Section 1: conditions in early 16c rome

Question 1

How does economic change relate to the lutheran crisis

Answer 1

it was an underlying factor

some were doing well, but many felt threatened
these economic pressures affected people’s attitudes to their faith and the church

• the conditions produced an educated elite open to new ideas and a desperate underclass who seized on new ideas about salvation and improving their condition

Question 2

impacts of Population growth

Answer 2

Positive impact for some groups- along the rhine and in north germany, demand for more food led to improvements in the agricultural sector

demand for consumer goods increased, leading to a boom in textile production and the manufacturing sectors of towns like Augsburg and Munich

this led to a boom in trade along the great rivers, the rhine, danube, elbe, lesser and spree.

Question 3

what was the population growth

Answer 3

rose from 12m in 1500 to 15m in 1550

Question 4

Bad economy: inflation stat

Answer 4

from about 1530, prices started to rise steeply, wages rarely kept up, urban laboroures suffering

e.g. in the town of speyer, wages trebled between 1521 and 1621, the price of staple foods increased between 13 and 15 times

Question 5

Bad economy: Inflation

Answer 5

• urban labours suffered and there became a large wealth gap in many towns
• peasants streaming into towns to escapee rural poverty made things much worse
• by 1558, 47 percent of the pop of Augsburg were too poor to pay taxes, and 10 percent were in receipt of poor relief

Question 6

Bad economy: increasing anger

Answer 6

• unbeliebable harship coupled with deep resentment of exploitative landlords meant an increasingly explosive situation in the country
• around 70 percent of the pop was a peasants
• there were 18 significant peasants revolts between 1500-25 compared with 21 in the previous 100 years

Question 7

positive economy changes

Answer 7

• towns grew up around new industries such as mining, they were boosted by others such as printing

Question 8

beliefs of the catholic church about life after death

Answer 8

• hell or heaven
• before souls went to either, they went to purgatory, where they suffered hideous tortures as they were cleansed of their sins on earth for possibly millions of years
• those who could not be cleansed went to hell

Question 9

why did the church have power

Answer 9

• they claimd to be the only route to eternal salvation

- obedience to the teachings of the church was therefore crucial

Question 10

rules of the church

Answer 10

• attend church
• take part in an annual cycle of religious ceremonies and rituals (i.e. fasting 40 days during lent, celebrating feast days of saints)
• obeying 10 commandments
• performing ‘good works’ like pilgrimages, being charitable or collecting holy relics
• showing devotion to the virgin mary and the saints
• participating in the seven sacraments

Question 11

what were the seven sacraments

Answer 11

• baptism
• confirmation
• penance
• eucharist
• marriage
• last rites
• ordination

Question 12

were people satisfied with these teachings? (the majority)

Answer 12

• the bible and services were in latin, meaning most people did not understand official doctrine anyway
• most people were simply worries about everyday things. The majority was content, the church had the right answers and was meeting theyr needs by helping with their anxietys
• more than that, the celebrations and festivals were fun, involved the whole community. Religious rituals were an important part of life and had existed for centuries, meaning people would be reluctant to give them up
• the church bonded and united the people

Question 13

evidence of support for the church

Answer 13

• financial payments: large amounts of money were left in wills for the church and the laity often paid taxes to the church, mortuary dues, and indulgences with little resentment
• decoration of churches: ppl showed their love through this. I.e. the village of Balgach built a new Chapel in 1424 using the villages on money
• feast and saint days: e.g. thousands of ppl flocked to Wilsnack in the 15th c to witness the miraculous bleeding hosts there

Question 14

were the people satisfied with the church? (the elite)

Answer 14

• far more concerned with the afterlife, wanted to be reassured their sould would achieve eternal salvation
• theres little evidence that anyone thought the church was teaching the wrong thing, the seven sacraments were accepted.

Question 15

evidence of the elite’s devotion to the church

Answer 15

• people were exceptionally devout, e.g. Fred the Wise had a collection of 19,000 relics including bread from the last supper and a hair from Jesus’ beard.
• Albert of Mainz had 42 entire holy skeletons
• church building flourished, paid for by wealthy patrons

Question 16

So overall were ppl satisfied with the church’s teachings?

