Urban’s successor, Boniface IX (1389–1404), reconquered the papal states and set
up governors (many of them his family members) to rule them. Desperate for more
revenues, the popes turned all their prerogatives into sources of income. Boniface,
for example, put church benefices on the open market and commercialized
“indulgences”—acts of piety (such as viewing a relic or attending a special church
feast) for which people were promised release from Purgatory for a specific number
of days. Now money payments were declared equivalent to performing the acts.
Many people willingly made such purchases; others were outraged that Heaven was
for sale.
Solutions to end the schism eventually coalesced around the idea of a council.
The “conciliarists”—those who advocated the convening of a council that would
have authority over even the pope—included both university men and princes
anxious to flex their muscles over the church. At the Council of Pisa (1409), which
neither of the popes attended, the delegates deposed them both and elected a new
man. But the two deposed popes refused to budge: there were now three popes, one
at Avignon, one at Rome, and a third at Bologna. The successor of the newest one,
John XXIII, turned to the emperor to arrange for another council.
The Council of Constance (1414–1418) met to resolve the papal crisis as well as
to institute church reforms. In the first task it succeeded, deposing the three rivals
and electing Martin V as pope. In the second, it was less successful, for it did not end
the fragmentation of the church. National, even nationalist, churches had begun to
form, independent of and sometimes in opposition to papal leadership. Meanwhile the
conciliar movement continued, developing an influential theory that held that church
authority in the final instance resided in a corporate body (whether representing
prelates or more broadly the community of the faithful) rather than the pope.
POPULAR RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN ENGLAND AND BOHEMIA
While the conciliarists worried about the structure of the church, many men and
women thought more about their personal relationship with Christ. The Book of
Margery Kempe is about an English woman (presumably Margery Kempe, though
she calls herself “the creature” throughout the book) who had long conversations
with the Lord. In “contemplation” she traveled back in time to serve Mary, the
mother of Jesus:
[Mary said to Margery], “follow me, your service pleases me well.”
