the high medieval age and its troubles

THE HIGH MEDIEVAL AGE AND ITS TROUBLES

“Man proposes and God disposes.”

- Thomas A. Kempis

INTRODUCTION

Starting about 1000 C.E., European civilization was revitalized and flourished during several centuries of expansion and consolidation.

In the fourteenth century, however, a series of unprecedented disasters sharply reduced the population and caused a decline in the economy that continued for about 150 years.

The feudal governing system and the agriculturally based economy reeled under great blows: the Crusades, the Black Death, and the Hundred Years’ War.

The leaders of the Christian church became embroiled in one scandalous affair after another.

The shameful degradation of the pope in the Babylonian Captivity in France and then the Great Schism.

INTRODUCTION

Although the challenge to papal authority embroiled in the Conciliar movement was crushed, the popes never regained their previous moral authority, and the way was prepared for the eventual Protestant revolt against Roman clerical supremacy.

THE CRUSADES: BACKGROUND

By the end of the eleventh century, Western Europe had emerged as a significant power in its own right, though it still lagged behind the Byzantine Empire in the Mediterranean and the Islamic Empire of the Middle East and North Africa.

Meanwhile, Byzantium was losing considerable territory to the invading Seljuk Turks, who defeated the Byzantine Army at the Battle of Manzikirt in 1071 and went on to gain control over much of Anatolia.

After years of chaos and civil war, the general Alexius Comnenus seized the Byzantine throne in 1801 and consolidated control over the remaining empire as Emperor Alexius I.

ALEXIUS IINTERESTING FACTS

Due to the troubled times the empire was enduring, Alexius faced the greatest number of rebellions against him of all the Byzantine emperors – fourteen in total.

Alexius was able to halt the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the Comnenian Restoration.

THE CRUSADES: BACKGROUND

In 1095, Alexius sent envoys to Pope Urban II asking for mercenary troops from the West to help confront the Turkish threat.

Though relations between the Christians of the East and Christians of the West had long been fractious, Alexius’ request came at a time when the situation was improving.

In November 1095, at the Council of Clermont in southern France, the pope called on Western Christians to take up arms in order to aid the Byzantines and recapture the Holy Land from Muslim control.

Pope Urban’s plea met a tremendous response, both among lower levels of the military elite (who would form a new class of knights) as well as ordinary citizens.

It was determined that those who joined the armed pilgrimage would wear a cross as a symbol of the Church.

POPE URBAN IIINTERESTING FACTS

Upon Urban’s election to the papacy, he had to contend with the presence of the powerful antipope Clement III, who reigned in opposition in Rome.

Urban passed on July 29th, fourteen days after the fall of Jerusalem to the Crusaders (also his feast day).

Urban was beatified (recognition accorded to a dead person’s entrance into heaven) in 1881 by Pope Leo XIII.

THE FIRST CRUSADE

Four armies of Crusaders were formed from troops of different Western European regions, led by Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Godfrey of Bouillon, Hugh of Vermandois, and Bohemond of Taranto.

These men were set to depart for Byzantium in August 1096.

A less organized band of knights and commoners known as the “People’s Crusade” set off before the others under the command of a popular preacher known as Peter the Hermit.

Peter’s army traipsed through the Byzantine Empire, leaving destruction in their wake.

Resisting Alexius’ advice to wait for the rest of the Crusaders, they crossed the Bosporus in early August.

PETER THE HERMITINTERESTING FACTS

Catholic historians and modern scholars debate the account that Jesus appeared to Peter during his pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where he was ordered to preach the Crusade.

It is written that once the Crusaders recaptured Jerusalem, Peter preached an eloquent sermon on the Mount of Olives just as Jesus had done.

THE FIRST CRUSADE

In the first major clash between the Crusaders and the Muslims, Turkish forces crushed the invading Europeans at Cibotus.

Another group of Crusaders, led by the notorious Count Emicho, carried out a series of massacres of Jews in various towns in the Rhineland in 1096, drawing widespread outrage and causing a major crisis in Jewish-Christian relations.

