CHAPTER 9 THE LATE MIDDLE AGES:

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL BREAKDOWN (13001453)

CHAPTER SUMMARY

This chapter discusses the political, social, and economic dislocation of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. Topics include the political breakdown of the Hundred Years War, the social and
economic consequences of the Black Death, and the ecclesiastical disunity of the Babylonian Captivity,
Great Schism, and Conciliar Movement.
The bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, hit a Europe in 1347 that had been weakened by
decades of overpopulation, economic depression, famine, and bad health. Raging from 13471350, it
killed as much as two-fifths of the population of western Europe. The cause of the plague was attributed to
everything from toxic gases to Jews. As a result of the plague, agricultural prices fell while the cost of
manufactured goods rose. Noble landowners suffered as per capita income in the cities increased. Trade
guilds became powerful and monarchs were able to continue the process of governmental centralization.
The underlying causes of the Hundred Years War included English possession of French lands
along the coast, French support of the Bruces of Scotland (who were fighting to end English overlordship
of Scotland), a quarrel over Flanders, and the strong hereditary claim of King Edward III of England to the
French throne. The war lasted from 13371453, with 68 years of at least nominal peace and 44 of active
fighting. France had a much larger population and was wealthier than England, but received poor
leadership from its kings and, unlike England, the country was internally divided. After early English
victories, French national sentiment was spurred to unprecedented heights by Joan of Arc, and a unified
France progressively forced the English back. By 1453, the English held only their coastal enclave in
Calais.
In the thirteenth century, the church was being undermined by internal religious disunity and by
the denial of imperial power, for the papacy was now on the defensive against its old anti-imperial allies.
Pope Boniface VIII (12941303) tried to maintain the papal monarchy of the early thirteenth century, but a
French army sent by King Philip IV surprised the pope; Boniface was beaten up and almost killed. There
was no lasting papal retaliation. Pope Clement V (13051314) moved his permanent residence to Avignon
(called the Babylonian Captivity) and the papacy remained subservient to the French king from 1309 to
1377. From 1378 to 1417, there occurred the Great Schism in the church that saw rival popes and division
of support among secular leaders. With the papacy in such chaos, there followed an attempt at conciliar
government of the church. Opposition to the papacy was expressed in England by John Wycliffe and in
Bohemia by John Huss. They became spokesmen for the rights of royal authority over the popes. Huss was
burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415 and a fierce revolution in Bohemia resulted. Marsilius of Padua
also asserted temporal supremacy of emperor over the pope. But by mid-century, the papacy had recovered
adequately to assume a controlling role in church councils.
Early in the ninth century, Russia was converted to Christianity by Byzantine missionaries. The
cultural center of this developing civilization was Kiev, which held this position (and defended it against
the Mongols) until the mid-fourteenth century when Moscow under Ivan I rose as an important power. In
1380, the Mongols were finally defeated in battle and driven out of Russia within the next century.


OUTLINE

I. The Black Death
A. Preconditions and Causes of the Plague
B. Popular Remedies
C. Social and Economic Consequences
E. New Conflicts and Opportunities

II. The Hundred Years War and the Rise of National Sentiment
A. The Causes of the War
B. Progress of the War

III. Ecclesiastical Breakdown and Revival: The Late Medieval Church
A. The Thirteenth-Century Papacy
B. Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair
C. The Avignon Papacy (13091377)
D. John Wycliffe and John Huss
E. The Great Schism (13781417) and the Conciliar Movement to 1449

IV. Medieval Russia
A. Politics and Society
B. Mongol Rule (12431480)

V. In Perspective


KEY TOPICS

The effects of the bubonic plague on population and society

The Hundred Years War between England and France

The growing power of secular rulers over the papacy

Schism, heresy, and reform of the church


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What were the underlying and precipitating causes of the Hundred Years War? What advantages did
each side have? Why were the French finally able to drive the English almost entirely out of France?

2. What were the causes of the Black Death, and why did it spread so quickly throughout Western Europe?
Where was it most virulent? How did it affect European society? How important do you think disease is in
changing the course of history?

3. Why did Pope Boniface VIII quarrel with King Philip the Fair? Why was Boniface so impotent in the
conflict? How had political conditions changed since the reign of Pope Innocent III in the late twelfth
century, and what did that mean for the papacy?

4. How did the church change from 1200 to 1450? What was its response to the growing power of
monarchs? How great an influence did the church have on secular events?

5. What was the Avignon papacy, and why did it occur? How did it affect the papacy? What relationship
did it have to the Great Schism? How did the church become divided and how was it reunited? Why was
the conciliar movement a setback for the papacy?

6. Why were kings in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries able to control the church more than
the church could control the kings? How did kings attack the church during this period?


LECTURE TOPICS

1. The Black Death: One of the great determinants of change in history is disease. The social and
economic results of the plague were wide-ranging and included fluctuation of agricultural prices
and city income, and a decline in trade and the quality of goods produced. Politically, it is
important to note that the powers of the two great containers of monarchy in the Middle Ages, the
church and the nobility, suffered greatly in numbers and prestige from the effects of the plague.
Monarchs were able to progress toward the centralization of their governments and economies.
2. Relations Between Church and State: The late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were a period of
chaos for the church. The victim of attacks by local political factions, the papacy lost respect
because of its transfer to Avignon, the Schism that followed, the impact of the conciliar
movement, the corruption of Alexander VI and others, and the French involvement in Italy. In the
long run, the sword of the secular arm proved more than a match for the medieval church.

AP European History Chapter 9: The Late Middle-Ages

Identifications/Terms

1. "little ice age"
2. Black Death
3. bubonic plague
4. Yersinia pestis
5. pneumonic plague
6. Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron
7. Flagellants
8. Pogroms
9. Statute of Laborers
10. the Jacquerie
11. Wat Tyler and John Ball
12. Florence's ciompi
13. the longbow
14. the Battle of Crecy
15. Henry V
16. the Battle of Agincourt
17. Joan of Arc
18. Orleans
19. Charles the dauphin/VII
20. Gunpowder
21. the gabelle and the taille
22. dukes of Burgundy and Orleans
23. Golden Bull of Charles IV
24. Italian communes
25. the Visconti and the d'Este
26. condottieri
27. grandi and popolo grasso and popolo minute
28. Council of Ten and the doge
29. Pope Boniface VIII's Unam Sanctam
30. Avignon
31. Catherine of Siena
32. Great Schism
33. the Antichrist
34. Conciliarism
35. Marsiglio of Padua
36. Council of Constance
37. Purgatory
38. good deeds and pilgrimages
39. Meister Eckhart
40. Modern Devotion
41. Brothers of the Common Life
42. William of Occam and nominalism
43. the vernacular
44. Dante's Divine Comedy
45. Petrarch's sonnets
46. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
47. Christine de Pizan
48. Giotto
49. Francisco Traini's The Triumph of Death
50. John Wycliffe