Church History
Chapter 9 The Late Middle Ages: Public Turmoil, Personal Piety
Part One: Introduction (pages 175-76)
A. Review Questions
1. Describe the horrors of the plague as seen through the eyes of Goldmund, a vagabond artist.
The whole vast land lay under a cloud of death, under a veil of horror, fear, and darkening of the soul…the
farm dogs starved on their chains and rotting…scattered unburied corpses...begging children…death pits at
the city gates were not the worst. The worst were the survivors, who seemed to have lost their eyes and souls
under the weight of horror and the fear of death. Parents had abandoned their children, husbands their
wives, when they had fallen ill. The ghouls…pillaged empty houses, left corpses unburied or…etc. etc.
2. What were the effects of the Black Death on Europe? One-third of Europe’s population died in the plague,
and the specter of death became a subject of art, music, and lore, influences people’s whole
consciousness and permeating their sense of religion.
C. Key Concepts, Events, Dates, People and Places
a) The Black Death a horrible plague that affected all of Europe
b) The Hundred Years’ War lasted from 1338 to 1453
B. Vocabulary: none
Part Two: The Popes in Political Turmoil (pages 176-82)
A. Review Questions
3. Why was the church in precarious shape during the 1300s? The Xtns of Europe suffered from a decline in
the power and prestige of the popes … the papacy was weakening in influence. With two Catholic
nations, England and France, at war with each other over territory, national identity was exerting more
of a hold on people than was their Catholic identity and affiliation with the pope. Nations and kings
were growing stronger in their ability to command loyalty.
4. What is the general message of The Imitation of Christ? The book emphasizes unexpected death, reflecting
people’s consciousness of death during the late Middle Ages … Life is extremely precarious, and death
comes unexpectedly. To avoid the fires of hell or the pains of purgatory, we should be ready for death at
every moment. Therefore, if we imitate Jesus Christ’s life, all will be well.
5. How did the papacy come to be controlled by the French king? How did the papacy end up in France? In
1303, the king of France felt so secure in his power that he sent troops to Italy and put the pope under
arrest. This violent action came about because the pope had asserted papal supremacy over the king’s
decisions to tax the French clergy and to put a French bishop on trial in a French civil court. Two years
later, a Frenchmen was elected pope … which by that time included some French cardinals. Pope
Clement V was completely under the sway of the king of France and the nationalized French church. In
1309, the pope moved t he papal headquarters to the south of France, to the town of Avignon.
6. What was the typical relationship between the Avignon popes and the French kings? By and large, the
Avignon popes were cooperative servants of the French kings.
7. What was wrong with having the papacy in Avignon? Besides being concerned about the lavish, corrupt
lifestyle of the Avignon popes, Christians in Europe, especially outside of France, had other reasons to
believe that the pope should be in Rome. For one, in the early church Peter had been bishop of Rome,
and it was fitting that his successor should live there too. Also, during the Hundred Years’ War … it
seemed politically unwise and morally unjust to have the pope allied with the French cause.
8. What message did Catherine of Siena bring to Pope Gregory XI? In prayer, Catherine had perceived that
God wanted the pope back in Rome, so she brought this message to Pope Gregory. The people of
Europe, still recovering from the devastation of the Black Death, needed to be reassured by a pope in
Rome. Also, only in Rome could the pope bring peace between France and England and among the
warring Italian city-states.
9. What was remarkable about the life of Catherine of Siena? She intervened with the pope to return the
papacy to Rome; in her teen years she lived a contemplative life alone, at the age of twenty-one she
became active serving Siena’s poor and sick, especially victims of the plague; while still in her twenties
she was asked to mediate disputes between city-states and between the city-state of Florence and the
pope; in an era when few women were allowed real rights, nobles and generals looked to Catherine for
advice; she authored a book on her mystical experiences and a book of prayers.
10. What was the Great Papal Schism? A period of about thirty years during which rival popes existed and
loyalties to the popes divided Europe.
