The Fourteenth Century: Twilight of the Middle Ages

1. The Fourteenth Century: Twilight of the Middle Ages -Key Concepts-

2. “Signs of Change” • Catholic Church losing its authority • New military weapons, tactics and strategies • Growing nationalism • Loosening of social hierarchy

3. I. The Black Death (1347-1351) • Preconditions leading to the Plague • Dietary and hygienic problems • Government and Church preconditions • Origins of the Bubonic Plague • Contemporary explanations

4. I. The Black Death (cont) • The physiological progression of the disease • Mortality rates varied • Contemporary, popular remedies • Flagellants • Various forms of escape and relief pursued

5. I. The Black Death (cont) • Deep pessimism and doubt spread all over Europe • New urban ordinances • Steep population decline along with increased wages for laborers • Economic and political power of local artisans rose

6. I. The Black Death (cont) • Value of noble estates declined • Aristocratic incomes dropped • Increase in royal power • Towns prospered • Depiction of death in art -- “The Dance of Death”

7. I. The Black Death (cont) • Cheapening of human life • Persecution of Jews • Marriage no longer delayed • Limited employment opportunities for women • Departure from the Middle Ages?

8. II. The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) • Combatants, length and location of the War • Causes of the War • Course of the War • Differences between the English and French forces • Battle of Crecy (1346)

9. II. The Hundred Years War (cont) • The Battle of Poitiers (1356) • Henry V gains the field at Agincourt (1415) • Background of Joan of Arc • Joan’s meeting with the French dauphin

10. II. The Hundred Years War (cont) • Joan is victorious at Orleans (1429) • Joan provided inspiration and national unity • Capture, trial and execution of Joan of Arc • The masculinity of Joan’s dress and bearing

11. II. The Hundred Years War (cont) • Gunpowder warfare is introduced into Europe • Development of the English Parliament • Peasants and non-nobles constituted a new infantry • Departure from the Middle Ages?

12. II. The Hundred Years War (cont) • Superiority of mounted knight undermined by new weapons • Increased nationalism • Centralization of French monarchy • Destruction of peasant farmland • English clothing industry emerges

13. III. Appearance of Vernacular Literature • Dante’s Divine Comedy (1321) • Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) • Vernacular Translations of the Bible --John Wycliffe (mid-14th century)

14. III. Vernacular Literature (cont) --Later John Hus and William Tyndale • Christine de Pizan (1364-1430) --Book of the City of Ladies (1404) • Departure from the Middle Ages?

15. IV. Fur Collar Crime and Peasant Revolts • “Fur Collar” Crime • Factions of nobles develop and the instability of European thrones -- “War of the Roses” in England (early 1400’s) • Peasant Revolts flared up in this environment

16. IV. Peasant Revolts (cont) • The Jacquerie (1358--France) • Wat Tyler’s Rebellion (1381--England) • The preaching of John Ball • Urban Rebellion --Ciompi Revolt (1378—Florence) • Departure from Middle Ages?

17. V. The Decline of Papal Prestige (cont) • Increasing resistance against the power of Rome • Humiliation of Pope Boniface VIII (early 14th Century) • Papal Bull Unam Sanctam (1302) • The “Babylonian Captivity” in Avignon (1309-1377)

18. V. The Decline of Papal Prestige (cont) • Indulgences and Purgatory • Wealth and politics of the Avignon Popes • “The Great Schism” (1378-1417) • The Conciliar Movement --Council of Pisa (1409)

19. V. The Decline of Papal Prestige (cont) • Council of Constance (1414) • Pope Pius II condemns appeals to Councils in 1460 • Results of the Conciliar Movement • Critique of Papal Power

20. V. The Decline of Papal Prestige (cont) • John of Paris, On Kingly and Papal Power (1302) • Marsiglio’s The Defender of the Peace (1324) • Growing separation of faith and politics • Departure from the Middle Ages?

21. VI. New Inventions and Artistic Patterns • The mechanical clock (14th Century) • Time was no longer the province of God or the church. It was now controlled by man for his profit. • New kind of realism in art --Giotto (1266-1337)

22. VII. 14th Century Heresies • Earlier Heresies --Waldensians --Albigensians (Cathars) • Criticisms of the Church • John Wycliffe (d. 1384—England)

23. VII. 14th Century Heresies (cont) • Lollards • John Hus (d. 1415—Bohemia) • Wycliffe influenced Hus • Condemned by the Council of Constance • Departure from the Middle Ages?

24. VIII. Rejection of Scholasticism • Reason and faith are not complementary • Rejection of scholasticism liberates both reason and faith • William of Ockham (1285-c. 1349—England) --Empiricist

25. VIII. Rejection of Scholasticism (cont) • “Ockham’s Razor” • Proclaims unknowability of the divine • Supports “Spiritual Franciscans” • Argues for the autonomy of the secular state • Departure from the Middle Ages?