Pope Clement VI ( la, Clemens VI; 1291 – 6 December 1352), born Pierre Roger, was head of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
from 7 May 1342 to his death in December 1352. He was the fourth
Avignon pope
The Avignon Papacy 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. The situation arose ...
. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
(1348–1350), during which he granted remission of sins to all who died of the plague.
Roger steadfastly resisted temporal encroachments on the Church's
ecclesiastical jurisdiction
Ecclesiastical jurisdiction signifies jurisdiction by church leaders over other church leaders and over the laity.
Jurisdiction is a word borrowed from the legal system which has acquired a wide extension in theology, wherein, for example, it is ...
and, as Clement VI, entrenched French dominance of the Church and opened its coffers to enhance the regal splendour of the Papacy. He recruited composers and music theorists for his court, including figures associated with the then-innovative
Ars Nova style of France and the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
.
Early life
Birth and family
Pierre Roger (also spelled Rogier and Rosiers) was born in the
château
A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions.
Nowaday ...
of
Maumont, today part of the commune of
Rosiers-d'Égletons
Rosiers-d'Égletons (, literally ''Rosiers of Égletons''; oc, Rosiers daus Gletons) is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Corrèze department
*Pope Gregory XI
Pope Gregory XI ...
,
Corrèze
Corrèze (; oc, Corresa) is a department in France, named after the river Corrèze which runs through it. Although its prefecture is Tulle, its most populated city is Brive-la-Gaillarde. Corrèze is located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, ...
, in
Limousin
Limousin (; oc, Lemosin ) is a former administrative region of southwest-central France. On 1 January 2016, it became part of the new administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It comprised three departments: Corrèze, Creuse, and Haute-Vienn ...
, France, the son of the lord of Maumont-Rosiers-d'Égletons. He had an elder brother, Guillaume, who married three times and had thirteen children; and a younger brother, Hugues, who became Cardinal Priest of S. Lorenzo in Damaso and who could have become pope in 1362. Pierre also had two sisters: Delphine, who married Jacques de Besse; and Alienor, who married Jacques de la Jugie. His brother Guillaume became Seigneur de Chambon, thanks to his wife's dowry, and, with the benefit of his papal brother's influence on King Philip VI, became Vicomte de Beaufort.
Monk and scholar
Roger entered the
Benedictine order[Richard P. McBrien, ''Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul II'', (HarperCollins, 2000), 240.] as a boy in 1301, at the Abbey of
La Chaise-Dieu
La Chaise-Dieu (; Auvergnat: ''La Chasa Dieu'') is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France. Its inhabitants are called ''Casadéens'', from the Latin name of the city.
Geography
La Chaise-Dieu occupies a 1082 m butte w ...
in the diocese of Clermont in the Auvergne. After six years there, he was directed to higher studies by the Bishop of Le Puy, Jean de Cumenis, and his own abbot, Hugues d'Arc. In 1307 he took up studies in Paris at the
College de Sorbonne
The College of Sorbonne (french: Collège de Sorbonne) was a theological college of the University of Paris, founded in 1253 (confirmed in 1257) by Robert de Sorbon (1201–1274), after whom it was named.
With the rest of the Paris colleges, ...
, where he entered the Collège de Narbonne. To support him, beyond what was supplied by his bishop and his abbot, he was granted the post of Prior of St. Pantaléon in the diocese of Limoges. In the summer of 1323, after Pierre had been studying both theology and canon law in Paris for sixteen years, the Chancellor of Paris was ordered by Pope John XXII, on the recommendation of King Charles IV, to confer on him the doctorate in Theology, a chair, and a license to teach. Pierre was in his thirty-first year. He lectured publicly on the ''Sententiae'' of
Peter Lombard
Peter Lombard (also Peter the Lombard, Pierre Lombard or Petrus Lombardus; 1096, Novara – 21/22 July 1160, Paris), was a scholastic theologian, Bishop of Paris, and author of '' Four Books of Sentences'' which became the standard textbook of ...
, and defended and promoted the works of
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...
. He was appalled by the ''
Defensor Pacis'' of Marsilius of Padua, and wrote a treatise in 1325 condemning its principles and defending Pope John XXII.
