REFORMATION
701
REFORMATION
ference, and immorality were rife. Nevertheless,
vigorous efforts to revive religious life were made in
most lands, and side by side with this moral decay
appear numerous examples of sincere and upright
Christian life. Such efforts, however, were too often
confined to limited circles. From the fourteenth
century the demand for "reform of head and mem-
bers" {reformatio in capite et in membris) had been
voiced with ever-increasing energj' by serious and dis-
cerning men, but the same cry was taken up also by
many who had no real desire for a religious renewal,
wishing merely to reform others but not themselves,
and seeking solely their own interests. This call
for reformation of head and members, discussed in
many writings and in conversation with insistence
on existing and often exaggerated abuses, tended
necessarily to lower the clergy still more in the eyes
of the people, especially as the councils of the fifteenth
century, though largely occupied with attempts at
reformation, did not succeed in accomplishing it
e.xtensively or permanently.
C. The authority of the Holy See had also been seriously impaired, partly through the fault of some of its occupants and partly through that of the secular princes. The pope's removal to Avignon in the four- teenth century was a giievous error, since the univer- sal character of the pajiacy was thus obscured in the minds of the Christian people. Certain phases of the quarrel with Louis the Bavarian and with the Fran- ciscan Spirituals clearly indicate a decline of the papal power. The severest blow was dealt by the disas- trous papal schism (137S-1418) which familiarized Western Christians with the idea that war might be made, with all spiritual and material weapons, against one whom many other Christians regarded as the only lawful pope. After the restoration of unity, the attempted reforms of the Papal Curia were not thorough. Himianism and the ideals of the Renaissance were zealously cultivated in Rome, and unfortunately the heathen tendencies of this move- ment, so opjiosed to the Christian moral law, affected too profoundlj- the life of many higher ecclesiastics, so that worldly ideas, luxury, and immorality rapidly gained ground at the centre of ecclesiastical life. WTien ecclesiastical authority grew weak at the fountain-head, it necessarily decayed elsewhere. There were also serious administrative abuses in the Papal Curia. The ever-increasing centralization of ecclesiastical administration had brought it about that far too many ecclesiastical benefices in all parts of Christendom were conferred at Rome, while in the granting of them the personal interests of the peti- tioner, rather than the spiritual needs of the faithful, were too often considered. The various kinds of reservation had also become a grievous abuse. Dissatisfaction was felt widely among the clergy at the many taxes imposed by the Curia on the in- cumbents of ecclesiastical benefices. From the four- teenth century these taxes called forth loud com- plaints. In proportion as the papal authority lost the respect of many, resentment grew against both the Curia and the Papacy. The reform councils of the fifteenth century, instead of improving this situation, weakened still more the highest ecclesias- tical authority by reason of their anti-papal tendencies and measures.
D. In princes and governments there had mean- while develoi)ed a national consciousness, purely temporal and to a great extent hostile to the Church; the civil powers interfered more frequently in ec- clesiastical matters, and the direct influence exercised by laymen on the domestic administration of the Church rapidly increased. In the course of the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries arose the modern con- cept of the State. During the preceding period many matters of a secular or mixed nature had been regulated or managed by the Church, in keeping with
the historical development of European society.
With the growing self-consciousness of the State,
the secular governments sought to control all matters
that fell within their competence, which course, al-
though in large measure justifiable, was new and of-
fensive, and thus led to frequent collisions between
Church and State. The State, moreover, owing to
the close historical connexion between the ecclesias-
tical and secular orders, encroached on the ecclesias-
tical domain. During the course of the Western
Schism (1378-1418) opposing popes sought the sup-
port of the civil powers, and thus gave the latter
abundant occasion to interfere in purely ecclesiastical
affaii-s. Again, to strengthen their authority in the
face of anti-papal tendencies, the popes of the fif-
teenth century made at various times certain con-
cessions to the civil authorities, so that the latter
came to regard ecclesiastical affairs as within their
domain. For the future the Church was to be,
not superordinate, but subordinate to the civil
power, and was increasingly menaced with complete
subjection. According as national self-consciousness
developed in the various countries of Europe, the
sense of the unity and interdependence of the Chris-
tian family of nations grew weaker. Jealousy be-
tween nations increased, selfishness gained ground,
the rift between politics and Christian morality and
religion grew wider, and discontent and perilous
revolutionary tendencies spread rapidly among the
people. Love of wealth was meanwhile given a great
incentive bj' the discovery of the New World, the
rapid development of commerce, and the new pros-
perity of the cities. In public life a many-sided and
intense activity revealed itself, foreshadowing a new
era and inclining the popular mind to changes in the
hitherto undivided province of religion.
E. The Renaissance and Humanism partly intro- duced and greatly fostered these conditions. Love of luxurj' was soon associated with the revival of the art and literature of Graeco-lloman paganism. The Christian religious ideal was to a great extent lost sight of; higher intellectual culture, previously confined in gi-eat measure to the clergy, but now common among the laity, assumed a secular character, and in only too many cases fostered actively and prac- tically a pagan spirit, pagan morality and views. A crude materialism obtained among the higher classes of society and in the educated world, characterized by a gross love of pleasure, a desire for gain, and a voluptuousness of life diametrically opposed to Chris- tian morality. Only a faint interest in the super- natural life survived. The new art of printing made it possible to disseminate widely the works of pagan authors and of their humanistic imitators. Immoral poems and romances, biting satires on ecclesiastical persons and institutions, revolutionary works and songs, were circulated in all directions and wrought immense harm. As Humanism grew, it waged vio- lent war against the Scholasticism of the time. The traditional theological method had greatly degener- ated owing to the finical, hair-splitting manner of treating theological questions, and a solid and thorough treatment of theology had unhappily dis- appeared from many schools and WTitings. The Humanists cultivated new methods, and based theology on the Bible and the study of the Fathers, an essentially good movement which might have re- newed the study of theology, if properly developed. But the violence of the Humanists, their exaggerated attacks on Schola.sticism (q. v.), and the frequent obscurity of their teaching aroused strong opposition from the representative Scholastics. The new movement, however, had won the sympathy of the lay world and of the section of the clergy devoted to Humanism. The danger was only too imminent that the reform wotild not be confined to theological meth- ods, but would reach the content of ecclesiastical
