Practice Free Response Essay - Day 1

2. Analyze the various Protestant views of the relationship between church and state in
the period circa 1500–1700.

Protestantism was a faith that came about due to a man named Martin Luther. Luther was a Catholic monk who disagreed with Church ideas, and stated his ideas throughly to the Church. Without Martin Luther, not only would the world of today lack one major religious denomination, but it's view and handling of religion would be entirely different.

In the times of Luther's life, the Catholic Church was constantly involved in many affairs, some that today may be seen as obscene for a religious organization to be involved in. Simply put, the Catholic Church and its leaders were corrupt, even selling condolences, which were what they viewed as a monetary exchange, in return for forgiving sins. and it seemed like that would not change. Luther was a firsthand witness to this, and believed that this should change, and soon thereafter came out with his 95 Thesis. In this thesis, Luther effectively disagreed with the three key teachings of the Catholic Church: Salvation by faith alone, that the bible was the only source of Church authority, and most importantly, a change, or demolition, to the Church hierarchy. With this radical change, eventually a new church denomination was formed, Protestantism. In this church, their would be no hierarchy of Bishops, or Popes, or priests, but instead equal people. This obviously was a problem with the Catholic Church, as many high ranking officials were involved, effectively playing a major part in world politics. If Luther's laws were followed, the Church would lose all of this power, which they would not give up. This led to quarrel between the two, with the Church wanting Luther to adhere to there laws, and vice versa.

Protestantism eventually began to popularize, especially with the middle-class people, who viewed is as a way to live with more freedom. Protestantism allowed a more "common people" friendly religion, giving them more power and free will. It opened their eyes to the corruption of many who were involved in the Catholic Church, which again the Church did not want people to know. Through Martin Luther, the common people also were able to more throughly understand the teachings of the bible, and point out the areas that were not in the bible, that he did not believe to be true. The Church had began to adapt practices that were not in scripture, yet they believed to be important to their religion, such as the condolences.

This new religion eventually began to stir a movement that the Church did not have to be involved with the state, and that they could function separately, without a church hierarchy. This obviously created problems, with people wanting this separation, and others desperately trying to keep hold of their power. They wanted to rid themselves of this believed holy people, that were proven to be corrupt and problematic. This eventually led the Catholic Church to change some of their ways even, not entirely, but to fix some of the flaws that were seen within their faith.

Protestantism is to this day a commonly practiced religion in parts of the world, all due to one mans's movement against the Church. This movement helped to spark a new wave of ideas and views on the way not only religion worked, but also government and politics. If Martin Luther had never been so bold, be would have never changed the world to the way it is today.

Practice Theses

Analyze the ways in which European monarchs used both the arts and the sciences to
enhance state power in the period circa 1500–1800.

European monarchs had much control of the arts and the sciences, and exploited this power to turn it in favor of themselves, by constricting what could and could not be created, what could be told or not told, not based on the validity or the beauty of the work, but rather on how it would effect their power and reign.