XIII. Avignon (1309-1517, in the west)

Shortly after the western Catholic church achieved the height of its authority and influence in the 1200s, it experienced a sudden decline particularly during the 1300s. 

The tumultuous 1300s saw the spread of the Plague and other natural disasters. During this time, the Papacy underwent two major crises, namely the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and the Great Western Schism. At the Council of 1215, Pope Innocent III had asserted the absolute power of the Pope, conceptualised as the Vicar of Christ on earth. However, the King of France then asserted his power and the Pope became his subordinate. The King of France even went to the lengths of relocating the Papacy from Rome to Avignon. This lasted from 1309 until 1377. However, no sooner had this crisis been overcome, than a second crisis followed on: the Great Schism of the western church which lasted from 1378 to 1417. During this second crisis, two and at times three different people claimed to be Pope, mobilising finance and even military intervention in support of their claim.  

The council Constance which concluded in 1417 formally dealt with the problem of multiple popes and could have set things up for regular councils. A desire was expressed for "reform root and branch" of the church. However, it failed to deal with the underlying problems, which 100 years later would lead to the Protestant Reformation. The Borgia popes of the early 1500s were particularly odious.  

During this time and earlier there emerged various figures in the west who called for reform. They are sometimes referred to as the Morning Stars of the Reformation. A very early example was Peter Valdo of Lyons in the 1100s. The movement he started, the Poor of Lyons, in some was resembled the later mendicant orders such as the Franciscans. It represented a reaction to the powerful institutional church. What began as a quasi-monastic movement, which did not receive the Papal blessing it sought, morphed into an alternative underground church based in the mountains between France and Italy. Based on the name of the founder, it is known as the Waldensian church. At the time of the Protestant Reformation it joined the reformed churches and continues to this day as a major church in Italy, albeit quite liberal in outlook. A second example of a "Morning Star" is John Wycliffe, a catholic priest and university lecturer. At the time of the Great Schism, John Wycliffe advocated a policy of non-payment of financial contributions to those who claimed to be Pope based on the concept of "Dominion". As John Wycliffe wrestled with the discrepancy between the church as founded by God and the church in reality in Europe of 1300s he described this in terms of the invisible church and the visible church. He also advocated the supreme authority of Scripture over the rulings of church councils. Many of Wycliffe's ideas were taken up by Jan Hus, a Czech priest and teacher, who studied at Oxford some time later that Wycliffe. Jan Hus held to the authority of Scripture even if this challenged the authority of the rulings of church councils. It was for this stance that he was burnt at the stake in 1415. Somewhat later, at Florence, there was a monk and preacher called Savonarola who was a sort of John the Baptist figure preaching against the sins of his time.   

Around this same time, there was a general mood in society which was dissatisfied with what would later be called the "Middle Ages" and longed for a return to the culture of Antiquity (the time before the fall of the western Roman Empire). This was expressed in the Renaissance (meaning rebirth) and saw a flourishing of knowledge and the arts. The Renaissance first began in Florence in the 1350s, and there was a later phase ("Northern Renaissance") based in what is now Belgium and the Netherlands. A major figure in the northern Renaissance was Erasmus. Like many Renaissance scholars he wanted to go back to the sources ("Ad fontes"). Erasmus produced a printed edition of the Greek New Testament. This lay the foundation for the Protestant Reformation and a return to the teaching of the Bible. Erasmus influenced many, such as Zwingli, to turn from superstition to the true God of the Bible, although he himself did not fully become Protestant. Luther famously wrote a tract challenging Erasmus' ideas on human free will.