§ 6. THE TRANSFER OF THE PAPACY TO AVIGNON. 45
to poison secreted in a dish of figs, of which the pope partook freely.^
The conclave met in Perugia, where Benedict died, and was torn by factions. After an interval of nearly eleven months, tlie_Jj;ench,^party^ wwi^ac triumph bj the
choice of Bertrand de Got, archbishop of Bordeaux^ who took the name of Clement ^ At the time of his election, Bertrand was in France. He never crossed the Alps. After holding his court at Bordeaux, Poictiers, and Toulouse, he chose, in 1309, Avignon as his residence.
Thus began the so-called Baby^loniaii^ captivity, or Avignon exile, of the papacy, which lasted more than seventy years and included seven popaSv-alLFrenchmen, Clement V., 1305-1314; John XXII., 1316-1334; Benedict XII., 1334- 1342; Clement VI., 1342-1352 ; Innocent VI., 1352-1362; Urban V., 1362-1370 ; Gregory XI., 1370-1378. This prolonged absence from Rome was a great shock to the papal system. Transplanted from its maternal soil, the papacy was cut loose from the hallowed and historical associations of thirteen centuries. It no longer spake as from the centre of the Christian world.
The way had been prepared for the abandonment of the Eternal City and removal to French territory. Innocent II. and other popes had found refuge in France. During the last half of the thirteenth century the Apostolic See, in its struggle with the empire, had leaned upon France for aid. To avoid Frederick II., Innocent IV. had fled to Lyons, 1245. If Boniface VIII. represents a turning-point in the history of the papacy, the Avignon residence shook the reverence of Christendom for it. It was in danger of becoming a French institution. Not only were the popes all Frenchmen, but the large majority of the cardinals were of French birth. Both were reduced to a station little above that of court prelates subject tojbhe nod ofjbhe French sovereign. At the same
iPerretus of Vicenza, Muratori, IX. 1013. Villani, VIII. 80. As an example of Benedict's sanctity it was related that after he was made pope he was visited by his mother, dressed in silks, but he refused to recognize her till she had changed her dress, and then he embraced her.
46 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
time, the_popes continued to_exercise their prerogatives over the other nations of Western Christendom, and freely Jmried anathemas at tlie German, empeipr and_iaid the interdict upon Italian citisjg. The word might be passed around, " where the pope is, there is Rome," but the wonder is that the grave hurt done to his oecumenical character was not irreparable.^
The morals of Avignon during the papal residence were notorious throughout Europe. The papal household had all the appearance of a worldly court, torn by envies and troubled by schemes of all sorts. Some of the Avignon popes left a good name, but the general impression was bad — weak if not vicious. The curia was notorious for its extravagance, venality, and sensuality. Nepotism, bribery^^nd simony were unblushinglj practised. The financial operations of the papal family became oppressive to an extent unknown before. Indulgences, aj^plied to all sorts of cases, were made a source of increasing revenue. Al varus Pelagius, a member of the papal household and a strenuous supporter of the papacy, in his De planctu ecdesice, complained bitterly of the peculation and traffic in ecclesiastical places going on at the papal court. It swarmed with money-changers, and parties bent on money operations. Another contemporary, Petrarch, who never uttered a word against the papacy as a divine institution, launched his satires against Avignon, which he called " the sink of every vice, the haunt of all iniquities, a third Babylon, tlie Babylon of the West." No expression is too strong to carry his biting invectives. Avignon is the " fountain of afflictions, the
1 See Pastor, I. 75-80. He calls Clement's decision to remain in France der iLnselUje Entxchhiss, " the unholy resolve," and says the change to Avignon had the meaning of a calamity and a fall, die Bcdeutunrj einer Katastrophe, eines Sturzes. Ilefele-Knopfler, KlrcheugeschichtP, p. -158, pronounces it "amove full of bad omen." Baur, Kirchengesch. d. M.A.^ p. 265, said, "The transference of the papal chair to Avignon was the fatal turning-point from which the papacy moved on to its dramatic goal with hasty step." See also Haller, p. 23. Pastor, p. 62, making out as good a case as he can for the Avignon popes, lays stress upon the support they gave to missions in Asia and Africa. Clement VI., 1342-1362, appointed an archbishop for Japan.