The renaissance period is known to have had various effects on the Catholic Church, both positive and negative. This was the period when the Catholic Church gained a lot of popularity from people. However, it was also during this period when the church almost collapsed. This paper seeks to establish the various ways that the rise and the near collapse of the church were due to the renaissance period.
Despite the very many contrasts that were existent during this period, there was a declining influence of the Catholic Church. Most humanists thought that the church still had traditional rules, values and policies which they felt that they were getting outdated and should therefore change.
In the earlier periods, the Catholic Church was an imperative part of the structure that was based on the faithfulness between vassals of the feudal system and the lords. In the renaissance period however, there was a shift on focus from religious matters to money matters. The church had a hard time adjusting to this fresh philosophy. As a result the church had been accused on the grounds of corruption on several occasions, an act which gave the church a bad reputation.
The high regard of the church was also wounded as some church heads desecrated the biblical regulations they were delegated to uphold and existed no differently that the worldly merchants and political numbers.
This was additionally compounded by the comprehension by the new sovereigns that, in order to maintain supremacy, the church had to operate according to its traditional rules and regulations, practices that were fading in the church. This was because some church leaders were acting in a manner which was in accordance to the principles of the Catholic Church.
Although there was decline in the popularity of the Catholic Church during this era, there was some growth in religious matters. This mostly happened in the 14th to the 15th century in a period which later came to be known as The Reformation. It was more critical in the 16th century.
Decline of the Church
The papal patio was mortified when, in the in the early years of the 14th century, the French emperor enforced them to Avignon. This strained move led the churches uppermost leaders to emerge as the subjects of France.
The church, in its place of providing religious leadership to the rapidly shifting society, became pre-occupied with its management of staff and procedures. The dilemma became even worse during the Great Schism, when opponent popes vied for power of the church. This was evidence of greed in the church. The ultimate outcome further lessened the political weight of the church.
There were commendable leaders of the Catholic Church for the duration of these times. Nicholas V and Pius II, who followed after the latter, were educated, devout and dignified heads of the church.
There were in addition other popes, like Alexander VI, who was pope in the year 1492, Julius II and also Leo X, who were primarily concerned with the political grounds, the endorsement of their families and the benefaction of the art. These popes additionally weakened the capability of the Catholic Church to have authority on the society and also in politics.
With its destabilized authority, the church established that its papal power was getting increasingly challenged, both in the vicinity and countrywide. These tests to the papal influence, known as “heresy”, burgeoned, and critics turned out to be more candid and copious
The Growth of Religion
The worry of the churches situation was a consequence of the power of the church, not the flaw. The pressure of the Catholic Church was failing but there was yet increasing recognition of religion all the way through all regions of Europe (Barry, 11). Religion started to revolutionize. Preachers called on the sinners to ask forgiveness (repent). This association believed in straight revelations from God devoid of the church as an agent.
People who protested the Catholic Church, along with their contradictory beliefs, posed a menace to customary religion. Popular unorthodox movements sustained their growth and continued to dare papal authority. Some fractions of these movements happened to be so willing to have the whole Catholic Church done away with. For the duration of the 14 century, a British theorist, John Wycliffe started airing his grievances against the Catholic Church in his trainings and scripts.
These heretics grow to be popular due to their attacks, but they hang about as a small underground. The preponderance of the reformers expected to modify the Catholic Church, not get rid of it. There was a very significant theologian in the early times of the 16th century at the University of Paris who supported conciliar theory. This hypothesis aimed at making a reformation to the Catholic Church by eliminating the supreme influence of the pope and putting it in a common council.
The renaissance period can hence be seen as a period that meant a lot of trials and consequent tribulations to the Catholic Church as a whole. It kept the church in constant upheavals (Starn, 22).
Works Cited
Barry, William. The Renaissance. The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Vol. 12.
Starn, Randolph. “A Postmodern Renaissance?” Renaissance Quarterly. 2007. 60(1): 1-24