When the French Kings Kidnapped the Pope - Avignon Papacy DOCUMENTARY

During the 14th century, the highest Christian authority in Western Europe moved its seat from Rome to Provence. This period saw seven consecutive French popes residing for 70 years in the city of Avignon or its surroundings. The Papal Curia has often been remembered as subservient to the French monarchy and as a court of corruption, greed and luxurious spending. A picture presented by some contemporaries such as the great humanist Francesco Petrarcha. But was it really so? Or did the Avignon popes also leave another legacy for their successors? This and the origins of the Avignon Papacy will be the topic of our video. Did you know that the total wealth held in art is estimated to be worth 1.7 trillion dollars and that is expected to grow by another trillion over the next decade? The fact that contemporary art pieces outpaced the S&P 500 total return by 174% from 1995 to 2020 according to publicly available data means that it might be a better option than the stock market. 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If you want to take advantage and invest in some fine art, there is a waitlist, but you can skip that waitlist and immediately start investing by clicking our link in the description, and it also really supports the channel, so go check it out! We begin our narration in Italy at the end of the 13th century. The peninsula, a patchwork of small city-states and nobles in near-constant conflict and infighting, had seen a political shift in the previous 50 years, where imperial authority and gibberline power declined, which coincided with the disappearance of the Hohenstaufen family. In their stead, the Guelph faction, historically supporters of the popes, became prominent under the helm of the powerful Angevin dynasty, who had expanded their dominions into Piedmont and the Kingdom of Sicily. The island of Sicily had, however, rebelled in 1282, and a conflict between the Aragonese and the French had broken out from that. In this and the previous centuries, the power of the papacy had increased, both through their conflicts against the Holy Roman Emperors and the unifying spirit of the Crusades, with some popes pushing for a policy of universal authority over all the Christian world, a concept called universitas. This gave the popes greater control over the internal affairs of other Christian kingdoms, such as in moral and religious matters, the curriculums of the first universities, and the tithe, the taxation for religious conquest, thus placing them in a prime position to arbitrate both in internal and international politics. The two most prominent representatives of this policy were Innocent III and Boniface VIII, who would be the last pontiff to pursue this policy. But on the internal side, a number of popes had difficulties navigating the infamous intrigues of Rome, having to also balance the strong families of Latium and the mood of the citizens of the Erbe, and it was not rare that they would take residence outside of the capital, such as in Viterbo or Vieto or Rieti. Using now laying the political background, we find the origins of the events that led to the Avignon Papacy with the election of the Holy See of Boniface VIII in 1294, an ambitious nobleman from Latium of the noble Caetani family. He aimed to create a so-called Papal Monarchy over all the other Christian rulers, as he presented in the Papal Bull, Bunam Sanctam. His ideals came into conflict with the ambitious and arrogant King of France, Philip the Fair. Being at war against England, as one does, the French monarch began to tax the clergy without permission of the Pope, something that prompted Boniface to publish a bull banning these taxations, which began a diplomatic and legal skirmish between the two that culminated in 1303 with the Outrage of Agnani, or Schiavo di Agnani, where the Pope was captured and mistreated by the French-supported Colonna family and held captive in Agnani, and a few days later he died in shock. Boniface was succeeded by Benedict XI, who tried to balance the relations with France with the need to punish internal rebels, but he died after just 8 months of rule, possibly by poison. The subsequent election was marred by factionalism between the French and the Italian Cardinals, headed respectively by the Colonna and the Orsini families. It took nearly a year to find a candidate they could agree on, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Bertrand de Gotte, who took the name Clement V. He was in Lusignan when he received the news, and began to journey to Lyon, where he would be crowned. He is the first of the Avignon Popes. Clement is often remembered as a puppet of the French King, a reputation that was present among his contemporaries, however, these claims are considered exaggerated by modern historians. He was a good diplomat and managed to keep everyone content, although being a reserved and timid man. He spent the first years of his papacy travelling in his homeland, trying to broker a peace between the French and English Kings. He chose not to travel to Rome, as the city was afflicted by brutal factionalism between rival families, making it unsafe to move back. He instead remained in France, especially near Vienne and Avignon, which were part of the Duchy of Provence and thus not directly controlled by France, and neighboured the Papal Territory of Comte de Venison, which had been gifted to them the previous century. Here he surrounded himself with English and French councillors and cardinals, especially his family members. One outcome of these new nominations was that the Italian cardinals lost their majority, which would have a profound effect on the subsequent elections, as the