Author: Rachel Wendel, Sunset High School
📍Portland, OR

By the end of the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church had a lot of power and authority over the people of Europe as it owned approximately thirty-seven percent of all the land in Europe while making money off charging people a steady ten percent tithing for their income. Some people like Martin Luther were questioning the Catholic church’s corruption due to its widespread indulgences that forgave grave crimes for a monetary sum and lavish architecture like the St. Peter’s Basilica which uses the people’s money to display the wealth of the Catholic Church. During this time, Renaissance humanism emerged which emphasized individual thought and critical inquiry while breaking traditional boundaries in literature and philosophy, challenging the Catholic Churches intellectual dominance and creating more skepticism about its doctrines. These ideas eventually influenced the Enlightenment and the ideas that further spread the critiquing of the Church and weakening its control over the European population. Although the Catholic Church’s Counter-Reformation was relatively effective in preventing the spread of ideas against its authority, new technologies along with the Enlightenment ideas weakened the authority of the Catholic Church beyond repair.

Technological advancements, specifically the printing press, played a major role in weakening the Catholic Church by facilitating the easier spread of ideas dissenting from it and challenging its monopoly on knowledge. Johannes Gutenburg’s invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century allowed fast communication and the spread of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, challenging many practices of the Catholic Church (Strayer and Nelson 298). The printing press disrupted the ability of the Catholic Church to contain the information put out against them since the pamphlets were able to reach a variety of people in a short amount of time. This was more effective than other revolutions before this because the ideas were contained by the Catholic Church, but the printing press was able to spread the ideas way faster which prevented the Catholic Church from containing them. Martin Luther’s Ninety-Theses was a revolutionary document that showed how he did not support the system of indulgences and corruption of the Catholic Church’s lavishes by arguing that repenting and praying should be accessible to everyone even without money but genuine divine retribution (Martin Luther, In-class handout). Martin Luther was a well-known theologian (person who studied religion) and professor who believed in god yet when he witnessed people getting massive indulgences for really bad crimes and the lavish amount the Catholic Church spent rather than giving back to the community it drove him to speak out against them. Galileo Galilei’s use of the telescope and subsequent publications, such as Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, challenged the Church’s geocentric teachings by providing empirical evidence for heliocentrism (the astronomical model which places the sun in the center of the universe) (Strayer and Nelson 313). The Catholic Church believed that the Earth was in the center of the universe and did not want people challenging it as it would undermine their authority and legitimacy as the idea that Earth was in the center of the universe was written in the Catholic scripture. Galileo’s trial by the Inquisition showed the tension between scientific advancements and the Church’s resistance to losing its intellectual authority. The Encyclopédie, written by Denis Diderot in the 18th century, was a book encompassing a series of Enlightenment ideals and scientific knowledge, directly challenging Church teachings. Widely distributed among the upper-class, the Encyclopédie emphasized reason, secularism, and inquisitive thought, undermining the religious supremacy of the Church (Strayer and Nelson, 320). The Encyclopédie not only increased the spread of Enlightenment ideas but also symbolized a broader intellectual movement that diminished the Church’s cultural and intellectual dominance. Providing secular alternatives to religious explanations, contributed to the weakening of the Church’s authority over knowledge production. 

