Urban V had to borrow 30,000 florins from his cardinals;

Innocent VI had to sell his silver plate, his jewelry and works of art;

John XXII rescued the papal treasury by paying into it 440,000 florins from his personal funds;

Despite all taxes the popes suffered dire deficits.

A lot of money had to be spent trying to reconquer the lost papal states in Italy.

Who was the last Plantagenet king of England?

Fought from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France.

Quick quiz – how long did the Hundred Years’ War last?

And 3,517,000 more to King John II, Philip’s son and heir. Roughly $800 million.

Clement VI had been forced to lend Philip VI of France 592,000 gold florins – $135 million.

Against complaints about how much they were demanding, the popes said “hey looking this good isn’t easy!”

Even bishops fell in line, and, despite remonstrances from provincial synods, kept rich establishments with jesters, falcons, and dogs.

Perhaps Cardinal Bernard of Garves overdid it, who hired fifty-one dwellings to house his retainers; and Cardinal Peter of Banhac, five of whose ten stables sheltered thirty-nine horses in comfort and style.

The cardinals too, as the royal council of a state as well as the princes of the Church, had to maintain establishments befitting their dignity and power; their retinues, equipages, banquets were the talk of the town.

Clement thought of himself as a ruler who had to awe his subjects and impress ambassadors by “conspicuous consumption” after the custom of kings.

Clement VI was surrounded by male and female relatives attired in precious stuffs and furs; by knights, squires, sergeants at arms, chaplains, ushers, chamberlains, musicians, poets, artists, doctors, scientists, tailors, philosophers, and chefs who were the envy of kings—all in all, some four hundred persons, all fed, clothed, lodged, and salaried by a lovably lavish Pope who had never known the cost of money.

Some people said the huge deficits were caused mostly by the worldly luxury of the papal court.

One bishop wrote: “That the whole Christian folk take from the clergy pernicious examples of gluttony is clear and notorious, since the said clergy feast more luxuriously and splendidly, and with more dishes, than princes and kings”

Avignon assumed the morals as well as the manners of royal courts.

the impious Babylon, the hell on earth, the sink of vice, the sewer of the world. There is in it neither faith nor charity nor religion nor the fear of God…. All the filth and wickedness of the world have run together here…. Old men plunge hot and headlong into the arms of Venus; forgetting their age, dignity, and powers, they rush into every shame, as if all their glory consisted not in the cross of Christ but in feasting, drunkenness, and unchastity…. Fornication, incest, rape, adultery are the lascivious delights of the pontifical games.

And Petrarch had this too say about Avignon:

Unfortunately it was reported stolen in 1983 – which happened to be the same year Bowie released “Let’s Dance”. Coincidence? You tell me.

It’s last known location was the village of Calcata, north of Rome.

Charlemagne gave it to Pope Leo III when was crowned Emperor.

St Catherine claimed to wear Christ’s foreskin as an invisible wedding ring.

BTW – Christ’s foreskin is known as the “Holy Prepuce”.

But even St. Catherine of Siena, who was declared patron saint of Rome in 1866, and of Italy in 1939, and patron saint of Europe in 1999 by Pope John Paul II, told Gregory XI that at the papal court “her nostrils were assailed by the odors of hell.”

He was pissed that the papacy had vacated Rome.

Of course, Petrarch was biased.

In 1372 the abbots of the archdiocese of Cologne, in refusing the tithe to Pope Gregory XI, publicly proclaimed that “the Apostolic See has fallen into such contempt that the Catholic faith in these parts seems to be seriously imperiled. The laity speak slightingly of the Church because, departing from the custom of former days, she hardly ever sends forth preachers or reformers, but rather ostentatious men, cunning, selfish, and greedy. Things have come to such a pass that few are Christians in more than name.”

As a result, the Germans decided the popes would have no more role in the election of their kings and emperors.

In the 80 years they were in Avignon, the popes named 113 Frenchmen as new cardinals – out of a total of 134.

All of this undermined the prestige and authority of the church.

The status of the Church in Italy was terrible.

Louis of Bavaria had invaded Italy, marched to Rome, and declared himself the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis IV, in 1328.

Despite Pope John XXII being against it.

The Pope had actually excommunicated Louis a few years earlier but he didn’t care, because, as a German, he saw the Pope as the tool of the French king.

Three months after being crowned, Louis published a decree declaring Pope John XXII deposed on grounds of heresy.

He then installed a Franciscan, Pietro Rainalducci as Nicholas V, the antipope, but both left Rome in August 1328.

The idea of an antipope goes way back to Hippolytus of Rome (d. 235)

Can you guess how many antipopes there have been?

42!

The secret of the universe, life and everything.

On 19 February 1329 Nicholas V presided at a bizarre ceremony in the Duomo of Pisa, at which a straw puppet representing Pope John XXII and dressed in pontifical robes was formally condemned, degraded, and handed over to the secular arm (to be “executed”).

One of Louis’ friends, who also hated the Pope, was the English Franciscan friar William of Ockham.

He of Ockham’s razor.

“law of parsimony”

the simplest solution tends to be the correct one.

When presented with competing hypotheses to solve a problem, one should select the solution with the fewest assumptions.

Ockham claimed the Pope was a heretic.

‘Our faith is not formed by the wisdom of the Pope. For no one is bound to believe the Pope in matters which are of the faith, unless he can demonstrate the reasonableness of what he says by the rule of faith.’

This was because John had cracked down on the Franciscans for making him look bad.

The Franciscans, like Francis of Assisi – believed in poverty.

They said ‘hey Jesus had nothing, the early disciples had nothing, so we should have nothing too”.

Of course, this was taken as a criticism of the church.

And John ruled that this position was a heresy.

He said Jesus LOVED the bling.

Nicholas V fled Rome, aware that in his patron’s absence, the goodwill of the people of Rome would not give him claim over the Christian church in Italy, let alone the world.

Instead, he made his way to Avignon and asked John XXII for absolution.

John XXII granted it, and Nicholas V faded gratefully into obscurity.

In 1342 Benedict XII, to weaken the power of Louis IV the Holy Roman Emperor, confirmed to all the despots of the Lombard cities the authority they had assumed in defiance of Imperial claims;

Louis, in revenge, gave the Imperial sanction to the despots who had seized the Papal States.

Milan openly flouted the popes.