Roman Catholic Church
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In the middle ages, there was a structure that the Roman Catholic Church had encompassed to gain the ultimate power of control in many fields. The Church controlled the nations politically and even academically through the field of science. As time proceeded, the European countries experienced a shift in what is termed as the renaissance and reformation. The reformation of the 16th century primarily focused on reforming some practices and doctrine that the Roman Catholic Church held in its operations. In this essay paper, the limitation of the power of the Roman Catholic Church in the described era due to the growth of nation-states is described.
The Catholic Church rose in the Western European nations to control much of the affairs of different countries, thereby making it sturdy. In the event of the growth of nation-states in Europe after the infamous treaty of Westphalia, there was a different picture at the Church. The doctrinal change that saw men lose the view on Rome impacted the Catholic Church. Men knew that before God they could be their own priests. The initial teachings of the Church were denied by the Protestants who viewed that each individual had the same right before his maker. The creation of nation-states made each country to carry its own political affairs minus involving Rome. The Church could not collect taxes and set laws with the court systems that they initially had in place (Glassman, 2017). Lands were taken over by individual nation-states, and the centralized king was not in place anymore. It is the changes, therefore, that the protestants in the reformation era proposed that saw the total overhaul on the role of the Catholic Church.
In conclusion, the Catholic Church lost the political and economic grip through the Protestants’ changes in the view of doctrine, as discussed herein. The introduction of nation-states saw a shift in the global control of the people.
Reference
Glassman, R. M. (2017). The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States. Springer.