§ 6. THE TRANSFER OF THE PAPACY TO AVIGNON. 59
other territories within the pope's gift.^ The administration and disposition of his treasure occupied a large part of Clement's time and have offered an interesting subject to the pen of the modern Jesuit scholar, Ehrle. The papal treasure left by Clement's predecessor, after being removed from Perugia to France, was taken from place to place and castle to castle, packed in coffers laden on the backs of mules. After Clement's death, the vast sums he had received and accumulated suddenly disappeared. Clement's successor, John XXII., instituted a suit against Clement's most trusted relatives to account for the moneys. The suit lasted from 1318-1322, and brought to light a great amount of information concerning Clement's finances.^
His fortune Clement disposed of by will, 1312, the total amount being 814,000 florins ; 300,000 were given to his nephew, the viscount of Lomagne and Auvillars, a man otherwise known for his numerous illegitimate offspring. This sum was to be used for a crusade ; 314,000 were bequeathed to other relatives and to servants. The remaining 200,000 were given to churches, convents, and the poor. A loan of 160,000 made to the king of France was never paid back.^
Qenieiit'^JjOLdyjffiaa_by.Ms_appointm^^ Uzeste.
His treasure was plundered* At the trial instituted by John XXII., it appeared that Clement before his death had set apart 70,000 florins to be divided in equal shares between his successor and the college of cardinals. The viscount of Lomagne was put into confinement by John, and turned over 300,000 florins, one-half going to the cardinals and one-half to the pope. A few months after Clement's death, the count made loans to the king of France of 110,000 florins and to the king of England of 60,000.
Clement's relatives showed their appreciation of his liberality by erecting to his memory an elaborate sarcophagus at
1 Ehrle, V. 139 sq.
2 Ehrle, p. 147, calculates that Clement's yearly income was between 200,000 and 250,000 gold florins, and that of this amount he spent 100,000 for the expenses of his court and saved the remainder, 100,000 or 160,000. Ehrle, p. 149, gives Clement's family tree. 3 Ehrle, pp. 126, 135.
60 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
Uzeste, which cost 50,000 gold florins. The theory is that the pope administers moneys coming to him by virtue of his papal office for the interest of the Churcli at large. Clement spoke of the treasure in his coffers as his own, which he might dispose of as he chose.^
Clement's private life was open to the grave suspicion of unlawful intimacy with the beautiful Countess Brunissenda of Foix. Of all the popes of the fourteenth century, he showed the least independence. An apologist of Boniface VIII., writing in 1308, recorded this judgment : ^ " The Lord permitted Clement to be elected, who was more concerned about temporal things and in enriching his relatives than was Boniface, in order that by contrast Boniface might seem worthy of praise where he would otherwise have been condemned, just as the bitter is not known except by the sweet, or cold except by heat, or the good except by evil." Villani, who assailed both popes, characterized Clement " as licentious, greedy of money, a simoniac, who sold in his court every benefice for gold. "3
By a single service did this pope seem to place the Church in debt to his pontificate. The Ijook of decretals, known^as^ the ClemenJ:ineSj, and issued injpart by hyn, was completed by his successor, John XXII.
§ 7. Tlte Pontificate of John XXII. 1316-1334.
jOlement died April 20^13X4. The cardinals met at Carpentras and then at Lyons, and after an interregnum of twentyseven_montlis elected John X.XII., 1316—1334, to the papal throne. He was then seventy-two, and cardinal-bishop of
1 Clement's grave is reported to have been opened and looted by the Calvinists in 15G8 or 1577. See Ehrle, p. 130.
2 Finke : Aus den Tayen Bon. VIII., p. Ixxxviii.
^ Chronicle, IX. 59. Villani tells the story that at the death of one of Clement's nephews, a cardinal, Clement, in his desire to see him, consulted a necromancer. The master of the dark arts had one of the pope's chaplains conducted by demons to hell, where he was shown a i)alace, and in it the nephew's soul laid on a bed of glowing fire, and near by a place reserved for the pope himself. He also relates that the coffin, in which Clement was laid, was burnt, and with it the pope's body up to the waist.