When the four main armies of Crusaders arrived in Constantinople, Alexius insisted that their leaders swear an oath of loyalty to him and recognize his authority over any land regained from the Turks, as well as any other territory they might conquer.

All but Bohemond resisted taking the oath.

THE FIRST CRUSADE

In May 1097, the Crusaders and their Byzantine allies attacked Nicaea, the Seljuk capital in Anatolia.

The city surrendered in late June.

Despite deteriorating relations between the Crusaders and Byzantine leaders, the combined force continued its march through Anatolia, capturing the great Syrian city of Antioch in June 1098.

After various internal struggles over control of Antioch, the Crusaders began their march toward Jerusalem, then occupied by Egyptian Fatimids.

The Egyptian Fatimids were Shi’ite Muslims, enemies of the Sunni Seljuks.

THE FIRST CRUSADE

Encamping before Jerusalem in June 1099, the Christians forced the besieged city’s governor to surrender by mid-July.

Despite Tancred’s promise of protection, the Crusaders slaughtered hundreds of men, women, and children in their victorious entrance into the city.

THE SECOND CRUSADE

Having achieved their goal in an unexpectedly short period of time, many of the Crusaders departed for home.

To govern the conquered territory, those who remained established four large western settlements, or Crusader states.

The Crusader states included Jerusalem, Edessa, Antioch, and Tripoli.

Guarded by formidable castles, the Crusader states retained the upper hand in the region until around 1130, when Muslim forces began gaining ground in their own holy war against the Christians, whom they termed ‘Franks.’

In 1144, the Seljuk general Zangi, the governor of Mosul, captured Edessa, leading to the loss of the northernmost Crusader state.

THE SECOND CRUSADE

News of Edessa’s fall stunned Europe, and led Christian authorities in the West to call for another Crusade.

Led by two great rulers, King Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of German, the Second Crusade began in 1147.

That October, the Turks crushed Conrad’s forces at Dorylaeum, the site of a great victory during the First Crusade.

After Louis and Conrad managed to assemble their armies at Jerusalem, they decided to attack the Syrian stronghold of Damascus with an army of some 50,000.

This would be the largest Crusader force assembled to this point.

LOUIS VIIINTERESTING FACTS

Often dubbed Louis the Younger, the construction of the Notre-Dame de Paris and the founding of the University of Paris occurred during his reign.

Being a member of the House of Capet, his feudal struggles with the Angevin family marked the beginning of the long rivalry between France and England – Hundred Years’ War.

CONRAD IIIINTERESTING FACTS

Although his father secured his ascension to the throne during the Investiture Controversy, Conrad was never officially crowned emperor.

Upon his deathbed, Conrad designated his nephew, Frederick Barbarossa, as his successor over his own six-year-old son.

THE SECOND CRUSADE

Previously well disposed towards the Franks, Damascus’ ruler was forced to call on Nur al-Din, Zangi’s successor in Mosul, for aid.

The combined Muslim forces dealt a humiliating defeat to the Crusaders, decisively ending the Second Crusade.

Nur al-Din would add Damascus to his expanding empire in 1154.

THE THIRD CRUSADE

After numerous attempts by the Crusaders of Jerusalem to capture Egypt, Nur al-Din’s forces seized Cairo in 1169 and forced the Crusader army to evacuate.

Nur al-Din’s forces were led by the general Shirkuh and his nephew, Saladin.

Upon Shirkuh’s subsequent death, Saladin assumed control and began a campaign of conquests that accelerated after Nur al-Din’s death in 1174.

In 1187, Saladin began a major campaign against the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

His troops virtually destroyed the Christian army at the Battle of Hattin, taking the city along with a large amount of territory.

THE THIRD CRUSADE

Outrage over these defeats inspired the Third Crusade, led by rulers such as the aging Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, King Philip II of France, and King Richard I of England (known as Richard the Lionheart).

Barbarossa was drowned at Anatolia before his army reached Syria.

In September 1191, Richard's forces defeated those of Saladin in the Battle of Arsuf.

This would be the only true battle of the Third Crusade.

