When Pope Gregory XI, who at that time occupied the Holy
See of Rome in the city of Avignon, saw that he could not
bring about a peace between the Kings of France and England--to
his great displeasure, for he and his cardinals worked hard
to that end--he formed the devout intention of revisiting
Rome and the Holy See that St. Peter and St. Paul had established
there. Also he had promised God as a young man that, if later
in life he ever rose to so high an office as the pontificate,
he would do his utmost to have his seat in the place where
St Peter had had it, and nowhere else. This pope was of delicate
constitution and particularly afraid of the effects of
over-work, for he was often ill. At Avignon he was so taken up
by the affairs of France and so harried by the King and his
brothers, hat he hardly had a moment to attend to his health,
so he thought that he would get away from them to have more
peace. He ordered preparations to be made for his journey
on a scale befitting the great dignitary he was and he told
his brother cardinals that he intended to go to Rome. They were
dismayed by his decision, for they feared the Romans and would have
dissuaded him had they been able to, but they could not.
When the King of France heard of it, he was greatly dismayed, because
at Avignon the Pope was much nearer his reach than elsewhere.
He wrote to his brother the Duke of Anjou, who was at Toulouse,
asking him to go immediately to Avignon and persuade the Pope to
countermand his journey. The Duke went there and ws received with
delight by the cardinals and lodged in the Pope's palace so that he
should have greater opportunities to talk with him. . . .
When the Duke of Anjou saw that he would not succeed by eloquence
or argument, he took leave of the Pope, saying as he did so:
"Holy Father, you are going to a country and among
people where they have little love for you, and leaving the
source of the faith and the kingdom in which the Church has more
influence and excellence than anywhere else in the world. This
act of yours may well bring great disaster upon the Church, for if
you die out there--which, by what your doctors tell me is very
probable--the Romans, who are strange and treacherous people,
will become lords and masters of all the cardinals and will force
a pope of their own choosing to be elected."
In spite of these and other arguments, the Pope set out on his
journey and reached Marseille where the galleys of Genoa were ready
waiting for him, while the Duke of Anjou went back to Toulouse.
Pope Gregory embarked at Marseille with a large and handsome retinue
and had a smooth voyage as far as Genoa, where he landed. The galleys
were reprovisioned and they then sailed on without incident to put
in near Rome. Rejoicing at his arrival, the leading citizens
came out on draped horses and led him in triumph to Rome. He took
up his residence in the papal palace and paid visits to a church
withon the city called Santa Maria Maggiore, for which he had
great predilection and which he had endowed with fine works of
art. It was there that he died not long after his arrival, on
18 March 1378. His obsequies were held in the noble style befitting
a pope. He was buried in that church and there his body lies.
Immediately after his death, the cardinals met in conclave in the
Palace of St. Peter. As soon as they had gone in to hold their
customary election of a pope who would work for the good of the
Church, the Roman people assembled in violent crowds and made for the
Vatican quarter. There were many thousands of them, all in a mood
to cause trouble if things did not go according to their wishes.
They said this kind of thing: "Listen, our lord cardinals, hurry
up and elect a pope, you are taking too long about it. And see
that he's a Roman, we want no other kind. If he was from anywhere
else, the Roman people and the Council would not recognize him as pope
and you will all be in danger of your lives."
The cardinals, who were at the mercy of the Romans, felt very uneasy
when they heard these threats. They did what they could to appease
the crowds, but feeling mounted so high that those nearest the
conclave-hall, hoping to intimidate the cardinals and make them
obey their will, broke into it. In fear of their lives, the cardinals
fled in disorder, but the Romans did not stop at that. They rounded
them up, willing or not, and told them to elect a pope. Seeing
themselves entirely in the power of the Romans and in great danger,
the cardinals made haste to satisfy them. Nevertheless, they
did it by means of a proper election, choosing a very saintly man
who was a native of Rome and had been made a cardinal by Urban V.
He was known as the Cardinal of St. Peter.
This choice pleased the Romans greatly and the worthy man was
given all the rights belonging to the pontificate, but he lived for
only three days. This was why: the Romans were so delighted to have
this pope that they took the good man, who was at least a hundred
years old, set him on a white mule and paraded him round and
round in the city, celebrating their triumph and exulting
over the cardinals, until he became exhausted by the jolting
and the teror he was in and on the third day took to his bed
and died. . . .
