Republican Religion and Religious Reform

Abstract

This chapter considers theories on religious reform. Those show lived liberty as a religious faith felt a deep revulsion for the corruption of the clergy and the temporal power of the pope. The former corrupted customs and extinguished civil virtues; the latter was a constant menace to republics and hindered the rule of law from within, through the vindication of exemptions and privileges. For this reason, republics intensely felt the need for a religious reform that would eradicate the church's temporal power and bring Christian religion back to its focus on poverty and charity. The advocates of religious reform drew inspiration and arguments from biblical and classical sources. The ideal of the twelfth-century religious movements was a reformation aimed at returning to the authentic form of the Christian religion.