Download Chapter 9 – The Late Middle Ages In this chapter we will examine

Chapter 9 – The Late Middle Ages
In this chapter we will examine the events that challenged Europe from 1300 to 1480: the Little Ice Age
and the Black Death with the subsequent social and political changes; the Hundred Years War and the rise
of Nationalism in France and England; religious disunity in the Roman Catholic Church, especially the
Babylonian Captivity and opposition to corruption and the papacy; and finally the rise of the Russian State
from its conversion to Christianity in Kiev, the Mongol invasions and the rise of Moscow under the
leadership of Ivan III.
The Little Ice Age
Scientists speculate that in the years leading up to 1300, decreased solar activity and increased volcanic
activity caused worldwide temperatures to plunge signaling the onset of a half millennium “mini” Ice Age.
The previous 500 to 600 years had been a period of warming (called the Medieval Warm Period). It was
this warming trend that allowed the Vikings to push westward to Vineland (Newfoundland), but in 1250,
the Atlantic Ice Pact began to grow. By 1300, the summers of northern Europe were more often colder than
warmer; and by the mid-16th century the glaciers in both hemispheres were expanding. The average global
temperature dropped two to three degrees and coldest centuries were the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The Little Ice Age would last until the middle of the 19th century, but its most chilling effects (no pun
intended) created dramatic challenges for the peoples of the world.
The results were dramatic. The population of Iceland fell by half, and the Viking colonies in Greenland
died out. In Northern Europe, agricultural production declined sharply and led to famine. The most severe
was the Famine of 1315-1317 which caused millions to starve to death and caused increased in crime,
disease and infanticide. In the 18th century in North America, Indians formed leagues in response to food
shortages and early European settlers reported exceptionally severe winters. One bright note: Human
resiliency is remarkable. The English and Dutch organized Frost Fairs on frozen rivers and canals. (See
paintings: Winter Landscape with Birdtrap by Pieter Bruegel and Winter Landscape with Ice skaters
by Hendrick Averkamp)
The Bubonic Plague and its Consequences
The Bubonic Plague was nothing new in history; it had weakened Athens during the Peloponnesian War; it
had struck the Byzantium during the reign of Justinian. The plague was called the Black Death because of
the way it left the body discolored. In the early 1300s, the bubonic plague broke out in Hunan Province in
Southwest China and quickly spread. In 1331, Hebei Province near Khanbaliq lost 90% of its population
and by the 1350s some Chinese provinces had lost two-thirds of their population. During the 1340s
Mongols, merchants and travelers helped spread the disease along the Silk Roads to points west. By 1346 it
had reached the Black Sea ports of Caffa and Tana – and then Constantinople. In 1347 Italian merchants
carried the plague to Italy and by 1348 the plague was spreading in Europe, where 40 to 60 per cent of the
population died (some villages were wiped out). Only Sub-Saharan Africa, Scandinavia and India escaped
the worst effects of the plague. VITU: that the plague returned every 20 to 50 years until the late 18th
century, but never with the same ferocity.
One reason why the Black Death struck at Europe so viciously was the crop failures from the famine of
1315 to 1317. Much of Europe had become overpopulated and the resulting famines weakened the
population making it more susceptible to disease. The plague was carried by lice which lived on rats which
explains how the plague moved so quickly on caravan routes or at sea. The disease began in the lungs and
the subsequent sneezing also spread the disease. The symptoms included Bubos or swellings in the lymph
nodes up to the size of a lemon with lethargy, chills, seizures, bleeding from the ears and finally death.
People did not understand the disease and so they blamed the plague on everything from decomposition
(corruption) in the atmosphere to poisonous fumes released by earthquakes to God vengeance on sinners.
The plague left deep psychological scars and a fascination with death (see the Prince of the World on p.
294). Some people became more religious becoming more pious and doing religious works or giving $$$
to the church. (See Bruegel Painting Triumph of Death) Flagellants were religious fanatics who marched
publically and whipped themselves to punish for their sins and appease God. So awful (bloody and dirty)
and socially disruptive were these processions that the church finally outlawed them. Many people became
more worldly trying to “eat, drink and be merry” before death caught up with them. In some places Jews
were made scapegoats and would become the victims of pogroms (or vicious riots launched against them).
