Church and people at the close of the Middle Ages - Challenges and pressures for reform

3 important questions on Church and people at the close of the Middle Ages - Challenges and pressures for reform

How can the late medieval Church be characterized?

The late medieval Church can only be characterized as a corrupt or decadent institution if we ignore the periodic waves of reformist favour emanating from within it.

Where did the most internal criticism come from in the Church?

Some of the most telling internal criticisms of the Church came from humanism, a movement aiming to recapture the wisdom and scholarship of the ancient classical world.

What did Christian humanists disapprove of?

  • Christian humanists, the most renowned of whom was the Dutch priest Desiderius Erasmus, disapproved of what they saw as superstitious aspects of popular religion and expressed frustration with clerical abuses such as ignorance, financial greed and absenteeism.
  • Humanists put their faith in the use of pure and instructive religious texts, including satirical works and Scripture itself (Erasmus famously produced his own version of the Greek New Testament in 1516).

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