become one, for if he did it would be greatly to his honor and advantage,
but if, on the other hand, he refused to obey, he would be punished.^18
The old values lived on.
*****
Between the years 1350 and 1500, a series of catastrophes struck Europe. The
Black Death felled at least a fifth of the population of Europe. The Hundred Years’
War wreaked havoc when archers shot and cannons roared; it loosed armies of
freebooters in both town and country during its interstices of peace. The Ottomans
conquered Byzantium, took over the Balkans, and threatened Austria and Hungary.
The church splintered as first the Great Schism and then national churches tore at the
loyalties of churchmen and laity alike.
Yet these catastrophes were confronted, if not always overcome, with both
energy and inventiveness. In England, peasants loosed the bonds of serfdom; in
Portugal and Spain, adventurers discovered gold and land via the high seas; and
everywhere bibliophiles and artists discovered wisdom and beauty in the classical past
while princes flexed the muscles of sovereignty. History books normally divide this
period into two parts, the crises going into a chapter on the Middle Ages, the
creativity saved for a chapter on the Renaissance. But the two happened together,
witness to Europe’s aggressive resilience. Indeed, in the next century it would parcel
out the globe.
Chapter Eight Key Events
1324/1326 Death of Othman, founder of Ottomans
1304–1374 Petrarch
c.1330–1384 John Wyclif
1337–1453 Hundred Years’ War
c.1340–1400 Geoffrey Chaucer
1346–1353 Black Death
1351 Statute of Laborers in England
1358 Jacquerie in France
1369/1371–1415 Jan Hus