The social and economic consequences of the Black Death were profound. Often entire villages
disappeared and the labor force shrank drastically all across Europe. Serfs who survived often moved to the
cities in large numbers to find a better life. They and the skilled laborers who survived demanded higher
pay. The wealthy at first tried to freeze wages. In 1351, the English Parliament passed a law, Statute of
Laborers, which limited wages to pre-plague levels and restricted the peasants from leaving their land. In
France the Taille, a direct tax on the peasants, was increased. So the peasants struck back. In 1358, the
Jaquerie Revolt broke out in France, when peasants looted castles and attacked the rich. In 1381, Wat
Tyler led English peasants into London where they demanded an end to serfdom. Both rebellions were put
down with harsh brutality, but in the end the wealthy were forced to grant higher wages and other
concessions.
So it is important to understand that the Black Death contributed to the demise of serfdom in Western
Europe. And what is more fascinating is that, when Europe recovered from the plague, the economy
rebounded with vigor stronger vigor than before the plague. Many scholars refer to this as a pruning
phenomenon. The irony was that in 1400 there were fewer people than in 1300 but personal income and
production actually increased, especially in the cities. Moreover, these factors directly contributed to rise of
merchant class whose competition put great pressure on the old, uncompetitive Medieval Guilds.
As the plague diminished, cities rebounded. Expensive clothing, personal items, furs and silks came to
great demand. And with a smaller work force, the prices of manufactured goods and luxury items increased
dramatically – further luring peasants to the better life in the cities. Wealth began to pour into the cities, per
capita incomes rose and agricultural goods actually became cheaper. After 1350, the power of local artisans
and trade guilds also increased; and as their power increased the power of the church, merchant and
patrician classes diminished.
The Hundred Year’s War
The Hundred Year’s War was a series of wars fought sporadically between France and England from 1347
to 1453. When the last French Capetian king Charles VI died in 1328 without an heir, the throne was
claimed by his grandson, the fifteen year old king of England Edward III. But the French nobility had no
intention of allowing themselves to be ruled by an English king and chose instead the first cousin of
Charles IV, Philip VI of Valois who became the first king of a new dynasty (the Valois) that would rule
France until the 16th century. It was a muddled and complex situation dominated by family relationships
between the Plantagenet kings of England and the old Capetian and the new Valois kings of France.
Although the one hundred and twelve year war (only 44 years were active fighting) was primarily a
dynastic conflict (Thus Edward III was Philip VI’s vassal as well as cousin.), the war helped to lay the
foundation for both French and English nationalism. Militarily, the conflict saw the introduction of new
weapons and tactics, which eroded the older system of feudal armies dominated by heavy cavalry in
Western Europe. The first standing armies in Western Europe since the time of the Western Roman Empire
were introduced for the war, thus changing the role of the peasantry. The war was also economic as both
sides competed for influence in Flanders whose principal industry was cloth manufacturing based on wool
imports from England.
The French had many advantages but more disadvantages. France had three times the population of
England, was far wealthier and fought on and for its own soil. But France still suffered from Feudalized
decentralization and had trouble raising troops and money necessary to fight the war. In 1355, for example,
the king turned to the Estates General, a council representing the three parts of French society: clergy,
nobility and townspeople. The king wanted money for the war and he got it but lost much authority when
the Estates General increased their own regional sovereignty as a quid pro quo for new taxes. The English
armies were clearly superior in technology (the long bow) and discipline. Finally, French royal leadership
for most of the war was clearly inferior to the English kings. Nevertheless with all her battlefield reverses,
France did contrive to win the war. The war had three phases: The War of Edward III, the War of Henry
V and finally the War of Joan of Arc.
Phase I, the War of Edward III (1340 – 1377): Edward embargoed English wool from Flanders
causing upheaval among the merchants and trade guilds. The Flemish cities, led by Ghent, revolted against
the French and signed a treaty of alliance with England recognizing Edward as their king in 1340. In 1346
Edward attacked Normandy and won a series of victories culminating in the Battle of Crécy seizing the
port of Calais which the English would hold until 1558. The Black Death led to a truce but in 1356 in west
central France, Edward and the English won their greatest victory of the war, the Battle of Poitiers routing
French knights and capturing the French king John II (John the Good). France then collapsed in complete
political disorder. The Estates General filled the void and, taking advantage of royal weakness, demanded
and received rights comparable to Magna Carta. Nevertheless, the Estates General was too divided to form
effective government.