He was granted the priory of St. Baudil, a dependency of the Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu, on 24 April 1324, at the personal order of
Pope John XXII; and then, on 23 June 1326, he was named
Abbot of Fécamp, a royal abbey and one of the most important monasteries in France. He held the position until 1329.
Pierre Roger was called to Avignon through the influence of his friend and protector, Cardinal Pierre de Mortemart (who was named a cardinal on 18 December 1327), both of whom were close to King Charles IV. Unfortunately, King Charles IV died on 1 February 1328, the last Capetian king of France in the direct line.
As Abbot of Fécamp, and therefore a feudal subject of Edward III, Pierre was assigned the task in 1328 of summoning
Edward III of England
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring ro ...
to pay homage to
Philip VI of France for the
duchy of Aquitaine
The Duchy of Aquitaine ( oc, Ducat d'Aquitània, ; french: Duché d'Aquitaine, ) was a historical fiefdom in western, central, and southern areas of present-day France to the south of the river Loire, although its extent, as well as its name, fluc ...
. He received no reply, however, from King Edward, and was forced to return to France, his mission unaccomplished.
Episcopacy
On 3 December 1328 Peter Roger was named
Bishop of Arras
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arras (–Boulogne–Saint-Omer) (Latin: ''Dioecesis Atrebatensis (–Bononiena–Audomarensis)''; French: ''Diocèse d'Arras (–Boulogne–Saint-Omer)'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church i ...
, in which capacity he became a royal councilor of King Philip VI. He held the diocese of Arras only until 24 November 1329, less than a year, when he was promoted to the
Archdiocese of Sens
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sens and Auxerre (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Senonensis et Antissiodorensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Sens et Auxerre'') is a Latin Rite Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The Archdiocese compri ...
. He held the Archbishopric of Sens for one year and one month, until his promotion to the See of
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
on 14 December 1330.
In 1329, while Pierre Roger was still Archbishop-elect of Sens, a major assembly of the French Clergy was held at Vincennes in the presence of
King Philip VI (1328–1350), to deal with issues involving the judicial powers of ecclesiastical authorities. Many propositions were put forward against ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which were ably argued by Pierre de Cugnières (Petrus de Cugneriis). Pierre Roger made the rejoinders on 22 December 1329, on behalf of the ecclesiastical authority.
When Pierre Roger became Archbishop of Rouen in December 1330, he was expected to swear allegiance to his feudal overlord. King Philip VI had recently given his son Jean the Dukedom of Normandy as an apanage, and Pierre was worried about what might happen if someone other than a member of the French royal family might become Duke of Normandy. He therefore asked the King for time to consider his position, but the King was firm and seized the temporalities of the Archbishop. Pierre was forced to go to Paris, where an agreement was worked out that, should someone other than a member of the royal family become Duke, then the Archbishop would swear fealty directly to the King.
As Archbishop of Rouen, Roger was one of the Peers of France and he was a member of the embassy sent by King Philip to his son
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
, in 1333, to swear in their name to take the cross and serve in a crusade in the Holy Land. Later in the year, in Paris in the Prés des Clercs, the King received the cross personally from the hands of Archbishop Roger.
It is said that he was promoted to the office of
Chancellor of France,
though there is no documentary proof. The earliest claim that he was Chancellor is made by
Alfonso Chacon (Ciaconius) (1530–1599).
[''Gallia christiana'' XI, p. 77.]
In 1333, the issue of the
Beatific Vision, which had been under discussion since a sermon of Pope John XXII in 1329, reached a serious stage. The French Royal Court had been hearing complaints from various quarters, and the King and Queen finally decided to seek competent advice. The Pope knew that the University of Paris was hostile to his ideas, and so he sent Gerard Odonis, the Minister General of the Franciscans, and a Dominican preacher, to Paris to preach the Pope's views in public. King Philip responded to the general indignation by summoning the Masters of Theology of the University to Vincennes just before Christmas 1334, where it appeared that there was general agreement against the Pope. The King privately informed the Pope of their opinions, but the Pope harshly responded to the King that he should stop favoring an opinion which the Pope had not yet definitively settled. The Pope ordered the Archbishop of Rouen, Pierre Roger, to set the Pope's view down in writing and explain it to the King. Ironically, Pierre Roger was not on the Pope's side of the argument. A committee, which included Archbishop Roger, the theologian Pierre de la Palud (Petrus Paludensis), the Chancellor of France Guillaume de Sainte-Maure, the Archdeacon of Rouen Jean de Polenciac, and others, attempted to talk the Pope out of his notions.
