The saying absolute power corrupts absolutely stands the test of time. This has been shown in many writings prior to the protestant reformation. Martin Luther’s letter “To the Christian Nobility” and Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” addressed the corrupt Catholic Church. Comparable to the Catholic Church corruption, Joseph Stalin’s reign over Russia showed the attrioties that were the result of a man with absolute power. Accordingly, the negative effects of absolute power was seen in Martin Luther’s letter “To the Christian Nobility”, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”, and Joseph Stalin’s reign as Premier of Russia.
Martin Luther was a German priest who opposed the Catholic Church. He felt the church was corrupt and did not uphold the values. This is seen in his letter “To the Christian Nobility”
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when he said “The Romanist want to be the only masters of Holy Scripture, although they never learn a thing from the Bible all their life long”(Luther 755). That told a lot about Martin Luther’s views towards the Catholic Church. During the time that Luther worked as a priest for the Church all sermons were in Latin giving it power over the way the religion could be interpreted. Martin Luther then later said in his letter “Has the pope not erred many times? Who would help Christendom when the pope erred if we did not have somebody we could trust more than him, somebody who had the Scriptures on his side?(Luther 756). Luther here was describing the fallibility of the Pope himself, what would have been considered heresy in his day. Luther supported this claim with scripture when he said “If God spoke then through an ass against a prophet, why should he not be able even now to speak through a righteous man against the Pope?(Luther 757). Luther was saying that the Bible warns about a false prophets and that one with God on his should be able to question the Pope’s absolute authority. Another renowned critic of the Catholic Church was Geoffrey Chaucer and his work the “Canterbury Tales”. Chaucer took a shot at many facets of the Church, none more than indulgences. Indulgences were a way to absolve sins provided by the Catholic Church in return for amounts of cash. This was criticised by many as corrupt, because it was never spoken of in the Bible. The “Canterbury Tales” Pardoner perfectly represented this scrism between parishioners. Chaucer described the Pardoner, on the pilgrimage to St. Thomas Becket grave, as a self profess charlton. This is seen when the Pardoner told the host of the pilgrimage Harry Bailey “Year by year, a hundred marks by this game, I’ve won since I a pardoner became. I stand like a clerk up in my pulpit, And when the stupid people down do sit, I preach just as you heard me say before, And tell a hundred false tricks or some more”(Chaucer 712). Chaucer had the Pardoner describe his acts as a game on the people with only profit on his mind. The parallel between Luther’s and Chaucer’s grievance against the Church and Joseph Stalin’s reign as dictator over Russia was striking.
Joseph Stalin rose to power after the death of Vladimir Lenin and controlled the country unopposed by any other people’s influences. He was highly paranoid man who often imprisoned many without cause. Manus Midlarsky’s article “Territoriality and the Onset of Mass Violence: The Political Extremism of Joseph Stalin” described one of the results of Stalin’s paranoia when saying “Massive purges of Party members and others suspected of disloyalty again were found first in the Soviet Union in the 1930s (the Great Terror of 1937–38 yielded 681,692 deaths),38 and later in China and Cambodia”(Midlarsky 271). Stalin was able to cause those 681,692 deaths, because he had absolute power similar to the Catholic Church’s. Both had the ability to exile those of dissenting views and had unquestioned power over millions. Martin Luther saw these consequences during his life, by being excommunicated by the Catholic Church for his discrimination of the Pope. While Chaucer saw the corrupt aspect of manipulating millions into paying
indulgences. Therefore it has been shown throughout literature and history that absolute power leads to attrioties. Luther’s letter listed his grievance with absolute power in a direct manner. The “Canterbury Tales” provided an example of one of the primary abuses from the Catholic Church, and the horrors of Stalin’s reign displaced absolute power at its worse. From these lessons the world has learned through experience that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Martin Luther is known to be a key initiator to the Protestant Reformation, although he had no intention of doing so. He was going to become a monk, so he read deeply into scriptures, but this only led him to discover inconsistencies between traditions and the Bible. These inconsistencies lead him to demand changes in the Catholic Church; however that did not include
Martin Luther desired to reform the Church because he believed that it was corrupt and wanted to be seen as the gateway to Heaven. In Luther’s eyes, the Roman Catholic Church was teaching the wrong things and showing bad behavior. Because of this, Martin Luther, being a conscientious friar and professor of theology, did not feel secure in the idea of salvation. The Church was teaching that salvation came through faith AND good works while Luther concluded
Martin Luther, was “temperamental, peevish, egomaniacal, and argumentative” (Hooker, www.wsu.edu), but played a pivotal role in history. During Luther's time as a monk, the Catholic Church was selling indulgences. Luther took notice to the corruption and began to reason that men can only get their salvation through Jesus Christ, not the Pope or indulgences, let alone the Church itself. Luther began ...
Stalin’s hunger for power and paranoia impacted the Soviet society severely, having devastating effects on the Communist Party, leaving it weak and shattering the framework of the party, the people of Russia, by stunting the growth of technology and progress through the purges of many educated civilians, as well as affecting The Red Army, a powerful military depleted of it’s force. The impact of the purges, ‘show trials’ and the Terror on Soviet society were rigorously negative. By purging all his challengers and opponents, Stalin created a blanket of fear over the whole society, and therefore, was able to stay in power, creating an empire that he could find more dependable.
