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Pope Clement VI
During the time of the Black Death, the crown and the Church were the authoritative forces over citizens lives. The “pestilence,” as it was called, was viewed as God’s wrath against a sinful people. The rising death toll from the plague prompted authorities to take action. In an effort to fight the plague, King Edward III requested that prayers be arranged throughout the province of Canterbury in August of 1348. Due to the death of the Archbishop, John Stratford, the request was handled by the Prior of Christchurch in Canterbury (Horrox, 113-114).
The prior disseminated the request to all of the bishops within the southern province. The letter, known as Terribili, urges pennance from the various parishes overseen by the bishops. The hope was that the prayers would please God so that he may end the pestilence, thus saving England from his wrath. Along with ordinary mass, bishops were instructed to arrange processions as well. They were also given permission to grant indulgences as they saw fit.
Nearly forty years later, the plague returned, and a similar response was ordered again. In 1382, the Church ordered two masses be said in response to the pestilence, one of which was composed by Pope Clement VI himself. In his mass, he granted 260 days worth of indulgences to all who confessed their sins with true contrition. It was believed that these series of masses had worked in Avignon and its neighboring regions (Horrox, 120-124).
Administration of last rites
Due to the overwhelming death caused by the black plague, many parishioners of the church were dying without receiving the "sacrament of penance", or without receiving their last rights. Last rites refers to the three sacraments of confession, anointing, and eucharist. These are the last acts of due diligence that a christian could perform before passing. Church authorities could not possibly keep up with the extreme amount of people who were suddenly falling ill. Not only were people scared and looking to the church for forgiveness to be spared, but also thousands of people were already affected and needed immediate attention from priests.
In an attempt to keep up with the demand, Bishop Ralph Shrewsbury of Bath and Wales disclosed a new ordinance that was spread across the european nation, stating that in an emergency, confession may be made to a layman. The document was published January 10th 1349. (Horrox, 272). The ordinance was published across every parish in europe and parishioners were urged to spread the word. The document reads "When on the point of death, they [parishioners] cannot secure the services of a properly ordained priest, they should make confession of their sins, according to the teaching of the apostle, to any lay man.." (Horrox, 272)
The ordinance later resulted in controversy. The ordinance was castigated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who accused the clergy of selfishly abandoning their parish to seek refuge from the disease (Black Death Overview, 22).
Criticism of the clergy was also rooted in the amount of deaths in the priesthood. In England, approximately 45% of priests died. In the diocese of Barcelona, this percentage was even higher, reaching 60% in the year between May 1348 and April 1349 (Black Death Overview, 23). The Church's response to this shortage was to fill these positions with new, inexperienced individuals that were unprepared and not yet educated enough, making it more acceptable to malign the clergy for their mistakes in the years that followed.
Sources
"A Call for Prayers in 1375." In The Black Death, edited by Rosemary Horrox, 120-124. Iowa:
Manchester University Press, 1994.
"A Shortage of Priests to Hear Confession." In The Black Death, edited by Rosemary Horrox, 271-
272. Iowa: Manchester University Press, 1994.
Black Death Overview, pages 22-23.
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