Avignon Papacy

The Papacy, with its powers of excommunication and other religious sanctions, as well as its own temporal lands and money, was a major player in the politics of the Middle Ages. Like any major political institution, it was liable to rivalries, ambition, and other irreligious motives, as well as spiritual disagreements. The temporal disagreements were virulent in the Roman state, and also in relations with other states. In the thirteenth century, the French monarchy made determined efforts to take political control of the (Roman Catholic) Church and use it to bolster its power in Europe. Eventually, in 1309, Philip IV of France (1285-1314), who was also exasperated by the immorality and political bickering in Rome, persuaded Pope Clement V (c.1260-1314, reigned 1305-14) to move the Papacy from Rome (of which the Pope is Bishop) to Avignon. Thus began the period of the Avignon Papacy. There were seven 'Avignon Popes', all French by nationality and interest, until the return to Rome in 1378. These were Clement V (1305-1314); John XXII (1316-1334); Benedict XII (1334-1342); Clement VI (1342-1352); Innocent VI (1352-1362); Urban V (1362-1370); and Gregory XI (1370-1378). Gregory returned to Italy in 1377, where he died the following year.

The Avignon Papacy officially ended in 1378, with the election of Urban VI in Rome. However his irrational behaviour led to its continuation in the form of the Great (Western) Schism. Some of the antipopes of that period claimed to be Avignon Popes: Clement (VII) (1378-1394), Benedict XIII (1394-1423), who was expelled from Avignon in 1403, and two who never reigned there: Clement (VIII) (1423-1429); Benedict (XIV) (Bernard Garnier) (1424-1429 or 1430). A second Benedict (XIV) (Jean Carrier) (1430?-1437) was in schism from the schismatics.