Editing Avignon Papacy (section)

==Papacy in the 14th century==
===Curia===
After the arrest of the [[bishop of Pamiers]] by [[Philip IV of France]] in 1301, [[Pope Boniface VIII]] issued the bull ''Salvator Mundi'', retracting all privileges granted to the French king by previous popes, and a few weeks later ''Ausculta fili'' with charges against the king, summoning him before a council to Rome. In a bold assertion of papal sovereignty, Boniface declared that "God has placed us over the Kings and Kingdoms."

In response, Philip wrote "Your venerable conceitedness may know, that we are nobody's vassal in temporal matters," and called for a meeting of the [[Estates General (France)|Estates General]], a council of the lords of France, who had supported his position. The king of France issued charges of [[sodomy]], [[simony]], sorcery, and heresy against the pope and summoned him before the council. The pope's response was the strongest affirmation to date of papal sovereignty. In ''[[Unam sanctam]]'' (18 November 1302), he decreed that "it is necessary to salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff."

He was preparing a bull that would excommunicate the king of France and put the interdict over France when in September 1303, [[Guillaume de Nogaret|William Nogaret]], the strongest critic of the papacy in the French inner circle, led a delegation to Rome, with intentionally loose orders by the king to bring the pope, if necessary by force, before a council to rule on the charges brought against him. Nogaret coordinated with the cardinals of the Colonna family, long-standing rivals against whom the pope had even preached a crusade earlier in his papacy. In 1303, French and Italian troops attacked the pope in [[Anagni]], his home town, and arrested him. He was freed three days later by the population of Anagni. Boniface VIII, then 68 years of age, was deeply shattered by this attack on his own person and died a few weeks later.

===Cooperation===
[[File:Papst klemens v.jpg|thumb|[[Clement V]] in a later engraving]]
In reaction to the intransigence of popes like Boniface VIII, the French tightened their influence under the papacy, eventually reducing the popes to puppets and stacking the Papal court with French clerics.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=George L. |title=Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes |date=2004 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=0786420715 |pages=41–43}}</ref>

The death of Pope Boniface VIII deprived the papacy of its most able politician who could stand against the secular power of the king of France. After the conciliatory papacy of Benedict XI (1303–04), [[Pope Clement V]] (1305–1314) became the next [[pontiff]]. He was born in [[Gascony]], in southern France, but was not directly connected to the French court. He owed his election to the French clerics. He decided against moving to Rome and established his court in [[Avignon]]. In this situation of dependency on powerful neighbours in France, three principles characterized the politics of Clement V: the suppression of heretic movements (such as the Cathars in southern France); the reorganization of the internal administration of the church; and the preservation of an untainted image of the church as the sole instrument of God's will on earth.

The latter was directly challenged by Philip IV when he demanded a posthumous trial of his former adversary, the late Boniface VIII, for alleged [[heresy]]. Philip exerted strong influence on the cardinals of the collegium, and compliance with his demand could mean a severe blow to the church's authority. Much of Clement's politics was designed to avoid such a blow, which he finally did (persuading Philip to leave the trial to the Council of Vienne, where it lapsed). However, the price won concessions on various fronts; despite strong personal doubts, Clement supported Philip's proceedings against the Templars, and he personally ruled to suppress the order.
<!--Add something about Cathar movement; maybe in background section check out Ladurie, E. le Roi. Montaillou, Catholics and Cathars in a French Village, 1294–1324, trans. B. Bray, 1978. Also published as Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. Benedict XII's reports were used for this book-->

[[File:John22.jpg|thumb|[[John XXII]]]]
One important issue during the papacy of [[Pope John XXII]] (born Jacques Duèze in [[Cahors]], and previously archbishop in Avignon) was his conflict with [[Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor]], who denied the sole authority of the pope to crown the emperor. Louis followed the example of Philip IV, and summoned the nobles of Germany to back his position. [[Marsilius of Padua]] justified secular supremacy in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire. This conflict with the Emperor, often fought out in expensive wars, drove the papacy even more into the arms of the French king.

[[File:Benedikt XII1.png|thumb|[[Benedict XII]]]]

[[Pope Benedict XII]] (1334–1342), born Jacques Fournier in Pamiers, was previously active in the inquisition against the Cathar movement. In contrast to the rather bloody picture of the [[Inquisition]] in general, he was reported to be very careful about the souls of the examined, taking a lot of time in the proceedings. His interest in pacifying southern France was also motivation for mediating between the king of France and the king of England, before the outbreak of the [[Hundred Years' War]].

===Submission===
Under Pope Clement VI (1342–1352) the French interests started dominating the papacy. Clement VI had been [[Archbishop of Rouen]] and adviser to Philip IV before, so his links to the French court were much stronger than those of his predecessors. At some point he even financed French war efforts out of his own pockets. He reportedly loved luxurious wardrobe and under his rule the extravagant life style in Avignon reached new heights.

