God's Story: A Student Guide to Church History by Brian Cosby Read Free Book Online Page A

to one-half of the entire European population died as a direct result of the plague.
    The Black Death produced a shortage of workers, and with a shortage of workers, potential employers had to increase wages to attract them. The effect was that this gave the workers an added sense of expectations and “rights.” Even the peasant-worker suddenly felt a sense of “worth”—that he deserved higher wages and better working conditions. Over time, this led to a general questioning of authority, especially church authority (as we will later see, this is one of the reasons why many of Luther’s followers were peasants).
    There was also a close connection between this anxiety and fear of death and the sense of guilt. Death implied God’s judgment and judgment brought a sinner face to face with God’s holiness and wrath. Some travelled from town to town whipping themselves with leather scourges in hopes of atoning for their sins and for the sins of others. The Roman Catholic Church fueled the fear of hell through pamphlets and drawings and the priests exploited these fears by speaking of what hell was like so as to raise funds for their immoral escapades and lavish living.
    Out of fear, many turned to visions and superstitious stories for comfort. During this time, a significant population turned to witchcraft! In fact, by 1484, there were so many witches that Pope Innocent VIII began an Inquisition to stamp out any witchcraft in Europe. This started a scary “witch hunt,” which subjected countless women (especially single women) to unspeakable torture and execution. By the early 1600s, some 30,000 women were executed for witchcraft!
Spiritual Devotion
    Relatively few, of course, turned their quest for spiritual things toward witchcraft and false spirituality. Most sought an intimate fellowship with the triune God and mysticism became a popular form of individual spirituality. One type of mysticism emphasized the human will’s conformity to the will of God through successive stages of purgation of sin, illumination by the Spirit, and contemplation on holy texts. Thomas à Kempis’ (1380-1471) The Imitation of Christ is a popular example of this strand of mysticism.
    Another type of mysticism believed each individual shared a spark of the divine and had the possibility of full union with God himself. This mystical union with God was achieved by letting go of one’s self, a detachment from the worldly desires. Both of these types of mysticism tended to discredit the hierarchy of the church. Moreover, church leaders seemed too worldly, too man-centered.
Church Authority
    One of the major issues leading to the Protestant Reformation had to do with the extent of the church’s authority. The pope’s laws often interfered with the local kings and lords of various lands across Europe. The problem that many of these local rulers had was that, while they wanted to limit Pope’s authority, they also wanted the pope to manage the churches within their lands.
    Moreover, the question arose: who should judge certain “sins” if those sins infringed on both church and state? Over time, the pope’s actual power began to wane before the power of local kings. As more and more local kings appointed their own bishops and priests, those bishops and priests would be loyal—not to the pope—but to the king who appointed them and provided their income!
    At one point, the pope became ruler of the Italian army, which defeated other local rulers in northern Italy and Europe—the people of which were members of the Roman Catholic Church and who were paying their tithe money to the Roman Catholic Church. Oftentimes, the pope was more Italian than church! Most popes and cardinals were Italian, which began to seem suspicious in an age of increasing sovereign states. In fact, from 1400-1978 only two popes were not Italian and one of those only ruled for two years! The question arose: what was the value of a pope’s excommunication against a king