The late middle ages was often described as an age of crisis. Natural catastrophes such as famine and plague led to rapid social changes in economic, family, and religious life. When the population was hit by outbreaks of the Black Death, many customs and norms where abandoned. This, and other disasters, greatly weakened the Church's control over the populace.
During this time, many people deserted their family and friends, including young children. The traditional funeral customs also collapsed and were replaced by new funeral customs and the writing of wills also began. People believed that the plague was God's punishment for their sins. People where becoming unsure about their salvation. If God was supposed to be a loving, just God, then why had he done this? .
People knew that God's grace is absolutely necessary for salvation, and they thought that church was the only place for them to be saved, but during the late 1400's, people where becoming skeptical about the church because of it's materialism and corruption. At this time, before Luther's reform, people based their salvation on achieving good works and people began questioning if they had done their very best or done enough to earn salvation. .
One of the many problems in the medieval church was the Great Schism. The Great Schism refers to the division between the Eastern and Western churches, and the period during which the church had first two, and later three, lines of popes. The Western Schism began after the death of Pope Gregory XI in March 1378. The people of Rome were determined not to allow the papacy to leave Rome upon the election of the new pope. The result was a controversial assembly with cries for a Roman or at least an Italian pope. The man chosen, Urban VI, was not a Roman nor Italian, but a Neapolitan with no experience in policy making. Soon the cardinals realized the mistake that they had made in electing Urban.
