The Decline of the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation

The Roman Catholic Church's decline during the Reformation was clearly not caused by a single event or action. Indeed, numerous self-inflicted and externally inflicted wounds were imposed in the Church. Self-inflicted wounds hurting the Church included the decline in papal credibility and ill will amongst clerical authority. The latter of these two wounds entailed regional biases among nearly every the archdiocese leading to a Great Schism in the Church. The externally inflicted wounds all had more to do with increased educational opportunities spread throughout the Papacy's "jurisdiction"…