Answer 16

• almost everyone respected the core teachings of the church and there had been almost no heresy trials in Germany since the 1470s

Question 17

what was humanism

Answer 17

• in the decades before the reformation, an intellectual revolution took place in Europe, religious ideas and beliefs that had been accepted for centuries were questioned and reviewed by intellectuals and scholars

Question 18

Why were humanists so important ( translation)

Answer 18

• they pioneered the practice of trying to create the purest translations possible of the bible
• went back to the oldest sources they could find in their search for accuracy (ad fontes) and discovered errors in things such as the Vulgate bible
• Luther was inspired

Question 19

Why were humanists so important ( personal understanding)

Answer 19

• humanists promoted the idea that a good christina life should be based on a deep personal understanding of the bible rather than just relying on what the church said
• erasmus wanted everyone to read the bible
• study, inner spirituality, prayer and meditation were all more important to being a good christian than mindless activities like going on pilgrimages and viewing relics
• this view is reflected in his ‘handbook of the chistian soldier’ (1501)

Question 20

why were humanists so important (criticism)

Answer 20

• humanists openly criticised and made fun of the church
  e. g. humanist Ulrich von Hutten co-authored a satirical volume of ‘Letters of Obscure men’ which mocked clerical ignorance and absues
  e. .g Erasmus made fun at clerical abuses and superstitions in his ‘praise of folly’ (1509)
• in this way, humanists were early responsible for the mood of anticlericalism, populism and nationalism that existed in 1517
• they had created a climate in which Luther’s protest could thrive

Question 21

Humanism wasn’t rotten

Answer 21

• though humanist thinking was strong in Germany, this does not mean the church was rotten
• ppl were looking for ways to improve their religious experience, but this was usually from within the church

Question 22

what did erasmus want to do through his writing

Answer 22

• open debate and the papcy to lead a reform of the church, therefore he challenged ideas, institutions and practices
• however, he did not want to cause a revolution and certainly did not want to split the church
• he was a vital influence of luther, however, he eventually rejected Luther completely

Question 23

Quote about Luther and Erasmus

Answer 23

• ‘Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched’ Cardinal ALeander 1520

‘i laid a hen’s egg, but Luther hatched a bird of quite different kind’

Question 24

Ulrich Von Hütten

Answer 24

• advocated importance of studying the bible and a strong critic of abuses
• fierce german nationalist, believing Rome took advantage of the fears of normal germans
• supporter of luther

Question 25

conrad Celtis

Answer 25

• nationalist

- hated abuses

Question 26

Why was anti-clericalism so prominent in the empire? (Due to the level of clerical abuses)

Answer 26

• the church was ridden with abuses: i.e. simony, pluralism
• This resulted in many unqualified bishops who saw the church as solely a means to make money so they could live as princes
• Many of the clergy lived scandalously and imorraly, doing things such as; gambling, drinking and womanising
• ignorance of latin and doctrine
• the criticism was not new

Question 27

what is simony

Answer 27

when positions in the church were sold to the highest bidder rather than awarded to the best candidate

Question 28

what is pluralism

Answer 28

when you hold more than one office at a time

Question 29

Evidence that the criticism of the church was not new

Answer 29

• there was a long discontent of abuses in Germany
• There had been prophecies that a ‘holy man’ would appear to reform the church and rid it of its abuses
• Refromatio Sigismundi was written in 1438 showing this propehcy, ran 8 editions
• Erasmus wrote ‘In praise of folly’ in 1509 which was an instant bestseller and by 1536 had run 42 editions

Question 30

Clergy’s abuses - counter argument

Answer 30

• abuses were often exaggerated in anti-clerical literature since scandal meant better sales
• about half priests in southern Germany had a degree which was exceptionally high given uni places
• some monastic orders had already reformed themselves i.e. Augustinians
• most ordinary people did not mind if their preist lived with a woman or did not understand Latin
• Many of the fiercest critics were the clergy themselves, and they had been openly criticising abuses for a long time without causing a crisis

Question 31

The abuses Benefits to Luther

Answer 31

• He benefited from the idea of the ‘Holy man’ as many felt displeasure with mans sinfulness after Syphallis appeared in the 1490s
• public broadsheets were also published showing comets and ‘monstrous births’
• a Great Conjunction of the Stars was predicted to coincide in 1524, meaningg the Second coming of christ.

Ppl therefore wanted reform

Question 32

Overall judgments on clergy abuses

Answer 32

The chief form of anti-clericalism was not the level of abuses, however attacking these abuses had created a climate where it was acceptable to criticise and laugh at the church

Question 33

Why was anti-clericalism so prominent in the empire? (Power of the church and privileges of the clergy) - Power

Answer 33

• Church had immense power in 1500, controlling about 1/6 of German land
• Three of the seven electors were members of the church
• Had huge legal power, processed everyones wills
• Members of the clergy had the privilege of only being tried in church courts

Question 34

Why was anti-clericalism so prominent in the empire? (Power of the church and privileges of the clergy) - Money

