History of the Christian Church, Volume VI

450 Pages·2004·1.53 MB·English

by  Philip Schaff

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