The Church of the Renaissance

The Romanist concept emphasizes the papacy's defensive walls. In my opinion, the Romanist concept emphasizes the papacy's defensive walls, which, denied Christians the ability to worship God effectively. The first wall is based on the fantastic idea of spiritual and temporal powers, which had previously given popes an aura of invincibility. I believe that popes thrived on their arrogance, abandoning godly responsibilities in order to serve the church. The papacy's deception led to widespread action for the emancipation of Christians under Catholicism. Assuming supernatural powers, as depicted by popes, according to Luther, served to undermine God's will for Christian spiritual equality, in which popes, bishops, priests, and ordinary followers were all equal before the Almighty. I, therefore, resonate with Luther’s agitation for a free and fair church that incorporated every believer regardless of their spiritual and economic capacity. Similarly, popes cannot limit and control their flocks, because the God they served was in Himself limitless.

St. Ignatius Loyola gives 18 spiritual rules that govern a Christian’s spiritual relationship with God. The guidelines function towards ensuring a pious and righteous path that Christians ought to follow to achieve Almighty’s grace which is sufficient for everyone. I believe that Loyola’s approach to divinity and redemption contradicts Calvin’s concept of predestination in that a sinner’s fate is not entirely sealed to damnation, as suggested by the latter. Loyola, however, states that obedience to God’s law is significant to becoming a true believer in Christ through confession and forgiveness of sins. I, therefore, concur that Loyola grants sinners an opportunity to confess and repent of their sins to remain in good standing with God who, in this case, is depicted as loving and not malicious to inflict harm on his creation.