Moreover they taxed the peasants more and more which led to Jacquerie Rebellion in 1358. Even though
the traumatized nobility quickly and brutally put down the rebellion, they did not understand (as they
would not understand during the French Revolution in 1789) the consequences of their unfair treatment of
the peasants. In 1360 the English brought this part of the war to an end with the Peace of Brétigny-Calais
which declared Edward’s vassalage to the French monarch at an end and affirming Edward’s sovereignty
over English held territory in France. In the same treaty king John II was ransomed and returned to France;
and Edward renounced his claims to the French throne. But by the late 1360s, France struck back and
recaptured much territory so that by Edward’s death in 1377, the English were restricted to coastal cities
and the area around Bordeaux.
Phase II, the War of Henry V (1413 – 1422): After the death of Edward III, the Wat Tyler/John
Ball rebellion of 1381 gave Richard II of England problems at home and so the war in France was
suspended. As in France the rebels were crushed without mercy but England was divided and traumatized
for decades. In 1413, Henry V came to the English throne and renewed the war. He took advantage of
French internal dissention and – outnumbered but with his superior English archers - routed the French
army in 1415 at the Battle of Agincourt. Two points of note: (1) During the battle Henry made a decision
that tarnished his reputation and ordered that the French prisoners be put to death, including some of the
most illustrious who could be used for ransom; and (2) the tragedy of French internal turmoil was
displayed when the Burgundian part of the French army was content to see their fellow Frenchmen
slaughtered by the English. The Burgundians soon realized their foolish mistake and French unity was
loosely restored. But the Duke of Burgundy was assassinated in 1419 and his son, blaming the French,
allied with the English.
In 1420 Henry forced France to sign the Treaty of Troyes which disinherited the son of the French king
Charles VI and in his place proclaimed Henry V the successor to the French throne. Then Henry and
Charles both died suddenly in 1422 and the infant Henry VI of England was declared the king of both
France and England. It seemed that the dream of Edward III was about to come to pass. However, the son
of Charles VI, Charles VII, ignored the Treaty of Troyes and with a French peasant girl turned soldier and
unprecedented French national feeling France soon rallied to again fight the English.
Phase III, the War of Joan of Arc (1429 – 1453): Joan of Arc was a peasant girl who was born
about 1412 in Lorraine in eastern France. Her father was a farmer who supplemented his income as a minor
official. In 1429 she presented herself before Charles VII declaring that the “King of Heaven” had called
her to deliver the city of Orléans, a city just south of Paris on the Loire River, which was being besieged
by the English. Charles was skeptical but the desperate situation compelled him to give her permission to
try to lift the siege. Circumstances worked in her favor as the English were exhausted after six months of
besieging the city so that Joan helped lead the French in lifting the siege. This was followed by a string of
French victories. It was not so much any military genius on her part but her ability to call the French to a
sense of Nationalism and destiny. Within a few months of the freeing of Orléans Charles was crowned king
in Rheims nullifying the Treaty of Troyes and giving France a great sense of national pride.
The next year (1430) Joan was captured by the Burgundians and shockingly Charles did nothing to help his
liberator to whom he owed so much. The Burgundians and their English allies wanted Joan discredited
hoping that Charles would also be discredited. So Joan was handed over to the Inquisition who declared her
a heretic after ten weeks of interrogation and, in spite of her brilliant intellect and defense on her own
behalf, she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. Twenty five years later in 1456 Charles reopened her
case and she was exonerated of all the trumped up charges that had been leveled against her. In 1920 the
Roman Catholic Church declared her a Saint.
In 1435, the Duke of Burgundy made peace with Charles and the English were pushed back so that by 1453
the English held only the coastal city of Calais. The Hundred Years war was over. French nationalism was
strengthened. The Feudal System was weakened and Royal Power strengthened. Burgundy became a major
power in European politics. The French saw the weakness of depending upon the Flemish weaving industry
so they began to develop their own. England, on the other hand, was left an island nation, except for Calais.
