In the previous part of this series, we mentioned how Christians have thought about money through the centuries. You can read the entire article here. In turn, we publish all parts of this series at this link. Today we will stay in the world of Christians, but we will focus on Protestants. Their view of what money is has revolutionized our world, and some even believe that it has made the West the strongest region in the world at one point politically and economically. Money is all in all right As you've probably noticed yourself, over the centuries money has been thought of in increasingly liberal ways. Why? In fact, we have already answered this a few times in the "pages" of this story. It's just that people are such curious creatures that they often say one thing and then do another. Anyway, the development of money and credit was necessary for the development of the economy. Although in the Middle Ages our ancestors supposedly thought mainly of eternal life, in practice they preferred down here on earth to cry in a neat chamber in a big castle rather than in a crumbling cottage. We all have the same thing going on today, don't we? But let us now look at the historical background of the events we are describing. First, from the 14th century onwards there was a slow decline of the Church. At first the popes had more power than the kings, but over time this began to change. During the so-called Avignon Captivity (which took place between 1309 and 1377), the leaders of the Church had to reside not in Rome, but in France. For this they were forced to act according to the orders of local rulers. People - especially the intellectual elite - began to think quite differently about earthly reality. Here the works of Avettoes played a key role. He was an Arab scholar of Aristotle's philosophy who propounded the theory of the existence of two truths: divine and human. Simply put, he believed that God should do his work and we, here on earth, should do ours. Humanism, a philosophical current that placed man, not God, at the center, was also becoming increasingly popular. It is not hard to guess that this appealed very much to those people who were doing well in the markets - bankers and merchants. Until now, Christian doctrine had made their business lives difficult. Now that could change. I buy an office, I pay cash! In a way, the church was also committing its own collective image suicide. The point is that the clergy themselves lived quite - as we would say today - for show. They made no secret of their wealth, and on top of that, the Church itself traded in offices. The Bishop of Magdeburg, Albrecht Hohenzollern (cousin and namesake of the then Grand Master of the Teutonic Order) at one point wanted to buy himself the Bishopric of Mainz, for example. Thanks to this he could become the most powerful clergyman in Germany! So there was something to fight about! There was only one problem. Canon law forbade people like him to combine two bishop posts. Unless, of course, he got a dispensation from the Pope first. Albrecht was doing well, but not well enough to get such a document (yes, you could buy a dispensation!). However, he turned for help to Jacob Fugger, the most powerful banker in Europe at the time. Fugger was to lend him funds for the whole operation. Hohenzollern not only took the loan, but also came to the conclusion that it was worth treating it as a temporary loan and paying it back quickly. So he prepared a wide range of indulgences for the faithful. For a fee, one could buy the guilt of one's family members (the living and the dead - so as to shorten the latter's torments in purgatory). What's more, in the most expensive package there was even an option to forgive sins which... you haven't committed yet! After all, it's better than buying flowers for your wife after a sinful leap! In the terms of the loan agreement, Fugger himself stipulated that a Dominican, Johaness Tetzl, should be the plenipotentiary for indulgences. And perhaps if it had not been for this decision, the story would have turned out differently... Martin Luther We are also at the point in history where Martin Luther enters the arena. Luther was interested in the activities of the sinful Tetzl. Unaware of his ties to Albrecht, he even wrote him an official letter criticizing his actions regarding the sale of indulgences. As one might guess, Hohenzollern did not respond to the letter. According to legend, Luther then nailed his famous 95 Theses to a local church (historians believe that this was not the case, but Luther himself only began to spread his views, and did so with the help and financial support of his enemies' bribed clergy). In any case, in the above mentioned document he attacked the Church of his day for its financial excesses But who was behind Luther? Let's be honest: these were not the days of the internet, when you could reach thousands or tens of thousands of people with a single post and paid promotion on Facebook. No, someone had to take care of the distribution of theses. This was helped by the invention of printing, which was, however, very expensive. Some historians suggest that behind the distribution of the thoughts of the rebellious clergyman was the banker lobby, which saw in them an opportunity to increase the number of people in the church.
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