In the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation weakened the authority and power of the Catholic Church in Europe, sparking religious conflicts and debates that would last for centuries to come. But what had the Catholic Church done to warrant the tides of theology and opinion turning against them? Let's examine the period surrounding the Roman Catholic Church, 1500s!
Roman Catholic Church Timeline
Firstly, let's look at a timeline of significant events for the Roman Catholic Church before and during the 1500s.
| Date | Event |
| 1378 | The Western Schism began - both Urban VI and Clement VII were elected Pope. |
| 1409 | The Council of Pisa attempted to resolve the Western Schism by electing Alexander V as the new Pope - but it did not work. |
| 1414 | The Council of Constance began. |
| 1417 | After receiving Gregory XII's resignation and the deposing of other claimants, Martin V was elected Pope, ending the Western Schism. |
| 1471 | Sixtus IV was elected Pope. |
| 1484 | Sixtus IV died; Innocent VIII became Pope. |
| 1492 | Innocent VIII died; Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) became Pope. |
| 1494 - 1498 | The First Italian War. |
| 1499 - 1501 | The Second Italian War. |
| 1502 - 1504 | The Third Italian War. |
| 1503 | Alexander VI died; Pius III became Pope for less than a month; succeeded by Julius II. |
| 1508 - 1516 | The Fourth Italian War. |
| 1513 | Julius II died; Leo X became Pope. |
| 1517 | Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, beginning the Protestant Reformation. |
| 1521 | The Diet of Worms took place. |
| 1530 | The Diet of Augsburg took place, and the Augsburg Confession was created. |
| 1545-1563 | The Council of Trent took place. |
| 1555 | Peace of Augsburg. |
| 1618-1648 | Thirty Years' War. |
| 1648 | Peace of Westphalia. |
Corruption in the Roman Catholic Church 1500s
One of the biggest complaints of reformers was the widespread corruption and abuse of power that stretched even up to the highest offices of the Catholic Church.
The 'Bad Popes'
The actions and reputation of the Holy Father were central to how the Catholic Church was perceived, and it's fair to say that not all of them were above reproach! Illegitimate children, nepotism, and bribery were common between several of the Popes at the end of the 1400s - very different from the celibate and just Vicar of Christ that the Pope was supposed to be.
'Vicar of Christ'/'Holy Father'
These are the official titles of the Pope - he has eight titles overall! The term 'holy father' is used in reference to the Pope.
Alexander VI
Perhaps the most famous of these 'bad Popes' was Alexander VI, born Rodrigo Borgia. If you've heard the name 'Borgia' before, it's probably not been for anything good. The Borgia family have gone down as one of the most scandalous families in history, with accusations of murder, incest, corruption, and bribery attached to the name.
Fig 1. Pope Alexander VI, c.1492
Alexander VI began by bribing the other Cardinals during the Papal election of 1492 in order to become Pope. He already had more than five illegitimate children by several mistresses, and immediately began promoting his sons, notably Cesare Borgia, to positions of high authority in the church and arranging a powerful match for his daughter Lucrezia.
Even more bad Popes!
Sixtus IV (papacy: 1471-84) had illegitimate children and gave many of his friends and family high positions in the church to secure his own position. Innocent VIII (papacy: 1484-92) hardly lived up to his name, securing powerful matches for his illegitimate children, whom he recognised as his own, rather than as nephews or nieces, as was tradition.
Catholic Church Selling Indulgences
The selling of indulgences was one of the main complaints of Martin Luther in his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 and was an example of how the Catholic Church exploited the common people's fear in order to make money.
Indulgence
The payment of money in order to have your sins forgiven. Initially, the process was to pay and then do good works to prove you were worthy of forgiveness. However, by the late 1400s, it had become as simple as paying for immediate forgiveness.
The process of indulgence became simplified and more common because the revenue from them, collected by pardoners, provided money for crusades, building churches, and public improvements.
Pardoners
Pardoners were people employed by the church to go around towns and villages and give out indulgences.
Fig. 2 - 'The Devil Selling Indulgences' from the Jena Codex, late 15th century
Although the Church did denounce Pardoners who behaved too outrageously, it nevertheless profited from their work. In 15th-century Europe, someone's greatest fear was going to hell because of their sins. They looked to the Church to tell them how to avoid this, so if the Church said to pay, they paid. Essentially, the Church was exploiting people's fear of hell in order to line their own pockets.
Burden of Payment
When considering indulgences, it's important to understand just how much of their lives people already gave to the Catholic Church in Europe at this time. In addition, you would be expected to put money into the collection at the end of church services and pay tithes to the church as well as work on church land for a certain number of days per week without being paid.
Tithe
This was a tax that everyone had to pay to the church. It was an income tax, and took away 1/10 of people's income.
Did you know? Payment was necessary in order to partake in most church rituals (marriage, christening, baptism etc.) - these were non-negotiable acts if you wanted to get into heaven!
Simony
Simony was considered a serious offence within the Church, yet the selling and promising of offices to certain people still happened within the medieval church.
Simony
Selling church offices or other sacred roles. It had once been rife in medieval Europe, but Pope Gregory VII had cracked down on it during the 11th century. Nevertheless, it still continued to happen in the Catholic Church.