11. What was the Spanish Inquisition? It was a holdover from the Papal Inquisition of almost two centuries
earlier began under the control of the monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. The methods of the Spanish
Inquisition were notoriously cruel, and the chief targets of this inquisition were the Jews and Muslims
who had converted to Christianity but were nonetheless suspected of heresy. (The pope protested the
cruelty…to no avail.)
12. Who was Julian of Norwich? What was the message of her revelations from God? She lived as an anchoress,
her reputation for wise counsel and goodness spread. At age thirty, she experienced sixteen powerful
revelations from God. She recorded these experiences in a book called Showings. The message describes
how Jesus wants us to love him sweetly and trust in him meekly and greatly.
B. Vocabulary:
c) schism a split
d) conciliarism an effort to recognize general church councils as having more authority over the church
than the pope had
e) anchoress a woman hermit dwelling in a room attached to a church
C. Key Concepts, Events, Dates, People and Places
f) Thomas a Kempis wrote a book that, after the Bible, has probably been the most widely read and quoted
work of the first thousand years of Christianity
g) Pope Clement V was completely under the sway of the king of France and the nationalized French
church
h) Catherine of Siena a thirty-year-old member of a Dominican lay order
i) Pope Gregory XI the seventh Avignon pope who had been thinking about Rome for five years or more
j) Urban VI the pope who succeeded Gregory in 1378, an Italian who was a compromise candidate after
rioting Roman pressure
k) Pope Martin V Roman who was elected at a general church council which settled the matter
Part Three: The Renaissance Begins (pages 183-4)
A. Review Questions
13. List three positive Renaissance developments that were started or encouraged by the popes? Great works of
art, the Vatican library, and the rebuilding of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome were all started or
encouraged by popes.
14. What was the significance of Gutenberg’s printing press for cultural and religious development? Literature of
the past, as well as new writings, could be multiplied quickly and easily. The Renaissance interest in
literature combined with the new availability of books to encourage literacy. By translating the Bible
into different languages and making it more available to the average person, the printing press
promoted study of the Bible and thus catalyzed calls for church reform. Finally, the printing press
enabled the wide dispersion of new information about mathematics, practical scientific inventions, and
the spread of disease.
15. What behaviors of Renaissance popes made Christians ashamed of them? The popes’ indulgences in
excessive pleasure seeking, their gaining the papacy through bribery and vote buying, their appointment
of loyal followers --- often their own relatives --- to important positions in the church, and their open
violation of the rule of celibacy.
B. Vocabulary:
l) humanism the emphasis on the importance of this world, and making human life more fulfilling by way
of the classical arts and literature and through scientific innovations.
C. Key Concepts, Events, Dates, People and Places
m) Michelangelo great artist sponsored by the popes
n) Botticelli great artist also sponsored by the popes
o) Johannes Gutenberg a German printer who casts letters of the alphabet in lead, making it possible to
arrange them into words which led to the printing press
 antipope – someone claiming to be pope in opposition to the one chosen by Church law
p) Alexander VI the most notorious of the Renaissance popes, had six children; he didn’t hesitate to
publicly give his children high positions in the church
Part Four: Meanwhile, Back in the Pews… (185-88)
A. Review Questions
16. What was life like in the countryside? In the towns? Life in the countryside had changed little for the serfs
who remained on the feudal estates. Primarily they hoped for fair treatment and enough to eat. At noon
and 6:00 p.m., when the church bells rang out, they said special prayers in the fields. They walked to
Mass every Sunday, and like everyone else, they enjoyed the celebrations of religious feasts. The towns
grew larger, with a new banking class able to make loans to people in business. In each town a rich
family or two had most of the money, but a whole merchant class was developing.
17. What aspects of how the Mass was celebrated in the Late Middle Ages reduced the laity’s participation? An
exaggerated reverence for the Eucharist, especially the consecrated host; the separation of the laity and
the priest, who celebrated Mass behind a screen with his back to the people; the fact that consuming the
host was more and more reserved for the clergy; the laity not being allowed to drink from the cup; the
increasing practice of priests saying several daily Masses for private intentions, with no congregation
present at all; the use of the Latin language; and the many elaborate gestures, adornments, and prayers
that had been added to celebrations of the Mass.