Answer 34

• They were exempt from paying taxes and contributions to defebnce funds
• Many people hated the financial demands made by the church: had to go on pilgrimages, pay for baptisms, marriages, burials, confessions, relics, all for salvation, indulgences
• one tenth of every persons income or produce would go to the church (the ‘tithe’)
• Poor church landlord put up rents in rural areas that were suffering economically
• There were over 100 holy days where ppl were forbidden to work

Question 35

Criticism of the power of the clergy

Answer 35

• ‘Grievances and Demands of Cologne’s burghers’ 1513 -

Merchants of Cologne rose in revolt against their city council and put together a list of 154 complaints including financial mismanagement

Question 36

Overall judgement of criticism of power of the clergy

Answer 36

Perhaps because of the vacuum of central authority in the empire, there was a feeling that the church had more power in Germany than anywhere else in Europe and that Rome was exploiting Germany

Question 37

Why was there so much hostility towards the papalism

Answer 37

• Personal behaviour of the renaissance popes: Alexander VI, Julius II and Leo Z, which was almost completely at odds with their claim to christendom
• the condition of the church in Rome which was about as far from being an example for Christendom as it would possibly be
• a growing belief that these hypocritical foreign popes and their scandal ridden Roman church were financially exploiting Germany

Question 38

Why was there so much hostility towards the popes ( their actions)

Answer 38

• Alexander VI: corrupt spanish pope doing immoral things i.e. murder, extortion and poisoning
• Julius II acted more like a European prince, making and unmaking alliances with Maximilian and leading his own troops into battle the fact that shocked Europe almost as much as his rumoured homosexuality
• Leo X good pope by some means however was a spendthrift. Sold 1343 offices in the church, made 31 new cardinals in one day in 1517 (simony) Agreed to an indulgence in 1515 to pay for the completion of st peters (leading to Tetzel’s sales i Germany)

Question 39

Why was the popes actions so bad

Answer 39

• they were failing in their roles as leaders of the Christian church, in neglecting their duties and allowing corruption and incompetence to occur
• also failed to pay attention to new ideas of faith coming from humanists and provide a decisive reaction to the growing waves of anti-papalist

Question 40

Why else was anti-papalist bad? (condition of the church in Rome)

Answer 40

• lack of respect for the Renaissance popes was closely married to reports circulating Germany about the behaviour of the clergy in Rome

Question 41

Anti-paplism (Rome’s exploitation of Germany

Answer 41

• by 1500 rome exploited Germany more than anywhere else in Europe, as the empire lacked a strong centralised GVM
• unlike Germany, countries such as England, France and spain had strong governments and were able to negotiate with Rome from a position of strength and could keep the pope at arms length
• the multiple states of the empire did not have much strength, which made them very vulnerable and easy prey for the pope

Question 42

How did Rome exploit germany

Answer 42

• huge amounts of money left for Rome every year, taxes, rents and the sale of dispensations, indulgences and offices
• anti- italian feeling was high and the pope was the main target of anger
• anger was closely allied with german nationalism

in the late 1540s German printmaker Wenzel Von Olmutz engraved a cartoon of a monster, representing God’s anger with rome and the papacy

Question 43

Indulgence controversy

Answer 43

1517

Question 44

Indulgence controversy - Leo X

Answer 44

• determined to leave his mark in history, Leo x issued a new indulgence in 1515 and decided to complete the rebuilding of the St peter’s Basilica
• he wanted a magnificent new basic ilia to glorify god and revive rome and demonstrate the papacy’s power
• huge costs were involved and Leo decided to raise the money by issuing an indulgence

Question 45

Indulgence controversy- The fugger family

Answer 45

• Leo sought the cooperation of the most influential banked in Germany, Jakob Fugger of Augsburg
• Fugger decided to link the sale with the needs of another client Albert of Bradenburg
• He would lend Albert the money he needed, Albert would sell the indulgences, funnel half of the money back to Fugger and the rest back to Rome

Question 46

Indulgence controversy - Albert of Mainz

Answer 46

• Albert of Bradenburg was one of the 7 electors and at just 23 was already Archbishop of Halberstadt
• in 1514 the Archbishop of mainz fell vacant
• normally Albert would have had to surrender his other positions to get the post, but if he could pay the church a large sum, he could get it

Question 47

Indulgence controversy - Tetzel

Answer 47

• Albert hired Johann Tetzel, a Dominican Friar, to run the sales campaign in provinces of Mainz and Magedburg
• sales were good, but his aggressive marketing tactics did not win universal approval

Question 48

Indulgence controversy - Frederick the wise

Answer 48

• By october 1517, he had reached the boarders of Electoral saxony, the ppl of saxony reacted in 3 diff ways:
• fred refused tetzel permission to enter
• his subjects flooded over the boarder anyway , keen to purchase such a powerful indulgence
• Luther wrote a list of 95 these against indulgences