1377

From corruption and bloodshed to the publication of important works, the year 1377 was a pivotal time in medieval Europe. On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Stephen Nichols outlines significant moments from this eventful year in the 14th century.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. A few weeks ago, we were in Avignon and looking at the Avignon papacy and the fourteenth century.

Well, there was a particular year that stood out during that fourteenth century. On this episode, I'd like to spend our time talking about that single year. It was a pivotal moment in a crucial year. It was the year 1377.

In that year, John Wycliffe published On Civil Dominion. This is one of three books that are very crucial books that John Wycliffe published. This is the first, On Civil Dominion. Wycliffe also wrote De Ecclesia, and then we have his Bible, the Wycliffe Bible.

Well, in On Civil Dominion, Wycliffe was challenging much that was happening in that day. He was challenging much about the Holy Roman Empire, and he was helping the king of England and England see that they could rule themselves and that they did not need to be part of this Holy Roman Empire.

When it came to De Ecclesia, Wycliffe turned on the papacy. Wycliffe made a simple argument: It is the priests and the local churches there in England that know what the people of England need for their spiritual lives, not the Pope in Rome or in Avignon, as the case may be at this time.

Of course, we have his Bible, Wycliffe's desire to put the Bible in the language of the people. But it was his book, On Civil Dominion that was published in 1377, that caught the attention and the ire of then Pope Gregory XI. Gregory XI condemned the teachings of Wycliffe's book, and he dispatched five papal bulls. He sent one to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He sent one to the Bishop of London. He sent one to the king, one to the Chancellor at Oxford, and one just generally to Oxford University as an attempt to ostracize Wycliffe and to keep his teachings from spreading.

Well, it didn't work. It was also in this time that the Pope had his hands busy with a German Augustinian friar named Johannes Klencock. Klencock lived from 1310 to 1374. He was from Lower Saxony, Germany. He also was writing very similarly to Wycliffe's Civil Dominion, and his views on feudal law landed him papal condemnations as well. In 1377, because of Wycliffe's book, they were still talking about this German Augustinian friar.

Well, this was also the time of Catherine of Siena. She was born in 1347 and died in 1380. She was of the Dominican Order. She was a mystic. She claimed visions, and she wrote of her visions, and she wrote a significant amount of letters, and through all that had quite an influence. In 1377, this year we are talking about, she founded a monastery for women. It was in that year that she wrote her book Dialogue. She also, through her great influence, was probably one of the leading influences on Gregory XI to leave Avignon and the papacy that was established there in the papal palace and reinstate the papacy at Rome. That is exactly what Gregory XI did. In 1377, he moved the papacy back to Rome.

It was quite a year, 1377. Well, what else happened? Well, in January of 1377, the Bad Parliament met in England. This was led by John Gaunt, a prince, Duke of Lancaster, maybe the wealthiest man of his day. The Bad Parliament reversed the rulings of the Good Parliament. The Good Parliament met back in 1376. It did much to clean up the corruption in the English court. But then through the influence of John Gaunt in 1377, there was the Bad Parliament.

In 1377, there was also a massacre in Cesena on Italy's eastern border on the Adriatic Sea. This massacre was led by a bishop, a cardinal, Robert of Geneva. He would later become Clement VII. He unleashed this on the city. About 4,000 people died in the city of Cesena.

It was the year of 1377, an eventful year. I'm Steve Nichols. Thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.