next seven popes would all come from France. The dissolution of the Templar Order would be the most controversial event of his reign. Philip IV needed funds to repay his debts, and he hoped to capitalise on the weakness of the Holy Order following the fall of the last Christian holdings in the Levant. To do so, he had a number of false claims fabricated against the Order to have it dissolved and their members arrested, much like he attempted with Boniface VIII when he was feuding with him. Clement attempted to save the Order by temporising, but in the end he de facto traded the rehabilitation of the legacy of his predecessor Boniface, which France wanted to condemn, with the survival of the Templar Order. He would show his ability at temporising during Emperor Henry VII's descent into Italy, where he had to defend papal aspirations against imperial and Angevin ambitions, all contoured by the quagmire of medieval Italian politics. Clement died in 1314, before he could return to Rome as he wished, since the city was still marred by infighting, so he was succeeded over two years later by the old Pope John XXII, as the two factions couldn't agree on a successor. Initially elected with the idea that he could be easily manipulated by the other cardinals, Pope John would soon show himself to be very pragmatic and a brilliant and efficient organiser, very active both in Italian and in internal politics, while also dealing with some of the most important theological questions of his time which had spawned in the various monastic orders. But peculiarly, he was also terrified of magic and being poisoned, possibly laying the bedrock for the witch-hunt that would take place in later centuries. Pope John managed to rule up until December 1334, leaving behind a rich treasury attesting to his stewardship abilities. He had managed to centralise the Church and its administration, which would be passed to his successors, and he is considered by some scholars as the symbol of the Avignon Papacy. The successor was Pope Benedict XII, who had been an inquisitor and advisor to the previous Pope. A sober man, he focused his attention on splitting up the many privileges held by a few by appointing new bishops. He was also a brilliant theological mind, and reformed some monastic orders, such as the Cistercians and the Benedictines, but he had little interest in international politics. He intended to return to Rome and send envoys to prepare for his travel, but the political situation in the peninsula once again did not permit such a transfer. During his reign, the One Hundred Years' War sparked. Pope Benedict had attempted to persuade the two parties to not initiate hostilities, but was ineffective, and became himself entangled in the conflict when the English King Edward III allied himself with the Emperor, who still harboured ambitions in Italy. Following his death, in 1342 Clement VI was swiftly elected. Considered a brilliant politician and diplomat, he was elected for his abilities as a statesman. He was also what we might call a humanist, and he invested many resources into Avignon, the city that he acquired in 1348 from Joanna of Naples, Duchess of Provence, adorning it to elevate the city up to an acceptable standard for a papal residence. Clement promulgated the Jubilee year of 1350 in Rome, with the goal of helping the city's economy, and he defined the doctrine on indulgences, the possibility to pay one's sins forgiveness, which would become one of the major points of Martin Luther's criticism of the Catholic Church. Clement also staunchly defended the independence of the papacy, and the infallibility of the Pope, seeing the passage of the imperial throne from Louis of Bavaria, who had for twenty years butted heads with the papal state, to the more amicable Charles IV of Luxembourg, with whom the Pope already had a great relationship. Having resolved the conflicts with the Empire, he could concentrate on the Franco-English War, which he had already attempted to mediate before the conflict started. This would be an arduous task, especially because his detractors depicted him being in the pockets of the French Valois kings, having been the Chancellor of France and creating a number of new French Cardinals. Still, although this did not help with his reputation among the English, a truce was brokered after the Battle of Crecy, which was followed by the catastrophic Black Death. The plague in fact arrived in Avignon during Clement's reign in 1348, which killed half of the city's population, much like in the rest of Europe. The Pope had to handle another volatile situation, where he published a bull to protect the Jewish population from being scapegoated for the plague. Clement died in 1352. Innocent VI came to the throne a few days later, a man similar in character to his predecessor, but he did not have the same disposable resources for lavish projects that his predecessor had access to. Like all the Avignon Popes, he attempted and failed to bring an end to the Hundred Years War, which had begun to take its toll also on Provence, where unemployed mercenary bands had begun raiding to survive. He is the first Pope in a generation who seriously intended to return to Italy, sending the Spanish Cardinal Albinoth to reconquer the state of St. Peter. The year before his death in 1362, another wave of Black Death hit Europe, the repercussions of which exhausted the old Pope, bringing him to his death. His successor was Pope Urban V, who was a candidate that was a compromise between the different factions in the conclave, as he was not part of the higher echelons of the Papal Curia and had been in Italy to handle his predecessor's affairs. Quite a frugal person, he supported education with Papal resources. He