Jump to content

Pope Gregory XI

From Catholicism Wiki
Pope
Gregory XI
Bishop of Rome
Gregory XI entering the Palace of the Popes, Avignon
Gregory XI entering the Palace of the Popes, Avignon
Church Catholic Church
Papacy began 30 December 1370
Papacy ended 27 March 1378
Predecessor Urban V
Successor Urban VI
Orders
Ordination 2 January 1371
Consecration 3 January 1371
by Guy of Boulogne
Created cardinal 29 May 1348
by Clement VI
Personal details
Born Pierre Roger de Beaufort
c. 1329
Maumont, Limousin, Kingdom of France
Died 27 March 1378 (aged 48–49)
Rome, Papal States
Other popes named Gregory

Pope Gregory XI (Latin: Gregorius XI; born Pierre Roger de Beaufort; c. 1329 – 27 March 1378) was head of the Catholic Church from 30 December 1370 to his death, in March 1378. He was the seventh and last Avignon pope[1] and the most recent French pope. In 1377, Gregory XI returned the papal court to Rome, ending nearly 70 years of papal residency in Avignon, in modern-day France. His death was swiftly followed by the Western Schism involving two Avignon-based antipopes.

Early life

Pierre Roger de Beaufort was born at Maumont, France, around 1330. His uncle, Pierre Cardinal Roger, Archbishop of Rouen, was elected pope in 1342 and took the name Clement VI. Clement VI bestowed a number of benefices upon his nephew and in 1348, created the eighteen-year-old a cardinal deacon. The young cardinal attended the University of Perugia, where he became a skilled canonist and theologian.

Conclave 1370

After the death of Pope Urban V (December 1370), eighteen cardinals assembled at Avignon entered the conclave on 29 December. Cardinal Roger was unanimously elected on 30 December.[2] Though initially opposing his own election, Roger eventually accepted and took the name of Gregory XI. On 4 January 1371 he was ordained to the priesthood by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Guy de Boulogne, and on 5 January was consecrated Bishop of Rome and crowned by the new protodeacon Rinaldo Orsini in the cathedral Notre Dame des Doms in Avignon.[3]

Papacy (1370 – 1378)

Immediately on his accession he attempted to reconcile the Kings of France and England, but failed. Gregory confirmed a treaty between Sicily and Naples at Villeneuve-lès-Avignon on 20 August 1372, which brought about a permanent settlement between the rival kingdoms, which were both papal fiefs.[4]

Gregory also tried to undertake a crusade due to pleas from Catherine of Siena in 1376[5] by continuing Pope Urban V's call for Christians to stop fighting other Christians, which Urban called for in November 1366.[6] Efforts were also made to reform corrupt practices in the various monastic orders, such as collecting fees from persons visiting holy sites and the exhibiting of faux relics of saints.[5]

Like the preceding popes of Avignon, Gregory XI made the mistake of appointing Frenchmen, who did not understand the Italians and whom the Italians hated, as legates and governors of the ecclesiastical provinces in Italy. Italian city states opposed the move of the papacy back to Rome and specifically Florence opposed to the move due to Gregory wanting to expand the Papal states upon the papal return to Rome.[7] Before moving to Rome, however, he had to give his entire attention to the turbulent affairs of Italy. Lord Bernabo Visconti of Milan, had, in 1371, made himself master of Reggio and other places that were feudatory to the Holy See. Gregory XI excommunicated him and later declared war on him in 1372 against a Florentine-led coalition of Italian city states, which later became known as the War of the Eight Saints (1375–1378). After war broke out, Gregory excommunicated the city and placed the city under interdict on 31 March 1376[8] in an attempt to quell the rebellion. Catherine of Siena tried to convince Gregory to stop the war on behalf of the Florentine state. This proved to be futile as the war did not end until after Gregory's death. The war ended with a peace treaty concluded at Tivoli in July 1378, negotiated with Pope Urban VI following the death of Gregory XI.[7]

Return to Rome

The return to Rome from Avignon had been an issue since Pope Clement V moved the papacy to Avignon in 1309.[9] From Popes Clement V to Urban V, the popes of the Avignon Papacy had their reasons to stay in France and not return to Rome. After 68 years of papal rule from France, Gregory XI moved the papacy back to its former seat of power of Rome in 1377.[10]

Gregory was constantly receiving pleas from Catherine of Siena through letters. In total, she wrote 14 letters between 1375 and 1378 until Gregory died. These letters dealt with different matters such as peace, church reform, and moving the papacy back to Rome. Catherine persuaded him by saying that it was easier to achieve Gregory's goal of peace among the city states in Italy by expanding the influence of the Papal states if the papacy were back in Rome.[5]

