Religion and European Expansion: 13th to 16th Century

Shalela Johnson

Mr. Crosby

Western Civilization 101

8 December 2010

European Expansion Earlier times have contributed much to create the world that is lived in today. Without some of the natural findings of the earlier civilizations the world, we would not be to where we are today. Religion was generally considered high amongst these times. In these times things were based off of the rise, decline and success of religion in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Religion was respected to the highest aspect; kings, monarchs and the worst of the worst honored the religious practices. During the thirteenth century came about the rise of the Catholic Church, the fourteenth century brought about Renaissance and religion. Finally

The Roman Catholic Church reached its peak around the thirteenth century but, was soon to decline to separate monarchies forming. One of the first major issues leading to this decline was the falling out of Pope Boniface and King Phillip IV. “Excommunicated by Boniface VIII in 1296, evidently reconciled in 1297 and at odds again for arresting the papal legate on a trumped-up charge in 1300, Philip was instrumental in engineering the election of Pope Clement V and keeping the curia out of Rome, thus beginning the Avignon Papacy” (historymedren.com) King Phillip had a desire to find new revenues, by creating a new tax. The Pope did not consent to this so it created the pathway for other conflict. Before the conflicts, the Pope usually controlled the Church and State, with the exception of the king or queen. As times progressed and empires grew bigger this started to take a turn starting with King Phillip IV and Pope Boniface. The King Phillip IV believed in Christianity to the fullest but, he believed that he was God’s chosen one thus giving him the right to create this tax. With the pope’s disapproval of the king’s decision, this sparked major conflict ending with bad results that soon led to the death of the pope. With the Pope dead this made it possible for the king to reign and take

Martin Luther was a Monk form Germany whom was greatly disturbed by the corruption in the church. He was so angered that he wrote ninety-five theses and put them up on the door of a church in Germany. “He sought to bring Christianity back to the simplicity and traditions of the early Christian Church in which the Bible -the word of God- was the final authority for Christians everywhere”(Roman Catholicism 29).It was not the Martin Luther was totally against the church. He just wanted it to go back to where it started before it changed. When the churches did not support his thoughts he sought out a split and created Lutheranism. This is where we get Lutheran churches form today; they are based off of Martin Luther’s