Clement VI was also pope during the [[Black Death]], the [[epidemic]] that swept through Europe between 1347 and 1350 and is believed to have killed about one-third of [[Medieval demography|Europe's population]]. Also during his reign in 1348, the Avignon papacy bought the city of Avignon from the Angevins.<ref>''Avignon Papacy'', Thomas M. Izbicki, '''Medieval France: An Encyclopedia''', ed. William Kibler, (Routledge, 1995), 89.</ref>

[[File:Clemens_VI.png|thumb|[[Clement VI]]]]
[[Pope Innocent VI]] (1352–1362), born Etienne Aubert, was less partisan than Clement VI. He was keen on establishing peace between France and England, having worked to this end in papal delegations in 1345 and 1348. His gaunt appearance and austere manners commanded higher respect in the eyes of nobles at both sides of the conflict. However, he was also indecisive and impressionable, already an old man when being elected Pope. In this situation, the king of France managed to influence the papacy, although papal legates played key roles in various attempts to stop the conflict.

Most notably in 1353, the [[Suburbicarian Diocese of Porto e Santa Rufina|bishop of Porto]], Guy de Boulogne, tried to set up a conference. After initial successful talks the effort failed, largely due to the mistrust from the English side over Guy's strong ties with the French court. In a letter Innocent VI himself wrote to the [[Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster|Duke of Lancaster]]: "Although we were born in France and although for that and other reasons we hold the realm of France in special affection, yet in working for peace we have put aside our private prejudices and tried to serve the interests of everyone."

With [[Pope Urban V]] (1362–1370), the control by [[Charles V of France]] of the papacy became more direct. Urban V himself is described as the most austere of the Avignon popes after Benedict XII and probably the most spiritual of all. However, he was not a strategist and made substantial concessions to the French crown especially in finances, a crucial issue during the war with England. In 1369, Pope Urban V supported the marriage of [[Philip the Bold]] of the [[Duchy of Burgundy]] and [[Margaret III, Countess of Flanders]], rather than giving dispensation to one of [[Edward III of England]]'s sons to marry Margaret. This clearly showed the partisanship of the papacy; correspondingly, the respect for the church dropped.

===War of the Eight Saints===
{{Main|War of the Eight Saints}}
[[File:Giorgio Vasar retour idéalisé de Grégoire XI à Rome.jpg|thumb|Pope [[Gregory XI]] returned to Rome in 1376 and ended the Avignon Papacy.]]
The most influential decision in the reign of [[Pope Gregory XI]] (1370–1378) was the return to Rome, beginning on 13 September 1376 and ending with his arrival on 17 January 1377.<ref>[[Joëlle Rollo-Koster]], ''Raiding Saint Peter: Empty Sees, Violence, and the Initiation of the Great Western Schism (1378)'', (Brill, 2008), 182.</ref><ref>Margaret Harvey, ''The English in Rome, 1362–1420: Portrait of an Expatriate Community'', (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 3.</ref> Although the Pope was French born and still under strong influence by the French king, the increasing conflict between factions friendly and hostile to the Pope posed a threat to the papal lands and to the allegiance of Rome itself. When the papacy established an embargo against grain exports during a food scarcity 1374 and 1375, [[Republic of Florence|Florence]] organized several cities into a league against the papacy: [[Duchy of Milan|Milan]], [[Bologna]], [[Perugia]], [[Republic of Pisa|Pisa]], [[Republic of Lucca|Lucca]] and [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]].

The papal legate, Robert of Geneva, a relative of the [[House of Savoy]], pursued a particularly ruthless policy against the league to re-establish control over these cities. He convinced Pope Gregory to hire Breton mercenaries. To quell an uprising of the inhabitants of [[Cesena]] he hired [[John Hawkwood]] and had the majority of the people massacred (between 2,500 and 3,500 people were reported dead). Following such events opposition against the papacy strengthened.

Florence came in open conflict with the pope, a conflict called [[War of the Eight Saints|"the war of the eight saints"]] in reference to the eight Florentine councilors who were chosen to orchestrate the conflict. The entire city of Florence was excommunicated and as reply the forwarding of clerical taxes was stopped. Trade was seriously hampered and both sides had to find a solution. In his decision about returning to Rome, the pope was also under the influence of [[Catherine of Siena]], later canonized, who preached for a return to Rome.

===Schism===
This resolution was short-lived when, having returned the papal court to Rome, [[Pope Gregory XI]] died. A conclave met and elected an Italian pope, [[Pope Urban VI|Urban VI]]. Pope Urban alienated the French cardinals, who held a second conclave electing one of their own, Robert of Geneva, who took the name [[Antipope Clement VII|Clement VII]], to succeed Gregory XI, thus beginning a second line of Avignon popes. Clement VII and his successors are not regarded as legitimate, and are referred to as [[antipope]]s by the [[Catholic Church]]. This situation, known as the [[Western Schism]], persisted from 1378 until the [[ecumenical council|ecumenical]] [[Council of Constance]] (1414–1418) settled the question of papal succession and declared the French conclave of 1378 to be invalid. A new pope, [[Pope Martin V]], was elected in 1417; other claimants to succeed to Avignon line (though not resident at Avignon) continued until c. 1437.