From the fifth to the fifth teen century, Western Europe went through a period called the Age of Faith, also known as the “dark ages”. The church wanted more power and authority, and that implicated a few changes. Not only did the internal structure of the church change, but so did the external. Thus the Age of Faith was simulated, and encouraged battles and adventures. This age was influenced by many factors, such as the reforming of the church, rebuilding of the church, and the crusades.
Basic principles had to be returned to the church, as there were still many issues. Priests married and had families, which was against church verdicts. The act of simony, selling and buying of church positions, was an extensive practice. The last major issue was the kings who appointed bishops, when only the church had the capability to do so. All these complications lead to the reformation of the church. Now the laws against priest marriages and simony were enforced by the church leader, the pope. The church was composed as a kingdom, with the pope as its head, and the papal Curia, as the pope...
In the 16th Century, Europeans had their faith shattered and were forced to realize that there was doubt in what they believed in. From the countless wars being fought in the name of religion, to the once great and wealthy countries that needed to reaffirm their place in the world, ‘all that they had once taken for granted was suddenly cast into doubt’ (446). Europeans were desperately searching for new foundations to put their faith in ‘in the face of intellectual, religious, and political challenges’ (446). This period is an example of the expression “Age of Doubt, Age of Uncertainty”.
It is acknowledged that at this time the Church community has not yet reached its highest potential and is faced with the limitations of human shortcomings and temporal constrictions. With an understanding of its abilities and its boundaries, the Church seeks to work with the world community to come closer to the life to which God calls the world." As this quote from one of the Documents in Vatican II states, the Church needs to have a relationship with the "outside world" as the Church itself is comprised of humans. And that the Church has a good relationship with the outside world is necessary for the Church to reach its highest potential. These are some of the changes that took place in Vatican II and naming all of them would not be necessary. The modern Church is the way it is because of most of what happened in Vatican II.
hoped to change the practices of the Church, the Catholic Reformation hoped to reform the abuses that
Norman Davies, a leading English historian, wrote, “There is an air of immobility about many descriptions of the medieval world” (Davies 291). However, these descriptions he refers to do not capture the true essence of the Middle Ages of Europe, which were a continuation and a formation. They were a continuation of old Rome in race, language, institutions, law, literature, arts, and in cultures independent of Rome. Nevertheless, the Middle Ages were not merely a continuation; they were the formation of our world. Many modern-day historians argue that the so-called Dark Ages were a period of ascent rather than of descent, that with the withering of the pagan classic civilization came the first budding of a new culture that was to develop into our modern civilization. James M. Powell, a prominent historian, agreed with this argument concerning the untold progress of this age. Powell believed that the Medieval Ages was a multi-faceted period of time in which the roots of modern civilization began to emerge, and that it was. This time period was critical because, although it seemed to be a dark age, seeds were being planted for future generations such as ours. These seeds have sprouted and have given us templates to work with regarding issues of centralization, the economy, scholasticism, education, expressions of art, and religion.
In his theatrical work J.B., Archibald MacLeish hints to the postwar era of World War II through explicit and implicit references. J.B. is relevant to society and reflects the events that took place in the 1950s. For that reason, the play purposefully and effectively demonstrates that, despite the bitterness and calamities of the forties and fifties, people should remain optimistic and should have faith that there will be hope, instead of dwelling on the injustice in the world.
The Middle Ages are also referred to as the Age of Faith. During the Middle Ages,
This caused a lot of deaths during the Reformation period because the Catholic church decided to prosecute people for following and listening to what Luther had taught them about the real Catholic Teachings. The Council of Trent was a way to stop the teachings of Catholic traditions and state clearly the renewal of the Catholic life. The work of the council was concerned with the organisation of the Church. A seminary was going to be set up for the education of priests in each diocese. During the reformation a Catechism which is a clear summary of Catholic beliefs was set out to help reform the order of Mass throughout the Catholic world which priests then helped educate and teach this understanding to Catholics. Indulgence selling was abolished which means that it was no longer a way for the Church to scavenge money and the infamous Inquisition was
The periods during the Reformation, Industrial Revolution, and the World at War all experienced religious and church conflicts. During the Renaissance and Reformation (1330 – 1650), the fundamental practices of the church came under fire. The church at this time was the largest and most political body. The pope, himself, was the most recognizable political figure. It was due to this authority that the church and its pope were more interested in political issues and less with the spiritual needs of the people (McGraw-Hill, p. 76). Many of the Roman Catholic Church’s high priests had bought their way into position and had very little religious experience. Often the only members of the community that were literate were the clergy thus adding to their control of the common people.
