Grade 8 Chapter 11 Study Guide 1300 1500 A.D. are known as the late Middle Ages. This was a time of disease, disorder and great change in the church. The plague, or black death was a highly contagious disease spreading throughout Europe, killing thousands. We now call this disease the bubonic plague. This disease weakened the people faith. They saw so much death, they wanted to enjoy what was left of life. Faith tells us that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil. Europe was in crisis the plague was raging, England and France were at war, German leaders were weak, and Muslin armies were advancing on Europe. From 1453 1529, Muslim armies had conquered all of southwestern Europe. Priest were dying as a result of treating and caring for plague victims. Some priests grew rich by collecting fees for performing private Masses for those who died. The Catholic faith was experiencing major set-backs, after a flourishing Gregorian period. Some problems of the Catholic faith included: a) lack of understanding of the Eucharist, b) the Mass was said in Latin, and many people felt it was distant and unclear, c) only the very educated attended Mass regularly. During this period, priests were poorly educated in their faith, and could not teach others. Christendom, the cultural and political atmosphere that came into existence because almost everyone was Catholic, was beginning to weaken. The weakness of the papacy itself became one of the problems of the church in the late Middle Ages. Pope Clement V, a French cardinal became pope in 1305, and moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon, France. During his reign, he appointed mostly French cardinals. As they continued electing French popes, the papacy appeared to be under the control of the French King, a civil ruler. In 1377, Pope Gregory XI, an Italian pope, moved the papacy back to Rome. After Gregory s death, the cardinals elected an Italian pope, Pope Urban VI. The cardinals did not like the changes Pope Urban VI was proposing, so they accused the Roman mob of putting Urban VI in the papacy. These cardinals elected another pope, Pope Clement VII, the nephew of the French king. He became known as the antipope not the true pope. There were now 2 popes Pope Urban VI in Rome and the antipope, Pope Clement VII in Avignon. Even when Urban VI and Clement VII died, two new popes were elected. This new election caused the Great Schism of the West.
In 1409, cardinals from both papacies, met to dethrone the two existing popes, and elect a new pope. They elected Pope Alexander V, who set up his papacy in Pisa, Italy. Roman Emperor Sigismund assembled a council from 1414 to 1418 to set aside all three rival popes. In 1417, Pope Martin V was elected and accepted by the Western Church. After almost 40 years, the Great Schism of the West was over. Succeeding popes were faced with the reality that civil governments were separate from Church governance. The Renaissance is the transitional period between the end of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. Renaissance is a French word that means rebirth. The Renaissance was a period of Greek and Roman culture revival. The Church became a patron of the arts commissioning great art and architecture, and reading scripture in the original Hebrew and Greek forms. A new church philosophy, humanism, had begun. Humanism placed a greater emphasis on the importance of the individual person. Church humanists emphasized that everyone is made in God s own image and likeness. Popes during the Renaissance period were overly concerned with the arts and living lives of luxury, rather than in serving God and his people. We see that even the popes of Catholic Church turned away from God as the Israelites did in the times of Moses. We learn that even in the worst of times, The Church survives. The Church, instituted by Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit, and sustained by God s grace, ALWAYS REMAINS. The Sistine Chapel is an extraordinary example of Renaissance art. Renaissance artists created painting of Emperor Constantine s triumph at the Battle of Midian. The Church played an important role in preserving some of the finest aspects of ancient art and culture. Saint Catherine of Siena convinced Pope Gregory XI to move the papacy back to Rome. She is declared a doctor of the Church.
