Editing Pope Urban VI

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 1378 to 1389}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
|type=Pope
|honorific-prefix=[[List of popes|Pope]]
|name=Urban VI
|title=[[Bishop of Rome]]
|birth_name=Bartolomeo Prignano
|church = [[Catholic Church]]
|term_start=8 April 1378
|term_end=15 October 1389
|predecessor=[[Gregory XI]]
|successor=[[Boniface IX]]
|opposed=Avignon claimant:<br>[[Antipope Clement VII|Clement VII]]
|ordination = 
|ordinated_by =
|consecration =21 March 1364
|consecrated_by = 
|cardinal =
|coat_of_arms=C o a Urbanus VI.svg
|birth_date=c. 1318
|birth_place= [[Itri]], [[Kingdom of Naples]]
|death_date=15 October 1389 (aged 70–71)
|death_place=[[Rome]], [[Papal States]]
|other=Urban
}}

'''Pope Urban VI''' ({{langx|la|Urbanus VI}}; {{langx|it|Urbano VI}}; c. 1318 – 15 October 1389), born '''Bartolomeo Prignano''' ({{IPA|it|bartoloˈmɛːo priɲˈɲaːno}}), was head of the [[Catholic Church]] from 8 April 1378 to his death, in October 1389. He was the last pope elected from outside the [[College of Cardinals]]. His pontificate began shortly after the end of the [[Avignon Papacy]]. It was marked by immense conflict between rival factions as a part of the [[Western Schism]], with much of Europe, such as [[Medieval France|France]], the Iberian Kingdoms of [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] and [[Crown of Aragon|Aragon]], and [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]] recognizing [[Antipope Clement VII|Clement VII]], based in Avignon, as the true pope.

==Early life==
Born in [[Itri]], then part of the [[Kingdom of Naples]], Prignano was a devout [[monk]] and learned [[casuist]], trained at [[Avignon]]. On 21 March 1364 he was consecrated [[Archbishop of Acerenza]] in the [[Kingdom of Naples]]. He became [[Archbishop of Bari]] in 1377.<ref name=Mulder>{{CE1913 |inline=1 |last=Mulder |first=William |wstitle=Pope Urban VI |volume=15}}</ref>

Prignano had developed a reputation for simplicity and frugality and a head for business when acting vice-chancellor. He also demonstrated a penchant for learning, and, according to Cristoforo di Piacenza,<ref>In a letter to his master, [[House of Gonzaga|Lodovico Gonzaga]] of Mantua; (Pastor 121, who adds "He was quickly and thoroughly undeceived!").</ref> he had no family allies in an age of [[nepotism]], although once in the papal chair he elevated four [[cardinal-nephew]]s and sought to place one of them in control of Naples. His great faults undid his virtues: [[Ludwig von Pastor]] summed up his character: "He lacked Christian gentleness and charity. He was naturally arbitrary and extremely violent and imprudent, and when he came to deal with the burning ecclesiastical question of the day, that of reform, the consequences were disastrous."<ref>Pastor 122; on the urgency of reforms, see the contemporary letters of [[Catherine of Siena]].</ref>

==Election==
[[File:Western schism 1378-1417.svg|thumb|Map showing support for Avignon (red) and Rome (blue) during the Western Schism]]
On the death of [[Gregory XI]] (27 March 1378), a Roman mob surrounded the [[Papal conclave, 1378|conclave]] to demand a Roman pope be chosen. With the cardinals being under some haste and great pressure to avoid the return of the papal seat to [[Avignon]], Prignano was unanimously chosen Pope on 8 April 1378 as acceptable to the disunited<ref>Pastor 118.</ref> majority of French [[Catholic cardinal|cardinals]], taking the name ''Urban VI''. Not being a cardinal, he was not well known. Immediately following the conclave, most of the cardinals fled Rome before the mob could learn that not a Roman (though not a Frenchman either), but a subject of Queen [[Joan I of Naples]], had been chosen.