From the recaptured city of Jaffa, Richard re-established Christian control over some of the region and approached Jerusalem, though he refused to lay siege to the city.

RICHARD IINTERESTING FACTS

Richard remains one of the few kings of England remembered bu his epithet, the Lionheart, rather than his regnal number, I.

While walking the perimeter of the castle, Richard was struck by an arrow in left shoulder near the neck, which swiftly became gangrenous – the assassin was a young boy who claimed he had killed his father and brothers.

THE THIRD CRUSADE

In September 1192, Richard and Saladin signed a peace treaty that re-established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, without the city of Jerusalem, and ended the Third Crusade.

THE FINAL CRUSADES

Though the powerful Pope Innocent III called for a new Crusade in 1198, power struggles in and between Europe and Byzantium drove the Crusaders to divert their mission in order to topple the reigning Byzantine emperor, Alexius III, in favor of his nephew, Alexius IV.

The new emperor’s attempts to submit the Byzantine church to Rome met with stiff resistance, and Alexius IV was strangled after a palace coup in early 1204.

In response, the Crusaders declared war on Constantinople, and the Fourth Crusade ended with the conquest and looting of the magnificent Byzantine capital later that year.

THE FINAL CRUSADES

The remainder of the thirteenth century saw a variety of Crusades aimed not so much at toppling Muslim forces in the Holy Land as at combating any and all of those seen as enemies of the Christian faith.

The Albigensian Crusade aimed to root out the heretical Cathari or Albigensian sect of Christianity in France while the Baltic Crusades sought to subdue pagans in Transylvania.

In the Fifth Crusade, put in motion by Pope Innocent III before his death in 1216, the Crusaders attacked Egypt from both land and sea, but were forced to surrender to Muslim defenders led by Al-Malik al-Kamil in 1221.

THE FINAL CRUSADES

In 1229, in what became known as the Sixth Crusade, Emperor Frederick II achieved the peaceful transfer of Jerusalem to crusader control through negotiation with al-Kamil.

The peace treaty expired a decade later and the Muslims easily regained control of Jerusalem.

END OF THE CRUSADES

Through the end of the thirteenth century, groups of Crusaders sought to gain ground in the Holy Land through short-lived raids that proved little more than an annoyance to Muslim rulers in the region.

The Seventh Crusade, led by Thibault IV of champagne, briefly recaptured Jerusalem, though it was lost again in 244 to Kwarazmian forces enlisted by the sultan of Egypt.

In 1249, King Louis IX of France led the Eighth Crusade against Egypt, which ended in defeat at Mansura the following year.

As the Crusaders struggled, a new dynasty known as the Mamluks – descended from former slaves of the sultan – gained power in Egypt.

END OF THE CRUSADES

In 1260, Mamluk forces in Palestine managed to halt the advance of the Mongols, an invading force led by Genghis Khan and his descendants that had emerged as a potential ally for the Christians in the region.

Under the ruthless Sultan Baybars, the Mamluks demolished Antioch in 1268, prompting Louis IX to set out on another Crusade, which ended in his death in North Africa (he was later canonized).

A new Mamluk sultan, Qalawan, had defeated the Mongols by the end of 1281 and turned his attention back to the Crusaders, capturing Tripoli in 1289.

In what was considered the last Crusade, a fleet of warships from Venice and Aragon arrived to defend what remained of the Crusader states in 1290.

END OF THE CRUSADES

The following year, Qalawan’s son and successor, al-Ashraf Khalil, marched with a large army against the coastal port of Acre, the effective capital of the Crusaders in the region since the end of the Third Crusade.

After only seven weeks under siege, Acre fell, effectively ending the Crusades in the Holy Land after nearly two centuries.

Though the church organized minor Crusades with limited goals after 1291, support for such efforts disappeared in the sixteenth century with the rise of the Reformation and the corresponding decline of papal authority.

DISASTERS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

The problems that became manifest in fourteenth century Europe had their origins in earlier days.

