ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ecclesiastical emancipation

Have you ever played a game where you had to follow someone else's rules? Like maybe your parents said you couldn't have candy until you finished your dinner, or your teacher said you needed to raise your hand before speaking? Well, a long time ago, certain people in the church had a lot of rules that other people needed to follow. They were called the ecclesiastical leaders.

But some people didn't like all of these rules. They wanted to be able to make their own choices and decisions without always following what the ecclesiastical leaders said. So, they came up with something called ecclesiastical emancipation.

Ecclesiastical emancipation means that people were allowed to leave the church if they didn't want to follow all of the rules anymore. Imagine if you were playing a game with your friends and you didn't like the rules. You could simply choose to leave the game and play on your own or find a new game to play. That's kind of like what people were able to do with ecclesiastical emancipation.

By being able to leave the church and make their own choices, people had more freedom and control over their own lives. They could decide for themselves what they wanted to believe and how they wanted to live, instead of always having to follow the rules set by someone else.

So, ecclesiastical emancipation allowed people to break free from a strict set of rules set by ecclesiastical leaders, and gave them more choices and freedom to make their own decisions.