Early in 1334 Pope John XXII informed the King that he had ordered the Cardinals and prelates and Doctors of theology and of Canon Law at the Papal Court to look into the propositions thoroughly and report to him their findings. John XXII was attempting to save face by placing the matter in the hands of a committee, but in the end, on his deathbed, he was compelled to repudiate his opinions, which were formally condemned by his successor, Benedict XII.
On 14 April 1335, Pierre Roger's friend and patron, Cardinal Pierre de Mortemart died, naming Pierre Roger as one of the executors of his Testament.
In September 1335 Archbishop Roger held a provincial council at Rouen in the Priory of Nôtre-Dame-du Pré (later called Bonne-nouvelle). Two of his bishops were present, the other four were represented by procurators. The cathedral chapters of the province and the abbots of monasteries were invited as well. The council issued a dozen canons, urging the lower clergy to be diligent in their assigned duties. The most notable item was the encouragement given to bishops to facilitate the business of those who wished to join the King on crusade.
Cardinalate
Pierre Roger was created a
Cardinal Priest
A cardinal ( la, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalis, literally 'cardinal of the Holy Roman Church') is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. Col ...
by
Pope Benedict XII (1334–1342) on 18 December 1338, in his only Consistory for the creation of cardinals. He created six new cardinals: four were fellow monks (two Benedictines, a Cistercian, and a Mercedarian); one was from Rimini, the rest from southern France. Four were lawyers, two were theologians. One died before he received the red hat, and was replaced by another candidate. Pierre Roger entered the Curia in Avignon for the first time on 5 May 1339, and received the
''titulus'' of
Santi Nereo e Achilleo
Santi Nereo ed Achilleo is a fourth-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, located in via delle Terme di Caracalla in the rione Celio facing the main entrance to the Baths of Caracalla. It has been the titular church of Cardinal Celestino Aós ...
.
Papacy
Cardinal Napoleone Orsini died during Lent of 1342, on 23 March. The funeral took place on Monday in Holy Week in the Franciscan church in Avignon, and the funeral sermon was preached by Cardinal Pierre Roger. A month later, on 25 April 1342, Pope Benedict XII died in the Papal Palace in Avignon. King Philip VI immediately sent his eldest son, Prince John, to press the candidacy of Pierre Roger, but he arrived too late to have any effect. Eighteen of the nineteen cardinals assembled for the
Conclave
A papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church.
Co ...
to elect his successor. Fourteen were French, three were Italian, one was Spanish. Only Cardinal Bertrand de Montfavez, who was ill with podagra (gout), was unable to attend. The Conclave began on Sunday, 5 May 1342, and on the morning of Tuesday, 7 May, agreement was reached. Two cardinals wrote to King Edward III of England on 8 May that the election had been accomplished "with no preliminary politicking and with only Divine Inspiration." Cardinal Pierre Roger was chosen to succeed Benedict XII as pope. He was crowned on Pentecost Sunday, 19 May, in the church of the Dominicans, the largest church in Avignon. Present were Prince John of France, Duke of Normandy; Jacques, Duke of Burgundy, Imbert, Dauphin of Vienne, and many others. Cardinal Roger chose the regnal name Clement VI.
During the season of Pentecost immediately following his coronation, as Peter de Herenthal writes, when a new Pope customarily gratifies the expectations of his family, his followers, his supporters, his cardinals, and the Roman Curia, Pope Clement promised gifts to every cleric who presented himself at Avignon within two months. Such a multitude of poor clerics appeared in Avignon that a computation was made that the number of poor clerics in all the dioceses of the world was around 100,000, a number which Peter de Herenthal was quite prepared to accept. When Clement VI, at the very beginning of his pontificate was making reservations of abbacies and prelatures, and declaring elections in monasteries and Chapters void, in order to acquire benefices for papal use in granting favors, it was intimated to him that his predecessors had not engaged in reservations of such a sort. Clement is said to have replied, "Our predecessors did not know how to be pope."
