HI127 The Medieval World The Medieval Church THE AVIGNON PAPACY, THE GREAT SCHISM, AND THE COUNCILS Powerpoint will be on the website

Clement V (Betrand de Got) John XXII (Jacques Duèse) Benedict XII (Jacques Fournier) Clement VI (Pierre Roger) Innocent VI (Étienne Aubert) Urban V (Guillaume de Grimoard) Gregory XI (Pierre Roger, nephew of Charles VI) THE AVIGNON POPES

THE PAPACY DURING THE GREAT SCHISM ReignRomanAvignonPisan 1378(?)-1389Urban VI Clement VII Boniface IX Benedict XIII (deposed 1417) Innocent VII Gregory XII (resigned) Alexander V John XXIII (deposed) Martin V

CHURCH COUNCILS DatesLocation(s) March-June 1409Pisa November 1414-April 1418Constance April 1423-February 1424Pavia and Siena July 1431-April 1449Basle, Ferrara, and Florence

‘The Avignonese period produced major changes both in the functioning of the papacy and in the way the rest of the church perceived it. Never had the papacy done so much or with such effectiveness. Never had the papacy possessed a greater income or a greater impact on the farthest reaches of Christendom. But simultaneous with this growth in power was a decline in reputation. In the mid-eleventh century, the papacy had emerged as the leader of the reform movement in the western church. For more than two centuries the popes gave direction and inspiration to zealous reformers and pious believers... In the fourteenth century, the conviction grew that the papacy itself needed reform.’ Joseph H. Lynch, The Medieval Church: A Brief History (Harlow, 1992), p. 327

‘Enthusiasts for the “conciliar theory” upheld, in various forms, the principle that councils were the fundamental source of authority in the Church, superior to popes, who could err, and that they should have a permanent place in the life of the Church.’ Euan Cameron, The European Reformation (Oxford, 1991), p. 49

Petrarch: ‘... unholy Babylon, Hell on earth, a sink of iniquity, the cess-pool of the world. There is neither faith, nor charity, nor religion, nor fear of God, nor shame, nor truth, nor holiness, albeit the residence within its walls of the supreme pontiff should have made of it a shrine and the very stronghold of religion... Of all the cities I know, its stench is the worst... What dishonour to see it suddenly become the capital of the world when it should be but the least of all cities.’ Quoted in G. Mollat, The Popes at Avignon (London, 1963), pp

Petrarch: ‘Arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls; having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and the filth of her fornication.’ Quoted in Mollat, Popes, p. 156

‘In the 204 years from 1100 until 1304, the popes spent 122 away from Rome and 82 in Rome: that is, 40 years more away from Rome than in it.’ L. Gayet, Le Grande Schisme d’Occident (Florence, 1889), p. 3.

Palais des Papes Avignon

Of those members of the papal curia whose geographical origins can be determined, 1,552 (70%) were French, 521 (23.1%) were Italian, 69 (3.1%) came from the Empire, and 24 (1%) came from England. Source: Francis Oakley, The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages (Ithaca and London, 1979), p. 42

Pope Clement VI