Download Chapter 9 – Early Modern Europe In this chapter we will examine

Chapter 9 – Early Modern Europe
In this chapter we will examine the events that challenged Europe from 1300 to 1450: 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, to 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. 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 Europe and 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 Great Famine of 1315-1317 which caused millions to starve to death and caused increased 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. (Put
into your notebooks the paintings: Winter Landscape with Birdtrap by Pieter Brueghel 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 (or trade routes from China
to the West) to the Mediterranean Basin. 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. Remember 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 such as the Great
Famine of 1315-17. 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’s vengeance on sinners.
1
The plague left deep psychological scars and a fascination with death. Some people became more religious
becoming more pious and doing religious works or giving $$$ to the church. (Add the Brueghel’s Painting:
Triumph of Death to your notebooks). Flagellants were religious fanatics who marched publically and
whipped themselves as punishment for their sins and to 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 the Statute of
Laborers, which limited wages to pre-plague levels and restricted the peasants from leaving their land. In
France, the nobility increased the Taille, a direct land tax on the peasants. 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 great brutality, but in the end the wealthy were forced to grant higher wages
and other concessions.
The Black Death is important for three reasons. First, it contributed to the demise (end) of serfdom in
Western Europe. Second, what is more fascinating is that, when Europe recovered from the plague, the
economy rebounded with a 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. Finally, the plague directly contributed to rise of
merchant class (i.e., the middle class) who put pressure on the old, uncompetitive Medieval Guilds.
As the plague diminished, cities rebounded. Expensive clothing, personal items, furs and silks came into
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, merchants and the
elite or upper 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 IV, 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, 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 - complicated by family relationships
between the Plantagenet kings of England and the new Valois kings of France.
Although the one hundred and twelve year war (only 44 years saw active fighting) was primarily a dynastic
conflict (Edward III being Philip VI’s vassal as well as his 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 (knights on horseback) in
Western Europe. The first standing army in Western Europe was the French - and peasants now became
draftees. 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.
2
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 (something for something)
for the 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. Nevertheless with
all her battlefield reverses, France contrived 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
any 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 but affirming Edward’s sovereignty over
English held territory in France. In the same treaty, King John II was ransomed and returned; 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 in Southwest France along the Atlantic.
Phase II, the War of Henry V (1413 – 1422): After the death of Edward III, the Wat Tyler 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 [the famous long bows] - 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 when he ordered that French prisoners be put to death, including
some of the most illustrious nobility who could have been 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 to fight the English.
3
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 went to court of Charles VII and declared 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, 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 new Duke of Burgundy made peace with Charles VII 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. The French monarchy was the single
greatest victor. Burgundy remained independent and a major power in European politics. The French
recognized 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, England 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, all of which Columbus’ discovery made possible.
The Church in the Thirteenth Century
We have read that in the late sixth century, Gregory I established the primacy of the Roman Church
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 (or theory) of
Plentitude of Power by which the Church taught that the pope and his bishops had full authority to speak
and act for themselves and for their own interests, without appealing to secular authorities. Innocent created
a centralized Papal Monarchy which added a political dimension to the Church’s religious mission.
Innocent expected to be obeyed and if not, he used Papal Interdict and other censures until he was
obeyed. This created a fundamental change in the character of the Roman Church. No longer was the
Church a “Blessed Company of all Faithful Believers,” but a Papal monarchy that had to be obeyed. It is
important to understand that objection and dissention grew until it exploded into the Protestant
Reformation of the sixteenth century.
Urban IV (r. 1261 – 1264), continued Innocent’s work by establishing the Rota Romana, a law court, which
tightened the church’s legal proceedings and gave the popes total power over clerical appointments.
Clerical taxation increased; no longer was it used to fund the crusades but rather to fund a powerful
international papal bureaucracy. This increased papal authority did much religious damage as it
undermined local bishops and their work for people at a 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. Thus Rome, although very powerful, was beginning to lose
popular support of much of its flock, especially north of the Alps.
