Money as the root of the medieval church's sins...

How right Paul was that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”  When anyone reads about the late medieval church (the “catholic Church”  in Europe from around 1000-1500), they are confronted by a long list of sins riddling the church.  Simony (people buying their way into church positions), “Venality” (being open to bribery), “pluralism” (people holding multiple church offices), and the list goes on.  What I am struck by is how so many of the problems of the early church all have to do with money.  Even the indulgence trade (a practice around the time of the reformation (1400-1500s) of having church people “buy” time off from purgatory)—the issue which prompted the reformation—was a matter of money and the church trying to get more of it. I wonder how much of the long list of the church’s blighting sins throughout history really just has money at its root.  It would be interesting to trace church history from this perspective…