1305-1367 - Babylonian Captivity
Cardinal Gaetani, on December 24, 1294, became Pope Boniface VIII. He entered upon his pontificate with the determination not only to restore the Papacy to the pre-eminence it had once attained, but to advance it beyond the dreams of all his predecessors. But the arrogance of Boniface VIII was his greatest enemy. In his conflicts with Edward I of England and Philip IV of France, the impotence of Boniface to enforce his will found its conclusive demonstration. In 1296, the Pope had denied all royal jurisdiction over the clergy, in particular the right to levy taxes of any kind upon them. In the Bull "Clericis Laicos " of that year, he had forbidden all temporal rulers to impose, and all ecclesiastics to pay, under pain of excommunication, taxes or contributions other than those sanctioned by the Apostolic See. It was, in effect, a denial of sovereignty in its most vital prerogative, - the most deadly blow that could he directed by the Papacy against the fundamental rights of the monarchies.
Of all the peoples of Europe, none was more loyal to the France and Papacy than the French. Philip IV was, no doubt, a despot without conscience or morality; but, in standing for local civil rights, he represented a principle upon which all modern civilization is based, and his people, including most of the clergy, bravely stood with him. In opposing the rising tide of national sentiment, Boniface VIII embraced the most fatal political error, and made the most ruinous miscalculation, that have ever befallen the Papacy. The quarrel over the question of taxation deepened, in 1301, into a general contest over the respective rights of the Holy See and the French crown.
The Pope issued the famous Bull " Unam Sanctam,"in which he pronounced his ultimatum. The Church is "the seamless garment of the Lord." "Of this one and only Church, there is one body and one head, - the successor of St. Peter, - not two heads, as if it were a monster." There are, indeed, " two swords, a spiritual and a temporal," the one to be wielded by the Church, the other for it; but " the temporal authority should be subjected to the spiritual." " The spiritual power has to establish the earthly power; and to judge it, if it be not good." Finally, " We declare, announce, and define, that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
At a general parliament, assembled on June 13, 1303, the doctrine of "papal absolutism and irresponsibility was publicly denounced in France. The most Catholic nation of Europe had repudiated the pretensions of the Pope. On October 11, 1303, in the palace of the Vatican, death ended the career of the humbled pontiff.
On June 5, 1305, Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux was elected pope, Clement V. Declining to proceed to Bome, he took up his permanent abode near the French king. Here the popes resided for seventy years, or, more exactly, sixty-eight - from 1309 to 1377. This period of painful and humiliating memories has so impressed itself on the papal historians that they have called it The Babylonian Captivity of the Church.' Philip made Clement begin a process against Boniface, but this went no further than a withdrawal of his bulls and acts of excommunication. He held a general council at Vienne, 1311, in which it became apparent that the civil power was getting the upper hand. At Avignon Clement lived a brilliant but scandalous life, gathering riches and wasting them on his lusts.
Philip IV had not only captured the person of a pope, he had confiscated the Papacy. In a little enclave encircled by French territory, the at Avignon papacy was to pass the period of seventy years which is known in history as the "Babylonian Captivity." Singular as it may seem, it did not for a time lose its spiritual supremacy over Europe, although its political influence was chiefly enjoyed by France.
Clement V moved the papal see to Avignon in 1309; and his successors continued to reside there for nearly seventy years, until Gregory XI. After that date arose a forty-years' schism between the Roman popes and the Avignon popes. It had been left for Benedict XI, 1303-4, to completely annul the proceedings of his great predecessor, restore Philip to all his ecclesiastical rights, revoke the censures on the prelates who did not go to Rome, cancel the bulls of the recent conflicts, restore the Colonna family to their former positions, and reconcile the papacy to the princes. But just as he was preparing for an energetic stroke at the participants of the fray at Anagni he was poisoned. Poisoning was a fine art among those followers of the vicar of Christ. It was arranged how the life of John II was to he taken by poison, as well as that of his successors, Hadrian VI and Clement VII. State poisons were said to be kept in an official box in Venice.
The successor of Benedict was Clement V, 1305-14, who bought the tiara by a number of concessions to Philip. Villani describes a dark scene in the depths of the forest of St. Jean d'Angely between Philip and Clement, in which the latter made various degrading promises.' But recent research has thrown doubt on this scene, although none on the reality of Clement's serfdom to Philip. He was crowned at Lyons, and resided first at Bordeaux, where he was archbishop, and then at Poitiers, and finally, 1309, settled at Avignon.
Clement V chose to fix his residence very near, but just outside, his own domains, at Avignon, - a fief of the counts of Provence, who were also kings of Naples and vassals of the Pope. The reason of this choice is alleged to be the accessibility of Avignon, situated on the Rhone, which separated it from France. A better reason may, perhaps, be found in the double protection thus afforded to the Pope.1 Always prudent in not subjecting itself to a single guardian, the Papacy doubtless saw an advantage in having its seat near to one king and within the legal jurisdiction of another. Avignon was sold in 1348 to Clement VI by Joanna II, Queen of Naples and Countess of Provence.
The absence of the Pope from Rome, although it finally ended in discontent, at first excited no surprise, having long been customary. A careful calculation shows that, in the two hundred and four years from 1100 to 1305, the popes had lived only eighty-two years in Rome, and one hundred and twenty-two out of the city, - a difference of forty years in favor of their absence.
