Fill - Form 4: and the Plague The Hundred Years

398 Chapter 14

MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW TERMS & NAMES

RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL

SYSTEMS In the 1300s, Europe

was torn apart by religious

strife, the bubonic plague, and

the Hundred Years’ War.

Events of the 1300s led to a

change in attitudes toward

religion and the state, a change

reflected in modern attitudes.

•Avignon

• Great Schism

• John Wycliffe

• Jan Hus

• bubonic

plague

• Hundred

Years’ War

• Joan of Arc

yzing Caus

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TAKING NOTES

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SETTING THE STAGE The 1300s were filled with disasters, both natural and

human-made. The Church seemed to be thriving but soon would face a huge

division. A deadly epidemic claimed millions of lives. So many people died in

the epidemic that the structure of the economy changed. Claims to thrones in

France and England led to wars in those lands. The wars would result in changes

in the governments of both France and England. By the end of the century, the

medieval way of life was beginning to disappear.

A Church Divided

At the beginning of the 1300s, the Age of Faith still seemed strong. Soon, how-

ever, both the pope and the Church were in desperate trouble.

Pope and King Collide In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII attempted to enforce papal

authority on kings as previous popes had. When King Philip IV of France

asserted his authority over French bishops, Boniface responded with an official

document. It stated that kings must always obey popes.

Philip merely sneered at this statement. In fact, one of Philip’s ministers is

said to have remarked that “my master’s sword is made of steel, the pope’s is

made of [words].” Instead of obeying the pope, Philip had him held prisoner in

September 1303. The king planned to bring him to France for trial. The pope was

rescued, but the elderly Boniface died a month later. Never again would a pope

be able to force monarchs to obey him.

Avignon and the Great Schism In 1305, Philip IV persuaded the College of

Cardinals to choose a French archbishop as the new pope. Clement V, the newly

selected pope, moved from Rome to the city of

Avignon (av•vee•NYAWN) in

France. Popes would live there for the next 69 years.

The move to Avignon badly weakened the Church. When reformers finally

tried to move the papacy back to Rome, however, the result was even worse. In

1378, Pope Gregory XI died while visiting Rome. The College of Cardinals then

met in Rome to choose a successor. As they deliberated, they could hear a mob

outside screaming, “A Roman, a Roman, we want a Roman for pope, or at least

an Italian!” Finally, the cardinals announced to the crowd that an Italian had

been chosen: Pope Urban VI. Many cardinals regretted their choice almost

immediately. Urban VI’s passion for reform and his arrogant personality caused

The Hundred Years’ War

and the Plague

Page 1 of 6

the cardinals to elect a second pope a few months later. They chose Robert of

Geneva, who spoke French. He took the name Clement VII.

Now there were two popes. Each declared the other to be a false pope, excom-

municating his rival. The French pope lived in Avignon, while the Italian pope lived

in Rome. This began the split in the Church known as the

Great Schism

(SIHZ•uhm), or division.

In 1414, the Council of Constance attempted to end the Great Schism by choos-

ing a single pope. By now, there were a total of three popes: the Avignon pope, the

Roman pope, and a third pope elected by an earlier council at Pisa. With the help

of the Holy Roman Emperor, the council forced all three popes to resign. In 1417,

the Council chose a new pope, Martin V, ending the Great Schism but leaving the

papacy greatly weakened.

Scholars Challenge Church Authority The papacy was further challenged by an

Englishman named

John Wycliffe (WIHK•lihf). He preached that Jesus Christ, not

the pope, was the true head of the Church. He was much offended by the worldli-

ness and wealth many clergy displayed. Wycliffe believed that the clergy should

own no land or wealth. Wycliffe also taught that the Bible alone—not the pope—

was the final authority for Christian life. He helped spread this idea by inspiring an

English translation of the New Testament of the Bible.

Influenced by Wycliffe’s writings,

Jan Hus, a professor in Bohemia (now part

of the Czech Republic), taught that the authority of the Bible was higher than that

of the pope. Hus was excommunicated in 1412. In 1414, he was seized by Church

leaders, tried as a heretic, and then burned at the stake in 1415.

