Religion has always played a fundamental role in society. Indeed, until the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church benefited from its temporal power. This temporal power allowed the popes to have sovereign authority over the papal state, which is why they not only exercised their authority in the religious domain but also in the public domain. The situations created were therefore contradictory. Popes could indeed initiate war against other states, mainly for territorial and political objectives, using their religious authority, such as excommunication or prohibition, to achieve certain objectives of a political and "earthly" nature. The temporal power of the Church was therefore used to preserve its unity and independence. However, the end of the temporal power of the Roman Catholic Church dates back to the 16th century, more precisely in 1517, with the beginning of the Protestant Reformation launched by Martin Luther and John Calvin: the beginning of the modern period dates back to the Protestant Reformation of 16th century, with its purported affirmation of the individual as directly related to God, a God sanctioning prosperity in this life and in all its worldliness. But it goes back just as well to the Age of Enlightenment, with its virulent anticlericalism and its attacks on all kinds of religious myths. (Franke 220) We can therefore say that the Church, at this time, was a despotic and fundamentalist body which professed certain values ​​which it itself neither followed nor respected. All moral and traditional principles have lost their meaning before the deep and entrenched materialistic interest of the Church, which has used the above-mentioned power of excommunication, prohibition and eternity...... middle of paper ......- 111. Internet. April 18, 2014. Howe, J. Thomas. “Affirmations After God: Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Dawkins on Atheism.” Journal of Religion and Science 47.1 (2012): 140-155. Internet. April 18, 2014. Ingraffia, Brian D. Postmodern Theory and Biblical Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print. Moore, Gregory. “Nietzsche, degeneration and the critique of Christianity.” Nietzsche and religion. Spec. issue of Journal of Nietzsche Studies 19 (2000): 1-18. Web April 18, 2014.Nicola, Ubaldo. Philosophy and School. Philosophical Atlantean. Internet. April 15, 2014.< http://www.swif.uniba.it/lei/scuola/atlante/ubal15.htm.>Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, Walter Arnold Kauffman and RJ Hollingdale. The will to power. New York: Random House, 1967. Print. Winks, Robin W. and Joan Neuberger. Europe and the making of modernity: 1815-1914. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.