Write a paper on Religion and Politics/ Religion and Society.

Need help with my writing homework on Religion and Politics/ Religion and Society. Write a 1500 word paper answering; The people, through sacraments believed that the heaven was not far away from the earth as they didn’t doubt the powers associated with the Lord. This meant that they had much trust in their God than at any other times before that. In addition, religion was used as a tool that the people based their beliefs in forgiving, healing, punishing, protecting themselves against nature’s ravages, as well as soothing the feeling of others. Priests had the powers to forgive adulterers and murderers, and could even bless cattle and farmlands. Moreover, saints were held in high regards such that they could heal the blind, prevent lightening, and preach to all animals including birds and fish. All this happened around the year 1509 after the birth of John Calvin. However, changes in politics that happened in the preceding years changed the way people held their God in high esteem.

Iconoclastic reformation leaders ensured that the people had a reason to rise against Catholicism in the 1600s. These leaders included Farel and Calvin whereby the latter was the most outspoken. Protestants in France, because of the threat that was posed by their political leaders and Catholics led to an uprising that targeted catholic churches. Politics played a fundamental role in European countries because majority of the leaders were Catholics. This led to a situation whereby iconoclastic reformation started to urge their followers to rise against any idolatry leader. People realized that they could fight for their rights because they learned that they had the powers to resist any authoritarian rule. The leadership that was offered by the likes of Calvin had a fundamental impact in religion. Iconoclastic Reformation Calvin was against the false religion as he used to refer to it. He went around Europe preaching to the people about the importance of ignoring Catholicism, because he believed that, what the people were being told by the priests was not possible. In addition, the people were more enlightened and thus they could such for answers for their desires. In his expeditions, Calvin landed in Geneva in the year 1536 were he had gone to spread the gospel of saying no to false religion (Eire 2). Protestants argued that the spirituality could not be attached to materials in the way that the Catholics made people to believe. The Catholic Mass had high belief in saints and the consecration was discouraged by the Protestants because the latter believed that the preaching was misleading the people. On the other hand, the people had become more aware of the teachings as inscribed in the bible and thus they reduced their ignorance towards the word of God. The people were not expected to question the teachings of the church and this led to the rise of conflicts within the Catholic Church. John Calvin’s mentor, Guillaume Farel who was leading reformation in France believed that the Catholic priests were lying to the congregation. The importance that the priests placed on material objects was seen by Farel as a sign of ignorance to the teachings in the bible. This is the reason why he started a movement of enlightening the people. People had to attend pilgrimages were they prayed before a relic. Farel attended to a pilgrim as a child in the Shrine of Holy Cross located at Tallard. People were made to believe that the cross that was placed at the shrine was the one that had been used to crucify Jesus (Eire 8). According to Farel this was sheer veneration of Jesus’ life on earth. He notes that the cross at the shrine “was not a very impressive looking” one (Eire 8).