Continues from the
previous post –
The
Avignon pope, Benedict XIII, refused to come to Constance. In spite
of a personal visit from the emperor Sigismund, he would not consider
resignation. The council finally deposed him in July 1417. Denying
their right to do so, he withdrew to an impregnable castle on the
coast of Spain. Here he continued to act as pope, creating new
cardinals and issuing decrees, until his death in 1423.
The council in
Constance, having finally cleared the field of popes and antipopes,
elected Pope Martin V as pope in November. From the election of Pope
Martin V of the Council of Constance in 1417 to the Reformation,
Western Christianity was largely free from schism as well as
significant disputed papal claimants. Martin V returned the papacy to
Rome in 1420. Although there were important divisions over the
direction of the religion, these were resolved through the
then-settled procedures of the papal conclave.
Unlike
their European peers, popes were not hereditary monarchs, so they
could only promote their family interests through nepotism. The word
nepotism originally
referred specifically to the practice of creating cardinal-nephews,
when it appeared in the English language about 1669. According to
Duffy, "the inevitable outcome of all of this was a creation of
a wealthy cardinalatial class, with strong dynastic connections."
The College was dominated by cardinal-nephews, relatives of the popes
that elevated them, crown-cardinals, representatives of the Catholic
monarchies of Europe, and members of the powerful Italian families.
The wealthy popes and cardinals increasingly patronized Renaissance
art and architecture, rebuilding the landmarks of Rome from the
ground up. This well appreciated Renaissance was costing a lot of
taxation on ordinary people, janta, on one side and that activity was
giving business opportunity for the rich section of society on the
other side.
Pope
Sixtus IV in 1478 authorized Ferdinand
and Isabella
to appoint inquisitors
who will ensure that Spanish Jews are genuinely converted to
Christianity. And it remains the tradition that Dominicans, among
them Torquemada, will undertake the task. The Spanish
Inquisition
is an extension of what
has gone before.
The Papal States began
to resemble a modern nation state during this period, and the papacy
took an increasingly active role in European wars and diplomacy. Pope
Julius II become known as "the Warrior Pope" for his use of
bloodshed to increase the territory and property of the papacy. The
popes of this period used the papal military not only to enrich
themselves and their families, but also to enforce and expand upon
the longstanding territorial and property claims of the papacy as an
institution. Although, before the Western Schism, the papacy had
derived much of its revenue from the "vigorous exercise of its
spiritual office," during this period the popes were financially
dependent on the revenues from the Papal States themselves. With
ambitious expenditures on war and construction projects, popes turned
to new sources of revenue from the sale of indulgences and
bureaucratic and ecclesiastical offices. Pope Clement VII's
diplomatic and military campaigns resulted in the Sack of Rome in
1527.
Popes
were more frequently called upon to arbitrate disputes between
competing colonial powers than to resolve complicated theological
disputes. Columbus' discovery in 1492 upset the unstable relations
between the kingdoms of Portugal and Castile, whose jockeying for
possession of colonial territories along the African coast had for
many years been regulated by the papal bulls of 1455, 1456, and 1479.
Alexander VI responded with three bulls, dated May 3 and 4, which
were highly favorable to Castile; the third Inter caetera
(1493), awarded
Spain the sole right to colonize most of the New World.
Continues in next
post –
You may contact
me on my Email ID given below,
You are invited to
visit my other blogs
Ashok
Kothare, http://ashokkotharesblog.blogspot.com/
for
stories
I
reckon,
http://kotharesviews.blogspot.com/
for philosophy
You
may visit blog, Freedom of Expression,
Freedom
of Expression, http://kothare-thinks.blogspot.in/
Marathi
blog, http://kothare-marathi.blogspot.in/
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