The State of the Church before the Reformation

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The State of the Church before the Reformation

Before the Reformation in England, the Catholic Church held a very powerful influence England. Historians have argued whether support for the church and the spirituality of the people would have resulted in a reform without Henry’s personal reason to divorce.

        There are strong arguments on the power of the church being abused and not preaching its religions true doctrine. In 1512, John Colet, the Dean of St. Paul’s preached a sermon to a meeting of the convocation of Canterbury, an assembly to discuss the need for a reform. He blamed the state of the church on the Clergy. In 1529 a pamphlet entitled, A Supplication for the beggars, was released around London. A lawyer and a Lutheran called Simon Fish wrote this. He suggested that the King himself act on the church. At the time, King Henry wrote his “Defence of the Seven Sacraments” in defence of the Catholic Church and against Luther’s beliefs.  

        It was argued that the Catholic Church was not following the teachings of the Jesus Christ. The Head of the church was the Pope.  Intellects who began reading back on the original texts of their religious doctrine found that there was not meant to be a pope of any sort.  The papacy was too powerful, it held a lot of money, and was not following nor teaching the way of Christ. Jesus led a life of humility whereas the Pope was not. This led the few people who doubted the Church to accuse the Church of being corrupt. The Church exerted a mandatory tax when it should have insisted on small donations.

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         Scholars and those appointed to examine the original text also found that the Church had wrong teachings on many things, which was really superstition. The priests did not actually know the meaning of the Latin from the bible. The idea that being able to speak what as written would allow you to gain magic was imposed on the people, who were not learned. Although the most of the clergy themselves were not as learned as thought. During “mass” the eating of bread and drinking of wine, representations of Christ’s body and blood, were taken literally as having magical powers. They ...

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