4
Even before the Reformation, 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. Materialism and
papal monarchy were also an open invitation to secular rulers to interfere in the church. The goal was to
reduce the Church to just another political faction in politics. So secular rulers and princes began to
interfere (or act as lobbyists would today) with the College of Cardinals which elected the popes. Such
lobbying and corruption led Pope Gregory X (r. 1271-1276) to sequester (shut up by themselves) the College
of Cardinals to minimize outside interference.
Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair
Boniface VIII was elected pope in 1294 and tried to maintain the papal monarchy. He had the bad luck,
however, to become pope when kings and princes were strengthening control over their own territories and
resented the bullying of popes like Gregory VII (Hildebrand) and Innocent III. England and France, for
example, were quickly developing into nation-states. England had developed a political system whereby
Parliament and the king worked mutually to govern the realm and in France the monarchs were
approaching an increasingly efficient, centralized monarchy in spite of its Feudal lords. These events would
be precursors to the downfall of the papal monarchy.
Money was at the root of the conflict. When England and France were building stronger bureaucracies,
they proposed to tax the clergy to pay for improved military technologies (i.e., gunpowder weapons) and
their standing or mercenary armies. Boniface saw this as an assault on his papal prerogatives and in 1296
issued a bull, Clericis Laicos, which forbade lay taxation of the clergy without papal approval. The
reactions were swift. 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 quiet 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.
5
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.
Avignon was in southeastern France on papal land but still under the control of the French king. Clement
was forced to repudiate Unam Sanctam and declare that it should not be construed in any way as a
diminishment of French royal authority. The Avignon Papacy which lasted from 1309 to 1377 has been
called the Babylonian Captivity in memory of the time when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and
the Temple of Solomon and carried most of the Jewish upper classes to Babylon in 586 B.C. It is important
to note that after the physical attack on Boniface and moving of the papacy to Avignon, no pope ever again
seriously threatened kings or emperors. There were still papal excommunications and political intrigue but
the relationship between the papacy and the state had now shifted in favor of the state.
During the Avignon years, the popes were cut off from their Italian estates and income from those estates,
which put tremendous pressure on the finances of the papal bureaucracy. So to raise revenues, Clement V
expanded the scope of papal taxation, especially in collecting the 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 (r. 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 he was frustrated in his primary goal to return the papacy
to Rome and he became involved in wars with the Viscoti (the ruling family of Milan) and later in a power
struggle the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis IV. John XXII preferred a candidate from the House of
Hapsburg (a family about whom we shall learn much) to be emperor and so refused to recognize Louis’
election. The emperor retaliated and declared John deposed and put in his place an anti-pope. Louis also
was supported by the Spiritual Franciscans whose views on poverty went far, far beyond St. Francis of
Assisi and which John XXII had condemned. Two pamphleteers defended them: William of Ockham, an
English Franciscan, and Marsilius of Padua, an Italian scholar. John XXII excommunicated them both.
Then in 1324, Marsilius wrote a famous treatise, Defensor Pacis (Defender of the Peace), in which he
stressed the independent origin and autonomy of secular governments and said that clergy should restrict
their activities to spiritual matters – the salvation of souls – not temporal ones. Marsilius clearly proposed
that the clergy – from pope to simple priest – were subordinate members of society and that monarchs were
responsible for maintaining order, which he called the highest good. Many historians consider Defensor
Pacis one of the most important political treatises (essays) of fourteenth-century Europe.
But John XXII’s longest lived accomplishment was his taking 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 turning it into an efficient, administrative apparatus to govern the Roman Church and deal
with both religious and secular affairs. The Roman Curia became particularly skilled (adept) in dealing with
emerging European capitalism and its growing money economy.
Under his successor, Benedict XII (1334 – 1342), the papacy became thoroughly entrenched at Avignon and Rome seemed like a distant memory. Benedict began to build a great Papal Palace, attempted to reform
papal government and made peace with both Louis IV and the Spiritual Franciscans. Most of all he tried to
curb the corruption of the monastic orders, though without much success. His successor Clement VI (1342 –
1352) took the Avignon Papacy to new lows – remember he was the pope who began selling indulgences.
