exercised on him by the French king Philip the Fair. In March
1309, Clement V. transferred his residence to Avignon, a town
which at that time belonged to the king of Naples, but was surrounded
by the countship of Venaissin, which as early as 1228
had passed into the possession of the Roman See. Clement V.
remained at Avignon till the day of his death, so that with him
begins the so-called Babylonian Exile of the popes. Through
this, and his excessive subservience to Philip the Fair, his reign
proved the reverse of salutary to the Church. The pope’s
subservience was above all conspicuous in his attitude towards
the proceedings brought against the order of the Temple,
which was dissolved by the council of Vienne (see Templars).
His possession of Ferrara involved Clement in a violent struggle
with the republic of Venice, in which he was ultimately
victorious.
His successor John XXII. a native of Cahors, was elected
as the result of very stormy negotiations, after a two years
vacancy of the see (1316). Like his predecessor
he fixed his permanent residence at Avignon, where
he had formerly been bishop. But while Clement V.John XXII. 1316–1334.
Character of the Avignon Papacy.
had contented himself with the hospitality of the Dominican
monastery at Avignon, John XXII. installed himself with
great state in the episcopal palace, hard by the cathedral.
The essential features of this new epoch in the
history of the papacy, beginning with the two popes
mentioned, are intimately connected with this
lasting separation from the traditional seat of the papacy, and
from Italian soil in general: a separation which reduced the
head of the Church to a fatal dependence on the French kings.
Themselves Frenchmen, and surrounded by a College of
Cardinals in which the French element predominated, the popes
gave to their ecclesiastical administration a certain French
character, till they stood in more and more danger of serving
purely national interests, in cases where the obligations of their
office demanded complete impartiality. And thus the prestige
of the papacy was sensibly diminished by the view, to which
the jealousy of the nations soon gave currency, that the supreme
dignity of the Church was simply a convenient tool for French
statecraft. The accusation might not always be supported by
facts, but it tended to shake popular confidence in the head of
the universal Church, and to inspire other countries with the
feeling of a national opposition to an ecclesiastical regime now
entirely Gallicized. The consequent loosening of the tics
between the individual provinces of the Church and the
Apostolic See, combined with the capricious policy of the court
at Avignon, which often regarded nothing but personal and
family interests, accelerated the decay of the ecclesiastical
organism, and justified the most dismal forebodings for the
future. To crown all, the feud between Church and Empire
broke out again with unprecedented violence. The most
prominent leaders of the opposition to the papacy, whether
ecclesiastical or political, joined forces with the German king,
Louis of Bavaria, and offered him their aid against John XXII.
The clerical opposition was led by the very popular
and influential Minorites who were at that time
Opposition to the Papacy.
engaged in a remarkably bitter controversy with
the pope as to the practical interpretation of the idea of
evangelical poverty. Their influence can be clearly traced
in the appeal to a general council, issued by Louis in 1324 at
Sachsenhausen near Frankfort-on-the-Main. This document,
which confused the political problem with the theological, was
bound to envenom the quarrel between emperor and pope
beyond all remedy. Side by side with the Minorites, the
spokesmen of the specifically political opposition to the papacy
were the Parisian professors, Marsilius of Padua and John of
Jandun, the composers of the “Defender of the Peace”
(defensor pacis). In conjunction with the Minorites and the
Ghibellines of Italy, Marsilius succeeded in enticing Louis to
the fateful expedition to Rome and the revolutionary actions
of 1328. The conferring of the imperial crown by the Roman
populace, the deposition of the pope by the same body, and
the election of an anti-pope in the person of the Minorite Pietro
da Corvara, translated into acts the doctrines of the defensor
pacis. The struggle, which still further aggravated the dependence
of the pope on France, was waged on both sides with the
utmost bitterness, and the end was not in sight when John XXII.
died, full of years, on the 4th of December 1334.
Even the following pope, Benedict XII., a man of the strictest morality, failed, in spite of his mild and pacific disposition, to adjust the conflict with Louis of Bavaria and the eccentric Fraticelli. King Philip VI. and the cardinals of the French party worked energeticallyBenedict XII. 1334–1342. against the projected peace with Louis; and Benedict was not endowed with sufficient strength of will to carry through his designs in the teeth of their opposition. He failed, equally, to stifle the first beginnings of the war between France and England; but it is at least to his honour that he exerted his whole influence in the cause of peace.
His efforts in the direction of reform, moreover, deserve recognition. In Avignon he began to erect himself a suitable residence, which, with considerable additions by later popes, developed into the celebrated papal castle of Avignon. This enormous edifice, founded on the cathedral rock, is an extraordinary mixture of castle and convent, palace and fortress. It was Benedict XII. also who elevated the doctrine of the beatific vision of the saints into a dogma.
Benedict XII. was again succeeded, in 1342, by a Frenchman from the south, Pierre Roger de Beaufort, who was born in the castle of Maumont, in the diocese of Limoges. He assumed the title of Clement VI. In contrast with his peace-loving predecessor, and in accordanceClement VI. 1342–1352. with his own more energetic character, he pursued with decision and success the traditions of John XXII. in his dealings with Louis of Bavaria. With great dexterity he turned the feud between the houses of Luxemburg and Wittelsbach to the destruction of Louis; and the death-struggle between the two seemed about to break out, when Louis met his untimely end. To all appearances the victory of the papacy was decisive: but it was a Pyrrhic victory, as events were quickly to prove. In Rome there ensued, during the pontificate of Clement, the revolutions of the visionary Cola di Rienzo (q.v.) who restored the old republic, though not for long. By his purchase of Avignon, and the creation of numerous French cardinals, the pope consolidated the close connexion of the Roman Church with France: but the interests of that Church suffered severely through the riches and patronage which Clement lavished on his relatives, and through the princely luxury of his court. His generosity—which degenerated into prodigality—compelled him to open fresh sources of revenue; and in this he succeeded, though not without serious detriment to the interests of the Church.
It was fortunate for the Church that Clement VI. was followed by a man of an entirely different temperament—Innocent VI. This strict and upright pope appears to have taken Benedict XII. for his example. He undertook, though not with complete success, a reformation ofInnocent VI. 1352–1362. ecclesiastical abuses; and it was he who assisted in restoring the Empire at last to some measure of stability. But the culminating glory of his reign was the restoration of the almost ruined papal dominion in Italy, by means of the highly-gifted Cardinal Albornoz. The restoration of the Apostolic See to its original and proper seat was now possible; and the need for such a step was the more pressing, since residence in the castle at Avignon had become extremely precarious, owing to the ever-increasing confusion of French affairs. Innocent VI., in fact, entertained the thought of visiting Rome; but age and illness prevented his doing so.
The intention of Innocent was put into execution by his successor—the learned and pious Urban V. Two events of the first magnitude make his reign one of the most memorable in the century. The first of these was the return to Rome. This was an object which theUrban V. 1362–1370. emperor Charles IV. had prosecuted with afl his energies; which alone could revive the languishing reputation of the papacy.
