Fourteenth Century: Ten Popes
194. Blessed Benedict XI, 1303-1304. Peace loving and scholarly, Niccolo Boccasino was born in 1240 the son of a notary of humble origins. He joined the Dominican Order and was Master General of the Order when Boniface VIII created him Cardinal Bishop of Ostia in 1298. In 1297 he had negotiated a peace between England and France for the Pope, and in 1301 Boniface sent him to Hungary on a diplomatic mission. He did all he could to placate the French without loss of principle or insult to the memory of Boniface. The Pope died of acute dysentery on July 7, 1304, less than a year after his election on October 22 the previous year. He was beatified by Pope Clement XII in 1736. From Treviso.
195. Clement V, 1305-1314. An example of the evils that can come upon the Church through dependence on secular authorities. Bertrand de Goth, Archbishop of Bordeaux, came from an influential Gascon family. He was intelligent, but too indecisive for the important position of Pope. Moreover he suffered from some form of internal cancer that affected his judgement and kept him out of the public eye for months at a time. To please the French King he was crowned not in Rome but in Lyons, and never left France for the whole of his pontificate. He moved the Papacy to Avignon in 1309 where the Popes remained for seventy years - during which time the Church was dominated by French monarchs and French policy. Perhaps his most reprehensible act was the support he gave King Philip of France in the subjugation of the Knights Templars. Like Henry VIII two centuries later, Philip coveted the wealth and power of the Crusading Order, and trumped up false charges of heresy, blasphemy and immorality against them in order to justify confiscation of their properties and wealth. In 1305/6 the Pope showed some independence of French interests by releasing King Edward I of England from his vows to his barons, and suspended Robert of Winchelsea as Archbishop of Canterbury, later on re-appointing him in 1308 at the request of Edward II. He excommunicated Robert I 'the Bruce' of Scotland for the murder of his old enemy John 'the Red' Comyn in a Church, and deposed two Scottish bishops for supporting Scottish rebels. His ruling in favour of Charles I of Hungary settled fifteen years of terrible dissension in that country. Clement was devout, easygoing and of a kindly disposition. He founded the Universities of Perugia and Orleans. During his Pontificate we see the beginnings of the submission of the Papacy to secular power and secular values that plagued it up till and beyond the Protestant Reformation. French.
196. John XXII, 1316-1334. Jacques Dueze was 72 when elected to the Throne of Peter, and died in his ninetieth year. The son of a cobbler from Cahors, he consolidated the stay of the Popes in Avignon, disregarding the advice of Dante Alighieri that the Papacy should return to Rome, and end the subjection of the Church to the French. In ill-health all his Pontificate, and diminutive in size, the new Pope was exceedingly capable in administration, and did much to restore the efficiency of the Curia. In 1316 he instituted the procession in honour of the Blessed Sacrament on the Feast of Corpus Christi, and in 1333 established the Feast of the Holy Trinity. He commanded that the Angelus be recited in honour of the Blessed Virgin each day at dusk. He reaffirmed the right of the Pope alone to nominate Bishops. A scholar, he founded chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic at the Universities of Oxford, Paris, Salamanca and Bologna. He established Bishoprics in Anatolia, Armenia and India and set up an Archbishopric in Iran at Sultanieh with six suffragan Bishops in 1318. Frugal in his personal lifestyle, he continued the nepotism of earlier Avignon Popes. French.
197. Benedict XII, 1334-1342. The new Pope, born in 1280, of humble parentage (his father was a baker) was of exceedingly upright character, and totally opposed to nepotism. He was more interested in the correction of abuses than in politics. He immediately sent away from Avignon all hangers-on who did not have a specific task to perform in the Church. He organized the Church's courts, and set up specifically the Roman Rota, the Marriage Tribunal before which cases of annulment had to (and still have to) come. He tried unsuccessfully to prevent the 100 Years War breaking out between England and France, and was unable to return to Rome as he wished. He built the castle at Avignon, and Ludwig von Pastor, the famous German historian of the Papacy noted that the smallness of the Cathedral at Avignon by comparison with the immensity of the Castle typified the submission of the Church to the French State which went on for the 70 years the Popes were in the French City. Benedict XII was a morally irreproachable man, who faithfully lived his monastic vows while governing the Church. He fought nepotism and did all he could to restore the Papacy to its rightful place. During his Pontificate Petrarch was crowned Poet on April 8, 1341 marking the beginning of a new epoch in the history of European culture. Petrarch placed his crown on the High Altar of St Peter's in Rome, as a gesture from Art to Religion. French.
