24: Papal Schism, 100 Years War and the Black
Plague
by James W. Harrison
With the metamorphosis of the Holy Roman Empire
into a greatly weakened elective monarchy, the shift in political power
on the continent from Germany to France and the continued growth of England's
power, we reach the end of the High Middle Ages. The 14th century ranks
as one of the most disastrous epochs in the history of Western culture.
After the brilliant culture of the High Middle Ages, Europe sank into a
quagmire of despair. Many events were responsible for this decline and
loss of hope. Among them three deserve special attention: the Papal Schism,
the Hundred Years War, and the Black Plague.
The Papal Schism
The humiliation that the Pope suffered at
the hands of Charles of Anjou was compounded by the increasing polarization
among the different political factions in the city of Rome. Clement V followed
Boniface as Pope. He did the best he could to accommodate the French throne.
He repealed the Unam Sanctam and submitted on the issue of clerical taxation.
In 1309, shortly after his election, Clement moved the papacy from Rome
to Avignon, a town in southern France, where the papacy was to reside until
1376. Although the move was undertaken in part to insure the Pope freedom
of action, it appeared to many in Europe that the presence of the papacy
in France compromised the Pope's independence and made the papacy the vassal
of the French crown. The Popes in Avignon were very efficient administrators,
and the Church regained much of the power it had lost during its feud with
the Empire. However, what it gained in organization was more than offset
by what it lost in prestige. Many Christians wondered how a Church that
preached the doctrine of a poor, itinerant Jewish Rabbi could in all good
conscience provide such splendid surroundings for its present leaders.
The feeling that the clergy no longer cared for the spiritual concerns
of its flock continued to worry many in the Church and, as we shall see,
became a genuine crisis during the reformation. In 1376, Pope Gregory XI
moved the papacy back to Rome. All Christendom breathed a sigh of relief.
Italy, which had been steadily pulling away from the Church under the pressure
of its secular governments, began its return to the Church. However, the
violent factionalism in Rome almost undid Gregory's initiative. Gregory
was so distraught at the conditions in Rome and remembered with such delight
the splendor of Avignon that he made plans to move the papacy back to Avignon.
He died before he could realize those plans. When the College of Cardinals
convened to choose the new Pope, the Roman mobs let it be known in no uncertain
terms that they would be highly displeased if an Italian were not elected
Pope. The cardinals elected the Italian Urban VI. He seemed a safe choice,
and the cardinals had every reason to hope that he would allow them an
occasional excess. However, once elected Pope, he showed himself to be
a man of determination and high purpose. He chastised the French cardinals
who had elected him as being too worldly. They fled back to France and
declared their election of Urban to be void, since they had been coerced
by the Roman mobs, and elected a new Pope, Clement VII. From 1378 to 1409
the Church had two Popes, each of whom had excommunicated the other. The
situation was clearly an embarrassment to the devout laymen and members
of the clergy. The solution to the problem, however, presented certain
difficulties. Since the Pope was the highest authority in the Church, he
was the one who should obviously solve the problem. In this case, however,
the solution was the problem. Finally, cardinals in both camps decided
to convene a general council of the Church. Both Popes insisted that their
authority was superior to that of a council. Nevertheless, in 1409 the
cardinals met in council at Pisa. That council deposed both Popes and elected
a new one, Alexander V. However, neither of the deposed Popes considered
the actions of the council binding. Therefore, instead of having two Popes
in the Church, there were three. In 1415, the emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire called the great Churchmen from all of Europe to Constance, where
he convened a council that ultimately healed the schism by installing Martin
V as the new Pope. To the thoughtful Christians of this period, the healing
of the Schism was not the primary concern. The papacy had shown itself
incapable of maintaining the trust and high purpose necessary for it to
function. Many of the best minds at Constance argued that the Church should
establish standing councils to direct its affairs and that future Popes
should be subordinate to these councils. The new Pope Martin V disagreed;
and, although he complied with the desire to convene subsequent councils,
he worked to make those councils as ineffective as possible. After the
Council of Basel, which lasted from 1431 to 1449, the enthusiasm for the
counciliar movement waned, and the Pope was again the supreme head of the
Church. During the last half of the fifteenth century, the Popes became
more and more concerned with Italian politics and the splendid luxuries
of the Renaissance. The last Pope of that century, Alexander Borgia, was
far more concerned with promoting the career of his son, Caesar Borgia,
than with the spiritual health of the Church. Obviously this kind of behavior
from the throne of St. Peter did much to deprive the papacy of what little
prestige it had after the three way schism. The voices clamoring for reform
in the church grew ever louder and more insistent. In 1517 the long delayed
explosion shattered the unity of the Church when a young, unassuming monk
nailed ninety-five theses to the Wittenberg Church door. But more of that
later.
