Abstract
In this article, the writer first notes that when examining the reasons why Henry was accused of heresy, looking at how one defines a heretic is absolutely crucial, because to establish why Henry was accused of being a heretic and if in fact Henry was a heretic are intertwined. The writer looks at different definitions of a heretic and chooses to define a heretic, as a challenger to orthodoxy, or a publicly shared belief system. The writer believes that Henry was accused of heresy not only for his religious beliefs, but more importantly because of the implications they had on the established social order of the time. The writer concludes that heretics were redefined as enemies of society and consequently repressed, as Henry was.

From the Paper
"This was due to the fact that the Bishop was absent in Rome for a time and upon his return saw that Henry had thrown the clergy out of the city, which was indeed a heretical action.
Henry's heresy was that of an evangelical nature, being based on the Bible, particularly the Gospels and the Book of Acts in the New Testament. Henry, like many others wanted to imitate the early church and establish the Apostolic ideal.
"Consequently, Henry fell foul of the established church for criticising the clergy and for insisting on the right of the lay people to preach and to read the Bible. Coupled with this were his notions that it was not a prescription of the gospel to go to a priest for penance, instead emphasising the individuals responsibility to the beliefs attributed to him, the rejection of prayers for the dead and the affirmation of salvation for infants who died unbaptised, thus dispelling the fundamental Catholic viewpoint surrounding the notion of 'original sin'."

Tags:Hildebert, political, expression, anarchy

Abstract
In this article, the writer notes that before professional historians seriously turned their attention to the Reformation as an all-encompassing historical phenomenon during the 1960s, church historians, who held partisan views of the religious conflict from their respective denominational positions, believed that conflict between Protestants and Catholics boiled down simply to one of difference in theological doctrine. The writer discusses that what was highly ironical was that Catholic theologians, who couched the conflict in rather negative terms, peacefully agreed with their protestant counterparts that it was about individualism. The writer maintains that a complicated picture of conflict, in which a variety of different historical actors brought with them their own agendas, has contributed to the richness of how the Reformation unfolded. The writer concludes that even though the Protestant-Catholic divide had its narrowly religious aspects, it would be foolish to think that people caught up within the forces of Reformation operated merely out of a stern belief in their own faiths.

From the Paper
"By contrast to church and traditional historians, these up-and-coming scholars came to the understanding that conflict was far more complex than the top-down accounts that had informed the writings of scholars in the past: conflict in fact involved a multitude of messy motivations that took place within equally disparate social, economic, regional as well as national backgrounds. Most crudely, Marxist historians, whose influence on social historians should not be discounted, brought about this change of perspective first. By seeking the cause of conflict not in the doctrine of individual spiritual renewal, but in the inherent social and economic inequalities that persisted within both pre- and post-Reformation Europe, they radically endeavoured to shift the emphasis away completely from the purely religious aspects of the Reformation. What these left-wing historians saw, as they looked at the state of early modern Europe, was not a landscape that was tectonically divided between Protestants and Catholics, but one that was classified between the rich and the poor. Reacting to the aristocracy of feudal nobles, who had for so long controlled land and labour, it was the bourgeois, living within the towns, whose sense of injustice led to them to rise up against their social superiors. More specifically, within the towns, it was the patricians who took the side of Catholicism, while tradesmen and merchants, who were cold-shouldered by the establishment, came to support Protestantism in an attempt to overturn this hierarchy."

Tags:church, individualism, ideological, scholars

Abstract
In this article, the writer examines the complex relationship between the Islamic and Western worlds. The primary focus looks at the extent to which Islam and the West pose a threat to one another in terms of geo-political conflict. The overall assumption is that the threat posed by Islam to the West, and vice versa is grossly exaggerated. In order to accurately account for this exaggeration the complicated nature of the relationship is examined in detail. In addition, the role of extremist actions on both sides is revealed to show the manner in which threat perception is exaggerated by those with a vested political interest in the perpetuation of such sentiment. The writer notes that it is impossible to view the Islamic and Western worlds as homogeneous political entities. The writer maintains that attempting to offer an assessment based on a "clash of civilisations" is equally misguided.

