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. . . .
[The cardinals then chose another pope pleasing to he Roman crowd, the Archbishop of Bari, who took the name Urban VI.]
[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.
from Froissart, Chronicles, selected and translated by Geoffrey Brereton. 1978, pp. 201-208.
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