Though the coronation was carried out in scrupulous detail, leaving no doubt as to the legitimacy of the new pontiff,<ref>Pastor 119f.</ref><ref>Bernhard Schimmelpfennig (translated by James Sievert), ''[https://archive.org/details/papacy0000schi_x5t1 The Papacy]'' ({{ISBN|0-231-07515-4}}), p. 220. Quote: "The next day, after Prignano had called upon them to do so, most of the cardinals came back to the palace and enthroned him. Prignano gave himself the name of Urban VI. The cardinals presented him with the customary petitions, and then took part in worship services being held not for the new pope but in celebration of Holy Week, before the new pontiff was crowned on Easter Sunday, April 18. The cardinals stayed at his court for the next three months, assisting him with liturgical functions. The curia that had remained in Rome likewise seemed to have acknowledged him."</ref> the French were not particularly happy with this move and began immediately to conspire against this pope. Urban VI did himself no favors; whereas the cardinals had expected him pliant, he was considered arrogant and angry by many of his contemporaries. [[Dietrich of Nieheim]] reported the opinion of the cardinals that his elevation had turned his head,<ref>Pastor 122.</ref> and [[Froissart]], [[Leonardo Aretino]], Tommaso de Acerno<ref>Tomasso de Acerno, ''De creatione Urbani VI opusculum.''</ref> and St. [[Antoninus of Florence]] recorded similar conclusions.<ref>Drawn together by [[Alfred von Reumont]] (ii, 1024), Pastor notes.</ref>

==Crisis of control==
Immediately following his election, Urban began preaching intemperately to the cardinals (some of whom thought the delirium of power had made Urban mad and unfit for rule), insisting that the business of the Curia should be carried on without gratuities and gifts, forbidding the cardinals to accept annuities from rulers and other lay persons, condemning the luxury of their lives and retinues, and the multiplication of [[benefice]]s and bishoprics in their hands. Nor would he remove again to Avignon, thus alienating King [[Charles V of France]].

[[File:Medieval papal bulla (Urban VI) (FindID 601001).jpg|thumb|[[Bulla (seal)|Bulla]] of Urban VI|left]]
The cardinals were mortally offended. Five months after his election, the French cardinals met at [[Anagni]], inviting Urban, who realized he would be seized, and perhaps slain. In his absence, they issued a manifesto of grievances on 9 August which declared his election invalid since they had been cowed by the mob into electing an Italian. Letters to the missing Italian cardinals followed on 20 August declaring the papal throne vacant (''[[sede vacante]]''). Then at [[Fondi]], secretly supported by the king of France,<ref>Pastor 127; {{cite book |first=W. |last=Ullmann |title=The Origins of the Great Schism |location=London |year=1948 |pages=54 }}</ref> the French cardinals proceeded to elect [[Robert of Geneva]] as pope on 20 September. Robert, a militant cleric who had succeeded [[Gil Álvarez Carrillo de Albornoz|Albornoz]] as commander of the papal troops, took the name [[antipope Clement VII|Clement VII]], beginning the [[Western Schism]], which divided Catholic Christendom until 1417.

Urban was declared [[excommunicated]] by the French [[antipope]] and was called "the [[Antichrist]]", while [[Catherine of Siena]], defending Pope Urban, called the cardinals "devils in human form." [[Coluccio Salutati]] identified the political nature of the withdrawal: "Who does not see," the Chancellor openly addressed the French cardinals, "that you seek not the true pope, but opt solely for a Gallic pontiff."<ref>"Quis non-videt vos non-verum Papam quærere, sed solum Pontificem natione Gallicum exoptare" (quoted Pastor 131 note).</ref> Opening rounds of argument were embodied in [[John of Legnano]]'s defense of the election, ''De fletu ecclesiæ,'' written and incrementally revised between 1378 and 1380, which Urban caused to be distributed in multiple copies, and in the numerous rebuttals that soon appeared.<ref>{{cite journal |first=John P. |last=McCall |title=Chaucer and John of Legnano |journal=Speculum |volume=40 |issue=3 |year=1965 |pages=484–489 [p. 487] |jstor=2850921 |doi= 10.2307/2850921|s2cid=162074397 }} Notes 38 surviving manuscripts of ''De fletu'' in full or in part, and three responses from French cardinals as wekll as Jean LeFevre's ''De planctu bonorum'' ("The plaint of Bologna", 1379), which played on the title and gave a point-by-point rebuttal.</ref> Events overtook the rhetoric, however; 26 new cardinals were created in a single day, and by an arbitrary alienation of the estates and property of the church, funds were raised for open war.<ref>The reduced and disordered finances at Rome, most of the records being retained at Avignon and most of the experienced members of the papal camera and treasury having followed Clement, is discussed by {{cite book |first=Jean |last=Favier |title=Les Finances Pontificales a L'Epoque Du Grand Schisme D'Occident, 1378–1409 |location=Paris |year=1966 }}</ref> At the end of May 1379 Clement went to Avignon, where he was more than ever at the mercy of the king of France. [[Louis I, Duke of Anjou]], was granted a phantom kingdom of Adria to be carved out of papal Emilia and Romagna, if he could unseat the pope at Rome.<ref>Pastor 133.</ref>