Already on the fringe of Europe, it appeared destined for obscurity. However, the European discovery of
the New World in 1492 meant that seafaring nations like England were well-suited to take advantage of the
new opportunities for trade, commerce and conquest Columbus’ discovery afforded.
The Church in the Thirteenth Century
In the late sixth century, Gregory I (the Great) established the primacy of the Rome among Western
bishops; in the late eleventh century, Gregory VII (Hildebrand) asserted the power of the Church over the
state in the Investiture Controversy; but it was Innocent III (1198 – 1216) who took the Roman Catholic
Church to the pinnacle of its power and prestige. Innocent perfected the idea of Plentitude of Power by
which the Church taught that the pope and its bishops had full authority to speak and act in their own name,
without appealing to higher authorities. From this doctrine Innocent created a centralized Papal Monarchy
which had a clear political mission that went along with the Church’s religious mission. Innocent expected
to be obeyed and if he was not, he used Papal Interdict (as Gregory VII had used) and other censures until
he was obeyed. A fundamental change had now come to characterize the Roman Church. No longer was
the Church the “Blessed Company of all Faithful Believers,” but the Papal Church to be obeyed. Objection
and dissention grew until it exploded into the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century.
Urban IV (1261 – 1264), continued Innocent’s work and established the Rota Romana, a law court, which
tightened and strengthened the church’s legal proceedings so that the popes began to make clerical
appointments of and for its bureaucracy. Clerical taxation increased; now no longer was it used to fund the
crusades but rather to fund a new powerful international bureaucracy for both its religious and secular
goals. This increased papal authority also undermined local diocesan bishops and the Church’s work at the
local level. To many in and out of the Church, the papacy in Rome had become a legalized, confiscatory
bureaucratic institution, totally out of touch with the flock it was supposed to shepherd. Rome was
beginning to lose popular support of much of its flock, especially north of the Alps.
In the late twelfth century, heretical movements like the Cathars and Waldensians challenged the Church
structure and tried to fight these abuses and were crushed. On the other hand within the Church others like
St. Francis of Assisi sought to reform the growing materialism of the Church. In the political arena, the
papal ability to weaken imperial power in the Holy Roman Empire was a triumph – indeed – but a two
edged sword because it reduced the Church to just another faction in the complex politics on the Italian
peninsula. Princes with a stake in Italian politics now directed their intrigue against the College of
Cardinals which elected the popes. Such interference led Pope Gregory X (1271-1276) to sequester the
College of Cardinals (the body which elected the pope) to minimize political interference.
Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair
Boniface VIII was elected in 1294 and tried to maintain papal supremacy. He had the bad luck, however,
to become pope when kings and princes still had not forgotten how earlier popes like Gregory VII and
Innocent III had bullied them. Moreover, Boniface became pope just at the time when England and France
were developing into nation-states. England had developed a political system whereby Parliament and the
king worked in consultation to govern the realm, and France was evolving into an increasingly efficient,
centralized monarchy in spite of its Feudal lords. It should have been obvious that it would be increasingly
more difficult to enforce papal authority.
Money was at the root of the conflict. When England and France were preparing for war, they proposed to
tax the clergy to raise the necessary monies to pay for improved military technologies and standing or
mercenary armies. Boniface saw this as an outright assault on clerical rights and in 1296 issued a bull,
Clericis laicos, which forbade lay taxation of the clergy without papal approval. In England, Edward I
retaliated by denying the clergy the right to be heard in royal court thus removing them from the king’s
protection. Philip IV (the Fair) of France forbade the export of money from France to Rome. This placed
Boniface in a difficult financial position and he quickly compromised with Philip and conceded that Philip
had the right to tax the clergy during emergencies.
Boniface then was beset by difficulties at home when a powerful Italian family, the Colonnas, tried - with
Philip’s aid - to invalidate Boniface’s election as pope on the grounds that his predecessor, Celestine V,
had been forced to resign his office. The Colonnas also accused Boniface of heresy along with sins of
simony and even the murder of Celestine. By 1300 however, things seemed better for Boniface especially
since his enemies were restive and 1300 was a Jubilee Year which filled Rome with thousands of faithful
pilgrims. Then he and Philip clashed again. This time it was over Philip’s arrest of Boniface’s papal legate
to France, Bernard Saisset. Philip had Saisset tried for heresy and treason – and convicted. Then he
demanded the pope recognize the legality of his actions. Boniface refused and demanded the release of his
bishop. He wrote a bull, Ausculta fili (Listen my son), which only enraged Philip all the more.
