Transcript Age of Adversity

The Magna Carta – the most well-known and most
important document to come out of the Middle Ages
>An agreement between England's major landholders (barons)
and King John, signed at Runnymede in 1215.
>Established idea that the King of England was not above the
law – a principle that became the cornerstone of representative
democracy.
> Not a statement of political philosophy, it was a list of
complaints and rights that the feudal vassals extracted from
their liege lord, King John.
Of the 63 clauses, only three are relevant today:
Trial by Jury of Peers
No taxation without representation
Punishments must fit the crime
The Late Middle Ages
1300-1450
Crisis and Dissolution
An Age of Adversity
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Economic problems
Famine & Plague
Peasant Rebellions
Decline of the Papacy (1309-1417)
Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
Economic problems
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Early 1300's - “The Little Ice Age”
Declining agricultural production
Food shortages, malnutrition and famines
Spiraling inflation - silver shortage
Diminished revenues from peasants
Knights turned to plunder and warfare
The Black Death
• “Divine
punishment
for human
sin”
• 1347-1352
• Sicily
• Fleas on
black rats
• 20,000,000
dead
Negative impact of the Plague included:
• Panic- family, friends &
villages abandoned
• Food production
plummeted
• Jewish communities
massacred
• Church authority
questioned
• New artistic forms
focused on decay and
death
• Economic and social
tensions emerged into
rebellions
Positive long-term impact of the Plague
• Higher wages for
manual labor
• People questioned the
authority of church
leaders
• Re-emergence of
rational science
• Re-discovery of the
ancient past
• New, questioning spiritpaved the way for the
Renaissance
Peasant Rebellions:
Le Jacquerie, France, 1358
The Ciompi, Florence, 1378
The Great Rising, England, 1381
Decline of the Papacy
French king Philip IVand Pope Boniface VIII
Clericos Laicos, 1296
“Churches and priests
that paid taxes to the
French king instead of the
Pope would face
excommunication.”
Unam Sanctam, 1302
“… but the pope can be
judged only by God, not by
Man.”
“ ...Therefore we declare,
state, define and pronounce
that it is altogether necessary
for salvation for every human
creature to be subject to the
Roman Pontiff.”
• September, 1303
“The Terrible
Day at Anagni.”
In 1309, Clement V -Avignon
The Babylonian Captivity, 1309-1377
• Along with Clement V, the next 6 popes (68 years)
were French.
• Many saw the pope as a puppet of the French king
• Widespread criticism among devout Catholics of
“the good life” led by the clergy at Avignon further
reduced the prestige of the church and the pope in
particular.
St. Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274
Duns Scotus, 1265-1308
William of Ockham, 1285-1349
John Wycliffe (1320-1384)
• Followers called Lollards
• Stressed a personal
relationship with God
• Sacraments are not
necessary for salvation
• Denied that priests turned
bread/wine to body/blood of
Christ (transubstantiation)
• Denounced wealth and
advocated material poverty
In 1377, Pope Gregory IX re-established the papacy in Rome
The Great Schism, 1378-1417
1378:Pope Urban VI
(Pope in Rome) and
Pope Clement VII
(Pope in Avignon)
In 1409, The Council
of Pisa elected
Alexander V – a
third Pope!!!
Council of
Constance, 1417
elected Martin V as new
Pope.
The Hundred Years War,
1337-1453
English kings – claimed to be kings of France
William of Normandy, aka
William the Conqueror,
1066
The Long Bow of England
vs
The Crossbow
&
the mounted knight of France
Crecy, 1346
Poitiers, 1356
Agincourt, 1415
Joan of Arc
(1412-1431)
• Jeanne D’Arc, 1428
• “The Maid of Orleans”
• Captured by the Duke
of Burgundy [in 1430] and
turned over to the
English
Impact of the Hundred Years War
> Kings won the right to collect taxes
> French monarchy grew in power & prestige
> New weapons and strategy for warfare
> Code of Chivalry abandoned
> English held only the port city of Calais
> England experienced a civil war: War of the Roses
> Feudalism further began declined
Legacy of the Middle Ages…
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Notions of honor, duty, loyalty, and love
European cities / The middle class
The state system
English common law -concept of liberty
Equality and the sacred worth of the individual
Representative government
Universities
Corporations, Bookkeeping & Banking
Preserved Greco-Roman scholarship
Growth of secularism