It was commonplace to promise church offices to various people in return for services. For example, in the election 1484, the Dean of the College of Cardinals and the Vice-Chancellor went around to other Cardinals and promised them positions and other benefits if they voted the way he wanted.
Problems in Europe
It cannot be forgotten that the Catholic Church was a political entity as well. The Papal States were effectively their own country, part of the Italian states and controlled by the Pope. The political action of the Papacy and the Papal States' involvement in European conflicts at the end of the 1500s had a significant effect on the reputation of the Pope and therefore the reputation of the Catholic Church as a whole.
Western Schism
The Western Schism took place from 1378 to 1417, with three different Popes being elected by various councils. After Pope Gregory XI died in 1378, there was a desire to have an Italian Pope again, after the Papacy had been residing in Avignon, France for the last 70 years. The table below shows the different claimants to the Papacy.
| Roman Claimants | Avignon Claimants | Pisa Claimants |
| Urban VI | Clement VII | Alexander V |
| Boniface IX | Benedict XIII | John XXIII |
| Innocent VII | | |
| Gregory XII | | |
The end came with the Council of Constance (1414-1418), in which all the current claimants to the Papacy either resigned or were deposed. In 1417, a new Pope was elected, Martin V, and he was accepted as the true Pope, thus ending the Western Schism.
Fig. 3 - This map shows Europe in the 14th century, and which countries supported which Pope
The Western Schism had a huge effect on the reputation of the Catholic Church. It brought to many the realisation that the Catholic Church was not infallible, and sparked a questioning of the Catholic Church's practices and ability to lead Christianity in Europe.
Roman Catholic Church 1500s: Italian Wars
The Italian wars began in 1494 and lasted until 1559. They had a significant impact on the power and authority of the Pope.
Italian Wars (1494-1559)
These were a series of wars that were fought between France and Spain, but also involved an alliance of other European countries - notably the Papal States, the Holy Roman Empire, Switzerland, and England.
The Papacy was a political entity, so its involvement in the wider political conflicts in Europe was unavoidable. Yet previously, the Pope and the Papal States had always been able to rely on people's respect of the Catholic Church to protect them. But after the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church's hold over Europe was weakening, and the Papal States were more vulnerable. An example of this is the Sack of Rome in 1527, when the Pope was held hostage by Lutheran rebels.
Catholic Church and the Counter Reformation
Of course, a large part of the Catholic Church's mission in the 1500s involved trying to stop the spread of the Protestant Reformation, in a movement known as the Counter Reformation. This began with, and was largely defined by, the Council of Trent (1545-1563), in which statements against Luther's theses and clarifications of (Catholic) Christian doctrine were made.
Other significant events in the Counter Revolution included:
- The Diet of Worms (1521) - Martin Luther was brought before a council of the Holy Roman Empire and asked to recant his views. He did not - in fact, he only reaffirmed them.
- The Diet of Augsburg (1530) - Another meeting, in which a compromise was attempted between Catholicism and Lutheranism through the Augsburg Confession - a statement of Lutheran beliefs that was supposed to form a basis for religious reconciliation.
- The Peace of Augsburg (1555) - This came from the Diet of Augsburg, and acknowledged the Augsburg Confession by ruling that each German state would be whatever religion its ruler was.
- The Roman Inquisition - This was revived in 1542, and was intended to persecute those who were guilty of crimes against the Church - a large focus of this was trying to stamp out Protestantism.
Diet
This was a council within the Holy Roman Empire. Its purpose was to negotiate and deliberate on political matters for the Empire.
However, even the tentative steps towards peace would not last. By the beginning of the 1600s, Protestantism was being spread in Catholic states, and religious tension was on the rise. The culmination of this tension was the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), a Europe-wide conflict that stemmed from the Protestant Reformation.
For the Catholic Church, the Thirty Years' War was a clear indication that it had lost control in Europe and that its power was waning. The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the war, was denounced by the Pope as it guaranteed freedom of worship and reaffirmed the Peace of Augsburg, allowing rulers to choose whether they wanted to be Catholic or Protestant. Long gone were the days of Catholic supremacy. Over the course of a century, the religious landscape of Europe had changed dramatically, with the Catholic Church significantly weaker than in the Medieval period.
Roman Catholic Church 1500s - Key takeaways
The Roman Catholic Church in 1490 was heavily affected by corruption - the behaviour of various Popes, Simony, and the selling of indulgences were all points of concern. In addition, the Catholic Church asked for lots of money from ordinary people - they knew they would cooperate out of fear of divine punishment.
Equally, the Western Schism and the Italian Wars severely weakened the prestige and authority of the Catholic Church. People were afraid and confused, and realised that the Catholic Church was not infallible.
All of these contributed to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in 1517. Once a new way was suggested, it was impossible to ignore when there were so many examples of wrongdoing and weakness in the Catholic Church.
The Counter Reformation showed how the power of the Catholic Church declined in the 1500s, being superseded by the decisions of European monarchs, who tried to make Catholicism and Lutheranism co-exist.
References
- Fig. 3 - Western schism 1378-1417 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_schism_1378-1417.svg) by Midmapped (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mipmapped) licensed under CC BY SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)
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