The Black Death, which struck Europe over the course of the first three-quarters of the 14th Century, marked a significant change, not only for the Church but also for society as a whole. The Black Death killed between one-half to two-thirds of Europe's population, and resulted in the widespread collapse of civil order and authority, especially in the first decades immediately following the Black Death. Unsurprisingly, death came to loom large in the medieval mind in a way it had not previously, and to a certain extent the authority of the Church was damaged by its apparent inability to stop the plague. But while religious practices changed, focusing more on private devotions and on prayers for the dead, the greater impact of the Black Death would be much more subtle, but no less devastating for the Church. In short, the Black Death created a labor shortage, which had three immediate effects: Peasants could charge more for their labor and thus became more wealthy; labor became more mobile and independent and the restrictions that were imposed on peasants before the Black Death collapsed and became unenforceable; and labor saving devices, such as printing presses, were devised, to help deal with the lack of labor. The increased wealth and travel promoted trade and the formation of a merchant middle class for the first time since ancient Rome, a class that increasingly could read and write and that could afford an education for its children and luxuries like books, which thanks to the printing press were now more numerous and cheaper than before. Ironically, many of the Church's later activities, like the sale of indulgences (basically get out of purgatory early cards in exchange for a donation--a hot item given all the fear of death on focus on damnation that occurred as a result of the Black Death), helped to foster the use of technology such as the printing press. The net result of these changes was a population that was increasingly disaffected with a Church that persisted in the use of Latin and which, by the close of the 15th Century, had grown increasingly corrupt, in large part through the sale of indulgences. To make matters worse, many people began buying Bibles (for the first time translated into the everyday language of the people), which at first the Church even encouraged, until people began to question the Church's interpretation of the text. The ultimate result, after a number of growing threats to the Church's authority (such as John Wycliffe and Jan Hus), was the Protestant Reformation, begun by Martin Luther. Germany, Scandinavia, Scotland and other Northern European kingdoms abandoned the Church, to form their own 'purified' congregations, which met with the ambitions of local rulers to free themselves of the Pope and establish their own authority over all matters spiritual. France, especially Northern France, became a front line in the resulting Wars of Religion.