The return of the Curia to Rome began on 13 September 1376. Despite the protests of the French king and the majority of the cardinals, Gregory left Avignon on that day and made his way to Marseille, where he boarded a ship on 2 October. Arriving at Corneto on 6 December, he decided to remain there until arrangements were made in Rome concerning its future government. On 13 January 1377, he left Corneto, landed at Ostia the next day, and from there sailed up the Tiber to the monastery of San Paolo. On 17 January he left the monastery to make a solemn entrance into Rome that same day.[11]

Death

Gregory XI did not survive much longer after his move to Rome. He died on 27 March 1378 aged 48–49.[12] Pope Urban VI, an Italian, was elected to the papacy after his death. However, his decision to move the papacy back to Rome led to the Western Schism and the rise of the Antipopes. Most of Europe supported the Avignonian Clement VII (now considered an antipope) as the true pope.[13]

Subsequently, the Western Schism created by the selection of rival popes forced Europe into a dilemma of papal allegiance. This schism was not resolved fully until the Council of Constance (1414–1418), with the election of Pope Martin V.[14]

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Gregory XI — (PIERRE ROGER DE BEAUFORT).

Born in 1331, at the castle of Maumont in the Dioceses of Limoges; died 27 March, 1378, at Rome. He was a nephew of Pope Clement VI, who heaped numerous benefices upon him and finally created him cardinal deacon in 1348, when he was only eighteen years of age. As cardinal he attended the University of Perugia, became a skilled canonist and theologian, and gained the esteem of all by his humility and purity of heart. After the death of Urban V, the cardinals unanimously elected him pope at Avignon, on December, 1370. He chose the name of Gregory XI, had himself ordained priest on 4 January, 1371, and was crowned pope on the following day. Immediately on his accession he attempted to reconcile the Kings of France and England, but failed. He succeeded, however, in pacifying Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Sicily, and Naples. He also made efforts towards the reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches, the undertaking of a crusade, and the reform of the clergy. Soon, however, he had to give his entire attention to the turbulent affairs of Italy. Duke Bernabo Visconti of Milan, an inveterate enemy of the papacy, had in 1371 made himself master of Reggio and other places that were feudatory to the Holy See. When all other means to bring him to terms had failed, Gregory XI placed him under the ban. Bernabo compelled the legates that brought him the Bull of excommunication to eat the parchment on which his excommunication was written, and heaped many other insults upon them. Hereupon Gregory XI declared war upon him in 1372. Success was at first on the side of Bernabo, but when Gregory XI obtained the support of the emperor, the Queen of Naples, the King of Hungary, and bought into his service the English condottiere John Hawkwood, Bernabo sued for peace. By bribing some of the papal councillors he obtained a favourable truce on 6 June, 1374.

Like the preceding popes of Avignon, Gregory XI made the fatal mistake of appointing Frenchmen, who did not understand the Italians and whom the Italians hated, as legates and governors of the ecclesiastical provinces in Italy. The Florentines, however, feared that a strengthening of the papal power in Italy would impair their own prestige in Central Italy and allied themselves with Bernabo in July, 1375. Both Bernabo and the Florentines did their utmost to stir up an insurrection in the pontifical territory among all those that were dissatisfied with the papal legates in Italy. They were so successful that within a short time the entire Patrimony of St. Peter was up in arms against the pope. Highly incensed at the seditious proceedings of the Florentines, Gregory XI imposed an extremely severe punishment upon them. He put Florence under interdict, excommunicated its inhabitants, and outlawed them and their possessions. The financial loss which the Florentines sustained thereby was inestimable. They sent St. Catherine of Siena to intercede for them with Gregory XI, but frustrated her efforts by continuing their hostilities against the pope. In the midst of these disturbances Gregory XI, yielding to the urgent prayers of St. Catherine, decided to remove the papal see to Rome, despite the protests of the French King and the majority of the cardinals. He left Avignon on 13 September, 1376, boarded the ship at Marsailles on 2 October, and came by way of Genoa to Corneto on 6 December. Here he remained until arrangements were made in Rome concerning its future government. On 13 January, 1377, he left Corneto, landed at Ostia on the following day, and sailed up the Tiber to the monastery of San Paolo, from where he solemnly made his entrance into Rome on 17 January. But his return to Rome did not put an end to the hostilities. The notorious massacre of Cesena, which was ordered by Cardinal Robert of Geneva (afterwards antipope Clement VII), embittered the Italians still more against the pope. The continuous riots in Rome induced Gregory XI to remove to Anagui towards the end of May, 1377. He gradually quelled the commotion and returned to Rome on 7 Nov., 1377, where he died while a congress of peace was in process at Sarzano. Gregory XI was the last pope of French nationality. He was learned and pious, though not free from nepotism. In 1374 he approved the Order of the Spanish Hermits of St. Jerome, and on 22 May, 1377, he issued five Bulls in which the errors of Wyclif were condemned. He was so disgusted with the conditions at Rome that only death prevented him from returning to Avignon. The Great Schism began after his death.