He was devoted to France and he demonstrated his French sympathies and refused to return to Rome.
Clement was a corrupt hedonist and devoted much of his papacy to lavish living; he once exclaimed, “My
predecessors did not know how to be pope” and that “I lived as a sinner among sinners.”
6
This was a dreadful time for the papacy and its reputation. Cardinals became little more than lobbyists for
whatever cause a prince or secular patron might pay them and the monarchs of England, France and
Germany made the papacy more greedy by restricting papal taxation. The English Parliament outright cut
off all payments to the papacy and in 1438, Charles VII of France issued the Pragmatic Sanction of
Bourges which not only excluded the French church from papal taxation and papal appointments of high
level churchmen but also limited appeals from French courts to the Roman Curia. Bottom line was that as
the monarchies grew in power, they controlled the purse strings of the church.
The Lollards and Hussites
Many people – clerical and lay began to react to the corruption and worldliness of the papacy and many of
the clergy. The most well-known were Lollards in England and the Hussites in Bohemia. The Lollards
were inspired by the ideas of John Wycliffe (1328-1384). Wycliffe was prominent theologian who was
dismissed from Oxford University in 1381 for his criticism of the Church, especially of the doctrine of the
Eucharist. Wycliffe had been a scholar of high renown and he had supported the monarchy 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 one of the first to advocate translating the Bible from Latin into the language of the people
(called the vernacular) so that the people could read it themselves. Scholars think that by 1384 he had
personally translated the Gospels and most of the New Testament, while his associates translated the Old
Testament. Wycliffe argued that the Bible was the authoritative norm of Christianity and that the claims of
the papacy were unhistorical. He charged that monasticism was hopelessly corrupt (that 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 the priestly office and the 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 insisting on 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 rebellion of 1381, Lollardy (as the movement came to be called) came to be viewed as
subversive by both the Church and the Monarchy who both saw dangerous ideas that could mean the end of
their own power. In 1401, it became 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 magnet for Czech nationalism and religious reformation. Huss was one of the early 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 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 priests made the sacraments invalid.
Why England and Bohemia? Part of the reason was because of the marriage of King Richard II of
England and Anne of Bohemia in 1381 resulted in regular travel between the two countries - especially
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.
7
Bohemia went ballistic and, under the leadership of John Ziska, militant Hussites fought a series of wars
between 1420 and 1434 in order to gain their religious and political freedom - and to create in Bohemia
what they felt would be a religious 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 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 Clement VII, who was
a cousin of Charles V, thus beginning a 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 the 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 lamely (pathetically) defended their action 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 - split the loyalties of
Catholic Europe. England, Denmark, Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire with its allies Hungary,
Bohemia and Poland supported Urban VI; while France, most of Spain, and Scotland supported Clement
VII. The Church was stalemated and - despite pleas for both popes to step down and allow a new election both popes considered themselves legitimate and refused. History has favored Urban VI with the stronger
argument but still, as the Schism grew, the religious paralysis only grew worse. And to many the only way
out of the dilemma was to depose both popes by a special council of the Church.
One major problem was that only a pope could call a Church Council and the legitimacy of any other kind
of council deposing a pope was debated for thirty years. Those who favored such action were called
Conciliaristis and 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 ideas were party politicians without any interest in
the good of the Church. 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 advanced 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 compromises meant that 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.
8
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. In the seventh and eighth centuries
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 (Varangian) 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.
Around 989, a Varangian 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 came to power in 980 and was anything but a
Christian as he took eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erected statues and shrines to
pagan gods. But as time went by, he became more and more convinced that his crimes, especially violent
executions and human sacrifices, would condemn him to 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. By the early twelfth century, Kiev had become
the largest Christian State in Europe with a population near thirty thousand.
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: 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 the Kievans and conquered the city. The Mongols demanded
their rights 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 was 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 PolishRoman 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.
9