The

papal conclave A conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to appoint the pope of the Catholic Church. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church. Concerns around ...

held from 5 to 7 May 1342 was convened after the death of Pope Benedict XII and elected

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Pierre Roger to succeed as

pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

. The fourth pope of the period of the

Avignon Papacy 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 (now the capital of ...

, he took the name Clement VI.

Cardinal electors

Pope Benedict XII died at

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

on 25 April 1342. At the time of his death, there were nineteen cardinals in the Sacred College, of whom seventeen participated in the subsequent conclave: Ten electors were creatures of John XXII, six of Benedict XII and one of

Clement V Pope Clement V (; – 20 April 1314), born Raymond Bertrand de Got (also occasionally spelled ''de Guoth'' and ''de Goth''), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 5 June 1305 to his death, in April 1314. He is reme ...

. Thirteen of them were French, three Italian and one Spanish. The post of the

Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church The camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church is an office of the papal household that administers the property and revenues of the Holy See. Formerly, his responsibilities included the fiscal administration of the Patrimony of Saint Peter. As regu ...

was occupied at that time by Gasbert de Valle, Archbishop of Narbonne (not a Cardinal) and nephew of Pope John XXII.

Absentee cardinals

Two French Cardinals, both elevated by John XXII, did not participate in this conclave:

The election of Pope Clement VI

The conclave started on 5 May and lasted only two days. On 7 May Cardinal Pierre Roger, former Chancellor of the Kingdom of France, was unanimously elected Pope, "by divine inspiration alone", as reported shortly thereafter Cardinals des Farges and Ceccano.G. Mollat, p. 37 Once elected he took the name of Clement VI. On 19 May the new Pope was crowned in the church of the

Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...

in Avignon by Raymond Guillaume des Farges,

protodeacon Protodeacon derives from the Greek ''proto-'' meaning 'first' and ''diakonos'', which is a standard ancient Greek word meaning "assistant", "servant", or "waiting-man". The word in English may refer to any of various clergy, depending upon the usa ...

of S. Maria Nuova. Shortly after the death of Benedict XII king

Philip VI of France Philip VI (; 1293 – 22 August 1350), called the Fortunate (), the Catholic (''le Catholique'') and of Valois (''de Valois''), was the first king of France from the House of Valois, reigning from 1328 until his death in 1350. Philip's reign w ...

sent to Avignon his eldest son with the task to support the candidature of Cardinal Roger, but when he arrived, the election had been already accomplished with the result expected by the king.

Notes

Sources

* * G. Mollat "The Popes at Avignon 1305-1378", London 1963 * Wrigley, J.E. 1982. "The Conclave and the Electors of 1342". ''Archivum Historiae Pontificiae Roma'', 20: 51-81. {{Subject bar , portal1= Catholicism , portal2= Christianity , portal3= Vatican City , portal4= France , b=y, b-search=Biblical Studies/Christianity/Roman Catholicism/History , commons=y, commons-search=Papal conclave , n=y, n-search=Roman Catholic Church , q=y, q-search=Popes , s=y, s-search=Popes , v=y, v-search=Christian History , wikt=y, wikt-search=Pope , d=y Papal conclaves 14th-century elections 1342 Avignon Papacy 14th-century Catholicism 14th century in Europe