By 1300, the population had been steadily growing for two centuries, aided by the new land that had been put into production, several major technical breakthroughs in agriculture, and the unusually benevolent climate, which brought warmer temperatures and appropriate amounts of rain.

These happy circumstances came to an end in the early fourteenth century. Most good land was already being used and the technology to exploit the

marginal lands did not exist.

The climate reverted to its long-term pattern, and no innovations appeared to improve yields to feed the larger population.

DISASTERS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

As a result, local famines became commonplace in parts of Europe; those who did not starve were often physically weakened as a consequence of poor nutrition over many years.

Europe had too many mouths to feed and the balance was about to be restored through natural disasters of famine, disease, and the man-made disaster of war.

THE BLACK DEATH

The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when twelve Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea.

The people who gathered on the docks to greet the ships were met with a horrifying surprise.

Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead and those who were still alive were gravely ill.

They were overcome with fever, unable to keep food down, and delirious from pain.

Strangest of all, they were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus, which gave their illness its name: the “Black Death.”

THE BLACK DEATH

The Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor; however, it was too late.

Over the next five years, the mysterious plague would kill more than twenty million people in Europe – almost one-third of the continent’s population.

Even before the “death ships” pulled into port at Messina, many Europeans had heard rumors about a “Great Pestilence” that was carving a deadly path across the trade routes of the Near and Far East.

Early in the 1340s, the disease had struck China, India, Persia, Syria, and Egypt.

However, they were scarcely equipped for the horrible reality of the “Black Death.”

THE BLACK DEATH

“In men and women alike,” the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio wrote, “at the beginning of the malady, certain swellings, either on the groin or under the armpits…waxed to the bigness of a common apple, others to the size of an egg, some more and some less, and these the vulgar named plague-boils.”

Blood and pus seeped out of the strange swellings, which were followed by a host of other unpleasant symptoms – fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains – and then, in short order, death.

The “Black Death” was terrifying, indiscriminately contagious. “The mere touching of the clothes,” wrote Boccaccio, “appeared to

itself to communicate the malady to the toucher.”

THE BLACK DEATH

The disease was also terrifying efficient: people who were perfectly healthy when they went to bed at night could be dead by morning.

Today, scientists understand that the “Black Death,” now known as the plague, was spread by a bacillus called Yersina pestis.

The French biologist Alexandre Yersin discovered this germ at the end of the nineteenth century.

They know that the bacillus travels from person to person pneumonically, or through the air, as well as through the bite of infected fleas and rats.

Both of these pests could be found almost everywhere in medieval Europe, but they were particularly at home abroad ships of all kinds.

THE BLACK DEATH

Not long after it struck Messina, the “Black Death” spread to the port of Marseilles in France and the port of Tunis in North Africa.

Then it reached Rome and Florence, two cities at the center of an elaborate web of trade routes.

By the middle of 1348, the “Black Death” had struck Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, and London.

Today, this grim sequence of events is terrifying but comprehensible.

In the middle of the fourteenth century, however, there seemed to be no rational explanation for it.

THE BLACK DEATH

Physicians relied on crude and unsophisticated techniques such as bloodletting and boil-lancing, and superstitious practices such as burning aromatic herbs and bathing in rosewater or vinegar.

Meanwhile, in a panic, healthy people did all they could to avoid the sick.

Doctors refused to see patients, priests refused to administer last rites, and shopkeepers closed stores.

Many people fled the cities for the countryside, but even there they could not escape the disease: It affected cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens as well as people.

In fact, so many sheep died that one of the consequences of the “Black Death” was a European wool shortage.

THE BLACK DEATH

And many people, desperate to save themselves, even abandoned their sick and dying loved ones.

“Thus doing,” Boccaccio wrote, “each thought to secure immunity for himself.”

Because they did not understand the biology of the disease, many people believed that the “Black Death” was a kind of divine punishment – retribution for greed, blasphemy, heresy, fornication, and worldliness.

By this logic, the only way to overcome the plague was to win God’s forgiveness.

Some people believed that the way to do this was to purge their communities of heretics and other trouble-makers.

Many thousands of Jews were massacred in 1348 and 1349.

