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Innocent VI, a mild mannered teacher of law at the University of Toulouse, attempted to reduce the size of the papal court. Innocent seems to have revived the hope of a return one day to Italy. He came to terms with Cola di Rienzi at Rome in 1354 and appointed him Senator to govern Rome and the surrounding territories. However, before the year was over the warlords (Signori) who loved their independence and despised the Pope had killed di Rienzi. Next Innocent then sent the Spanish Cardinal Albornoz to Rome to discipline the Signori. Albornoz was able with the violence and energy of two military campaigns to force the Signori to accept the Pope as their overlord. He drew up a code of laws that remained the basic constitution of the Papal States until 1816.
The new German king, Charles IV of Luxembourg (1346-1378) was crowned by the pope's delegate at Rome in 1355. The next year in the Golden Bull the possibility of a contested election in the future was eliminated. By making the election a matter of a simple majority Charles IV had closed another door to papal intervention in German politics. Germany was not henceforth understood as a simple state with an elective monarchy at its head. Germany henceforth would be a federation of states, principalities and cities dominated by seven powerful monarchies with an elected head to rule over the lesser principalities and cities of the region. The Golden Bull which chartered these arrangements would be in force until 1806.
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Urban V had not been a Cardinal, but the abbot of the monastery of St. Victor at Marseilles. Cardinal Albornoz' success allowed Urban V to take the whole Curia back to Rome where they managed to stay for three years before the continuing problems forced him to return to Avignon. Many of Rome's church buildings were found in a virtual state of ruin for lack of upkeep. The old papal apartments had to be restored to livable condition. So when Cardinal Albornoz died, Urban headed back to Avignon in 1370. The French governors left in charge in the Papal States were extremely unpopular. The city of Florence took advantage of the situation and fostered a rebellion.
In the year 1366 Urban V reminded English King Edward III (1327-1377) that the English annual tribute of 1000 silver marks had not been paid in 33 years. This arrangement dated back to Pope Innocent III when he forced King John (1199-1216) of England to surrender his kingdom to the papacy and receive it back as a fief. All future kings of England were to be the Pope's vassals and owe the annual tribute. The English Parliament refused to authorize the payment of the tribute.
The Hundred Years' War and the obvious pro-French stance of the papacy and College of Cardinals had exacerbated English dissatisfaction with the interference of the Papacy in the disposition of churches in England. In 1343 and again in 1351 the Statute of Provisors had been enacted. This declared invalid all papal provisions to English benefices. When appeals were made to Avignon, the Statute of Praemunire, was enacted in 1353, establishing severe penalties for recognizing any ecclesiastical court outside of England.
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Invited to render an opinion on the Pope's claim, the Oxford scholar John Wyclif ruled the Pope's demands unjust and not binding on the state. Wyclif had taken his Oxford Masters in the Liberal Arts in 1361 at Baloil College and for a time lectured there while drawing his income by pastoring the parish church at Fillingham and later at Ludgershall. His reputation as an authority on logic and metaphysics extended beyond the Oxford community. More below.
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In 1374 Gregory XI made an unsuccessful attempt to convince the English King to live up his inherited obligations as a vassal of the Papacy. His commissioners traveled to the Netherlands to meet with a number of Englishmen, counselors of King Edward III, among them John Wyclif.
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Probably by 1372 Wyclif had completed the advanced curriculum in theology at Oxford and was planning to write a twelve volume Summa treating all theological issues. His intellectual precursors were in the Augustinian (Platonic) school. In 1374 he was translated to the parish at Lutterworth which marks the fact that he had entered the service of the King while remaining also a part of the Oxford universitas. In that same year he had been one of the King's representatives sent to Bruges to discuss the problem of Papal provisions and tribute. Wyclif's views on lordship (dominion) were the subject of lectures at Oxford after his return from Bruges and were published in 1375 (De divino dominio), and 1376 (De civili dominio). His views became quite popular because they supported the "Franciscan Heresy" of poverty, going so far as to assert that the State should confiscate all the property held by the Church.
God is the supreme Lord. All lordship both temporal and spiritual derives from him as a temporary stewardship, not a possession that one man may then convey to another. Men hold lordship from the supreme Lord on condition of righteousness and faithful service. The highest temporal lordship (i.e. an office endowed with real estate and other endowments) is the stewardship exercised by the civil authorities, and the highest spiritual lordship is the stewardship exercised by the ecclesiastical authorities. The Church has sinfully usurped temporal lordship contrary to the teachings of Christ and the Apostles so it is appropriate for the civil lords to take the holdings from the unrighteous monks and clergy.
