A year of Jubilee was ordered by Pope Clement VI in 1349, shortly after the visitation of the black death, on which occasion Edward III. prohibited his subjects from making pilgrimages to Rome. The Pope remonstrated, but to no purpose. The King's conduct was probably prudent, and his wisdom was vindicated by a renewed outbreak of the plague on the Continent, from which England was exempt. In connection with this story Hook remarks that it gave rise to a feeling of doubt in the minds of the English people as to the complete infallibility of the Church, and that from this time forth hostility towards Rome became a predominant feeling among them. This led, he thinks, to two important results, viz. to a determination on the part of the laity to compel the clergy to retire from politics and restrict themselves to their proper calling; and, on the other hand, it converted a large part of the superior clergy into partisans of Rome. For these statements Dr. Hook cites no authority whatever. I conclude, therefore, that they are inferences of his own from the facts adduced.[1]
The former of the two is doubtless true. Such a conclusion would be but the reaction natural under the circumstances. The people, brought up in a belief of the infallibility and almost unlimited power of the Church, would certainly be looking forward—would probably be taught by their priests to look forward—to some judgment of God as likely to fall upon the nation for its neglect of the commands of the Vicar of Christ. None such came; so far from it that as they watched they beheld the plague fall on the nations who had obeyed, and saw themselves, though disobedient, escape. Naturally, like the people of Melita, they changed
- ↑ Hook, vol. X. pp. 126-7.
