The Christian Church in the Middle Ages played a significant role in society. Unfortunately though, the church is often regarded as the capital of corruption, evil, and worldliness. Today, so many people depict the medieval church as being led by materialistic popes, devouring tithes from poverty-st...

What does Donne tell the reader about his religion and attitude to the two established Churches in his sonnets? Refer to Sonnet 18 and at least one other poem in your answer. John Donne was born into a prosperous Roman Catholic family during the reign of Elizabeth I, when England was anti-Cathol...

The Great SchismFrom 1305 to 1416, the Catholic Church reached its lowest point in history. Corruption was widespread, the Church's authority was undermined, and its leadership was divided. The Church no longer had a strong foundation, the papacy jumped back and forth from Avignon, France to Rome,...

Fundamentalism Fundamentalism is a term popularly used to describe strict adherence to Christian doctrines based on a literal interpretation of the Bible. This usage derives from late 19th and early 20th century Protestant ministers and scholars who used the term to reference their commitment to fu...

In terms of the number of adherents, Christianity is by far the largest religion in the world and the most active of all faiths with 1.9 billion Christians spread across the world. Christianity originated in Israel, on the birth of its founder, Jesus of Nazareth in Bethlehem. Jesus, born of the Virg...

Vatican II was a great revolutionary moment in the history of the Catholic church, when the windows were thrown open and the modern world let in. With sessions running between October 1962 and December 1965, it brought together around 3,000 bishops from all corners of the world, and changed every as...

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...

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...

Throughout history, there have been few men that have dedicated their lives to religious criticism and reformation; three such men are Martin Luther, François Marie Arouet (also known as Voltaire), and Christopher Marlowe. Each of these men is famous for their deeds, however, the route by...

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...

Christianity's Reformation In its two-thousand year history Christianity has faced many challenges that forced changes in its belief or organization. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges occurred when Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on that parish church door in Wittenberg on Oct...

Account for the decline in prestige and authority of the papacy during the fourteenth century. During the fourteenth century, the papacy suffered a huge decline in prestige and authority due to many factors. These include, the open conflict between Pope Boniface VIII and King Phillip IV of Fran...

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 issue of abortion has been very controversial throughout the years. This issue has been argued from ethical stands, human rights, religious beliefs and even politically. Efforts have been made legally, but it does not seem that a widespread compromise or settlement has been made that the majorit...

Heading into the sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church was undoubtedly the dominating religious power in Europe. But this dominance throughout Europe would not extend to the next one hundred years. This was the time before the great Protestant Reformation begun by theologian Martin Luther t...

Christianity The period from the eighth to the fourteenth century was one of vast reforms, some for the better and some for the worse. During this period in Europe, commonly known as The Middle Ages, economic reforms took place as well as social, political, and religious changes. One common theme th...

The period from the eighth to the fourteenth century was one of vast reforms, some for the better and some for the worse. During this period in Europe, commonly known as The Middle Ages, economic reforms took place as well as social, political, and religious changes. One common theme throughout Th...

The period from the eighth to the fourteenth century was one of vast reforms, some for the better and some for the worse. During this period in Europe, commonly known as The Middle Ages, economic reforms took place as well as social, political, and religious changes. One common theme throughout Th...

The PapacyDid you know the Pope is not referred to by only one title? He is also referred to as such titles as: the bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, supreme pontiff of the universal church, primate of Italy, patriarch of the West, sovereign of the State of Vatican City, and servant of the servants o...

The Middle Ages was a period in Western European history that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire between the 4th and 5th centuries and lasted up into the 15th century. Medieval Europe was far from unified. It was a large area split into small, culturally diverse units that were never totall...

The book, Daily Life in Papal Rome in the Eighteenth Century, by Maurice Andrieux, is an enlightening piece of work that describes how the Romans lived; how they thought about life; and how the leadership of the Popes ruled and the different personalities toward the Church. The information and descr...

Christianity played a major role throughout the Middle Ages in society and politics. The Middle Ages, classified from 600 AD to 1350AD, was significantly effected by Christianity because of the impact it had on the daily lives of people of the time. The beginning ofthe Early Middle Ages, after the F...

After a string of wars, poverty, and social unrest the people of the Renaissance error were in search of peace and guidance. Most turned to religion but found no solace in the corrupt Romanist empire, thus there was a need for a new religious path among the people. Protestantism spread rapidly thro...

Voltaire's Candide is a satire of many of the ideas that controlled the lives of men during the Enlightenment. Though it is thought to be one of the Enlightenment's greatest texts, it establishes that the Enlightenment was not concrete. Using unique and interesting characters, Voltair...

The Struggle for Power Between the Pope and the Emperor The basis for papal claims to authority in the late 5th and early 6th centuries arose from the mighty conflict between emperor and pope, which is known as the Investiture Struggle. This struggle originated between the bishops of two world...