Chapter 12-3
Crisis in the Church
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Issues:
Prayer did not deliver us from the plague
Many priests fled during the plague
Corruption in the Church:
Simony
 Pluralism
 Selling of indulgences
 Lack of chastity for priests, illiteracy, drunkenness,
etc.
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Early efforts to Reform Failed
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Cistercians, Franciscans, Dominicans…
Power and wealth of Church resented by all
Led to the Babylonian Captivity
Referred to the time when the Hebrews were
held for 70 years in Mesopotamian Babylonia
1309-1376 Seven successive popes ruled from
Avignon, France
Babylonian Captivity
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Philip the Fair (France) tried to tax Church
officials in France
Pope Boniface issued a Papal Bull against it
1303 Philip had Boniface captured but Boniface
was rescued
1309 next Pope, Clement V was pressured to
settle in SE France…was too ill to resist
The next 6 as well
The Babylonian Captivity
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Popes lived in the lap of luxury BUT were
prisoners
Concerned themselves with Church finances not
the flock
Philip had effectively gained control over the
Church
Italian economy destroyed…lack of trade,
visitors, authority
How it ended
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1377 Pope Gregory went back to Rome but died
soon after
Italian mobs cut off roads and ports to
foreigners
Demanded that cardinals choose a Roman Pope
They did: Pope Urban VI
He was reform-minded BUT tactless, arrogant,
etc.
To the Great Schism
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Urban alienated his Cardinals
Many slipped out of Rome went to Anagni
Declared Urban’s election invalid
Elected new Pope: Clement VII (cousin of
French king Charles V of France)
Clement was known as the Antipope and ruled
from Avignon
Now 2 Popes =Schism lasted to 1417
Effects of the Schism
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Common people confused and lost trust
European powers sided with Popes based on
politics
Spoloto (Spanish law professor): The longer the
Schism lasts, the worse for the Church.
The Conciliar Movement: claimed the rift could
be mended
The Conciliar Movement
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Pope to remain as head of the Church BUT
To derive power from the whole Christian
community
Wanted assemblies, frequent meetings
Wanted Constitutional form of the Church
Neither Pope willing to share power with an
assembly or limit power with a Constitution
Challenges to the Church
BEFORE the Schism
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1324 Marsiglio of Padua wrote Defensor Pacis:
Challenged Church authority
 Church should not own property
 Church was subordinate to the State
 Scripture did NOT give the Pope or the Church
secular authority
 Padua was later excommunicated
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Other Challenges
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John Wyclif (1330-1384) English Scholar
Said Scriptures, not Pope, should be the
standard of belief
Scriptures did not mention temporal power for
Pope
Said people should read and interpret the Bible
for themselves
Denounced veneration of Saints, pilgrimages,
absenteeism, pluralism, other corruption
John Wyclif
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Said: Every Christian free of mortal sin
possessed lordship
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Was the cause of the Peasant Revolt (1381)
Was huge
Also led by John Ball
One cause of the end of serfdom in England by
1550
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Wyclif
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Many believed Wyclif to be precursor to
Reformation
Was condemned by Church authorities
But had a big following: the Lollards
Means mumblers of prayers and psalms
Belief that women should be able to preach and
consecrate the Eucharist…so many women
Lollards
The
Schism continued
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Two Popes, two colleges of Cardinals
1409 All met at Pisa to end the Schism
Elected a third Pope
BUT others would not step down
Now…3 POPES!
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HRE Sigismund to solve the problem with…
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1414 The Council of Constance
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3 Goals:
Solve the Schism (it did)
 Reform the Church (it did not)
 Wipe out Heresy (it did not)
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Included 3 Popes, HRE, 29 Cardinals, 33
Archbishops, 100 Abbots, 4,000 priests, 300 Doctors
of Theology and 1500 prostitutes
Jan Hus
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Had been invited to the Council of Constance
by HRE Sigismund
Had been promised safe passage
BUT was arrested and burned to death
Big repercussions in Bohemia
Who was he?
Jan Hus (1369-1415)
continued
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A Bohemian priest educated at Charles
University in Prague
Preached in the vernacular (Czech)
Alienated Germans there
Argued for academic freedom of exchange of
ideas
Preached against selling of indulgences,
superstition, etc.
Jan Hus continued
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Was humble and lived austerely
Was introduced to Wyclif ’s ideas but not a
follower
Became President o Charles University
Prague had largest % of pop in an urban center
Said Church was over-endowed
People agreed
Went into exile and wrote On the Church
On the Church
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Challenged Papal authority
Deplored Church abuses
Defended Ultraquism (the practice of the
reception of the Eucharist in BOTH species:
bread and wine)
Defended Transubstantiation: Bread and wine
BECOME the body and blood of Christ when
blessed...not just a symbol
On the Church continued
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Said Church derived its authority from Scripture,
conscience, tradition
Later reformers (like Luther) said authority was
derived only from Scripture
Hus only wanted reform
He did not want to leave the Church or form a
movement within the Church
The end of Hus
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Was invited as a reformer to Council of
Constance and guaranteed safe passage
Was arrested and found guilty of heresy
His books were banned, was stripped of his
priesthood and burned at the stake
Huge protests in Bohemia
Letter was sent representing all classes rejecting
the Council’s ruling= first time ecclesiastical
decision was publically defied
The end of Hus I promise
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Czech people, clerics, nobles insisted on clerical
poverty and communion under both species
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1990 Czech Parliament declared day of Hus’
execution a national holiday (7-6-1415)
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At Constance new pope = Martin V
Others stepped down
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