THE BLACK DEATH

Some people coped with the terror and uncertainty of the “Black Death” epidemic by lashing out at their neighbors; others coped by turning inward and fretting about the condition of their own souls.

Some upper-class men joined processions of flagellants that traveled from town to town and engaged in public displays of penance and punishment.

They would beat themselves and one another with heavy leather straps studded with sharp pieces of metal while the townspeople looked on.

For thirty-three days, the flagellants repeated this ritual three time a day then move on to the next town and begin again.

This practice soon began to worry the Pope and in the face of papal resistance, the movement disintegrated.

THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR

Even before the outbreak of the “Black Death,” another European disaster was under way – the Hundred Years’ War.

This conflict between England and France, or more accurately, between the kings and nobles of England and France, started because of a dynastic quarrel between the English Edward III and his French rival, Philip VI.

Recent interpretations of the causes of the war have stressed economic factors.

English prosperity largely depended on the trade with the towns of Flanders across the Channel, where the large majority of woolen cloth was produced using wool from English sheep.

English control of the French duchy of Flanders would assure the continuance of tis prosperity and would be popular in both Flanders and England.

EDWARD IIIINTERESTING FACTS

Edward transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe.

He is one of only six British monarchs to have ruled England for more than fifty years.

Edward died of a stroke in 1377 and was succeeded by his ten-year-old grandson, who was the son of the Black Prince.

PHILIP VIINTERESTING FACTS

In addition to numerous economic reasons, “Philip the Fortunate” stole the French throne from Edward, who was the rightful heir as the nearest male relative to Charles IV; this succession dispute erupted into the Hundred Years’ War.

In 1348, as the Black Death swept across the European continent and wiped out one-third of France’s population; Philip’s wife, Queen Joan the Lame, succumbed to the disease.


Questions of feudal allegiance also contributed to the conflict.

The French kings had been trying for generations to increase their powers of taxation at the expense of their feudal vassals in the provinces.

Many French nobles saw the English claim as advantageous to themselves, because they thought an English king’s control over the French provinces would inevitably be weaker than a French king’s.

So they fought with the English against their own monarch, saying that the English claim was better grounded in law than Philip’s.

The war turned out to be as much a civil war as a foreign invasion of France.


The course of the war was very erratic. Several truces were signed, when one or both sides were exhausted.

The conflict took place entirely on French soil, mostly in the provinces facing the English Channel or in the region of Paris.

The major battles included: The Battle of Crecy in 1346, where the English archers used their new

longbows effectively against the French.

The Battle of Poitiers in 1356, where the English captured the French king and held him for ransom.

The Battle of Agincourt in 1415, where the English routed the discouraged French a third time.


By the 1420s, the war had long since lost its dynastic element. It had become a matter of national survival to the loyal French nobility, who

found themselves being pushed back to the walls of Paris.

At this juncture appeared the patron saint of France, Joan of Arc. This peasant girl who said she had been told by God to offer her services to

the embattled and ungrateful Charles VII routed the English and the French allies at Orleans in 1429 and changed the trend of the war, which now began to favor the French.

In the ensuing twenty years, France recaptured almost all of the lands lost to the English invaders during the previous hundred.

In 1453, the costly and sometimes bloody struggle finally ended with the English withdrawal from all of France except the Port of Calais on the Channel.

JOAN OF ARCINTERESTING FACTS

Joan was said to have seen visions from the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine instructing her to support Charles and reclaim French lands.

Joan was executed by burning on May 30, 1431 – after her death, the English burned her twice ore to reduce the body to ashes to prevent any collection of relics.

Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan in 1920 and she has since become one of the most popular saints of the Roman Catholic Church.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR

Though originally popular among the English, the war eventually came to be seen as a bottomless pit swallowing up taxes and manpower.

The cost of maintaining a large army of mercenaries in France for decades were enormous and even the rich booty brought home form the captured French towns had not been enough to pay for the war.

In addition, the war had disrupted England’s commerce with continental markets.

