Jesus Christ founded the Roman Catholic Church early in the first century A.D. The basic organization of the Church was also put in place during this time, but the organization is something that has evolved, and continues to evolve, throughout the past two thousand years. Yet to say that the Roman...

First off, Natural Law is demonstrated in the Natural Law Matrix. (This is at the end of this essay.) But Natural Law is basically a system to make sure that the law is king instead of the king being the law. It starts out with God, whom is the creator of all things and is in charge. Basically, ever...

The advancements of Greece, Rome and the Dark and Middle Ages set the foundation for modern European culture. Through literature, inventions, and the church Europe evolved into a distinct civilization. Greece influenced modern Europe with their advancements in literature and the written language....

Recognition of past mistakes has led the church to better practices and pastoral care. The events of the Second Vatican Council have shown that the church is willing to look at its problems and past mistakes and then attempt to solve them. By recognizing that what they were doing was alienating thei...

There was widespread support for Luther's ideas in Germany because they appealed to all the classes, highlighting current weaknesses of the church that had been abhorred for years and developing complaints already noted by other dissidents. But more than that they proposed a change, a reform, w...

The First Crusades In the middle of the Eleventh Century the tranquility of the eastern Mediterranean seemed assured for many years to come, but little did the people know what was ahead. This embarks a journey back into the First Crusade. The Crusades were a time of confusion for most pe...

Introduction: At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church, modeled upon the bureaucratic structure of the Holy Roman Empire, has become extremely powerful, but internally corrupt. From early in the twelfth century onward there were calls for reform. Between 1215 and 1545 nine ...

What authority does the prince hold if ruled by a power other than god himself? In Martin Luther's writings "Against the Authority of the Catholic Church", he rejects the Popes claims that religious authority is superior to secular authority and provides the argument for Germany to s...

The Crusades began formally on Tuesday, November 27, 1095, in a field just outside the walls of the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. On that day Pope Urban II preached a speech to crowds of laypeople attending a Church council at Clermont. In his speech, the pope outlined a plan for a Crusade and ca...

Martin Luther was a genius in his time, starting out as a monk, and then later on becoming a teacher, then to some viewed as a leader. Most people in today's world don't even know who Martin Luther is and when they here his name they think of Martin Luther knights man was responsible for m...

Music has been a great influence in the lives of many people for many years and is constantly changing. Music has been divided into six periods: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Twentieth Century.The Medieval period was the longest and most distant period of musical history and consist...

The human species is one that is heavily based on tradition. Most of our kind subscribe to the idea of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." This simple statement embodies the most basic of principles we as humans live by. Our empirical outlook on life is what has led us to where we are today, tech...

Chapter Seventeen Vocabulary1. The Renaissance means the rebirth of the classical past, or the rebirth of Greek and Roman philosophy, history, myths. During this period, a great deal of lost knowledge of Rome and Greece was relearned and reintegrated into the thinking of western European man.2. Huma...

Nuggets of Gold: The Lamenting Laity A wise professor of mine once said to me "Every piece of historical evidence is a nugget of pure gold". "Wow" I thought, what a precious commodity. Could every piece of evidence hold such importance that it can be easily comparable to one...

Crusades In the Middle Ages, Christians considered Palestine the Holy Land because it was where Jesus had lived and taught. The Arabs had conquered Palestine in the 600s. Most Arabs were Muslims, but they usually tolerated other religions. Jews and Christians who paid their taxes and observed oth...

The Reformation was a religious movement of the 1500's that led to Protestantism. This movement had an impact on social, political, economic and religious life. Before the Reformation, Europe had been held together by the Catholic Church and the claim of the Holy Roman Empire. During the Reformation...

 THE HERESY OF GALILEOGalileo was condemned by the Inquisition, not for his own brilliant theories, but becausehe stood up for his belief in Copernicus's theory that the earth was not, as the Church insisted, thecenter of the universe, but that rather, the universe is hel...

Truman's decision to drop the bombThe assessments of western civilization and culture has in one way or another affected virtually every aspect of life on the globe. The changes and ideas of this way of thinking have gradually evolved over the past six centuries and are still incredibly visible, dom...