What contributed to the decline in church power during the Renaissance in Christian Western Europe?
The church was ripe for a decline because of its sale of indulgences for the forgiveness of sins as well as its flagrant disregard for the principles it preached. The Renaissance took off just as the printing press was being invented. The press helped what I suppose could be called bloggers of the day to explain to people about the church’s corruption. We might also count Jan Hus’ protestant movement in 15th century Bohemia as a significant though isolated factor in the church’s decline. Hus was important because he was the first to translate the vulagate bible into a vernacular language.
