The Fourteenth Century And We Come To The Down Part Of The Late Middle Ages

The Fourteenth Century And We Come To The Down Part Of The Late Middle Ages

Starting with a period of uncertain weather, a global cooling sets in. Rains and unseasonable frosts bring on a decline in harvests and then total crop failures. There is wide spread famine and progressively colder weather. The Viking outposts in Greenland freeze to death and will not be resettled. By the middle of the century, plague will follow famine until, by the end of the century, the population of Europe will be only half what it was at the start.

If the plague and the weather aren't enough, cannons come to be in wide use during this century.

Weather Gets Colder and the Arts Take Off

1300 Population is high and there is a temporary end to the European slave trade. 1300 - Those terrific tournaments the knights used to have to keep them sharp for the crusades

are becoming more and more pure entertainment. They start having dramatic elements including elaborate processions and dramatic interludes in the evenings.

c. 1300 - Religious guilds and confraternities appear around Europe. They are by and large made up of laymen with some clergy. In northern England these are the craft guilds. When they produce the religious plays the church must still OK the scripts.

Professional musical entertainers called Jongleurs appear in France. 1303 The Pope is again called to judge the Teutonic Knights* and again he claims they are

guilty. 1305 The Italian painter, Giotto*, paints frescoes in Padua. Philip IV* of France is real chummy with Pope Clement V* Philip* wants to abolish all those

powerful military orders and start up one of his own. 1305- The Pope* is taken over by the French and moves to Avignon. 1307 Dante* composes his Divine Commedia. Philip IV* arrests all the Templars* in his realm and tries them for heresy. 1308 Philip IV* also persuades his chum, the Pope, to authorize the arrest and trial of all the

Templars* throughout Europe. The Pope* does. Philip* does, and many Templars* are condemned and burned.

1309 The Teutonic Knights* get the message and move their headquarters from Venice to Marrienburg castle in Prussia*, beyond Philip's* reach. They expand their territory in the Baltic (Pomerelia and Danzig) and carry on a running fight with Poland and Lithuania. What with the end of the Crusades to the Holy Land, and all that trouble with Philip* in Europe, adventurous nobles flock to the Baltic Crusade*.

1311 Official sanction is finally given to the Corpus Christi Festival* and it's soon celebrated almost everywhere. The date is the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, varying from May 23 to June 24.

The Corpus Christi Festival* is established in an effort to make the church more relevant to the ordinary man and his life. Its theme (the redemptive power of communion) is one that can draw plots from all biblical events. Eventually a cosmic drama (which covers events from the creation to the destruction of the world) comes to be acted as the main part of the festival. More importantly other groups (besides the clergy) are given roles in the celebrations (nobles, merchants and craftsmen.) Not all plays are associated with this festival. Other celebrations when plays are done include Easter, Whitsuntide (seven weeks after Easter,) feast days of the patron saint of a particular city, and special occasions such as gratitude for deliverance from plague, etc.

1311 - From this date on there are Corpus Christi festivals* in England. 1313 The problem of producing copies of documents leads to metal type casting (for printing)

which first shows up in the East (probably Korea.) 1313 - The first clear record of plays done for the French Street Pageant celebration honoring

Edward II*'s visit. 1314 The historic defeat of the English by the Scots at Bannockburn* where William Wallace

and Robert Bruce gain fame. Now that there is very little crusading going on, the military religious orders are really in

trouble, and in France the Grand Marshal of the Templars is burned at the stake for heresy. 1315 A silk industry starts up in Lyon by Italian immigrants. 1332 The bubonic plague* starts showing up in India. 1336 - Down in Milan, Italy, Dominican monks are using that wagon stage business for their

Magi Play*. 1337 The Hundred Years' War* between England and France begins.