198. Clement VI, 1342-1352. Pierre Roger de Beaufort was born in the castle of Beaufort in Limoges. He joined the Benedictines, and became Archbishop of Rouen. In 1345 he introduced the reform of the calendar. Devout, a protector of the poor and needy, a most charitable pope, he showed himself also courageous when the Black Death appeared in Avignon in 1348/9. He also protected the Jews whom the populace were blaming for it, and issued Bulls guaranteeing their safety. Under Clement, who reverted to the nepotism of some of his predecessors, Avignon was enriched and the papal court became even more French dominated. French.
199. Innocent VI, 1352-1362. Etienne Aubert was Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. St Brigid Queen of Sweden viewed his election as a most hopeful sign of God's providence for the Church. With the intention of returning the Papacy to Rome, Innocent sent the Spanish nobleman the Cardinal Aegidius Albornoz as his Legate. Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821-1891) the German historian said of Albornoz that he was the most gifted statesman ever to sit in the College of Cardinals. He carried out his task with intelligence, energy, compassion and delicacy. Albornoz laid down the civil legal system that was to remain in power in Rome until the time of Napoleon. Innocent was responsible for a ten-year's truce in the 100 Years War, and despite all his efforts to return the Papacy to Rome, died before anything could be done. Nothing came of his plans for a crusade, nor of his hopes for reunion with the Greeks. He died disappointed, and worn out by his efforts to curb petty fighting between factions in Italy. French.
200. Blessed Urban V, 1362-1370. A saintly Abbot, William de Grimord was born in 1309 and hence was relatively young when elected Pope. He had a strong sense of justice, and a German chronicle refers to him as 'lux mundi' - 'a light to the world'. He fought continuously and energetically against abuses within and outside the Church. Never a Cardinal, he was unhappy in the presence of worldly or influential people. He wore always the black habit of the Benedictines and continued Innocent VI's reforms. A scholar, he supported hundreds of poor students, endowed colleges at Montpellier, founded new Universities at Orange, Krakow and Vienna. His principal achievement was the short-lived return of the Papal court to Rome - even though the city was plagued with civil unrest and the Lateran Palaces were virtually uninhabitable. The Emperor John Palaeologus came to Rome and submitted to the Holy See on the steps of St Peter's abjuring the Orthodox faith and returning to the Catholic faith. Because it seemed easier to negotiate peace between France and England, the Pope eventually returned to Avignon in September 1370, despite warnings from St Brigid of Sweden that he would die permanently if he did so. Her prediction came true, as Urban died on December 19 that year. He was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1870. French.
201. Gregory XI, 1370-1378. Last of the Avignon Popes he suffered from ill-health, was deeply religious with a sensitive and modest manner that hid a tough personality. He wanted to return to Rome, but political and financial considerations made it impossible initially. It was only January 17, 1377 that he finally made his triumphal entry into Rome and took up his residence in the Vatican. He supported the Grand Master of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem in enforcing discipline, and addressed five bulls to Edward III of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, urging them to stamp out heresy, and to investigate the teachings of the reformer John Wycliffe. French.
202. Urban VI, 1378-1389. Bartolomeo Prignano was Archbishop of Bari when elected Pope on April 8, 1378. Not a Cardinal, Urban was an exceptional man, of great integrity, a strong opponent of all kinds of corruption and abuses within the Church, he was however autocratic and ruthless. St Catherine of Siena wrote a famous letter to him stating that 'Justice, untempered by mercy, is more unjust than injustice.' He so alienated many of the Cardinals and the general populace, that he is 'credited' with being the chief cause of the rise of no fewer than seven anti-Popes who lived in Avignon for the next fifty-two years during what is known as the Great Western Schism. One of his few memorable ecclesiastical acts was the extension of the Feast of the Blessed Virgin to the whole Church. Italian.
203. Boniface IX, 1389-1404. Pietro Tomacelli, born in Naples of a noble family, was only thirty when elected Pope. He had a spotless reputation, was kind and intelligent, and concerned himself with the administration of justice, furthered learning and cared for the poor. He canonized St Brigid of Sweden on October 7, 1391, but did not take serious steps to end the schism. Italian.