Not surprisingly, Pope Gregory XI in 1377 condemned eighteen of Wyclif's propositions as erroneous and dangerous. When Wyclif was called to answer before a provincial Synod of the clergy of Canterbury setting in London in 1378, Wyclif's popular support (King Edward's son John, the Duke of Lancaster, and the London mobs) overawed the bishops. Unfrustrated they would have condemned him and called for the Pope to excommunicate him, but they only dared warn him. Pope Gregory XI understood. Two months later, in May, he ordered Wyclif to Rome immediately. Wyclif's powerful friends kept him in England. When the English clergy again in 1378 attempted to take negative action his royal connections averted any condemnation. Wyclif's later career is discussed below.
Gregory XI was the nephew of Clement VI but a man of a very different character. Gregory also took the curia to Rome again in 1376, but he died at Rome. The Roman populace had cheered his arrival in 1376 and upon his death demanded boisterously that an Italian pope be elected immediately at Rome rather than to hold the election at Avignon.
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After seven popes had ruled from Avignon, the disputed election of September, 1378, resulted in two popes, Urban VI at Rome and Clement VII at Avignon. This unthinkable schism marked the nadir of papal prestige in Europe. Fortunately, all the other political entities in Western Europe were too weak and amazed to take much advantage of the papacy's plight. The schism lasted from 1378 until 1409 with each pope regularly excommunicating the other, each pope claiming control over the whole Church and attempting to fill all vacancies, each pope attempting to collect all the papal income. European governments that were strong enough prevented the churches in their realm from having to support two papal courts by making the decision between them on political grounds. Allies and friends of the French king supported the pope at Avignon. All who distrusted the French king for any reason supported the pope at Rome.
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When Gregory XI died, many of the cardinals and other members of the court were already homesick for Avignon. Nevertheless, the aggressive action of the Roman citizens persuaded the court that an election should promptly be held in Rome. The result was the selection of an Italian, Bartolomeo Prignano, as Urban VI (1378-1389). Before his election Bartolomeo was an Angevin subject serving as the Archbishop of Bari. The Cardinals were happy enough with him for about three months. When he began to talk seriously of reducing the income of the cardinals, however, a group of thirteen disappointed pro-Avignon (i.e. French) cardinals deserted Rome, and announced that the election of Urban VI had been flawed by the excessive influence of the Roman populace. These cardinals gathered at Fondi, across the frontier in the territory ruled by Angevin Queen, Joan I of Naples. They constituted themselves a conclave and selected Robert of Geneva, a cousin of the King Charles V of France (1364-1380), and consecrated him as the "true" pope, Clement VII. Clement VII established his court at Avignon.
Urban VI excommunicated and deposed the elderly Angevin Queen Joan I of Naples, giving her kingdom to her cousin Charles III. Joan adopted Louis of Anjou, the brother of the French King as heir and protector. Before Louis I could arrive Charles III invaded Naples and executed Joan. Then the unbalanced Urban VI excommunicated and deposed Charles III, but not before Louis I and his army had been destroyed. Six Cardinals conspired to take the mentally unbalanced Pope into protective custody, but they were discovered, imprisoned, tortured without mercy and eventually allowed to die.
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The confusion created by having two papacies both attempting to collect the papal tithe, and provision vacancies was intolerable. The English government stepped up to protect English Churches from dual taxes and other conflicts. The English suspicion for the papacy as long as it had been at Avignon made it logical to reject obedience to Clement VII and declare allegiance to Urban VI. There were however, other problems.
Wyclif was heard from immediately, attacking first Clement VII and later Urban VI. He published several treatises which were quickly disseminated among his friends at Oxford and his followers. In De ecclesia, On the Church, (1378) and De potestate papae, On Papal Power (1379) he defined the church in Augustinian terms as universitas praedestinatorum, the totality of the predestined, and rejected papal authority. In De veritate sacrae scripturae, On the Truth of the Holy Scriptures (1378), he repudiated the authority of corrupted Christian Tradition for the authority of the Bible as interpreted by the early Church Fathers. In De eucharistia, On the Lord's Supper (1380), Wyclif rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation. Then in 1381 he seems to have retired from public life to his benefice in Lutterworth where he gathered sympathetic followers around him.
Christ is the head and every predestined person a priest in the invisible spiritual body which is the true church. The temporal church, that is the visible church, contains both the elect and the damned. The temporal church may have an earthly leader in the person of one who emulates the simplicity and poverty of the Apostle Peter. Surely such a person would be one of the elect. The "fruits" evident in the behavior of the Popes, their reaching for secular power and wrongfully claiming property makes their "elect" status, at least, doubtful and, at most, clearly false. The papacy, after all, was of human origin, having been founded by Constantine, not by Christ.
