The Catholic Church During The Early 16th Century

The Catholic Church during the early 16th Century was rooted throughout Europe. The Church influenced every country and its respective monarchs through the Church’s wealth and power. The Catholic Church placed a tight hold on the general populace with individuals who went against the Church being branded as heretics and excommunicated. The wealth and power of the Church eventually caused the quality of the clergy to deteriorate. Priests became corrupt and subjected to their physical desires. They frequented taverns, gambled and kept mistresses. The reputation of the clergy were horrid as the general populace was relieved that â€Å"their priest [kept] a mistress† because it â€Å"[secured] their wives from seduction† The knowledge of the clergy degenerated as well as they were no longer required to learn and teach the Holy Scriptures because the Church dictated their actions. The pinnacle of the Church’s corruption was the sale of indulgences. An indulgen ce was the â€Å"extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment† sold by priests as a temporary relief from sins. The indulgences were then sold to the general populace for money as the monetization of a priest’s services. Johannes Tetzel was a prominent preacher of indulgences who relied on the money from the sales to subsidize the rebuilding of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. The corrupt sales did not go unnoticed as Martin Luther, in an effort to stop the corruption of the Church, posted the 95 Theses on the door of a CastleShow MoreRelatedChanges Brought on By the Renaissance Period Essay534 Words   |  3 Pages16th century Europe was a time of religious and social change. It was a time of new art, architecture, and literature through the Renaissance and new discoveries through the scientific revolution. The 16th century also brought about great change in religion through the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. 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