Criticisms of the Church
The Break With Rome
In the Tudor times, the Church was very important to everyone's life. They believed that the word of the Church was correct and many people would make it their life's aim to get into heaven. However, some people thought the Church was wrong and many things weren't being done right...
Over the years, the Church had gained a lot of power and money to the extent where in some areas the Church had even more power that the king! The way the Church was doing this was by scams and false teachings. Below is a list of things the Church weren't doing right:
- The Church was teaching the people about a stage of the afterlife the Bible had never mentioned: purgatory. This was supposed to be a place that you would go to before heaven when you died. Your souls would be cleansed through a painful process but some people doubted this belief because it had never been mentioned in the Bible before.
- The Popes in Italy were getting to interested in political affairs.
- Priests were rumored to have wives and girlfriends which wasn't allowed by the religion.
- Monasteries weren't being run properly and had too much wealth. This was bad because Jesus had very little wealth so this wasn't being respectful of Jesus.
- The Church owned too much land.
- The Church sold relics and indulgences. These were special objects that claimed to be parts of bodies of saints and religious objects and they were meant to get you into heaven faster and spend less time in purgatory. These cost a lot of money though which was wrong.
- The Bible and Church services were done in Latin which meant most people couldn't understand what was going on.
- Some people thought worshiping saints was wrong because really they were just ordinary humans but God was the almighty spirit so he should've been worshiped more instead.
- Many rituals and beliefs didn't really have anything to do with the Bible or God. E.g. When the Church bells rung you would get a good harvest.
- Popes were treated more importantly than kings and queens!
Martin Luther was a German monk that protested about the Church's ways. He thought that indulgences were wrong and praying to saints, pilgrimages, fasting and the use of statues and images in the Church was all wrong too. He believed that only God could decide who went into heaven by being a good Christian and anyone could talk to God. He wrote a list of arguments called the 95 Theses which explained his beliefs. These included:
- Only God can forgive
- An indulgence will not save a man's soul
- Money causes greed
- A dead soul cannot be saved by an indulgence.
Henry VIII broke with Rome for many reasons. It would be unwise to say he was Catholic or Protestant despite breaking with Rome as he most likely did whatever suited him at the time.4 Categories for Henry VIII's reasons to break with Rome are:
- Wanting an Heir (son)
- Bankruptcy (money)