==War of the Eight Saints==
{{main|War of the Eight Saints}}
[[File:Urbanus VI.jpg|thumb|Posthumous portrait of Urban VI by [[Onofrio Panvinio]]]]
Meanwhile, the War of the Eight Saints, carried on with spates of unprecedented cruelty to civilians, was draining the resources of Florence, though the city ignored the [[Interdict (Catholic canon law)|interdict]] placed upon it by Gregory, declared its churches open, and sold ecclesiastical property for 100,000 florins to finance the war. Bologna had submitted to the Church in August 1377, and Florence signed a treaty at [[Tivoli, Lazio|Tivoli]] on 28 July 1378 at a cost of 200,000 florins indemnity extorted by Urban for the restitution of church properties, receiving in return the papal favor and the lifting of the disregarded interdict.

Urban's erstwhile patroness, Queen Joan I of Naples, deserted him in the late summer of 1378,<ref>Salvatore Fodale, ''La politica napoletana di Urbano VI'' (Rome: Sciascia) 1976, treats the convoluted career of Urban's most important political course as invariably rational – in the face of the contemporary accounts – with copious quotes from original sources.</ref> in part because her former archbishop had become her [[Feudalism|feudal suzerain]]. Urban now lost sight of the larger issues and began to commit a series of errors. He turned upon his powerful neighbor Joan, excommunicated her as an obstinate partisan of Clement, and permitted a crusade to be preached against her. Soon her enemy and cousin, the "crafty and ambitious"<ref name="Pastor 136">Pastor 136.</ref> [[Charles II of Hungary|Charles III]] was made [[King of Naples]] on 1 June 1381, and was crowned by Urban. Joan's authority was declared forfeit, and Charles murdered her in 1382.  "In return for these favours, Charles had to promise to hand over [[Capua]], [[Caserta]], [[Aversa]], [[Nocera dei Pagani|Nocera]], and [[Amalfi]] to the pope's nephew,<ref>[http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1378.htm], [[Francesco Moricotti Prignano]], of Vico, near Pisa; he was made a cardinal (18 September 1378) and called the "Cardinal of Pisa;" appointed governor of Campagna, 21 April 1380; Urban's constant assistant, he died in 1394.</ref> a thoroughly worthless and immoral man."<ref name="Pastor 136"/>
[[File:Alessandro Casolani, Consegna delle chiavi di Castel Sant'Angelo a Papa Urbano VI, e beato andrea gallerani (1582).jpg|thumb|Painting in the house of [[Catherine of Siena]], showing Urban VI receiving the keys of [[Castel Sant'Angelo]].]] 
Once ensconced at Naples, Charles found his new kingdom invaded by Louis of Anjou and [[Amadeus VI of Savoy]]; hard-pressed, he reneged on his promises. In Rome, the [[Castel Sant'Angelo]] was besieged and taken, and Urban was forced to flee. In the fall of 1383 he was determined to go to Naples and press Charles in person. There he found himself virtually a prisoner. After a first reconciliation, with the death of Louis (20 September 1384), Charles found himself freer to resist Urban's feudal pretensions, and relations took a turn for the worse. Urban was shut up in [[Nocera dei Pagani|Nocera]], from the walls of which he daily fulminated his [[anathema]]s against his besiegers, with [[bell, book and candle]]; a price was set on his head.

