Charles Beard's "Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany, 2: Religi...

The Religious Life of Germany, 24-61. The Christian Church was almost akin to natural law in Europe—it was everywhere, top to bottom, in competing provinces and varied dynasties. The Pope’s hand was everywhere as a sort of “President” of European power-centers. Astute and ambitious Popes played politics in the “Holy Roman Empire.” Albigensianism was dispatched to the side in the 12th century by rough tactics. From literature and education to Cathedral architecture was dominated by clerks. After Augustine, the Graeco-Roman literature, e.g. ancient poetry, history and philosophy, it is claimed, was gradually subsumed to Christian categories. Aristotelianism was put to work in theology. The Church “imposed itself…upon every intellectual activity in Europe” (27). She alone interpreted God’s will without competitors. Sacraments were the channels of grace and mediators grew in number and importance. She held the keys to the “vast treasury of supererogatory merits,” binding and loosing from purgatory as needed. The omnipresent Church was everywhere with stately, large Cathedrals that dominated skylines. Even the smaller, parochial churches were more stately than ordinary domiciles—down to every hamlet and village. Universities were dominated by the clergy. Bishops and mitered abbots sat in parliaments and diets, often serving as diplomatists and government ministers. The wealth of the Church was enormous, notably, in Germany where she didn’t suffer the mortmain restrictions found in England. The Avignon Papacy, 1305-1370, drew public contempt as did the Renaissance Popes— “profligate, self-seeking, cruel, death to all higher responsibilities...” (30). Annates, Peter’s Pence, tithes, taxes, the first year’s income of a benefice, bribes for episcopal seats, pall money, dispensations, and indulgences were integral to immense fiscal behemoth. A generation before Luther, John Wessel protested indulgences.