Prof. Martha Carlin

                                                                         Week 12: Tuesday
 

           PAPAL POLITICS OF THE FOURTEENTH AND EARLY FIFTEENTH CENTURIES: THE
           BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY, THE GREAT SCHISM, AND THE CONCILIAR MOVEMENT
 

1300    Medieval population at its peak

           Pope Boniface VIII proclaims first Papal Jubilee; offers remission of sins through indulgences remitting
                time in Purgatory (by pope's drawing on the Treasury of Merit) for penitent pilgrims visiting Rome

14th century crises include:
    Great Famine (1315-22) and Black Death (1347-49).  (Click here for a photograph of  some Black Death burials in London.)
    outbreak of 100 Years' War between France and England (1337-1453)
    "Babylonian Captivity" of papacy in Avignon (click for murals in the papal suite), 1309-76; ended by Gregory XI's return to Rome
        at the urging of the lay ascetic and mystic St. Catherine of Siena (1347-80).  (Click here for a photo
        of St. Catherine's  mummified head in the church of St. Dominic in Siena.)
    beginning of Papal Schism (1378-1415) with uncanonical election of Urban VI
    peasant revolts and urban riots
    rise of Lollardy (Council of Constance, 1414-18, condemned and burned John Wycliffe's follower, Jan Hus)

15th-century crises include:
    Conciliar movement (launched by Council of Pisa, 1409, called to heal Papal Schism; ended with
        Council of Basel, 1431-49, after which popes dispensed with councils)
 

Online readings:

  Boniface VIII: Clericis laicos, 1296

  Boniface VIII: Unam sanctam, 1302

  Petrarch’s invectives against Avignon

  Marsilio (Marsilius) of Padua, Defensor pacis (1324): Conclusions

  St. Catherine of Siena beseeches Gregory IX to return to Rome

  The origins of the Great Schism: Manifesto of the revolting cardinals, 1378  (click here for a map showing the Schism's religious divisions)

  Jean Petit, "The Complaint of Lady Church," 1393: Satire on the multiple popes of  the Great Schism

  Powers of the Council of Pisa, 1409 (click here for a map)

  Jan Hus: Reply to the synod of Prague, 1413; and last words at the stake at the Council of Constance
    (convened by Sigismund, King of Germany and of the Romans, who had given Hus a safe-conduct), 1415