Grade 8 Chapter 12 Study Guide At the Council of Constance the claim was actually made to give councils supreme authority in the Church. Pope Martin V refused to accept this claim. The Church condemned this idea and called it conciliarism. Universities were debating the authority of the pope, the councils, and Europe s many princes. Bishops lived in luxury away from their dioceses and were poorly educated in their faith. Catholics were yearning for a deeper personal relationship with God. One free from the corruption of the times. People were beginning to think about their individual rights. They began to feel angry about obeying traditional authority, princes were resenting taxes being paid to the Church, and local rulers were envious of the wealth of the Church. At all levels, people began to call for change, or reform. In Germany, an Augustinian priest named Martin Luther (1483-1546) was angered by the abuses and scandals of the Church. Luther made a list of church related issues that he felt needed reform, especially the sale of indulgences. Indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven by God. During the late Middle Ages, the granting of indulgences became a way for the church to raise money. Pope Leo X approved indulgences for anyone who made a contribution for the building of Saint Peter s Basilica in Rome. Martin Luther believed that salvation was purely a gift from God. He believed it was not possible for a person to earn or buy salvation. Luther s list of issues is called his Ninety-five Theses, which he nailed to the door of the German bishop. When the bishop did not respond to him and Luther s issues, Luther appealed to the Pope. The pope sent a cardinal to meet with Luther, but their meeting ended in anger and no resolution was found. This disagreement led to a protest in the Catholic Church. Over the years, Luther emphasized scripture, translated the Bible into German, and dismissed the authority of the Catholic Church. He rejected the ordination of priests, monastic life, and most of the sacraments. He encouraged civil leaders to set up national churches. In 1520 Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther from the Church, and in Germany, Emperor Charles V declared Luther an outlaw. Martin Luther continued to write and promote his reforms. Many Catholics followed Luther s teachings and left the Catholic Church. They formed a new Christian community, called Lutherans.
The Protestant Reformation grew in Germany as a result of constant wars with France and Muslim invasions. In 1547 when Emperor Charles V had the time to battle these Lutheran princes, it was too late. Millions of Catholics had converted to the Lutheran Religion. The invention of the printing press around 1450 aided the spread of the Protestant Reformation. Huldrych Zwingli rejected the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, declared that the Bible was the only source of faith, and encouraged everyone to interpret Scripture for themselves. More radical Protestant Reformers were called Anabaptists or rebaptizers. They rejected the authority of the church and civil government. They wanted to live in isolated communities. Amish and the Mennonites are such religious communities who sought religious freedom in America. John Calvin, a Frenchman, also rejected the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He also believed in predestination a doctrine that states that God, chooses some people for heaven and some for hell, regardless of how they live their lives on earth. King Henry VIII was a defender of the faith and supported the pope for speaking out against Martin Luther. When King Henry s marriage failed, he became angry when the pope would not allow his marriage to be annulled, or dissolved, so that he could marry again. Henry went to the Archbishop of Canterbury to declare the marriage invalid. The pope excommunicated King Henry, but the King responded by naming him supreme head of the Church in England. This infuriated Sir Thomas More, a devout Catholic. More refused to attend the coronation of Henry s new wife and would not recognize Henry as the head of the Church of England. The price he paid for his courage was his life. Child King Edward VI, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer began to refashion the English Church into something distinctly not Catholic. To respond to this reformation, Pope Paul III assembled the Council of Trent in Trent, Italy, which lasted from a545 to 1563. The Council of Trent addressed John Calvin s theory of predestination by affirming that human beings are not evil. The council also affirmed that there are seven sacraments, upheld the truth of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and affirmed that people need the Church to guide them in their efforts to live a Christian life. The Council upheld the practice of praying to saints and for souls in purgatory, reiterating that the bond of Baptism joins all the members of the Church those who are living and those who are dead. The Council required bishops to live in their dioceses, care for the spiritual welfare of their people, visit their parishes once a year, watching over monasteries, and setting examples of good Christian conduct. The council also put in place a system for selecting bishops, without the influence from local kings and princes. It also required seminaries
to give future priests a good education and strong spiritual formation. The Council also established the Roman Catechism, a summary of Catholic faith to guide the whole Church. This commission was headed by Saint Charles Borromeo. The council of Trent set forth the official teaching of the church on all important matters, signaling the beginning of a substantial program of reform within the church. This enabled the Church to answer, or counter the crisis started by the Protestant Reformation. This period in history that counters the Protestant changes in the church is called the Counter Reformation.