The Fourteenth Century

 

Preceding this century were many nearly seminal forces, affecting the population, the spiritual state of the Church, the peace of civilization, philosophy, and agriculture. By virtue of this fact, many of the events of this century were largely not circumventable. Most of the major historical moments of this century find themselves as a midpoint in a progression. Theology and Philosophy had been bolstered by the Saintly students of the Universities and the founding of the mendicant orders. The papacy had been in decline. Tribal waring and invasion were yet endemic. It is also worth noting the sheer variety of major moments in the fourteenth century, since nearly all aspects of life at this time were consequences/co-sequences to the stimuli of either newfound stability or change resulting from still volatile trends in the culture.

From the first decade of the century, the Avignon Papacy began.[1] This event greatly contributed opportunity to the Western Schism, which will be later discussed.[2] About six years later, a famine struck Europe. This famine flattened the curve of population growth and prosperity from several centuries prior, killing much of the livestock at the time. This event would prove to be something of a portent for the remainder of the century and also something of a watershed event.  “In some regions of Europe, the Great Famine of 1315-17 killed a tenth of the population, shattering social norms and local economies. Villages were abandoned, religious houses were dispersed, and minor feudal lords pawned their land to whoever could pay.”[3] The next substantial event was the Hundred Years’ War. This war between France and England began in 1337 whence Joan of Arc entered history leading to its end in 1453, after being martyred for France in 1431.[4] In 1347, The Black plague broke out in Sicily and spread as wildfire, bringing a swift end to much of the clergy and an estimated third of Europe’s population by its end in 1352.[5] About 21 years later, the Avignon papacy began to cause serious problems when conclaves of cardinals tried to elect another Pope for Rome and other bishops did not trust him.[6] This resulted in much turmoil even dividing the Dominicans for a time. Here is where the fame of Vincent Ferrer and Catherine of Siena came to be. There would be three Popes until the Emperor convened a council in Constance in 1415.

The tensions from the sum of the aforementioned economic, social, and ecclesial events severely decreased the quality of life many had and faith in the institutions they counted on, resulting in much discontent that would continue to gradually escalate until the 1800s. Peasants revolts began during the time of the Bubonic Plague in England and France in 1381 and 1358, respectively.[7] In 1381, John Wycliffe (1330-1384), the English theologian famous for rejecting transubstantiation was dismissed from Oxford on account of his schismatic criticism of the Church.[8] Wycliffe would be the first to begin to intentionally break with the Church in the name of reformation and is thus looked at as a proto-Protestant “Reformer”/revolutionary. Jan Hus (1372-1415) would be the first major figure to carry on this spirit in Germany after Wycliffe’s death.[9]

In conclusion, the fourteenth century served as a very pivotal moment in the life of the Church, and thereby, the world. Preceded by the founding of mendicant orders and all the works of Aquinas, this time resides in history as an aftermath of significant theological realignment. Equally, as significant, were the major anomalies in the quality of life: famines/agricultural attrition, a displaced papacy, a world-afflicting pandemic killing hundreds of millions, economic collapse, wars, and civil unrest, poorly formed clergy, division in the Church concerning the alleged triple Papacy, and the rise of the Protestant Reformation spirit.

FN:

1.     John Vidmar, The Catholic Church throughout the Ages, 2nd ed. (New York: Paulist Press, 2014), 160.

2.     Vidmar, The Catholic Church throughout the Ages, 2nd ed., 161.

3.     Amy Davidson, “The Next Great Famine.,” New Yorker 91, no. 43 (2016), 17.

4.     Margaret Harvey, “Martin V and Henry V,” Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 24, no. 1 (1986), 67.

5.     Vidmar, The Catholic Church throughout the Ages, 2nd ed., 162.

6.     Vidmar, The Catholic Church throughout the Ages, 2nd ed., 164.

7.     Dominique Battles, “The Middle English Athelston and 1381, Part II: The Road to Rebellion,” Studies in Philology 117, no. 3 (2020), 469.; Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nişancioğlu, "The Middle English Athelston and 1381, Part II: The Road to Rebellion," in How the West Came to Rule: The Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism 117, no. 3 (2020), 81.

8.     Caleb Cangelosi, 'The Mouth of the Morningstar: John Wycliffe’s Preaching and the Protestant Reformation,' _Puritan Reformed Journal_ 6, no. 2 (2014), 187, 189.

9.     Vidmar, The Catholic Church throughout the Ages, 2nd ed., 167.