Enlightenment ideas emphasized freedom of expression, individualism, and secularism, which challenged the fundamental values of religious orthodox values and promoted alternative sources of authority like democracy. Voltaire’s major works like the Treatise of Toleration called for religious tolerance and were against the intolerance and corruption of the Catholic Church (Strayer and Nelson, 319). Voltaire’s works critique the Church’s moral authority by exposing its doctrines like the original sin which undermined theological authority and encouraged the view that religion was used to oppress people rather than be a source of truth. He viewed that the government’s main role was to protect the rights of the people which was more important than religious laws. His ideas led to a widespread discourse and debate which led to the weakening of the Catholic Church and the rise of democracy and capitalism. John Locke argued for the separation of church and state and advocated for religious tolerance through his ideas of individual liberties which include life, liberty, and property (Strayer & Nelson, 319). His ideas challenged the Catholic Church’s historical intervention with political power, stressing that faith should be a personal choice, not enforced by government authority. His ideas especially influenced ideologies worldwide to delve away from religious institutions in government like the Catholic Church to democracy with people getting individual rights. Immanuel Kant described Enlightenment as “Having the courage to express your ideas,” emphasizing intellectual freedom and individuality for the people, urging individuals to think for themselves rather than rely on traditional authorities, including the Catholic Church, for guidance (Strayer and Nelson, 319). Kant’s promotion of individual thought and his criticism of blind obedience challenged the Catholic Church’s reliance on divine authority to force beliefs and behavior. By encouraging people to question the doctrines, Kant’s ideas contributed to a growing culture of curiosity and thinking that weakened the Church’s intellectual monopoly.

In response to the challenges to the Catholic Church’s legitimacy from new technologies and Enlightenment ideas, the Catholic Church had a Counter-Reformation that used new strategies of censorship and ways to assert its authority as an all-powerful entity but was ineffective on a broader scale.  The Jesuits in 1540 became in the Counter-Reformation since they focused on missionary work and intellectual engagement to defend Catholic doctrine and counteract Protestant and Enlightenment reforms (Strayer & Nelson, 297). While the Jesuits succeeded in spreading Catholicism to parts of Asia and the Americas, their focus on education primarily was with the elite circles and didn’t make any effort to manage the public discontent with Church corruption and its excessive corruption. The Rules for Thinking with the Church excerpt includes a series of methods that are aimed at making people appreciate god and connect with the inner divinity that god offers them while listening to the sayings of the scripture (Ignatius Loyola, In-class-handout). The purpose of this document was to spread the religious scripture even more and connect people to Catholicism to counteract the spreading of the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment. The Council of Trent was held to address internal corruption, affirm the stance of the church doctrine, and combat the spread of Protestantism. The council did this by reforming clerical education, banning the sale of indulgences, and strengthening Church discipline. However, it also continuously reinforced traditional scripture, emphasizing the authority of the Pope, and the necessity of Church intermediaries in interpreting scripture (Strayer & Nelson, 299).  While the Council of Trent improved the Church’s organization and moral standing, they still refused to compromise on theological doctrines that alienated Protestants and also didn’t reunify Christianity.  Even though the establishment of religion in educational places was effective in spreading Catholicism to a wider audience, Enlightenment and Protestant ideas remained very prevalent in Europe. A form of censorship that the Catholic Church agreed upon was banning books that had ideas that did not align with their beliefs through the Index of Forbidden Books (Anonymous, In-class handout). The Catholic Church although in the Council of Trent, agreed to drop indulgences, they also wanted to assert their superiority and reinforce their role in society. Banning books from renowned scientists and labeling them as heretics such as for people like Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin while also labeling the readers as sinful made the Index of Forbidden Books a somewhat effective fear tactic of the Catholic Church. Overall, although the Counter-Reformation instilled fear in people while also asserting the Church’s authority it did little to fix the issues that people had with the Church which was its corruption and their censorship of information.

New Technologies like the printing press and Enlightenment ideologies were essential in weakening the Catholic Church because even though the Catholic Church attempted to stop the Spread of ideas that weakened its authority, the Enlightenment promoted ideas of freedom of thought and expression against Catholic censorship and authority. At the same time, new technology allowed more scientific innovation and ideas that challenged the Catholic Church. The Counter-Reformation though successful in creating fear among people in Europe, still used its censorship and corrupt tactics which did not solve the issues that it caused society and didn’t help them regain the power they lost due to the Reformation.  The Enlightenment ideas of individual rights, liberty, and skepticism toward centralized government directly influenced the American Revolution, where colonists drew upon thinkers like Locke and Rousseau to justify independence from British rule. The fundamental ideas of the American government included a government based on the rights of people, which was their inherent power not given from a book but was inalienable to the people themselves. This shows how the Enlightenment influenced future democracy and government away from religious teachings but democratic influence focused on the will of the people.