was also very meticulous, not delegating much of his work, and valued the quality of his clergy over their origins, alienating some of the other Cardinals. On the foreign policy front, like his predecessor, he favoured a crusade, to put a stop on the expansion of the Ottomans, to bring unity to the Christian world, and to get rid of the many bands of mercenaries that were roaming France, but the expedition failed to materialize. The destruction caused by the bands, and a series of unfortunate bad weather events had left the lands of Provence barren, and Pope Urban began to seriously consider a return to Rome. With a truce between France and England, and the Italian peninsula pacified, Pope Urban travelled to Rome in 1367, in contrast with much of the Papal Curia. His most important goal there was to unify the Eastern and Western Christian Churches, which he theoretically managed in 1369, when East Roman Emperor John V submitted to the Pope. His success was overshadowed by his hasty return to Avignon, as the situation in central Italy became chaotic again, and his attention was needed on the Hundred Years' War which had flared up. He fell sick on his arrival, and died in December 1370. The last Avignon Pope, Gregory XI, was elected unanimously. He was the nephew of Clement VI, and had spent much time in Italy before his election. Diplomatically cunning like his uncles, he is well remembered for being the Pope that returned to Italy in 1376, which we will cover another time. Having described the highlights of the reigns of each Pope, let us delve into the court and the politics that they shared. It was important for the French Popes to legitimize the city of Avignon as a location fit to be the highest seat of Western Christianity, and to reach this goal, many resources were poured into the construction of the Papal Residence of Avignon, both to house the administration and to show the splendour of its inhabitants. Some of the pontiffs were patrons of the arts and sciences, and housed many artists and humanists such as Petrarcha, and many European universities were founded in this century. The shift of the court also meant the movement of many Italian merchant families to the city, strengthening trade between southern France and Italy. In fact, although the higher echelons of the administration and most of the cardinals were French, much of the court and financial managers were Italians. A number of the Popes were lawyers before being elected to office, and they left their mark on the Papal administration for centuries. Their goals were the bureaucratization and centralization of the Church and its finances, which allowed them to act more like temporal princes. Some elements that were changed were the way the Church taxes were collected. Instead of letting nobles or kings collect them and then send them to the Pope, the curia sent public officials, sometimes the local bishops, to collect Church taxes, thus having more control over them. The increase in revenue was prominent, and allowed the Popes to manage their budget as they pleased, without having to make use of loans that could come with diplomatic strings attached to them. They also appropriated from other Church members the right to appoint many benefices, titles, lands, and revenue to men they considered worthy. This gave the Popes a better connection to the territories, without having to go through the cardinals. The Avignon Papacy has been depicted as riddled with nepotism, but taking a closer look, the claim does not hold when considering that the practice was already present before and after, and for some pontiffs, it was crucial to have friends or next of kin in higher positions that they could trust. The pontiffs began to surround themselves with excellent administrative counsellors and financial aides. The Apostolic Chamber, in charge of the court finances, became more professional and managed which went mainly to building Avignon, to fund wars in Italy, to restructure churches and charity. Also, the Chancery, the papal archive, was expanded with more records being kept, and to this day we have detailed accounts of these expenditures. Probably the biggest failure of the Avignon Papacy was in foreign policy, especially in the relations between England and France. Although some serious attempts were made to avoid conflict, and some truces did hold, in the end, they were seen as too close to the French court to be considered honest brokers in the eyes of the English. The hopes of concentrating the war's resources on a crusade, which nearly every Pope called for, were in vain. The Popes were also very active in Spain, where they meddled in the Castilian Civil War, and in Italy. The reputation of the Avignon Papacy has often been one of subservience to the French monarchs, of corruption and of nepotism, which can be traced back to Italian writers and religious figures who desired the head of the Christian Church to reside once again in Rome, especially Petrarcha. But more modern studies have disagreed with this vision, seeing a period of strengthening of the papal administration which would allow it to become a temporal protagonist in the following centuries. We have more videos on the aftermath of the Avignon Papacy, on their dealings in Italy and on the Middle Ages on the way, so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see the next video in the series. Please consider liking, commenting, and sharing – it helps immensely. Our videos would be impossible without our kind patrons and youtube channel members, whose ranks you can join via the links in the description to know our schedule, get early access to our videos, access our discord, and much more. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.