[Soon afterwards] a number of the cardinals
decided to come together at a favorable opportunity and elect
another, because this pope was doing no good to them or the Church,
being too arbitrary and capricious. When he discovered
that he was great and powerful and saw various Christian kings
writing to him to declare their allegiance, he grew presumptuous
and began to act violently and willfully, removing certain of
their rights from the cardinals, contrary to the customary
practice. They were greatly offended and, discussing it among
themselves, they concluded that he would never act in their
interests and was unworthy to hold sway. Several then proposed
to elect a different pope who would be both wise and powerful
and rule the Church well. . . .
Their choice fell on Robert of Geneva, who had first been bishop
of Thérouanne, then bishop of Cambrai, and was now known
as the Cardinal of Geneva. After this election, at which the
majority of the cardinals were present, he took the name of
Clement.
At that time a very gallant knight from Brittany, called Silvester
Bude, was in the neighbourhood of Rome, with two thousand Bretons
under his command. They had all fought very bravely in previous
years against the Florentines,
whom Pope Gregory had excommunicated and made war upon because
of their rebellion. Silvester Bude had done so well that they
had surrendered unconditionally. Pope Clement, and the cardinals
who supported him, now sent secretly for him and his men. They came
into the Vatican quarter and established themselves in the
Castle of Sant'Angelo outside Rome, to coerce the Romans from there.
Urban did not dare to leave Tivoli, neither did the cardinals
who supported him. There were not many of these, for fear of the
Bretons. These were in considerable strength and were all violent men,
who overthrew everything they came up against.
When the Romans found themselves in this situation, they sent for
other German and Lombard mercenaries, who skirmished every day
with the Bretons. Meanwhile, Clement granted indulgences and had his
papal name published throughout Christendom. When the King of France
was informed of it, he was greatly surprised at first. He called
together his brothers, the chief barons, the prelates and the rector,
masters and doctors of the University of Paris to consider which
of the two popes he should recognize. It took some time to decide the
matter, for many of the clergy were at variance, but finally all
the French prelates favoured Clement, as did the King's brothers and
the greater part of the University of Paris. King Charles of France
was strongly advised by all the great clerics of his realm to
give his allegiance to Clement as the rightful pope. He published a
special edict throughout his kingdom, by which everyone was to honour
Clement and obey him as God's viceroy on earth. The King of Spain took
the same course, as did the Count of Savoy, the Lord of Milan and the
Queen of Naples. The fact that the King of France supported Clement
greatly helped his cause, for the realm of France is the main bastion
of Christianity, of religious excellence and faith, because of the noble
churches and great prelatures which it has.
Charles of Bohemia, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, was still
alive then, living in Prague, where the news of these surprising
events was brought to him. Although all in the German Empire, except
the Archibishop of Trier, believed wholeheartedly in Urban and
would not even hear of his rival, the Emperor hid his preferences
as long as he lived and gave replies, when asked about it, which
satisfied the prelates and barons of is empire. Nevertheless the
churches of the Empire followed Urban, as did the whole realm of
England; but the kingdom of Scotland followed Clement. Count
Louis of Flanders did much to injure Clement in the regions of Brabant,
Hainault, Flanders, and Liège, for he was a convinced Urbanist
who said that the pope had been wronged. The Count has great influence
in the territories near his own, so that their churches and
secular lords followed his lead; except in Hainault, where the
churches and the lords in allegiance with them remained neutral,
recognizing neither pope. For this reason the then Bishop of Cambrai,
called John, lost all his temporal revenues.
It was then that Pope Clement dispatched the Cardinal of
Poitiers, a shrewd, worthy and learned cleric, to inform and
exhort the people of France, Hainault, Flanders, and Brabant.
He had taken part in the first election and was able to explain
how they had been forced to choose the Archbishop of Bari
as pope. The King of France and his brothers and the prelates
received him favourably and listened readily to his arguments. They
felt they were very sound and placed great reliance on them.
When he had stayed in France for as long as he wanted, he went
on to Hainault and was well received by Duke Albert.
So he was in Brabant by the Duke and Duchess, but he received nothing
more there. He thought at first of going to Liège, but
was so strongly advised not to that he changed his mind and went back to
Tournay. He intended going to Flanders to see the Count, but dropped
that plan also on receiving word that he was not wanted there, since
the Count supported Urban and always would do, and in that conviction
would live and die. . . .
In this was the Christian kingdoms were at variance over the two
popes and the churches were also divided. The greater number were
for Urban, but the richest in terms of revenue gave their
full allegiance to Clement. Accordingly, with the consent of his
cardinals, he sent to Avignon to have the town and the palace got ready;
his intention was to move there as soon as possible.