The Bubonic Plague Strikes

During the 1300s an epidemic struck parts of Asia, North Africa, and Europe.

Approximately one-third of the population of Europe

died of the deadly disease known as the

bubonic

plague. Unlike catastrophes that pull communities

together, this epidemic was so terrifying that it ripped

apart the very fabric of society. Giovanni Boccaccio,

an Italian writer of the time, described its effect:

P RIMARY SOURCE

This scourge had implanted so great a terror in the

hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned

brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers,

and in many cases wives deserted their husbands. But

even worse, . . . fathers and mothers refused to nurse

and assist their own children.

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO, The Decameron

Origins and Impact of the Plague The plague

began in Asia. Traveling trade routes, it infected

parts of Asia, the Muslim world, and Europe. In

1347, a fleet of Genoese merchant ships arrived in

Sicily carrying bubonic plague, also known as the

Black Death. It got the name because of the purplish

or blackish spots it produced on the skin. The dis-

ease swept through Italy. From there it followed

trade routes to Spain, France, Germany, England,

and other parts of Europe and North Africa.

Contrasting

According

to the different

beliefs of the time,

what was the true

source of religious

authority?

▼ This painting,

titled The

Triumph of

Death, depicts

the effect of

the plague.

The Formation of Western Europe 399

Page 2 of 6

PACIFIC

OCEAN

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

EUROPE

ASIA

MONGOLIA

INDIA

SOUTHWEST

ASIA

AFRICA

CHINA

Kaffa

Alexandria

Genoa

1,000 Miles

2,000 Kilometers

Route of the Plague

Western Europe

China, India, other

Asians

20–25 million

25 million

= 4 million

The horse-riding Mongols

likely carried infected fleas

and rats in their food

supplies as they swooped

into China.

The disease came with

merchants along the

trade routes of Asia to

southern Asia, southwest

Asia, and Africa.

In 1345–46, a Mongol

army besieged Kaffa. A

year later, Italian

merchants returned to

Italy, unknowingly bringing

the plague with them.

The Bubonic Plague

The bubonic plague, or Black Death, was a killer disease that swept repeatedly

through many areas of the world. It wiped out two-thirds of the population in some

areas of China, destroyed populations of Muslim towns in Southwest Asia, and then

decimated one-third of the European population.

Disease Spreads

Black rats carried fleas that were infested with a bacillus

called Yersinia pestis. Because people did not bathe, almost

all had fleas and lice. In addition, medieval people threw

their garbage and sewage into the streets. These unsanitary

streets became breeding grounds for more rats. The fleas

carried by rats leapt from person to person, thus spreading

the bubonic plague with incredible speed.

Symptoms of the Bubonic Plague

•Painful swellings called buboes (BOO•bohz) in the lymph nodes,

particularly those in the armpits and groin

• Sometimes purplish or blackish spots on the skin

• Extremely high fever, chills, delirium, and in most cases, death

Death Tolls, 1300s

1. Hypothesizing Had people known

the cause of the bubonic plague,

what might they have done to slow

its spread?

See Skillbuilder Handbook, page R15.

Comparing What diseases of today

might be compared to the bubonic

plague? Why?

400 Chapter 14

Patterns of Interaction

The Spread of Epidemic Disease:

Bubonic Plague and Smallpox

The spread of disease has been

a very tragic result of cultures interacting

with one another across place and time.

Such diseases as smallpox and influenza

have killed millions of people, sometimes,

as with the Aztecs, virtually destroying

civilizations.

Page 3 of 6

The bubonic plague took about four years

to reach almost every corner of Europe. Some

communities escaped unharmed, but in oth-

ers, approximately two-thirds to three-quar-

ters of those who caught the disease died.

Before the bubonic plague ran its course, it

killed almost 25 million Europeans and many

more millions in Asia and North Africa.

The plague returned every few years,

though it never struck as severely as in the

first outbreak. However, the periodic attacks

further reduced the population.

Effects of the Plague The economic and

social effects of the plague were enormous.

The old manorial system began to crumble.

