reading report 8a

Too Many Popes (1292-1443)
After two years of the cardinals not being able to agree, they finally chose Peter Morone in 1294.  This worked wonderfully until his incompetence led to him being the first pope to quite voluntarily after just six months.  In 1295, France and England went to war and Pope Boniface fought their efforts to tax clergy.  When France stopped exported gold to Rome he gave in - the beginning of changing times.  Conflict continued between the Pope and the developing French parliament and in 1305 they separated from Rome and created new in Avignon - moving the papacy to France.

Divine light and Black death
In 1347 the black death began and within forty years England lost half of its population and one third of Europeans were dead.  With all of this death throughout Europe there was a dramatic shift towards religion.  The rich were paying for the services of monks as well as a reduction of their time in purgatory.

The Renaissance
The artistic ties to Christianity continued to spread with the wealth of artistic representations, music, and writings.  Francesco Petrarch was studied theology and philosophy and became very interested in reading all of the ancient texts and his writing was done in classical Latin.  This began a trend of realism and depiction of saints as real people not just two-dimensional divine characters.  Petrarch, “clime the mountain because it’s there not because its on the way to somewhere else.”  Rebirth of ancient art and humanism.

Wyclif, Hus and the embarrassment of Popes
1377 the Pope finally returned to Rome from France to find it in ruins but he died a year later.  After electing an Italian Pope the primarily French cardinals wanted to return home, so they did after electing a Pope of their own - first time there were two popes at one time.  John Wyclif argued that the papacy was the antichrist.  He challenged the believe that the church was the head of Christianity when it should be Christ himself.  He had the scriptures translated into English so that the people could read and interpret them for themselves.  Upon his criticisms that the church could transform the bread into the body of Christ he lost a lot of support form the English church and was blamed for the peasants revolt in 1381.
Meanwhile as Wyclifs followers pursued an illegal movement the papacy was still struggling with their leadership.  After a meeting with the leading bishop in 1409 in Pisa there were three.  Wyclifs ideas spread then to Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Prague through the lead of Jan Hus.

The council revolution: Constance and Basle Ferrara and Florence
In 1414 a council met in Constance that lasted four years.  The three popes met: the newest one from Pisa stepped down under controversial actions to the bishop of Tusculum, the Roman Pope stepped down to second in command as the new Pope, and the Avignon Pope would not step down and moved to a well-armed castle in Spain that he claimed was the one true church.  A council was established to meet every few years which no longer made the Pope the most powerful man in the church. For resolution Wyclif was burnt and thrown in a river, and Hus was burt at the stake.
The actions of this council was not successful because the newly appointed Pope and his successor found ways around their council meetings and were not open to reform until another agreement was made in 1439 in Florence where the emperor came from Constantinople.  The Pope then launched the crusade to save Constantinople but were beaten by Muslims in 1443.

Protest (1443-1516)
Nicholas, a humanist, gained the papacy in 1447 and financed new art and architecture in Rome and began the Vatican library becoming a ‘patron of the Renaissance.’  Meanwhile the emperor died and the Byzantine Empire was fell to the Turks.  Scared by this defeat Pope Nicholas’ successor declared another crusade thus putting the funding towards the Renaissance on hold.
Russia finally gained independence and became the center for Orthodoxy, the ‘Third Rome,’ but that didn’t mean that Russia was united.  There was a split between those who believed that monasteries should have control over and fund hospitals and schools or if those areas should just struggle with their poverty.

Erasmus
The Bible was the first book run off the printing press as different translations began to be written.  Ferdinand and Isabella came to power in Spain as continued efforts were becoming successful in driving the Muslims out of their country.  This became a huge crusade against all Muslims and Jews who would not convert to Christianity.
The Pope in Rome has finally given up the conquest of ruling Europe and has instead devoted his time and money to building churches and giving into indulgences.  Pope Alexander VI (1492) took bribes, had Savanarola killed, assassinated for fundraising, financed Renaissance artists like Michelangelo, and staged sex shows at the Vatican.
Humanism became a form of protest to how the church has been being run.  They focused on going back to the text and bringing faith back into the Father.  Erasmus published the first Greek New Testament.

The Eve of the Reformation
Many were very frustrated with the many failed attempts at reforming the church.  They were tired of ‘criminals’ running the church and using their status to give into their indulgences.

The Reformation: Luther (1517-1522)
In Germany a man wearing the Pope’s coat of arms was preaching and asking for money saying that it was possible to purchase innocence and time out of purgatory.  Luther was appalled by this abuse of power for money and argued that if it was possible for the Pope to accomplish his clams then it should be offered as charity rather than as a mean of gaining money.  Luther became an icon for the movement against Rome’s papal domination.  Luther was called to Rome but was protected by Elector Frederick, who was a strict Catholic who was a part of the paid out of purgatory scheme.  This controversy was only helpful for Luther and his arguments.

The break with Rome
Luther’s goal was to have the Bible overrule the church - the beginning of the Reformation.  As his writing became more and more controversial, for example his value on the sacraments, gained Luther much publicity.  After publishing a translated version of the Bible while in hiding Luther gave the opportunity for common people to discuss and debate this important text.  Protestant and Lutheran spread but there was still some apprehension about going against the strict and powerful Catholic church and the original intention was not to set up a rival practice but reform the Catholic church.  That essentially failed because Protestant churches still exist today.