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History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517. by Philip Schaff About History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517. by Philip Schaff Title: History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517. URL: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc6.html Author(s): Schaff, Philip (1819-1893) Publisher: Grand Rapids, MI: Christian CLassics Ethereal Library First Published: 1882 Source: Electronic Bible Society Date Created: 2002-11-27 Contributor(s): whp (Transcriber) Wendy Huang (Markup) CCEL Subjects: All; History; LC Call no: BR145.S3 LC Subjects: Christianity History History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The Philip Schaff Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517. Table of Contents About This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. ii History of the Christian Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 1 Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 2 Introductory Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 3 The Decline Of The Papacy And The Avignon Exile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 4 Sources and Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 4 Pope Boniface VIII. 1294-1303. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 8 Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair of France. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 11 Literary Attacks against the Papacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 20 The Transfer of the Papacy to Avignon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 28 The Pontificate of John XXII 1316-1334. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 36 The Papal Office Assailed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 42 The Financial Policy of the Avignon Popes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 47 The Later Avignon Popes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 54 The Re-establishment of the Papacy in Rome. 1377. . . . . . . . . . . . p. 59 The Papal Schism And The Reformatory Councils. 1378-1449. . . . . . . p. 63 Sources and Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 63 The Schism Begun. 1378. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 66 Further Progress of the Schism. 1378-1409. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 70 The Council of Pisa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 77 The Council of Constance. 1414-1418. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 81 The council of Basel. 1431-1449. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 92 The Council of Ferrara-Florence. 1438-1445. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 99 Leaders Of Catholic Thought. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 102 Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 102 Ockam and the Decay of Scholasticism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 104 Catherine of Siena, the Saint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 107 Peter d'Ailly, Ecclesiastical Statesman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 113 John Gerson, Theologian and Church Leader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 115 Nicolas of Clamanges, the Moralist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 121 Nicolas of Cusa, Scholar and Churchman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 123 Popular Preachers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 126 The German Mystics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 128 Sources and Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 128 The New Mysticism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 132 iii History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The Philip Schaff Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517. Meister Eckart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 135 John Tauler of Strassburg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 142 Henry Suso. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 146 The Friends of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 150 John of Ruysbroeck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 152 Gerrit de Groote and the Brothers of the Common Life. . . . . . . . . . . p. 154 The Imitation of Christ. Thomas à Kempis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 158 The German Theology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 164 English Mystics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 165 Reformers Before The Reformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 167 Sources and Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 167 The Church in England in the Fourteenth Century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 170 John Wyclif. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 176 Wyclif's Teachings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 182 Wyclif and the Scriptures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 189 The Lollards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 196 John Huss of Bohemia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 200 Huss at Constance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 207 Jerome of Prag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 217 The Hussites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 219 The Last Popes Of The Middle Ages. 1447-152. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 224 Literature and General Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 224 Nicolas V. 1447-1455. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 228 Aeneas Sylvius de' Piccolomini, Pius II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 233 Paul II. 1464-1471. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 238 Sixtus IV. 1471-1484. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 241 Innocent VIII. 1484-1492. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 244 Pope Alexander VI--Borgia. 1492-1503. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 248 Julius II., the Warrior-Pope. 1503-1513. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 260 Leo X. 1513-1521. