Ecclesiastical Breakdown

1
Ecclesiastical Breakdown

• Crisis in the 14th century Church

2
Background

• By the 14th western Christendom had experienced 3
  centuries of incredible growth
• Economically- agriculture, town life, commerce,
  population
• Politically- powerful kings brought order and
  security
• Religiously- the popes strength, reformed clergy
• Culturally- solid worldview based on faith and
  reason
• This began to change in the 14th
• First decade there was food shortage and in the
  2nd was famine
• 1347-53 the plague kills 20-25 million
• Seen as divine punishment
• Attempts to return serfs to their manors caused
  peasant revolts

3
War

• In addition to peasant revolts and other rural
  debaucheries there was war
• Hundred Years War 1337-1453
• English kings ruled parts of France
• It looked as if England (Henry V) would conquer
  France
• Joan of Arc
• When France comes out victorious they have a
  large standing army and a sense of solidarity
• The English came out with similar solidarity
• Peasants had been beaten down hard though
• Farmers were killed and farmland was destroyed

4
Decline of the Papacy

• The sign that the middle ages was declining was
  the waning authority and prestige of the pope
• The medieval concept of a Christian civilization
  with the pope at its helm was shattering
• As the kings increased in power the papacy
  declined
• He got mixed up in European politics and people
  felt that was acting as a temporal leader as
  opposed to a spiritual one

5
The Church in France

• In the early 14th Philip IV was taxing the church
  without papal permission to pay for the war
• 1296 Pope Boniface VIII issued Clericis Laicos
  which said that kings and lords that taxed the
  church and clergy that paid would all be
  excommunicated
• Philip did not back down and asserted his
  authority
• The pope had to declare that France could tax in
  the case of national emergencies
• Later Philip tried and imprisoned a French bishop
  after the Pope warned him not to because the
  church tries its clergy Boniface threatened to
  excommunicate Philip
• Angry Philip attacked the papal summer palace at
  Anagni and took the pope captive
• He released the pope but he died a month later

6
Placating Philip

• Bonifaces 2 successors tried to keep Philip
  happy (Benedict XI 1303-1304 and Clement V
  1305-1314)
• Clement built a temporary residence in Avignon
• The Babylonian Captivity 1309-1377
• The popes were all French and all lived in
  Avignon
• Here they became dependent on the French king
• Antipapalism began to damage the popes
  reputation
• Marsiglio of Padua wrote The Defender of the
  Peace which said that the state had nothing to
  do with religious commands but on reason it
  needed no instruction from a higher realm the
  church deserved no temporal power

7
Schism

• In 1377 Gregory XI returned the papacy to Rome
• In 1378 Urban VI was elected pope he abused and
  imprisoned some cardinals
• They fled Rome and declared that Urban was
  invalidly elected because they were bullied into
  electing an Italian
• They elected Clement VII
• Urban, in Rome, excommunicated Clement
• Clement, in Avignon, excommunicated Urban

8
Council of Pisa

• As the disgrace worsened churchmen organized a
  council to solve the problem
• In 1409 hundred gathered and decided to depose
  both Urban and Clement
• They elected Alexander V who died a few months
  later then they elected John XXIII
• Since neither Urban nor Clement had called the
  council, neither recognized its authority

9
We Three Popes

• A new council was called at Constance in 1414
• All three (John, Gregory XII, and Benedict XIII)
  popes were either deposed or abdicated and Pope
  Martin V was elected universally
• Gregory agreed to step down
• John sought refuge with the Austrians for a while
  until he was finally deposed
• Benedict fled to Spain and fortified himself on
  an island insisting till his death that he was
  pope

10
Adding to the Modern Mudslide

• 14th century ecclesiastical breakdown is one more
  ingredient added to the blender

Modern worldview
Medieval worldview
Renaissance A period of transition