Some of the changes that occurred included

these:

•Town populations fell.

•Trade declined. Prices rose.

• The serfs left the manor in search of

better wages.

• Nobles fiercely resisted peasant

demands for higher wages, causing

peasant revolts in England, France, Italy,

and Belgium.

•Jews were blamed for bringing on the

plague. All over Europe, Jews were

driven from their homes or, worse,

massacred.

• The Church suffered a loss of prestige when its prayers failed to stop the

onslaught of the bubonic plague and priests abandoned their duties.

The bubonic plague and its aftermath disrupted medieval society, hastening

changes that were already in the making. The society of the Middle Ages was col-

lapsing. The century of war between England and France was that society’s final

death struggle.

The Hundred Years’ War

Not only did the people in Europe during the 1300s have to deal with epidemic dis-

ease, but they also had to deal with war. England and France battled with each

other on French soil for just over a century. The century of war between England

and France marked the end of medieval Europe’s society.

When the last Capetian king died without a successor, England’s Edward III, as

grandson of Philip IV, claimed the right to the French throne. The war that Edward

III launched for that throne continued on and off from 1337 to 1453. It became

known as the

Hundred Years’ War. Victory passed back and forth between the two

countries. Finally, between 1421 and 1453, the French rallied and drove the English

out of France entirely, except for the port city of Calais.

The Hundred Years’ War brought a change in the style of warfare in Europe. At

this time some combatants were still operating under medieval ideals of chivalry.

They looked with contempt on the common foot soldiers and archers who fought

alongside them. This contempt would change as the longbow changed warfare.

Recognizing

Effects

Which of the

effects of the

plague do you think

most changed life

in the medieval

period?

The Formation of Western Europe 401

If the Plague Struck America Today

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

The bubonic plague reportedly wiped out

about one-third of Europe’s population in the

1300s. In the United States today, a one-third

death toll would equal over 96 million people,

or the number living in the states represented

by the color .

SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting Charts

1. Clarifying How many states on the chart would have

lost their entire population to the plague?

2. Drawing Conclusions How might the chart help

explain why many Europeans thought the world was

ending?

Page 4 of 6

The Longbow Changes Warfare The English introduced the longbow and

demonstrated its power in three significant battles: Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt.

The first and most spectacular battle was the Battle of Crécy (KREHS•ee) on

August 26, 1346. The English army, including longbowmen, was outnumbered by

a French army three times its size. The French army included knights and archers

with crossbows. French knights believed themselves invincible and attacked.

English longbowmen let fly thousands of arrows at the oncoming French. The

crossbowmen, peppered with English arrows, retreated in panic. The knights tram-

pled their own archers in an effort to cut a path through them. English longbow-

men sent volley after volley of deadly arrows. They unhorsed knights who then lay

helplessly on the ground in their heavy armor. Then, using long knives, the English

foot soldiers attacked, slaughtering the French. At the end of the day, more than a

third of the French force lay dead. Among them were some of the most honored in

chivalry. The longbow, not chivalry, had won the day. The mounted, heavily

armored medieval knight was soon to become extinct.

The English repeated their victory ten years later at the Battle of Poitiers

(pwah•TYAY). The third English victory, the Battle of Agincourt (AJ•ihn•

KAWRT),

took place in 1415. The success of the longbow in these battles spelled doom for

chivalric warfare.

Joan of Arc In 1420, the French and English signed a treaty stating that Henry V

would inherit the French crown upon the death of the French king Charles VI.

Then, in 1429, a teenage French peasant girl named

Joan of Arc felt moved by God

to rescue France from its English conquerors. When Joan was just 13 she began to

have visions and hear what she believed were voices of the saints. They urged her

to drive the English from France and give the French crown to France’s true king,

Charles VII, son of Charles VI.

On May 7, 1429, Joan led the French army into battle at a fort city near Orléans.

