The Avignon Papacy

A running theme throughout the Medieval world was the constant struggle between the Popes and various Kings, the Church versus royal authority.  The Medieval Papacy was a feudal institution and it was a wealthy one.  In addition to his spiritual authority as head of the Church, the Pope wielded secular authority over the Papal States, a swath of land in central Italy, as well as other properties throughout Europe.  Peter's Pence was collected throughout Europe and church officials, who often themselves presided over manors and other lucrative property, had to acknowledge both a secular overlord, the local king or duke, as well as a spiritual overlord in the Pope.  This dual authority gave Popes wide latitude in dictating policy to various kings.  While the Pope could be an effective intermediary or diplomat, he could also throw the weight of the Papacy behind one ruler or another in a dispute, using as well the weapons of excommunication and interdict to enforce his will.

For centuries, since the fall of the Roman empire, the Papacy had revolved among leading Italian families, Colonnas, Orsinis and others.  Foreign Popes happened, but they were rare.  Rome's families tended to treat the Papacy and the man who held the current title as their own private preserve, feeling free to depose Popes who didn't suit their will.  In 1302, Pope Boniface VIII, a Caetani by birth, issued a bull called Unam Sanctam, in which he claimed that it was necessary for salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Papacy.  Thus, every person in Europe, from Kings to commoners, owed fealty to the Pope as their secular overlord.  Phillip IV of France, no one to be trifled with, responded that, "your venerable conceitedness may know that we are nobody's vassal in temporal matters."  Stung, Boniface put France under general excommunication and interdict, deposing any clergy not loyal to the Papacy over the King.  Phillip arranged with Italian allies of France to have men break into the Papal Palace and severely beat Boniface, who died shortly thereafter.

Nicholas Boccasini was elected as Pope Benedict IX.  He absolved Phillip IV and his powerful allies of any sin for the attack on Boniface, though the actual perpetrators were ordered to appear before a pontifical tribunal.  Then Benedict XI died and an eleven month conclave ensued before finally Bertrand de Got, a personal friend of Phillip's, took office as Pope Clement V.  Rome was furious that a Roman hadn't been elected Pope, making it highly dangerous for the new Pope to go to Rome.  Instead, and probably with Phillip's pressure behind the scenes, Clement V decided to stay in France, or at least territory conveniently close thereto.  They eventually settled in a Palace located at Avignon, then part of an independent Kingdom of Arles but technically under French purview, and officially moved the Papal Curia there.  Avignon and some territory surrounding it were added to the Papal States and remained so until the French Revolution, when it reverted back to France.  From 1305 through 1377, the Papacy functioned from Avignon and all the Popes and and/or anti-Popes who served from that time period were French.  It wasn't until a Frenchman, Gregory IX finally decided a few years after his accession that it was time to return to Rome.

This period of time was known in Church history as the Babylonian Captivity, referring to the Biblical period of captivity of the Israelites in Babylon.  But there were other reasons for the reference.  Southern France, which included places such as Aquitaine, was always known for its more liberal culture.  The nobility lived well, adorned themselves and their palaces with the finest in fabrics and jewels, listened to the music of troubadours and poems and stories of love and its many dramas.  They saw nothing wrong with affairs, as long as they were discreet, and celibacy wasn't strictly enforced.  This attitude soon prevailed among the Papal courtiers, assuring in decades of decadence, nepotism and excess.  While Reformers raged against the debauchery of the Papal Court, nobody could do anything about it and strong kings, such as England's Edward III, could pull their kingdoms away from the orbit the Church, ruling more as they saw fit without the in-put of the Pope.