Chapter 9:

1. Chapter 9: The Late Middle Ages: Public Turmoil, Personal Piety

2. The Avignon Papacy: The Popes Abandon Rome In 1303, the king of France felt so secure in his power that he sent troops to Italy to put the pope under arrest. This had come about because the pope had asserted papal supremacy over the king’s decisions to tax the French clergy and to put a French bishop on trial in a French civil court. The king was trying to make the French church a national church instead of one loyal to the pope. Two years later, a Frenchman was elected pope by the College of Cardinals, which by that time included some French cardinals. Pope Clement V was completely under the sway of the king of France and the nationalized French church. In 1309, the pope moved the papal headquarters to the south of France, to the town of Avignon.

3. Catherine of Siena: “Pope, Come Back Home” • At age twenty she became very active serving Siena’s many poor and sick people, especially victims of the bubonic plague. • She became recognized as an uncommonly holy person, a woman of great conviction and forceful personality • While still in her twenties, she was asked to mediate disputes between city-states and between the city-state of Florence and the pope, which is surprising considering the low status of women in those times • Not long after the papacy returned from Avignon to Rome, Catherine started a monastic convent near Siena, but soon she moved to Rome with some of her followers to advise a new pope who needed her help

4. Who is the Real Pope? The pope who succeeded Gregory in 1378 was an Italian, Urban VI. The reason he was voted in was as a solution to the riot for an Italian or Roman pope. Otherwise, the cardinals would have elected a French pope.

5. TheGreat Papal Schism The top level of the church government needed some cleaning up, as seen by the new pope. However, because of his short temper, Urban went about making changes in ways that turned people against him. The French cardinals left to see what they could do about this. Claiming that they only elected that Urban to stop the rioting and that he wasn’t a real pope, they elected a French cardinal as pope. There were now two popes, rivalling with two independent church governments. They caused a large division amongst the Christian nation. It was called the Great Papal Schism (a schism is a split). Seeing this, some cardinals went about and called council to solve this. However they made it worse, there were now three popes!

6. Back to One Pope Finally, to solve the problem, a Holy Roman emperor called a general church council, settling it once and for all with Martin V, as the only pope. This put an end to the papal schism in 1417. National and monarchical power still grew and challenged the popes. For example, Ferdinand and Isabella united Spain, and this was accomplished by stamping out all possible opposition. This then resulted in the formation of the Spanish Inquisition, run by these two forceful leaders. The methods employed were extremely cruel, and the actions were mainly directed to Jews and Muslims who had converted to Christianity, but were still suspected of heresy. The Pope expressed his concerns, but to no prevails. The papal power was weak compared to the power held by these two monarchs.

7. Inventions Remake Society The rebirth of literature was pushed by a new invention: the printing press. Johannes Gutenberg, a German printer who applied cast letters of the alphabet in lead that could be used repeatedly, created it. The first large book produced on the printing press was the Bible, which was printed in 1456. Within a few years, most of the large cities in Europe had busy print presses. Literature was more readily accessible, and literacy rates increased. Reading lenses were made, and the Black Death taught doctors more about infections. This is known as humanism, that is, the emphasis on the importance of this world and making life more fulfilling through art, literature and science. However, sometimes this became distorted into glorification of human pleasures.

8. Popes With Double Lives popes of the Renaissance fell into the exaggerated form of humanism, indulging in a lifestyle of excessive pleasure seeking. Of the ten Renaissance popes, most lived double lives – they were Christian leaders, but they had also bought into papal office through bribery and vote buying. Also, once in power, they appointed loyal followers, often being family, to important positions in the church. They lived decadent lives, encircled with pleasure and ease. Most of the popes knew that the church needed to be fixed.

9. Devotion to the Saints Although the mass did not involve the laity much, people found a way to express their faith through popular forms of piety and devotion to the saints. The Blessed Mother Mary was particularly honoured with devotion, shrines, feasts, and special titles. There is nothing wrong with devotion to the saints; however, they cannot be put before or above God. In the Middle Ages, devotion to the saints led to the collecting of bone fragments or pieces of clothing that they wore. However, in the 1400’s and 1500’s, it grew to be over-exaggerated and became a hobby; people forgot the original intentions.

10. Indulgences Another exaggerated element of medieval Christian faith was preoccupation with obtaining indulgences. These privileges offered release from the punishment of purgatory, the afterlife condition of being purified before being let into heaven. These were given if you helped build a shrine or cathedral or if you participated in a crusade. Eventually, true penance gave way to buying and selling of indulgences. This led to people believing they could buy their way into heaven. Popes endorsed this because it helped pay for the Vatican and Peter’s Basilica to be built.

11. Calls for Church Reform • Two men lost their lives for persisting in their beliefs. Around the year 1375 in England, John Wycliffe a zealous priest went against many church teachings. He believed that we should only follow the bible. Many people followed his teachings even though they were condemned by the church. • One of his most avid readers was John Hus, a young Czech priest and influential teacher in Prague. He also called for many of these changes including people should receive both the bread and wine at the Eucharist at least once a year. Many people rallied behind him and he defended his teachings in church council. When he refused to recant his beliefs he was burned at the stake. • In Italy a Dominican Friar named Savonarola, went publicly against injustice and dirty Florentine politics, which was controlled by the powerful Medici family. Savonarola became very popular and even ruled Florence for a few months. However a group of his sermons along with him attacked the Pope verbally and directly and called for a new Pope. After a trial held by the government of Florence, Savonarola was burned at the stake.The Pope supported the continuation of corruption

12. A Widening East-West Split • Through military alliance came the chance to reunite the churches of East and West • The Byzantine emperor asked the Christians of the West for help in defending Constantinople from the Turks • Eastern Bishops signed an agreement accepting the Pope as the head of the church • The crusades ordered by the pope were initially successful but the crusaders were soundly defeated near the black sea • This left the Constantinople wide open to the Turks

13. The Fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Creation of the Orthodox Church • The last Byzantine emperor was killed in battle and in 1453 “the second Rome” had fallen • The Turks renamed the city Byzantium, to Istanbul • Many Byzantine scholars escaped to the new town of Moscow in the newly united and independent Christian country of Russia • At this point the Christian church was divided into two parts: the Roman Catholic church in the West and the Orthodox church in Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Asia Minor; to this day they remain separated • To the Church, exploration meant new fields for conversion

14. A New World and a New Old World • In 1942, sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sought a short cut to India. • The discovery of the New World, yet unknown to the Europeans was a source of optimism in a Europe beset by so many problems; corruption in church and state, fear of the Black Death, poverty, and high taxes • As the New World was being opened up to the Europeans, the Old World was continuing to re-shape it’s self. • The Roman Empire, which had supposedly brought together the church and state, was breaking apart into many smaller, independent states • In the 1500’s, the autonomy of these states would greatly influence a tremendous movement of revolt and reform in the church