Originally platformed by Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin took control of the communist party in 1924 when Lenin died of a stroke. Communist ideals were heavily in opposition to classical liberal values; Whereas Liberalism stressed the importance of the individual, Communism sought to better the greater good of society by stripping many of the individual rights and freedoms of citizens. Communism revoked the class structure of society and created a universal equality for all. This equality came with a price however. Any who opposed the communist rule were assassinated in order to keep order within society. Joseph Stalin took this matter to the extreme during an event known as the Great Purge. The Great Purge, also known as The Great Terror, began in 1936 and concluded in 1938. During these two years, millions of people were murdered and sent to labour camps in Siberia for opposing the Communist party and the ultimate dictator, Stalin himself. In some cases, even those who did not oppose the regime were killed. Sergey Kirov was a very popular member of the communist party and Stalin saw this as a possible threat to his ultimate power. As a result, Stalin order Kirov to be executed. Stalin furthered his violation of individual rights by introducing the NKVD who worked closely with the russian secret police force. One of the primary goals of the secret police was to search out dissidents who were not entirely faithful to the communist regime. This violation of privacy caused histeria en mass in the Soviet Union and millions were killed as a result. The Soviet union resisted liberalism to such an extreme that it resulted in the deaths of millions of people, leading to some of the darkest days in russian
"Anderson Crispim « “Power Tends to Corrupt, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”." Anderson Crispim « ::: Dispatches from My World :::. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. .
At the beginning of the sixteenth century church theologian, Martin Luther, wrote the 95 Theses questioning the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. In this essay I will discuss: the practices of the Roman Catholic Church Martin Luther wanted to reform, what Martin’s specific criticism of the pope was, and the current practices Pope Francis I is interested in refining in the Roman Catholic Church today.
Martin Luther’s Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation was published in 1520. In the Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Martin Luther claims that the Catholic
Alongside money, Macbeth and Stalin showed the world that a root of all evil is power and authority. Both men serve to show and remind us that even throughout history, there are power seekers who will go against morality to gain the upper hand. Although Macbeth and Stalin led different childhoods, both men rose to power by killing innocent people. A tragic hero such as Macbeth or a brutal man such as Stalin fell due to their few strengths, excessive ambition and over confidence. The power hungry Macbeth is ultimately overthrown by his internal conflict, guilt, while Stalin fell due to his paranoia and death. Both Macbeth and Stalin’s actions serve to us as reminders that authority and power is a privilege and shouldn’t be taken for granted, because it could be taken away as easily as it was obtained or
...m what they lacked in the Catholic Church, the knowledge of what made them Christians. Just as the Word of God is a guide to mankind, Luther guided 16th century Germans to the true Christian path with his many revolutionary reforms.
Thesis statement: Martin Luther was responsible for the break-up of the Catholic Church Martin Luther was a representative during the 16th century of a desire widespread of the renewal and reform of the Catholic Church. He launched the Protestant reform a continuation of the medieval religious search. From the Middle ages, the church faced many problems such as the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism that hurt the prestige of the church. Most of the clergy lived in great luxury while most people were poor and they set an immoral example. The clergy had low education and many of them didn’t attend their offices.
Works Cited Lord Acton Quote http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely.html. Shakespeare, William, and Aaron Durband. Macbeth. Shakespeare Made Easy. Hauppage, NY: Barron, 2004.
The Great Terror, an outbreak of organised bloodshed that infected the Communist Party and Soviet society in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), took place in the years 1934 to 1940. The Terror was created by the hegemonic figure, Joseph Stalin, one of the most powerful and lethal dictators in history. His paranoia and yearning to be a complete autocrat was enforced by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the communist police. Stalin’s ambition saw his determination to eliminate rivals such as followers of Leon Trotsky, a political enemy. The overall concept and practices of the Terror impacted on the communist party, government officials and the peasants. The NKVD, Stalin’s instrument for carrying out the Terror, the show trials and the purges, particularly affected the intelligentsia.
In 1922 Stalin was appointed general secretary of the communist party. With Stalin gaining power in the newly founded Soviet Union, Lenin, the ruler of the Soviet Union knew that Stalin was trying to take his place. Only two years later in 1924, Lenin died and Stalin set out to take total control. To gain more power, Stalin removed anyone who dared stand in his way. He created a vast rain of terror that will never be forgotten. Stalin had potential rivals arrested and executed in public claiming that they were enemies of the people. It is estimated that Stalin killed up to 49 million at that
Religion is the most important aspect of many people’s lives, serving as a roadmap to live a virtuous life while promising eternal life and salvation. In his work On Christian Liberty, Martin Luther writes on what it means to truly be Christian and how to achieve salvation. Luther discusses many aspects of Christian faith, including the difference between the inner man and outer man, the effect of works on salvation, the marriage with Jesus as a result of faith, how individuals should act towards others, and the important notion of Christian liberty that arises because of one’s faith. Luther’s ideas were highly controversial at the time as many of them opposed the thinking of the Catholic Church, one of the most powerful institutions in the world. The Catholic Church adamantly disagrees with many of the ideas expressed by Luther, including the value that works, the church, and humility has in salvation.