Philip then viciously attacked Boniface with the legal arguments of two royal apologists, Pierre Dubois
and John of Paris, who argued that the pope had no authority to meddle in secular affairs. Boniface was
clearly on the defensive and so, on November 18, 1302, the pope issued his famous bull, Unam Sanctam,
which stated that it "is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the
Roman pontiff.” In other words, he stated that the temporal power of princes was inferior and subject to
the spiritual power of the Church. In issuing this bull, Boniface took the assertion of papal supremacy to its
historical high point but in reality it should be seen as the last desperate act of a besieged papacy.
In response, both the French and Colonnas moved against Boniface. They declared the pope both a heretic
and common criminal. In 1303 a French army, led by Philip’s chief minister, Guillaume de Nogaret,
captured the pope at his villa near Rome. The soldiers beat him up severely and almost killed him. After
three days of torture, the angry populace rescued the pope and returned him to Rome where he died shortly
thereafter of his wounds and humiliation. Boniface’s successor, Benedict IX, excommunicated Nogaret but
no lasting retaliation or sanctions were possible.
The Avignon Papacy
Then in 1305, Benedict’s successor, Clement V (1305 – 1314) was forced to move the papal residence
from Rome to Avignon in southern France where he and his successors remained subservient to the French
king. Clement was forced to state that Unam Sanctam should not be construed in any way as a
diminishment of French royal authority. Avignon was in southeastern France on papal land but still under
the influence of the French king. The Avignon Papacy which lasted from 1309 to 1377 has been called the
Babylonian Captivity in memory of the time when the Neo-Babylonians (Chaldeans) carried most of the
Jewish upper classes to Babylon in 586 BCE. It is important to note that after the physical attack on
Boniface, no pope ever again seriously threatened kings or emperors. Papal excommunications were still
issued and political intrigue continued but the relationship between church and state had now definitely
shifted in favor of the state.
During the Avignon years, the papacy was cut off from its Italian estates (and their income) which put
pressure on the finances of the papal bureaucracy. So to raise revenues, Clement expanded the scope of
papal taxes, especially the collecting Annates, which were the first year’s revenue for a cleric who had
received a benefice from the pope. A later Avignon pope, Clement VI (1342 – 1352) began the practice of
selling Indulgences (or pardons for sins). Such practices contributed to the Avignon papacy’s reputation
for materialism and political intrigue which, like the bullying of earlier popes, laid the groundwork for the
Reformation in the sixteenth century.
Pope John XXII who reigned from 1316 to 1334, was an excellent administrator and the most powerful of
the Avignon popes. He lived a princely life but his primary goal was to return the papacy to Rome but it
only led him into wars with the Viscoti, the ruling family of Milan and later the Holy Roman Emperor,
Louis IV. John preferred a candidate from the House of Hapsburg (a family about whom we shall learn
much) and the two clashed. John refused to recognize Louis’ election and so the emperor declared John
deposed and put in his place an anti-pope. Louis also (as Phillip IV had done against Boniface) engaged the
support of the Spiritual Franciscans, whose views on poverty John had condemned. Two famous
pamphleteers defended Louis IV: William of Ockham, and English Franciscan friar and Marsilius of
Padua, an Italian scholar. The pope excommunicated them both.
In 1324, Marsilius wrote his famous treatise, Defensor Pacis (Defender of the Peace), in which he stressed
the idependent origin and autonomy of secular governments. He said that clergy should restrict their
activities to spiritual matters – the salvation of souls – and not temporal matters. Marsilius clearly defines
the clergy – from pope to parish priest – as subordinate members of society and the king or emperor as the
ruler who was responsible for temporal peace which Marsilius called the highest good. Many historians
consider Defensor pacis to be one of the most important political treatises of fourteenth-century Europe.
