254 Chapter 14
anxiety. At the same time, higher literacy rates, already
apparent in the fourteenth century, narrowed the intel-
lectual gap between the clergy and their flocks and led
to an increased sophistication in matters religious.
When the church, beset with enemies and divided in-
ternally, failed to meet this revolution of rising spiritual
expectations, the call for reform became strident and
ultimately irresistible.
The role of the late medieval church was broader
and more closely integrated with the secular world than
it is today. The pope was responsible not only for the
spiritual welfare of western Christians, but also for the
administration and defense of the papal states, a terri-
tory that embraced much of central Italy. At the local
level, bishops, parishes, monasteries, and other ecclesi-
astical foundations probably controlled 20 percent of
the arable land in Europe. In less-settled areas such as
the north of England the total may have approached 70
percent. Many Europeans therefore lived on estates
held by the church or had regular business dealings
with those who managed them. Such contacts often
caused resentment and may at times have encouraged
the appearance of corruption.
Social services, too, were the church’s responsibil-
ity. Hospitals, the care of orphans, and the distribution
of charity were commonly administered by clerics, as
was formal education from the grammar school to the
university. In an age when inns were few and wretched,
monasteries often served as hotels, offering food and
lodging to travelers in return for nominal donations.
Involvement with the world bred a certain worldli-
ness. Because its practical responsibilities were great,
the church was often forced to reward those in whom
administrative skills were more developed than spiritu-
ality. Because the church offered one of the few avail-
able routes to upward social mobility, ambition or
family interest caused many to become clerics without
an adequate religious vocation. Some had little choice.
Children were often destined for the priesthood at a
tender age, while unmarriageable women or those who
preferred a career other than that of wife and mother
had only the convent as a refuge. For women of talent
and ambition, the opportunity to govern an abbey or
a charitable institution was a route to self-fulfillment
and public service that was otherwise unavailable in
medieval society.
Not all late medieval clerics were governed by
worldly motives. Alongside spiritual indifference and
corruption were extreme piety and asceticism. For
many people the contrast may have been too painful in
an era of great spiritual need. In any case the anticleri-
calism that had always been present in European life
ran especially high in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies. Though by no means universal—the ties be-
tween lay people and their parish priests often
remained close—it was an underlying accompaniment
to the events that convulsed the church throughout this
period.Anticlericalism and the Decline of Papal Authority
Papal authority was one of the first casualties of the
conflict between church and state and of the growing
confusion over the temporal and spiritual roles of the
clergy. A series of scandals beginning around 1300
gravely weakened the ability of the popes either to
govern the church or to institute effective reforms in
the face of popular demand.
In 1294 the saintly Celestine V resigned from the
papacy in part because he feared that the exercise of its
duties imperiled his soul. His successor, Boniface VIII,
had no such concerns. A vigorous advocate of papal au-
thority, Boniface came into conflict with both Edward I
of England and Philip IV of France over the issue of
clerical taxation. The two kings were at war with one
another, and each sought to tax the clergy of their re-
spective realms to pay for it. When the pope forbade
the practice in the bull Clericis Laicos, Philip blocked the
transmission of money from France to Rome. Boniface
backed down, but Philip was not content with partial
victories. In 1301, he convicted the papal legate of
treason and demanded that Boniface ratify the decision
of the French courts. This he could not do without
sacrificing papal jurisdiction over the French church.
When Boniface issued the decree Unam Sanctam,a bold
assertion of papal authority over the secular state,
Philip had him kidnapped at Anagni in 1303. Physically
mistreated by his captors and furious over this unprece-
dented assault on papal dignity, Boniface died shortly
thereafter.
After the brief pontificate of Benedict IX, French
influence in the College of Cardinals secured the elec-
tion of the bishop of Bordeaux, who became pope as
Clement V (served 1305–14). The Roman populace
was outraged. Riot and disorder convinced Clement
that Rome would be an unhealthy place for a French-
man. He decided to establish himself at Avignon, a pa-
pal territory in the south of France. The papacy would
remain there for seventy-three years.
The stay of the popes at Avignon was called the
Babylonian Captivity because the church appeared to
have been taken captive by the French as the biblical
children of Israel had been held at Babylon. It was an