BALUZE, Vitoe Paparum Avenion. (Paris, 1693), 452-486, 1059-1234; GHERARDI, La guerra dei Fiorentini con Papa Gregoria XI, detta la guerra degli Otto Santi (Florence, 1868); SCHOLZ, Die Ruckkehr Gregors XI. von Avignon nach Rom. (Hirschberg, 1884); KIRSCH, Die Ruckkehr der Papste Urban V. und Gregor XI. (Paderborn, 1898); PASTOR, Gesch. der Papste seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, 4th ed. (Freiburg, 1901), 101-114, tr., ANTROBUS (London, 1891), I, 100-116; TOMABETH, Die Register und Secretare Urbans V. und Gregors XI. in Mittheilungen des Instituts oesterr. Geschichtsforsch, (1898), XIX, 417-470; DRANE, The History of St. Catherine of Siena, 3rd ed. (New York, 1899), passim.

References

  1. Back to citation McBrien, Richard P. (2000). Lives of the Popes. HarperCollins. p. 245.
  2. Back to citation G. Mollat The Popes at Avignon 1305–1378, London 1963, p. 59
  3. Back to citation S. Miranda Cardinal Pierre Roger de Beaufort (Pope Gregory XI)
  4. Back to citation Hayez, Michel (2002). "Gregorio XI, papa". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 59. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Back to citation occurrence 5.2 Villegas, D., 2021. Catherine of Siena's spirituality of political engagement. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 77(2).
  6. Back to citation Clarke, Peter D. "BETWEEN AVIGNON AND ROME: MINOR PENITENTIARIES AT THE PAPAL CURIA IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES", Rivista Di Storia Della Chiesa in Italia, vol. 63, no. 2, 2009, pp. 455–510
  7. Back to citation occurrence 7.0 Back to citation occurrence 7.1 Peterson, David S. 2002. "The War of the Eight Saints in Florentine Memory and Oblivion." In Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence, Ed. William J. Connell.
  8. Back to citation Williman & Corsano 2002, pp. 427–481.
  9. Back to citation Rollo-Koster 2015.
  10. Back to citation "The Popes of the Avignon Papacy in Order".
  11. Back to citation Rollo-Koster 2008, p. 182; Francis Thomas Luongo, The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena, xii; Harvey, Margaret The English in Rome, 1362–1420: Portrait of an Expatriate Community, (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 3.
  12. Back to citation Richardson, C., 2009. Reclaiming Rome: Cardinals in the Fifteenth Century. Leiden: Brill.
  13. Back to citation Walsh, M., 2011. The Cardinals: Thirteen Centuries of the Men Behind the Papal Throne. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub.
  14. Back to citation Welsh, Frank (2008). The Battle for Christendom The Council of Constance, the East-West Conflict, and the Dawn of Modern Europe. New York: The Overlook Press. pp. 117–153. ISBN 978-1-59020-123-7.

Bibliography

  • Hanawalt, G.Barbara. The Middle Ages: An Illustrated History, 1998, Oxford Univ. Press, p. 143
  • Cairns, E.Earl. Christianity Throughout the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church, 1996, Zondervan, pp. 241 & 248–250.
  • Ocker, Christopher, Johannes Klenkok: a friar's life, c. 1310–1374, American Philosophical Society, 1993, ISBN 0-87169-835-8
  • Clarke, Peter D. "Between Avignon and Rome: Minot Penitentiaries at the Papal Curia in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries." Rivista Di Storia Della Chiesa in Italia, vol. 63, no. 2, 2009, pp. 455–510
  • De Angelis, Laura, and Vicki Whittaker. "Florence's Ruling Class at the Turn of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries." Revue Française de Science Politique (English Edition), vol. 64, no. 6, 2014, pp. 65–79
  • Harvey, Margaret The English in Rome, 1362–1420: Portrait of an Expatriate Community, (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 3.
  • Peterson, David S. 2002. "The War of the Eight Saints in Florentine Memory and Oblivion." In Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence, Ed. William J. Connell.
  • Richardson, C., 2009. Reclaiming Rome: Cardinals in the Fifteenth Century. Leiden: Brill.
  • Rollo-Koster, Joëlle (2008). Raiding Saint Peter: Empty Sees, Violence, and the Initiation of the Great Western Schism (1378). Brill. p. 182. ISBN 978-9-0474-3311-8. OL 29585957M.
  • Rollo-Koster, Joëlle (2015). Avignon and Its Papacy, 1309–1417: Popes, Institutions, and Society. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-1532-0. OL 30394591M.
  • Villegas, D., 2021. "Catherine of Siena's spirituality of political engagement". HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 77(2).
  • Walsh, M., 2011. The Cardinals: Thirteen Centuries of the Men Behind the Papal Throne. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub.
  • Williman, Daniel; Corsano, Karen (2002). The Interdict of Florence (31 March 1376): New Documents. Rivista Di Storia Della Chiesa in Italia. Vol. 56.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://catholicism.wiki/index.php?title=Pope_Gregory_XI&oldid=192718"