New cardinals
One of the greatest ways in which a pope can reward his supporters is to raise them to the cardinalate. On 20 September 1342, four months after his coronation, Clement VI held a Consistory for the creation of cardinals. He appointed ten prelates, including three nephews, Hugues Roger, Ademar Roberti and Bernard de la Tour d'Auvergne. He also elevated
Guy of Boulogne
Guy of Boulogne (1313 – 25 November 1373) was a statesman and cardinal who served the Avignon Papacy for 33 years. He participated in the papal conclaves of 1352, 1362 and 1370, and was the Subdean of the Sacred College of Cardinals. His dip ...
, the archbishop of Lyon and son of Count
Robert VII of Auvergne, and
Gerard de Daumar, the master-general of the Dominicans and a papal cousin, who died a year after his creation, on 27 September 1343. Five of his appointments were from his own native area of Limoges and one from Périgueux. Only one was Italian, Andrea Ghini Malpighi, a Florentine, who died on 2 June 1343. The College of Cardinals was now thoroughly French, with a strong accent of the Auvergne.
[Eubel, I, p. 18.]
On 19 May 1344 the two new cardinals who had died were replaced by two more Frenchmen: the Provençal
Pierre Bertrand, the nephew of Cardinal Pierre Bertrand; and
Nicolas de Besse, yet another papal nephew.
Like his immediate predecessors, Clement was devoted to France, and he demonstrated his French sympathies by refusing a solemn invitation to return to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
from the city's people, as well as from the poet
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...
. To placate the Romans, however, Clement VI issued the bull ''Unigenitus Dei filius'' on 27 January 1343, reducing the interval between one Great Jubilee and the next from 100 years to 50 years. In the document he elaborated for the first time the power of the pope in the use of
indulgences
In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God o ...
.
[Diana Wood, ''Clement VI: The Pontificate and Ideas of an Avignon Pope'', 32-33.] This document would later be used by Cardinal Cajetan in the examination of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
and his
95 Theses
The ''Ninety-five Theses'' or ''Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences''-The title comes from the 1517 Basel pamphlet printing. The first printings of the ''Theses'' use an incipit rather than a title which summarizes the content ...
in his trial at Augsburg in 1518.
By then, ''Unigenitus'' was firmly fixed in Canon Law, having been added in the collection called ''
Extravagantes
The term ''Extravagantes'' (from the Latin ''extra'', outside; ''vagari'', to wander) is applied to the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, to designate some papal decretals not contained in certain canonical collections which possess a specia ...
''.
On 23 February 1343 Pope Clement appointed Pons Saturninus as his "Provisor of Works of the Palace", thereby beginning a program of construction and decoration that continued throughout his reign. It was immediately clear that the Pope had no intention of returning to Rome, and that he intended to provide offices and quarters for the various organs of the Roman Curia in the Palace. Pope Benedict XII, his predecessor, had built a palace, sufficiently accommodating for a Cistercian monk, but Pierre Roger had spent much of his career at the French Court and had imbibed its tastes for far greater display and ceremony. The Pope was, after all, a sovereign, and Clement intended to live and work in an appropriate state. He commissioned the new Tower of the Garde-Robe, the Audience (for the Auditors of the Rota), the new Papal Chapel and the grand staircase that led to it, and the Tour de la Gache (where the ''Audientia contradictarum'', the appellate court for countersuits, had its offices). He was also responsible for the two new entrance façades.
He also purchased the sovereignty of
Avignon
Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...
from Queen
Joan I of Naples
Joanna I, also known as Johanna I ( it, Giovanna I; December 1325 – 27 July 1382), was Queen of Naples, and Countess of Provence and Forcalquier from 1343 to 1382; she was also Princess of Achaea from 1373 to 1381.
