Church History the Inheritance of Essay

This inherited infallibility might have been enough to maintain some form of power and integrity throughout the bulk of the fourteenth century, but in the last quarter of the 1300s a new problem arose out of the Babylonian Captivity that could not be so simply solved. After being convinced to move the papal seat back to Rome and thus reestablishing the independence of the Church, Pope Gregory XI promptly dies, and his successor Urban VI did not prove especially capable or moral, and the same body of cardinals that had elected Urban VI elected Clement VII later in 1378, despite Urban VI's refusal to relinquish the papacy. Clement VII moved his papacy back to Avignon, where he was supported as the one true pope by France, Spain, Scotland, and southern Italy, while northern Italy, most of Germany, Scandinavia, and England all backed the pope in Rome (Cairns 241). This: Great Schism," as it came to be called, persisted until 1417, when the papacy was again unified in Rome.

Martin Luther and the Reformation

Though eventually resolved in a manner that appeased most of the European powers, the events of the fourteenth century in regards to the papacy are an indicator of the general unrest within and in regards to the Church. They also demonstrated the growing political influence wielded by and on the Church and the Pope in particular, which was an increasing source of consternation for many within the Church. Though the Great Schism was healed by the first quarter of the fifteenth century, these underlying problems had not been resolved. It is against this backdrop that the Reformation period began in earnest, and Martin Luther can be seen as a point of concentration regarding these impulses and directions.

The religious fervor was no less strong in the minds and reaches of those politically charged with keeping the Church together, however, and this was the main reason fro Luther's ultimate split with the Catholic Church. Holy Emperor Charles V, presiding over the Diet of Worms (which sought to see Luther condemn his own writings), saw himself as charged with the duty to "defend the true faith;" this was not merely a battle over indulgences and the political excesses of the Church, but a fundamental theological disagreement as well (Noll 156). Luther even acquiesced to the Church's charges not because he believed he was in error, but because he disagreed with the Church's doctrinal interpretations, as much declaring himself separated from the Church as the Church did (Noll). This was the reason that the schism here, though far less politically potent in immediate terms, became far more influential and long-lasting than the Great Schism or the Babylonian Captivity; the fact that significant theological divisions had erupted in the Church meant more than the political divisions and influences that had appeared earlier.

Conclusion

There were, of course, differences of opinion about doctrinal interpretation long before the Reformation -- through the Church's history, in fact. It is interesting, then, that only when the Church had become a solid political entity in Europe's development that these differences led such a large and sudden rift. Combining the powers of this world with that of divinity has never worked out well in the long run, as this…