(1) How were the ideas of Marsilius of Padua evident in Louis of Bavaria’s conflict with Pope John XXII?
Marsilius wrote the Defensor Pacis in 1324, which argued that supreme authority in both church and state rests with the people, not the pope. He said that the papacy should have no temporal jurisdiction and that the pope should be subject to a general council of the Church. Louis IV applied these when he clashed with Pope John XXII over imperial election rights, Louis put Marsilus’s theories into practice. Louis ignored his papal excommunication, marched into Rome in 1328, and had himself crowned Emperor.
(2) What can we say about the condition of the Catholic Church on the eve of the Protestant Reformation?
On the eve of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church presented a paradoxical picture of widespread institutional corruption. There was institutional weakness where high level offices were plagued by absentees, people holding multiple church offices at once, and financial abuses. Lower clergy were also commonly poorly educated, impoverished, and unable to properly instruct parishioners in Latin liturgy.
(3) Discuss the three key developments in the process of political centralization in Spain.
One of the three key developments in the process of political centralization in Spain was the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1469. The union of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon united the two largest kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, laying the groundwork for a united Spanish state. The second key development is the completion of the Reconquista in 1492. The fall of Granada ended over 700 years of Muslim rule in the region, which gave the geographical and political control over to the Catholic Monarchs. The third and final key development is the Religious and Administrative Uniformity. The establishment of the Spanish Inqusition in 1478 enforced strict religious orthodoxy, using faith as an instrument of state authority, and removing non-christian minorities.
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