Joanna was the eldest dau ...
in 1348 for the sum of 80,000 crowns.
The Black Death
Clement VI was on the papal throne when the
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
first struck Europe in 1347. This
pandemic swept through Asia and the Middle East and into Europe between 1347 and 1350, and is believed to have killed between a third and two-thirds of
Europe's population. During the plague, Clement attributed the plague to divine wrath. But he also sought the opinions of astrologers for an explanation.
Johannes de Muris
Johannes de Muris ( – 1344), or John of Murs, was a French mathematician, astronomer, and music theorist best known for treatises on the '' ars nova'' musical style, titled '' Ars nove musice''.
Life and career
For a medieval person primarily kn ...
was among the team "of three who drew up a treatise explaining the plague of 1348 by the conjunction of
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
,
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
, and
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
in 1341" Clement VI's physicians advised him that surrounding himself with torches would block the plague. However, he soon became skeptical of this recommendation and stayed in Avignon supervising sick care, burials, and the pastoral care of the dying. He never contracted the disease, even though there was so much death around him that the cities ran out of ground for cemeteries, and he had to consecrate the entire Rhône River so that it could be considered holy ground and bodies could be thrown into it. One of Pope Clement's physicians,
Gui de Chauliac
Guy de Chauliac (), also called Guido or Guigo de Cauliaco ( 1300 – 25 July 1368), was a French physician and surgeon who wrote a lengthy and influential treatise on surgery in Latin, titled '' Chirurgia Magna''. It was translated into many oth ...
, later wrote a book called the ''
Chirurgia magna'' (1363), in which he correctly distinguished between bubonic and pneumonic plague, based on his own observations of his patients and himself.
Perhaps feeling the pressure of mortality, having lost no fewer than six cardinals in the year 1348 alone, Pope Clement VI named a new cardinal on 29 May 1348, his nephew and namesake,
Pierre Roger de Beaufort, who was not yet eighteen years old. On 17 December 1350, he added twelve more cardinals, nine of them French and only three from Limoges, including two relatives, Guillaume d'Aigrefeuille and Pierre de Cros.
Suspicion fell on the Jews for the plague, and
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
s erupted around Europe. Clement issued two
papal bulls in 1348 (6 July and 26 September), the latter named ''Quamvis Perfidiam'', which condemned the violence and said those who blamed the plague on the Jews had been "seduced by that liar, the Devil."
He went on to emphasise that "It cannot be true that the Jews, by such a heinous crime, are the cause or occasion of the plague, because through many parts of the world the same plague, by the hidden judgment of God, has afflicted and afflicts the Jews themselves and many other races who have never lived alongside them." He urged clergy to take action to protect Jews as he had done.
Pope and Empire
Clement continued the struggle of his predecessors with
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
Louis IV. On 13 April 1346, after protracted negotiations, he excommunicated the Emperor, and directed the election of
Charles IV. After the death of Louis in October 1347 Charles received general recognition, ending the schism which had long divided Germany.
Clement proclaimed a crusade in 1343, but nothing was accomplished beyond a naval attack on
Smyrna
Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...
on 29 October 1344.
He also had a role in the
Hungarian invasion of the
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...
, which was a papal fief; the contest between
Louis I of Hungary
Louis I, also Louis the Great ( hu, Nagy Lajos; hr, Ludovik Veliki; sk, Ľudovít Veľký) or Louis the Hungarian ( pl, Ludwik Węgierski; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 ...
and
Joanna I of Naples
Joanna I, also known as Johanna I ( it, Giovanna I; December 1325 – 27 July 1382), was Queen of Naples, and Countess of Provence and Forcalquier from 1343 to 1382; she was also Princess of Achaea from 1373 to 1381.
Joanna was the eldest ...
, accused of ordering the assassination of
her husband and the former's brother, concluded in 1348 in a trial held in Avignon, at which she was acquitted. Among the other benefits, Clement took advantage of the situation to obtain by her the rights over the city of
Avignon
Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...
.
Pope Clement was also involved in disputes with King
Edward III of England
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring ro ...
as a result of the latter's encroachments on ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He also faced problems with the kings of
Castile and
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...
