Annotated Bibliography On Papacy

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Annotated BIbliography

?Annotated Bibliography for Research on the Papacy?

Pattenden, M. (2012). The Papacy since 1500: From Italian Prince to Universal Pastor- Edited By James Corkery and Thomas Worcester. Journal of Historical Association. 97(325), 123-125
Is an article that explains about papacy in the period between 500 and 1500 CE. Papacy gained a lot of significance which brought about numerous changes both with its followers, the church itself and even political. This was initiated by Pope Leo the Great who left a legacy concerning the Catholic Church. According to this article, the Pope started exercising power on even other councils. He incorporated church leadership and politics too. The article

cites that Pope Leo oversaw many attacks on against Rome while ensuring that he safeguarded the city. Leo was able to set higher standards for any Rome bishop and left people with the impression that a pope ought to be revere
The article illustrates on how the strength of papacy was not that effective given the fact that leaders like Caesero Papism who started exercising power in the church on matters that never concerned him. He offered even political duties in church while regulating codes like the Justinian code. Even though such activities did not benefit the church to some extent, they helped strengthen the church. Caesero also took part in persecuting religions that did not support the Catholic Church which in some way helped the Catholic Church to dominate. Even with the benefits that came with caesero participating in the Catholic Church, he also tampered with the powers of papacy.
Further explains on the gradual advancement of papacy in Rome like when Pope Gregory the great danced papacy to running its own monastery and having many other duties like maintaining peace within conflicting communities. Papacy also remained unshaken despite the much opposition that it was facing at the time. Papacy also attained massive tracks of land on which they established Papal States which gave papacy more prestige and power.
It also discusses on the positive effects that papacy attained by its good relations with the political emperor. On the reign of Charlemagne, Their relations became stronger since the appointment the political leader was done by the pope himself. Good relations with political leaders gave papacy more power as it attained better stability. Though the article argues that strong relationships between political leaders and the papal rule compromised papacy since it was forced to be at the mercy of political leadership. Charlemagne got so much into the church business which created a lot of tension within the church and further led to splitting between the east and the West as founded by Leo III.
Even so, the article is able to demonstrate the importance of the good relations that existed between the state and the government. For instance, papacy was fully established by the end of Charlemagne?s reign. It had managed to influence people concerning its existence even though the papacy got exposed to other vices like corruption, it managed to have good connections with the government.

Soegel, P. (2002). Catholic Revival n the Age of the Baroque: Religious Identity in the Southwest Germany, 1550-1750. The Catholic Historical Review. 88(3), 591-593
The article is about the rivalry that came with competing powers between monarchical and that of papacy. Even with the existence of monarchs, Papacy had established itself and was now operating independently and was in control of many of the learning institutions like universities. Even for most political rulers, settled their disputes in church. ( 0 argues however, that it was challenging for the church to cover all the aspect of people?s lives and so not all people adhered to laws of papacy. For instance, in the incidence of the mass murder of female infants, the church resented the actions but nevertheless, the practice continued.
It also discusses about the strain that the church underwent stemming from the too much politics in the church. The church received many abuses and this resulted to need for a reformation in the church leadership. The abuses were majorly contributed by the financial ability of the church. The church was so organized in a fiscal manner even better than the political governments. The church had organized taxation systems and so a lot of money pooled in the church which increased the rate of corruption.
There were many payments made to the church and most of its leaders lived luxurious lives which mad people to brand them as being greedy. The economic status of people; especially the poor worsened while the poor got mistreated by the rich which later led to a protest against the social injustices that majority of them were facing. This is because many people got offended with the selfish luxurious live that the bishops were living.
The article further illustrates on the kind of discontent that people had just by looking at their rich clergies. Majority of the people did not get spiritual satisfaction. Most of the church leaders like bishops missed most of the church sessions while squandering the church money. Many of the leaders were incompetent as some of them did not understand Latin which should have been the language of communication, while for other, they lacked literacy.
By the fact that there were no clear distinction between church and politics by this period of time, their absence in church activities did not count as such because they were carrying out counter activities elsewhere which was still considered as carrying out duties. The church at this time appoint people to office but this was carried out unfairly since most people practiced favorism depending on their personal relations, or political ties.
The church also practiced vices like trading official positions. And could even charge people for services offered. The church post held by popes had prices and popes earned income from their positions. They could even sell expectative like selling an office to somebody so that he/ she can occupy it at a certain period should there be any vacancy. Due to increased disappointments from the religious leaders, there arose movements who would offer spiritual services which ended up satisfying people?s spiritual needs. This led to the rise of the protestant movement.
The movements resulted to weakening of the papacy which had gained a lot of fame and established itself. Mornachs also started rising in power threatening the church. The monarchs were supported by people who had lost faith in papacy. This led to a strain between the papacy and monarchical powers. Initially popes had taken over secular leadership. When secular leadership wanted to impose taxes just like the way the church was conducting its affairs, it resulted to imprisonment of secular leaders. The papacy wanted to maintain superiority.
Papacy asserted that all humanity needed the church and so they were in control of all the state activities right from spiritual to administrative. However, they did not manage to take over since they were faced with catastrophes. Papacy was greatly weakened and the Papal States were no longer in solidarity. Papacy went warring with the French. The leadership in papacy changed; however most of the cardinal did not support since it involved reformation and could have denied them sources of income. However papacy later strengthened through schism.
The stability of papacy encouraged more financial abuse. People became aware of the dominating abuses and put the church under scrutiny and a few changes made to reduce on the degree of abuse encountered in the church. Among the changes made were coming up with a council that would serve as the highest office in the church. This was a move to do away with the administrative role of the papacy. This way, papacy still remained relevant without having to do away with the pope or any other office but by clearly distinguishing boundaries on their role such that papacy focused more on religious duties.
Creighton, M. (2011). A History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation. Cambridge University Press.