18. What are some of the positive qualities of the parish priest (parson) according to Chaucer? …a poor parish
Priest, but rich in holy thoughts and works. He was also a learned man, a cleric, who wished t o preach
Christ’s gospel truly and to teach his parishioners devoutly … he would give, without a doubt, a portion
of … his salary to his poor parishioners … his parish was wide … but he never failed … gave this noble
example: first he practiced good deeds, and afterward he preached them … his business was to draw
folk to heaven by fairness and by setting a good example … etc.
19. Why, and how, did medieval Christians honor the saints? How did some abuse this practice?
Believing that Jesus and God were distant, many Christians turned to the saints to intercede for them in
heaven, to plead their cause. But devotion to the saints can become distorted if the saints become more
significant to people than God is.
20. What are indulgences? How were indulgences abused in the medieval times? Indulgences are privileges that
offer release from the punishment for sins that would have to be suffered in purgatory. Indulgences
became abused when true penance gave way to buying and selling of indulgences --- as though God
could be bribed into forgiving punishment for sins, or as though people could buy their way into heaven.
Church officials did little to discourage this thinking, and some even endorsed the selling of indulgences
to support commissioned artworks. Pious threats and arguments were used to sell indulgences, and
sellers often raised prices so that hey could take a cut of the profits.
B. Vocabulary:
q) merchant class a forerunner of the modern middle class
r) real presence & transubstantiation Christ is really present in the consecrated elements of bread and wine.
The doctrine of transubstantiation, defined at a church council in 1215, holds that the bread and wine
are changed in substance, though not in appearance, into Christ’s body and blood at the consecration of
the Mass
s) relics such things as small pieces of bone from a saint’s body or bits of clothing a saint wore
t) purgatory the afterlife condition of being purified of all traces of sin before one could enter heaven
C. Key Concepts, Events, Dates, People and Places
u) Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales a collection of stories told by fictitious pilgrims on their way to
the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket, the martyred archbishop of Canterbury, England
Part Five: A Fracturing Church: Divisions Deepen (pages 189-93)
A. Review Questions
21. Name the three reformers of the Late Middle Ages whose views were not accepted by the church, and identify
their dissenting view held by each reformer. John Wycliff preached that the Bible was the sole source of
belief, which excluded church Tradition as a source. Alternative dissenting view: Wycliff denied the
doctrine of transubstantiation. John Hus taught that people should receive Communion under both
forms, bread and wine. Savonarola declared that the pope was not a Christian and did not believe in the
existence of God.
22. Explain how the formation of the Orthodox Church was related to the invasion of the Turks in Constantinople.
In Istanbul, the Turkish sultan appointed a new patriarch to govern the Greek church and allowed a
certain amount of religious freedom to Christians.
23. Why did the exploration of new lands appeal to the Europeans? In general, the lure of adventure, the desire
for new sources of profitable trade, and the prospect of conquering or claiming new territory for their
country appealed to Europeans. For the church, exploration meant new fields for conversion.
24. - 25. Explain five implications of this period in the church’s history. (Note: double points!) (a) Despite
corruption at many levels of church and state, common folk of the Late Middle Ages attended Mass,
found comfort in the Eucharist, hoped in the Resurrection, loved, and desired to reform of God’s
church. (b) The church is very complex, and this complexity is part of its resilience. If one part of the
church strays from doing Gods will and work, another part of t he People of God will take up the slack.
(c) A great gift of the Renaissance age was the affirmation of human genius and the human spirit. The
humanism of the age emphasized the value of humanity --- body and soul. (d) Serious study of the Bible
increased when Renaissance scholars began going back to the original languages of the Bible. (e) The
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries remind us that the church is in constant need of conversion and
reform.
B. Vocabulary:
 none
C. Key Concepts, Events, Dates, People and Places
v) Istanbul the “second Rome” and capital (Constantinople) was renamed by the Turks
w) “the third Rome” Ivan the Great considered Moscow to be this
x) Roman Catholic church vs. the Orthodox church Roman Catholic in the West and the Orthodox church in
Russia, Bulgaria, Greece and Asia Minor