Religious Power In Early Modern Europe

Early Modern Europe was a highly religious area. The Church controlled a massive portion of people’s lives. Most people’s beliefs about their own nature were based in religion. The concept of humanity was controlled by religious texts and interpreted by religious officials. Whatever religious power was dominant also held a lot of political power. There was no separation between church and state so religious practices and ideals went hand in hand with political and administrative power. For a long time the Roman Catholic Church was the major center of power in Early Modern Europe on both a political level and a personal level. However a new church was rising around this time, a church spearheaded by pushback against Catholic corruption. The …show more content…
There was no interpreter for them so religious responsibility was left mostly to individuals to figure out and maintain. There was an influx of art and literature which provided individuals with a way to share their take on human nature and responsibility. The book Mirror of a Sinful Soul written by Marguerite de Navarre is an example of the new form of self expression that scholars were exploring (class). The most important books to emerge during this period as far as christianity were the translated Bibles. Erasmus was one of the most prominent scholars involved in translating the Bible to vernacular. He also wrote books on Christian humanism and a book called “Education of a christian prince” about how to exercise “absolute rule over free and willing subjects”. (Brotton 53-54) Within Protestantism the Clergy held no distinction from the laity and some places, like england; overturned the pre existing monasteries and nunneries and redistributed the wealth they found there (Class). Protestantism while it was the largest of the new religions was simply a platform and many more specialized religions fell into place, like Calvinism in Geneva and Anglicanism in England. With each new religion the former might of the Catholic church was slowly chipped …show more content…
Every member of the church was expected to act in accordance with god and to have read and understand holy writings. There was no option to pay to have sins forgiven. Protestantism also allowed for a much greater spread of knowledge among the common people because it came around at the same time as the printing press and embraced the tecknowledgey so openly. Religious and political power were more separated which allowed for the political and moral landscape to shift dramatically. Luther wrote that faith was the determinant of christianity (Brotton 70) , so ritualistic ceremonies conducted by the church fell out of practice as they were replaced by a far more simple method of worship aimed to enrich the majority as opposed to the minority. Human nature became a thing determined by one 's own relationship to the divine and to