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The Avignon Papacy (1309-1377)

• The Avignon papacy was under strong French influence.

• Under Pope Clement V, the French dominated the College of Cardinals.

• The papacy, cut off from Roman estates, innovated to raise funds:

  • Expanded papal taxes.

  • Annates: the first year's revenue of a church office.

  • Benefice: a grant or living given by the pope.

  • Pope Clement VI (r. 1342-1352) began selling indulgences (pardons for unrepented sins).

• Church doctrine on purgatory was developed to make the purchase of indulgences more compelling. Indulgences were extended to cover souls of the deceased, allowing the living to buy reduced sentences in purgatory for loved ones.

• These practices contributed to the Avignon papacy's reputation for materialism and political scheming, providing reformers with ammunition against the Church.

Pope John XXII (r. 1316-1334)

• Most powerful Avignon pope, sought to restore papal independence and return to Italy.

• His goal led to a war with the Visconti family of Milan and a costly contest with Emperor Louis IV (r. 1314-1347).

• John challenged Louis's election as emperor in 1314.

• When John refused to recognize Louis's election, the emperor deposed him and appointed an antipope.

• John condemned the Spiritual Franciscans, whose views on absolute poverty, as heretical.

• Two prominent pamphleteers emerged:

  • William of Ockham: excommunicated by John in 1328.

  • Marsilius of Padua (ca. 1290-1342): declared heretical in 1327.

    • In his Defender of Peace (1324), Marsilius argued for the independent origins and autonomy of secular government.

    • He stressed that clergy should be subjected to strict apostolic ideals and confined to purely spiritual functions.

    • Denied the pope coercive power of judgment over kings; spiritual crimes were to be punished in the next life, not the present, unless the secular ruler declared divine law to be secular law.

    • Argued that the pope was a subordinate member of society, with temporal peace as the highest good.

• Pope John XXII adapted the papacy to the growing European money economy.

• The more the Curia (papal court) mastered money, the more vulnerable it became to secular criticism.

• John's successor, Benedict XII (r. 1334-1342), neglected Rome and built the Great Palace of the Popes in Avignon.

• Pope Clement VI (r. 1342-1352), a high-living Frenchman, placed papal policy in lockstep with French secular patrons.