From the Paper
"In analytical terms this presents a distinct problem. Nonetheless, for the purposes of consistency and clarity the writer continues to refer to the two specific areas of the globe being discussed here as the Muslim and Western worlds. It is vitally important however to remember that these labels are extremely generalised and cannot be used or considered to represent two mass geometrically opposing blocs. To suggest they do is a flagrant exaggeration. Given therefore the fragmented political and social natures of the two global areas in question, it is incorrect to envisage that they represent an amalgamated threat to one another.
"The perception of a unified threat from Islam to the West is nonetheless an extremely potent one. Often it has led to the belief in some quarters, that being Islamic in an obscure general sense can immediately be correlated with a wish to impose a political system based on a fundamentalist Islamic doctrine, something that transcends national boundaries."

Tags:racial, tension, terrorist, Muslim

Abstract
In this article, the writer discusses the views that Jesuit education was part of an evolutionary educational movement in Europe and merely re- used already established educational practices, and the view that Jesuit educational practices were truly innovative and so made the Society appealing, popular, and made young men want to study at their schools. Also other general factors such as the changing nature of the society at the time are looked into along with the general growth of education among both Catholic and Protestant schools during this period and the keen interest among some educational writers of reforming the education system. The writer concludes that the main reason for the success of the Jesuit educational practices is that the Jesuit system of education was the first truly ordered, disciplined and highly organised educational system that the early modern world had come into contact with and that it was designed in such a way as to be responsive to the emerging needs of early modern European societies.

From the Paper
"Town councils in Europe during the 16th century realised that it was very expensive to run a school if it was run by lay people because such people needed a salary of some substance baring in mind that often these people had families that they needed to support. Members of religious orders did not however have families to support baring in mind that their members were often chaste, especially in the case of the Jesuits whose whole mantra stipulated that once you became of a member of the society you were to give up all family ties and relations that you had and that your new family would be the order itself. This directly appealed to many city councils in Europe and resulted in the popularity of Jesuit schools as a whole.
"To answer the question of whether the Jesuit educational system's success was a result of innovation or was a result of the re-use of already established educational practices, one must look at the Ratio Studiorum, which was the Jesuits educational handbook."

Tags:church, teachings, religious, practices

Abstract
In this article, the writer examines how far practices associated with funerals and commemoration changed in early modern England. The writer notes that by comparing practices surrounding death, both before and after the Reformation, the essay points to the need to differentiate between religious attitudes, on the one hand, and social and political necessity, on the other, as a way of arriving at a more precise and mutually-inclusive understanding of what constitutes change.

From the Paper
"By implication, much of the reason why preparation for death, the Final Moments, and funeral arrangements proved so arduous as well extravagant was because all these were geared toward helping the dying and the deceased attain salvation. More specifically, the Catholic practice of preparing for death involved the profession of faith and the confession of sins; it saw the dying receive absolution and, if physically able, take part in the Holy Eucharist; it involved priests anointing eyes, ears, nose, lips, hands and feet with the sacraments which were accompanied by psalms and collects and the sprinkling of holy water; and it also bore witness to the dying express devotion to the crucifix. All of these were designed to prepare the dying for the trials and tribulations of a stint in purgatory where the fate of the deceased hung tantalizingly in the balance. Even after death, the dead were, in many ways, still very much "alive". By leaving behind wills, which provided endowments to family, church and poor, testators could oblige the living to intercede for them. For without the prayers of the living the deceased would not be able to withstand the rigours of purgatory."

Tags:rituals, mourning, spirit, deceased

Abstract
This paper covers both Descartes's ontological argument and cosmological argument for the existence of God as well as their counter arguments. It also looks at other philosophers such as Kierkegaard to Kant and their arguments for the existence or non-existence of God. The Cartesian Circle is also discussed along with the 'free will defence argument' and self-originating principles.

