The Renaissance which means "rebirth" marked the end of medieval times and the beginning of modern times. It was the "golden age" of individualism, culture, art, beauty, and thought.
Around the end of the thirteenth century and beginning of the fourteenth, the church began to face a political crisis. Pope Boniface VIII declared 1300 to be a Jubilee Year and any who visited Rome at this time would receive a full indulgence, a remission of time spent in Purgatory by absolved and repentant sinners. Thousands of pilgrims went to Rome and made monetary donations that gave the church a sudden influx of wealth. Because of this, he issued his Unam Sanctam Bull in 1302 declaring papal supremacy. Philip IV of France was not excited by this declaration and sent a troop of ruffians to apprehend the Pope and bring him back to France to sit before a council. But during the raid he died and Italy fell into chaos.
Henry VII of Germany invaded Italy in 1310-13 and conquered the land for the Holy Roman Empire. Revolutions broke out and Pope Clement V left Rome and went to Avignon near southern France where the papacy would establish their residence. Clement and the next six popes remained there until 1378. This event is called the Babylonian Captivity. During this time the popes lost much of their influence over European leaders but greatly increased their own power inside the Church. Upon leaving Rome they lost much of the wealth they amassed and so had to find new ways of raising revenue. Clement V, in response to this, imposed new taxes on the clergy and papal officials sold reservations to offices not yet vacant.
The year 1378 not only marked the end of the Babylonian Captivity, but also the death of Pope Gregory XI. Now a new pope had to be elected by the college of cardinals. His successor was Urban VI and declared his intention to reorganize the college. In protest, thirteen cardinals met separately and under the pretense of a corrupted election, ignored Urban’s rule and elected their own pope, Clement VII, who ruled from Avignon. For 37 years there was a pope in Rome and one in Avignon. This was called The Great Schism. Urban VI ruled from Rome and had three successors and Clement ruled from Avignon and had one successor, Benedict XIII.
This Schism had some serious repercussions. Nationality developed in Europe as states took sides for political reasons. Also, The Hundreds Year War was prolonged and two generations of Christians did not know which Pope was the true one. Many died in fear of eternal damnation for following the wrong one. The rulers of France began to realize that this Schism was a hindrance to them because they had to support the court in Avignon exclusively while the court in Rome had support from Italy, Germany, and England. To solve the problem the Council of Pisa was called and ended up deposing both popes and electing their own, Pope Alexander V who was succeeded by John XXIII in 1410. But the problem was far from gone. The other two popes did not accept the outcome and refused to step down. In the end, three popes were now vying for control of the Church.
In 1414 the Council of Constance was called to end the fiasco. Pope John XXIII who lied about resigning and who attempted to flee Constance was tried and deposed. The Pope at Rome, Gregory XII, resigned and Benedictine XIII left office kicking and screaming. In 1417 the Great Schism ended with the election of Pope Martin V.
Out of this council came the idea of conciliar theory which sought to proclaim councils superior to popes and to establish regular meeting times of these councils to maintain that superiority. In short, they turned the papacy into a limited or constitutional monarchy. The theory also asserted that this supreme power in the Church rested with the whole body of believers, not the clergy alone.
This movement, though admirable, fell because both church and political figures lost interest in it after the Schism ended and because of Martin V. He attempted to regain some of the spiritual and worldly power lost during the Captivity and Schism and thereby regarded reforms in the Church, especially those that limited his power, not to favorably.
The conciliar movement reached its final phase in 1431 when Martin’s successor, Pope Eugenius IV, called the assembly to order. The Council of Basel as it was called asserted its superiority to the pope which made him disband the group in outrage. They refused and went to Lausanne where they deposed Eugenius and elected an anti-pope Felix V in 1439. At the same time the supporters of Eugenius IV went to Florence where they declared the Eastern Schism over. Byzantine refused to agree and the matter was left unsettled until they fell to the Turks in 1453. An end came in 1449 when the Council established at Lausanne were successfully deposed by Pope Nicholas V, Eugenius’ successor. Also dissolved was the Council of Basel still technically in existence. This occurred because of concessions made by the papacy to gain the support of European states.
By mid fifteenth century the political crisis was over. The Church came out of the crisis with most of its revenues and authority in tact, but achieved no reform and made devastating concessions to the European states.
But aside from the political crisis during this time there was also a religious crisis going on. The scholasticism of the church began to decline because it sought rational proofs for revealed truths, the growing acceptance of Nominalism over Realism, and of course the rise of secularism pitting religion against worldly aspirations. By the fifteenth century a large portion of the upper class could read and write which stimulated the growth of vernacular literature. This literature was unecclesiastical in tone for the most part and provided a very widespread body of readers who could respond to the written protests of the rising reformers. These reformers include men such as John Wycliffe and John Hus.
Briefly, Wycliffe, 1330-1384, expressed the view of the conciliar theory that the true Church was the whole body of Christians and insisted that the Scriptures be literally interpreted. Also, he believed all Christians should own a copy of the Bible and read it, reduced the importance of the sacraments, denied transubstantiation, and said confession and penance were invalid unless the sinner had contrition in their heart. He had a impact on later theologians since many of his ideas were echoed by these reformers.
Hus liked many other reformers attacked such Church practices as simony, the sale of indulgences, scholastic philosophy, clerical immorality, and the worship of relics and saints. He was excommunicated by the local archbishop and in 1414 his case went before the Council of Constance which condemned him for heresy and handed him over to local authorities to be burned at the stake.
A important development in the Renaissance was the rise of Humanism which attempted to sharpen and embellish their writing by imitating the works of the classical authors of Greece and Rome. Humanists, as their name implies, were concerned with the place of man in the world and often sought to emphasize the importance of man as a creature of reason and dignity. Their historians rejected the medieval notion that events occurred in some fatalistic fashion, but instead looked for natural causes instead of supernatural ones. They succeeded in translating a profuse number of Greek works into Latin and adored the classics. In reality though, Humanism was an imitative rather than original system, developing no philosophy and making no new contributions in science.
The firstly recognized humanist was a Italian man named Petrarch, known for his concept of civic humanism which involved the moral philosophy of involvement in political affairs. Thomas More in England sketched out his idea of an ideal society in his work Utopia and touched on the issues of limited government, sympathy for the lower classes, and limited tolerance. Erasmus of Rotterdam de-emphasized doctrines, rites, and external observances in favor of a Christian ethic as defined by the Sermon on the Mount and the epistles of Paul and attempted to reform Christianity to make it free of corruption.
Niccolo Machiavelli was a celebrated political theorist who reflected on secular humanism. His chief work was The Prince which focused on assassinations, the calculated use of terror, and conspiracies. Out of this work came his most favorite quote, It is better to be feared than loved. He regarded loved rulers to be easily deposed while feared ones would endure as his people would be unlikely to rise up for fear of the repercussions.
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