The book illustrates on the kind of opposition that papacy faced especially the rise of reformation ideas like better ways to manage papacy money and a certain reform suggested on the possibility of implementing apostolic poverty.

An example of such reformation group was the Spiritual Franciscans. However Pope John XXII declined and condemned the existence of such a reformation group.
Great debate arose from the reformation ideas especially from Ockham who was a philosopher and had supported the idea of having a council of the church. He argued that a church should be a separate entity from running governmental errands and that its sole role was to show humanity the way of salvation and therefore had nothing to do with administrative roles of the state. The book also asserted that even the pope with his superior powers could be deposed by the state if found to be unworthy of the office.
With the strive that arose due to vetted interest in power, the great Schism offered a leeway for the papacy to take charge and so they used the ideas to protect their own personal gains. With incoming and outgoing of popes, many were promising to close the rift that had risen between papacy and the state but none of them worked towards such pledges. Some cardinals decided to solve the matter and bring peace between the popes who had conflicts. However, most of the popes who were summoned did not attend council which led to the cardinals deposing them. A new pope was then

elected.
The election of a new pope led to increased rivalry as papacy had now three popes. Even so, the council of Constance got committed towards resolving the disputes that had arisen in the papacy. With united efforts, the council deposed one pope while the other one was forced to down tools while the third one never gave up and remained the pope even if the council did not gave him any support neither any form of attention.
The book demonstrates on how the council was effective on its duties. The council got intertwined in power struggle with papacy, it lasted for a long period of time and even elected an antipope but in the end, papacy won. With time, the power of the church council weakened which made it possible for the monarchical power to be reinstated. This was against the expectations of the monarchs as it was the only way of defeating papacy.
One major reason for the failure of the council was the increasing desire of nationalism which was evident in most parts of Europe. For the council to have succeeded, it all depended on the quest of representatives of the involved countries to control all church affairs. However, this was hindered due to distrust that was on the rise between different countries. A good example is the rivalry between France and England that were in conflict all the entire period when councils regulated the church.
The only solution to the problem remained with each and every state to find out the best way forward. Each involved state was to choose between the council and the church and in most instances, states preferred choosing the church over the council. Papacy was strengthened again while weakening council authority. For instance, the French empowered the papal church while weakening the Basel Council. Due to the supremacy of the pope, the church got power and some privileges like being free from paying some money to the pope. The church attained power among its officials.
The book also illustrates how papacy later weakened with the upcoming of the heretics who recognized papacy as being foreign. During this period, papacy could not do much about its reduced strength and the pope had little or no power as to appoint any official especially in the England church. No supportive documents from the papal church were also accepted in any court. England continued to put in place antipapal rules and regulations. This prompted the pope to demand but was declined after some time.

