Corruption in the Medieval Catholic Church
Corruption in the Medieval Catholic Church
Background:
During the 1300’s and 1400’s, many Christians lost faith in some of the teachings of the Catholic Church and its religious leadership. The Middle Ages is also referred to as the Age of Faith because it was a time when most members of European society believed not only in the Christian concept of God, but in the notion that the only way to salvation (going to heaven) was through the Catholic Church. This fact put the Church in a position of tremendous power, as few Europeans would dare doubt the institution that could ensure their eternal life, or more ominously, banish them to damnation. As the Medieval era drew to a close, however, new thinking emerged from the humanist movement leading reformers from both within and outside the Church to question the validity of some of the Church’s teachings and practices.
A major source of discontent with the Church grew out of its power struggle with European monarchs. Throughout Europe, important feudal positions had been staffed by clergy members, and feudal dues and taxes were an important source of income for the Church. As feudalism declined and the power of monarchs increased, the Church took great care to insure that its power was not reduced at the hands of the monarchs. The pope was as much a temporal prince as he was a spiritual shepherd. Protecting his Papal States from the likes of France, Spain, Naples, Venice, and the Holy Roman Empire involved the papacy in endless wars. Pope Julius II, who ruled from 1503 to 1513, wore a suit of armor and rode into battle at the head of the papal armies. In several cases, popes used excommunication as a way to force monarchs to adhere to their wishes. Even so, monarchs battled the Church hierarchy for political power.
The Babylonian Captivity:
The pope’s struggle against the French crown resulted in the most dramatic and damaging clash between church and state. In 1296 Philip IV The Fair, King of France, attempted to tax the French clergy. The pope, Boniface VIII, responded by threatening to excommunicate Philip. Philip then sent troops to kidnap the pope. Though he was soon released, the trauma caused the 86-year-old pope to die within the month. Philip then used his influence to have a Frenchman, Clement V, elected pope. Instead of going to Rome, Clement set up his court in Avignon, in present-day southeast France. From 1305 to 1375 seven popes ruled the Church from France, a period known as the Babylonian Captivity. Many Christians lost respect for the position of pope because they now considered the pope to be a puppet of the French crown.
The end of the Babylonian Captivity ironically resulted in even more trouble for the papacy. In 1376, Pope Gregory XI moved the papal court back to Rome, ending the Captivity. He died in 1378, and an Italian, Urban VI, was hastily elected pope for fear that angry Roman mobs would storm the papal residence. Many Romans feared that influential French cardinals planned to move the papacy back to Avignon. Urban VI immediately upset many cardinals by denying them the usual benefits of their positions, and his behavior became so unorthodox that it was feared he had gone mad. Concerned, cardinals held a separate election and chose Clement VII, a Frenchman, to be pope. Clement set up a rival papacy in Avignon, beginning a period known as the Great Schism. No act in the medieval period caused greater dissension among the faithful Christians. Many asked how they could be expected to consider the pope a supreme source of religious dogma when there were two popes. Furthermore, they began to realize that the Church was a corrupt body with many areas of abuse.
More Corruption to Come:
Moral laxity, at all levels of Church hierarchy, became an obvious source of criticism of the Church. Clergy members were supposed to be educated elite, but many parish priests were illiterate and hardly knew how to perform ordinary religious services. Many priests and nuns publicly flaunted their vows of chastity by taking lovers. During this time, “illegitimate” children could be made legitimate by purchasing a document from the Church; out of 614 grants of legitimacy in the year 1342-43, 484 were to members of the clergy. In some areas, bishops chose not to enforce rules regarding celibacy because it would decrease the income gained from fines imposed on concubinage. Several popes raised illegitimate children, including Innocent VIII and Alexander VI, who conferred upon their sons important Church offices. Numerous bishops and abbots used their positions to lead lives of luxury and leisure, living more like princes than humble men of God. Cardinals lived in palaces in Rome, sporting jewel-encrusted gold robes and feasting on sumptuous meals. During the Babylonian Captivity, one Cardinal in Avignon required 10 stables for his horses, and another housed his servants in 51 houses. When Giovanni de Medici was elected Pope Leo X in 1513, he said, “God has given us the papacy; now let us enjoy it.”
