The Dark Ages of Europe were called such for several reasons. One of the more notorious reasons was the state of the Catholic Church. In the years before the Reformation, members of the Catholic clergy had reached an all time low in terms of their morality. The abuses of clerical power and privileges by the medieval clergy spanned all parts of their daily lives. Members of the Catholic clergy were financially, politically and socially corrupt. Each of these corruptions made up the enormous religious corruption that was the logical result of such debauchery.
Of the several grievances against the Church, “[t]he first and sorest was that she loved money, and had too much of it for her own good” (Durant 17). Documents on the exact wealth of the Church in the Middle Ages simply do not exist. Historians, however, speculate that the Church’s share of the wealth made up anywhere from a fifth to three-quarters in each of England, France and Germany. “In Italy, of course, one third of the peninsula belonged to the Church as the Papal States, and she owned rich properties in the rest” (Durant 17).
The clergy was notorious for sucking money out of the people any way they could. They were known to have sold false relics to unsuspectin

The political issues of the clergy were seated in their lust for power and money and their variety of privileges. Th sale of church offices had a lot to do with the political corruption. Important, as well as insignificant offices were offered up to the highest bidders. “Careerists accumulated numbers of benefices [church offices] that made it impossible to serve them all personally. Ill-paid substitutes were who were often uneducated and negligent provided for the needs of the people” (McBrien 1091). Such pluralism led to a lot of nothing. Nothing was accomplished for the people and nothing was accomplished for the church.

Once the jobs had been filled, the appointees created more new offices to sell for profit. The practice of creating new offices as a fund-raiser is most documented with the popes. Alexander VI created eighty previously non-existent offices, each going for a price of about 19,000 dollars apiece (Durant 19). Julius II and Leo X created similar numbers of offices, which would run at about the same prices. Alexander also had a soft

comfortable, the amount considered “honest keep” rose considerably among some religious circles.

The privilege of the canon provides that any person who strikes a member of the clergy can be excommunicated (Strayer Vol 3 445). An abuse of this was that if a cleric had a personal agenda with someone, the person could easily be accused of such an act. The privilege of the forum states that a cleric cannot be summoned before a lay court to be tried before a lay judge (Strayer Vol 3 445). Often times a cleric tried before ecclesiastical courts would get special treatment because of relationships with those trying the case. Those ruling in lay courts did not appreciate the leniency sometimes practiced in ecclesiastical courts. The privilege of exemption or personal immunity stated t