Wyclif's assertion that the bread and wine of the Eucharist remain (remanent) substantially unchanged even after the consecration, has given the label "Remanence" to his view. He argued that it would be impossible for the substance of the bread and wine to be changed or destroyed without changing or destroying the accidents. After the consecration the Body and Blood of Christ are not materially present but sacramentally or symbolically present. This position cost him support at Oxford and among the Franciscans.
Further Wyclif taught that the granting of indulgences in respect to contributions was the same as selling them. That practice therefore fell under the condemnation of simony. He eventually denounced institutional monasticism and described the clerical and monastic orders as sects. He opined that clerical celibacy was both immoral and hurtful. He rejected masses for the dead, veneration of saints, relics, and images, and pilgrimages.
Wyclif's view of the Bible as the only "Law of God" for both church and state inspired the translation of the Vulgate into English. It is unclear that Wyclif himself did more than encourage and assist others in this task which was not completed until after his death. Nicholas of Hereford and John Purvey of Oxford, among others, were involved with the translation.
While Wyclif submerged himself in his scholarly work at Lutterworth, the movement which had stirred around him took form. Many among the clergy from the lower classes, together with a number of Friars and middle class laymen were caught up in a movement not unlike the early Franciscan excitement or that of the Waldenses in the twelfth century. One difference was that they did not in many cases seek to witness to great crowds, but wherever they could find a group of listeners they would share the "Law of God" (The Scripture) and witness to them. Wyclif did take the time to prepare for these "poor priests" a collection of sermons.
There are two rather persuasive derivations for the term which attached itself to Wyclif's followers. Contemporaries explained the term Lollard as a derivation from loillum, meaning weed or tare. This popular derivation may have caught on among the upper clergy and the landlord class because it was convenient to blame the Peasants Revolt of 1381 on Wyclif's "sowers of weeds" among the already harassed and volatile peasant population.
The second derivation that is favored among most current students of the period traces the word Lollard to the Netherlands. A Dutch term with the meaning of "mumblers" is typically cited. It was a derisive term applied in the thirteenth century to the Beguines and Beghards.
In 1382 Archbishop William Courtenay's synod in London condemned twenty-four propositions as heresy without attaching them directly to Wyclif or the Lollards. Yet Wyclif was officially excluded from Oxford. Wyclif was partly paralyzed by a stroke in 1382 and died in 1384. Courtenay and his successor, Thomas Arundel, went after the Wyclifites at Oxford forcing most to recant. The Lollard movement continued to attract numbers during the remainder of the unsatisfactory reign of Richard II (1377-1399). King Henry IV (1399-1413) promulgated a heresy law authorizing inquisitorial proceedings that sent a number of lowly Lollards to the stake. King Henry V (1413-1422) enforced the heresy legislation against all classes. With the execution of the prominent noble, John Oldcastle, in 1417, the political and public presence of Lollardry was eliminated.
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The Cardinals at Avignon hoped that Urban VI's death would allow the schism to be healed, but the Roman Cardinals elected a Cardinal from Naples as Boniface IX. Boniface recognized the son of Charles III, Ladislaus, as the King of Naples (1343-1382) and helped him defeat Louis I's son, Louis II. On the other side of Europe the German king Wenceslaus of Bohemia (1378-1410) had paid so little attention to matters outside of the bottle that the electors had deposed him in 1400. They had chosen in his place Rupert, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, who attempted to establish himself while the sot, Wenceslaus, seems not to have noticed that he was no longer King. Rupert appealed to Boniface IX who crowned him, but the powerless prince had to pawn his crown in order to return to Germany.
Feeling the financial pinch because substantial Papal revenues were going to Avignon, Boniface IX launched a promotion of indulgences in order to raise money. While the Papal Jubilee would not ordinarily have been until 1400, Urban held it in 1390 and argued forcefully that the length of time between jubilee celebrations really ought to be 33 years representing the length of Christ's lifetime. Boniface IX also seems to have inaugurated the first outright sale of positions in the papal curia. Then after 1392 he extended the requirement of annates to all positions provisioned by the papacy alone.
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The University of Paris in 1394 suggested three ways to heal the Schism: 1) Via cessionis, by way of cessation, or the voluntary resignation by both Popes followed by a new election by the combined Cardinals. 2) Via compromissi, by way of compromise, each Pope would submit to a court of arbitration. 3) Via concilii, by way of a decision of a general council. The idea of holding a general council of the whole church in western Europe--something both Popes repeatedly denounced--was seen by a few as a practical way of eliminating the schism and also making some long overdue reforms. The papacy alone had been responsible for calling and confirming the six most recent councils. The papacy had also emphasized that no one else could call a council.
