1. The Crises of the 14 th Century 1300-1450 Age of sorrow and temptation, of tears, jealousy and torment, Time of exhaustion and damnation, declining to extinction, Era filled with horror and deception, lying, pride and envy, Time without honor and meaning, full of life-shortening sadness. - Eustache Deschamps

3. Urban revival - part of Byzantine, Islamic networks Genghis Khan d. 1227 Marco Polo 1254-1324 Kublai Khan

4. B. Disaster in the making 1. Nearly all arable land taken 2. “Little” Ice Age ca. 1300 – 1700+

5. Hey, lil’ fella Xenopsylla cheopis

6. I. The Black Death 1347-1353 - bubonic, pneumonic, septicemic

7. 6, 14, 18th centuries 137M (1/4 - 1/3 of Europe in 1300s - 34M)

8. A. Legacy of the plague 1. Pessimism, the macabre Hans Holbein The Dance of Death the Kingthe Queenthe Pope

9. 2. Europe subject to invasion Mongols - 1400s Ottoman Turks - 1500 & 1600s

10. 3. Plagues of insurrection - weakening of social bonds - persecution - peasant revolt Jacquerie 1358 Wat Tyler’s Revolt 1381

11. Crises of moral authority paves the way for Renaissance, Reformation. The Triumph of Death 1562 - Bruegel

12. Growth of Towns Many serfs left the manors and moved into towns/cities –Could be free in cities if they hid from their lord for a year and one day –Increased populations in towns Towns were often overcrowded and dirty –Led to a decline in feudalism

13. II. 100 Years War 1337-1450

14. A. Causes 1.Angevin Empire - Henry & Eleanor 1152 Vassalage v. Nation-state 2. Edward III 1329

15. 3. Manufacturing - Flemish wool trade

16. B. Conduct of the War 1.English occupation - soldiers fend for themselves End of Chivalry

19. C. Assault on authority 1. Yeomen archers - Crécy 1346 / Agincourt 1415 2. Battle of Formingy 1450 - gunpowder Men in armor losing significance

20. The use of the English defensive position was the use of the longbow. Its arrows had more penetrating power than a bolt from a crossbow. –Could pierce an inch of wood or the armor of a knight at 200 yards! A longbow could be fired more rapidly. –6 arrows per minute. The Longbow as a Weapon

21. The British Longbow: The Battle of Poitiers, 1356

22. 3. Joan of Arc - Battle of Orleans 1429

23. Impact Begins process of political centralization in Europe Significant military evolution (Gunpowder) Early rise of nationalistic feelings First popular challenges to secular and spiritual authority End of English claims to France

24. III. Division in Christendom Religious controversy and challenges for the Church The Great Schism

25. A. Limits of reason 1. Urban social orders - merchants, craftsmen - “class,” not hereditary obligations 2. Alternative to feudal orders - tweaking of theology

26. 3. Aristotelianism Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274 4. Scholasticism Peter Abelard Peter & Heloise

27. B. Avignon Papacy 1. Clement V & Philip IV 1305 - suppression of Knights Templar - moved papacy to Avignon “Whore of Babylon”

28. 2. Gregory XI 1378 - Rome, most of Europe wants Italian Pope - Charles (V) Valois 3. Great (Western) Schism 1378- 1417 - Popes a’plenty - Council of Constance 1414-17 antiPope John XXIII

30. C. Legacy of division 1. Worsened by contemporary problems - papacy in the eyes of both clergy and lay people 2. Opened door for theological and literary challenges to Church hegemony

31. IV. Cultural change in crisis

32. A. Theological challenges 1. John Wycliffe 1320-1384 - quality of sacrament - Church authority

33. 2. Jan Hus 1369-1415 - religion and nationalism - language č š ž

34. 3. Increased threat of Heresy - Waldensians no authority but the Bible - Albigensiansextreme ascetism “Heretics” often preached austerity not found in Church, popular w/ peasants The Inquisition “what a show”

35. 4. William of Ockham 1285-1349 - Argued against Aristotelian theory - must argue from specific to general Ockham’s razor scientific method

36. B. Vernacular literature 1. Reliance on Latin declines - expression of cultural, national, religious independence (Gutenberg press)

37. 2. Dante Alighieri The Divine Comedy 1308-1321 allegory – historical figures, contemporary critique Redemption of Man – in Italian! “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”

38. 3. Geoffrey Chaucer The Canterbury Tales 1342-1400 - middle English - ribald, low brow comedy, social satire Wife of Bath

39. 4. Christine de Pizan City of Ladies 1364-1430 a. status of aristocratic women improving b. all levels of patriarchy challenged

40. Giovanni Boccaccio The Decameron Juan Ruiz The Book of Good Love - “Mr. Melon of the Vegetable Garden”

41. Change & Invention Changes in Urban Life –Greater Regulation –Marriage –Gender Roles Male: Active and Domineering Women: Passive and Submissive Medicine] –Medical schools---Salerno, Montpellier, Bologna, Oxford, Padua, and Paris. –Midwives, barber-surgeons Inventions and New Patterns –The Mechanical Clock New Conception of Time –Gunpowder

42. Mechanical Clock in the Prague Town Hall