The Waning of the Medieval: The Decline of the Papacy

The decline of the Papacy and the rise of national monarchies were inversely proportional.  The rise of the monarch will be the topic of a later discussion. Today we focus on how the Roman Catholic Church went from an all encompassing force in the Middle Ages [the Pope was King of Kings] to simply a gigantic force in the early Renaissance [the Pope was perceived as a threat to the power of the emerging Nation-state]. Rather than a separation, the continued importance of religion is something that binds the Renaissance to the Medieval.

Even though their relationship to God was paramount, there were three areas where Europeans were getting their feathers ruffled when it came to the church:

• The Babylonian Captivity (The Avignon Popes)
• The Great Schism
• The Plague

There is a pretty clear summation of these issues at this Christian blog. More than their individual names, it is the tenor of rule, the perceived decadence of the Avignon Popes that we should focus on.

Unlike 2013, the advent of two Popes at the same time caused great concern during the Great Schism. If that wasn't enough, the Papacy's secular dalliances only aggravated people's loss of confidence in the Church.

As the subject of your much maligned summer reading book, we are all aware of the link between the plague and the decline of the Church. I played this video clip for you as freshmen: 

[The UKhistory channel setting their history lessons within the confines of a pub is just one example of the British humour you are going to have to get accustom to during this course].  I think the key line in this little clip is when he is discussion that not only were the clergy powerless in the face of the disease, but those that the people would have considered 'the very best' of the clergy mostly died because they were actually out among the people tending to the ill.

The vision of an impotent pope and a detached clergy would only feed the flames of the upcoming Protestant Reformation.