But the residence of the popes at Avignon was a heavier blow to Rome than any previous absence had been. The city not only lost the prestige of being the papal capital, but suffered the less consolable misfortune of missing the papal revenues. In addition to these deprivations, all seven of the successors of St. Peter who lived at Avignon were Frenchmen.2 Under the pressure of French influence, Italy was not only deprived of the inflow of "Peter's pence," but the French monarchs were able to enjoy rich loans from the papal treasury.8 Nor was it of great satisfaction to any one, excepting the King of France, that Clement V conferred a similar favor upon Edward II of England; for, with keen business insight, the Pope took for his security the revenues of Aquitaine.
The Italian Cardinals clamoured loudly for an Italian Pope and the restoration of the Papacy to Rome. The French Cardinals, who were in the majority, were equally determined to keep the Papacy in France, and among them the Gascon element prevailed. Their choice fell, in August, 1316, on the old Cardinal of Portus, a middle-class Gascon who had risen by the favour of Robert of Naples and by a certain kind of useful ability which had brought him into prominence at the Council of Vienna. The pontificate of John XXII. seems to have won a greater notoriety than its events can easily account for. He has been made the scapegoat for the offences with which posterity loaded the Avignon Popes, and he was unfortunate enough to be a conspicuous target in an epoch of literary redundance.
The Avignon Papacy, if not altogether discredited, was undoubtedly in disrepute. Abuses which had passed unnoticed in Rome were notorious scandals in the Venaissin, and Christendom did not hide its outraged feelings. A schism among the Franciscans had arisen on the subject of apostolic poverty. John XXII., at the expense of his reputation, opposed the Fraticelli or Spiritual Franciscans, and held to a more modified view of the apostolic injunction, which was less inconsistent with the luxurious character of the Avignon court and with the personal avarice of the Pope himself. He was supported by the Dominicans in condemning as heretics the Fraticelli, who in their turn gave their support to the Emperor Lewis.
By the time of the death of John XXII, the Popes had thoroughly exhausted the advantages of the Avignon position. More than once Benedict XII. had tried to effect the return to Rome. But he failed, as his three successors were to fail, owing to the strength of the pressure of France on the one hand, and, on the other, the natural reluctance of the Cardinals to go back to the city of anarchy. So Italy was left in the hands of the Ghibelline tyrants, and the bitterness of the land against the Popes increased in proportion as the evils of tyranny and private war oppressed it.
The Pope's desire for money was boundless, and, in his absence from Italy, the revenues from the Papal States were negligible. England was consequently the chief " quarry," until Edward III woke up to the fact that the French soldiers were being paid by the money which left England in the form of papal dues. These were never so burdensome or so excessive as now, when the national need of money was proportionately greater than ever. Clement VI. might well laugh, and say that his predecessors had not known how to be Popes. Funds poured in to Avignon from provisions, reservations, and dispensations. All ecclesiastical rights which it was possible to lay hands on were seized by the agents of the Curia.
The worst charges brought against the Avignon Papacy were probably true of the pontificate of Clement VI. The clergy were luxurious and immoral, and at the papal court extravagance and good-living were carried much too far. But the Pope himself was an able man, whose worst fault was the leniency which tolerated such an atmosphere. He was a very popular preacher, a successful diplomatist, and above all a kind-hearted man. He tried to protect the Jews against the brutal bigotry of Christendom, and even gave them a place of refuge in his Avignon estate.
To Urban V. (1362-1370) belongs the honor of ending the Babylonish captivity. In character he was saintly, wise, and only just short of heroic. The peril of the mercenary bands was worse than ever; the French wars had made France as disorderly as Italy; and the Black Death in 1361 had ravaged Avignon even more cruelly than elsewhere. The position of the Papacy was more than ever anomalous now that France was weak.
In April 1367, Rome did her best to honor his entry, but not all the garlands and banners could disguise the sinister appearance of the city. The churches were in ruins, the palaces were deserted, and stocks of rubbish filled the squares. In the following year another and apparently greater triumph fell to Urban when John Palaeologus, the Eastern Emperor, knelt before him, and promised, in return for fighting-men and money, to heal the schism between East and West. Urban knew the circumstances too well to offer more than sympathy.
Gregory XI (1370-1378), had a harder task than ever before him, for the Cardinals knew from experience what to expect in Italy, and the Italian cities had learned how to resist the French Papacy. Gregory XI was taken ill in Rome, and with failure behind him and tragedy in sight, he died on March 27, 1378. The Papacy had worn him out, for he died an old man at the age of forty-seven.
The seventy years' captivity was one of the causes which broke the spell of the papacy. The tools of the French, and living in licentious abandonment and for worldly ends, popes could no longer be considered divine leaders. Their insatiable rapacity and ingenuity in devising means of extortion created disgust. Students of Aristotle and of civil law were protesting against their abuse of power, and religious enthusiasts were denouncing their crimes. The civil power became more independent. England, France, Germany, and even Italy disregarded the papal mandates. Ominous mutterings, growing louder for fifty years, declared that the vast usurpation, used by Providence for the civilization of the West, must be broken up. Its crimes, its tyrannies, its grievous failure in ita stewardship of the nations, were hurrying it to judgment.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
