Church Corruption in 16th Century Europe

Queen Isabella and King Fernando of Spain

The Protestant Reformation revolved along theological issues.  However, church corruption was the spark that set off the theological powder keg.  Keep in mind the doctrines that the reformers protested against were nothing new at the time of the 16th century.

Let’s look at Germany where Luther set things ablaze.  The church in Germany was certainly corrupt.  As everyone knew the sale of indulgences was rampant.  You had people Johann Tetzel selling indulgences with catch phrases like: When the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from Purgatory springs.  In addition to that there were corrupt bishops like Albrecht of Mainz who held two episcopal sees and was trying to acquire a third.  There were also politicians who possessed thousands of bogus relics like Frederick of Saxony.  Yes, the standard historical assessment that the German Church was corrupt was certainly true.

The most corrupt place in the Church was Italy.  Italy was the home of the renaissance and corruption was at unspeakable levels.  Far worse than Germany.  Luther experienced this when he went there in the early 1500s.  Many Catholics think that the brutal sacking of Rome in 1527 was divine retribution for the renaissance evils and corruption; much of it straight from Pope Clement VII.  The reason that the reformation never happened in Italy probably had to do with its proximity to Rome.  I also think that’s why the Eastern Orthodox Church never had a reformation.  They had multiple administration centres as opposed to one so the Church wouldn’t feel foreign whether you were in Moscow, Athens, or Chisinau.

Contrary to this, many places in the Church were doing well at that time.  In Spain there was a united monarchy of Castille and Aragon.  The monarchs in 1492 had expelled all Muslim and Jewish populations.  By 1517 this was in the very near past so there was a strong Christian identity there.  The Christian religion had finally driven out the last of the foreign occupiers.

This may surprise a lot of people but a place where the Church was doing very well was in England.  By the 1500s, England had produced many Saints and their monarchs were always loyal to the Pope.  Many people would go on pilgrimages to Walsingham and other places.  The English loved their Catholic faith and there was little corruption there.

In 1533, in an attempt to provide for himself an annulment to sanction his adultery, King Henry VIII made Thomas Cranmer into the Archbishop of Canterbury without Church approval.  At this point he broke with almost 500 years tradition dating back to Pope Gregory VII(1073 – 1085) who had prohibited lay investiture.  Even though Henry parted ways with the Pope, he kept his country relatively Catholic because a rapid change to Lutheranism wasn’t in the DNA of the English people.  Look up the six articles.  If you were an Englishman in 1545 you would have considered yourself a Catholic while acknowledging the Pope and King were having quarrels.

Of course subsequent monarchs like Edward VI, Elizabeth I, and James I would introduce reformed doctrine by increments and hence England is a Protestant country today.  It was a very different story than what happened in Germany.

There has always been Church corruption.  There is Church corruption today.  The only good thing that comes out of it is a backlash against it.  If the Council of Trent had happened 50 years earlier, there would probably be no Protestantism today.  I say this because there is little corruption between the time of Trent and Vatican I.