Papal States | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1309–1376 | |||||||||||||
 Map of the Papal states with the ecclesiastical enclave of Avignon in France. | |||||||||||||
| Status | Papal enclave and part of the Comtat Venaissin within France | ||||||||||||
| Capital | Avignon | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | Latin, Occitan, French | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||||||||||
| Government | Theocratic absolute elective monarchy | ||||||||||||
| Pope | |||||||||||||
• 1305–1314 | Clement V (First) | ||||||||||||
• 1370–1378 | Gregory XI (Last) | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||||||
• Curia moved to Avignon | 1309 | ||||||||||||
• Return to Rome of the last Avignon pope | 1377 | ||||||||||||
| Currency | Roman scudo | ||||||||||||
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| Today part of | |||||||||||||
The Avignon Papacy (Occitan: Papat d'Avinhon; French: Papauté d'Avignon) was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon (at the time within the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now part of France) rather than in Rome (now the capital of Italy).[1] The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by Philip IV of France. Following the subsequent death of Pope Benedict XI, Philip forced a deadlocked conclave to elect the French Clement V as pope in 1305. Clement refused to move to Rome, and in 1309 he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian captivity" of the Papacy[2][3] (cf. Italian cattività avignonese, i.e. "Avignonese captivity").
A total of seven popes reigned at Avignon, all French,[4][5] and all under the influence of the French Crown. In 1376, Gregory XI abandoned Avignon and moved his court to Rome, arriving in January 1377. After Gregory's death in 1378, deteriorating relations between his successor Urban VI and a faction of cardinals gave rise to the Western Schism. This started a second line of Avignon popes, subsequently regarded as illegitimate. The last Avignon antipope, Benedict XIII, lost most of his support in 1398, including that of France. After five years besieged by the French, he fled to Perpignan in 1403. The schism ended in 1417 at the Council of Constance.[6]
- ^ The Avignon Papacy, P.N.R. Zutshi, The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 1300-c. 1415, Vol. VI, Ed. Michael Jones, (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 653.
- ^ Adrian Hastings, Alistair Mason and Hugh S. Pyper, The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, (Oxford University Press, 2000), 227.
- ^ Catholic Encyclopaedia entry para 7
- ^ Joseph F. Kelly, The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church: A History, (Liturgical Press, 2009), 104.
- ^ Eamon Duffy, Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes, (Yale University Press, 1997), 165.
- ^ The History of the Council of Constance, page 403, Stephen Whatley, Jacques Lenfant, published by A. Bettesworth, 1730.