The power and prestige of Parliament increased. Since its origins in the thirteenth century, Parliament had met only sporadically;

however between the beginning of the war in 1337 and Edward III’s death in 1377, Parliament was in session.

Because the king was always requesting financial assistance, Parliament had to be consulted on all new taxes and as a result, Parliament became the determining voice in matters of taxation and other policy.


France did not experience a similar parliamentary development. The French kings allowed regional assemblies to meet in the major

provinces, but they avoided holding a national assembly, which might have attempted to negotiate with the Crown on national issues and policies.

This difference in parliamentary development between the two countries would become more significant as time wore own.

France followed the path of most European monarchies in transferring power steadily to the royal officials and away from the nobles of the towns, who would have been representatives to a parliament.

England strengthen the powers of its parliament, while checking those of the king.


The Hundred Years’ War effectively ended chivalric ideals and conduct in Europe.

Warfare changed dramatically during the course of the war. No longer were the heavily armored horsemen the decisive

weapon in battle – the infantry, supported by artillery and soon to be armed with muskets, were now what counted.

Cavalry would still play an important role in warfare for 400 years, but as an auxiliary force, as it had been for the Romans.

The longbow and cannon at Crecy had initiated a military revolution.


With the introduction of gunpowder, war ceased to be a personal combat between equals.

Now thanks to the cannon, you could kill your foe from a distance, even before you could see him plainly.

The new tactics also proved to be great social levelers. Commoners armed with longbows could bring down mounted

and armored knights.

The noble horseman, who had been distinguished both physically and economically was now brought down to the level of the infantryman, who could be equipped for a fraction of what it cost to equip a horseman.

PROBLEMS IN THE CHURCH

The fourteenth century was also a disaster for the largest, most omnipresent institution in the Christian world – the Roman Catholic Church.

Whether a devout Christian or not, everyone’s life was touched more or less directly by the church.

The church courts determined whether marriages were legal and proper, who was a bastard, whether orphans had rights, whether contracts were legitimate, and whether sexual crimes had been committed.

In the church, the chief judge was the pope, and the papal court in Rome handled thousands of cases that were appealed to it each year.


Probably the greatest medieval pope, Innocent III, reigned from 1198 to 1216.

He forced several kings of Europe to bow to his commands, including the unfortunate John of England, Philip II Augustus of France, and Frederick II, the German emperor.

But in behaving much like a king with his armies and his threats of war, Innocent had sacrificed much of the moral authority he derived from his position as successor to St. Peter on earth.

Later thirteenth century popes attempted to emulate Innocent with varying success, but all depended on their legal expertise or threat of armed force (the papal treasury assured the supply of mercenaries).

INNOCENT IIIINTERESTING FACTS

Innocent is believed to have been in purgatory on the very day he died – he is said to have appeared to Lutgarda in her monastery and explained that he was in purgatory for three offenses.

“Alas! It is terrible; and will last for centuries if you do not come to my assistance. In the name of Mary, who has obtained for me the favor of appealing to you, help me!”


Finally, Pope Boniface VIII overreached badly when he attempted to assert that the clergy were exempt from taxes in both France and England.

In the struggle of wills that followed, the kings of both countries were able to make Boniface back down and the clergy began to pay royal taxes.

It was a severe blow to papal prestige.

A few years later, the French monarch actually arrested the aged Boniface for a few days, dramatically demonstrating who held the whip hand if it should come to a showdown.

Boniface died of humiliation a few days after his release.

His successor was handpicked by Philip, the French king, who controlled the votes of the numerous French bishops.

BONIFACE VIII INTERESTING FACTS

Boniface organized the first Roman Catholic jubilee year to take place in Rome.

Boniface is said to have died from gnawing through his own arms to free himself from his shackles in a French prison and from bashing his skull into the wall.

Today, Boniface is best remembered for his feuds with Dante, who placed the pope in the Eighth Circle of Hell in his Divine Comedy.

THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY

The new pope was a French bishop who took the name Clement V.

Rather than residing in Rome, he was induced to stay in the city of Avignon in what is now southern France.

