for his patience. clement used various little tricks, delaying tactics and the thing just dragged on and on and on and on. henry finally got fed up with it and said i m doing this on my own. in the decade after martin luther s revolution, a school of thought circulates around europe doubting the pope s divine right to power. henry viii availed himself of this very strong current of reformation thought that said the pope is not the head of the christian church. the christian church is invisible. the christian church is all believers everywhere and the pope has no particular claim to be the leader. he took that reformation thought and then he entirely corrupted it by saying the pope is not the leader of the christian church, i am. which was not at all what the reformers had in mind. henry viii says i m going to
scripture and official documents. martin luther is the first to use it to spread the subversive message. martin luther s revolution was fueled by the printing press and he used it with genius. but that brought a real problem. now he was the symbol of all sorts of different discontents, and he d aroused passions which he couldn t control all through europe, and now europe was split. martin luther s statements against the sale of indulgences put him in direct opposition to pope leo x who was frantically selling them to cover his debts. church leaders were now saying to luther, you must obey the pope and to obey you must keep quiet. and luther could not keep quiet. if he were the enemy of the church, that would mean you could be called a heretic.
after king charles of germany attacks rome in 1527, the city is in ruins. after that they took half a century to build rome. rome is destroyed. half of europe abandoned catholicism for lutheranism. the pope is determined to strengthen what is left of the catholic empire. but despite his best efforts to revive the splintering church, another threat to papal power brui brews in england. henry viii was a fascinating complicated individual. henry vii had the biggest ego in the king doucdom of england. he was also a clever man,
were being offered indulgences for sale. leo x realizes not only would the sale of indulgences deepen the pockets of the catholic church, but it will also fund the expensive construction of st. peter s basilica. people go to st. peter s now and they think, how did they get all the money to build this? well, they were taxing people with indulgences. the whole thing about st. peter s indulgence was it was applicable to your dead relatives. so, you could get your relatives out of purgay patory bor an indulgence. it is a very seductive idea, a very successful idea. but as word of the pope s campaign for indulgence spreads throughout europe, it triggers a reaction from a fundamentalist professor in germany. martin luther heard about this and found it obscene. martin luther, a 33-year-old
churches and parishes, people are giving up lots of money during this time period, and they are feeling pressed. only two years into leo x s papacy the vatican is on the verge of bankruptcy. in order to save the church from financial ruin, he charges his clergy with selling indulgences throughout all of europe. indulgence, the forgiveness of sins in return for cash payment. indulgences started way back in the crusade and the idea was that you got these soldiers fighting for christ and they re likely to be killed at any moment. and so what the church did was to give them a get out of purgatory free card. so, the indulgence was a way of rewarding people who were doing something good for god. but the trouble was that this system grew and very soon people