The fort blocked the road to Orléans. It was a hard-fought battle for both sides. The

French finally retreated in despair. Suddenly, Joan and a few soldiers charged back

toward the fort. The entire French army stormed after her. The siege of Orléans was

402 Chapter 14

The Longbow

The longbow was cheap, easy to

carry, and deadly. It was powerful

enough to penetrate armor, thus

reducing the impact of mounted

cavalry. Bowmen could fire so fast

that the longbow has been called the

“machine gun of the Middle Ages.”

The longbow was as tall

as a man, or taller. A six-

foot-tall man might have a

bow up to six and a half

feet tall.

▲

English archers usually

carried a case with extra

bowstrings and a sheaf of

24 arrows. The arrows were

about 27 inches long and

balanced in flight by feathers.

▲

▲ The arrows were absolutely

fatal when shot within 100 yards.

The average archer could fire 12

to 15 arrows per minute and hit

a man at 200 yards away.

Page 5 of 6

broken. Joan of Arc guided the French onto the path

of victory.

After that victory, Joan persuaded Charles to go with her

to Reims. There he was crowned king on July 17, 1429. In

1430, the Burgundians, England’s allies, captured Joan in

battle. They turned her over to the English. The English, in

turn, handed her over to Church authorities to stand trial.

Although the French king Charles VII owed his crown to

Joan, he did nothing to rescue her. Condemned as a witch

and a heretic because of her claim to hear voices, Joan was

burned at the stake on May 30, 1431.

The Impact of the Hundred Years’ War The long,

exhausting war finally ended in 1453. Each side experi-

enced major changes.

•A feeling of nationalism emerged in England and

France. Now people thought of the king as a national

leader, fighting for the glory of the country, not

simply a feudal lord.

• The power and prestige of the French monarch increased.

• The English suffered a period of internal turmoil

known as the War of the Roses, in which two noble

houses fought for the throne.

Some historians consider the end of the Hundred Years’

War in 1453 as the end of the Middle Ages. The twin pillars

of the medieval world, religious devotion and the code of

chivalry, both crumbled. The Age of Faith died a slow death.

This death was caused by the Great Schism, the scandalous

display of wealth by the Church, and the discrediting of the

Church during the bubonic plague. The Age of Chivalry

died on the battlefields of Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt.

The Formation of Western Europe 403

TERMS & NAMES 1. For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

• Avignon • Great Schism • John Wycliffe • Jan Hus • bubonic plague • Hundred Years’ War • Joan of Arc

USING YOUR NOTES

2. Which event had some

economic effects? Explain.

MAIN IDEAS

3. What was the Great Schism?

4. What were three effects of the

bubonic plague?

5. What impact did Joan of Arc

have on the Hundred Years’

War?

SECTION ASSESSMENT

MAPPING AN EPIDEMIC

Research the number of AIDS victims in countries throughout the world. Then, create an

annotated world map showing the numbers in each country. Be sure to list your sources.

CRITICAL THINKING & WRITING

6. RECOGNIZING EFFECTS Which event do you think

diminished the power of the Church more—the Great

Schism or the bubonic plague?

7. I DENTIFYING PROBLEMS What problems did survivors

face after the bubonic plague swept through their town?

8. RECOGNIZING EFFECTS How did the Hundred Years’ War

encourage a feeling of nationalism in both France and

England?

9. WRITING ACTIVITY Write a

persuasive essay supporting the right of the pope to

appoint French bishops.

RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL SYSTEMS

CONNECT TO TODAY

Joan of Arc

1412?–1431

In the 1420s, rumors circulated

among the French that a young

woman would save France from

the English. So when Joan arrived

on the scene she was considered

the fulfillment of that prophecy.

Joan cut her hair short and wore a

suit of armor and carried a sword.

Her unusual appearance and

extraordinary confidence inspired

French troops. Eventually she was

given command of troops that broke

the siege of Orléans. In 1430, she

was turned over to a Church court for

trial. In truth, her trial was more

political than religious. The English

were determined to prove her a fake

and to weaken her image.

RESEARCH LINKS For more on Joan

of Arc, go to

classzone.com

Spli

Chu

Plague

oo Years

ause

ffec

Drawing

Conclusions

How did the

Hundred Years’

War change the

perception of

people toward

their king?

Page 6 of 6

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