Avignon Papacy

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Medieval depiction of Rome as a widow in black, mourning the loss of the papacy (MS Ital. 81, folio 18, Bibliothèque nationale de France )

The period between 1309 and 1377, in which seven popes had their seat in the city of Avignon , is known as the Avignon papacy (also called the papacy in Avignon, Avignon exile or Babylonian captivity of the church ) . Gregory XI. was finally convinced by Catherine of Siena to return to Rome . However, he died shortly afterwards, so that only his successor, the Italian Urban VI. , really was a Roman Pope again. The epoch of the papacy under French influence was not yet over. Shortly after his return there was a double election in 1378, which triggered the Western Schism that lasted until 1417. During this time, too, a pope temporarily resided in Avignon.

prehistory

In the 13th century there were increasing tendencies that impaired the universal claim of the papacy. The successors of Innocent III. found themselves exposed to a conflict with the Hohenstaufen, which the papacy could decide for itself. After the death of the Hohenstaufen emperor Friedrich II , there were double elections and military conflicts in the empire, which ultimately led to the downfall of the Hohenstaufen. Meanwhile, France rose to become the strongest power in Europe.

The French kingship immediately took advantage of its new power to influence the Pope. Misunderstanding the true circumstances, Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) continued to insist on the idea of ​​a universal papacy in the tradition of Gregory VII and Innocent III. He had such a bitter political argument with King Philip IV of France , which finally culminated in the Bull Unam Sanctam (1302). In it the Pope claimed the primacy of spiritual power over secular power. But Philip was not deterred by this. He accused the Pope of heresy and appealed to a future council to bring the Pope to trial. He finally had him arrested for a short time in his summer residence ( Anagni assassination ). Broken from this, Boniface died on October 11, 1303 in Rome.

Relocation to Avignon

The pressure of the French crown had meant that more and more cardinals were of French origin. With Clemens V , a Frenchman was elected Pope in 1305. He had previously been Archbishop of Bordeaux and after his election did not even go to Rome, but was crowned Pope in Lyon . Clement was completely under the influence of France. Four years after his coronation, he settled permanently in Avignon . Avignon had been in the possession of the Count of Provence , who was considered a loyal vassal of the church, since 1290 , but was in French territory - albeit Clement VI. later bought up lands around the city. The Pope had thus made himself dependent on a crown that his predecessors had fought bitterly for over two centuries.

Clemens' tentative attempt to defend himself against Philip's influence with the help of the Roman-German Emperor Henry VII soon ended, as Heinrich tried to renew the old imperial policy in Italy in the style of the Hohenstaufen , so that Clemens turned back to Philip. Philip's threat to insist on a trial against Boniface VIII in which he was posthumously convicted of heresy, which would have had serious consequences for the reputation of the papacy, also contributed to this.

French influence

Under French influence, the papacy became the plaything of French power interests and lost its authority as a non-partisan power in Europe. This development soon proved to be fatal.

Templar trial

Philip IV was the Templar's greatest debtor , who had gotten rich during the time of the Crusades and then settled mainly in France. Philipp was a thorn in the side of the exemte , i.e. the order withdrawn from its jurisdiction. He systematically damaged the reputation of the Templars by claiming that the followers of the order represented heretical special doctrines and committed fornication. In 1307 there were the first waves of arrests on the basis of accusations that had been extorted under torture ( Templar trial ). Clemens V took action against it only half-heartedly. Even threatened with charges, he finally gave in. Against the will of the Council of Vienne , he abolished the order on March 22, 1312. Philip then had the Knights Templar persecuted throughout the country and partially executed. He confiscated the property of the order, although it had been awarded to the Order of St. John .

Conflict with Ludwig IV and the beginning of conciliarism

Under Clemens' successor Johannes XXII. It didn't get any better: By following French interests, he had a long- standing dispute with the German pretender to the throne, Ludwig IV. In doing so, he damaged his reputation in the empire, from where a massive counter-attack was finally carried out, not only against the incumbent, but the Papacy itself was valid. Ludwig IV appealed to a future council and gathered at his court a number of theologians, mainly from the Franciscan order, who for their part were in conflict with the Pope ( poverty dispute ). There they worked out scriptures and canonical reports that questioned the current hierarchy of the Church and asserted that the General Council was the representative of all Christianity. This was the origin of conciliarism , which would occupy the church for the next two centuries.

