Chapter 10: The Later Middle Ages
Chapter Summary
The Late Middle Ages in Europe has been called the "times of famine." We could also call it the "time of trouble," for it was in that period that Europe faced one of its most devastating challenges, the Black Death. In just four short years during the mid-14th century, Europe lost approximately 35% of its population due a plague which medieval science could not explain. Indeed, the true source of the plague was not discovered until the 19th century. European men and women became fascinated with death. This should not surprise us since these men and women were surrounded by death on a daily basis. To make matters worse, the Hundred Year's War occupied the armies of France and England until 1453, when the English were finally pushed off the Continent. Such events produced the "calamitous 14th century." But all was not lost. Europe did not revert into some dark age. Instead, European men and women recovered their lives and adjusted themselves to what was conceivably a changed Europe.
While 14th and 15th century Europe was plagued with death, famine, war and peasant rebellions, it was also the period in which the papacy faced a serious challenge from both within and without. Between 1305 and 1517 the papacy moved back and forth between Rome and Avignon at the same time that a conciliar movement challenged papal government. Heresy, the primary problem of the 12th century, was still assaulting the Church with its challenge to authority. The Lollards in England and Hussites in Bohemia both made appeals to the ancient past -- the true Church consisted of those who lived an apostolic life. With popes living like princes in luxury, and the immorality and corruption of the clergy, these heretical groups could not imagine how the Church could possibly be responsible for man's salvation. And the fact that literacy was increasing and books were made more available, meant that more people were becoming aware of the shortcomings of the medieval Church. With the growing size of towns and cities, the wealth, opulence and indifference of the papacy and clergy became more "visible."
In terms of its intellectual history, late medieval Europe was also the period of the great vernacular literature of Boccaccio, Chaucer and Christine de Pisan. Flemish painters began using oils in their portraits and by the middle of the 15th century, Gutenberg had perfected movable type. But perhaps the greatest realization of the age was this: the natural world operated according to its own laws, in other words, natural laws. Such an observation is of dramatic importance for the simple reason that it was a short step from an understanding of natural laws to the Scientific Revolution of Copernicus, Galileo, and Isaac Newton.
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