There were genuine abuses in the Church that needed addressing, but they are not the issues that seem to trouble Protestants today. Attempts were made since the 14th century to curb them, but they had become firmly entrenched in the very practice of everyday life, and there were strong Vested Interests resisting change.
The very success of the monastic ideal had created its own problems. From the 6th century, monks had settled in wilderness areas to practise poverty, chastity and obedience to their Abbot or Prior. But because the Christian Way of Life actually works, these communities in time became very prosperous. Laypeople moved next to them and established their own farms, and began to hire themselves out to the Abbey as farm labourers. Then the community would need some protection from outlaws, and an armed knight might establish himself, offering military protection in exchange for his own land being worked. Thus the Feudal System grew slowly and organically in response to need.
But these growing communities needed capable administration. The monks were not necessarily skilled in this, and they began to hire laymen to manage their finances, while their own time and energy was released for the Spiritual Life. Non-Catholic readers must understand that, in the Catholic view, this was mere enlightened self-interest. ‘The prayer of the just man availeth much.’ (James 5:16). Not to mention Tennyson ‘More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.’ The Church has always used her organisation to lift the cares of everyday life from the shoulders of promising souls, so that they can come closer to God than is normally possible: both to please God Himself and so that their prayers can help the rest of us. This is very much part of the doctrine of ‘The Communion of Saints.’
But what about the financial managers? It has probably been the same since the Beginning of the World. Publishers seem to end up drawing a hugely greater salary than the authors whom the publish – managers of pop stars also… somehow or other the managers of the monasteries ended up pocketing nearly all the revenue, while the abbot ended up with a modest allowance just enough to keep going… and now the next step followed. there has always been the problem of finding revenues for Younger sons… eventually, powerful individuals were arranging for their younger sons to take on the position of managing some ecclesiastical enterprise entirely for the sake of the salary. the workload, with some judicious sub-letting could easily be non-existent. This being so, it was not back-breaking work to have two, three or a dozen such notional sinecures.
A parallel development occurred with actual clerical positions. Those above the lowest levels carried a guaranteed revenue. In time, the practice of absenteeism became widespread – the Canon of a particular cathedral being elsewhere for periods of time that eventually led to his never being there at all – and then having several different ecclesial positions strictly for the revenue, sometimes never actually attending any of these places. By the time of the Reformation it was not unknown for a powerful nobleman to have a relative as young as nine actually established as a bishop or even Cardinal. Eradicating these practices once they had become institutionalised was next to impossible, as these people had no alternative source of income, and by the nature of things were hardly fitted for any other way of life. It might surprise the reader to learn that even such a figure as Copernicus lived on the revenue as Canon of two establishments, with no particular evidence that he fulfilled any duties other than collecting the revenue. By now ‘custom was its own law’ and society saw these practices as normal means of livelihood.
At the other end of the social scale, however, was an impoverished and often uneducated band of ‘Mass-priests’ who offered Mass but were woefully ill-equipped to offer guidance to the layfolk.
Among the lower ranks there was also some flouting of the rule of celibacy, but the actual record shows that this was probably not as widespread as is sometimes painted.
Towards the end of the period the giving of ‘alms’ for the gaining of an indulgence was certainly getting out of hand, especially in certain districts, and once again was being seen merely as a method of collecting revenue.
The real problems besetting the Church in the fourteenth century were therefore: absenteeism of clergy, effective lay control of ecclesiastical institutions, and an uneducated lower clergy. Added to this were the triple calamities of a severe worsening of the climate of Europe, the dreadful pandemic of the Black Death, and the continuing scandal of, firstly, the absenteeism of the Pope who now lived in Avignon, and later the two rival claimants for the Papacy. There were notable figures who worked tirelessly to remedy these things, but the problems were too deep-seated and beset by vested interests for the thoroughgoing reform that was really needed. This had to await the sixteenth century, by which time many would-be reformers had progressed to an attack on the institution of the Church and the Hierarchy itself – an all but fatal rupture which to this day has not been resolved.