Lecture 35: Corruption and the Beginnings of Reform
o Predictably, corruption in the system involved sex, money,
and power.o The centralized power of the papacy, once so important in
forging the medieval synthesis, appeared increasingly to be a
problem more than a solution, especially when its claims—as
with Boniface VIII—stretched credulity. In the years of the
Avignon papacy and the Great Schism, the moral authority of
the papacy was greatly reduced.The Beginnings of Reform
• The stirrings of reform and even revolt appeared in the 14th and 15th
centuries among men and women who thought of themselves as
Christians and good Catholics, but whose desire to reform, when
resisted, sometimes became more radical, foreshadowing the great
Reformation of the 16th century.• Already in the early 14th century, Marsilius of Padua, rector at the
University of Paris, wrote a devastating attack on the power of the
papacy in Defensor pacis (Defender of the Peace, 1324). He was
excommunicated for his views by John XXII in 1327 and spent the
rest of his life, predictably, under the protection of the emperor.
o Marsilius argued that the state is the unifying force in society
and that the church must be subordinated to state authority;
the church has no inherent authority in either temporal or
spiritual matters.o The papacy, furthermore, is a human not a divine institution
and would have no authority at all were it not for the Donation
of Constantine (still thought to be authentic).• The female mystics Birgitta of Sweden and Catherine of Siena
both called for the reunification of the papacy and the reform of
the morals of the clergy. Although they did not call for structural
changes, their voices are significant for illustrating the awareness
of moral corruption, even within the ranks of the most deeply
committed Christians.