John also took the old Papal or Roman Curia (or Roman Court, not in the sense of a courtroom of law
but of a royal court just like the king of England or France had his royal court) and turned it into an
administrative apparatus to govern the Roman Church and deal the secular affairs of the Vatican with
European nations. The Roman Curia became particularly adept in dealing with emerging European
capitalism and growing money economy.
Under his successor, Benedict XII (1334 – 1342), the papacy became thoroughly entrenched at Avignon
and Rome seemed only a memory. Thus Benedict began to build a great Papal Palace at Avignon. He also
attempted to reform papal government, made peace with Louis IV and the Spiritual Franciscans. Most of
all he tried to curb the luxuries of the monastic orders, though without much success. His successor
Clement VI (1342 – 1352) was devoted to France, and he demonstrated his French sympathies by refusing
a solemn invitation to return to Rome from the city's people. Clement also was a hedonist and devoted to
lavish living; he once exclaimed, “My predecessors did not know how to be pope” and he boasted that he
“lived as a sinner among sinners.”
This was an awful period for the papacy as cardinals became little more than lobbyists for whatever cause a
prince or secular patron might pay them. Moreover the monarchs of England, France and Germany fought
back to restrict Vatican confiscatory taxes. The English Parliament restricted both payments and appeals to
the papacy. In 1438, King Charles VII of France issued the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges which not only
defended the French church from papal taxation and papal appointment of high level churchmen but also
limited appeals from French courts to the Roman Curia. In the following century, German and Swiss cities
would follow suit.
The Lollards and Hussites
Reaction to the materialism and worldliness of both the papacy and the clergy (both monks and secular
clergy) was manifested by religious lay movements of which the Lollards in England and the Hussites in
Bohemia are the best known. The Lollards were inspired by the ideas of John Wycliffe, a prominent
theologian who was dismissed from the University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the Church,
especially his doctrine on the Eucharist. Wycliffe, (1328-1384) a scholar of high renown, supported the
state’s restricting the Papacy’s power to tax and make clerical appointments, but he also came under
criticism for theological opinions that anticipated the Protestant Reformation
Wycliffe was an early advocate for translating the Bible from Latin into the language of the people so that
the people could read it themselves. It is probable that by 1384 he had personally translated the Gospels;
and possibly the entire New Testament, while his associates translated the Old Testament. The Wycliffe
Bible was a result of his both with Scholastic theology of his day and also with the corrupt state of the
Church and many of its clergy. He argued that the Bible was the authoritative norm of Christianity, that the
claims of the papacy were unhistorical, that monasticism was irredeemably corrupt (the clergy “ought to be
content with food and clothing”), and (like the Donatist heresy a thousand years earlier), that the moral
unworthiness of priests invalidated their office and sacraments.
The Lollards were much like the Waldensians who were previously mentioned. Inspired by Wycliffe they
believed in the vernacular being used in religious services, making the vernacular translations of the Bible
available to all the people and demanded clerical poverty. Although they came from every class, many
Lollards stood gain financially if Church properties were confiscated and the lower clergy kept poor. After
the Wat Tyler inspired rebellion of 1381, Lollardy (as the movement came to be called) came to be viewed
as subversive by both the Church of and Monarchy who both saw dangerous ideas that could mean the end
of their own power. In 1401 it was a capital offense (punishable by death) to be a Lollard.
The Hussites were followers of John Huss (1369-1415), a Czech priest, philosopher, reformer, and the
rector of the University in Prague. The University had been founded in 1348 and by the end of the century
had become a magnate for Czech nationalism and a religious reform movement. John Huss was one of the
leaders of this movement which, at first, remained within the bounds of the Church. Huss and the reformers
supported translating the Bible into the vernacular and were critical of the traditional sacraments and
ceremonies of the Catholic Church, especially the Holy Communion. They believed that the laity should be
allowed to receive both the consecrated bread and wine and that the denial of the consecrated wine was
sign of the clergy’s spiritual superiority over the laity. But more heretical in the eyes of the Church was
their teaching that the consecrated bread and wine remained just that, bread and wine, not the body and
blood of Christ. They also agreed with the Lollards that unworthy priest made the sacraments invalid.
