Renaissance Rome

I understood Partridge's section way more than Rowland's. The papacy was getting too crooked and the people wanted a change. They were a symbol of divinity and yet they were acting of the world. "The Renaissance church was not only worldly, it was also corrupt. Popes generally appointed family members to high office regardless of merit (nepotism) and often carved dynastic family states out of church lands (alienation. Clerics were often poorly educated, lax in their vows, and undisciplined. offices were routinely bought and sold (simony), and a single church official could draw income from many offices and benefices (pluralism)without attending to the duties of any (absenteeism)" (Partridge, 13). The church was participating in the purchase of indulgence where anyone for a price could remit their sins. While this was all happening the papacy was working on reinventing Rome; turning it into the most successful city in Europe once again. With this success comes sin. The protestants hated all the greed and money and indulgences and revolted against the church. They were the biggest threat to the succession of the new Rome. "However, the Protestants in northern Europe posed by far the greatest challenge to papal primacy, eventually completely rejecting the church" (Partridge, 14). The papacy used humanistic ideas to gain the support of others, for example, Rome's antiquity.

The church did reform and brought stricter rules against the papacy. "The canons and decrees of the Council of Trent(1545-63) and subsequent papal commissions clarified doctrines, standardized liturgy and scriptures, and corrected the worst abuses of nepotism, alienation of church lands, simony, pluralism, absenteeism, and the sale of indulgences" (Partridge, 16). Priests got better education and honed in on their real goals for society. They focused on preparing for the second coming of Christ. The art was reflecting this fight between war and renewal. The of idea of the physical world versus the spiritual world was all over in renaissance art.

I must've missed the whole idea of this or something. If the church and the papacy were involved in all these "divine" benefits why would they want to reform and get rid of the things they were receiving and doing. I know the Protestants were making it difficult for them but what really made them reform? They had this grand city of Rome where they could continue all their awful things. Why didn't they?