Pope Clement VI

Pierre Roger was born in 1291 into a noble family; his siblings all had successful careers and marriages. Roger, however, entered the Benedictine Order at the age of 10, spending six years at the Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu before being recommended for more advanced studies. He went to Paris and the Sorbonne, where he studied canon law and theology, receiving the doctorate in theology at the age of 31. He lectured on Peter Lombard's Sententiae and promoted the writings of Aquinas.

He was made an abbot of a royal abbey, Fécamp, until he was called to Avignon. Fécamp was in the Duchy of Aquitaine, lands owned by the English king (in this case Edward III), and Roger was given the task in 1328 of summoning Edward to pay homage to the King of France, Philip VI, inside of whose kingdom Aquitaine lay. Roger's trip to England was fruitless: Edward ignored the summons, and Roger returned to France.

Despite this failure, in December of that year he was named Bishop of Arras and a councilor to king Philip. In less than a year, he was promoted to Archbishop of Sens, and a year after that was moved to Rouen. In an assembly of French clergy with Philip to discuss the judicial powers of ecclesiastical authorities, Roger argued impressively for ecclesiastical jurisdiction over temporal authority, gaining the admiration of his peers.

Pierre Roger was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XII and "received the red hat" on 5 May, 1339. After Benedict's death in April 1342, a conclave of 18 out of the existing 19 cardinals (one had gout and could not attend) met on 5 May, and by the 7th had elected Pierre Roger as the next pope. He chose the name Clement VI.

His predecessor was opposed to "lazy" clerics who did not administer their parishes and dioceses, simply accepting the tithes and delegating the work. Benedict was careful about choosing pastors and bishops. Clement took a different approach, declaring that votes in monasteries for abbot were void. He wanted the right to appoint whom he liked and grant favors to those loyal to him. When it was pointed out that this was not the style of previous popes, he supposedly replied  "Our predecessors did not know how to be pope."

His time as pope was not going to be easy, however: a few years later, the Black Death came ashore. Next time we will take a look at how he responded to the crisis.

Pope Benedict XII's Résumé

From his beginnings as a bishop and persecutor of heretics, Jacques Fournier was enthroned as Pope Benedict XII in January 1335. Although his election was a surprise, he turned out to be an efficient and dedicated administrator, reforming the Church and the religious orders.

One of his first moves was to enforce the law of residence, that clerics needed to reside in the benefices of which they had charge. Many clerics preferred to neglect and delegate their duties, choosing instead the life of leisure and political maneuvering at the papacy in Avignon. Benedict sent home all clerics whose presence in Avignon was unnecessary.

He also reversed the practice of giving the profits of benefices as gifts to those who had nothing to do with them. He was so careful about assigning parishes and dioceses that some went vacant longer than was helpful. He avoided nepotism in his own family, only promoting one family member, and that only at the insistence of several cardinals. A later bishop (not a contemporary) reported that Benedict said (regarding nepotism) that "a pope should be like Melchisedech, without father, mother, or genealogy."

As a Cistercian, he promoted monastic simplicity and study, visiting monasteries to urge them to keep to their humble origins.

The French wanted the papacy to remain in Avignon. Looking back at Benedict's actions, we cannot accurately say what his personal wishes were. He ordered the repair and renovation of the basilicas of St. Peter and the Lateran in Rome. He also began construction of the Palais des Papes in Avignon. Supposedly he wanted to compromise between the Avignon/Rome debate and make a move to Bologna (approximately halfway between Rome and Avignon, if you don't think about the mountains to cross).

Although French, Benedict did not show any particular favor to King Philip VI. He did request Philip's aid in policing the western Mediterranean because of conflicts between Aragon and Genoa, Naples and Sicily, which were hindering the ability to launch a successful Crusade. 1336 was the sixth year of a crusading tithe to collect money to finance another Crusade. Benedict cancelled the tithe in December, seeing that there was too much unrest in Christendom to be able to mount an efficient campaign. A few months later there was another test of his negotiating skills that failed.

Trouble was brewing between England and France in the 1330s. Ever since 1066 when William the Conqueror became King of England while still being one of the largest landowners in France, the question of English control of French real estate had caused friction between the two kingdoms. On 24 March, 1337, King Philip VI of France took over the English-held duchy of Guyenne, sparking an increase in hostility.

Benedict did his best to talk Philip out of starting a war with England. He wanted peace in Christendom, and it looked less and less likely that he could count on it. His pleas to Philip were ignored, and so the Hundred Years War started, causing many thousands of deaths over the next century plus.

He was only pope for about seven years, dying 25 April, 1342. He was succeeded by Clement VI, whom we shall look at next.

The Story of Montaillou

When French historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (1929 – 2023) set out to write an account of a typical French medieval village, based on certain records of the time, he and his publisher had no idea that its 1975 publication would turn into a best-seller. Montaillou, village occitan de 1294 à 1324 ("Montaillou, an Occitan Village from 1294 to 1324"). Ladurie wanted to make accessible to a modern audience the lives and beliefs of this small village in the Pyrenees (near the border with the Iberian Peninsula) at the beginning of the 14th century. (The illustration is a much more recent view of Montaillou.)

It is a social history, also called "history from below," trying to understand the past through research into regular living rather than political or military history, or the lives of prominent figures at the top of the social-political pyramid.

He had a very specific reason for examining that particular place and time. The book was translated into English in 1978 with the subtitle "The Promised Land of Error / Cathars and Catholics in a French Village." The "certain records" mentioned in the first paragraph were those made by the Inquisition, specifically a group of documents called the Fournier Register. This was made by Jacques Fournier, the Bishop of Pamiers, in whose diocese Montaillou lay. This area was one of the last holdouts of the heresy Catharism, and Fournier was determined to eliminate it.

The Inquisition was quite careful in its procedures. During questioning of a subject, a scribe would take short notes. These would then be expanded more fully with the help of the Inquisitor, and the result shown to the questioned for review and edits. The Occitan language would also be translated into Church Latin. The result was a record of hundreds of commoners and their day-to-day observations and opinions.

One example of beliefs is his questioning of Guillemette of Ornolac, who was said to have doubted the existence of the soul. She offered the opinion that the "soul" was really blood, and that death is the end. When asked who taught her this, she replied "No, I thought it over and believed it myself." She was sentenced to wear a cross of yellow on her back for the rest of her life. Of the hundreds questioned—578 sessions, mostly with peasants—his inquisition resulted in only five capital sentences (being burned at the stake).

His thoroughness impressed his superiors, and he quickly advanced through the ranks. And that is why we have these early records so carefully preserved so that Ladurie could comb through them six and a half centuries later: Fournier took them with him when he went to Avignon. Why Avignon? He became pope. Let's take a look at Pope Benedict XII tomorrow.