It is interesting to note that the marriage of King Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia in 1381
resulted in regular travel between the two countries with Czech students picking up Lollard ideas and
taking them home. At any rate Huss became the leader of a pro-Wycliffe movement at the University and
in 1410 he was excommunicated for heresy. In 1414, Huss was given a hearing at the Council of
Constance with his safe conduct guaranteed by the emperor Sigismund. Nevertheless, Huss was betrayed,
condemned and burned at the stake on July 6, 1415.
The result was open rebellion in Bohemia. Under the leadership of John Ziska, militant Hussites fought a
series of wars (1420–1434) for their religious and political cause and to create in Bohemia a religious and
social paradise. Hussite religious ideals were contained in the Four Articles of Prague, which were agreed
upon in July 1420, and promulgated in Latin, Czech, and German. They are: Freedom to preach the Word
of God; celebration of the Holy Communion in both kinds (bread and wine to priests and laity alike); No
secular power for the clergy; Punishment of the clergy who committed mortal (i.e. serious) sins. Today
Hussite traditions are found principally in the Moravian Church.
The Great Schism of the West
The Babylonian Captivity came to an end in January of 1377 when Pope Gregory XI moved the papacy
back to Rome. But this return would be short lived. When Gregory died in 1378, the College of Cardinals
in Rome elected an Italian archbishop as Pope Urban VI who immediately announced that he intended to
reform the Curia. The Cardinals, most of whom were French, called for a return to Avignon and the French
king, Charles V, (wanting to keep control over the papacy) supported them. So five months after Urban’s
election, thirteen cardinals (twelve of whom were French) held their own conclave and elected Pope
Clement VII, who was a cousin of Charles V, thus beginning forty year period called the Great Schism of
the West. This Great Schism should not to be confused with the Great Schism of 1054 when the pope and
patriarch of Constantinople mutually excommunicated each other beginning a separation of the eastern and
western churches which has lasted to our day.
The French cardinals defended their actions by saying that they feared for their lives had they not voted for
Urban VI but their election of Clement VII as a rival pope now split the loyalties of Catholic Europe.
England, Denmark and Sweden, the Holy Roman Empire with its allies Hungary, Bohemia and Poland
supported Urban VI while France, most of Spain, and Scotland supported Clement VII. Europe was
stalemated and despite pleas for both popes to step down and allow a new election, both popes considered
themselves legitimate. History has favored Urban VI and his descendents but as the Schism grew worse
only one way out of the dilemma remained: depose both by a special council of the Church.
Legally only a pope could convene a Church Council and the legitimacy of a conciliar deposition of both
popes was debated for thirty years. Those who favored such action argued that the Church was the whole
body of the faithful of which the elected head, the pope, was only one part. Those who opposed conciliar
deposition were party politicians without the interest of the entire church in mind. The Conciliaristis won
out and their cardinals convened the Council of Pisa in 1410, which deposed both popes and elected a new
pope, Alexander V. To the frustration of all, neither pope accepted the council’s decision and so there
were then three popes, all claiming to be legitimate.
The ongoing tragedy was finally solved at the Council of Constance which lasted from 1414 to 1417,
called by the emperor Sigismund. (The same Sigismund who betrayed John Huss.) Sigismund wanted to
end the Great Western Schism and urged John XXIII (successor of Alexander V) to summon a Church
Council. John hesitated because he was afraid he might be deposed. In a famous declaration, Sacrosancta,
the council asserted its conciliar authority, deposed John and his rival popes and elected a new pope,
Martin V, bringing the Schism to an end.
Conciliar ideals and Church unity were further restored at the Council of Basel which lasted from 1431 to
1449. In 1433, the Council agreed to give the Bohemians jurisdiction over their church similar to what the
French and English held. Nevertheless the compromise with the Bohemians did not please the popes
because they realized that such a compromise meant new disagreements would inevitably occur. The
Council collapsed in 1449 and a decade later Pope Pius II issued a papal bull, Execrabilis, which
condemned conciliar ideas as erroneous, abominable and completely null and void. Nevertheless,
Execrabilis would not prevent the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation 65 years later.
