The Death of Thomas in 1274 was the peak of the medieval period.

           

            The cities were growing

            New Lands under cultivation

            Temperatures were warm.

 

A Century Later

           

            Poor Harvest hit almost all of Europe, beginning in 1315-17

            Grain Prices rose

                        In England, the increase was from 5 to 26 shillings

                        In Antwerp, the prices doubled.

            Starvation became common

            The wandering beggars

            Tensions between the rich and the poor in many urban areas

            Peasant revolts in many areas of Europe.

 

The Great Tragic Event

The Black Death came in three forms, the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic.

 

All forms were caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis.

 

The most deadly was the septicemic form which caused the blood to coagulate and the person to turn a deep purple.  It usually killed in a day.

 

Good map of the spread of the first wave of the plague http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/Path.html

 

Kill rate was more than one in every four.

 

Made all theologies based on the regularity and goodness of nature suspect.

The new emphasis on death and judgment. Theology turns towards a nominalism.

 

The church lost much respect due to the fact that many priests fled the cities and allowed people to die in their sins.  Clergy who remained had tremendous power and influence.   This would be true of each wave of the plague

 

The Papacy in ascent and decline:

 

Such twelfth century Popes as Innocent III (d. 1216) brought the papacy to new prominence                                                                                                  

            Innocent, a trained canon lawyer, believed that he was the Vicar of Christ

                        Consequently, the Pope was the Sun and the secular powers were  

                        only the moon

                        Battled various secular rulers

                                    King Peter of Aragon had to divorce a wife who was too

                                    close a relation

           

forced Philip Augustus to yield on his divorce from Ingeborg of Denmark.  Later Philip reversed the decision

 

excommunicated King John of England and forced him to

receive England as a fief of the Pope.  The Pope actually imposed a tax on England/

 

Claimed the right to approve or disapprove the German Emperor and waged war against Germany with the aid of France

           

            Philip the Fair (d. 1314)

 

                        Greatly expanded the French bureaucracy

 

                        Needing money, he turned against:

           

                                    The Jews

 

                                    The Knights Templars

 

                                    The Great War Between England, Scotland, and France increased

                                                His needs and the needs of England and Scotland

           

                                    All parties taxed the church.  England and France both prohibited

                                                Sending money to Rome

 

                                    Philip waged war on the Pope and captured him.  He secured the

                                                Election of a French Pope.

 

                                    In 1309, the Papacy was moved to Avignon where it stayed for

                                                Almost seventy years.  Hence, the term, the Babylonian

                                                Captivity of the Popes

 

                                    The Seven Popes who ruled there grew fat and happy.  Papacy

                                                Became extremely wealthy and the bureaucracy grew

 

                                     Clement VI (d. 1352)

                                                My predecessors did not know how to be Pope

                                                Increased papal taxation

 

Used the annates system to increase revenues.  The Pope received the first year’s income of a benefice and

           

                                    Used the reservations system (Pope to receive income from

                                    Vacant bishops)

 

                                    Taxed expectancies whenever a person was promised an

                                    Office.

           

Provoked England to pass the  Statue of Provisors, prohibiting papal appointments to any office, and

The Statue of Praemuniere which prohibited appeals to     Rome. These were the legal basis of Henry VIII’s later

Attacks on Rome.

 

                                    At the same time, the German emperor declared that he did

                                    Not the approval of the Pope to take office.

 

Not surprisingly, the Papal Residence in Avignon sparked serious thought about

            The nature of the church

 

            There was an extreme papal party that continued to press the claims of

                        Innocent III to universal rule.

           

            The moderates, lead by John of Paris (d.1312) argued that church and state

                        Were coordinate institutions, both of which were needed for

                        Human life.

 

                        Dante Alighieri (d. 1321)

                                    One of the worlds’ greatest poets:  The Divine Comedy

                                    Strong supporter of the theory of two coordinate powers

 

            The Conciliarists or more democratic party

                        Marsilius of Padua d. 1342

                                    Defensor Pacis, 1324

                                                All power ultimately resides in the people and the

                                                And the members of the church (universitas civium,

                                                And universitas fidelum)

                                               

                                                The people can not lose their sovereign power,

Although they may delegate it.  They and they only approve rulers in state and church

                       

                                                            The clergy should have no secular power. Their

                                                                        Only job is to preach the Gospel

 

                                                            There are no bishops or Lords spiritual in the New

                                                                        Testament

 

                                                            The state has the right and obligation to regulate

                                                                        The church

 

                                    Catherine of Siena (d. 1380)

                                                Remarkable woman who entered the Third Order of the

                                                            Dominicans at age 16

                                                Noted for her care for the sick and the poor

                                                On giving her coat to a beggar, she said, I would rather be

                                                            Without a coat than without charity”

                                                Became the great negotiator in Italy

                                                Author of more than 383 letters on reconciliation

                                                Also deeply into the symbols around the blood of Jesus

                                                Persuaded Gregory XIV to return to Rome.  His successor,

                                                            Urban VI, marked the beginning of the Great

                                                            Schism.

