The Roman Catholic Church from would not be powerful without wealth and political and structural strengths and weaknesses playing roles in its spread throughout Europe.
Diocletian was against any and all unorthodox religious movements including the growing religion of Christianity. To rid the Roman Empire of Christians, he took church property and destroyed churches, took Christians out of office, and enslaved lower-class Christians. They survived throughout the rest of Diocletian’s reign until Constantine took over in 311 AD and enacted the Edict of Toleration, which permitted Christian worship and Christianity became the favored religion of the empire. In 313 AD, The Edict of Milan brought Constantine from the west and Licinius from the east of the empire together to end all policies and …show more content…
During the medieval crisis, as Professor Spaulding mentioned, it was Christianity versus wealth and materialism. Commercialism had people questioning how they could maintain an ethical Christian life and the church turned away and gave no response to the people’s questions. Indulgences or pardons for sins were being sold at all levels of the church because people feared they would not go to heaven and be repented of their sins unless they paid the church a certain amount. The church claimed one had to buy their way out of purgatory to get to heaven or could buy their deceased loved ones way out too. The treasury of merit was a general account that housed the good works of Jesus and other higher beings. These good works could be shifted around to help people’s souls into heaven if they donated money; the Pope had control over this. With the money collected from selling indulgences, the new St. Peter’s Basilica was built. Despite the several negatives of the church having immense wealth, it did use it positively by giving large sums to
Diocletian was against any and all unorthodox religious movements including the growing religion of Christianity. To rid the Roman Empire of Christians, he took church property and destroyed churches, took Christians out of office, and enslaved lower-class Christians. They survived throughout the rest of Diocletian’s reign until Constantine took over in 311 AD and enacted the Edict of Toleration, which permitted Christian worship and Christianity became the favored religion of the empire. In 313 AD, The Edict of Milan brought Constantine from the west and Licinius from the east of the empire together to end all policies and …show more content…
During the medieval crisis, as Professor Spaulding mentioned, it was Christianity versus wealth and materialism. Commercialism had people questioning how they could maintain an ethical Christian life and the church turned away and gave no response to the people’s questions. Indulgences or pardons for sins were being sold at all levels of the church because people feared they would not go to heaven and be repented of their sins unless they paid the church a certain amount. The church claimed one had to buy their way out of purgatory to get to heaven or could buy their deceased loved ones way out too. The treasury of merit was a general account that housed the good works of Jesus and other higher beings. These good works could be shifted around to help people’s souls into heaven if they donated money; the Pope had control over this. With the money collected from selling indulgences, the new St. Peter’s Basilica was built. Despite the several negatives of the church having immense wealth, it did use it positively by giving large sums to