The Rise of Russia
Russians are Slavs of which there are many groups: Russians, White Russians, Ukrainians, Poles,
Bulgarians and so on. The rise of the Russian state begins when Viking merchants, using the Russian river
systems, created trading routes between Byzantium and Scandinavia. (It is interesting that the word Russia
comes from the Greek word for red (rus) because so many Slavs and Vikings had red hair) In the seventh
and eighth centuries C. E., the Slavs were still quite backwards, so Scandinavian traders gradually
established trading settlements along the major trade routes, the most important of which was at Kiev. As
time passed, the Scandinavian ruling minority gradually mixed with the Slav majority and slowly a small
state with a monarchy emerged. According legend the first king of Kiev was Rurik, a Danish Viking chief.
The early Slavic states were heavily influenced by Byzantium. In 864, two missionaries, Cyril and
Methodius, were sent into the Balkans where they worked to convert the Slavs. They were not particularly
successful, but they devised a written script – based on letters from their native Greek – for the Slavic
language, called Cyrillic. The Cyrillic Alphabet represented the sounds of the Slavic languages more
accurately than Greek and so it became very popular among the Slavs. In some places, such as among the
Hungarians, Poles, Czechs and Slovaks, the Roman Catholic Church was more successful and the Latin
alphabet was mostly adopted. But for most Eastern Europeans (Bulgarians, Rumanians, Serbians,
Ukrainians, Moldavians and Russians) the combination of the Cyrillic alphabet and Orthodox Church’s
allowing the Liturgy to be celebrated in native tongues (instead of the mandatory Latin in the Roman
Catholic Church) caused most of them to convert to Orthodoxy.
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Around 989, a Varangian (Viking) prince, Vladimir of Kiev, converted to Orthodox Christianity and, like
Clovis in Gaul (400 years earlier), the expectation was for his subjects to do the same – and they did.
Vladimir was no saint. He was the son of Sviatislov I of Kiev and his housekeeper, Malusha, who is
described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100. He became to power in 980 and
was anything but a Christian as he took eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erected
pagan statues and shrines to gods. But as time went by, he became convinced that his crimes, especially
violent executions and human sacrifices, would condemn him the hell. So he converted to Orthodox
Christianity. Legend had it that Vladimir feared Roman Catholicism because it was too demanding both
liturgically (in demanding the use of Latin) and politically (because of papal interference) and he rejected
Islam because he would not convert to a religion that forbade alcohol.
After his conversion, Vladimir and his successors established the Orthodox Church as the official religion
and Byzantine influences flowed rapidly into the Kievan state. As Kiev grew in the tenth and eleventh
centuries, it became a conduit for the spread of Byzantine culture and freely borrowed Byzantine law and
culture, especially in religious thought, art and architecture. Icons helped spread religious piety and the
famous onion domes of Russian churches dominated the landscape. In the Eleventh century it was said that
Kiev had over four hundred churches and eight large market places. In short, by the early twelfth century,
Kiev had become the largest Christian State in Europe with a population near thirty thousand and over six
hundred churches.
Small farmers were generally free peasants, although the Russian landed aristocrats, called Boyars, were
beginning to gain political power over the peasants (code for stealing the peasant’s land). The Boyars
eventually helped to break down Kievan authority in the twelfth century. It was the familiar pattern of
warlord mentality: rival princes setting up regional kingdoms and the royal family squabbling over
succession. Mongol invaders caused a further weakening. Moreover, the decline of Byzantium after the
Fourth Crusade (1204) reduced trade and therefore income. So by 1240, Kiev was easy prey for a Mongol
army.
From 1241 to 1361, the princes of Kiev were forced to pay tribute to the Khanate of the Golden Horde.
In early 1320s, a Lithuanian army defeated a Kievan army and conquered the city. The Mongols, who also
claimed Kiev, retaliated in 1324–1325, so that, although Kiev was ruled by a Lithuanian prince, it had to
pay a tribute to the Golden Horde. For 200 years - from 1362 to1569 - Kiev became joined to the Grand
Duchy of Lithuania. Finally from 1569 to 1667, Kiev and the Ukraine became part of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. Due to Polish-Roman Catholic influence, a large (but still minority) Catholic community
grew. We will return to the Ukraine and its capital Kiev in 1667 when it becomes part of the Tsardom of
Russia.