014th century is known as Chaucer age
Among the great contemporaries of Chaucer, few deserve more attention than John Wycliffe, for he was one of the first Englishmen to challenge the authority of the Catholic Church; and in so doing he anticipated Martin Luther by nearly one hundred and fifty years. Like his famous successor, he came to the conclusion that clerical pretensions had raised a barrier between man and God; and both by pen and in pulpit he endeavored to break it down. Free access to the Bible was what the spiritual life required.
The prestige of the Church was, in truth, beginning to decline. Politically, intellectually, and spiritually its influence had diminished. Until the reign of John it was the clergy more than any other class who ensured good
Progressive Spirit:
Final illustration of the progressive spirit animating society at his time may be found in the growth of national sentiment. What were the conditions which favored that development? It will perhaps be remembered that in dealing with the psychology of the Teutonic people, a prominent trait was found to be their power of adaptation. Since this pliability enabled them to readily absorb the characteristics of races wholly alien to themselves, it is not surprising that this fusion was still more rapid when different branches of the parent stock encountered one another.
The Hundred Years' War:
The Accession of Edward III marked the beginning of that struggle with France always known as "The Hundred Years' War"- a title which explains it. To narrate the causes which occasioned this mighty conflict would be unnecessary; for we are only concerned with historical events in so far as they have some direct bearing on the literature of the period. What does call for notice is the brilliant start which England made.
In the very year in which Chaucer was born occurred the great sea fight off Slays. This battle has a twofold interest. It is the first of an almost unbroken series of victories which lasted nearly twenty years and included the familiar name of Crecy and Poitiers; further it is one of the earliest of those naval successes which in the years to come Blake and Nelson were to make so typically English. But in the importance of its results, Slays cannot, of course, compare with Crecy- the battle which Froissart has described in such vivid and picturesque language.
Degradation of Pope's Status:
In the fourteenth century, the Papacy met with a series of misfortunes, of which the English kings were not slow to avail themselves. The temporal over lordship of the Pope was definitely repudiated.
