A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

by Barbara W. Tuchman

“History never repeats itself,” said Voltaire; “man always does.”

The claim of the Church to spiritual leadership could never be made wholly credible to all its communicants when it was founded in material wealth. The more riches the Church amassed, the more visible and disturbing became the flaw; nor could it ever be resolved, but continued to renew doubt and dissent in every century.

Raising money to pay the cost of war was to cause more damage to 14th century society than the physical destruction of war itself.

In Florence Giovanni Villani, the great historian of his time, died at 68 in the midst of an unfinished sentence: “… e dure questo pistolenza fino a … (in the midst of this pestilence there came to an end …).”