. His negotiations for reunion with the Armenians and the Byzantine emperor,
John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzene ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Ángelos Palaiológos Kantakouzēnós''; la, Johannes Cantacuzenus; – 15 June 1383) was a Byzantine Greek nobleman, statesman, and general. He served as grand domestic under ...
, turned out to be fruitless.
In Italy the Papacy faced a serious challenge to its authority with the commencement of
Cola di Rienzo
Nicola Gabrini (1313 8 October 1354), commonly known as Cola di Rienzo () or Rienzi, was an Italian politician and leader, who styled himself as the "tribune of the Roman people".
Having advocated for the abolition of temporal papal power a ...
's agitation in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. Pope Clement had appointed Cola to a civil position (Senator) at Rome, and, although at first approving of Rienzo's establishment of the tribunate, he later realized the implications of a permanent antagonist to papal government in the form of a popularly elected Tribune, and sent a Papal Legate who excommunicated Rienzo and, with the help of the aristocratic faction, drove him from the city in December 1347.
Poland and Bohemia
Clement also had warned King
Casimir III of Poland
Casimir III the Great ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He wa ...
, who was already under an interdict laid against him by the bishop of Kraków and the Apostolic See, because he had oppressed the Church of Kraków with intolerable burdens and then harassed the clergy who observed the interdict, that he was attracting more severe penalties to himself. In 1345 Clement sent a nuncio to King Casimir and King John of Bohemia, soliciting them to make peace between themselves, and threatening that, if they rejected his pleas, he would anathematize them and bar them from the sacraments.
Responding to numerous complaints against the highhanded behavior of the
archbishop of Mainz, Prague's
metropolitan, Clement made Prague an archbishopric on 30 April 1344, and assigned the
Bishopric of Olomouc
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Olomouc ( cs, Arcidiecéze olomoucká, la, Archidioecesis Olomucensis) is a metropolitan archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic. It has its seat in Olomouc.
Special churches
...
as its suffragan. The
archbishop of Prague
The following is a list of bishops and archbishops of Prague. The bishopric of Prague was established in 973, and elevated to an archbishopric on 30 April 1344. The current Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Prague is the continual successor of the bi ...
acquired the right to crown the
king of Bohemia
The Duchy of Bohemia was established in 870 and raised to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198. Several Bohemian monarchs ruled as non-hereditary kings beforehand, first gaining the title in 1085. From 1004 to 1806, Bohemia was part of the Holy Roman E ...
.
Private life
Unlike the Cistercian Benedict XII, the Benedictine Clement VI was devoted to an openhanded and generous lifestyle, and the treasury which he inherited from his predecessor made that lifestyle possible. He claimed to have "lived as a sinner among sinners" in his own words. During his pontificate, he added a new chapel to the Papal Palace and dedicated it to
St. Peter. He
commissioned the artist
Matteo Giovanetti
Matteo Giovannetti (c. 1322, Viterbo, Latium – 1368) was an Italian painter. He belonged to the Simone Martini school.
Life
He was summoned to Avignon by pope Clement VI to decorate the Palais des Papes there. He led teams of painters ...
of
Viterbo
Viterbo (; Viterbese: ; lat-med, Viterbium) is a city and ''comune'' in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo.
It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in its early history ...
to paint common hunting and fishing scenes on the walls of the existing papal chapels, and purchased enormous tapestries to decorate the stone walls. To bring good music to the celebrations, he recruited musicians from northern France, especially from
Liège, who cultivated the
Ars Nova style. He liked music so much that he kept composers and theorists close to him throughout his entire pontificate,
Philippe de Vitry
Philippe de Vitry (31 October 1291 – 9 June 1361) was a French composer-poet, bishop and music theorist in the style of late medieval music. An accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, he was widely acknowledged as a leading musi ...
being among the more famous. The first two payments he made after his coronation were to musicians.