From the Paper
"The reasoning behind why Descartes decided to try to prove the existence of God stems from his need to do so. Descartes needed to prove the existence of God in order to back up his theory of logic and reasoning and in particular his notions of 'clear and distinct ideas'. These clear and distinct ideas that Descartes has stem from his statement that if he can "perceive something very clearly and distinctly" , then he "can not but believe it to be true" . Indeed Descartes wants God "as a guarantor of the truth of any proposition that anyone...find indubitable while having it distinctly in mind" . Furthermore, Descartes is compelled to try to prove the existence of God because he is incredibly doubtful of everything around him in the exterior world. In fact Descartes' rationalism and constant doubting of his knowledge as a form of his logical reasoning leads hims to the conclusion that he cannot actually imagine an exterior world. "

Tags:cosmological, ontological, Kant, Kierkegaard

Abstract
This paper examines the emergence in 19th century Britain of science as a respected body of professionals, rather than as an amateur hobby of the idle rich. The paper reviews the article "The Victorian Conflict between Science and Religion: A Professional Dimension" by F. Turner. It looks at how the drive to raise professional standards within the new disciplines led to an increasing refusal to compromise scientific integrity to fit in with Church doctrine. This paper examines whether this conflict was caused by a fundamental opposition of science and religion or merely by individuals trying to resist or encourage the huge social changes occurring at the time.

From the Paper
"At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the clergy had a huge amount of influence on British society in terms of government, school and University education, patronage and the prestige, authority and reverence given to them by all social classes. Science, on the other hand, was nothing but a disunited collection of amateurs, who were not even granted their own collective noun. The term "scientist", although coined in 1834 by Reverend Whewell, did not come into popular use until the 1890s. Science in this early period was very much influenced by religion and many (though increasingly not all) both within and outside the scientific community considered it perfectly acceptable and natural for research to be conducted under the authority of and be limited by Church doctrine."

Tags:church, clergy, social, upheaval

Abstract
This paper provides an overview of Descartes' theories concerning the existence of God using his "Meditations" as the basis to emphasise his belief in God. It specifically concentrates on "Meditations 2 and 5" and describes Descartes use of the ontological argument, cosmological argument and use of mathematics to prove the existence of God.

From the Paper
"Proceeding in his demonstration of the existence of God by analysing thoughts, Descartes distinguishes several classifications of thought: ideas, 'volitions and affections'1 and judgments. Descartes explores the concept of 'idea'1 further by identifying three types of idea: 'innate ideas'1, 'adventitious'1 ideas which come involuntarily into the mind from outside and 'factitious ideas'1 that are manufactured by one's self by combining innate and adventitious ideas. As Descartes 'has the power of conceiving'1 thought, it is possible his ideas could be of any class. Descartes thoughts are 'inventions of his mind'1, thus he is unable to determine their true origin. Therefore, it is plausible that the thoughts his 'senses have conveyed'1 to his mind could be all innate, adventitious or factitious."

Tags:ontological, cosmological, argument

Abstract
This paper discusses the arguments for and against the notion that without God there can be no morality. Arguments include the humanist angle from the philosopher Peter Singer and also individualist notions from Kant. The views of other philosophers such as Plato, Keirkegaard and Dostoevskii are also examined as well as religious textual examples.

From the Paper
"If an act is to be considered good merely because God decided it was so, then ethics are completely arbitrary. God easily could have decided that the horrific and monstrous acts such as paedophilia and rape were virtuous, and ergo, by definition they would be 'good' acts. However, I believe that "God is not...an instrumental means for acquiring independent goods" . Instead of basing morality on the fallible nature of theistic belief, why not base morality on observed consequences. Start, instead from the position that many people hold, that "a wrong act is one that manifestly harms others or their interests, or violates their rights or causes injustice" This view provides the underlying thinking behind and is prevalent within, all major human rights legislation, with the notion of God and morality, never being mentioned. "

Tags:Dostoevskii, Keirkegaard, Peter, Singer, Kant, Ethics, Plato

Abstract
This paper uses both the original Latin and English translation to examine the text of Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologica" and how it deals with questions about the existence of God.

From the Paper
"The problematic word in this phrase is omnes ("everyone") because it is never defined. What exactly does Aquinas mean by "everyone"? One possible answer to the question, seen for example in Velecky, is that he means "everyone who was anyone" - all well-known, respectable people. However, an alternative take on this word would be to say that Aquinas meant Deum ("God") to be a standard language device, used to refer to the Christian theistic metaphysical being, even if one did not believe. If a non-believer was to talk about Christian belief, they would have to use the word Deus (or its cognates) to refer to their supreme being."

Tags:dominican, medieval, monk