This was the first time since St. Peter that the head of the church had not resided in the Holy City of Christendom, and to make matters worse, Clement’s successors stayed in Avignon as well.

The Babylonian Captivity, as the pope’s stay in Avignon came to be called, created a great scandal.

Everyone except the French viewed the popes as captives of the French crown and unworthy to lead the universal church or decide questions of international justice.

CLEMENT V INTERESTING FACTS

Clement is infamous for suppressing the order of the Knights Templar and for allowing the execution of many of its members based on the charges of heresy and sodomy.

Clement’s move from Rome to Avignon was justified on the grounds of security, citing Rome as unstable and dangerous.


In 1377, one of Clement’s papal successors finally returned to Rome but died very soon thereafter.

In the ensuing election, great pressure was put on the attending bishops to elect an Italian, and one was duly elected, who took the name Urban VI.

Urban was a well-intentioned reformer, but he went about his business in such an arrogant fashion that he had alienated all his fellow bishops within weeks of his election.

They therefore proceeded to declare his election invalid because of the pressures out on them and declared another Frenchman, who took the name Clement VII.

Urban VI Clement VII


He immediately returned to Avignon and took up residence once more under the benevolent eye of the French king.

The bullheaded Urban refused to step down. There were thus two popes and doubt as to which was the

legitimate one.

THE GREAT SCHISM

The final episode in the demeaning decline of papal authority now began. For forty years, Christians were treated to the spectacle of two popes

denouncing each other as an imposter and the Anti-Christ.

Europeans divided along national lines: The French, Scots, and Iberians supported Clement while the English and

Germans preferred Urban.

Neither side would give an inch, even after the two original contestants had died.

The Great Schism hastened the realization of an idea that had long been discussed among pious and concerned people – the calling of a council to combat the growing problems within the doctrine and structure of the church.

THE GREAT SCHISM

The Conciliar Movement was a serious challenge to papal authority.

Its supporters wished to enact some important reforms and thought that the papal government was far too committed to maintaining the status quo.

Its adherents, therefore, argued that the entire church community, not the pope, had supreme powers of doctrinal definition.

Such definition would be expressed in the meetings of a council, whose members should include a number of laypersons and not just clerics.

These ideas fell on fertile ground and were eventually picked up by other fourteenth century figures such as the English theologian John Wyclif.

THE GREAT SCHISM

Wyclif believed that the had become corrupt and that individual Christians should be able to read and interpret the word of the Lord for themselves.

His doctrines were popular with the English poor, and they were emblazoned on the banners of the greatest popular uprising in English history – the revolt of 1381, which nearly toppled the crown.

The rebels were called Wyclifites, or Lollards, and their ideas about the ability of ordinary people to interpret Scripture for themselves were to be spread to the Continent within a few years.

THE GREAT SCHISM

The scandal of the Schism aroused great resentment among Christians of all nations, and intense pressure was brought to bear on both papal courts to end their quarrel.

Neither would, however, and finally a council was called, at Pisa in Italy in 1409.

It declared both popes deposed and elected a new one.

But neither of the deposed popes accepted the verdict, and so instead of two there wee now three claimants.

A few years later, from 1414-1417, a larger and more representative council met in the German city of Constance.

THE GREAT SCHISM

The council had three objectives: to end the Schism and return the papacy to Rome; to condemn the

Lollards and other heretics; and to reform the church and clergy from top to bottom.

The Council of Constance was successful in its first goal – a new pope was chosen and the other three either stepped down voluntarily or were ignored.

The council achieved more temporary success with its second goal of eliminating heresy, but the heresies it condemned simply went underground and emerged again a century later.

As for the third objective, nothing was done; reforms were discussed, but the entrenched leaders made sure no real action was taken.

THE GREAT SCHISM

Additional councils were held over the next thirty years, but they achieved little or nothing in the vital areas of clerical corruption.

The popes who had resisted the whole idea of the council had triumphed, but their victory had come at a very high price.

The need for basic reform in the church continued to be ignored until the situation exploded with Martin Luther.

the high medieval age and its troubles

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