Condition of Europe during the Late Medieval Period

The period between 1300 – 1700A.D (The late medieval and reformation period) involved a series of changes in the west. Though reformation was started with Martin, the reformed movement started long before.

Causes of the Reformation:

During the 1300s and 1400s, many Christians lost faith in some of the teachings of the Catholic Church and its religious leadership. The Middle Age is 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 was through the Catholic Church. This fact put the Church in a position of great 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 ensure 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. 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 income for the hierarchy in Rome. It allowed selling and buying of Church offices. 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. Renaissance, it was the rediscovering of literature or rebirth of classical literature, Latin and Greek, which result in the secularism of life. Thus, churches were filled with worldly things and corruption. Therefore, some of the reformers like Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, John Hus and Savonarola stood against the church practices and leaders.

Growth of nationalism: 

It was a period (15th and 16th) in which European nations began to have national feelings. At the beginning of the 16th century there were four great powers in Europe: 1. England 2. France 3. Spain 4. Germany.

(1) These countries were challenging the power of the papacy. 

(2) The growth of many free cities in Germany. This further complicated the picture because the church possesses large property in Germany. 

(3) Italy, by the middle of the 15th century was divided into fine great states, and there was no unity between these states, and there was no strong national government of this time and Italy was divided, in the middle 15th century. 

Unification of Italy was still impossible because of the strongly between papacy and the emperor. As a result of these external and internal troubles the Roman Catholic princes were unable to check the rise of reform. Movement, as a result of the rise of nationalism the kings in Europe were able to check the power of the popes and their authority of the pope or power over people. Pope’s authority was committed to the church