Decline of church power
History of church
Conflict of power
Corruption of the Clergy
The clergies had worldly lives. They dressed richly and lived in luxury. And there arose a feeling that the church was using its power for its own advantage instead of for the good of the people. Such ideas destroyed confidence in many people's church goodness and their reverence of the church's authority. Perish priests neglected their duty. Friars were lazy and ignorant. Bishops were busy looking after their land. The popes misused their power to excommunicate. Clergy sold indulgences forgiveness for wrongdoing granted by the church if a sinner would do some good deed or give a gift of money to the church to be used for some holy purpose. The church also sold clerical positions to the highest bidders so a lot of them were ignorant, illiterate, uneducated people. Candidates for popes bribed, blackmailed, tortured, and killed their way to being a pope. Investiture was a ceremony in which a bishop or other high official of the church received the ring and the staff that symbolized the spiritual authority of his job. It was not unusual for a secular or lay ruler to invest bishops and indeed, many secular rulers invested the candidates who paid the most money.