The Black Plague
We return now to the fourteenth century to
consider the second great disaster, the black plague. On an autumn day
in October 1347, Genoese trading ships put into the harbor of Messina in
Sicily with dead and dying men at the oars. They were returning from the
Genoese trading posts in the Crimea. The stricken men had strange black
swellings the size of an egg or apple in the armpits and groin. These oozed
blood and pus and were quickly followed by black blotches on the skin from
internal bleeding. The sailors experienced such intense pain that death,
which generally followed five days after the first symptoms, came as a
welcome relief. Due to the lack of hygiene, the disease raced through the
port town. As the contagion spread, new symptoms developed: continuous
fever, spitting of blood instead of the swelling, heavy sweating, and death
within three days or less, sometimes in 24 hours. Modern medicine has concluded
that this disease which was soon christened the bubonic plague (from buboes,
the term used to describe the inflamed lymph glands) manifested itself
in two varieties. The first infected the blood stream; the second, which
led to death in much less time, the lungs. Rumors of a plague in the Orient
had circulated in Europe since 1346. In an age given to hyperbole, everyone
believed the news of 23 million people dying to be exaggerated. Not until
1347 did Europe finally come to understand the terrible accuracy of that
figure. By January, 1348, the plague had infected other port towns, especially
Marseille and Tunis, the North African port. In Europe it traveled up the
Rhone river to call on the papal court at Avignon. It quickly spread to
Bordeaux, Lyon, and Paris, then to Burgundy, Normandy, and England. From
Sicily it traveled to Italy, Switzerland, and Hungary. Bohemia and Russia
were largely unaffected until 1351. The general course of the disease in
a geographic area ran about six months. It would then fade unless the area
affected was densely populated, in which case it would subside for the
winter only to undertake its grim work with renewed vigor in the spring.
Accurate mortality rates are difficult to find. The best estimates, based
on a conservative reading of the records, place the mortality rate anywhere
between one-fifth and nine-tenths of the population. Europe seems to have
lost about one-third of its population. This would translate into about
twenty million people dying between 1348 and 1350. Approximately half the
citizens of Paris, two-thirds of Bremen and Hamburg, and three fourths
of Florence died. The deaths occurred so quickly that there was no time
for the sacrament of extreme unction, and the Pope had to issue mass forgiveness.
The dead outnumbered the living by such a margin that in some cities the
bodies were allowed to pile up outside in the streets, adding to the contagion.
The more communal the living quarters were, the more thoroughly the plague
could do its task. This meant that many convents and monasteries became
extermination camps for their inhabitants. In some, every person died.
The "black death," as the plague was known, influenced virtually every
aspect of life in the latter part of the century. Its effects on the economy
were profound. Since the cities lost more people than the country because
of the crowded conditions, a significant labor shortage ensued. Many people
moved from the country into the city hoping to find work. However, there
was pressure from the other direction to limit the number of workers, thereby
driving up salaries. Thus, many of those who sought financial security
in the city were unable to find work and became part of the urban unemployed.
Guilds became very protective of their members and restricted memberships.
Once a person had been accepted, it became more and more difficult to advance
in the guild hierarchy. Upward mobility which had been one of the great
spurs to growth in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries suffocated
in the thin air of shrinking markets. In the country the labor shortage
led to a rise in grain prices. Those who stayed to work the land suddenly
found a much improved market and a thinned population of farmers with whom
to compete. Enterprising peasants could buy large tracts of land, hire
others to work for them, and do very well in the process. Generally speaking,
however, the plague brought in its wake a recession from which Europe did
not recover until the end of the fifteenth century. When the economy did
improve, it did so dramatically. The riches which Spain brought back from
its colonies in the New World spread quickly throughout European society
and spurred an economic revival that would far outrun even the best times
of the Middle Ages.
The Hundred Years War
The last of the three plagues to visit Europe
in the fourteenth century was the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). This conflict
was really the final chapter in the long dispute between the English and
the French over English holdings on the continent. We have already noted
the beginning of this dispute when William the Conqueror became King of
England while still maintaining claim to his family's holdings in France.
In 1204 the French had wrested much of that territory from England. Only
sections of Gascony remained under English rule. The trade between England
and Gascony became quite brisk, with the English buying the excellent bordeaux
wine from Gascony and exporting English cloth to them. England and France
fought a costly war for rights to the area (1294-1303) which decided nothing.
The situation smoldered for thirty years before breaking into war once
more. Another cause of the war was the succession controversy occasioned
by the death of the last Capetian King in 1328. The English King, Edward
III, whose mother was the daughter of Philip the Fair, claimed the throne
as did Philip of Valois, son of Philip the Fair's younger brother. In 1337
Edward, who initially accepted Philip's claim, decided to contest it and
declared war on France. The war continued with fits and starts from 1337
to 1453. Fierce fighting which cost both countries dearly in financial
and human resources punctuated long periods of uneasy truce. Even though
the English won decisive victories at Cr‚cy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and
Agincourt (1415) they ultimately lost the war. Henry V's early death and
Joan of Arc's military successes finally drove the English from France.
In the end the English held only the port of Calais. The French King, Charles
VII, reigned in France without opposition.
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