The protestant reformation of 16th century had both: immediate and long term effects. Thus, we can see that it was a revolution of understanding the essence of religion, and of what God is. The protestant reformation is said to a religious movement. However, it also influenced the economical, political and social life of people. The most global, short term effect of the reformation was the reevaluation of beliefs, and, as a result, the loss of authority of the Holy Roman Empire. The long term effects were: the emergence of new heretical movements, the declining of papacy, thus the reevaluation of people’s view on the church and life values.
The Catholic Church and its corruption created chaos among the clergy and the people of the church. Catholic mass was spoken in and the Bible was written in Latin. The clergy were the only ones who spoke and read Latin during the time before the Reformation (Detrick, “Reformation”). The people did not know if the mass was being said or performed correctly. As long as it sounded about right the people never questioned the mass. Many wealthy families “owned” a priest or Pope (Detrick, “Reformation”). This allowed for powerful families like the Medici’s to control large cities and churches.
During the late 14th century and the early 15th century there was a great division in the Catholic Church. The Papacy was becoming blurred. The center of the Roman Catholic Church had been moved from Rome to the city of Avignon during the reign of Pope Clement V; and there was now a movement to return the center of power back to Rome. This movement was first truly seen under Pope Gregory XI and his successor Pope Urban VI. Earlier Pope Urban V had moved the center to Rome but it had been proven to be no more than a temporary idea; he had gone back to Avignon to die and there his replacement, Pope Gregory XI was elected . This along with other political problems and circumstances created a split in the loyalty among different cities and countries between the two popes.
With the decline and fall of the western empire, the classical age of Rome came to a close as disease, warfare and corruption conspired to bring about the downfall of an ailing empire that had once conquered the known world. Where once enlightened despots had ruled a debauched and unwieldy polity, now barbarians stood over the ruins of a once thriving metropolis. In its absence a new world would arise with new values and ideals. Turning their back on a pagan past the Christian children of these wild men from the north would spawn the greatest houses of future European nobility, and when they looked back for a legacy, they would not see their ancestors as pillagers picking at the bones of a defiled Rome, but instead as its trusted guardians, partnering with the Church to carry her legacy through the “Dark Ages”.
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.
During this time period the church was the center of life, and high members of the church wanted to keep it that way even going as far as to ban some books. Some people were very upset with some of the things the Catholic church was doing such as giving out indulgences. A man by the name of Martin Luther went against this idea and changed everything when he began to reject some practices of the Catholic Church. He was not the only one with these ideas, and soon hundreds of new churches started popping up in Europe. The idea that people could make decisions for themselves changed daily life for many people. No longer were you constrained to the job your parents had, or the religion you were born
The Church was organised into a hierarchical system that sustained the Church’s stability and control over the people and lower clergy, by organising them into different groups. First there were the ordinary believers, the citizens of the kingdom who followed the Christian faith. Then there was the clergy, the members who devoted their lives to the church. Each group of the clergy was assigned specific functions by the clergy nobles to help run the Church competently. Amongst all the clergy associates, the Pope was at the top, he had the equivalent if not more power than the ruling monarch and was in charge of all political affairs and administered the clergy. He was able to dictate political laws and even comment on the Monarch’s decisions. Under the Pope, there were the bishops. The bishops directed church courts and managed cases correlated to the public such as marriage, wills and other public predicaments. Priests held religious services that consisted of sacraments, baptisms and the usual Sabbath services. The monks and nuns received manual labour that required helping clean the monasteries and assist the needy. Educated monks copied manuscripts of medieval and ancient knowledge in the Scriptorium. Finally...