Death and Disaster

McLaughlin1

Taylor McLaughlin

Professor Dearmin

HUM 1215

2 March 2012

Death and Disaster

The 14th century had some very tremendous and horrific altercations to it in Europe, most of which are considered to be the most devastating events in European history. The first event that came along was the decline of church with the Avignon Papacy (1309-1377), and the Great Schism (1378-1417), then the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), and another tragic disaster called the Black Death occurred in Europe and parts of Russia in 1346 and lasted all the way through until 1353. The thirteen and fourteen hundreds were some of the most horrendous times for life in Europe because of these three events.

These events had a tremendous impact on European lifestyle because of the ways things were changing over a short amount of time. The first event was the Avignon Papacy and the Great Schism this had the effect on the lifestyle because at the time there were a total of 7 different Popes, all were French, and all were increasingly under the influence of the French crown. Also causing conflict between the people and the Popes was that the Popes resided in France instead of the more traditional home of Rome. This had such a dramatic effect on the European lifestyle because some of the Popes bowed before the French crown, which tied in government and religion in the churches. Also "The unsavory efforts at financial and political aggrandizement damaged the reputation of the Church" (Fiero 4). The Great Schism was not very pleasing for the European lifestyle as well because of the French government did not approve of the election of Italian Pope and in return he elected a Pope of his own.. So that had split the churches and created an Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Hundred Years' War had a major factor on European lifestyle because of the changes in warfare such as the use of long range gun powder weapons. It also damaged the people around it from all of the deaths in the town and conflict between the UK and France. Another factor that caused the European lifestyle was the Black Death, killing and infecting over 60% of the European population. A sudden outbreak in illness that was untreatable and caused death within a couple of days. All of these events posed a sort of roadblock on sources of power because of the need for a steady period of time where there was no disaster or epidemic occurring. The European lifestyle didn't get the break they needed to rebuild. Before any of these events occurred they were boiling in a pot of conflict between the government and religion which caused the Avignon Papacy and the Great Schism to occur. The Hundred Years' War was an event already