Pope Urban II. At Clermont, 1095. The American Historical Review. 11. no. 2 (1906): 231.
Through the years from the medieval ages up until now, the Roman Catholic Church has always had a major influential presence in all walks of life for European people, whether it was for taxation, the establishing of laws, the rise and fall of monarchs, and even daily social life. Furthermore, the Catholic Church held such power that they could even appoint and dispose of great kings with just the writing of the pen. However, their power started to wane once human curiosity overcome ignorance and blind obedience. For example, the Enlightenment Age brought a series of shocking blows to the Church’s power such as disproving the Church’s theory of geocentricism and presented an age of questioning and secularism. In essence, by looking at the Church’s
From the Middle ages, the church faced many problems such as the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism that hurt the prestige of the church. Most of the clergy lived in great luxury while most people were poor and they set an immoral example. The clergy had low education and many of them didn’t attend their offices. Martin Luther had witnessed this himself, “In 1510 he visited Rome and was shocked to find corruption on high ecclesiastical places”
Roles of the Catholic Church in Western civilization has been scrambled with the times past and development of Western society. Regardless of the fact that the West is no longer entirely Catholic, the Catholic tradition is still strong in Western countries. The church has been a very important foundation of public facilities like schooling, Western art, culture and philosophy; and influential player in religion. In many ways it has wanted to have an impact on Western approaches to pros and cons in numerous areas. It has over many periods of time, spread the teachings of Jesus within the Western World and remains a foundation of continuousness connecting recent Western culture to old Western culture.-
She examines 6 popes between 1470-1530 who she claims lead in a way similar to politicians. They lost touch with the common people both emotionally and intellectually. A little known cleric led the revolution challenging papacy that culminated in the reformation of the church. In that context, Barbara outlines that the popes were venal, immoral, and their power politics was calamitous. The faithful were distressed by their leadership, which ignored all the protests and the signs that a revolt was coming. In the end, the papal constituency lost almost half of its followers to Protestants. Barbara says that these people were driven by the greed and the urge to create a family empire that would outlive them. This chapter sums up the essence of folly in these major failures, lack of a fixed policy, over extravagance, and the illusion that their rule was
The Reformation was a decisive period in the history not only for the Catholic Church, but also for the entire world. The causes of this tumultuous point in history did not burst on the scene all at once, but slowly gained momentum like a boil that slowly festers through time before it finally bursts open. The Reformation of the Church was inevitable because of the abuses which the Church was suffering during this period. At the time of the Reformation, a segment of the Church had drifted away from its mission to bring Christ and salvation to the world. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church had gradually become weaker because of abusive leadership, philosophical heresy, and a renewal of a form of the Pelagian heresy.
Perhaps no other event was as influential to the rise of papacy in Rome as the decline of the Roman empire. With the decline of the empire, the church became the last refuge of stability. Without the protection of the empire, Rome was subject to poverty, disrepair, and attack from enemies.1 The rise of the papacy was a response to this situation. It was further cemented by the leadership of such men as Leo I and Gregory I, the latter sometimes referred to as the father of the medieval papacy.2 Finally, the granting of lands and authority to the bishop of Rome greatly increased the power of the Roman church.3