5. Late Medieval Reform. The call for reformation
at the end of the Middle Ages was very different from
that sounded earlier. It was more shrill, strident, urgent.
It would be difficult to overestimate the devastating
impact on all areas of thought and life of the
“Babylonian Captivity” of the papacy at Avignon
(1309-77) and of the Great Schism, when there were
two or three claimants to the papal see at once
(1378-1417). Shocked reformers of various kinds
responded to the confused situation. William Durand
coined the phrase reformatio in capite et in membris,
calling for reform in head and members. The concili-
arists placed the blame primarily on the papacy and
curia and worked for administrative and constitutional
change. Typical of this criticism were the Speculum
aureum de titulis beneficiorum, a “golden mirror”
reflecting the abuses of the benefices, and the Squalores
curiae Romanae. A popular acrostic device which
appeared often in the literature was Radix Omnium
Malorum Avaritia = ROMA; love of money is the root
of all evil. In 1410 Dietrich of Niem in his treatise
De modis uniendi et reformandi ecclesiam in concilio
universali argued that healing the schism had to be
accompanied by the cleansing of the Church. The
powers usurped by the papacy had to be taken away,
the beneficiary and financial policy had to be com-
pletely reformed, and the Church restored to the Via
antiqua, its former condition.
The pre-reformers or “forerunners of the Reforma-
tion” had their individual diagnoses of ills and pro-
grams for reform. In the late Middle Ages there was
still general agreement that the reform of the Church
was the work of God Himself, acting through spiritual
men. There was considerably less agreement as to
which spiritually quickened members of the body of
Christ were authorized to lead an authentic reforma-
tion or what the best method for effecting a reform
might be. Marsiglio of Padua in his Defensor pacis
(1324) not only roundly assaulted abuses in the Church,
but proposed constitutional changes, on the analogy
of the city-state, which would diminish the
monarchical episcopate and introduce representative
principles. The new constitution of the Church would
not be democratic in honoring majority rule in terms
of numbers, but would take into account representation
by quality of office, order, and estate. William of
Ockham joined the Franciscans and protested in favor
of “evangelical poverty.” He was a severe critic of the
worldliness and wealth of Pope John XXII. Ockham
saw service as a basic character of the Church which
had the power of law, service to Christ first of all. The
external church whose societal structure involves her
in the sphere of worldly power must constantly be
pressed to conform to the “true church” of service.
John Wycliffe (1328-84) believed that zealous laymen,
sovereign rulers who are worthy Christians, must as-
sume the task of reforming where worldly and wicked
churchmen have defaulted and should be deposed.
Everyone whom the Holy Spirit moves is called to act
in behalf of the Church. Every Christian who lives
according to Christ's will becomes a reformer
automatically in the sphere of his personal life. In this
tradition the Bohemian reformer John Hus (1369-1415)
exclaimed, “O Christ, it will take a long time before
the proud priests will become so humble as to subject
themselves to the Church for sin, as thou, being
innocent, hast subjected thyself” (Schmidt, 1964).
Wessel Gansfort (ca. 1420-89) conceived of reform in
terms of a greater spiritualization of religious rites and
dogma, exercizing a considerable influence upon
Luther, at least by way of confirming him in stressing
the inwardness of religion.
An example of the way in which the religious idea
of reformation fused in the sacramental kingship con-
cept is provided by the fifteenth-century document
known as the
reformatio Sigismundi. This widely
circulated treatise purported to be an account of a
vision of Emperor Sigismund which came to him as
he lay dreaming on his bed near the dawn. In the vision
Sigismund was commissioned to prepare a road for the
coming of the divine order, for all written law lacks
righteousness. The coming of the priest-king Frederick
is foretold, who will bring into being God's own order
by promoting a spiritual and secular reform program.
The document was clearly intended to support the
efforts of Emperor Sigismund (1410-37) to see the
Council of Basel (1431-49) succeed in reform. John of
Segovia, chronicler of the council, wrote: “Reform can
be understood either as the extirpation of evil or as
the increase of the gifts of the Holy Spirit” (Koller,
1964; Oberman, 1966).
The concept of reformation was given an imme-
diately practical technical meaning in the Empire
during the fifteenth century. Not only did poets and
pamphleteers demand “reformation,” but lawyers
worked on the revival of Roman law (important from
the twelfth century on) and the reform of the imperial
order, city and territorial law. The gravamina or
grievances of the Empire articulated regularly at the
Diets throughout the fifteenth century were often
coupled with appeals to the “good old law” and the
superior condition of things in former times. Thus the
Diet of Eger “reformed” feuding law and coinage in
1436. In the reform of city ordinances (Nuremberg,
1479; Worms, 1498; Frankfurt, 1509, etc.), the renewal
and restoration of the “good old law and customs” was
the program. The term “reformation” was given a legal
application in the modernizing of territorial law as in
the case of the 1518 “reformation of Bavarian territo-
rial law.” The lethargic Emperor Frederick III codified
a “reformation of the territorial peace” in 1442
(Maurer, 1961).