The Church developed several corrupt practices to pay for these extravagant lifestyles. Christian tradition taught that pilgrimages to sites of relics or holy places were acceptable forms of penance that were necessary to return to God’s grace after one had sinned. During the late medieval period, some clergy took advantage of this tradition to create a thriving industry by bringing relics to the people and charging repentant Christians to see the holy remains and objects. Frederick I, prince of Saxony in northern Germany, kept a collection of over 17,000 relics that included a piece of Moses’ burning bush, 33 fragments of Jesus’ cross, some straw from Jesus’ manger, and even a vial of milk from the Virgin Mary’s breasts. Proceeds from pilgrimages to this museum of relics paid for Saxony’s cathedral, castle, and university. Simony was another practice that created revenue for the hierarchy in Rome. It allowed Church offices to go to the highest bidder, regardless of the buyer’s background or training. By the fifteenth century, some Christians even considered traditional Church taxes, levied in the form of tithes on all Christian subjects of the pope, to be unjust.
Indulgences:
The most lucrative and controversial corrupt practice used to raise funds for the Church was the selling of indulgences. Developed during the 13th century, indulgences were based on the idea that a truly repentant sinner could work to reduce his or her years in purgatory. The notion was that the pope had control over a treasury of merit, or spiritual wealth, which could be dispensed to the faithful for the remission of sins. When a Christian was deemed to have sinned, he or she could confess the sin and perform good deeds, or pay a certain amount of money to the local church in place of doing standard penance, to work off time in purgatory. The practice of offering indulgences easily lent itself to abuse. Initially, repentant Christians who purchased indulgences would receive documents, signed personally by the pope, absolving the purchaser of his or her sins. In time, however, a person could buy what amounted to a form letter from any number of Church officials, who were usually attended by bankers in charge of calculating the proceeds. Although the Church never officially stated it, some clergy taught that all sins could be forgiven by indulgences, for yourself, for deceased family members, and even sins that you were planning to commit in the future.
Many Christians found these events most troubling and the notion of trusting the Church was a long forgotten idea. No longer was the Catholic Church seen as the being in the position as Protector of the Truth.
Weber: A Typology of Power
The following chart is based on Max Weber's typology of power and it should help to clarify the distinction between coercive power and power based on various types of authority (charismatic, traditional and legal-rational).
| |Types of Power | |
|Coercion | |Authority | |
| |Charismatic |Traditional |Legal - Rational |
|People forced to do as they are told |People obey because of the personal |Those who exercise authority do so |Those in authority give orders (and expect |
|under threat of punishment (for example, |qualities of the person doing the telling.|because they continue a tradition and |to be obeyed) because the office they fill |
|in a prison or a school classroom - not |Well-known charismatic figures include |support the preservation and continuation|gives them the right to give orders. Anyone|
|the same thing, whatever you might |Jesus Christ, Hitler and Chairman Mao. |of existing values and social ties (for |who fills the same position has the right |
|personally believe to the contrary...). |However, charismatic figures may arise in |example, Queen is Head of State in |to issue orders, which means that this type|
| |any social grouping and such people assume|Britain, a position she inherited on the |of authority is not based on the personal |
| |positions of authority over others on the |basis of traditional rules of succession |qualities of the individual. Orders are |
| |basis of personal qualities of leadership |for the monarchy). |only to be obeyed if they are relevant to |
| |perceived in that individual by other | |the situation in which they are given. |
| |group members. | |For example: |
|[pic] |A teacher could reasonably expect the order to "complete your homework by Thursday" |
| |to be obeyed by a student. The teacher could not reasonably expect the same order |
| |issued to the student's parent would be obeyed. Similarly, the order to "go down the |
| |street and get me a newspaper" would not be seen as a legitimate order for a teacher |
| |to give his / her student, hence the student would not feel compelled to obey). |
| |This form of power is the typical form that exists in our society and is sometimes |
| |referred-to as "bureaucratic" power since it is based upon the status of an |
| |individual's position in a social hierarchy, rather than the individual herself. |
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