194. Blessed Benedict XI, 1303-1304. Peace loving and scholarly, Niccolo Boccasino was born in 1240 the son of a notary of humble origins. He joined the Dominican Order and was Master General of the Order when Boniface VIII created him Cardinal Bishop of Ostia in 1298. In 1297 he had negotiated a peace between England and France for the Pope, and in 1301 Boniface sent him to Hungary on a diplomatic mission. He did all he could to placate the French without loss of principle or insult to the memory of Boniface. The Pope died of acute dysentery on July 7, 1304, less than a year after his election on October 22 the previous year. He was beatified by Pope Clement XII in 1736. From Treviso.
195. Clement V, 1305-1314. An example of the evils that can come upon the Church through dependence on secular authorities. Bertrand de Goth, Archbishop of Bordeaux, came from an influential Gascon family. He was intelligent, but too indecisive for the important position of Pope. Moreover he suffered from some form of internal cancer that affected his judgement and kept him out of the public eye for months at a time. To please the French King he was crowned not in Rome but in Lyons, and never left France for the whole of his pontificate. He moved the Papacy to Avignon in 1309 where the Popes remained for seventy years - during which time the Church was dominated by French monarchs and French policy. Perhaps his most reprehensible act was the support he gave King Philip of France in the subjugation of the Knights Templars. Like Henry VIII two centuries later, Philip coveted the wealth and power of the Crusading Order, and trumped up false charges of heresy, blasphemy and immorality against them in order to justify confiscation of their properties and wealth. In 1305/6 the Pope showed some independence of French interests by releasing King Edward I of England from his vows to his barons, and suspended Robert of Winchelsea as Archbishop of Canterbury, later on re-appointing him in 1308 at the request of Edward II. He excommunicated Robert I 'the Bruce' of Scotland for the murder of his old enemy John 'the Red' Comyn in a Church, and deposed two Scottish bishops for supporting Scottish rebels. His ruling in favour of Charles I of Hungary settled fifteen years of terrible dissension in that country. Clement was devout, easygoing and of a kindly disposition. He founded the Universities of Perugia and Orleans. During his Pontificate we see the beginnings of the submission of the Papacy to secular power and secular values that plagued it up till and beyond the Protestant Reformation. French.
196. John XXII, 1316-1334. Jacques Dueze was 72 when elected to the Throne of Peter, and died in his ninetieth year. The son of a cobbler from Cahors, he consolidated the stay of the Popes in Avignon, disregarding the advice of Dante Alighieri that the Papacy should return to Rome, and end the subjection of the Church to the French. In ill-health all his Pontificate, and diminutive in size, the new Pope was exceedingly capable in administration, and did much to restore the efficiency of the Curia. In 1316 he instituted the procession in honour of the Blessed Sacrament on the Feast of Corpus Christi, and in 1333 established the Feast of the Holy Trinity. He commanded that the Angelus be recited in honour of the Blessed Virgin each day at dusk. He reaffirmed the right of the Pope alone to nominate Bishops. A scholar, he founded chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic at the Universities of Oxford, Paris, Salamanca and Bologna. He established Bishoprics in Anatolia, Armenia and India and set up an Archbishopric in Iran at Sultanieh with six suffragan Bishops in 1318. Frugal in his personal lifestyle, he continued the nepotism of earlier Avignon Popes. French.
197. Benedict XII, 1334-1342. The new Pope, born in 1280, of humble parentage (his father was a baker) was of exceedingly upright character, and totally opposed to nepotism. He was more interested in the correction of abuses than in politics. He immediately sent away from Avignon all hangers-on who did not have a specific task to perform in the Church. He organized the Church's courts, and set up specifically the Roman Rota, the Marriage Tribunal before which cases of annulment had to (and still have to) come. He tried unsuccessfully to prevent the 100 Years War breaking out between England and France, and was unable to return to Rome as he wished. He built the castle at Avignon, and Ludwig von Pastor, the famous German historian of the Papacy noted that the smallness of the Cathedral at Avignon by comparison with the immensity of the Castle typified the submission of the Church to the French State which went on for the 70 years the Popes were in the French City. Benedict XII was a morally irreproachable man, who faithfully lived his monastic vows while governing the Church. He fought nepotism and did all he could to restore the Papacy to its rightful place. During his Pontificate Petrarch was crowned Poet on April 8, 1341 marking the beginning of a new epoch in the history of European culture. Petrarch placed his crown on the High Altar of St Peter's in Rome, as a gesture from Art to Religion. French.