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 267 Heresy And Witchcraft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 276 Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 277 Heretical and Unchurchly Movements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 278 Witchcraft and its Punishment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 286 The Spanish Inquisition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 296 The Renaissance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 308 Literature of the Renaissance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 308 The Intellectual Awakening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 312 Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 316 Progress and Patrons of Classical Studies in the 15th Century. . . . . . p. 323 iv History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The Philip Schaff Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517. Greek Teachers and Italian Humanists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 329 The Artists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 334 The Revival of Paganism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 338 Humanism in Germany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 344 Reuchlin and Erasmus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 348 Humanism in France. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 358 Humanism in England. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 359 The Pulpit And Popular Piety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 366 Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 366 The Clergy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 369 Preaching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 373 Doctrinal Reformers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 378 Girolamo Savonarola. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 381 The Study and Circulation of the Bible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 398 Popular Piety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 405 Works of Charity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 415 The Sale of Indulgences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 420 The Close Of The Middle Ages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 426 Indexes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 436 Subject Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 436 Index of Scripture References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 436 Index of Citations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 437 Index of Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 437 German Words and Phrases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 438 French Words and Phrases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 443 v History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The Philip Schaff Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517. vi Hist of Christ'n Church 6 Philip Schaff HISTORY of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH1 by PHILIP SCHAFF Christianus sum. Christiani nihil a me alienum puto VOLUME VI. THE MIDDLE AGES From BONIFACE VIII., 1294 to the Protestant Reformation, 1517 by DAVID S. SCHAFF, D.D. 1 Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1997. This material has been carefully compared, corrected¸ and emended (according to the 1910 edition of Charles Scribner's Sons) by The Electronic Bible Society, Dallas, TX, 1998. Hist of Christ'n Church 6 Philip Schaff PREFACE This volume completes the history of the Church in the Middle Ages. Dr. Philip Schaff on one occasion spoke of the Middle Ages as a terra incognita in the United States,—a territory not adequately explored. These words would no longer be applicable, whether we have in mind the instruction given in our universities or theological seminaries. In Germany, during the last twenty years, the study of the period has been greatly developed, and no period at the present time, except the Apostolic age, attracts more scholarly and earnest attention and research. The author has had no apologetic concern to contradict the old notion, perhaps still somewhat current in our Protestant circles, that the Middle Ages were a period of superstition and worthy of study as a curiosity rather than as a time directed and overruled by an all-seeing Providence. He has attempted to depict it as it was and to allow the picture of high religious purpose to reveal itself side by side with the picture of hierarchical assumption and scholastic misinterpretation. Without the mediaeval age, the Reformation would not have been possible. Nor is this statement to be understood in the sense in which we speak of reaching a land of sunshine and plenty after having traversed a desert. We do well to give to St. Bernard and Francis d’Assisi, St. Elizabeth and St. Catherine of Siena, Gerson, Tauler and Nicolas of Cusa a high place in our list of religious personalities, and to pray for men to speak to our generation as well as they spoke to the generations in which they lived. Moreover, the author has been actuated by no purpose to disparage Christians who, in the alleged errors of Protestantism, find an insuperable barrier to Christian fellowship. Where he has passed condemnatory judgments on personalities, as on the popes of the last years of the 15th and the earlier years of the 16th century, it is not because they occupied the papal throne, but because they were personalities who in any walk of life would call for the severest reprobation. The unity of the Christian faith and the promotion of fellowship between Christians of all names and all ages are considerations which should make us careful with pen or spoken word lest we condemn, without properly taking into consideration that interior devotion to Christ and His kingdom -which seems to be quite compatible with divergencies in doctrinal statement or ceremonial habit. On the pages of the volume, the author has expressed his indebtedness to the works of the eminent mediaeval historians and investigators of the day, Gregorovius, Pastor, Mandell Creighton, Lea, Ehrle, Denifle, Finke, Schwab, Haller, Carl Mirbt, R. Mueller Kirsch, Loserth, Janssen, Valois, Burckhardt-Geiger, Seebohm and others, Protestant and Roman Catholic, and some no more among the living. It is a pleasure to be able again to express his indebtedness to the Rev. David E. Culley, his colleague in the Western Theological Seminary, whose studies in mediaeval history and accurate scholarship have been given to the volume in the reading of the manuscript, before it went to the printer, and of the printed pages before they received their final form. Above all, the author feels it to be a great privilege that he has been able to realize the hope which Dr. Philip Schaff expressed in the last years of his life, that his History of the Christian Church which, in four volumes, had traversed the first ten centuries and, in the sixth and seventh, set forth the progress of