Medicis became Popes in order to increase their own wealth and expected to pass the wealth on to illegitimate sons. Inexperienced youths were appointed to lucrative bishoprics. Clergymen received incomes from several churches but never appeared in any of them. The peasantry saw the Church as an oppressive landowner.
Many of the princes were casting their covetous eyes on the vast properties of the Church. The People behind Reformation Movement The reformation movement had a few pioneers. Erasmus was a protester of many Church practices and teachings. His well known work, The Praise of Folly ( ), made fun of theologians and monks.
Others like him who worked towards reform two centuries before him were John Wycliffe and John Hus. They preached the gospel in the language of the people, and not in Latin. John Wycliffe, an English clergyman, was famous as the first translator of the Bible into English. He managed to escape the anger of Rome during his life time, but in , after thirty-one years of his death, a Church Council ordered that his bones should be dug up and burnt.
And this was faithfully carried out. Though the bones of Wycliffe could be burnt, his views could not easily be suppressed. The event reached Bohemia, and influenced John Huss. Huss, the head of the Prague University, was excommunicated by the Pope for his views.
As he was popular in his town he escaped harm. Promising a safe conduct by the Emperor, he was invited to Constance (Konstanz) in Switzerland, where a Church Council was in session. He was pressurised to confess his error. When he refused, in spite of their promise for his safety, he was burnt alive.
The reformation movement was popularised by three reformers at three different places. Martin Luther at Wittenberg, Huldrych Zwingli at Zurich, and John Calvin at Geneva. John Wycliffe Modern World: The Age of Reason Martin Luther ( – ) Martin Luther, a Christian priest, rose in revolt in Germany against Rome. After a visit to Rome he became disgusted with the