198. Clement VI, 1342-1352. Pierre Roger de Beaufort was born in the castle of Beaufort in Limoges. He joined the Benedictines, and became Archbishop of Rouen. In 1345 he introduced the reform of the calendar. Devout, a protector of the poor and needy, a most charitable pope, he showed himself also courageous when the Black Death appeared in Avignon in 1348/9. He also protected the Jews whom the populace were blaming for it, and issued Bulls guaranteeing their safety. Under Clement, who reverted to the nepotism of some of his predecessors, Avignon was enriched and the papal court became even more French dominated. French.
199. Innocent VI, 1352-1362. Etienne Aubert was Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. St Brigid Queen of Sweden viewed his election as a most hopeful sign of God's providence for the Church. With the intention of returning the Papacy to Rome, Innocent sent the Spanish nobleman the Cardinal Aegidius Albornoz as his Legate. Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821-1891) the German historian said of Albornoz that he was the most gifted statesman ever to sit in the College of Cardinals. He carried out his task with intelligence, energy, compassion and delicacy. Albornoz laid down the civil legal system that was to remain in power in Rome until the time of Napoleon. Innocent was responsible for a ten-year's truce in the 100 Years War, and despite all his efforts to return the Papacy to Rome, died before anything could be done. Nothing came of his plans for a crusade, nor of his hopes for reunion with the Greeks. He died disappointed, and worn out by his efforts to curb petty fighting between factions in Italy. French.
200. Blessed Urban V, 1362-1370. A saintly Abbot, William de Grimord was born in 1309 and hence was relatively young when elected Pope. He had a strong sense of justice, and a German chronicle refers to him as 'lux mundi' - 'a light to the world'. He fought continuously and energetically against abuses within and outside the Church. Never a Cardinal, he was unhappy in the presence of worldly or influential people. He wore always the black habit of the Benedictines and continued Innocent VI's reforms. A scholar, he supported hundreds of poor students, endowed colleges at Montpellier, founded new Universities at Orange, Krakow and Vienna. His principal achievement was the short-lived return of the Papal court to Rome - even though the city was plagued with civil unrest and the Lateran Palaces were virtually uninhabitable. The Emperor John Palaeologus came to Rome and submitted to the Holy See on the steps of St Peter's abjuring the Orthodox faith and returning to the Catholic faith. Because it seemed easier to negotiate peace between France and England, the Pope eventually returned to Avignon in September 1370, despite warnings from St Brigid of Sweden that he would die permanently if he did so. Her prediction came true, as Urban died on December 19 that year. He was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1870. French.
201. Gregory XI, 1370-1378. Last of the Avignon Popes he suffered from ill-health, was deeply religious with a sensitive and modest manner that hid a tough personality. He wanted to return to Rome, but political and financial considerations made it impossible initially. It was only January 17, 1377 that he finally made his triumphal entry into Rome and took up his residence in the Vatican. He supported the Grand Master of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem in enforcing discipline, and addressed five bulls to Edward III of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, urging them to stamp out heresy, and to investigate the teachings of the reformer John Wycliffe. French.
202. Urban VI, 1378-1389. Bartolomeo Prignano was Archbishop of Bari when elected Pope on April 8, 1378. Not a Cardinal, Urban was an exceptional man, of great integrity, a strong opponent of all kinds of corruption and abuses within the Church, he was however autocratic and ruthless. St Catherine of Siena wrote a famous letter to him stating that 'Justice, untempered by mercy, is more unjust than injustice.' He so alienated many of the Cardinals and the general populace, that he is 'credited' with being the chief cause of the rise of no fewer than seven anti-Popes who lived in Avignon for the next fifty-two years during what is known as the Great Western Schism. One of his few memorable ecclesiastical acts was the extension of the Feast of the Blessed Virgin to the whole Church. Italian.
203. Boniface IX, 1389-1404. Pietro Tomacelli, born in Naples of a noble family, was only thirty when elected Pope. He had a spotless reputation, was kind and intelligent, and concerned himself with the administration of justice, furthered learning and cared for the poor. He canonized St Brigid of Sweden on October 7, 1391, but did not take serious steps to end the schism. Italian.
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