Western europe in the fourteenth century was a particularly turbulent place. Natural disasters in the form of famine and plague drastically reduced population levels and accelerated fundamental changes in economic and social relations. Representative assemblies in England and other kingdoms grew in importance in political life, and aided the efforts of royal governments to increase their judicial and tax-raising powers. Such powers were directed towards the needs of warfare, which dominated the histories of England and its neighbours throughout this period. The Church found itself unable to resist demands that it contribute towards the funding of warfare, and the weakness of the papacy in the face of secular power was fully exposed by the schism which started in 1378 and saw rival popes a