The Beguine movement fundamentally differed from all previous significant movements within the Western Church. Essentially, it was a women's movement, not merely an appendage to a movement initiated, directed, and sustained by men. The Beguines did not adhere to a specific rule of life, did not rely on the authority of any saintly founder, did not...
In the early Middle Ages, it posed a serious problem for the aristocracy to provide suitably prestigious convent refuge for women who did not marry or for widows. A woman without a husband was an anomaly in secular society. Girls typically married at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and widows were expected to remarry without delay. This was deemed...
The extensive granting of papal indulgences can be traced back to 1095 when Pope Urban II proclaimed that participation in the Crusades would replace any other penance, granting immediate entry to heaven for the crusader who died in a state of grace through confession. After 1095, for a long time, these indulgences, which could only be granted by...
We discuss the Pope as the Vicar of Saint Peter because in the West no one doubted that all power over the Church belonged to the Pope as Saint Peter's representative. The succession of this power can be traced step by step. In AD 34, Saint Peter became the bishop of Antioch; in 40, he transferred his seat to Rome;...
Throughout history, people have always wanted to improve themselves; this was primarily referred to as morality. The term encompasses various tendencies: it was used to describe the domestication of the animal called man, as well as the breeding of a certain human race.
The new Germany possesses a large amount of inherited and learned aptitude, which is why it can scatter accumulated resources wastefully for a while. There's no such high culture that has mastered it, even less sophisticated taste, noble, beautiful instincts, but it can exhibit more manly virtues than any other country in Europe. It shows a lot of...
The scripture, in order to encourage obedience to the law among the Hebrews, says that God chose them from among the other nations to be close to him, to give them righteous laws, and to reveal himself only to them. The Hebrews would not have been any less happy if God had ordained everyone equally for salvation. God would not...
The sayings of the prophets and the apostles openly declare that God's eternal word and eternal covenant, as well as the true religion, have been inscribed by God into the hearts of people, that is, into the human soul, and that this is the true original writing of God, authenticated by His seal, or rather by His concept, as the...
The word "law" means that every individual acts in the same predetermined manner. This manner depends either on the necessity of nature or on the whims of people. A law dependent on the necessity of nature is one that necessarily follows from the nature of the thing itself. A law dependent on the whims of people, known as law, is...