the German and Swiss Reformations, might be carried through the fruitful period from 1050–1517. David S. Schaff. The Western Theological Seminary, 2 Hist of Christ'n Church 6 Philip Schaff Pittsburg. THE MIDDLE AGES. THE DECLINE OF THE PAPACY AND THE PREPARATION FOR MODERN CHRISTIANITY. FROM BONIFACE VIII. TO MARTIN LUTHER. a.d. 1294-1517. THE SIXTH PERIOD OF CHURCH HISTORY. § 1. Introductory Survey. The two centuries intervening between 1294 and 1517, between the accession of Boniface VIII. and the nailing of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses against the church door in Wittenberg, mark the gradual transition from the Middle Ages to modern times, from the universal acceptance of the papal theocracy in Western Europe to the assertion of national independence, from the supreme authority of the priesthood to the intellectual and spiritual freedom of the individual. Old things are passing away; signs of a new order increase. Institutions are seen to be breaking up. The scholastic systems of theology lose their compulsive hold on men’s minds, and even become the subject of ridicule. The abuses of the earlier Middle Ages call forth voices demanding reform on the basis of the Scriptures and the common well-being of mankind. The inherent vital energies in the Church seek expression in new forms of piety and charitable deed. The power of the papacy, which had asserted infallibility of judgment and dominion over all departments of human life, was undermined by the mistakes, pretensions, and worldliness of the papacy itself, as exhibited in the policy of Boniface VIII., the removal of the papal residence to Avignon, and the disastrous schism which, for nearly half a century, gave to Europe the spectacle of two, and at times three, popes reigning at the same time and all professing to be the vicegerents of God on earth. The free spirit of nationality awakened during the crusades grew strong and successfully resisted the papal authority, first in France and then in other parts of Europe. Princes asserted supreme authority over the citizens within their dominions and insisted upon the obligations of churches to the state. The leadership of Europe passed from Germany to France, with England coming more and more into prominence. The tractarian literature of the fourteenth century set forth the rights of man and the principles of common law in opposition to the pretensions of the papacy and the dogmatism of the scholastic systems. Lay writers made themselves heard as pioneers of thought, and a practical outlook upon the mission of the Church was cultivated. With unexampled audacity Dante assailed the lives of popes, putting some of St. Peter’s successors into the lowest rooms of hell. The Reformatory councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basel turned Europe for nearly fifty years, 1409–1450, into a platform of ecclesiastical and religious discussion. Though they failed to provide a remedy for the disorders prevailing in the Church, they set an example of free debate, and gave the weight of their eminent constituency to the principle that not in a select group of hierarchs does supreme authority in the Church rest, but in the body of the Church. The hopelessness of expecting any permanent reform from the papacy and the hierarchy was demonstrated in the last years of the period, 1460–1517, when ecclesiastical Rome offered a 3 Hist of Christ'n Church 6 Philip Schaff spectacle of moral corruption and spiritual fall which has been compared to the corrupt age of the Roman Empire. The religious unrest and the passion for a better state of affairs found expression in Wyclif, Huss, and other leaders who, by their clear apprehension of truth and readiness to stand by their public utterances, even unto death, stood far above their own age and have shone in all the ages since. While coarse ambition and nepotism, a total perversion of the ecclesiastical office and violation of the fundamental virtues of the Christian life held rule in the highest place of Christendom, a pure stream of piety was flowing in the Church of the North, and the mystics along the Rhine and in the Lowlands were unconsciously fertilizing the soil from which the Reformation was to spring forth. The Renaissance, or the revival of classical culture, unshackled the minds of men. The classical works of antiquity were once more, after the churchly disparagement of a thousand years, held forth to admiration. The confines of geography were extended by the discoveries of the continent in the West. The invention of the art of printing, about 1440, forms an epoch in human advancement, and made it possible for the products of human thought to be circulated widely among the people, and thus to train the different nations for the new age of religious enfranchisement about to come, and the sovereignty of the intellect. To this generation, which looks back over the last four centuries, the discovery of America and the pathways to the Indies was one of the remarkable events in history, a surprise and a prophecy. In 1453, Constantinople easily passed into the hands of the Turk, and the Christian empire of the East fell apart. In the far West the beginnings of a new empire were made, just as the Middle Ages were drawing to a close. At the same time, at the very close of the period, under the direction and protection of the Church, an institution was being prosecuted which has scarcely been equalled in the history of human cruelty, the Inquisition,—now papal, now Spanish,—which punished heretics unto death in Spain and witches in Germany. Thus European society was shaking itself clear of long-established customs and dogmas based upon the infallibility of the Church visible, and at the same time it held fast to some of the most noxious beliefs and practices the Church had allowed herself to accept and propagate. It had not the original genius or the conviction to produce a new system of theology. The great Schoolmen continued to rule doctrinal thought. It established no new ecclesiastical institution of an abiding character like the canon law. It exhibited no consuming passion such as went out in the preceding period in the crusades and the activity of the Mendicant Orders. It had no transcendent ecclesiastical characters like St. Bernard and Innocent III. The last period of the Middle Ages was a period of intellectual discontent, of self-introspection, a period of intimation and of preparation for an order which it was itself not capable of begetting. CHAPTER I. THE DECLINE OF THE PAPACY AND THE AVIGNON EXILE. a.d. 1294–1377. § 2. Sources and Literature. 4

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