With the arrival of Clement V in 1309, seven popes ruled the Western Church from Avignon until 1378. Joëlle Rollo-Koster traces the compelling story of the transplanted papacy in Avignon, the city the popes transformed into their capital. Through an engaging blend of political and social history, she argues that we should think more positively about the Avignon papacy, with its effective governance, intellectual creativity, and dynamism. It is a remarkable tale of an institution growing and defending its prerogatives, of people both high and low who produced and served its needs, and of the city they built together. As the author reconsiders the Avignon papacy (1309–1378) and the Great Western Schism (1378–1417) within the social setting of late medieval Avignon, she also recovers the city’s urban texture, the stamp of its streets, the noise of its crowds and celebrations, and its people’s joys and pains. Each chapter focuses on the popes, their rules, the crises they faced, and their administration but also on the history of the city, considering the recent historiography to link the life of the administration with that of the city and its people. The story of Avignon and its inhabitants is crucial for our understanding of the institutional history of the papacy in the later Middle Ages. The author argues that the Avignon papacy and the Schism encouraged fundamental institutional changes in the governance of early modern Europe—effective centralization linked to fiscal policy, efficient bureaucratic governance, court society (société de cour), and conciliarism. This fascinating history of a misunderstood era will bring to life what it was like to live in the fourteenth-century capital of Christianity.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century anarchy in Italy led to the capital of the Christian world being moved from Rome for the first and only time in history. It was a critical moment, and it resulted in seven successive popes remaining in exile for the next seventy years. The city chosen to replace Rome was Avignon. And depending on where you stood at the time they were seventy years of heaven, or of hellopinions invariably ran to extremes, as did the behaviour of the popes themselves. It was during this period of exile that the city witnessed some of the most turbulent events in the history of Christendom, among them the suppression of the Knights Templar and the last of the heretical Cathars, the first onslaught of the Black Death, the final collapse of the crusading dream, and the first decades of the Hundred Years War between England and France, in which successive Avignon popes attempted to mediate.

Unn Falkeid considers the work of six fourteenth-century writers who waged literary war against the Avignon papacy’s increasing claims of supremacy over secular rulers—a conflict that engaged contemporary critics from every corner of Europe. She illuminates arguments put forth by Dante, Petrarch, William of Ockham, Catherine of Siena, and others.

The crusading movement in the fourteenth century, and the support given to it by the Popes at Avignon, form the central theme of this study. By focusing on the crusading policy of the papal Curia it also illuminates other fields of Avignonese activity, such as papal taxation and relations with Byzantium, as well as offering general comments on papal objectives, approaches, and limitations. The author examines the contribution made by the Avignonese Curia to all aspects of the crusades: their initiation, their organization and financing, their control in the field, and their diplomatic repercussions ... he extends his study to cover all areas where crusading occurred--the eastern Mediterranean, Spain, eastern Europe, and Italy ... he analyses the Curia's approach to ... peacemaking between warring Christian powers, the work of the Military Orders, and western attempts to maintain a trade embargo on Mamluk Egypt. -Dust jacket.

Like the finest medieval tapestry, this narrative history masterfully weaves together the sweeping events surrounding what has become known as the "Babylonian captivity" of the popes into the broader story of 14th-century Europe-one of the most turbulent times in the continent's history. It was a time of fear, ferocity, and religious agony, which saw the suppression of the Knights Templar and the Cathars, the first onslaught of the plague, and the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. The century also produced some of the greatest writers and artists in the western tradition, including Giotto, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Chaucer. Central to this period was the movement of the papal seat from Rome to Avignon in the south of France, where seven successive popes held power from 1309-1377. The drama, intrigue, and tumult associated with the papacy in exile forms the perfect lens through which to clearly see a Europe making the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

Which of the two sides of Clement prevailed the 'official' or the personal? The book attempts to answer this question by examining his ideas and actions in connection with some of the major issues of the reign: for example, his attempts to solve the problem of the 'usurping' emperor, Louis of Bavaria, through the appointment of Charles of Bohemia (Charles IV); to deal with a crisis in the Hundred Years War between France and England; to check Islamic expansion and to heal the Greek Schism; to curb the oligarchic challenge of those who thought that the papacy should be at Rome rather than at Avignon. Clement was a great orator and the book is based partly on his sermons, many of which are unpublished. It is the only study of an Avignon pope in English.

"Much has been written about the complex relationship between England and the papacy in the 14th century, yet the form (rather than the content) of the diplomatic intercourse between these two protagonists has not hitherto been examined in detail. Drawing on a wide range of unpublished sources, Pluger explores the techniques of communication employed by the Crown in its dealings with Clement VI (1342-52) and Innocent VI (1352-62). Methodologies of social and cultural history and of International Relations are brought to bear on the analysis of the dialogue between Westminster and Avignon, resulting in a more complete picture of 14th-century Anglo-papal relations in particular and of medieval diplomatic practice in general."

The division of the Church or Schism that took place between 1378 and 1417 had no precedent in Christianity. No conclave since the twelfth century had acted as had those in April and September 1378, electing two concurrent popes. This crisis was neither an issue of the authority claimed by the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor nor an issue of authority and liturgy. The Great Western Schism was unique because it forced upon Christianity a rethinking of the traditional medieval mental frame. It raised question of personality, authority, human fallibility, ecclesiastical jurisdiction and taxation, and in the end responsibility in holding power and authority. This collection presents the broadest range of experiences, center and periphery, clerical and lay, male and female, Christian and Muslim. Theology, including exegesis of Scripture, diplomacy, French literature, reform, art, and finance all receive attention.