[[File:Assedio di UrbanoVI.jpg|right|thumb|"''Pope Urban the sixth was besieged in the castle of Nocera''", from ''Croniche'' of [[Giovanni Sercambi]] ]]

Rescued by two Neapolitan barons who had sided for Louis, [[Raimondo Del Balzo Orsini|Raimondello Orsini]] and Tommaso di Sanseverino, after six months of siege he succeeded in making his escape to [[Genoa]] with six galleys sent him by [[doge of Genoa|doge]] [[Antoniotto I Adorno|Antoniotto Adorno]]. Several among his cardinals who had been shut up in [[Nocera dei Pagani|Nocera]] with him were determined to make a stand, proposing that the Pope, due to incapacity and obstinacy, be put in the charge of one of the cardinals. Urban had them seized, tortured and put to death, "a crime unheard of through the centuries" the chronicler [[Egidio da Viterbo]] remarked.<ref>"scelus nullo antea sæculo auditum" (Egidio da Viterbo, ''Historia viginti sæculorum'') noted Pastor 137 note.</ref>

[[File:Pope Urban VI (by John Maler Collier) – 1896.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Urban VI in captivity by [[John Maler Collier]], 1896.]]
Urban's support had dwindled to the northern Italian states, Portugal, England,<ref>[[Richard II of England]] lost no time in confiscating properties of the French cardinals, and subsequently Richard alone responded to Urban's call for a crusade against Clement in France. (Pastor 134).</ref> and [[Emperor Charles IV]], who brought with him the support of most of the princes and abbots of Germany.

On the death of Charles of Naples on 24 February 1386, Urban moved to [[Lucca]] in December of the same year. The Kingdom of Naples was contended between a party favouring Charles's son [[Ladislaus of Naples|Ladislaus]] and [[Louis II of Anjou]]. Urban contrived to take advantage of the anarchy which had ensued (as well as of the presence of the feeble [[Maria, Queen of Sicily|Maria]] as [[Kingdom of Sicily|Queen of Sicily]]) to seize Naples for his nephew [[Francesco Moricotti Prignani]]. In the meantime he was able to have [[Viterbo]] and [[Perugia]] return to the Papal control.

==Injury and death==
[[File:Tomb of pope Urbanus VI.jpg|thumb|Tomb of Urban VI]]
In August 1388 Urban moved from Perugia with thousands of troops. To raise funds he had proclaimed a [[Jubilee (Christian)|Jubilee]] to be held in 1390. At the time of the proclamation, only 38 years had elapsed since the previous Jubilee, which was celebrated under [[Clement VI]].<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08531c.htm Thurston, Herbert. "Holy Year of Jubilee"], ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''] Volume 8, 1910. Retrieved on 9 January 2010.</ref> During the march, Urban fell from his mule at [[Narni]] and had to recover in early October in Rome, where he was able to oust the communal rule of the ''[[Banneret (Rome)|banderesi]]'' and restore the papal authority. He died soon afterwards, likely of injuries caused by the fall, but not without rumors of poisoning.<ref name=Mulder/> He was succeeded by [[Boniface IX]].

During the reconstruction of [[Saint Peter's Basilica]], Urban's remains were almost dumped out to be destroyed so his sarcophagus could be used to water horses. The sarcophagus was saved only when church historian [[Giacomo Grimaldi]] arrived and, realizing its importance, ordered it preserved.<ref>{{cite book|last=Reardon|first=Wendy|title=The Death of The Popes|publisher=McFarland Publishers}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
* [[Cardinals created by Urban VI]]
*[[List of popes]]
*''[[The Bad Popes]]''

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
*{{cite book|first=CLaudio|last=Rendina|title=I papi – Storia e segreti|publisher=Newton & Compton|location=Rome|year=1993}}
*{{cite book|author-link=Ludwig Pastor|last=Pastor|first=Ludwig|title=The History of the Popes: From the Close of the Middle Ages|volume=I}}

==External links==
*{{commonscat-inline|Urbanus VI|Pope Urban VI}}
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15216a.htm ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' 1908:] "Urban VI"
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051030075406/http://www.freivald.org/~jake/church-history/historyOfTheChurch_volume3chapter3.html#section4 Philip Hughes, ''A History of the Church To the Eve of the Reformation'']

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{{s-bef|before=[[Gregory XI]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=1378 – 1389|regent1=[[Antipope Clement VII|Clement VII]] as antipope}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Boniface IX]]}}
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[[Category:1318 births]]
[[Category:1389 deaths]]
[[Category:Clergy from Naples]]
[[Category:Western Schism]]
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[[Category:Deaths by horse-riding accident in Italy]]
[[Category:Non-cardinals elected pope]]
[[Category:14th-century Neapolitan people]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]
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[[Category:14th-century popes]]
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