 

            The Great Schism:

                        The death of Gregory XIV began a new power struggle over the

                                    Location and work of the papacy

                        The Pope at Avignon was supported by France, Scotland, the Spanish

                                    Governments, naples and Sicily

                        The Pope at Rome was supported by England, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary

                       

 

The Nominalists

 

We will use the term to refer to that theology that build on the work of Duns Scotus and Occam.

 

            John Duns Scotus 1265/66-1308

                        Franciscan

                        System very subtle blending of all positions at the athe

                        The love of God is better than the knowledge of God.  Emphasized

                                    Will and emotion,

                        God is the absolutely free.

                                    Whatever God does is good, because God did it. (cf. Thomas God            

                                                Does something because God is good.

                                   

                                    God gives grace in the sacraments only because God has promised

                                                To do so.

 

                                    God freely accepts people and their actions.  There is nothing in

                                                People that God is obliged to accept.  WE ARE SAVED:

                                                WE ARE NOT MADE GOOD.

 

The saved are known to God from all eternity because God has willed to save them.

                                               

                                    Interesting, Scotus found a way to maintain that human beings

                                                Were able to love God above all things

 

                                    The order of salvation is fixed, not necessat

 

                                    Firm believer that Mary was free of original sin.

 

            William of Occam

                        Greatest advocate of the via moderna

                        Died in 1350 from the Black Death

Supported the distinction between the absolute and the ordained

            Power of God

            God could have made salvation dependent on the hatred, rather

                        Than the love of God

            The church was what God had ordained to lead us to Christ

            God was not bound to righ reason

Like Scotus, he believed that people could perform acts that pleased

            God

Radical epistemology

            Plurality is not to be predicted without necessity

            Whatever can be done with few assumptions is to done in

                        Vain with more

            All knowledge is ultimately intuitive

            Universals are a creation of the mind

            We learn by encountering the world outside of ourselves

His Successors included

            Pierre d’Ally

            Jean de Gerson

            Gabriel Biel

 

Mystics,

One response to the various crises of the 14th century was a growth of mystical movements.

           

            Mysticism is often associated with the idea of conscious union with God or even

                        With the loss of self in God

 

            Definition may be too neat.

 

Many heretics were accused and convicted of heresy.  The saintly Marguerite Porete, whose Mirror of Simple Souls was a favorite of young priest (in a version attributed to Anon.) was burned.

 

The Beguines and Beghards

            Most remarkable phenomenon of the period

            The beguines were women who lived together without vows, prayed t        together, and conducted missions to the poor.

            Often had a strong mysticism based on the Bride of Christ

            Mechthild of Magdeburg / Mechtild (c.1210?-c.1282)

 

I cannot dance, Lord, unless you lead me.
If you want me to leap with abandon,
You must intone the song.
Then I shall leap into love,
From love into knowledge,
From knowledge into enjoyment,
And from enjoyment beyond all human sensations.
There I want to remain, yet want also to circle higher still.

She spend her last years in a Dominican nunnery.  Earlier was a superior in a Beguine community.

 

            Meister Eckhard (d. 1327)

           

                        Dominican

 

                        1329 Condemned by John XXIII

 

                        Believed that there was a spark of God in all people

           

            We must withdraw into self to find God, cut off from all worldly

                        Commitments

           

            The church and the ministry are useful, not necessay

 

Other Great Mystics

           

            Tauler

           

            Henry Suso

 

            The Friends of God

 

            Jan of Ruysbroeck

 

            Richard Rolle

            Margery Kemp

                        The book of Margery Kemp

                        Wanderer

 

            Popular Mysticism: The Modern Devotion

                        Centered in the Netherlands

                        The work of Gerhard Groote

                        Thomas a Kempis

                                    The Imitation of Christ

 

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