The Papacy in the Late Middle Ages
Clement VI (1342-1352)
The cardinals were well tired of the reforming spirit of Benedict and they elected a man who would think and behave like them, like a great prince of the Church. So they turned to Pierre Roger, a man who had built his career in service at the French court. He had been Chancellor of the realm before becoming an abbot and then a cardinal, so he had strong connections with Paris.
He did not disappoint those who had elected him. Declaring that his predecessors "did not know how to be popes," he spent money lavishly and lived like a lord. He entertained in lavish style, spent buckets of money in various foreign activities, was a generous patron of the arts, a builder, and a benefactor of the poor. The result was that he quickly went through the treasury that Benedict had scrupulously refilled. Once the money was gone, Clement pressed even harder papal claims to benefices and other incomes. This energetic fiscal activity caused bitter resentment in many parts of Europe. In England, for example, the Statute of Provisors was passed in 1351, precisely to prevent the pope from making further claims on provisions in that country.
Clement behaved in every respect like a secular lord. So, for example, he created twenty-five cardinals during his pontificate, and twelve of those he gave to his relatives. He purchased the city from Joanna of Naples (she also technically ruled the County of Provence), in exchange for which he absolved her of the suspicion of murdering her husband. This made the pope the direct ruler of the city of Avignon.
More than with any other pope of the century, Clement VI was openly pro-French. He gave privileges and tax breaks to the French king. He pursued the German, Lewis of Bavaria, unmercifully. As part of this quarrel, Clement made such outrageous demands (in exchange for finally recognizing Lewis as Emperor), that he infuriated the German nobility. As an example, he demanded that no law could be passed in Germany without papal approval. This was certainly not the first cause for bitterness the papacy gave to the German people, but the Avignon popes added much fuel to that fire, and Clement perhaps most of all. We're a long way from the Reformation yet, but foundations were being laid by actions such as these. National pride has a long memory.
This was the court that was observed with such bitterness by Petrarch, who came to the city as part of a Roman delegation. He delighted in the southern French countryside, but he was appalled by the corruption and lasciviousness he saw at the papal court. His letters on this topic were widely read.
Petrarch was not the only critic of Clement's court, nor were the critics motivated only by national interests. St. Catherine of Siena spoke out against what she saw there, as did St. Brigitte of Sweden.
Clement was not utterly without virtue. He was well educated and supported fine culture. He was pope when the Black Death struck and behaved with compassion and strong leadership. For example, when mobs attacked the Jews, blaming them for the plague, Clement wrote two papal bulls strongly condemning these acts, and he asked his bishops to take steps to protect the Jews in their dioceses. He established the papacy in Avignon on a solid political footing.
In the end, though, he was in truth a secular prince, and most of the criticisms against him stem from the fact that he did not behave much like a bishop. With the papacy absent from Rome, with bitter war in France and chaos in Italy, with plague afflicting the people and heresy afflicting the Church, a great temporal lord was not what was wanted or needed. If any pope can be said to symbolize all that was wrong with the Avignon papacy, it would be this one.