Death, burial, and monument
Clement had been ill for some time in 1352, not just with kidney stones, which had troubled him for many years, but also with a tumor, which broke out into an abscess with fever during his last week. Pope Clement VI died on 6 December 1352, in the eleventh year of his reign. After his death, his Almoner, Pierre de Froideville, distributed the sum of 400 livres to the poor of Avignon, and on the day of the solemn funeral another 40 livres were distributed during the procession to the Cathedral to the poor who were present. Clement left the reputation of "a fine gentleman, a prince munificent to profusion, a patron of the arts and learning, but no saint". His body was placed on exhibit in the
Notre Dame-des-Doms, where it was buried temporarily. Three months later, the body was transferred in a splendid procession to the abbey of
La Chaise-Dieu
La Chaise-Dieu (; Auvergnat: ''La Chasa Dieu'') is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France. Its inhabitants are called ''Casadéens'', from the Latin name of the city.
Geography
La Chaise-Dieu occupies a 1082 m butte w ...
, passing through Le Puy on 6 April. On arrival, the coffin was placed in the church of the Carmelites. Later in April it was permanently interred in a tomb in the center of the Choir of the Church.
[Anne McGee Morganstern, "Art and Ceremony in Papal Avignon: A Prescription for the Tomb of Clement VI," ''Gesta'', Vol. 40, No. 1 (2001), p. 61.] The funeral procession was accompanied by his brother Count William Roger of Beaufort, and by the five cardinals who were his family members: Hugues Roger, Guillaume de la Jugié, Nicolas de Besse, Pierre Roger de Beaufort, and Guillaume d' Aigrefeuille. In 1562, the tomb was attacked by the Huguenots and severely damaged, losing the forty-four statues of Clement's relatives which surrounded the sarcophagus. Only the sarcophagus and tomb cover survived, making the present tomb a mere shadow of its former architectural and decorative glory. The tomb cover, in white marble, was made by master sculptor Pierre Boye, and his two assistants Jean de Sanholis and Jean David. The construction of the tomb began in 1346, and was completed in 1351. It cost 3,500
florins, to which were added 120
écu
The term ''écu'' () or crown may refer to one of several French coins. The first ''écu'' was a gold coin (the ''écu d'or'') minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266. ''Écu'' (from Latin ''scutum'') means shield, and the coin ...
s d'or, as a gratuity for the master sculptor.
[Michèle Beaulieu, "Les tombeaux des papes limousins d'Avignon ompte-rendu" ''Bulletin Monumental 114-3'', pp. 221-222.]
See also
*
List of popes
This chronological list of popes corresponds to that given in the ''Annuario Pontificio'' under the heading "I Sommi Pontefici Romani" (The Roman Supreme Pontiffs), excluding those that are explicitly indicated as antipopes. Published every ye ...
*
Cardinals created by Clement VI Pope Clement VI (r. 1342–1352) created 25 new Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinals in four consistories:
20 September 1342
# Élie de Nabinal, O.F.M., patriarch of Jerusalem – cardinal-priest of S. Vitale, † 13 January 1348
# Guy de Boulogne, ...
*
Plague doctor
A plague doctor was a physician who treated victims of bubonic plague during epidemics mainly in the 16th and 17th centuries. These physicians were hired by cities to treat infected patients regardless of income, especially the poor that could not ...
*
Smyrniote crusades
References
Citation
Bibliography
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*
*
*Déprez, Eugene (1900). "Les funerailles de Clément VI, et d' Innocent VI, d' après les comptes de la cour pontificale," ''
Mélanges d' histoire et d'archéologie publiés par l'École Française de Rome'' 20 (1900), 235-250. (in French)
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* (in Latin)
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awning
An awning or overhang is a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building. It is typically composed of canvas woven of acrylic, cotton or polyester yarn, or vinyl laminated to polyester fabric that is stretched tightly over a li ...
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Acknowledgments
* N. A. Weber,
External links
*Bernard Guillemain (2000),
Clemente VI" Enciclopedia dei Papi (Treccani)
n Italian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clement 06
1291 births
1352 deaths
Popes
People from Corrèze
French Benedictines
Benedictine abbots
Fécamp Abbey
Bishops of Arras
Archbishops of Rouen
Archbishops of Sens
14th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in France
French popes
Benedictine popes
Avignon Papacy
Roger family
Burials in Haute-Loire
14th-century popes
Smyrniote crusades