Coppa, F. (2002).Dictionary of Popes and the papacy. The Catholic Historical review. 88(3), 556-557
Is an article explains how Luther succeeded to bring about reformations in Germany. The Catholic Church was very dominant in Germany and no heresy had been charged and so it was really hard for any idea of reformation to be implemented. The high taxation imposed on people led to proposals as to why reforms should have been made. Many of the peasants held to old time prophecies on the need to bring about spiritual reformation and renewal. Luther?s reformations were just timely for the Germans.
It further explains the effects of renaissance on papacy.

Renaissance was very crucial as it brought about new perspectives and re- examination of the existing principles. It brought about desires of intellectuals to get the true meaning of Bible scriptures and the true role of the papal clergy. Among the intellectuals involved, Desderius Erasmus whose desire was to have reformation. He succeeded to translate the Bible, especially the New Testament to Greek then later to Latin. His translations proved very helpful to Luther. He is worth mentioning of the reformation and restoration of the church. He was of the idea that the Catholic Church should teach people doctrines that make them better Christians; he condemned the evil ways of the clergy which helped weaken papacy.

Durston,C & Doran, S. (2003). Princes, Pastors and People; the Church and Religion in England, 1500-1700. Psychology Press.
Is a book that explains about three intellectuals like Johannes Reuchlin who is one of the most important figures in the reformation and renaissance. He helped in translate and bring about better understanding of the Jewish tradition. Even though he was a strong roman catholic, he became controversial on most of the issues of the Catholic Church and so supported Martin Luther in the reformation

period.
Ulrich Von Hutten is also one of the intellectual who made remarkable contributions to the reformation and in the weakening of the papacy. He resented the foreign pope. He aided in laying better foundations on which Luther could establish his reformation ideas. The three intellectual played a very crucial role in paving way for other reformist like the famous Luther.
It further explains on the extent on which the three intellectual contributed in establishing Lutheranism. The likes of Erasmus, strived to bring about spiritual renewal and they also resented clergies and their corrupt roles. They also aided in translating scriptures which later paved way for translation to other vernaculars. This shows that there had been initial challenge and resentment on the abuse of power and that more intellectuals had desire to make reforms and not that Luther just came up with original doctrines.
Also discusses about the significant role of Jan Hus who had previously condemned and resented papacy. Even though the Catholic Church was a very powerful institution at the time, Jan Hus did not hesitate to point out corrupt activities carried out in the church. Heresy was a punishable crime by the pope and anybody found to commit such a crime was burnt alive. Jan Hus did not fear of the repercussions his resentments could bring but he forged ahead and pointed out of the evils in the Catholic Church. For instance, he challenged the behavior of some leaders during the communion where some could be given bread alone while others received both bread and wine.
Pope John XXIII of the time summoned him concerning his allegations and advised him to recant his remarks but he denied he was charged of heresy and burnt alive. Despite his death, some people also resented the corrupt activities of the church and made a group of followers following his death. He is viewed as playing a crucial role to Luther.
Also explains in detail why the catholic was in dire need of reforms. During the 1500, the Catholic Church was facing the worst leadership ever. It was even hard for the pope himself to serve as an example. Taking for instance, Pope Alexander VI who was elected to pope not by merit but by his uncle. Church positions at the time could be given to people based on family friends or when one bought the position. Alexander VI was involved in a series of scandals like breaking the vow of celibacy and by having numerous mistresses with whom he sired children with. The pope would later appoint his illegitimate children to be church officials. He also squandered church money and did not have the church?s interest at heart but rather was dominated by greed. Most t of the other popes was also corrupt, they did not perform their duties, others could be appointed without having qualifications like some were illiterate. The church also practiced partiality. The book clearly illustrates that the church was in dire need of reformation.
Most popes misused money and took part in bribery. For instance Pope Eugenius IV participated in bribery by allowing the reigning prince to collect taxes meant for papacy in a given period of time. Apart from that clergies and Bishops were also involved in corrupt activities like trading church leadership posts, handed over church leadership to family and friends, occupying more than one leadership office, they absconded their duties, many of them broke celibacy vows and lusted while bringing up many illegitimate children while other simply did not know how to read the bibles yet they were leaders.