Abuses Of The Medieval Catholic Clergy Essay

, Research Paper

The Dark Ages of Europe were called such for several reasons. One of the more notorious reasons was the state of the Catholic Church. In the years before the Reformation, members of the Catholic clergy had reached an all time low in terms of their morality. The abuses of clerical power and privileges by the medieval clergy spanned all parts of their daily lives. Members of the Catholic clergy were financially, politically and socially corrupt. Each of these corruptions made up the enormous religious corruption that was the logical result of such debauchery.

Of the several grievances against the Church, .[t]he first and sorest was that she loved money, and had too much of it for her own good. (Durant 17). Documents on the exact wealth of the Church in the Middle Ages simply do not exist. Historians, however, speculate that the Church.s share of the wealth made up anywhere from a fifth to three-quarters in each of England, France and Germany. .In Italy, of course, one third of the peninsula belonged to the Church as the Papal States, and she owned rich properties in the rest. (Durant 17).

The clergy was notorious for sucking money out of the people any way they could. They were known to have sold false relics to unsuspecting believers, passing animal bones and bits of torn cloak as those of Christ. Often times .priests.charged a mite too much for burial services. (Mee 151) or raised the amount of taxes due by a few ducats. Charging extra for taxes was not difficult because clergy often served as local officials, including those in charge of collecting taxes (Clifford 7).

Had he Church been using the skimmed/scammed money for legitimate Church purposes, it may not have been so insulting. However, it was blatantly obvious that the cash was going to the clergy, who were becoming worldlier by the day. Even the papacy, the highest representative of God.s church on Earth, had become almost mortally corrupted. Pope Clement VI.s .luxurious court and gorgeous retinue were those of a secular prince, not a prince of the church. (Kelly 220). Even literature of the period portrays the clergy as being over-wealthy. There are several examples in Chaucer.s famed Canterbury Tales. Chaucer first describes a Prioress bedecked with beads, brooches and other trinkets who makes sure her little dogs are fed with .roasted flesh, or milk, or fine white bread. (151). Such refined things were not meant for nuns, let alone their pets. Next described is the Monk. The tale says his favorite pastime is hunting, whereas a monk should spend his days in prayer and labor. His clothes are trimmed .With fine gray fur, the finest in the land, / And on his hood./He had a wrought-gold cunningly fashioned pin. (Chaucer 198-200). The dress of the clergy was rarely allotted a soft fabric. To be using beads, gold and furs should have been unheard of.

Another grievance that eventually became a driving force behind the Reformation, was the sale of indulgences. Priests are authorized to absolve a confessor from the guilt and punishment of sins in hell, but not from earthly penance. If all penances are not performed, the balance would have to be paid in purgatory, a kind of

temporary hell. The indulgence began to replace prayer, pilgrimage and alms as penance to escape a short piece of their term in purgatory.

Thomas Gascoigne.complained that .sinners say nowadays: .I care not how many evils I do in God.s sight, for I can easily get plenary remission of all guilt and penalty by an absolution and indulgence granted me by the pope, whose written grant I have bought for four or six pence, or have won as a stake for a game of tennis [with the pardoner]. (Durant 23)

The political issues of the clergy were seated in their lust for power and money and their variety of privileges. Th sale of church offices had a lot to do with the political corruption. Important, as well as insignificant offices were offered up to the highest bidders. .Careerists accumulated numbers of benefices [church offices] that made it impossible to serve them all personally. Ill-paid substitutes were who were often uneducated and negligent provided for the needs of the people. (McBrien 1091). Such pluralism led to a lot of nothing. Nothing was accomplished for the people and nothing was accomplished for the church.

Once the jobs had been filled, the appointees created more new offices to sell for profit. The practice of creating new offices as a fund-raiser is most documented with the popes. Alexander VI created eighty previously non-existent offices, each going for a price of about 19,000 dollars apiece (Durant 19). Julius II and Leo X created similar numbers of offices, which would run at about the same prices. Alexander also had a soft

spot for his friend.s children. For them he arranged magnificent marriages and named one a cardinal.

The church was also benefited with special privileges. The political privileges of the church were intended to .Protect them from attacks on the dignity of their function, to exempt them from public duties incompatible with their position, to shield them from civil justice, and to assure them a fair means of subsistence in all circumstances. (Strayer Vol 3 445). The four resulting privileges are as follows: of the canon, of the forum, of exemption and of competency.

The privilege of the canon provides that any