Clergy

The most important members of the clergy, or clerics, were bishops and priests, who had felt called by the Holy Spirit to remain celibate and serve God. Their supreme head on Earth was the pope. Within Catholic Church hierarchy, bishops had full jurisdiction in their diocese. They possessed the right to allow priests to preach and administer the sacraments (see pages 38-39). The sacraments were the linchpin that assured the religious authority of Catholicism because only priests were permitted to administer them. The ordination of priests, also one of the sacraments, set them above the laity and condoned a class system that was attacked by the Protestant Reformation. Bishops and priests were the secular clergy, meaning that they lived in the outside world. The regular clergy (“regulars”), in addition to the vows of ordination, took vows of poverty and obedience. These men lived by certain rules (Latin regulae) of their religious order (see pages 35-37), in chapter houses or in communities. Regulars known as canons usually were affiliated with a church or cathedral. Members of the clergy were privileged individuals, exempt from military obligations. In addition, they did not pay normal taxes and were subject only to ecclesiastical justice. (A special tax was levied on clerical benefices to support Crusades against the Turks.) They could not be tried in civil courts, regardless of the alleged offense.

Priests led the worship service in Catholic churches. unlike medieval structures, with screens

Handbook to life in Renaissance Europe

2.2 Full-page miniature of the Resurrection in a manuscript life of Saint Margaret of Antioch, one of the saints whose voices inspired Joan of Arc. France, 15th century. Convent libraries often included biographies of female saints. (Photograph courtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc., © 2003)

Segregating the altar and main part of the sanctuary from the rest of the church, post-Tridentine Renaissance churches usually had a more open plan, welcoming all Catholics in good standing to the altar to receive Communion. Nothing more than an altar railing separated the holiest part of the sanctuary from the congregation in most churches constructed during this time, and the screens were removed from many medieval sanctuaries. Light from a cupola often illuminated the altar and the painted or carved altarpiece placed behind and above it. After the Counter-Reformation mandated Crucifixions and images of patron saints for Catholic religious buildings, paintings and statuary filled the chapels of Catholic churches. Worship services offered both visual and aural stimulation to heighten one’s sense of awe and reverence.