The position of the Catholic Church in the early 1500s The problems within the Church that caused people to call for reform
The factors outside the Church that caused change
The power and wealth of the Church The Catholic Church in 1500
We saw in chapter 6 how important religion was in people’s lives in the Middle Ages and how powerful the Catholic Church was. It was incredibly wealthy, had priests in every community and the Pope had power over the kings of Europe.
The causes of the Reformation
1. The influence of the Renaissance The Church had helped to create the Renaissance by funding artists. However, an unintended consequence was that it also encouraged people to question old beliefs.
• As more people learned to read, they could read the Bible for themselves rather than accept everything told to them by priests and bishops. Their interpretations of the meaning of the Bible often differed from those of the Church.