The idea that a general council of the church might be capable of healing the schism was an idea slow to catch on. The Italian, Marsiglio of Padua, had much earlier expressed the concept that the general council was ultimately the sovereign body in the church in his book, Defensor Pacis, Defender of the Peace, offered in defense of the German Emperor, Louis IV, against Pope John XXII in 1324. Leading Schoolmen such as Pierre d'Ailly, and his pupils John Gerson and Nicholas of Clemanges at Paris together with their contemporary German author, Dietrich of Niem, taught and wrote during the last quarter of the fourteenth century to popularize the council as a solution. Eventually leading cardinals, bishops and, more importantly, European governments began to come out in favor of it. As long as the political powers supported the council idea and supported the reforms the movement would continue to make headway.
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When Clement VII died in 1394 Europe held its breath and many urged the Cardinals at Avignon to refrain from electing a successor. Ignoring all the free advice, the Avignon Cardinals elected Peter de Luna, a Spaniard of noble lineage, as Benedict XIII. He turned a deaf ear to all those imploring him to step aside in favor of unity even though he had taken an oath before his election to resign if necessary in the interest of unity. The nations of France, Navarre and Castile withdrew from his obedience and all but five Cardinals deserted him. French soldiers kept him in protective custody for four years. Nothing softened his determination. Then in 1404, he escaped from his guards, left Avignon and surprised everybody by offering to discuss the possibility of arbitration with Boniface IX. Boniface, unable to believe in Benedict's sincerity, rejected the offer. In 1408 France again withdrew their obedience. When the renegade cardinals from both camps called for a general council at Pisa in 1409, Benedict XIII called a council to meet at Perpignon at the east end of the Pyrenees Mountains. A few bishops attended.
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Innocent VII also swore than he would step aside in the interest of unity, but serious political disturbances in the city of Rome occupied most of his attentions. The aged Venetian Cardinal Angelo Corrario, Gregory XII, had likewise promised that he would work for unity, and that he would not appoint new cardinals. As Pope, Gregory XII kept neither promise. His negotiations with Benedict XIII led to the Treaty of Marseilles in 1407. It called for both Popes to meet at Savona (near Genoa) and arrange to resign simultaneously. However, Gregory XII's relatives who feared the financial consequences and King Ladislaus of Naples who feared the political consequences argued strongly against proceeding. Both Popes set out for Savona, but both stopped short and refused to budge. Gregory stopped at Lucca and created four new cardinals, two of whom were his nephews. Seven of his loyal cardinals abandoned him as a result.
In June of 1408 thirteen cardinals representing both Rome and Avignon met at Leghorn and agreed to call a general council at Pisa in March, 1409. Gregory XII called his own council to meet at Cividale in Friuli (north of Venice). A few local bishops attended.
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The Black Death, the rampaging free military companies in France and Italy, and the violence of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries wiped out some smaller Benedictine houses. Some in Italy lost their endowments. In the face of such obstacles the Carthusian order was the only Benedictine order that continued to grow in this period. This most reclusive of traditional Benedictine Orders began founding cloisters in the center of cities in the fourteenth century where it took considerable ingenuity to preserve their semi-hermit life style.
To a certain degree one can see some innovation in the monastic life of the fifteenth century. One group of Benedictine houses in northern Italy completely reorganized themselves in 1431 as a congregation of houses under the centralized rule of a nine member executive board and a general assembly. Abbots were appointed for three-year terms by the board and could be moved to different monasteries if they proved to be good administrators. A number of other Benedictine provinces gradually adopted some of the same arrangements.
It is true that toward the fifteenth century the lines between monk and friar are sometimes very insignificant. This comes about gradually as a result of two developments. Some of the monastic orders are revised to allow the monks more freedom to circulate outside the monastery. Some of the mendicant orders revise their constitutions to allow them to live more like monks.
The Augustinian Friars in their educational activity emphasized the study of St. Augustine's writings, and in one sense defended the traditional Platonic interpretation of Christianity against the encroaching Aristotelian interpretations of Thomism or Scotism. They grew rapidly and exerted considerable influence during the fourteenth century. By the beginning of the fifteenth century their studia generalia in the major universities seems to have ranked next to that of the Franciscans and above that of the Dominicans, although not quite so well known.
Another schism split the Franciscan Friars after 1368 beginning with a reform movement among the convents calling themselves Observantines. Eventually the Observantines separated from the regular Friars beginning first in France in 1415. Later the separate Franciscan Observantine order spread into Spain and elsewhere in Europe. The Observantines were characterized not only by their rigid observance of the Bullata but also by their outspoken criticism of individuals and policies. Three outstanding leaders among the Observantines rose to prominence in the Church during the fifteenth century. Bernardino of Siena, John of Capistrano, and James of the March.
During the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Carmelite Friars breathed new life into the cult of the Virgin Mary which had taken root in the early twelfth century. They never developed a reputation for teaching comparable to the other mendicants.
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