European Renaissance: cultural and intellectual revival

¶ … Renaissance of Europe

The European Renaissance is characterized, in part, by the sweeping changes that took place with regards to religion, in particular, in the Catholic Church. The papacy was becoming increasingly corrupt during this time and was full of hypocrisy. This ultimately led to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. This paper will examine just how corrupt the church was at this time and how this led to its own downfall, thereby paving the way for people like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Erasmus to put forth new ways of thinking and advances in religion, science, and so on.

In 1500, corruption and hypocrisy in the Catholic Church were rampant. For example, indulgences were used as means of coercion and manipulation rather than for the original purposes they were intended. An indulgence is the full or partial remission before God of temporal punishment for sins that have been forgiven. According to Encarta, "It is granted by ecclesiastical authority and is considered to be a special form of intercession made by the whole church through its liturgy and prayers for the reconciliation of one of its members, living or dead." In simpler words, it can be thought of as not only having one's sins pardoned, but having them wiped totally clean from one's record as well. It would be like not only having a speeding ticket dismissed, but then having all knowledge of that ticket's existence being removed from any and all records pertaining to the driver in question.

Given what it represented for one's eternal soul in the afterlife, it's no wonder that indulgences became a highly desirable item, which naturally led to their abuse by clergy, and especially by the pope. Instead of being administered to those who had earned and deserved them, indulgences could now be had by anyone -- for a price. What's more, no work had to be done on the part of the recipient. In other words, if a person had money, a person could buy forgiveness without having to repent or atone for one's sins. With this practice, the pope could effectively turn a blind eye to the sins of powerful people or people whom the pope wanted to grant indulgences to in order to gain favors from them. What was once a serious tool for atonement and forgiveness and part of a serious church sacrament had now become a bargaining chip used to further the financial concerns of the church.

Indulgences were not the only things being abused at this time. Church laws, such as the vows of abstinence and poverty, were also flouted, sometimes quite openly. John Wycliffe, an English reformer, was one of the most vocal opponents of the Catholic Church, loudly denouncing the lack of morals in ordained priests. Many priests at this time were greedy, immoral, and ambitious, and did whatever they could to further themselves in the church hierarchy rather than doing whatever they could for their parishioners' souls. Because the church held so much power in the form of money, titles, and land, there was very little that the masses, especially the peasants, could do about it. None of this went unnoticed, however. In order to make religion accessible to the common people and encourage them to work for change, John Wycliffe "translated the Bible into English and delivered sermons in English, rather than Latin" (Encarta). He began pointing out to people the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and calling for it to reform.

During this time there was a huge rebirth in the concept of the individual. This revival in individual thought, known as Humanism, was incredibly threatening to the Catholic Church. Prior to this, the church had been able to maintain its monopoly on knowledge and truth by claiming that "divine revelation was the only method of acquiring true knowledge" (Applied History Research Group). People were beginning to rediscover the self and exploring new concepts in science, medicine, literature, and so on. The Greeks and the Romans were especially admired, and laypeople began reading these ancient texts, believing that they held the "real" truth, which the Catholic Church had twisted to serve its own ends. People now wanted to come to their own conclusions rather than merely adopt the Church's conclusions. This greatly alarmed the church, and those who condemned church doctrine often found themselves condemned in turn as heretics, or even witches, and burned at the stake.

The Catholic Church, however, was nothing if not shrewd and wise. In an attempt to "join 'em if you can't beat 'em," the church "hired sophisticated classical scholars to write official correspondence and propaganda; to create an image of the popes as powerful, enlightened, modern rulers of the Church; and to apply their scholarly tools to the church's needs, including writing a more classical form of the Mass." (Humanism) However, this was most likely a case of too little, too late. The seeds of foment and rebellion had been planted, and Martin Luther was the man who harvested what the Catholic Church had sown.