Hi and welcome back to Heimler's History. In the last few videos we've been going over Unit 3 of AP World History and what we've been seeing is how land-based empires expanded during 1450 to 1750 and how did those rulers actually consolidate and legitimize their power during that same period. And in this video we've been talking about religion. In many of these empires, religion was one of the key ingredients in their expansion stew.
And in many ways, religion for these empires was a unifying force, but under certain conditions it could lead to the fracturing of those empires. Mmm, intrigue. Let's get to it.
So in this video we're going to look at two major religious schisms, one in Christianity and one in Islam. I'm going to start with the Christian schism in Europe. Now you may remember that the particular flavor of Christianity that was dominant in Europe for centuries was the Roman Catholic Church.
Now the Catholic Church got a little wobbly as Europe was transitioning from feudalism into the more powerful centralized monarchies. The reason is simple. When European society was fractured politically and socially during the feudal era, it was the Roman Catholic Church that largely provided cultural continuity to the people.
through its belief system and elaborate rituals. But when kings started consolidating power, the kings themselves began competing for allegiance for the people's hearts and minds. And so the Catholic Church lost power during this period. And not only did they lose power, but people began to question the authority of the church because for all the efforts they put forward to stop the Black Death, they were unable to. Add to all that, you had theological disputes in the church.
For example, John Wycliffe got himself in trouble for translating the Bible from Latin into the vernacular language so that anybody who could read could read the Bible. And even more than that, the church grew corrupt during this period. And two of the main abuses that drew fire were the practice of selling indulgences and simony. See, the church had lots of building projects to fund, and not to mention the bishop's gold-plated mitre ain't gonna pay for itself, so they instituted these practices in order to raise some cash. The selling of indulgences is the practice of selling the absolution for sin.
And who wouldn't want to do that? You just drop your coin in that coffer and your sins are forgiven. Simony was the sale of church offices.
Now, all things being equal, if an office in the church is open, the person who is most theologically and spiritually qualified should probably get that office. But not in those days. In those days, if you had the boom boom, you had the office.
But in the face of all this corruption, enter an obscure German monk named Martin Luther. This poor monk found that he was unable to quench the churnings of his guilty conscience through the prescribed means of the Church. So he immersed himself in the Bible, specifically Paul's letter to the Romans, and what he found there was nothing less than a revelation to him.
He discovered in Romans chapter 1 that salvation was guaranteed to the believer, by faith alone, and not through the elaborate system of works handed down by the Catholic Church. And so, put that together with Luther's deep distaste for the sale of indulgences and simony, and he decided he was going to do something about it. So on October 31, 1517, after he was done trick-or-treating, he nailed a document with 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church.
These theses outlined Luther's newfound understanding of salvation apart from works and his complaints about the abuses of the Church. Now it probably won't surprise you to hear that the Catholic Church reacted harshly to Luther's complaints and what they considered innovations in his doctrine. After all, they relied on the money of the Catholic Church to build the church.
that those practices brought in. But because of the invention of the printing press, Luther's ideas were printed and copied and spread like mad throughout the German countryside, and people largely embraced them. This became the occasion for what's called the Protestant Reformation and a permanent split in the Christian Church. And the Protestant Reformation spread all throughout Europe.
It spread into Geneva under the leadership of John Calvin, and then further north into Scotland under the leadership of John Knox. Now, eventually the Catholic Church did acknowledge that some of their practices were corrupt and so they engaged in their own Catholic Counter-Reformation. And at the Council of Trent, which lasted from 1545 to 1563, the church corrected many abuses concerning the sale of indulgences and the sale of church offices. And additionally, during the Council of Trent, they reaffirmed that Martin Luther and all the Protestants were doctrinal turds.
Okay, that's enough talk about conflicts in the Christian Church. Let's turn our eyes to the Muslims. You see, the schism in the Christian Church was bottom up, but this Islamic conflict was more top down.
The main conflict was between the Ottoman Empire and her territorial neighbor, the Safavid Empire. Now the Ottomans were Muslim and the Safavids were Muslim, but they were not the same kind of Muslims. The Ottomans were Sunni Muslims and the Safavids were Shia Muslims.
And around 1500, the Safavid Empire fully shifted to the imposition of Shia Islam. and in doing so deny the legitimacy of any Sunni Muslim. As you can imagine, that proclamation really baked the Ottomans muffins.
And since these two empires bordered each other, they were in constant dispute over who owned what. And it's very difficult to separate how much of this was just territorial squabbling and how much of it was deeply religious in nature. I tend to lean towards the latter when I read what the Ottoman Sultan wrote to the Safavid ruler in 1514. He said, You have denied the sanctity of divine law. You have deserted the path of salvation and the sacred commandments.
You have opened to Muslims the gates of tyranny and oppression. You have raised the standard of irreligion and heresy. Therefore, the ulama and our doctors have pronounced a sentence of death against you, perjurer and blasphemer. Now thankfully, given enough time, the Sunni Muslims and the Shia Muslims learn to get along and give each other a big Muslim hug. Okay, I'm getting word that they have in fact never learned to hug each other, and they still consider each other blasphemers.
I stand corrected. Okay, is there anyone who can talk some sense into the middle of all of this religious disagreement? There is the ruler of the Mughal Empire, Akbar.
And this guy was a open to giving a hug to anyone from any religion. He granted land to Hindus and Muslims without discrimination. He even helped fund the burgeoning Catholic Church in India. And Akbar was up for new religions too. During his reign, a new religion called Sikhism, which is basically a blend of blending of Islam and Hinduism emerged and he offered them a seat at the table as well.
I think the tolerance of Akbar should bring us to a close in this video. I hope you found this video helpful. I'm here to help you get an A in your class and a 5 on your exams, so if you're into that kind of thing then subscribe and come along. And if you liked this video, there's a little thumbs up button down there that will help you express your delight and it'll help more people see this video. Heimler out.