Curia and church administration in Avignon

Papal Palace in Avignon

The administration of the Catholic Church, which saw itself as a universal Church, was increasingly centralized and better organized. One of the hallmarks of the Avignon papacy was the popes' overwhelming nepotism . The papal palace in Avignon was under Clement VI. Magnificently developed, the keeping of the court was extremely expensive. Finally Clement VI bought. 1348 the city. The papal court of Avignon became a center of patronage and early humanism . The University of Avignon enjoyed a good reputation.

Attempts by the papacy to intervene in Italy - where the papal state showed signs of disintegration - were unsuccessful, not least because of the influence of strong municipalities such as Florence and powerful aristocratic families such as the Visconti of Milan . But general communal disputes also made efforts by individual Avignon popes difficult.

Return to Rome

Under Ludwig's successor, Charles IV , the relationship between the empire and the curia improved noticeably, as Charles placed great importance on close cooperation between the two universal powers. So he offered Urban V to return to Rome under his protection. In the east, the popes tried to achieve an ecclesiastical union with the Eastern Church in Byzantium , but without success. The sometimes large-scale crusade plans of individual popes also failed .

The Pope's close adherence to the French monarchy, which was always given to varying degrees, the granting of benefices to finance the papal court and the moral condition of the papacy provoked criticism in Italy. Petrarch expressed himself very contemptuously about the conditions in Avignon. In Rome the call for a return of the Pope, Gregory XI, grew louder . finally took this step, also under pressure from Catherine of Siena and Birgitta of Sweden . Shortly after their return, however, there was a double election, which triggered the Western Schism . Subsequently, popes resided in Avignon, others in Rome. The schism lasted until 1417 and was only resolved by the Council of Constance .

List of the Avignon popes or counter-popes

Pope Gregory XI. solemnly returns to Rome (fresco by Giorgio Vasari in the Sala Regia in the Apostolic Palace , 1571–1574)

See also

swell

literature

  • AT THE. Hayez, M. Hayez: Pope and Papacy. VII. The papacy in Avignon . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , Sp. 1677–1682.
  • Hermann Hold : Incredibly believable: The Arengen rhetoric of the Avignonese papacy . Frankfurt am Main 2004 (2 volumes).
  • F. Donald Logan: History of the Church in the Middle Ages . Darmstadt 2005.
  • Guillaume Mollat : Les papes d'Avignon . Paris 1912 (10th edition 1964; older standard work).
  • Joëlle Rollo-Koster: Avignon and its Papacy (1309-1417). Popes, Institutions, and Society. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2015, ISBN 978-1-4422-1532-0 .
  • Stefan Weiß : The supply of the papal court in Avignon with food (1316-1378). Studies on the social and economic history of a medieval court . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-05-003640-0 (Zugl .: Augsburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2000).
  • Stefan Weiß: Accounting and bookkeeping of the Avignon papacy (1316-1378). A source study (=  Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Aids . Volume 20 ). Hahn, Hannover 2003, ISBN 3-7752-1127-6 (1st edition, new edition, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-88612-120-8 ).
  • Stefan Weiß: loans from European rulers for Gregory XI. To finance the return of the papacy from Avignon to Rome . In: Sources and research from Italian archives and libraries . tape 77 , 1997, ISSN  0079-9068 , pp. 176–205 ( perspectivia.net [accessed April 16, 2017]).

Web links

Commons : Avignon Papacy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ August Franzen : Small Church History. 25th edition. P. 221.
  2. ↑ a b c August Franzen: Small Church History. 25th edition. P. 223.
  3. ↑ a b August Franzen: Little Church History. 25th edition. P. 224.
  4. ^ August Franzen: Small Church History. 25th edition. P. 225.
  5. ^ August Franzen: Small Church History. 25th edition. P. 226.