The+Wealth+of+the+Church

Q. How was the wealth of the Church significant to the French Revolution?
 * The Wealth of the Church during the French Revolution. **

During the French Revolution, the Roman Catholic Church created a shift of power to the State. It became the largest single landowner in France which gained about 10 percent of the land in the kingdom. Even though the Roman Catholic Church had power and wealth, they got their money and products from the minorities by forcing them to pay or owe unnecessary materials during unnecessary situations. One fact is that the church had absolute control over peasants who worked for free on Church land. This process was a hardship for them because it could have been better to work on their own plots of land by producing food and beneficial materials for themselves and their family. Instead, the peasants paid 10 percent of what they earned in a year to the Church. This tax system was called the tithes. It was usually money but since they did not have much, they had to replace it with animals or harvested goods the peasant produced with every sweat and effort. The wealth of the Church gave offense and bitterness to some groups such as small minorities of Protestants. They gave harsh discriminations if they failed to pay tithes.

In able to control their power, a brave man called Henry VIII stood up to reform the Church and get hold of the Catholic Church’s money. The main thing that shocked Henry was when people had to pay for baptisms, marriages, and burials. Although the rules of the Roman Catholic Church were ridiculous, people reluctantly paid for the church activities because, in case of baptism, people were considered not going to heaven when we are not baptized in Church. Burials also gave bad influence to people because people thought in order to go to heaven, you had to be buried only on holy land.

By this time, you would also wonder “If the church received money through taxation, won’t they also have to pay taxes for the country?”. However, they did not have to pay taxes because churches were made with donations and charities from others. People also believed that churches were created by God himself so they were no need for them to pay taxes. This helped them save up a lot of money and ended up being wealthier than the king of other countries. As you can see, the church had great wealth but used their fame in a wrong direction but one by one, the church not only receive but also saved money just for simple reasons.





Works Citation:

Trueman, Chris. "The Medieval Church." //History Learning Site//. The History Learning Site. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. .

Goyau, Georges. "French Revolution." __The Catholic Encyclopedia.__ Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 30 Nov. 2011.

Smitha, Frank E. "France in the Mid-1700s." //MacroHistory : World History //. 2001. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. < [] >.

Images:

"Little Falls Minnesota Gallery." //Minnesota's Community Guide//. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. .

"French Peasantry." //Historic Clothing: Expanded Site//. 8 Aug. 2001. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. .